“The influence and power of the press is only dawning,” said Finot.  “Journalism is in its infancy; it will grow.  In ten years’ time, everything will be brought into publicity.  The light of thought will be turned on all subjects, and——­”

“The blight of thought will be over it all,” corrected Blondet.

“Here is an apothegm,” cried Claude Vignon.

“Thought will make kings,” said Lousteau.

“And undo monarchs,” said the German.

“And therefore,” said Blondet, “if the press did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it forthwith.  But here we have it, and live by it.”

“You will die of it,” returned the German diplomatist.  “Can you not see that if you enlighten the masses, and raise them in the political scale, you make it all the harder for the individual to rise above their level?  Can you not see that if you sow the seeds of reasoning among the working-classes, you will reap revolt, and be the first to fall victims?  What do they smash in Paris when a riot begins?”

“The street-lamps!” said Nathan; “but we are too modest to fear for ourselves, we only run the risk of cracks.”

“As a nation, you have too much mental activity to allow any government to run its course without interference.  But for that, you would make the conquest of Europe a second time, and win with the pen all that you failed to keep with the sword.”

“Journalism is an evil,” said Claude Vignon.  “The evil may have its uses, but the present Government is resolved to put it down.  There will be a battle over it.  Who will give way?  That is the question.”

“The Government will give way,” said Blondet.  “I keep telling people that with all my might!  Intellectual power is the great power in France; and the press has more wit than all men of intellect put together, and the hypocrisy of Tartufe besides.”

“Blondet!  Blondet! you are going too far!” called Finot.  “Subscribers are present.”

“You are the proprietor of one of those poison shops; you have reason to be afraid; but I can laugh at the whole business, even if I live by it.”

“Blondet is right,” said Claude Vignon.  “Journalism, so far from being in the hands of a priesthood, came to be first a party weapon, and then a commercial speculation, carried on without conscience or scruple, like other commercial speculations.  Every newspaper, as Blondet says, is a shop to which people come for opinions of the right shade.  If there were a paper for hunchbacks, it would set forth plainly, morning and evening, in its columns, the beauty, the utility, and necessity of deformity.  A newspaper is not supposed to enlighten its readers, but to supply them with congenial opinions.  Give any newspaper time enough, and it will be base, hypocritical, shameless, and treacherous; the periodical press will be the death of ideas, systems, and individuals; nay, it will flourish upon their decay.  It will take