The
changes that take place within our borders no longer excite any
emotion; one asks out of curiosity, one is answered without any
interest, one learns with indifference."
"The pleasures of Paris[137] are not disturbed a moment by any the
Crises which succeed each other, nor by those which are feared. Never
were the theatres and public entertainments more frequented. At the
'Tivoli,' it is said that it is going to be worse than ever; the
country (patrie) is called la patraque, and dancing goes on."
This is understandable enough; how can one interest one's self in the
public weal when there is none, when the common patrimony of all has
become the private property of a gang, when this gang is devouring or
wasting all in the interior and outside the frontier, where it is
playing heads or tails? The Jacobins, through their final victory,
have dried patriotism up, that is to say, the deep inward spring which
supplies the substance, the vitality and the force of the State. - In
vain do they multiply rigorous decrees and imperious prescriptions;
each energetic blow is absorbed by the general and mute resistance of
intentional passivity and of insurmountable disgust.
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