Jules Favre. What a
constellation of talents! what a variety of aptitudes! what services
rendered! what a battling of all the realities against all the errors!
what brains at work! what an outlay, for the benefit of progress, of
learning, of philosophy, of passion, of conviction, of experience, of
sympathy, of eloquence! what a fertilising heat spread abroad! what a
shining firmament of light!

And we do not name them all. To make use of an expression which is
sometimes borrowed from the author of this book, "_Nous en passons et
des meilleurs_." We have not even alluded to that valiant legion of
young orators who arose on the Left during these last years,--Arnauld
(de l'Ariege), Bancel, Chauffour, Pascal Duprat, Esquiros, de Flotte,
Farcounet, Victor Hennequin, Madier de Montjau, Morellet, Noel Parfait,
Pelletier, Sain, Versigny.

Let us insist upon this point: starting from Mirabeau, there was in the
world, in human society, in civilization, a culminating point, a
central spot, a common altar, a summit. This summit was the tribune of
France; admirable landmark for coming generations, a glittering height
in time of peace, a lighthouse in the darkness of catastrophes. From
the extremities of the intelligent world, the peoples fixed their eyes
upon this peak, from which has shone the human mind. When dark night
suddenly enveloped them, they heard issuing from that height a mighty
voice, which spoke to them in the darkness. _Admonet et magna testatur
voce per umbras._ A voice which all at once, when the hour had come,
like the cockcrow announcing the dawn, like the cry of the eagle
hailing the sun, resounded like a clarion of war, or like the trumpet
of judgment, and brought to their feet once more, awe-inspiring, waving
their winding-sheets, seeking swords in their tombs, all those heroic
dead nations,--Poland, Hungary, Italy! Then, at that voice of France,
the glorious sky of the future opened; old despotisms, blinded and in
fear, hid their heads in the nether darkness, and there, her feet upon
the clouds, her forehead among the stars, a sword flashing in her hand,
her mighty wings outspread in the azure depths, one saw Liberty appear,
the archangel of the nations.

V

INFLUENCE OF ORATORY

This tribune was the terror of every tyranny and fanaticism, it was the
hope of every one who was oppressed under Heaven. Whoever placed his
foot upon that height, felt distinctly the pulsations of the great
heart of ma