those blue eyes, that hair billowing in the
wind, those rosy cheeks, those fresh lips, those exquisite teeth, had
conceived an appetite for that complete aurora, and had tried her beauty
on Enjolras, an astounding and terrible glance would have promptly shown
her the abyss, and would have taught her not to confound the mighty
cherub of Ezekiel with the gallant Cherubino of Beaumarchais.

By the side of Enjolras, who represented the logic of the Revolution,
Combeferre represented its philosophy. Between the logic of the
Revolution and its philosophy there exists this difference--that its
logic may end in war, whereas its philosophy can end only in peace.
Combeferre complemented and rectified Enjolras. He was less lofty, but
broader. He desired to pour into all minds the extensive principles of
general ideas: he said: "Revolution, but civilization"; and around the
mountain peak he opened out a vast view of the blue sky. The Revolution
was more adapted for breathing with Combeferre than with Enjolras.
Enjolras expressed its divine right, and Combeferre its natural right.
The first attached himself to Robespierre; the second confined himself
to Condorcet. Combeferre lived the life of all the rest of the world
more than did Enjolras. If it had been granted to these two young men to
attain to history, the one would have been the just, the other the wise
man. Enjolras was the more virile, Combeferre the more humane. Homo and
vir, that was the exact effect of their different shades. Combeferre was
as gentle as Enjolras was severe, through natural whiteness. He loved
the word citizen, but he preferred the word man. He would gladly
have said: Hombre, like the Spanish. He read everything, went to
the theatres, attended the courses of public lecturers, learned the
polarization of light from Arago, grew enthusiastic over a lesson in
which Geoffrey Sainte-Hilaire explained the double function of the
external carotid artery, and the internal, the one which makes the face,
and the one which makes the brain; he kept up with what was going
on, followed science step by step, compared Saint-Simon with Fourier,
deciphered hieroglyphics, broke the pebble which he found and reasoned
on geology, drew from memory a silkworm moth, pointed out the faulty
French in the Dictionary of the Academy, studied Puysegur and Deleuze,
affirmed nothing, not even miracles; denied nothing, not even ghosts;
turned over the files of the Moniteur, reflected. He d