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diff --git a/old/66564-h/66564-h.htm b/old/66564-h/66564-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index e822f37..0000000 --- a/old/66564-h/66564-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7305 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Heart’s Domain, by Georges Duhamel—A Project Gutenberg eBook - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2,h3 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - font-weight: normal; clear: both; -} - -h1 {margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; } - -h2 {margin-top: 4em; } - -h3 {margin-top: 2em; } - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -.p1 {margin-top: 1em;} -.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} -.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} -.p6 {margin-top: 6em;} -.p6b {margin-bottom: 6em; } - -.half-title -{ - margin-top: 6em; - text-align: center; - font-size: 130%; - margin-bottom: 6em; -} - -.big1 {font-size: 110%; } -.big2 {font-size: 130%; } -.big3 {font-size: 140%; } - -.small1 {font-size: 90%; } - - -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - - -@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } - - -hr.r5 {width: 5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 47.5%; margin-right: 47.5%;} - - -div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} -h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} - -table.autotable { - margin-left: 30%; - margin-right: 30%; - width: 40%; -} - -@media handheld { -table.autotable { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; - width: 80%; -} - - } -table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } -table.autotable td, -table.autotable th { padding: 4px; } - -.tdl {text-align: left;} -.tdr {text-align: right;} -.tdc {text-align: center;} - -.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ - visibility: hidden; - position: absolute; - left: 92%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - font-style: normal; - font-weight: normal; - font-variant: normal; -} /* page numbers */ - - -.blockquot { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} - - - - - - - -/* Images */ - -img { - max-width: 100%; - height: auto; -} -img.w100 {width: 100%;} - - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; - page-break-inside: avoid; - max-width: 100%; -} - - -/* Poetry */ -.poetry-container {text-align: center;} -.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} -/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry in browsers */ -.poetry {display: inline-block;} - - -/* large inline blocks don't split well on paged devices */ -@media print { .poetry {display: block;} } -.x-ebookmaker .poetry {display: block;} - - -@media handheld { - -.poetry-container { - text-align: center; - margin-left: auto; - margin-right: auto; - } - - .pw25 {width: 25em;} - .pw20 {width: 20em;} - - .poetry {display: block; text-align: left;} - } - - -/* Transcriber's notes */ -.tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%;padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; - padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 4em; } - -/* Illustration classes */ -.illowp47 {width: 47%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp47 {width: 100%;} -.illowp76 {width: 76%;} -.x-ebookmaker .illowp76 {width: 100%;} - - </style> - </head> -<body> -<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Heart's Domain, by Georges Duhamel</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Heart's Domain</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Georges Duhamel</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Translator: Eleanor Stimson Brooks</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: October 18, 2021 [eBook #66564]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Andrés V. Galia and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART'S DOMAIN ***</div> - -<div class="figcenter illowp47" id="cover" style="max-width: 58.8125em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" /> -</div> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="tnote"> - - <p class="center p4 big1">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES</p> - - -<p>In the plain text version words in Italics are denoted by _underscores_.</p> - -<p>The book cover was modified by the Transcriber and has been added to -the public domain.</p> - -<p>A number of words in this book have both hyphenated and non-hyphenated -variants. For the words with both variants present the one more used -has been kept.</p> - -<p>Obvious punctuation and other printing errors have been corrected.</p> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="tb" /> -<div class="chapter"> -<h1>THE HEART’S DOMAIN</h1> -</div> - - -<p class="center p2 big3">BY <big>GEORGES DUHAMEL</big></p> -<p class="p2 center big1">Author of “<span class="smcap">Civilization, 1914-1917</span>,” etc.</p> - -<p class="center p2">TRANSLATED BY<br /> <big>ELEANOR STIMSON BROOKS</big></p> - -<div class="figcenter illowp76" id="ilo_tpage" style="max-width: 8.75em;"> - <img style="width: 8.75em;" class="w100" src="images/ilo_tpage.jpg" alt="tpage-ilo" /> -</div> - -<p class="p2 center">NEW YORK<br /> -<big>THE CENTURY CO.</big><br /> -1919</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</span></p> -</div> - - - -<p class="center p6"> -Copyright, 1919, by<br /> -<span class="smcap">The Century Co.</span></p> -<hr class="r5"/> -<p class="center p6b"><em>Published, September, 1919</em></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</span></p> -</div> - - - -<p class="center p6 p6b">TO<br /> -MY SON BERNARD</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" >PREFACE</h2> -</div> - - -<p>I am beginning a book with what sounds like a -very ambitious title.</p> - -<p>I wish to say at once that I have no qualifications -to discuss political, historical or economic matters. -I leave to the scholars who are versed in these redoubtable -questions the task of explaining, skilfully -and definitely, the great misery that has befallen our -time.</p> - -<p>I thus at the same time renounce most of the opportunities -and obligations of my title.</p> - -<p>But I wish, with all my heart, to pursue with a -few people of good will a friendly discussion the object -of which remains, in spite of all, the heart’s domain, -or the possession of the world.</p> - -<p>The possession of the world is not decided by guns. -It is the noble work of peace. It is not involved in -the struggle which is now rending society.</p> - -<p>Even so, men will find themselves engaged in an -undertaking that will threaten to overwhelm them -with suffering and despair.</p> - -<p>Fate has assigned to me during the war a place -and a task of such a character that misery has been -the only thing I have seen; it has been my study<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</span> -and my enemy every moment. I must be forgiven -for thinking of it with a persistence that is like an -obsession.</p> - -<p>The whole intelligence of the world is absorbed by -the enterprise and the necessities of the war; there -is little chance of rousing it now from this in favor -of the happiness of the race, in favor of that happiness -which is compromised for the future and destroyed -for the present. It is to the heart one must -address oneself. It is to all the generous hearts -that one must make one’s appeal.</p> - -<p>So, if I am spurred by an ambition, it is to beg -the world to seek once more whatever can lighten the -present and the future distress of mankind, to seek -the springs of interest that exist for the soul in a -life harassed with difficulties, perils and disillusionments, -to honor more than ever the faithful and incorruptible -resources of the inner life.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The inner life!</p> - -<p>It has never ceased to shine, a precious, quivering -flame, devoting all its ardor in a struggle against -the breath of these great events, resisting this -tempest which has had no parallel.</p> - -<p>It has never ceased to shine, but its shy and faithful -light trembles in a sort of crypt into which we -fear to venture.</p> - -<p>What has happened has seized upon us as upon<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</span> -its prey. During the first months of the war, during -the first years perhaps, all our physical and -moral energies were overwhelmed in this maelstrom. -How, indeed, could one refuse oneself to the appetite -of the monster? We did not even try to snatch -from him our hours of leisure, our dreams. We -simply abandoned such things, as we abandoned our -plans, our welfare, and the whole of our existence.</p> - -<p>You remember! It was a time when solitude -found us more shaken, more disarmed, than peril. -We reproached ourselves for distracting a single one -of our thoughts from the universal distress. We -gave ourselves day and night to this agonizing -world; and when our work was suspended, when the -wild beast unloosed its clutch, as if in play, and -we returned for a few minutes to ourselves, we did -not always dare to look the quivering inner flame -in the face. What it lighted up in us seemed at -times too foreign to our anxiety, or too filled with -limpid serenity. And so we returned to our wretchedness, -experiencing it to the point of intoxication, -to the point of despair.