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and over blocks of marble, perchance with the result of ruffling a
little the smooth surface of the court! Providence has a way of thus
expending forces grandly. The movement of a mountain often only
displaces a molehill.
Besides this, when the court is the dangerous arena, nothing is more
dangerous than to aim at your enemy and miss him. In the first place, it
unmasks you and irritates him; but besides and above all, it displeases
the master. Kings do not like the unskilful. Let us have no contusions,
no ugly gashes. Kill anybody, but give no one a bloody nose. He who
kills is clever, he who wounds awkward. Kings do not like to see their
servants lamed. They are displeased if you chip a porcelain jar on their
chimney-piece or a courtier in their cortège. The court must be kept
neat. Break and replace; that does not matter. Besides, all this agrees
perfectly with the taste of princes for scandal. Speak evil, do none; or
if you do, let it be in grand style.
Stab, do not scratch, unless the pin be poisoned. This would be an
extenuating circumstance, and was, we may remember, the case with
Barkilphedro.
Every malicious pigmy is a phial in which is enclosed the dragon of
Solomon. The phial is microscopic, the dragon immense. A formidable
condensation, awaiting the gigantic hour of dilation! Ennui consoled by
the premeditation of explosion! The prisoner is larger than the prison.
A latent giant! how wonderful! A minnow in which is contained a hydra.
To be this fearful magical box, to contain within him a leviathan, is to
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