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II.
It is disagreeable to see one's fellows practise obstinacy. Imitations
of Regulus are not popular, and public opinion holds them in some
derision. Stubborn people are like reproaches, and we have a right to
laugh at them.
Besides, to sum up, are these perversities, these rugged notches,
virtues? Is there not in these excessive advertisements of
self-abnegation and of honour a good deal of ostentation? It is all
parade more than anything else. Why such exaggeration of solitude and
exile? to carry nothing to extremes is the wise man's maxim. Be in
opposition if you choose, blame if you will, but decently, and crying
out all the while "Long live the King." The true virtue is common
sense--what falls ought to fall, what succeeds ought to succeed.
Providence acts advisedly, it crowns him who deserves the crown; do you
pretend to know better than Providence? When matters are settled--when
one rule has replaced another--when success is the scale in which truth
and falsehood are weighed, in one side the catastrophe, in the other
the triumph; then doubt is no longer possible, the honest man rallies to
the winning side, and although it may happen to serve his fortune and
his family, he does not allow himself to be influenced by that
consideration, but thinking only of the public weal, holds out his hand
heartily to the conqueror.
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