He is sure of his salary, provided he does his duty tolerably well, and this he does when he is occupied during official hours.

Let his papers be correct, in conformity with regulations and custom, and nothing more is asked of him; he need not tax his brain beyond that.

If he conceives any economical measure, or any improvement of his branch of the service, not he, but the public, an anonymous and vague impersonality, reaps all the benefit of it.

Moreover, why should he care about it, since his project or reform might end up in the archives.

The machine is too vast and complicated, too unwieldy, too clumsy, with its rusty wheels, its "old customs and acquired rights," to be renewed and rebuilt as one might a farm, a warehouse or a foundry.