there is no limit to paris. no city has had that domination which sometimes derides those whom it subjugates. to please you, o athenians! exclaimed alexander. paris makes more than the law, it makes the fashion; paris sets more than the fashion, it sets the routine. paris may be stupid, if it sees fit; it sometimes allows itself this luxury; then the universe is stupid in company with it; then paris awakes, rubs its eyes, says: "how stupid i am!" and bursts out laughing in the face of the human race. what a marvel is such a city! it is a strange thing that this grandioseness and this burlesque should be amicable neighbors, that all this majesty should not be thrown into disorder by all this parody, and that the same mouth can to-day blow into the trump of the judgment day, and to-morrow into the reed-flute! paris has a sovereign joviality. its gayety is of the thunder and its farce holds a sceptre.
its tempest sometimes proceeds from a grimace. its explosions, its days, its masterpieces, its prodigies, its epics, go forth to the bounds of the universe, and so also do its cock-and-bull stories. its laugh is the mouth of a volcano which spatters the whole earth. its jests are sparks. it imposes its caricatures as well as its ideal on people; the highest monuments of human civilization accept its ironies and lend their eternity to its mischievous pranks. it is superb; it has a prodigious 14th of july, which delivers the globe; it forces all nations to take the oath of tennis; its night of the 4th of august dissolves in three hours a thousand years of feudalism; it makes of its logic the muscle of unanimous will; it multiplies itself under all sorts of forms of the sublime; it fills with its light washington, kosciusko, bolivar, bozzaris, riego, bem, manin, lopez, john brown, garibaldi; it is everywhere where the future is being lighted up, at boston in 1779, at the isle de leon in 1820, at pesth in 1848, at palermo in 1860, it whispers the mighty countersign: liberty, in the ear of the american abolitionists grouped about the boat at harper's ferry, and in the ear of the patriots of ancona assembled in the shadow, to the archi before the gozzi inn on the seashore; it creates canaris; it creates quiroga; it creates pisacane; it irradiates the great on earth; it was while proceeding whither its breath urge them, that byron perished at missolonghi, and that mazet died at barcelona; it is the tribune under the feet of mirabeau, and a crater under the feet of robespierre; its books, its theatre, its art, its science, its literature, its philosophy, are the manuals of the human race; it has pascal, regnier, corneille, descartes, jean-jacques: voltaire for all moments, moliere for all centuries; it makes its language to be talked by the universal mouth, and that language becomes the word; it constructs in all minds the idea of progress, the liberating dogmas which it forges are for the generations trusty friends, and it is with the soul of its thinkers and its poets that all heroes of all nations have been made since 1789; this does not prevent vagabondism, and that enormous genius which is called paris, while transfiguring the world by its light, sketches in charcoal bouginier's nose on the wall of the temple of theseus and writes credeville the thief on the pyramids.
paris is always showing its teeth; when it is not scolding it is laughing.
such is paris. the smoke of its roofs forms the ideas of the universe. a heap of mud and stone, if you will, but, above all, a moral being. it is more than great, it is immense. why? because it is daring.
to dare; that is the price of progress.
