Les Misérables, page 167
CHAPTER XII--THE FUTURE LATENT IN THE PEOPLE
As for the Parisian populace, even when a man grown, it is always thestreet Arab; to paint the child is to paint the city; and it is for thatreason that we have studied this eagle in this arrant sparrow. It is inthe faubourgs, above all, we maintain, that the Parisian race appears;there is the pure blood; there is the true physiognomy; there thispeople toils and suffers, and suffering and toil are the two faces ofman. There exist there immense numbers of unknown beings, among whomswarm types of the strangest, from the porter of la Râpée to theknacker of Montfaucon. _Fex urbis_, exclaims Cicero; _mob_, adds Burke,indignantly; rabble, multitude, populace. These are words and quicklyuttered. But so be it. What does it matter? What is it to me if they dogo barefoot! They do not know how to read; so much the worse. Would youabandon them for that? Would you turn their distress into a malediction?Cannot the light penetrate these masses? Let us return to that cry:Light! and let us obstinately persist therein! Light! Light! Who knowswhether these opacities will not become transparent? Are not revolutionstransfigurations? Come, philosophers, teach, enlighten, light up, thinkaloud, speak aloud, hasten joyously to the great sun, fraternize withthe public place, announce the good news, spend your alphabets lavishly,proclaim rights, sing the Marseillaises, sow enthusiasms, tear greenboughs from the oaks. Make a whirlwind of the idea. This crowd maybe rendered sublime. Let us learn how to make use of that vastconflagration of principles and virtues, which sparkles, bursts forthand quivers at certain hours. These bare feet, these bare arms, theserags, these ignorances, these abjectnesses, these darknesses, may beemployed in the conquest of the ideal. Gaze past the people, and youwill perceive truth. Let that vile sand which you trample under foot becast into the furnace, let it melt and seethe there, it will become asplendid crystal, and it is thanks to it that Galileo and Newton willdiscover stars.
