'I stumbled on the following in a work of Bulwer's published in /41 - it is curious. Speaking of France he says: "The vast masses of energy & life broken up by the great thaw of the imperial system, floating along the tide are terrible icebergs for the vessel of the state. Some think Napoleonism [he ought to say revolutionism - MS's comment] over - its effects are only begun [underlined by MS] Society is shattered from one end to the other, & I laught at the little rivers by which they think to keep it together.[end underlining] - the last is curious.' [MS does not close her quotation marks] [letter to Claire Clairmont]