A common torture binds them both in one; they share not the same heaven, but the same hell, and there we hear them howl, amid weeping and wailing and the gnashing of teeth, "Vive la République!" "Vive Henri V.!"[1]
The partisans of the Ministry, that is to say, people in place, the bankers, owners of real estate, and shopkeepers, increase the very general discontent by declaring, with a smile, that we are all living in perfect peace, that that thermometer of popular prosperity, the Fonds, has risen, and that we have this winter seen in Paris more balls than ever, while the Opera attained its zenith. This was truly the case, for such people have the means to give balls, and they danced to show that France is prosperous; they danced for their system, for the peace and repose of Europe—they wanted, in fact, to dance stocks up, and foot it
- ↑ This is a very interesting passage, as giving a clue to the association and transmission of thought and the origin of one of Heine's best epigrams. The damned in Dante's Inferno wishing for a change, suggested a memory of the hell of mud, and the comparison of the juste milieu to a bourbier, in which both parties arrived at mutual toleration and understanding, which is the basis of the epigram:—
"Seldom did we know each other,
Seldom were we understood.
But our souls soon came together
When we met in filth and mud."—Translator.
