The things we do!

Not only are they excited, but the pitch of excitement must be
maintained, and, like the drunkard who, once stimulated, has
recourse again to strong waters, one would say that they carefully
try to expel the last remnants of calmness and common sense from
their brains. They delight in pompous phrases, in high-sounding
rhetoric, in declamatory sentimental strokes of eloquence: this is
the style of nearly all their speeches, and so strong is their
taste, they are not satisfied with the orations made amongst
themselves. Lally and Necker, having made "affecting and sublime"
speeches at the H?tel-de-Ville, the Assembly wish them to be
repeated before them:[11] this being the heart of France, it is
proper for it to answer to the noble emotions of all Frenchmen.
Let this heart throb on, and as strongly as possible, for that is
its office, and day by day it receives fresh impulses. Almost all
sittings begin with the reading of flattering addresses or of
threatening denunciations.


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