Chapter 11
Volume 3: 3: Marius · Book 1: 1: Paris Atomised I
11: Ridicule and Reign
Chapter 11Visible text2 paragraphs
OF bounds and limits, Paris has none. No other city ever enjoyed that supreme control which sometimes derides those whom it reduces to submission. To please you, Athenians 1 exclaimed Alexander. Paris does more than lay down the law; it lays down the fashion; Paris does more than lay down the fashion; it lays down the routine. Paris may be stupid if it please; sometimes it allows itself this luxury; then, the whole universe is stupid with it. Upon this, Paris awakes, rubs its eyes, and says: "Am I stupid! " and bursts out laughing in the face of mankind. What a marvel is such a city! how strange a thing that all this mass of what is grand and what is ludicrous should be so harmonious, that all this majesty is not disturbed by all this parody, and that the same month can to-day blow the trump of the last judgment and to-morrow a penny whistle ; Paris possesses an all-commanding joviality.
Paris is always showing its teeth; when it is not scolding, it is laughing.