Chapter 178 Volume 4 Friends of ABC

In this era, the surface is calm and peaceful, but secretly there is a certain revolutionary vibration.The airflow from the eight-nine and nine-three deep valleys returned to the air.The young generation, if we may say so, has entered its prime.They change over time, almost unconsciously.The needle that moves on the face of the clock also moves in the heart of man.Everyone took the steps he had to take.Royalists became liberals, and liberals became democrats. It seemed to be a rising tide, rushing east and west, turning a thousand times, and the characteristic of the turning was blending, so there appeared some very strange confluences of ideas. People actually worshiped Napoleon and freedom at the same time.Let's talk a little history here.Such was the illusion of the age that opinions were formed in stages.Voltaireanism, that alien species, had a parallelism, no less peculiar: Bonapartist Liberalism.

Other organizations are more serious.Some explore principles, others are passionate about human rights.People passionately pursue the absolute truth and explore the boundless prospect; this absolute truth, with its own solemnity, pushes people's thoughts into the clear sky and makes them soar in the sky.Nothing gives birth to dreams like faith, and nothing gives birth to the future like dreams.Today's utopia, tomorrow's flesh and bones. At a time when advanced thought had its two soils, covert and suspicious shadowy activities were beginning to threaten the "established order."This sign is extremely revolutionary.The scheming of the rulers and the scheming of the people met in the tunnel.Preparations for organizing an armed uprising were brewing as well as plots for organizing a coup d'état.

At that time there was no underground organization in France as vast as the German Society of Morals or the Italian Carbonari, but here and there there was a sprawling work of covert infiltration.The Society of Bitgourd was beginning to form in Aix, and in Paris, besides groups like this, there was the Society of the Friends of the ABC. What is "Friends of ABC"?This is an association that advocates children's education on the surface, but actually aims to train adults. They call themselves "Friends of ABC". "Abaisse" means the people.They want the people to stand up.It would be wrong for anyone to laugh at such puns.Puns are sometimes serious in politics, as in "Castratus ad castra" which made Narses the commander of the legions, or "Barbari et Barberini", or "Fueros y Fuegos", or "Tu es Petrus et super hanc petram", and so on.

"Friends of ABC" are few and far between.It was a secret society in the embryonic state, almost a kind of free union, if free union can also produce heroes.They have two meeting places in Paris, both near the Grand Market, a hotel called "The Corinth", which we will talk about later, and a small café in the Place Saint-Michel called "Cafe Mussan", has been demolished.The first of these meeting places is close to the workers, the second to the university students. The secret meeting of "Friends of ABC" is often held in a back hall of the Meuchan Café, and there is a long corridor between the hall and the shop, with two windows and a back door. A hidden staircase leads to a small gray street.There they smoked, drank, played, talked and laughed.They talk about everything, but when it comes to certain things, they keep their voices down.An old map of republican France was pinned to the wall, a sign enough to alert the detectives.

"Friends of ABC" are mostly college students, and they have deep friendship with several workers.Below are the names of several main characters.These men are already to some extent historical figures: Enjolras, Combeferre, Jean Prouvel, Feuilly, Courfeyrac, Bahorets, Reiger, Joly, Grantaire . These young people became a family because of their friendship.Except for Reigle, all were born in the South. This group is worthy of attention.They are lost now in those unseen abysses behind our heads.But before we enter into this tragic story, before the reader sees how they died in a heroic struggle, it may not be in vain to shine a ray of light on the faces of these young people.