</p> - -<p>When I think of the year 1915, it seems to me -that I still hear all those noble comrades saying to -me with a sort of dejection: “I can’t think of anything -else! I can neither read, nor work, nor seek -to distract myself to any purpose. When I’m off -duty I think about these days, I think about them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</span> -unceasingly, till I feel seasick, till I feel dizzy. I’ve -just had two hours of liberty. Once upon a time I -should have given them to Pascal or to Tolstoy. -Today I have employed them in reading some documentary -works on the manufacture of torpedoes and -on European colonial methods. They are subjects -that will always be outside my line, subjects I shall -never be interested in. But how can I think of anything -else?”</p> - -<p>Perhaps it is not a question of thinking of anything -else. It is not a question of turning one’s -back on the time, but rather of looking it in the face, -calmly and collectedly.</p> - -<p>When the first great excitement had passed away, -those who had the wisdom and the courage to return -assiduously to themselves found their inner life ennobled, -augmented, enriched. For it does not cease -to labor on in the depths of us. It is at once ourselves -and something other than ourselves, better -than ourselves. Like certain of our organs which -are endowed with a marvelous independence and pursue -a vigilant activity in the midst of our agitations -and our sleep, the inner life comes to its fruitage -even though we are full of ingratitude and indifference -towards it. It is the faithful spouse who keeps -the home radiant, arranges every comfort and spins -at the wheel, behind the door, awaiting our return.</p> - -<p>And behold we are returning!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</span></p> - -<p>To be sure, the storm still roars on. It grows -greater, more furious, more unending. Never has it -seemed more complex, more grave, more difficult. -Peril has taken up its abode with us. Every sort of -opinion holds up its head and vehemently solicits -our belief.</p> - -<p>But we have found once more the key and the path -to the secret refuge. Nothing could turn us aside -now. Nothing could prevent us at certain hours -from plunging into solitude, there to find again the -equilibrium, the harmony and those moral riches -which we know, after the ruin of so many things, -are alone efficacious, alone durable.</p> - -<p>For long months now I have realized, watching -the men with whom I live, that they are waiting for -words of quietude, words of rest and love. They -are like parched soil at the end of a blazing summer: -they long to slake their thirst and grow green -again.</p> - -<p>In vain have destruction, disorder and death tried -to break up the sublime and familiar colloquy that -every being pursues with the better part of himself. -That colloquy revives, it begins again, in the very -midst of the battle, among the odors and the groans -of the hospital.</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, the daily work is done, well done; -duty is properly weighed and accomplished; the soul -simply is unwilling any longer to renounce its meditation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</span> -upon all that is profound, imperishable, and -immaterial in the present.</p> - -<p>Tell me that we are going to labor in concert once -more at the exploitation of our inner fortune. Tell -me that we are going to labor to save from shipwreck -that part of us which, in spite of all our errors, uncertainties, -crimes and disillusionments, remains -truly noble and worthy of eternity.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I am able to undertake this essay thanks to the -leisure moments the war has been willing to grant -me. It is not purely the fruit of solitary meditations. -I do not live alone: my chosen comrades surround -me; they share with me the confused space -of our dwelling; we share together all the thoughts -that fill this space.</p> - -<p>Friendship has accomplished the miracle of transforming -into a communion what, without it, would -have remained a promiscuity.</p> - -<p>I have a feeling that I am expressing the desires -and the thoughts of many men. Very soon, those -who are here will be going to sleep; I shall continue -my writing, but with the secret certitude of not being -alone in the task, of carrying with me their tacit -assent. I feel that I have been entrusted with a -sort of mandate.</p> - -<p>I have no library, no documents. But do we need -books in order to converse together of the things<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</span> -that form the very substance of our existence? -Does it not suffice to consult our souls? Do we need -any other guarantee than our devout desire in order -to lift an open hand and make, for all those who -await it in their solitude, the sign of concord and of -hope?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvii">[Pg xvii]</span></p> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xviii">[Pg xviii]</span></p> - -<p class="p4 big2 center">CONTENTS</p> -</div> - - - -<table class="autotable" summary="content"> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr"><small>CHAPTER</small></td> -<td class="tdl"></td> -<td class="tdc"><small>PAGE</small></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;">I</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Hope of Happiness</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2.5em"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;">II</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Poverty and Riches</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2.5em"><a href="#Page_21">21</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;">III</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Possession of Others</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2.5em"><a href="#Page_33">33</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;">IV</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">On Discovering the World</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2.5em"><a href="#Page_69">69</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;">V</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Lyrics of Life</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2.5em"><a href="#Page_94">94</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;">VI</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Sorrow and Renunciation</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2.5em"><a href="#Page_110">110</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;">VII</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Shelter of Life</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2.5em"><a href="#Page_126">126</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;">VIII</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Choice of the Graces</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2.5em"><a href="#Page_146">146</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;">IX</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Apostleship</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2.5em"><a href="#Page_160">160</a> </td> -</tr> - -<tr> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 1em;">X</td> -<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">On the Reign of the Heart</span></td> -<td class="tdr" style="padding-right: 2.5em"><a href="#Page_178">178</a> </td> -</tr> -</table> - - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xx">[Pg xx]</span></p> - -<p class="half-title">THE HEART’S DOMAIN</p> -</div> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</span></p> - -<p class="p2 center big2">THE HEART’S DOMAIN</p> -</div> - - - -<h2 class="nobreak" >I<br /> -THE HOPE OF HAPPINESS</h2> - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>It was necessary for me to pass middle age in -order to become convinced that happiness was -the object of my life, as it is the object of all humanity, -as it is the object of the whole world of living -things.</p> - -<p>At first sight, that statement seems self-evident. -And yet many a time have I questioned my friends, -my relatives, my chance companions on this subject -and I have received the most contradictory replies.</p> - -<p>Many seemed taken unawares and, overwhelmed -with their various burdens, would not trouble to seek -an object: they were in pursuit of happiness without -naming it. Others, excited by the play of argument, -acknowledged as the object of life all sorts of -states or manners of being which are nothing but -steps toward happiness, means good or bad of seeking -it, such as movement, stoical indifference, or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</span> -prayer. Others confused the end with the object -and named death. Still others, maddened by their -misery, gave it as their bitter conclusion that unhappiness -is the actual destiny of man, and these confused -the obstacle with the aim. Finally, there were -some who gave to happiness names dictated by their -aspirations, their culture, their accustomed manner -of using words, and called it God, or eternal life, -or the salvation of the soul.</p> - -<p>As for me, in spite of all, I am sure that happiness -is the object of life. This certitude has come to me -altogether from within, not from outside events, and -not from the spectacle of other men. Like all the -certitudes of the inner life, it is obstinate and even -aggressive. All objections seem simply made to -fortify it. It dominates them all. I have not been -able even to imagine a new certitude that could invalidate -or replace this one.