We have all suffered in spirit more than at any other time of our
lives, and we shall always suffer from that wound. It is evident
that the savage instinct tends to take the upper hand; but I fear
something worse; it is the egoistic and cowardly instinct; it is the
ignoble corruption of false patriots, of ultra-republicans who cry
out for vengeance, and who hide themselves; a good pretext for the
bourgeois who want a STRONG reaction. I fear lest we shall not even
be vindictive,--all that bragging, coupled with poltroonery, will so
disgust us and so impel us to live from day to day as under the
Restoration, submitting to everything and only asking to be let
alone.
There will be an awakening later. I shall not be here then, and you,
you will be old! Go to live in the sun in a tranquil country! Where?
What country is going to be tranquil in this struggle of barbarity
against civilization, a struggle which is going to be universal? Is
not the sun itself a myth? Either he hides himself or he burns you
up, and it is thus with everything on this unhappy planet. Let us
love it just the same, and accustom ourselves to suffering on it.
I have written day by day my impressions and my reflections during
the crisis. The Revue des Deux Mondes is publishing this diary. If
you read it, you will see that everywhere life has been torn from
its very foundations, even in the country where the war has not
penetrated.
You will see too, that I have not swallowed, although very greedy,
party humbugs. But I don't know if you are of my opinion, that full
and entire liberty would save us from these disasters and restore us
to the path of possible progress again. The abuses of liberty give
me no anxiety of themselves; but those whom they frighten always
incline towards the abuse of power. Just now M. Thiers seems to
understand it; but can he and will he know how to preserve the
principle by which he has become the arbiter of this great problem?
Whatever happens, let us love each other, and do not keep me in
ignorance of what concerns you. My heart is full to bursting and the
remembrance of you eases it a little from its perpetual disquiet. I
am afraid lest these barbarous guests devastate Croisset; for they
continue in spite of peace to make themselves odious and disgusting
everywhere. Ah! how I should like to have five billions in order to
chase them away! I should not ask to get them back again.
Now, do come to us, we are so quiet here; materially, we have been
so always. We force ourselves to take up our work again, we resign
ourselves; what is there better to do? You are beloved here, we live
here in a continual state of loving one another; we are holding on
to our Lamberts, whom we shall keep as long as possible. All our
children have come out of the war safe and sound. You would live
here in peace and be able to work; for that must be, whether one is
in the mood or not! The season is going to be lovely. Paris will
calm itself during that time. You are looking for a peaceful spot.
It is under your nose, with hearts which love you!
I embrace you a thousand times for myself and for all my brood. The
little girls are splendid. The Lamberts' little boy is charming.
CLXXXV. TO GEORGE SAND.
Neuville near Dieppe, Friday, 31 March, 1871
Dear master,
Tomorrow, at last, I resign myself to re-enter Croisset! It is hard!
But I must! I am going to try to make up again my poor Saint-Antoine
and to forget France.
My mother stays here with her grandchild, till one knows where to go
without fear of the Prussians or of a riot.
Some days ago I went from here with Dumas to Brussels from where I
thought to go direct to Paris. But "the new Athens" seems to me to
surpass Dahomey in ferocity and imbecility. Has the end come to the
HUMBUGS? Will they have finished with hollow metaphysics and
conventional ideas? All the evil comes from our gigantic ignorance.
What ought to be studied is believed without discussion. Instead of
investigating, people make assertions.
The French Revolution must cease to be a dogma, and it must become
once more a part of science, like the rest of human things. If
people had known more, they would not have believed that a mystical
formula is capable of making armies, and that the word "Republic" is
enough to conquer a million of well disciplined men. They would have
left Badinguet on the throne EXPRESSLY to make peace, ready to put
him in the galleys afterward. If they had known more, they would
have known what the volunteers of '92 were and the retreat of
Brunswick gained by bribery through Danton and Westermann. But no!
always the same old story! always poppycock! There is now the
Commune of Paris which is returning to the real Middle Ages! That's
flat! The question of leases especially, is splendid! The government
interferes in natural rights now, it intervenes in contracts between
individuals. The Commune asserts that we do not owe what we owe, and
that one service is not paid for by another. It is an enormity of
absurdity and injustice.
Many conservatives who, from love of order, wanted to preserve the
Republic, are going to regret Badinguet and in their hearts recall
the Prussians. The people of the Hotel de Ville have changed the
object of our hatred. That is why I am angry with them. It seems to
me that we have never been lower.
We oscillate between the society of Saint-Vincent de Paul and the
International. But this latter commits too many imbecilities to have
a long life. I admit that it may overcome the troops at Versailles
and overturn the government, the Prussians will enter Paris, and
"order will reign" at Warsaw. If, on the contrary, it is conquered,
the reaction will be furious and all liberty will be strangled.
What can one say of the socialists who imitate the proceedings of
Badinguet and of William: requisitions, suppressions of newspapers,
executions without trial, etc.? Ah! what an immoral beast is the
crowd! and how humiliating it is to be a man!