this
time the youthful corporal who dons his first stripes of gold braid
already fancies that he hears the beating of the drums, the blast of the
trumpet, and the salvos of artillery which proclaim him marshal of the
Empire.[3352]

V. Self-esteem and a good Reputation.

The inward spring from 1789 to 1815.--Its force.--Its
decline.--How it ends in breaking the machine down.

A new force, extraordinary, is just apparent in history, a spiritual
force analogous to that which formerly stimulated souls in Spain in the
sixteenth century, in European the time of the crusades, and in Arabia
in the time of Mahomet. It stimulates the faculties to excess, increases
energy tenfold, transports man beyond or above himself, creates
enthusiasts and heroes, blinding or rendering men crazy, and hence the
irresistible conquerors and rulers. It stamps its imprint and leaves
its memorials in ineffaceable characters on men and things from Cadiz
to Moscow. It overrides all natural barriers and transcends all
ordinary limits. "The French soldier," writes a Prussian officer after
Jena,[3353] "are small and puny. One of our Germans could whip any four
of them. But, under fire, they become supernatural beings. They are
swept along by an indescribable ardor of which there is not a trace
among our soldiers.... What can you do with peasants whom nobles lead
into battle, but whose danger they share without any interest in
their passions or recompenses!"--Coupled with the physical needs which
requires a certain amount of ease and of daily food, and which, if too
strenuously opposed, produces passing jacqueries, there is a still more
potent longing which, on suddenly encountering its object, seizes on
it, clings to it, gorges it, and produces revolutions that last: this
longing is the desire to contemplate one-self with satisfaction and
complacency, forming of one's self a pleasing, flattering image, and of
trying to impress and plant this image in the minds of others; in short,
the ambition for a great self-esteem and of becoming greatly esteemed by
others.[3354] This sentiment, according to the quality of the person and
according to circumstances, gives birth sometimes to the noblest virtues
and the most sublime devotion, and at other times to the worst misdeeds
and the most dangerous delirium: the man becomes transfigured, the
sleeping god or demon which both live within him is suddenly aroused.
After 1789, both appear and both to