Page 1682 - les-miserables

CHAPTER IV

THE TWO DUTIES: TO

WATCH AND TO HOPE

This being the case, is all social danger dispelled? Cer-
tainly not. There is no Jacquerie; society may rest assured
on that point; blood will no longer rush to its head. But let
society take heed to the manner in which it breathes. Apo-
plexy is no longer to be feared, but phthisis is there. Social
phthisis is called misery.
One can perish from being undermined as well as from
being struck by lightning.
Let us not weary of repeating, and sympathetic souls
must not forget that this is the first of fraternal obligations,
and selfish hearts must understand that the first of political
necessities consists in thinking first of all of the disinherit-
ed and sorrowing throngs, in solacing, airing, enlightening,
loving them, in enlarging their horizon to a magnificent
extent, in lavishing upon them education in every form, in
offering them the example of labor, never the example of
idleness, in diminishing the individual burden by enlarging
the notion of the universal aim, in setting a limit to poverty

1682 Les Miserables