The Arcades Project - Operi

vol. 2, pp. 639, 641-642. 25°_In the manuscript, there is a variant for the last
word: \sadness." [J47a,2]
The piece that begins, "The world is coming to an end" ("Fusees;' no, 22),
contains, interwoven with the apocalyptic reverie, a frightfully bitter critique of
Second Empire society. (It reminds One here and there, perhaps, of Nietzsche's
delineation of "the last man:') Tills critique displays, in part, prophetic features.
Of the coming society, it is said that "nothing in the sanguinary, blasphemous, or
unnatural dreams of the utopians can be compared to what will aCl'llally happen
. ... Rulers will be compelled, in order to maintain their position and create a
semblance of order, to resort to methods that would appall present-day mankind,
hardened as it is . ... Justice-if, in this fortunate epoch, any justice can still
exist-will forbid the existence of citizens who are unable to make a fortune . ...
Those times are perhaps quite close at hand. Who knows whether they are not
here already-whether it is not simply the coarsening of our natures that keeps
us from noticing what sort of atmosphere we already breathe?" Ch. B., Oeuvres,
voL 2, pp. 640-641.'5> [J47a,3]
The gist of it all, in the eyes of history and of the French people, is that Napoleon
Ill's great claim to renown will have been that he showed how anybody at all,
if only he gets hold of the telegraph and the printing presses, ean govern a great
nation. Anyone who believes that such things can be done without the people's
permission is an imbecile." Ch. B., Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 655 ("Mon Coeur mis it nn,"
no. 44).'52 [J48,1]
"'A sense of solitude, since my childhood. Despite my family, and especially amid
companions-a sense of' an eternally lonely destiny." Ch. B., Oeuvres, vol. 2,
p. 645 ("Mon Coeur ll1is ii nu").'·'" [J48,2]
"Truth, for all its multiplicity, is not two-faced." Ch. E., Oeuvr'es, vol. 2, p. 63
("Salon de 1846: Aux Bourgeois")."" [J48,3]
"'Allegory is one of the noblest genres of art." Ch. E., Oeuvres, vol.
("Salon de 1845").255
2, p. 30
[J48,4]
""The will must have become a highly developed and productive faculty to he able
to give its stamp ... to works ... of the second rank . ... The spectator enjoys the
effort, and his eye drinks in the sweat." eh. B., Oeu:vres, vol. 2, C"Salon de
1845"). [J48,S]
"'The idea of progress. This dim heacon, an invention of contemporary philosophiflm,
licensed without the sanction of Nature or God-this modern lantern casts
dark shadows over every object of knowledge. Liberty vanishes; punishment disappears."
Ch. B., Oeuvres, vol. 2 p. 148 (""Exposition Univel'selle, 1855").2 ;;6
[J48,6]