"You would laugh at me for a fool," cried he, "if I took you at your
word. Jesuits are a thing of the past, but Jesuitism is eternal. Your
Machiavelism and your generosity are equally hollow and untrustworthy.
You can make your own calculations, but who can calculate on you? Your
Court is made up of owls who fear the light, of old men who quake in
the presence of the young, or who simply disregard them. The
Government is formed on the same pattern as the Court. You have hunted
up the remains of the Empire, as the Restoration enlisted the
Voltigeurs of Louis XIV.
"Hitherto the evasions of cowardice have been taken for the
manoeuvring of ability; but dangers will come, and the younger
generation will rise as they did in 1790. They did grand things then.
--Just now you change ministries as a sick man turns in his bed; these
oscillations betray the weakness of the Government. You work on an
underhand system of policy which will be turned against you, for
France will be tired of your shuffling. France will not tell you that
she is tired of you; a man never knows whence his ruin comes; it is
the historian's task to find out; but you will undoubtedly perish as
the reward of not having the youth of France to lend you its strength
and energy; for having hated really capable men; for not having
lovingly chosen them from this noble generation; for having in all
cases preferred mediocrity.
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