</p> - -<p>Upon reflection, the path and the end are identical. -Happiness is not only the aim, the reason of life, -it is its means, its expression, its essence. It is life -itself.</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>One might well doubt this. The whole of humanity -at this moment utters one despairing, heart-rending -cry. It bellows like a wounded beast of burden, -it simply does not understand its wound.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</span></p> - -<p>All convictions and all certitudes are at one another’s -throats. How can we recognize them, with -that lost look they have, that blood that soils and -disfigures them? In the hurricane, opinions, uprooted, -have lost their soil and their sap. They -drift like autumn thistles, dry thistles that yet have -power to tear the skin. Men no longer know anything -but their insurmountable suffering, a suffering -that has no limit and seems to be without reason. -They groan and desire nothing but to be alleviated. -Will a century of pious tenderness suffice to bathe, -drain, close the vast wound?</p> - -<p>Without delay, O streaming wound, your living -flesh must be stanched and bathed. From now on, -no matter how long you bleed, you must be anointed -and protected, and if you are opened up again ten -times, ten times must you be anointed anew and -covered once more.</p> - -<p>Yet, do not doubt it, humanity even in this terrible -hour seeks for nothing but its own happiness. -It rushes forward, by instinct, like a herd that smells -the salt-lick and the spring. But it will suffocate -rather than not enjoy everything together and at -once.</p> - -<p>Happiness?</p> - -<p>God! who has given it this painful and ridiculous -idea? What were they about, the priests, the -scientists, and the people who write the books?<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span> -What has been taught the children of men that they -could have been made to believe that war brings happiness -to anyone? Let them declare themselves, -those who have assured the poor in spirit that their -happiness depends upon the possession of a province, -an iron-mine, or a foaming arm of the sea between -two distant continents!</p> - -<p>It is thus that they have all set out for the conquest -of happiness, since that is destiny, and there -has been placed in their hands precisely what was -certain to destroy happiness forever.</p> - -<p>And yet, if you will bear with me, we need not -lose all hope. So long as there is a single wall-flower -to tremble in the coming Aprils over the ruins of the -world, let us repeat from the depths of our hearts: -“Happiness, you are truly my end and the reason -for my being, I know it through my own tears.”</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>I went, lately, to a laboratory, in the heart of a -wilderness of glass and porcelain, haunted with inhuman -odors. A friend dwelt there. I saw a great -crystal cask full of distilled water; the sunlight quivered -through it freely and majestically. There, I -thought, is the desert. That water contained nothing, -it was unfitted for life, it was as empty as a dead -world.</p> - -<p>But then we scratched the bottom of the cask and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</span> -looked at it with the microscope. Little round, -green algæ were growing in that desert. A current -of air had carried the germs, and they had increased -and multiplied. There where there was nothing to -seize upon, they had yet found something. The -taste of barren glass, a few stray grains of dust, -that soulless water, that sunlight, they had asked for -nothing more in order to subsist and work out their -humble joy.</p> - -<p>I thought of this virtue of life, this perseverance, -as of a hymn to happiness, a silent hymn prevailing -over the roars of the conquest.</p> - -<p>Nothing discourages life except, perhaps, the excess -of itself.</p> - -<p>If Europe, too rich and too beautiful, is to be -henceforth the vessel of all the sorrows, it is because -happiness has assumed an unclean mask: the mask -of pleasure. For pleasure is not joy.</p> - -<p>Patience! The whole world has not been poisoned.</p> - -<p>I know of mosses that succeed in living upon acids. -The antiseptics, whose property it is to destroy living -things, are at times invaded by these obstinate -fungi which encamp there, acclimatize themselves and -modestly fulfil their destiny.</p> - -<p>One must have confidence in happiness. One must -have more confidence than ever, for never was happiness -more greatly lacking to the mass of men. So<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</span> -cruelly is the world astray, so immensely, so evidently, -too, that we cannot wait for the consummation -to denounce it and reprove it.</p> - -<p>Like those algæ, those mosses, those laborious -lichens that attach to the very ruins themselves their -infinite need of happiness, let us seek our joy in the -distress of the present and make it open for us, like -a plant beaten by the winds, in the desert of a blasted -world.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>You must understand that this concerns happiness -and not pleasure, or well-being, or enjoyment, or the -delight of the senses.</p> - -<p>All cultivated people have created different words -to designate these different things. All have committed -their moralists to the task of preserving -simple souls from a confusion which our instincts -favor.</p> - -<p>Delight of the senses, you who are the eternally unsatisfactory, -is it true, intangible one, that you will -always deceive us and that we shall always seek for -happiness through you?</p> - -<p>What seductiveness is not yours, O you who smile -with the lips of love, O mysterious phantom of joy? -How you lure us and enchain us! Well you know -how to array yourself, at times, in the appearance -of a sacred mission, a religious duty!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</span></p> - -<p>No, you are not happiness, divine though you are! -To live without you is a bitter misfortune, but you -are not happiness!</p> - -<p>Why does happiness command us to sacrifice you -often, to mistrust you always?</p> - -<p>There is no happiness without harmony; you know -this very well, you who are delicious disorder itself, -death, laughter, strife.</p> - -<p>Happiness is our homeland. You are only the -burning country we long for, the tropical isle where -our dreams exile themselves, never to return.</p> - -<p>Happiness is our true kingdom. Delight of the -senses, let your slaves hymn your praise.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>During the summer of 1916 I found among the -meadows of the Marne a flower that had three odors. -It is a very common flower in France: it adorns a -low and spiny plant which the peasants call “<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">arrête-bœuf</i>.” -Toward midday, at the hour when the sun -exasperates all its creatures, this flower exhales three -different odors: the first is soft, fresh and resembles -the perfume of the sweet pea; the second is sharp -and makes one think of phosphor irritant, of a -flame; the third is the secret breath of love. This -miraculous flower really has all three of these odors -at once, but we perceive them more easily one at a -time because we are not worthy of all this wealth.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</span></p> - -<p>This little discovery descended upon my weary -head like a benediction. At that time we were leaving -the miseries of Verdun behind and were just -on the point of plunging into those of the Somme. -The intermediate rest depressed us and enervated -us by turns. In the walks across the fields which we -took with our comrades, I grew accustomed every -day to gather a root of <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">arrête-bœuf</i> and offer it, as -a gift, to those who accompanied me, so that they -might share my discovery.</p> - -<p>Some of them, anxious about the world and their -own fortune, took pleasure in this modest marvel. -They breathed in with these perfumes the inexhaustible -variety of the lavish universe. They distinguished -and recognized, smilingly, the three odors of -this one being. They honored these three ambassadors -whom a people of unknown virtues had assigned -to them. They interpreted as a revelation -the little signs of the latent opulence which challenges -and disdains the majority of bewildered men.</p> - -<p>But others remained insensible to this delicate -prayer, and these I thought of with chagrin as of -men who had no care for the welfare of their own -souls.</p> - -<p>I know quite well you will say, “There is no relation -between this flower and the welfare of the soul.” -But this relation does exist, emphatically and -definitely. Truth shines out of every merest trifle<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span> -that goes to make up the world. We must fasten -our eyes ardently upon it, as if it were a light shining -through the branches, and march forward.</p> - -<p>I am sure, we are all sure, that happiness is the -very reason for our existence. Let it be added at -once that happiness is founded upon possession, that -is to say, upon the perfect and profound understanding -of something.</p> - -<p>For this reason men who have a high conception -of happiness aspire to the complete and definite -knowledge of an absolute, a perfection which they -name God. The desire for eternal life is a boundless -need of possession.