[351] He studies, as an important document, the journal of Louis XIV.’s digestion, and divides his reign into two periods—before and after the fistula. In the same way Francis I.’s reign is divided into the periods before and after the abscess. Conclusions of the following kind abound:—
“De toute l’ancienne monarchie, il ne reste à la France qu’un nom, Henri IV.; et deux chansons Gabrielle et Marlborough.”
[352] Pp. 119, 120, 121.
[353] Sbarbaro, e.g., in the midst of numberless absurdities, wrote: “The man who feels no hatred for the foul and unjust things which cumber our social life is the false phantom of a citizen, a eunuch in heart and mind” (Forche, 21).
“Parliamentary systems do not work well, since they do not allow of the best being at the top, and nonentities at the bottom” (Forche, 3). This, however, is borrowed from Machiavelli’s Decades.
“If you call me a malcontent,” he said to the Council of Public Instruction, “you do me honour: progress is due to rebels and malcontents. Christ Himself was a rebel and an agitator.”
[354] Revue politique et littéraire, 1888, No. 1.
[355] We have seen that a love of symbolism is one of the characteristics of monomaniacs.
[356] M. Jules Tellier has not inaptly called him, in Victor Hugo’s style, “l’homme-frisson.”
[357] Responsibility in Mental Disease, p. 47.