Enjolras, whom we call chief, and why we will see later, was the only son of a rich family. Enjolras was a charming young man, but he could also become fierce and frightening.He is as beautiful as an angel.It was Antinor who was reborn, but also rough.When his thoughtful expression flashed from his eyes, people might say that he had experienced a revolutionary storm in a previous life.He seemed to have seen and inherited the revolutionary tradition.He knew all the details of this great event.The character is dignified and brave, which is rare in young people.He has talent and fighting spirit, and as far as the present goal is concerned, he is a fighter for democracy, but in the context of current activities, he is also a propagandist of the highest ideals.His eyes are deep, his eyelids are reddish, his lower lip is thick and prone to contempt, and his forehead is high.Looking at the face and seeing only the forehead, it seems that there is a vast sky on the horizon.Just like some successful young people at the beginning of this century and the end of the previous century, he has too much youthful vitality, fresh as a girl, although occasionally pale.He is an adult, but he still looks like a child.He was twenty-two years old, but he looked like seventeen, with a dignified temperament, as if he didn't know that there were so-called women in the world.He has only one passion: human rights; and one vocation: removing obstacles.On the Avatar he might be Gracchus, in the Sanhedrin he might be Saint-Just.He scarcely looked at roses, did not know what spring was, and heard no birds sing; nor was Ewald's open throat more moving to him than Aristoguiton's, for he As with Almodius, the flowers are only useful for concealing the sword.He is unsmiling in his joy.He lowered his eyes shyly when he saw anything that had nothing to do with the republic system.He was the lover of the marble statue of Liberty.His language is dry and quivering like monastery song.His actions often appear abrupt and unexpected.Which amorous woman dares to take risks by his side, she's just asking for trouble!If some pretty girl on the Place Cambrai or the Rue Saint-Jean-de-Beauvais saw this face, he would think it was a truant high school student, and by his actions, he would look like an adjutant again, and that slender pale Yellow eyelashes, blue eyes, hair blowing in the wind, rosy cheeks, bright lips, beautiful teeth, who would go to Enjolras to show off to Enjolras if they wanted to taste the strange smell of the sky full of dawn. The unexpectedly fierce eyes would suddenly show her a gulf, telling her not to confuse Ezekiel's second-rank angel with Beaumarchais' Merry angel.

Next to Enjolras, who represents revolutionary logic, there is Combeferre, who represents philosophy.There is a difference between the logic of revolution and its philosophy: its logic can be reduced to war, but its philosophy can only lead to peace.Combeferre complements and corrects Enjolras.He is not that tall, but Hengli is stronger.He wanted to instill in people the broad principles of general thought. He often said that "revolution does not forget civilization", and he showed a vast green field around the mountains.In Combeferre's whole point of view, therefore, there is something achievable and practicable.The revolution advocated by Combeferre is more acceptable than that advocated by Enjolras.Enjolras preached the divine right of revolution, Combeferre the natural right.The former followed Robespierre, the latter confined to Condorcet.Combeferre lives more than Enjolras does what everyone does.If these two youths had stepped onto the stage of history, perhaps one would have become a just and unselfish person, while the other would have become a prudent and discerning person.Enjolras is closer to righteousness, and Combeferus is closer to benevolence.Benevolence and righteousness, this is the subtle difference between the two.The gentleness of Combeferre, because of the purity of his nature, is compared with the seriousness of Enjolras.He loves the word 'citizen', but he loves the word 'man' even more, and he would probably like to say 'Hombre' as the Spaniards do.He read everything, went to the theatre, attended popular academic lectures, studied the polarization of light with Arago, and listened to Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire explain the dual role of the external and internal cardiac arteries in a lecture. And very excited, one of these two arteries tubes the face, and the other tubes the brain.He paid close attention to current affairs, kept a close eye on scientific developments, made comparative analysis of Saint-Simon and Fourier, studied ancient Egyptian writing, inferred geology by breaking cobblestones, described moths from memory, accused French errors in the Academy of Sciences dictionary, studied Puysay The writings of Gu and Deleuze affirm nothing, not even miracles, and deny nothing, even ghosts. I browse the collection of "Bulletin" and love to think.He said that the future is in the hands of elementary school teachers, and he cares about education.He asked the society to work continuously for the improvement of knowledge and morality, the application of science, the dissemination of ideas, and the growth of the intelligence of young people. The dogmas of the scholars, the prejudices and old habits of the pedants, will at last turn our schools into breeding ponds for oysters.He is knowledgeable, self-confident, meticulous, versatile, full of energy, but also loves to think deeply, "even dreaming about things", his friends often say about him.He believed in railways, in pain-free surgery, in fixing images in darkrooms, in the telegraph, and in the directional flight of balloons.Besides, he was not much afraid of superstition, despotism, prejudice, of all the fortresses that have been erected here and there against mankind.He, like others, believes that science will one day turn the tide.Enjolras is the chief, Combeferre the guide.People are willing to fight that and they are willing to move forward with this.Not because Combeferre was incapable of fighting, he did not refuse to fight hand-to-hand with an obstacle, he would attack it with all his strength and risk his life, but he felt that little by little, through the guidance of principles and the express words of the law The promulgation of God, so that human beings can live in their own destiny, will be more to his liking; of the two kinds of light, he prefers the shining of light to the burning of fire.Of course a fire can light up half the sky too, but why not wait for the sunrise?Volcanoes can shine, but they are not as good as dawn.Combeferre loved beautiful white perhaps more than brilliant flame.The light mixed with smoke and dust, and the progress obtained by violence can only satisfy half of this gentle and serious heart.He was terrified of 1993 when the people suddenly obtained the truth like a cliff, but he hated the state of stagnation even more. He could smell the stench of decay and death here.On the whole, he preferred foam to swamp gas, rapids to dirty ponds, and Niagara Falls to Falcon Lake.In short, he should neither stagnate nor rush.While his rambunctious friends were clamoring for absolute truth and calling for a glorious revolutionary struggle, Combeferre looked to the natural development of progress, and he was inclined to a kind of good progress, deserted perhaps, but Pure; orderly, but beyond reproach; quiet, but unshakable.Combeferre might be able to get on his knees, clasped his hands, and wait for the innocence of the future to come, hoping that the great evolution of man from evil to good will not be hindered in any way. "The good ought to be pure," he repeated over and over again.Indeed, if the greatness of a revolution consists in spotting a glorious ideal, and flying toward it through thunder with blood and fire in its paws, then the beauty of progress is to be spotless; Washington represents one of them, Danton embodies the other, they are as different as an angel with swan wings is from an angel with eagle wings.