</p> - -<p>Equally noble is the passionate desire of certain -men to understand, to possess themselves, to have -such an exact and merciless conception of their -moral and physical nature as will give them some -sort of mastery over it.</p> - -<p>It is indeed a beautiful destiny to pursue the -understanding of the external world with the -weapons and the arguments of a science that is not -the slave of conquest. Men who achieve this may -indeed be called just.</p> - -<p>Others wish to possess a house, a field, a pair of -earrings, an automobile. For them possession is not -understanding, it is above all else an exclusive and -almost solitary enjoyment. They deceive themselves -about happiness and about possession. They<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> -deceive themselves to the actual point of war, massacre -and destruction.</p> - -<p>If we wish it, we may possess the whole universe, -and it is in this possession that we shall find the salvation -of our souls. We may possess, for example, -that unknown something which walks by the road-side, -the color of the forest of pointed firs that rises -sharply against the southern horizon, the thoughts -of Beethoven, our dreams by night, the conception -of space, our memories, our future, the odor and the -weight of objects, our grief at this moment and -thousands and thousands of other things besides.</p> - -<p>Is my soul immortal? Alas! how can I still linger -in this ancient, ingenuous hope? There are millions -who, like me, can no longer give reasonable credence -to such an impossible happiness.</p> - -<p>But does my soul exist? Every thought bears -witness that it does, and this life of ours too, and the -inexplicable life that is all about us.</p> - -<p>When Christians speak of the salvation of the -soul, they are thinking of all sorts of assurances and -precautions in regard to that future life which remains -the greatest charm of religion and at the same -time its most wonderful weapon.</p> - -<p>We can give a humbler but more immediate meaning -to this expression.</p> - -<p>First of all, not to be ignorant of our own souls!</p> - -<p>To think about the soul, to think about it at least<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> -once in the confusion of every crowded day, is indeed -the beginning of salvation.</p> - -<p>To think with perseverance and respect of the -soul, to enrich it unceasingly, that will be our -sanctity.</p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>We have all known those men who, at the first -break of day, while they are still half awake and -barely rested, fling themselves into the stress of business. -They pass all day from one man to another -in a sort of blind, buzzing frenzy. They are ceaselessly -reaching out to take, to appropriate for themselves. -If a moment of solitude offers itself, they -pull note-books out of their pockets and begin figuring. -Between whiles they eat, drink and seek a sort -of sleep that is more arid than death. Looking at -these unfortunates, who are often men of great importance, -one would imagine their souls were like decrepit -poor relations, relegated to some corner of -their personality, with which they never concern -themselves.</p> - -<p>I was once returning from the country on a train -with a young surgeon on whom that cruel fortune -which we call success was beginning to smile. I can -still see him, breathless and almost stupefied, on the -seat facing me. He had been talking to me of his -work, of how he spent his time, with a restless excitement<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> -which the noise of the train hammered and -disjointed and gave a sort of rhythm to. Evening -was falling. It gave me pleasure to look at the -young poplars in the valley beside the track, their -foliage and slender trunks transfigured by the sunset. -My friend looked at them also, and suddenly -he murmured: “It’s true! I’m no longer interested -in those things, I no longer pay attention -to anything.” Through the fatigue and anxiety of -his affairs, through the jingling calculation of his -profits, he suddenly caught a glimpse of his error, -of his real poverty. His repudiated soul stirred in -the depths of his being as the infant stirs in its -mother’s womb.</p> - -<p>It is constantly awakening in this way and timidly -reclaiming its rights. Often, an unexpected word -strikes us, a word that comes from it and reveals it. -I have as a work-fellow a quiet, studious young man -who takes life “seriously,” that is to say, in such a -fashion that he gets himself into a fine state of mind -and will die, perhaps, without having known, without -having saved, the soul with which he is charged. -At the beginning of the month of June of this year -1918, I found myself hard at work during one of -those overwhelming afternoons that seem, on our -barren Champagne, like a white furnace, a glistening -desert. There were many wounded and the greater -part had been uncared for for several days; the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> -barrack that served us as an operating-hall was -overcrowded; our task was a tragic one; the demon -of war had imprisoned us under his knee. We felt -crushed, exasperated, swamped in these immediate -realities. Between two wounded men, as I was soaping -my gloves, I saw my young comrade looking -far away through a little window and his gaze was -suddenly bathed with calm and peace. “What are -you looking at?” I said to him. “Oh! nothing,” he -replied; “only I’m resting myself on that little tuft -of verdure down there: it refreshes me so much.”</p> - - -<h3>VII</h3> - -<p>It seems childish and paradoxical to oppose to all -the concrete and formidable realities that are considered -as the hereditary wealth of mankind an almost -purely ideal world of joys that have no price, that -remain outside all our bargainings, that are unstable, -often fugitive, and always relative in appearance, -whenever we put them to the test. Yet they -alone are absolute, they alone are true. Where they -are lacking there may be a place for amusement, -there is no place for true happiness. They alone -are capable of assuring the salvation of the soul. -We ought to labor passionately to find them, to -amass them as the veritable treasures of humanity.</p> - -<p>The future we are permitted to glimpse seems the -very negation of happiness and the ruin of the soul.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span></p> - -<p>If this is true, we must examine it with open minds -and then, with all our strength, refuse it.</p> - -<p>Just this moment, when the struggle for mastery -goes on, to the great peril of the soul, among the -peoples, just this moment I choose for saying: -“Let us think of the salvation of our souls.” And -this salvation is not a matter of the future but of -the present hour. Let us recognize the existence -of the soul; it is thus that we shall save it. Let us -give it the freedom of the city in a world where everything -conspires to silence or destroy it. If it is true -that this withdraws us from that struggle for existence, -the clamor of which assails our ears, well, even -so, I believe it is better to die than to remain in a -universe from which the soul is banished. But we -shall have occasion to speak more than once of this.</p> - -<p>Let us not forget that happiness is our one aim. -Happiness is, above all, a thing of the spirit, and we -shall only deserve it at the price of the honors we -render to the noblest part of our being.</p> - - -<h3>VIII</h3> - -<p>There are people who have said to me, “My happiness -lies in this very hurly-burly, this brutish labor, -this frantic agitation which you spurn. Outside -this turmoil of business and society, I am bored. I -need it. I need it in order to divert my thoughts.”</p> - -<p>No doubt! No doubt! But what have you done<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> -with your life that it has become necessary to divert -your thoughts? What have you made of your past, -what do you hope from your future when this alcohol, -this opium, has become necessary to you?</p> - -<p>You must understand me, there is no question, if -you are built as an athlete, of letting your muscles -deteriorate. There is no question, if you have a -great thirst for controversy, a natural aptitude for -struggle, of letting that thirst go unsatisfied, that -aptitude uncultivated. The question is simply one -of harmoniously employing all these fine gifts, of enriching -yourself with those real treasures the universe -bestows on those who wish to take them, and -not of wearing out your radiant strength in the -labors of a street-porter, a galley-slave or an executioner.</p> - -<p>Here is a man who says to me: “My happiness! -My happiness! But it consists in never thinking of -my soul.” What a sad thing! And how gravely -one must have offended others and one’s own self to -have reached that point!</p> - -<p>For where shall he who loves torment, passionate -restlessness, uncertainty, and remorse discover these -terrible blessings if it is not in the depths of his own -hateful ego?</p> - - -<h3>IX</h3> - -<p>If anyone tells you something strange about the -world, something you have never heard before, do<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> -not laugh but listen attentively; make him repeat it, -make him explain it: no doubt there is something -there worth taking hold of.