ty there is no resting-place between the role
of the great artist and that of the good workman. Now, I was neither one
nor the other, and, if the truth must be told, all my ideas have never
succeeded in lifting me out of the ordinary ruck; all my strength has
only enabled me with much difficulty to do as others do.

In a few weeks, then, I passed from an excess of admiration to an excess
of contempt for society. As soon as I understood the workings of its
springs they seemed to me so miserably regulated by a feeble generation
that the hopes of my mentors, unknown to themselves, were doomed to
disappointment. Instead of realizing my own inferiority and endeavouring
to efface myself in the crowd, I imagined that I could give proof of
my superiority whenever I wished; and I fed on fancies which I blush to
recall. If I did not show myself egregiously ridiculous, it was thanks
to the very excess of this vanity which feared to stultify itself before
others.

At that time Paris presented a spectacle which I shall not attempt to
set before you, because no doubt you have often eagerly studied it in
the excellent pictures which have been painted by eye-witnesses in the
form of general history or private memoirs. Besides, such a picture
would exceed the limits of my story, for I promised to tell you only the
cardinal events in my moral and philosophical development. In order to
give you some idea of the workings of my mind at this period it will
suffice to mention that the War of Independence was breaking out in
America; that Voltaire was receiving his apotheosis in Paris; that
Franklin, the prophet of a new political religion, was sowing the seed
of liberty in the very heart of the Court of France; while Lafayette
was secretly preparing his romantic expedition. The majority of young
patricians were being carried away either by fashion, or the love
of change, or the pleasure inherent in all opposition which is not
dangerous.

Opposition took a graver form and called for more serious work in the
case of the old nobles, and among the members of the parliaments. The
spirit of the League was alive again in the ranks of these ancient
patricians and these haughty magistrates, who for form's sake were still
supporting the tottering monarchy with one arm, while with the other
they gave considerable help to the invasions of philosophy. The
privileged classes of society were zealously lending a hand to the
imminent destruction of their p