h energy,
the lessons which he has already learned at home. These are the lessons
taught by things. At this tender age they sink deep, especially when
the disposition is favorable, and in this case the heart sanctions
them beforehand, because education finds its confederate in instinct.
Accordingly, at the outbreak of the Revolution, on revisiting Corsica,
he takes life at once as he finds it there, a combat with any sort of
weapon, and, on this small arena, he acts unscrupulously, going farther
than anybody.[1231] If he respects justice and law, it is only in
words, and even here ironically; in his eyes, law is a term of the code,
justice a book term, while might makes right.

A second blow of the coining-press gives another impression of the same
stamp on this character already so decided, while French anarchy forces
maxims into the mind of the young man, already traced in the child's
mind by Corsican anarchy; the lessons of things provided by a society
going to pieces are the same as those of a society which is not yet
formed.--His sharp eyes, at a very early period, see through the
flourish of theory and the parade of phrases; they detect the real
foundation of the Revolution, namely, the sovereignty of unbridled
passions and the conquest of the majority by the minority; conquering or
conquered, a choice must be made between these two extreme conditions;
there is no middle course. After the 9th of Thermidor, the last
veils are torn away, and the instincts of license and domination, the
ambitions of individuals, fully display themselves. There is no concern
for public interests or for the rights of the people; it is clear that
the rulers form a band, that France is their prey, and that they intend
to hold on to it for and against everybody, by every possible means,
including bayonets. Under this civil regime, a clean sweep of the broom
at the center makes it necessary to be on the side of numbers.--In the
armies, especially in the army of Italy, republican faith and patriotic
abnegation, since the territory became free, have given way to natural
appetites and military passions.[1232] Barefoot, in rags, with four
ounces of bread a day, paid in assignats which are not accepted in the
markets, both officers and men desire above all things to be relieved
of their misery; "the poor fellows, after three years of longing on
the summits of the Alps, reach the promised land, and want to enjoy
it."[1233] Another spur consists