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‘So far as Louis XVI. was concerned, I said ‘no.’ I did not
think that I had the right to kill a man; but I felt it my duty
to exterminate evil. I voted the end of the tyrant, that is to
say, the end of prostitution for woman, the end of slavery for
man, the end of night for the child. In voting for the Repub-
lic, I voted for that. I voted for fraternity, concord, the dawn.
I have aided in the overthrow of prejudices and errors. The
crumbling away of prejudices and errors causes light. We
have caused the fall of the old world, and the old world, that
vase of miseries, has become, through its upsetting upon
the human race, an urn of joy.’
‘Mixed joy,’ said the Bishop.
‘You may say troubled joy, and to-day, after that fa-
tal return of the past, which is called 1814, joy which has
disappeared! Alas! The work was incomplete, I admit: we
demolished the ancient regime in deeds; we were not able to
suppress it entirely in ideas. To destroy abuses is not suffi-
cient; customs must be modified. The mill is there no longer;
the wind is still there.’
‘You have demolished. It may be of use to demolish, but I
distrust a demolition complicated with wrath.’
‘Right has its wrath, Bishop; and the wrath of right is an
element of progress. In any case, and in spite of whatever
may be said, the French Revolution is the most important
step of the human race since the advent of Christ. Incom-
plete, it may be, but sublime. It set free all the unknown
social quantities; it softened spirits, it calmed, appeased, en-
lightened; it caused the waves of civilization to flow over
the earth. It was a good thing. The French Revolution is the