Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 7.djvu/116



hope to see a cessation of the triumphs of intrigue and crime; and to this end the people need only to be enlightened.

There is yet this difference between a monarchy and a republic: the reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, Caligula and Domitian all had happy beginnings. In fact, all reigns make a joyous entry, but this is only a delusion. Royalists therefore laugh at the present state of France as if because of its violent and terrible entry it could not always last.

Everything gives umbrage to a tyrant. If a citizen have popularity, he is becoming a rival to the prince. Consequently, he is stirring up civil strife, and is a suspect. If, on the contrary, he flee popularity and seclude himself in the corner of his own fireside, this retired life makes him remarked, and he is a suspect. If he is a rich man, there is an imminent peril that he may corrupt the people with his largesses, and he becomes a suspect. Are you poor? How then! Invincible emperors, this man must be closely watched; for no one is so enterprising as he who has nothing. He is a suspect! Are you in character somber, melancholy, or neglectful? Then you are afflicted by the condition of public affairs, and are a suspect.

If, on the contrary, the citizen enjoy himself and have resultant indigestion, he is only seeking diversion because his ruler has had an attack of gout, which makes his majesty realize his age. Therefore he is a suspect. Is he virtuous and