Jean Prouvel's tone is softer than Combeferre's.He called himself "Jean", which was linked to that strong and profound movement in that must-read book on the Middle Ages, triggered by a small whim.Jean Prouvaire is a passionate seed, he likes to plant potted flowers, play the flute, write poems, love people, cry for women, cry for children, confuse the future with God in the same faith, blame the revolution for getting rid of a king and Ann Andre Chenier's head.His voice is often soft and soft, but it can suddenly become strong.He has literary accomplishments, even to the point of erudition, and he is almost an orientalist.His most striking trait was good-naturedness; in his poetry he loved boldness, which is easy for those who know how alike goodness and greatness are.He knew Italian, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, which worked for him in that he read only four poets: Dante, Juvenal, Aeschylus and Isaiah.In French he preferred Corneille to Racine, and Agrippa Daubigne to Corneille.He loved to linger in the fields of oats and cornflowers, and was concerned almost as much with the clouds as with the affairs of the world.His spirit has two sides, one towards man and the other towards God; he seeks knowledge and contemplates all things.All day long he delved deeply into such social problems as wages, capital, credit, marriage, religion, freedom of thought, freedom of love, education, punishment, poverty, association, property, production and distribution, the riddles that keep the mortals of the underworld in shadow. ;at night, he looked up at the stars, those great celestial bodies.Like Enjolras, he was the only son of a wealthy family.He spoke in a soft tone, bowed his head and lowered his eyebrows, smiled shyly, behaved restrainedly, looked awkward, flushed with shame for no reason, and was timid.However, it is unstoppable.

