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the Republic without any possible chance of success? What good fortune
for Bonaparte! To crush with one blow all that remained of those who were
resisting and of those who were combating! To finish with them once for
all! We were beaten, granted, but was it necessary to add annihilation to
defeat? No possible chance of success. The brains of an army cannot be
blown out. To do what Charamaule advised would be to open the tomb,
nothing more. It would be a magnificent suicide, but it would be a
suicide. Under certain circumstances it is selfish to be merely a hero. A
man accomplishes it at once, he becomes illustrious, he enters into
history, all that is very easy. He leaves to others behind him the
laborious work of a long protest, the immovable resistance of the exile,
the bitter, hard life of the conquered who continues to combat the
victory. Some degree of patience forms a part of politics. To know how
to await revenge is sometimes more difficult than to hurry on its
catastrophe. There are two kinds of courage--bravery and perseverance;
the first belongs to the soldier, the second belongs to the citizen. A
hap-hazard end, however dauntless, does not suffice. To extricate oneself
from the difficulty by death, it is only too easily done: what is
required, what is the reverse of easy, is to extricate one's country from
the difficulty. No, said those high-minded men, who opposed Charamaule
and myself, this to-day which you propose to us is the suppression of
to-morrow; take care, there is a certain amount of desertion in
suicide....
The word "desertion" grievously wounded Charamaule. "Very well," said he,
"
I abandon the idea."
This scene was exceedingly grand, and Quinet later on, when in exile,
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