Page 92 - les-miserables

success has almost the same profile as supremacy. Success,
that Menaechmus of talent, has one dupe,—history. Juvenal
and Tacitus alone grumble at it. In our day, a philosophy
which is almost official has entered into its service, wears
the livery of success, and performs the service of its ante-
chamber. Succeed: theory. Prosperity argues capacity. Win
in the lottery, and behold! you are a clever man. He who
triumphs is venerated. Be born with a silver spoon in your
mouth! everything lies in that. Be lucky, and you will have
all the rest; be happy, and people will think you great. Out-
side of five or six immense exceptions, which compose the
splendor of a century, contemporary admiration is nothing
but short-sightedness. Gilding is gold. It does no harm to
be the first arrival by pure chance, so long as you do arrive.
The common herd is an old Narcissus who adores himself,
and who applauds the vulgar herd. That enormous ability
by virtue of which one is Moses, Aeschylus, Dante, Michael
Angelo, or Napoleon, the multitude awards on the spot,
and by acclamation, to whomsoever attains his object, in
whatsoever it may consist. Let a notary transfigure himself
into a deputy: let a false Corneille compose Tiridate; let a
eunuch come to possess a harem; let a military Prudhom-
me accidentally win the decisive battle of an epoch; let an
apothecary invent cardboard shoe-soles for the army of the
Sambre-and-Meuse, and construct for himself, out of this
cardboard, sold as leather, four hundred thousand francs
of income; let a pork-packer espouse usury, and cause it to
bring forth seven or eight millions, of which he is the father
and of which it is the mother; let a preacher become a bishop

92 Les Miserables