</p> - -<p>The cult of the soul is a perpetual discovery of itself -and the universe which it reflects. The purest -happiness is not a stable and final frame of mind, -it is an equilibrium produced by an incessant compromise -which has to be adroitly reëstablished; it is -the reward of a constant activity; it increases in proportion -to the daily corrections one brings to it.</p> - -<p>One must not cling obstinately to one’s own interpretations -of the world but unceasingly renew the -flowers on the altar.</p> - -<p>In quite another order of ideas I think of those -old-fashioned manufacturers who are immovably set -against trying any of the new machines and perish in -their stubbornness. That is nothing but a comparison: -to justify the machine folly is quite the -opposite of my desire. I simply wish to show that -routine affects equally the things of the mind and of -the heart, that it is a very formidable thing.</p> - -<p>Kipling, I believe, tells the story of a Hindu -colony that was decimated by famine. The poor -folk let themselves die of hunger without touching -the wheat that had been brought for them, because -they had been used to eating millet.</p> - -<p>If the sacred lamp of happiness some day comes -to lack the ritual oil, we shall not let it go out; we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> -shall surely find something with which to feed it, -something that will serve for light and heat.</p> - - -<h3>X</h3> - -<p>The will to happiness attains its perfection in the -mature man. With adolescence it passes through a -redoubtable crisis.</p> - -<p>Nietzsche says: “There is less melancholy in the -mature man than in the young man.” It is true.</p> - -<p>Very young people cultivate sadness as something -noble. They do not readily forgive themselves for -not being always sad. They have discovered the -mysterious isle of melancholy and do not wish to -escape from it again. They love everything about -that black magician and his attitudes and his tears -and his nostalgia and his romantic beauty. They -have a fierce disdain for vulgar pleasures and take -refuge in sadness because they do not yet know the -splendor and majesty of joy.</p> - -<p>But in their own fashion, which is full of disdain, -reserve and ingenuous complexity, they do not any -the less seek for happiness.</p> - -<p>With age happiness appears as truly the sole, -serene study of man. As he rests upon the moral -possession of the world, he believes that with time and -experience he can remain insensible to the wearing -out of his bodily organs.</p> - -<p>He who knows how to be happy and to win forgiveness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> -for his happiness, how enviable he is!—the -only true model among those that are wise.</p> - -<p>It is now, just now, that these things ought to be -said, in the hour when our old continent bleeds in -every member, in the hour when our future seems -blotted out by the menace of every sort of servitude -and of a hopeless labor that will know neither -measure nor redemption.</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" >II<br /> -POVERTY AND RICHES</h2> -</div> - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>The Christian doctrine, which has all the -beauties, has all the audacities too. It has -endeavored to make the sublime and daring notion -prevail among the mass of men that salvation is reserved -for the poor. What a magnificent thing! -And if this religion of poverty has degenerated in the -course of the centuries, with what consolation has it -not bathed those thrice-happy souls whom an unbroken -faith guides through misery and humiliation!</p> - -<p>But there has never been a religion which has been -able to found itself upon renunciation without compensation. -Is he poor, this man who consents to go -unclad, roofless, unfed, up to the day when there will -be showered upon him all the riches of the kingdom of -God? Has he no thought of a supreme gift, of a -magnificent possession, the man to whom his master, -in person, has given the command: “Lay up your -treasures in heaven, where they will not be lost”?</p> - -<p>He does not exist, the hopeless being who does not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span> -hunger for some treasure, even if it is an imaginary -one, even an unreal one, even one that is lost in a bewildering -future.</p> - -<p>In what an abyss of poverty should we groan if our -kingdom were not of this world and were nowhere -outside the world, either?</p> - -<p>And now a generation of men has come that no -longer believes in the supernatural felicities of the -future life and seems no longer to have anything to -hope from a world consumed by hatred and given over -inevitably, for long years, to confusion, destitution, -egotistical passions.</p> - -<p>In truth, the programmes of the social factions -have no consolation for us, there is nothing in them -that speaks of love and the true blessings; all these -monuments of eloquence bring us back to hatred and -anguish.</p> - -<p>The most generous of them only give us glimpses -of new struggles, new sheddings of blood, when our -age is drunk with crime and fatigue. To whichever -side the individual turns he finds himself crushed, -scoffed at, sacrificed to insatiable, hostile gods.</p> - -<p>A few years ago Maeterlinck wrote: “Up to the -present men have left one religion to enter another; -but when we abandon ours, it is not to go anywhere. -That is a new phenomenon, with unknown consequences, -in the midst of which we live.”</p> - -<p>Having quoted these words, I hasten to add that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> -the war is no particular consequence of this moral -state of the world. The question of religion is -not involved at all. The priests are quite ready to -abuse these easy oppositions in order to obtain arguments -in favor of their cause. But they know well -enough, alas! that if the teaching of Christ stigmatizes -wars, the religions have only contributed to -multiply and aggravate them. They know very well -that, in the conflict that now divides the earth, the -religions have shown themselves enslaved to the -states. No one has wished to take up the wallet and -staff of the dead Tolstoy.</p> - -<p>Humanity seems poorer and more truly disinherited -than ever. Its kingdom is in itself and in -everything that surrounds it; but it has sold it for -a morsel of bread. And how can one reproach it for -this? It is very hungry and its heart is not open to -beauty.</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>We shall seek together the materials of our happiness. -Together we shall pile up all those marvelous -little things that must constitute our patrimony, our -wealth.</p> - -<p>We shall have great misfortunes and we shall often -be bitterly deceived. It is because the war has succeeded -in depriving the simplest and the most sacred -things of the light of eternity. That is not the least -consequence of the catastrophe. We must make a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> -painful effort to recover that light and clear it of its -blemishes. Silence, solitude, the sky, the vestiture of -the earth, all the riches of the poor have been sullied -as if forever. The works of art have been mutilated. -They have taken refuge under the earth where they -seem to veil their faces.</p> - -<p>We ought to seek and gather together the debris -so that we can take up and love in secret every day -the fragments of our liberties.</p> - -<p>We ought to think unceasingly of that “mean -landscape” of which Charles Vildrac has spoken in -one of his most beautiful poems. It is an unfruitful -landscape, despoiled, denatured by the sad labor of -men, and apparently worn out;—</p> - - -<div class="poetry-container pw25"> -<div class="poetry"> -<p class="p1">But even so you found, if you sought there,<br /> -One happy spot where the grass grew rich,<br /> -Even so you heard, if you listened,<br /> -The whisper of leaves<br /> -And the birds pursuing one another.</p> - -<p class="p1">And if you had enough love,<br /> -You could even ask of the wind<br /> -Perfumes and music ...</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="p1">We shall have enough love! That shall be the -principle and source of our wealth.</p> - -<p>And so we shall not have a whole life of poverty. -When love, that is to say, grace, abandons us, we -shall perhaps know hours of poverty. That will help -us all the better to understand our hours of opulence, -and all the better cherish them.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span></p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>If you wish, we can divide our task, enumerate the -coffers in which we are to pile our treasures.</p> - -<p>First of all, let us stop over a word. We have -said: to possess is to know. The definition may -seem to you arbitrary. On the chance of this I open -my little pocket dictionary, which is the whole library -I have as a soldier, and read: “To possess: to have -for oneself, in one’s power, to know to the bottom.” -Let us accept that. We shall see, page by page, if -it is possible for us to satisfy these naïve, direct definitions.</p> - -<p>What is most certain to attract our glance, when -we look about us, is the world of men, our fellow-creatures. -Their figures are certainly the most affecting -spectacle that can be offered us. Their acts -undoubtedly constitute, owing to a natural inclination -and an indestructible solidarity, the chief object -of our curiosity. Good! We shall possess them -first of all. We shall possess this inexhaustible fund -of other people.