CLXXXII. TO GUSTAVE FLAUBERT.
Nohant, 22 February, 1871
I received your letter of the 15th this morning; what a cruel thorn
it takes from my heart! One gets frantic with anxiety now when one
does not receive answers. Let us hope that we can talk soon and tell
all about our ABSENCE from each other. I too have had the good
fortune not to lose any of my friends, young or old. That is all the
good one can say. I do not regret this Republic, it has been the
greatest failure of all! the most unfortunate for Paris, the most
unsuitable in the provinces. Besides, if I had loved it, I should
not regret anything; if only this odious war might end! We love you
and we embrace you affectionately. I shall not hurry to go to Paris.
It will be pestilential for some time to come.
Yours.
CLXXXIII. TO GEORGE SAND.
Dieppe, 11 March, 1871
When shall we meet? Paris does not seem amusing to me. Ah! into what
sort of a world are we going to enter! Paganism, Christianity,
idiotism, there are the three great evolutions of humanity! It is
sad to find ourselves at the beginning of the third.
I shall not tell you all I have suffered since September. Why didn't
I die from it? That is what surprises me! No one was more desperate
than I was. Why? I have had bad moments in my life, I have gone
through great losses. I have wept a great deal. I have undergone
much anguish. Well! all these pangs accumulated together, are
nothing in comparison to that. And I cannot get over them! I am not
consoled! I have no hope!
Yet I did not see myself as a progressivist and a humanitarian. That
doesn't matter. I had some illusions! What barbarity! What a slump!
I am wrathful at my contemporaries for having given me the feelings
of a brute of the twelfth century! I'M STIFLING IN GALL! These
officers who break mirrors with white gloves on, who know Sanskrit
and who fling themselves on the champagne, who steal your watch and
then send you their visiting card, this war for money, these
civilized savages give me more horror than cannibals. And all the
world is going to imitate them, is going to be a soldier! Russia has
now four millions of them. All Europe will wear a uniform. If we
take our revenge, it will be ultra-ferocious, and observe that one
is going to think only of that, of avenging oneself on Germany! The
government, whatever it is, can support itself only by speculating
on that passion. Wholesale murder is going to be the end of all our
efforts, the ideal of France!
I cherish the following dream: of going to live in the sun in a
tranquil country!
Let us look for new hypocrisies: declamations on virtue, diatribes
on corruption, austerity of habits, etc. Last degree of pedantry!
I have now at Croisset twelve Prussians. As soon as my poor dwelling
(of which I have a horror now) is emptied and cleaned, I shall
return there; then I shall go doubtless to Paris, despite its
unhealthfulness! But I don't care a hang for that.
CLXXXIV. TO GUSTAVE FLAUBERT, at Croisset.
Nohant, 17 March, 1871