flattered, strength of talent has already
outlived strength of will?

It is said that M. Lamennais has rejected the offers of several of his
friends to try to procure for him a commutation of his sentence. M.
Lamennais prefers to serve out his time. May not this affectation of a
false stoicism come from the same source as his recognition of the right
of property? The Huron, when taken prisoner, hurls insults and threats
at his conqueror,--that is the heroism of the savage; the martyr
prays for his executioners, and is willing to receive from them his
life,--that is the heroism of the Christian. Why has the apostle of love
become an apostle of anger and revenge? Has, then, the translator of
"L'Imitation" forgotten that he who offends charity cannot honor virtue?
Galileo, retracting on his knees before the tribunal of the inquisition
his heresy in regard to the movement of the earth, and recovering at
that price his liberty, seems to me a hundred times grander than
M. Lamennais. What! if we suffer for truth and justice, must we, in
retaliation, thrust our persecutors outside the pale of human society;
and, when sentenced to an unjust punishment, must we decline exemption
if it is offered to us, because it pleases a few base satellites to call
it a pardon? Such is not the wisdom of Christianity. But I forgot that
in the presence of M. Lamennais this name is no longer pronounced. May
the prophet of "L'Avenir" be soon restored to liberty and his friends;
but, above all, may he henceforth derive his inspiration only from his
genius and his heart!

O proletaires, proletaires! how long are you to be victimized by this
spirit of revenge and implacable hatred which your false friends kindle,
and which, perhaps, has done more harm to the development of reformatory
ideas than the corruption, ignorance, and malice of the government?
Believe me, at the present time everybody is to blame. In fact, in
intention, or in example, all are found wanting; and you have no right
to accuse any one. The king himself (God forgive me! I do not like to
justify a king),--the king himself is, like his predecessors, only the
personification of an idea, and an idea, proletaires, which possesses
you yet. His greatest wrong consists in wishing for its complete
realization, while you wish it realized only partially,--consequently,
in being logical in his government; while you, in your complaints, are
not at all so. You clamor for a second regicide. He t