Feuilly was a fan maker, an orphan without father and mother, earning less than three francs a day, and he had only one thought: to save the world.He also has another desire: to educate himself, which he says is also to save himself.He could read and write by self-taught, and everything he knew he had learned by himself.Feuilly was a man of unrestrained temperament.He has big ambitions.The orphan considers the people as his parents.Having lost his parents, he missed his motherland.He did not want a man without a country in the world.He had in his chest the sharp foresight of a man from the people, which gave birth to what we call "national thought" today.He studied history so that he could be indignant at what other people did.In this group of young men with lofty ideals, the attention of others was mainly on France, and his attention was on foreign countries.His specialties are Greece, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Italy.These were the names of countries which he kept on repeating with constant impartiality, whether properly or inappropriately.The atrocities committed by Turkey against Crete and Thessaly, by Russia against Warsaw, and by Austria against Venice angered him immensely.Especially the atrocities of 1772 made him intolerable.Truth combined with indignation makes eloquence all-powerful, and he had just that eloquence.He talked endlessly of the ignominious year of 1772, of that noble and valiant people wounded by treachery, of the crimes committed by the accomplices of three nations, of the hideous and colossal conspiracy by which several nations have since been Annexation is like canceling their birth certificates, and all the catastrophes of national subjugation are copied from the model of 1772.All crimes in modern society have evolved from the partition of Poland.The partition of Poland seems to have become a theorem, and all the current political atrocities are just its deduction.In the past hundred years, no tyrant, no rebel, no exception, never stamped, expressed consent, signed, or pledged on the criminal evidence of the partition of Poland.This is the first thing that comes up when one looks at the files of modern treachery.The Congress of Vienna referred to this crime before it completed its own.In 1772 the horn of the hounds was sounded, and in 1815 the horn of the hounds was sounded.This is what Feuil used to say.The poor worker considers himself the guardian of justice, which rewards him by making him great.Justice is indeed eternal and immutable.Warsaw will not forever belong to the Tartars, any more than Venice will forever belong to the Germans.In vain did kings tarnish their reputations.Sooner or later, submerged countries will resurface.Greece became Greece again, and Italy became Italy again.The protests of justice against facts are tenacious.Loot taken from a people does not acquire title by occupation.This kind of high-level robbery has no future.One cannot treat a country like a handkerchief and remove its trademark paper at will.

Courfeyrac's father is Mr. de Courfeyrac.The bourgeoisie, during the Restoration, had a false perception of the manners of the aristocracy, that they valued this little word.We know that this little word has no meaning.But the bourgeoisie at the time of "Minerva" regarded this poor "virtue" so highly that they thought it must be abolished.Monsieur de Chauvran became Monsieur Chauvran, Monsieur de Comardin became Monsieur Comardin, Monsieur de Constant de Lebec became Monsieur Benjamin Constant, de Mr. Lafayette changed his name to Mr. Lafayette.Not to be outdone, Courfeyrac simply called himself Courfeyrac.