</p> - -<p>We shall feel no shame then in contemplating, with -a noble desire, whatever strikes our senses, the animals, -that is to say, the plants, the material universe -of stones and waters, the sky and even the populous -stars. These, too, ought to be well worth possessing!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p> - -<p>Already our wealth seems immense. Our ambition -is still greater: we must possess our dreams. But -have not illustrious men made more beautiful dreams -than ours? Yes, and these men are called Shakespeare, -Dante, Rembrandt, Goethe, Hugo, Rodin; -there are a hundred of them, even more; their works -form the royal crown of humanity. We shall possess -that crown. It is for us it was forged, for us it was -bejewelled with immortal joys.</p> - -<p>It would be vain to extend our possession only into -space. It overruns time: we possess the past, that is -to say, our memories, and the future in our hopes.</p> - -<p>And then we also possess, and in the strictest sense -of all, our sorrows, our griefs, our despair, if that -supreme and terrible treasure is reserved for us.</p> - -<p>Finally, there will be times when we possess nothing -but an idea, but this may perhaps be the idea of -the absolute or the infinite. If it is given us to possess -God, then, no doubt, nothing else will be necessary -to us.</p> - -<p>Every time that we possess the world purely we -shall find that we have touched an almost unhoped for -happiness, for it is always being offered to us and -we do not think of it: we shall possess ourselves.</p> - -<p>We shall share all our riches with our companions: -that shall be our apostolate. And we shall manage -in some way to resist the seductions or the commands -of a society that is going to ruin, a society that is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> -even more unhappy and abused than corrupt. If, in -consequence, we are permitted to glimpse, even if only -for the space of a minute, a little more happiness -about us, a little more happiness than there is at -present, we shall at last be so happy as to accept -death with joy.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>The greatest of all joys is to give happiness, and -those who do not know it have everything to learn -about life. The annals of humanity abound with -illustrious deeds aptly proving that generosity enriches -first of all those who practise it.</p> - -<p>Not to mention any celebrated instance, I shall tell -you one simple little tale. It is of the truth I live on, -my daily bread.</p> - -<p>Just now, not far from me, there is a young -English soldier from the neighborhood of York who is -so severely wounded in the lower part of the stomach -that the natural functions of the body have been -completely upset and he has been reduced to a state -of terrible suffering.</p> - -<p>And yet, when I went to see him this morning, this -boy gave me an extraordinary smile, his very first, a -smile full of delicacy and hope, a smile of resurrection.</p> - -<p>Presently I learned the cause of this great joy. -The dying man pulled from under his pillow a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> -cigarette he had hidden there, which he had secretly -saved for me and now gave me.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>There are many who preach an unpretentious life -and the sweetness of possessing a little garden. The -most magnificent of gardens is insignificant compared -with this world in which nothing is refused us. Accepting -the little garden we should have the air of -those dispossessed kings who lose an empire to be -ironically dowered with a small island.</p> - -<p>If we find it pleasant to employ our muscles in digging -the earth, there are a thousand spots where we -can easily practise this wholesome and fruitful exercise. -But we shall never really possess a single clod -of earth because a legal deed has declared that it -belongs exclusively to us. The world itself! Our -love demands the whole world; the rocks, the clouds, -the great trees along the highway, the darting flight -of birds, receding into the evening, the rustling verdure -high above that wall that vainly strives to shut -in the private property of someone else, the shining -glory of those flowers we glimpse through the iron -railings of a park, and even that very wall and railing -themselves.</p> - -<p>According to the stretch of our wings, the scope of -our desires, we shall possess whatever our hands touch -with ardor and respect, whatever delights our eyes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> -from the summits of mountains, whatever our -thoughts bring back from their travels through legendary -lands.</p> - -<p>To possess the world is purely a question of the -intensity of our understanding of it. One does not -possess things on their surfaces but in their depths; -but the spirit alone can penetrate into the depths, -and for the spirit there is no barrier.</p> - -<p>Many men to whom the law allows the gross, official -possession of a statue, a gem, a beautiful horse or a -province wear themselves out fulfilling a rôle to which -no human being has received a call. Every moment -they perceive with bitterness that men who have no -legal title whatever to these material goods draw -from them a delight that is superior to the enjoyment -they themselves get from them as absolute owners. -They often find, in this way, that a friend appreciates -their beautiful pictures better than they do, that a -groom is a better judge of their own stables, that a -passer-by draws out of “their landscape” a purer -joy than theirs and more original ideas. They take -their revenge by obstinately confusing the usage of a -thing with its possession.</p> - -<p>Jesus said that the rich man renounced the kingdom -of God. He renounces many other things as -well. For if he shuts himself up within his proud -walls, he abandons the marvelous universe for a small -fragment of it; and if he is actually curious about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> -the universe, if he appreciates its significance, how -can he consent without guilt to hide a portion of it -away from the contemplation of others?</p> - -<p>In order to express the gross and exclusive possession -of things society has invented various words and -phrases that betray the weak efforts of men to appropriate -for themselves, in spite of everything, in spite -of the laws of love, the riches that remain the prerogative -of all. They speak, for example, of “disposing -of a piece of property,” which means having it -subject to our pleasure, being able to do as we choose -with it. The sacrilegious vanity of this view of the -world gives the possessor, as his supreme right, the -power to destroy his own treasure. He could not, -indeed, have a greater right than that. But what -sort of desperate possession is it, I ask, that considers -the destruction of the object possessed as the supreme -manifestation of power?</p> - -<p>The world has long known and still knows slavery. -Lords and masters claimed the extravagant right of -disposing of other human beings. They all insisted, -as a mark of authority, on their right of dealing -death to their slaves. But truly, what was the power -of these despots compared with the deep, sensitive, -voluntary bond that united Plato to Socrates, or -John to Christ?</p> - -<p>Epictetus suffered at the hands of Epaphroditus. -For all that, Epaphroditus was not able to prevent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> -his slave from reigning, through his thought, over -the centuries. Epaphroditus’ right of possession -seems to us ridiculous and shameful. Who can fairly -envy him when so many centuries have passed judgement -on him?</p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>Every philosophy has given magnificent expression -to these immortal truths. What can we add to the -words of Epictetus, of Marcus Aurelius, of Christ in -regard to the vanity of those riches which alone -society admits to be of value?</p> - -<p>But the poets have said to us, “Do not abandon -the world, for it abounds in pure and truly divine -joys that will be lost if you do not harvest them!”</p> - -<p>The road that ought to be sweet for us to follow -crosses now that of the Christians, now that of the -Stoics. We may stop now at the Garden of Olives, -now at the threshold of that small house without a -door, without furnishings, where the master of Arrien -used to live.</p> - -<p>Our road will lead us even more often through wild, -solitary places, or to the pillow of some man who -sleeps in the earth, or to the smiling dwelling of some -humble friend, or again into the melodious shadow -where the souls of Beethoven and Johann Sebastian -Bach forever dwell.</p> - -<p>We shall not struggle with the mass of deluded man<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> -to possess the known, so long as the unknown remains -without a master. We shall give up crude material -possession in order to dream all the better of spiritual -possession.</p> - -<p>No, we cannot any longer renounce our kingdom -when it calls to us, when for us it sings, hosanna!</p> - -<p>And those of us who already have their place in the -kingdom of heaven must not hesitate to demand their -share of this world also; for the world has been given -to all men so that each man, with the help of all the -rest, may possess the whole of it.