Page:Works of Heinrich Heine 07.djvu/79

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
FRENCH AFFAIRS.
59

who does not think with this party, though he speaks according to their meaning, has of late given them a good push forward.[1] This indifferentist of the deepest kind, who knows so admirably how to keep time in the clearness, intelligence, and illustration of his style, this Goethe of politics,[2] is certainly at present the most powerful defender of the system of Périer, and, in fact, with his pamphlet against Chateaubriand he well nigh annihilated that Don Quixote of Legitimacy, who sat so pathetically on his winged Rosinante,[3] whose sword was more shining than sharp, and who only shot with costly pearls, instead of good piercing leaden bullets.

In their irritation at the lamentable turn which events have taken, many of the enthusiasts for freedom go so far as to slander Lafayette. How far a man can go astray in this direction is shown by the pamphlet of Belmontet, which is also an attack on that by Chateaubriand, and in which the Republic is advocated with frank freedom. I


  1. "Hat ihr in der letzten Zeit zwar nicht geringen Vorschub geleistet." I know of no word which translates this so accurately as the Yankee "given them a good boost up." French—"un bon coup d'épaule."
  2. French version—"Cet esprit, à la fois lucide et profond, qui sait garder une mesure si admirable dans la charté," &c.
  3. Omitted in the French version.