About Courfeyrac, we can almost say only this, and add only this: Courfeyrac is like Doromeer. Courfeyrac did have that youthful ardor that is called ghost intelligence.This kind of heat, like the cuteness of a kitten, will disappear later, and the whole charming and unrestrained demeanor will become bourgeois on two feet, and become an old cat on four paws. This kind of cleverness is almost the same among the young people who leave school every year and are drafted into the army every year. They are passed on from generation to generation. Hearing Courfeyrac in 1990, he would have thought he had heard Tholomyer in 1817.But Courfeyrac was an honest boy.Judging from the intelligence shown, Tholomyer and he had the same appearance, but behind the appearance they were very different.The two inner beings that exist in them are totally different from each other.In Tholomyers lies a judge, in Courfeyrac a warrior. Enjolras is the leader, Combeferre is the guide, and Courfeyrac is the center.Others radiate more light, and he radiates more heat. The fact is that he has all the qualities that a central character should have. Bahoret had participated in the bloody clashes on the funeral day of the young Lallement in June 1822. Baare is a witty and difficult person, honest, loves to spend money, profligate to the point of extravagance, talkative to the point of hanging, brutal to the point of unscrupulous, is the best material to be a devil; Waistcoat, with vermilion opinion; troubles, lest it not be enough, that is to say, he feels that there is nothing lovelier than a quarrel, if it is not a riot; and that there is nothing more lovely than a disturbance , if this is not a revolution.Ready to smash a pane of glass, dig up a paving stone in a street, bring down a government, just to see the effect.He is a student in grade eleven.He sniffs the law, but doesn't learn it.His motto was "Never Be a Lawyer" and his emblem was a commode cabinet with a square hat peeking out.Every time he passed the law school (which was an unusual occurrence for him), he buttoned up his riding jacket (jackets had not yet been invented) and took sanitary measures.When he saw the gate of the college, he said, "What a pompous old man!" Seeing Mr. Delvancourt, the dean, he said, "What a big building!" He often found the theme of songs in his textbooks. , Caricature images are often found on teachers.He idly ate a considerable school board, three thousand francs.His parents were farmers, and he knew how to pay tribute to them repeatedly. About them, he often said: "These are peasants, not the bourgeoisie, and because of this, they have a little wisdom." Bahorey, the wayward eccentric, was frequented in several coffee shops, where others had frequented places, but he hadn't.He wanders around.Everyone knows how to wander, but wandering is the habit of Parisians.In fact, he is a sensitive person who can't judge people by their appearance. He is thoughtful. He acted as a liaison between the "Friends of the ABC" and other organizations which had not yet been concretely established and were formed later. In the organization of this group of youths, there is a bald member. The Marquis of Avarre, who was promoted to Marquis by putting him in a hired carriage on the day of Louis XVIII's flight, once talked about such a thing: the king landed from Calais in 1814. On his return to France, someone handed him a petition."What do you want?" said the King. "A post, Your Majesty." "What's your name?" "Raigle." The king frowned, looked at the signature on the document, and saw that the name was written like this: "Lesgle".This mildly Bonaparte way of writing touched the king, and he began to smile a little. "Your Majesty," said the man who brought the papers, "my ancestors were dog-keepers, and were nicknamed 'Lesgueules. It becomes 'L'Aigle'." With these words, the king laughed even more.Afterwards, he assigned him the post station in Meaux, maybe intentionally or unintentionally. The balding member of the organization is the son of this "Lesgle" or "L'Aigle," who himself signs Laigle (de Moore).His classmates, for the sake of convenience, simply called him Bossuet. Bossuet was a happy boy who suffered badly.His specialty is getting nothing done and, conversely, laughing at everything.At the age of twenty-five, he went bald.At last his father had a house and a field, but he, the son, hastily lost them all in a miscalculated speculation.He was learned and intellectual, but unsuccessful.He fails everywhere, everything fails, and the castles he builds always fall on his own head.He chops wood and cuts off his own fingers.He finds a mistress and immediately discovers that he has a friend too.Bad luck can happen to him at any time, so he is always happy.He often said: "I live under crumbling tiles." He never made a fuss, because unexpected things were expected for him. To smile, only when others are joking.He has no money, but the interest in his pocket is inexhaustible.He was quick to use up his last sou, but never had his last laugh.When bad luck came, he saluted this old acquaintance cordially. When the disaster star descended, he patted its stomach. When bad luck came, he was so affectionate enough to call it by its nickname. "Hello, little rascal," he used to say. All the tortures of fate made him a creative man.His chest is full of doorways.He doesn't have a penny, but he has the means to "spend all the money" when he likes it.One night, he took a silly elder sister and ate a hundred francs for a late-night supper. This feast triggered his inspiration and made him say such a memorable sentence: "Five Louis girls undress me." Boots." Bossuet slowly moved towards a career as a lawyer. He studied law, just like Bahoret.Bossuet had little lodgings, sometimes none at all.Sometimes he lived with this one, sometimes with that one, and most of the time he lived with Ruo Li.Joly studied medicine and was two years younger than Bossuet. Ruoli is a young man moaning without illness.What he learned from studying medicine is that if he fails to cure a disease, he will get sick instead.At the age of twenty-three, he regarded himself as a sick man, looking