hrough such confusions is
nevertheless Conviction, and makes him strong, and without which he
had no strength,--is not buyable nor saleable; in such transference of
barter, it would vanish and not be. Perhaps 'paid and not sold, paye pas
vendu:' as poor Rivarol, in the unhappier converse way, calls himself
'sold and not paid!' A man travelling, comet-like, in splendour and
nebulosity, his wild way; whom telescopic Patriotism may long watch,
but, without higher mathematics, will not make out. A questionable
most blameable man; yet to us the far notablest of all. With rich
munificence, as we often say, in a most blinkard, bespectacled,
logic-chopping generation, Nature has gifted this man with an eye.
Welcome is his word, there where he speaks and works; and growing
ever welcomer; for it alone goes to the heart of the business: logical
cobwebbery shrinks itself together; and thou seest a thing, how it is,
how is may be worked with.

Unhappily our National Assembly has much to do: a France to regenerate;
and France is short of so many requisites; short even of cash! These
same Finances give trouble enough; no choking of the Deficit; which
gapes ever, Give, give! To appease the Deficit we venture on a hazardous
step, sale of the Clergy's Lands and superfluous Edifices; most
hazardous. Nay, given the sale, who is to buy them, ready-money
having fled? Wherefore, on the 19th day of December, a paper-money of
'Assignats,' of Bonds secured, or assigned, on that Clerico-National
Property, and unquestionable at least in payment of that,--is decreed:
the first of a long series of like financial performances, which shall
astonish mankind. So that now, while old rags last, there shall be no
lack of circulating medium; whether of commodities to circulate thereon
is another question. But, after all, does not this Assignat business
speak volumes for modern science? Bankruptcy, we may say, was come, as
the end of all Delusions needs must come: yet how gently, in softening
diffusion, in mild succession, was it hereby made to fall;--like no
all-destroying avalanche; like gentle showers of a powdery impalpable
snow, shower after shower, till all was indeed buried, and yet little
was destroyed that could not be replaced, be dispensed with! To such
length has modern machinery reached. Bankruptcy, we said, was great; but
indeed Money itself is a standing miracle.

On the whole, it is a matter of endless difficulty, that of the Clergy.
Cleric