he circle. Controller Joly de Fleury, who succeeded Necker, could
do nothing with it; nothing but propose loans, which were tardily filled
up; impose new taxes, unproductive of money, productive of clamour and
discontent. As little could Controller d'Ormesson do, or even less; for
if Joly maintained himself beyond year and day, d'Ormesson reckons only
by months: till 'the King purchased Rambouillet without consulting him,'
which he took as a hint to withdraw. And so, towards the end of 1783,
matters threaten to come to still-stand. Vain seems human ingenuity.
In vain has our newly-devised 'Council of Finances' struggled, our
Intendants of Finance, Controller-General of Finances: there are
unhappily no Finances to control. Fatal paralysis invades the social
movement; clouds, of blindness or of blackness, envelop us: are we
breaking down, then, into the black horrors of NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY?

Great is Bankruptcy: the great bottomless gulf into which all
Falsehoods, public and private, do sink, disappearing; whither, from the
first origin of them, they were all doomed. For Nature is true and not
a lie. No lie you can speak or act but it will come, after longer or
shorter circulation, like a Bill drawn on Nature's Reality, and be
presented there for payment,--with the answer, No effects. Pity only
that it often had so long a circulation: that the original forger were
so seldom he who bore the final smart of it! Lies, and the burden of
evil they bring, are passed on; shifted from back to back, and from rank
to rank; and so land ultimately on the dumb lowest rank, who with spade
and mattock, with sore heart and empty wallet, daily come in contact
with reality, and can pass the cheat no further.

Observe nevertheless how, by a just compensating law, if the lie with
its burden (in this confused whirlpool of Society) sinks and is shifted
ever downwards, then in return the distress of it rises ever upwards
and upwards. Whereby, after the long pining and demi-starvation of those
Twenty Millions, a Duke de Coigny and his Majesty come also to have
their 'real quarrel.' Such is the law of just Nature; bringing, though
at long intervals, and were it only by Bankruptcy, matters round again
to the mark.

But with a Fortunatus' Purse in his pocket, through what length of
time might not almost any Falsehood last! Your Society, your Household,
practical or spiritual Arrangement, is untrue, unjust, offensive to the
eye of God and man. Neve