a still madder figure.
An irrational generation; irrational, imbecile, and with the vehement
obstinacy characteristic of that; a generation which will not learn.
Falling Bastilles, Insurrections of Women, thousands of smoking
Manorhouses, a country bristling with no crop but that of Sansculottic
steel: these were tolerably didactic lessons; but them they have not
taught. There are still men, of whom it was of old written, Bray them in
a mortar! Or, in milder language, They have wedded their delusions: fire
nor steel, nor any sharpness of Experience, shall sever the bond; till
death do us part! Of such may the Heavens have mercy; for the Earth,
with her rigorous Necessity, will have none.

Admit, at the same time, that it was most natural. Man lives by
Hope: Pandora when her box of gods'-gifts flew all out, and became
gods'-curses, still retained Hope. How shall an irrational mortal,
when his high-place is never so evidently pulled down, and he, being
irrational, is left resourceless,--part with the belief that it will be
rebuilt? It would make all so straight again; it seems so unspeakably
desirable; so reasonable,--would you but look at it aright! For,
must not the thing which was continue to be; or else the solid World
dissolve? Yes, persist, O infatuated Sansculottes of France! Revolt
against constituted Authorities; hunt out your rightful Seigneurs,
who at bottom so loved you, and readily shed their blood for you,--in
country's battles as at Rossbach and elsewhere; and, even in preserving
game, were preserving you, could ye but have understood it: hunt
them out, as if they were wild wolves; set fire to their Chateaus and
Chartiers as to wolf-dens; and what then? Why, then turn every man his
hand against his fellow! In confusion, famine, desolation, regret
the days that are gone; rueful recall them, recall us with them. To
repentant prayers we will not be deaf.

So, with dimmer or clearer consciousness, must the Right Side reason
and act. An inevitable position perhaps; but a most false one for them.
Evil, be thou our good: this henceforth must virtually be their prayer.
The fiercer the effervescence grows, the sooner will it pass; for after
all it is but some mad effervescence; the World is solid, and cannot
dissolve.

For the rest, if they have any positive industry, it is that of plots,
and backstairs conclaves. Plots which cannot be executed; which are
mostly theoretic on their part;--for which nevertheless t