LXXIII. TO GEORGE SAND
Wednesday night
Dear master, dear friend of the good God, "let us talk a little of
Dozenval," let us roar at M. Thiers! Can a more triumphant imbecile,
a more abject dabster, a more stercoraceous bourgeois be found! No,
nothing can give the idea of the puking with which this old
diplomatic idiot inspires me in piling up his stupidity on the dung-
hill of bourgeoisie! Is it possible to treat philosophy, religion,
peoples, liberty, the past and future, history, and natural history,
everything and more yet, with an incoherence more inept and more
childish! He seems to me as everlasting as mediocrity! He overwhelms
me!
But the fine thing is the brave national guards whom he stuffed in
1848, who are beginning to applaud him again! What infinite madness!
That proves that everything consists of temperament. Prostitutes,--
like France,--always have a weakness for old buffoons.
Furthermore, I shall try in the third part of my novel (when I reach
the reaction that followed the days of June) to insert a panegyric
about him a propos of his book: De la propriete, and I hope that he
will be pleased with me.
What form should one take to express occasionally one's opinion on
the things of this world, without the risk of passing later for an
imbecile? It is a tough problem. It seems to me that the best thing
is simply to depict the things which exasperate one. To dissect is
to take vengeance. Well! it is not he with whom I am angry, nor with
the others but with OURS.
If they had paid more attention to the education of the SUPERIOR
classes, delaying till later the agricultural meetings; in short, if
the head had been put above the stomach, should we have been likely
to be where we are now?
I have just read, this week, Buchez' Preface to his Histoire
parlementaire. Many inanities which burden us today come from that
among other things.
And now, it is not good of you to say that I do not think of "my old
Troubadour"; of whom then, do I think? perhaps of my wretched book?
but that is more difficult and less agreeable.
How long do you stay at Cannes?
After Cannes shan't you return to Paris? I shall be their towards
the end of January.
In order to finish my book in the spring of 1869, I must not give
myself a week of holiday; that is why I do not go to Nohant. It is
always the story of the Amazons. In order to draw the bow better
they crushed their breast. It is a fine method after all.
Adieu, dear master, write to me, won't you?