The exhibitionParis, March 20
th, 1867 – Group Desliens, medium Mr. Desliens
“The superficial observer who would cast his eyes on your world at this moment, without worrying too much about a few small spots scattered on its surface, and that seem destined to bring out the splendors of the whole, would say to himself, without a doubt, that humanity has never shown a happier physiognomy.
Gamache's wedding is celebrated everywhere. These are just parties, fun trains, adorned cities, and happy faces. All the great arteries of the globe bring to your narrow capital the diverse crowd, coming from all climates. The Chinese and the Persian greet the Russian and the German on your boulevards; Asia in cashmere shakes hand with Africa in turban; the new world and the old, young America and the citizens of the European world collide, elbow each other, converse in a tone of unalterable friendship.
So, is the world really invited to the feast of peace? Could the French Exhibition of 1867 be the long-awaited signal of universal solidarity? One would be tempted to believe it, if all hostilities were extinguished; if each one, thinking of industrial prosperity and the victory of intelligence over matter, quietly left the engines of death, the instruments of violence and force, sleeping at the bottom of their arsenals, as relics, good to satisfy the curiosity of visitors.
But are you there? Alas! No; The face grimaces under the smile, the eye threatens when the mouth compliments, and we cordially shake hands, at the very moment when each one is pondering the ruin of his neighbor. They laugh, sing, dance; but listen carefully, and you will hear the echo repeating those laughter and songs like sobs and cries of agony!
Joy is in the faces, but worry is in the hearts. They rejoice to be dizzy, and, if we think of tomorrow, we close our eyes so as not to see.
The world is in crisis, and commerce is wondering what it will do when the great hubbub of the Expo has passed. Everyone is thinking about the future, and we feel that at this moment we only live by pawning the future time.
What is missing to all these happy people? Aren’t they today what they were yesterday? Won’t they be tomorrow what they are today? No, the commercial, intellectual, and moral arc stretches more and more, the rope is tightened, the arrow will go off! Where will it take them? This is the secret of the instinctive fear that is reflected on many fronts! They don't see, they don't know, they foresee a don’t know what; a danger is in the air, and each one trembles, each one feels morally oppressed, as when a ready to break out storm acts on the nervous temperaments. Everyone is waiting, and what will happen? A disaster or a happy solution? Neither one nor the other, or rather the two results will coincide.
What is lacking to anxious populations, to hard-pressed intelligences, is the moral sense attacked, macerated, half destroyed by incredulity, positivism, and materialism. They believe in the nothingness, but they fear it; they feel at the threshold of this nothingness, but we tremble! ... The demolishers have done their work; the terrain is cleared. So, build quickly so that the current generation does not remain homeless! So far, the sky has remained starry, but a cloud appears on the horizon; quickly cover your hospital roofs; invite all the guests from the plains and the mountains. The hurricane will soon be striking with vigor, and then, woe to the incautious, confident in the certainty of the good weather. They will have the solution of their vague fears, and if they leave the struggle bruised, torn, defeated, they will only have themselves to blame, their refusal to accept the so generously offered hospitality.
So, hands on; always build as quickly as possible; welcome the traveler that comes to you, but also go and look around, and try to bring to you the one who goes away without knocking at your door, for God knows how much suffering he would be exposed to, before finding any shelter capable of protecting him from the scourge.
Moki.”