</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" >III<br /> -THE POSSESSION OF OTHERS</h2> -</div> - - - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>In the exile of the war I have fifteen comrades, and -we live side by side like seamen on the deck of a -ship. Everything brings us together: work, sleep, -play, food and danger. Even our quarrels reunite -us, for, in order to quarrel well, you have to know -your man: between strangers disputes have little -savor.</p> - -<p>I never chose these men for my companions, as I -once thought I had a right to do. They have been -given to me like a handful of fruit of which some is -juicy and some green. They have been taken at random, -as if by a drag of that net which respects nothing, -from the swarming species of man. Thanks, -therefore, to the blind and divine world which has -thrown the net into the flood!</p> - -<p>They are my treasure, my study, and my daily -task. They are my purpose, my horizon, my torment, -and my recompense.</p> - -<p>Although far from my own people, far from those<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> -with whom I have carried on my life, I could not feel -myself destitute, abandoned; the world is not empty -for me since I have these fifteen men to manage, this -cherished problem to ponder, this soil to work over, -this vintage for the winepress.</p> - -<p>I accept the gift, the restless opulence, the fifteen -glances that open on fifteen different heavens where -there shine neither the same seasons nor the same -stars, those fifteen proud, vindictive souls whom I -must win over and subdue like wild horses.</p> - -<p>To be sure, a few of these men are frank, level in -temperament, as plain to the eye as a smooth pebble -on the beach; one touches them, holds them, grasps -them in a moment like a big piece of silver in the hollow -of the hand. But so many others are changeable, -furtive, so many others are rough like ore in -which only the fissures glisten and betray the inner -nobility.</p> - -<p>The more unresponsive and secretive they seem, -without any obvious beauty, the more resolved I find -I am to look upon them as a treasure, to search -through them as if they were a soil that is full of -wealth.</p> - -<p>There are some of them that I love, there are some -whom I think that I do not love. What does it matter! -The interest I devote to them is not in the -least dependent on the throbs of my heart. That one -who never speaks and conceals, under his obstinate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span> -forehead, two little eyes of green glass,—certainly -he does not naturally arouse my affection. Nevertheless, -how different is the attention with which I -regard him from the curiosity of a scientist watching -the stirrings of fish in an aquarium! It makes me -think, that attention, rather of the dizzy joy of the -miser who weighs a gold-piece, the effigy on which -doesn’t please him. Gold, nevertheless!</p> - -<p>True! How could I feel bored with these faces -turned toward me, with this choir of human voices -singing, each in its own familiar key, yet blending -into the masculine clamor of an orchestra?</p> - -<p>Everything they say is precious; less so, however, -than what they keep to themselves. The reasons -they give for their actions astonish me at times; those -they do not confess, especially those of which they -themselves are ignorant, always fill me with passionate -interest. A word, fallen from their lips like a -piece of paper from an unknown pocket, arrests me -and sets me dreaming for long days. About them I -build up daring and yet fragile hypotheses which -they either obligingly support or destroy with a careless -gesture. I always begin again, delighting in it; -it is my recreation. I enjoy finding that my hypotheses -are right, for that satisfies my pride; I -enjoy finding I am wrong, for that reveals to me leafy -depths in my park that are still unexplored.</p> - -<p>And then I know that only a small part of their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> -nature is involved in our intercourse. The rest -branches off, ramifies out into the perspectives of the -world. I think of it as of that side of the moon -which men will never see. I reconstruct with a pious, -a burning patience that life of theirs which is outside -this, their true life, endlessly complicated, linked by a -thousand tentacles with a thousand other unknown -lives. So must Cuvier’s mind have wandered as he -turned and returned a fossil tooth, the only vestige of -some vast, unknown organism.</p> - -<p>There is all this in people, and then there is the -past that each one has, his own past, his ancestors, -the prodigious combination of actions and of souls of -which he is the result. And there is his future, the -unexplored desert toward which he stretches out -anxious tentacles, and into which I dare to venture, -I, the stranger, with trembling heart, the tiny lantern -in my hand.</p> - -<p>These are my riches today. They are inalienable: -a man may flee from an indiscretion, he cannot escape -the grip of contemplation and love. Even if he desired -it, his very struggles would reveal his movements, -betray the deepest secrets of his being, deliver -him over bound hand and foot.</p> - -<p>As for myself, eager to hoard up my treasure, I -give myself up without a struggle. Rich in others, I -yield myself into their hands. And if, in spite of -myself, I attempt some evasion, am I not sure to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> -render the prey all the more desirable, all the more -beautiful?</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>They say of curiosity that it was the beginning of -science. That is not praise enough, it sounds rather -like an excuse.</p> - -<p>What is more human, more touching than this religious -reaching out toward the unknown, this sort of -instinct which makes us divine and attack the mystery?</p> - -<p>To take pride in not being curious! One might as -well take pride in some ridiculous infirmity. It is -true that even that is in the order of things normal, -and that vanity finds its nourishment where it can.</p> - -<p>Doubtless there is a sort of curiosity which is both -weak and cowardly. It is that of men who dare not -remain alone a moment face to face with themselves; -they take refuge in loquacity and in reading the -daily newspapers. Their fashion of interesting -themselves in everything that goes on is a confession -that they are unable to become interested in anything -eternal. They depend as if for nourishment on -that noise which those who have nothing to say are -always making. They are like children who cannot -amuse themselves alone, or like stupid monarchs who -fear nothing so much as silence and their own -thoughts, the emptiness of their own thoughts!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span></p> - -<p>And then there are the easy-going people. They -want to know everything, the number of your maternal -aunt’s children, the price of the furniture and -the wages of the servants. They want to know -everything and they will never know anything. -Their life is spent in forced smiles and in gracefully -holding a cup of tea.</p> - -<p>Their souls contain vast lists of names, dates and -other miserable things. They go through life like -beasts of burden, weighed down under loads that have -no value.</p> - -<p>There are maniacs, too, perverts, freaks, people -that are full of curiosity about a postage stamp, the -handle of an umbrella; but of these I dare not say -anything, for I remember an old and very wise master -who used to say to us with a smile: “You who -are entering upon scientific careers must begin right -away to think about collections, even if you have to -collect boxes of matches.”</p> - -<p>To tell the truth, is it our business to be wise, to be -learned? Hardly! It is our business to be rich.</p> - -<p>Well, then, there are not two kinds of curiosity. -Let us leave out of the question all those dull stupidities -we dare to call by this name.</p> - -<p>The curious man seems strangely uninterested in -that which excites the loquacity of trivial souls. He -does not trouble himself to find out the year in which -a house was built, or the honors accorded to the architect;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> -he dreams in secret of the tastes, the passions -of the man who had that little, low window pierced -on the north side and that black tree with its twisted -branches planted at the edge of the pond. He does -not ask a young woman the name of her dressmaker, -but trembles at the thought of understanding what -made her choose that disturbing dress to wear this -particular day. He does not question his mistress -about her opinion of him, but seeks passionately to -understand the opinion he has at this moment of her. -He does not hasten to ask his travelling companions -about their professions and the political opinions -they uphold, because, as he watches their faces, he is -studying discreetly and sympathetically the meaning -of the little wrinkle that moves between their brows, -or the significance of a glance, its source and its -object. He does not solicit confidences, he receives -them almost without wishing to; they come naturally -to him; he is their sure and deep receptacle.</p> - -<p>Curious about all this vast world, he seems -especially concerned with its image in himself. He -bears his curiosity like a sacred gift and exercises it, -or rather honors it, as one would perform the rites of -a cult.