all sublime conquests are, more or less, the prizes of daring. in order that the revolution should take place, it does not suffice that montesquieu should foresee it, that diderot should preach it, that beaumarchais should announce it, that condorcet should calculate it, that arouet should prepare it, that rousseau should premeditate it; it is necessary that danton should dare it.
the cry: audacity! is a fiat lux. it is necessary, for the sake of the forward march of the human race, that there should be proud lessons of courage permanently on the heights. daring deeds dazzle history and are one of man's great sources of light. the dawn dares when it rises. to attempt, to brave, to persist, to persevere, to be faithful to one's self, to grasp fate bodily, to astound catastrophe by the small amount of fear that it occasions us, now to affront unjust power, again to insult drunken victory, to hold one's position, to stand one's ground; that is the example which nations need, that is the light which electrifies them. the same formidable lightning proceeds from the torch of prometheus to cambronne's short pipe.
巴黎的边界，决不会存在。任何其他城市都不象它那样冠冕堂皇地嘲弄它所控制的人们。亚历山大曾说过：“要获得你们的欢心，哦，雅典的人们！”巴黎不仅制造法律，它还制造风尚，巴黎不仅制造风尚，它还制造规范。巴黎可以变傻1，当它高兴那样做的时候，它有时允许自己享那种清福，于是整个世界也跟着它傻了，接着，巴黎醒过来了2，它擦着自己的眼睛说：“我多么蠢！”并且还对着人类的脸放声狂笑。一座这样的城市是多么奇妙！事情确也奇怪，宏伟和狂放能相互调和，威仪能不为丑化所扰，同一张嘴，今天能吹末日审判的号角，明天却又能吹葱管！巴黎有着一种庄严的嬉笑，它的笑声是劈雷，它的戏谑有威严，它有时能在一挤眉一弄眼之间引起风暴。它的盛怒、它的纪念日、它的杰作、它的伟绩、它的丰功震撼着整个大地3，它的胡言乱语也是这样。它的笑是火山口，溅及全球。它的讥诮是火花，它把它的漫画和理想影响着其他民族。
1指法国人民自一八三○年七月革命后至一八四八年，一直处在以国王路易－菲力浦为代表的银行家统治下一无作为。
2指一八四八年二月革命，法兰西第二共和国宣布成立。
3指法国二月革命带动了德意志、奥地利、匈牙利、意大利等国人民的革命运动。
人类文化中最崇高的华表也接受它的玩弄，并把自己的永久地位让给它的笑谑。它是杰出的，它有一个拯救世人的如孤峰突起的七月十四日，它促使其他各国人民也发表网球厅誓言1，它的八月四日夜间会议2以三个小时摧毁了一千年的封建制度，它用它的逻辑创造了人们一致向往的肌肉，它的精神表现在各色各样的卓绝的形象中，它的光充满了华盛顿、考斯丘什科3、玻利瓦尔、波查里斯4、里埃哥5、贝姆6、马宁7、洛佩斯8、约翰·布朗9、加里波的的心。
1一七八九年六月二十日，第三等级的代表在巴黎网球厅宣誓，不制定法国宪法决不解散。
2制宪议会在同年八月四日举行一次有名的夜间会议，宣布封建制度的永远废除和教会私有土地的收归国有。
3考斯丘什科（kosciuszko，1746-1817），杰出的十八世纪九十年代波兰民族解放运动活动家，一七九四年波兰起义的领导人。
4波查里斯（botzaris，1788-1823），希腊独立战争中的英雄。
5里埃哥（riégo，1785-1823），西班牙将军和立宪派，一八二○年领导反国王起义。
6贝姆（rem，1795-1850），波兰将军，民族解放运动活动家，一八四八年参加维也纳解放斗争，是匈牙利革命的领导人之一。
7马宁（manin，1804-1857），反抗奥地利统治的意大利民主党人，一八四八年威尼斯共和国总统。
8洛佩斯（lopez，1827-1870），巴拉圭总统，曾和阿根廷和巴西作坚决斗争。
9约翰·布朗（john brown，1800-1859），美国农民起义领袖，曾号召奴隶们拿起武器来解放自己。
在未来火炬燃烧之处它无所不在，一七七九年在波士顿，一八二○年在莱翁岛，一八四八年在佩斯，一八六○年在巴勒莫，它对着聚集在哈珀渡口渡船上的美国废除黑奴运动者的耳朵，也对着群集在海边戈齐客店前阿尔基黑影中的安科纳1爱国主义者的耳朵，低声传播那强有力的口号“自由”。它创造了卡纳里斯2，它创造了基罗加3，它创造了比萨康纳4。它把雄伟的气概辐射到全世界，正是由于随着它的风向前进，拜伦才死在梅索朗吉昂5，马则也才死在巴塞罗那6。它是米拉波7脚下的讲台，它是罗伯斯庇尔脚下的火山口，它的书刊、它的戏剧、它的艺术、它的科学、它的文学、它的哲学是人类的手册，它有帕斯卡尔、雷尼埃、高乃依、笛卡儿、卢梭、伏尔泰，这些全是每一分钟也不能少的人物。莫里哀是每一世纪都不能少的人物，它使全世界人的嘴都说它的语言，这语言并还成了救世箴言。它在每个人的精神上建立起进步的思想，它所铸造的解放信条是后代的枕边剑。一七八九年以来各国人民的每个英雄人物也都是由它的思想家和它的诗人的灵魂陶冶出来的，那并不妨碍它的野孩作风。人们称为巴黎的这个大天才，在用它的光辉改变世界面貌的同时，涂黑了忒修斯神庙墙上布什尼埃的鼻子，并在各金字塔上写了“克莱德维尔匪徒”。
1巴勒莫（palerme）、安科纳（ancofne）均为意大利城市。
2卡纳里斯（canaris，1790-1877），希腊人民反抗土耳其统治的民族英雄。
3基罗加（quiroga，1784-1841），西班牙军官，自由主义者，曾参加独立战争（1808-1814）和一八二○年的资产阶级革命。
4比萨康纳（pisacane，1818-1857），意大利革命者。
5英国诗人拜伦参加希腊人民反抗土耳其统治的民族解放斗争，一八二四年死于希腊的梅索朗吉昂。
6法国医生马则（mazet）一八二一年赴西班牙巴塞罗那帮助补灭鼠疫，自己染病去世。
7米拉波（mirabeau，1749-1791），十八世纪末法国资产阶级革命的著名活动家，大资产阶级和资产阶级化贵族利益的代表者。
巴黎随时都露着牙，它不咬牙切齿的时候便张着嘴笑。
巴黎就是那样的。它瓦顶上的烟是世界的思想。一堆堆的烂泥和乱石，如果人们要那样说也未尝不可，然而最主要的是它有思想。它不仅只是伟大，它并且还是无边无际的。为什么？因为它敢。
敢，这是为求进步所必须付出的代价。
任何卓越的胜利多少总是大胆的成果。为了革命，单凭孟德斯鸠预感，狄德罗宣传，博马舍表达，孔多塞1推演，阿鲁埃2准备，卢梭策划，那是不够的，还必须有丹东的敢。
“拿出胆量来！”3那一声吼是一切成功之母。为了使人类前进，就必须从高峰上不断地发出鼓舞人们勇气、使人意志高昂的教导。大无畏精神照耀着史册，并且是人类的奇光异彩之一。旭日在东升时是敢于冲破黑暗的。试探，挺进，忍耐，坚持，忠贞不渝，与命运搏斗，以泰然自若的神态使苦难惊奇，时而冒犯不义的暴力，时而唾骂疯狂的胜利，站稳脚，昂着头，这就是人民所需要的典范，也是感召他们的光辉。那种触目惊心的闪电已从普罗米修斯的火炬移到康布罗纳的烟斗上4。
1孔多塞（condorcet，1743-1794），法国资产阶级社会学家，启蒙运动者，倾向吉伦特派，第一个制定了人的理性的不断完善是历史进步这种唯心主义理论。
2阿鲁埃（arouet），伏尔泰的原名。
3丹东在一七九二年号召法国人民消灭国内外敌人时说：“拿出胆量来，继续拿出胆量来，不断拿出胆量来。”
4指康布罗纳在滑铁卢战场上临死时对英国军队的辱骂（见本书第2部第1卷）。