Note 4 — I The Modern Perfecting of Political Passions
Richard Aldington translation
The great novelty is that to-day people accept the position that everything should be political, that they should proclaim it and take a pride in it. Otherwise it is perfectly obvious that men, shopkeepers, or poets, have not waited for the present time to try to get rid of a rival by political means. Remember how La Fontaine’s rivals kept him out of the Académie for ten years.