ng; all hands are extended to catch
it, its voluptuousness somewhat veiled but so much the more provoking,
declaring itself from scene to scene, in the Count's gallantry, in the
Countess's agitation, in the simplicity of Fanchette, in the jestings
of Figaro, in the liberties of Susanne, and reaching its climax in the
precocity of Cherubino. Add to this a continual double sense, the author
hidden behind his characters, truth put into the mouth of a clown,
malice enveloped in simple utterances, the master duped but saved from
being ridiculous by his deportment, the valet rebellious but preserved
from acrimony by his gaiety, and you can comprehend how Beaumarchais
could have the ancient regime played before its head, put political and
social satire on the stage, publicly attach an expression to each wrong
so as to become a by-word, and ever making a loud report,[4144] gather
up into a few traits the entire polemics of the philosophers against the
prisons of the State, against the censorship of literature, against
the venality of office, against the privileges of birth, against the
arbitrary power of ministers, against the incapacity of people in
office, and still better, to sum up in one character every public
demand, give the leading part to a commoner, bastard, bohemian and
valet, who, by dint of dexterity, courage and good-humor, keeps himself
up, swims with the tide, and shoots ahead in his little skiff, avoiding
contact with larger craft and even supplanting his master, accompanying
each pull on the oar with a shower of wit cast broadside at all his
rivals.

After all, in France at least, the chief power is intellect. Literature
in the service of philosophy is all-sufficient. The public opposes but
a feeble resistance to their complicity, the mistress finding no trouble
in convincing those who have already been won over by the servant

*****

NOTES:

[Footnote 4101: How right Taine was. The 20th century should see a rebirth of
violent Jacobinism in Russia, China, Cambodia, Korea, Cuba, Germany,
Italy, Yugoslavia and Albania and of soft and creeping Jacobinism in the
entire Western world. (SR.)]

[Footnote 4102: "Who, born within the last forty years, ever read a word of
Collins, and Toland, and Tindal, or of that whole race who called
themselves freethinkers?" (Burke, "Reflexions on the French
Revolutions," 1790).]

[Footnote 4103: The "Oedipe," by Voltaire, belongs to the year 1718, and his
"Lettres sur l