The things we do!

Add to these the
last sweep of the broom: under the Legislative Assembly the division
of all communal property, except woods: under the Convention, the
abolition of all literary societies, academies of science and of
literature, the confiscation of all their property, their libraries,
museums, and botanical gardens; the confiscation of all communal
possessions not previously divided; and the confiscation of all the
property of hospitals and other philanthropic establishments.[58] --
The abstract principle, proclaimed by the Constituent Assembly,
reveals, by degrees, its exterminating virtues. France now, owing
to it, contains nothing but dispersed, powerless, ephemeral
individuals, and confronting them, the State, the sole, the only
permanent body that has devoured all the others, a veritable
Colossus, alone erect in the midst of these insignificant dwarfs.
Substituted for the others, it is henceforth to perform their
duties, and spend the money well which they have expended badly.


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