And in the tranquillity of the hills, was he beginning to lose faith in the book, and the compensation it was to bring him?
Unless this book, with its scathing analysis of the dangers and difficulties of the secularist State, were not only a book, but _an event_, of what use would it be to him?
He was capable both of extravagant conceit, and of the most boundless temporary disgust with his own doings and ideas.
Such a disgust seemed to be mounting now through all his veins, taking all the savour out of life and work.

No doubt it would be the same to the end,--the politician in him just strong enough to ruin the man of letters--the man of letters always ready to distract and paralyse the politician.

And as for the book, there also he had been the victim of a double mind.

He had endeavoured to make it popular, as Chateaubriand made the great argument of the _Genie du Christianisme_ popular, by the introduction of an element of poetry and romance.

For the moment he was totally out of love with the result.