I were in his place, I''d be perfectly simple about it, I would not wind up my mechanism every minute, I''d lead the human race in a straightforward way, I''d weave matters mesh by mesh, without breaking the thread, I would have no provisional arrangements, I would have no extraordinary repertory.
What the rest of you call progress advances by means of two motors, men and events.
But, sad to say, from time to time, the exceptional becomes necessary.
The ordinary troupe suffices neither for event nor for men:
among men geniuses are required, among events revolutions.
Great accidents are the law; the order of things cannot do without them; and, judging from the apparition of comets, one would be tempted to think that Heaven itself finds actors needed for its performance.
At the moment when one expects it the least, God placards a meteor on the wall of the firmament. Some queer star turns up, underlined by an enormous tail. And that causes the death of Caesar.
Brutus deals him a blow with a knife, and God a blow with a comet.
Crac, and behold an aurora borealis, behold a revolution, behold a great man; ''93 in big letters, Napoleon on guard, the comet of 1811 at the head of the poster.
Ah! what a beautiful blue theatre all studded with unexpected flashes!
Boum!
Boum! extraordinary show! Raise your eyes, boobies.