Page 1011 - les-miserables

whether these opacities will not become transparent? Are
not revolutions transfigurations? Come, philosophers,
teach, enlighten, light up, think aloud, speak aloud, hasten
joyously to the great sun, fraternize with the public place,
announce the good news, spend your alphabets lavishly,
proclaim rights, sing the Marseillaises, sow enthusiasms,
tear green boughs from the oaks. Make a whirlwind of the
idea. This crowd may be rendered sublime. Let us learn how
to make use of that vast conflagration of principles and vir-
tues, which sparkles, bursts forth and quivers at certain
hours. These bare feet, these bare arms, these rags, these
ignorances, these abjectnesses, these darknesses, may be
employed in the conquest of the ideal. Gaze past the peo-
ple, and you will perceive truth. Let that vile sand which
you trample under foot be cast into the furnace, let it melt
and seethe there, it will become a splendid crystal, and it is
thanks to it that Galileo and Newton will discover stars.

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