All these gladiators glistening with oil felt in the bottom of their souls an insupportable wretchedness.

The richest became libertines; those of moderate fortune followed some profession and resigned themselves to the sword or to the church.

The poorest gave themselves up with cold enthusiasm to great thoughts, plunged into the frightful sea of aimless effort.

As human weakness seeks association and as men are gregarious by nature, politics became mingled with it.

There were struggles with the 'garde du corps' on the steps of the legislative assembly; at the theatre Talma wore a wig which made him resemble Caesar; every one flocked to the burial of a Liberal deputy.
But of the members of the two parties there was not one who, upon returning home, did not bitterly realize the emptiness of his life and the feebleness of his hands.
While life outside was so colorless and so mean, the inner life of society assumed a sombre aspect of silence; hypocrisy ruled in all departments of conduct; English ideas, combining gayety with devotion, had disappeared.