at his tongue in the mirror day and night.He believed that people, like needles, could be magnetized, so he arranged the bed in his bedroom in a north-south direction, so that his blood circulation would not be disturbed by the earth's large magnetic field.When encountering strong wind and heavy rain, feel your own pulse.But of all these people, he was the liveliest one.Youth, eccentricity, infirmity, and high spirits, all these disjointed traits combined in one individual made him a dissolute and lovable fellow, often called "" Jolllly". "You can fly on four wings," Jean Prouvel used to say to him. Jolly used to tap the tip of his nose with the tip of his cane, a sign of a thoughtful man. All these young people, for all their diversity, have one thing in common: progress.We can only talk about them seriously. They were all natural sons of the French Revolution.The most frivolous among them will also become solemn when they refer to 1989 or 2009.Their fathers had different feelings, or they were Feuillants, royalists, or doctrinaires. It doesn't matter much. They are young, and the chaos that happened before them has nothing to do with them. It runs in their veins.They insist on incorruptible justice and absolute duty, without in-between colors. They are organized, have a preliminary understanding, and secretly pursue their ideals. Among this group of passionate and confident hearts there was a skeptic.How did he get here?Lianbi came.The skeptic's name was Grantaire, and he was accustomed to signing with the double letter "R."Grantaire is a man who doesn't allow himself to be credulous.He was also the one who learned the most of those students who studied in Paris, and he knew that the best coffee was at the Café Lembrin, and the best billiard tables were at the Café Voltaire, at the Hermitage in the Rue Maine. Wonderful puff pastry and wonderful girls, Mrs. Shag's has a boneless roast chicken, a good fish with green onion at the Cunnet's gate, and a good unknown wine at the battle gate.He knew what was good about everything; besides, he could kick his feet, kick his legs, dance a little, and was an accomplished stickman.Especially a big drunk.His appearance was so ugly that one of the most beautiful women who embroidered boots at that time, Irma Boissy, when she was angry with his ugly appearance, once made a judgment like this: "Grantaire is impossible. ’, but the smug Grantaire wasn’t put off by that.He always looked at all the women he saw with affection, as if he wanted to say to each of them: "I am willing..." and he always tried to convince his classmates that he was universally sought after. Civil rights, human rights, social contract, French Revolution, republic, democracy, humanity, civilization, religion, progress, all these words mean almost nothing to Grantaire.He smiled at all of this.Skepticism, that ulcer of the human intellect, had never left a complete concept in his mind.He lives in ridicule.This is what he often said: "Only one thing is sure: my glass is full." Loyalty to any side, whether it is a peer or a parent, whether it is a young Robespierre or a Lois Rolle, he laughed at them all.He often said: "These people are advanced even after death." Regarding the crucifix, he said: "This is a successful gallows." The young people were bored and kept singing: "I love girls, and I also like wine." The tune was "Long Live Henry IV". Besides, the skeptics have a kind of fanaticism.This mania is neither an idea, nor a dogma, nor an art, nor a science, but a man: Enjolras.To whom does this rambling skeptic lean toward among this group of steadfast men?To the most determined one.How did Enjolras control him?In terms of thought?no.From the aspect of character.This is a common phenomenon.It is as simple as the law of matching colors that a man who doubts everything depends on a man who doubts nothing.What we don't have often attracts us.No one loves sunlight more than a blind man.Nobody adores a snare drummer more than Shorty.A toad's eyes are always facing the sky, why?To watch the birds fly.Grantaire, with suspicion squirming in him, loves to see Enjolras' confidence fly.He needs Enjolras.This self-love, healthy, firm, upright, strong, and simple character often makes him reluctant to part, which he himself does not know and does not want to analyze clearly for himself.He instinctively envied his opposite.His feeble, resigned, fragmented, sickly deformed thoughts cling to Enjolras like a backbone.His spiritual pillar is inseparable from this strong man.By Enjolras' side, Grantaire is somewhat human.He himself is actually composed of two seemingly incompatible ingredients.He loves to be sarcastic, but also honest. He doesn't care about everything, but he also has interests.His spirit can live without faith, but his heart cannot live without friendship.This is a deep contradiction, because a feeling is also a belief.That's the way he is.Some people seem to be born to be the opposite, the reverse, and the reverse.Polydeuces, Patroclus, Nisus, Erdamidas, Ephisiron, Peshmea are such figures.They live only in dependence on another; their names are appendages, always written after the conjunction "and"; their existence is not their own, but the other side of another's fate.Grantaire was one of those people.He is the reverse of Enjolras. One could almost say: the combination begins with the letters.In alphabetical order, "O" and "P" are inseparable.You can read "O" and "P" according to your opinion, and you can read Orestes and Pyrades. Grantaire, the real satellite of Enjolras, inhabits the playground of these young people, he lives there, he feels comfortable only there, he follows them everywhere.His joy was watching the shadows of these people coming and going in the smell of wine.Seeing his high spirits, everyone tolerated him. Enjolras, a man of firm faith, despised such skeptics, and he, who lived soberly, despised such drunkards.He showed him only a little haughty pity.Grantaire couldn't do it even if he wanted to be Pylades.He was often bumped and severely reprimanded by Enjolras. After being expelled, he still came back. He said, Enjolras "is a beautiful marble statue"!