e old
man be led on his path and the child left thinking. Man should not
dispute or assert, but whisper results to his Neighbour, and thus, by
every germ of spirit sucking the sap from mould ethereal, every human
might become great, and humanity instead of being a wide heath of furze
and briars, with here and there a remote Oak or Pine, would become a
grand democracy of forest trees. It has been an old comparison for
urging on--the bee-hive--however it seems to me that we should rather
be the flower than the Bee--for it is a false notion that more is
gained by receiving than giving--no, the receiver and the giver are
equal in their benefits. The flower, I doubt not, receives a fair
guerdon from the Bee--its leaves blush deeper in the next spring--and
who shall say between Man and Woman which is the most delighted? Now
it is more noble to sit like Jove than to fly like Mercury:--let us not
therefore go hurrying about and collecting honey, {124} bee-like,
buzzing here and there impatiently from a knowledge of what is to be
arrived at. But let us open our leaves like a flower, and be passive
and receptive; budding patiently under the eye of Apollo and taking
hints from every noble insect that favours us with a visit--Sap will be
given us for meat, and dew for drink.

(_Letters_.)

THOMAS CARLYLE 1795-1881

THE FLIGHT TO VARENNES

One finds that in the second week in June Colonel de Choiseul is
privately in Paris; having come "to see his children." Also that
Fersen has got a stupendous new Coach built, of the kind named
_Berline_; done by the first artists; according to a model: they bring
it home to him, in Choiseul's presence; the two friends take a
proof-drive in it, along the streets; in meditative mood; then send it
up to "Madame Sullivan's, in the Rue de Clichy," far north, to wait
there till wanted. Apparently a certain Russian Baroness de Korff,
with Waiting-woman, Valet, and two Children, will travel homewards with
some state: in whom these young military gentlemen take interest? A
Passport has been procured for her, and much assistance shewn, with
Coachbuilders and such-like;--so helpful-polite are young military
men. . . These are the Phenomena, or visual Appearances, of this
wide-working terrestrial world: which truly is all phenomenal, what
they call spectral; and never rests at any moment; one never at any
moment can know why.

On Monday night, the Twentieth of June 1791, about eleven o'c