</p> - -<p>Do not say you would not wish to be that man. -You who feel pride in possessing yourself of a secret, -in drawing out a confession, in meriting the confidence -of another man, must realize that it is a marvelous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> -fortune to be thus the tenderly imperious confidant -who cannot be denied, though often the rest of -the world knows nothing of it. And it is possible for -you, even if you cannot become such a man at once, -at least to labor to become one. Begin, with this in -view, to deliver yourself from your little servile curiosities. -Let us work together for this future. Let -us enter so deeply into ourselves that people will say -of us, “That man is not curious about anything.” -From that moment we shall have begun to chant the -hymn of the great, the divine curiosity.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>The possession of others is a passion, that is to -say, it is an ordeal, a painful effort. This supreme -joy, like all the joys to which we attach value, is born -out of suffering.</p> - -<p>We must experience men in order to know them, -and our neighbor for whom, or through whom, we -have never had to endure any anguish, has surprises -in store for us, or else escapes us altogether: that is -almost a truism.</p> - -<p>Like all others, this treasure cannot be acquired -without effort, without bitterness; but it knows no -decay, it never ceases to grow through the mere play -of the forces of our life and seems as if sheltered from -the blows of fate. It does not, like money, depreciate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span> -in value or serve ignoble ends. It only returns to -oblivion.</p> - -<p>It is not strictly personal. It can be shared and -bequeathed. Since it escapes destruction and death, -it can become the most precious of heritages; it has -this superiority over money, that its transmission is -really valid only after it has been in some sort of -way reconquered. It must fall into worthy hands -that will know how to work to preserve, cultivate and -build it up again. In certain points it resembles -what we call experience.</p> - -<p>To suffer, first of all! That is surely one of the -grandeurs of our race, and we truly love our blessings -for what they have cost us in tears, in sweat, in -blood.</p> - -<p>It is repugnant to the spirit to admit that anything -can be a blessing which the war has given. -The desperate folly of the Western world has engendered -and still holds in reserve such great misfortunes -that we cannot ransack all these ruins, these heaps of -bones, with any hope of extracting from them, as -rag pickers do with their hooks, some fragment that -is good, some useful bit of waste. No! There is -no excuse for this ferocious, immeasurable stupidity. -And yet, men have suffered so terribly from one -another that they have learned to know one another, -that is to say, to possess one another mutually. In<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> -spite of my own denials, let me save this bit of wreckage -from the general disaster. That is indeed one -blessing so dearly bought that we shall not willingly -give it up. And I do not speak here only of those -who have fought against each other; I speak also of -those who have fought side by side, who have shed -their blood for the same cause and under the same -standards.</p> - -<p>Companions have been given us, imposed upon us, -association with whom, even when casual and transitory, -would once have seemed impossible to us. Living -as free men, we sought to control the inevitable as -far as possible, to choose our own road and avoid -those whose opinions or points of view about the universe -were likely to offend our own. We thus made -use of that liberty for the most part in order to -humor our irritable feelings, to lull our souls to sleep -in a precarious security, and restrict the area of our -inward activity.</p> - -<p>Then came the war and we had not only to suffer -from the enemy, to endure unforeseen attacks in -regions of ourselves that we considered invulnerable, -but to suffer still more from our own messmates, -from those who commanded us and especially those -whom we commanded.</p> - -<p>Could it have been otherwise? No! No! If -that suffering had been spared us, we should not -have been men, we should not have gone to war, we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span> -should not have been those divine animals whom it is -so beautiful and so shameful to be and whom we cannot -help being.</p> - -<p>We have been told that all suffering is sterile, hopeless -and without redemptive power. That it only -serves to nourish hatred. But how marvelous it is -when it engenders understanding, that is to say, possession, -that is to say, love!</p> - -<p>I have observed that for many men, except in -actual bodily encounter, combat face to face, the -enemy has lost all individual or specific character and -has become almost confounded with the great hostile -forces of nature: lightning, fire, tidal waves. The -bullet coming from so far away, the shell hurled from -beyond the horizon, all these mortal powers are simply -like a form of blind destiny. In spite of daily -lessons in hatred, in spite of vociferations, these men -die courageously, with a resigned despair, without -hatred.</p> - -<p>But with other, less noble souls, the tendency to -aversion and quarreling, thus turned back from the -enemy, seeks its objects in their immediate surroundings -and finds them, creates them, alas!</p> - -<p>My comrades, my comrades, if the uncertainty of -your spirit, your agony, the rebelliousness of your -afflicted flesh urges you to seek those who are responsible, -do not look too angrily upon those who are -about you, do not, in your aberration, accuse Houtelette<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> -because he is a chatterbox, Exmelin because -he is an egoist, or Blèche because he is a rude, morose -commander. Do not place your misery to the account -of Méry, who is so slow in obeying, and be -willing to admit that Maurin is not to blame for -everything because his opinions are not the same as -yours. At least, if you must draw your circle of animosity, -make it so close about you that it contains -only yourselves, and seek first of all in yourselves the -causes of your unhappiness.</p> - -<p>Better still, apply yourselves to looking your suffering -in the face, putting it, with insight and precision, -to the proof.</p> - -<p>You know that a loathsome drink almost ceases to -be loathsome when you drink it without haste but -with a desire to appreciate the precise quality of its -bitterness. Exactly in this same manner you should -endeavor to measure, to study your suffering. Instead -of abhorring it, try in a way to understand it; -it will become interesting, curious, I dare not say -lovable.</p> - -<p>If Méry carries out your orders badly, consider -systematically how he can be made to become, in spite -of himself, a really good servant. If Blèche exercises -his authority in a way that incessantly wounds -you, interest yourself in his brutality, try to analyze -his movements, his expressions, his familiar habits, -and you will then be in a better position, not to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> -escape from him indeed, but to avoid at times the -sting, the cut of his peremptoriness. You will make -him restless by doing this, and you will set him thinking. -It is not necessary for him to fear you, it is -enough for him to recognize in you a free force with -which he has to reckon, a force it is wise to propitiate. -Meanwhile, to use a colloquialism, “you’ve -got him.” Every time you have obliged him to be -less arrogant, more just with you, you can say that -you have “had” him, as the soldiers so admirably -put it.</p> - -<p>This possession costs a certain amount of work. -But you are willing to toil eight hours in order to -earn ten francs that do not remain for a single day -between your fingers; you can certainly afford a -few minutes of your effort and your soul to acquire a -treasure of which nothing will ever be able to deprive -you.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>The very rich man owns several estates. There is -always one that he prefers, that he frequents and -cultivates by choice. There are others where he goes -only from time to time, at the solicitation of some -state of his soul which inclines him to seek, for a -period, the mountains, or the ocean, or the open -country. There are some, finally, which he does not -love at all but of which, nevertheless, he will not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> -dispossess himself because they are part of his fortune.</p> - -<p>It is so with you who possess a family, friends, -comrades, and adversaries. It is so with you who -are able to draw, without let or hindrance, from the -immense well of humankind. You must refuse nothing; -you must accept everything, find out the value -of everything, store everything away. The world of -men is a rich patrimony, the exploitation of which -is expressly confided to you. You must not be a -bad administrator, you must make all your land -bring forth its fruit.</p> - -<p>Choose every day what is necessary to you, for -you are the master.</p> - -<p>You must know, besides, how to accept the inevitable -and take chances, for you are nothing but a -man.</p> - -<p>Construct a scale, a clear, harmonious keyboard. -Like an organist you must know the right moment to -pull the stop of the oboe and unloose the thunder -of the bass. The pipes are not at fault: it is for -you to become a good musician. The face of Guillaumin -suits you in the morning, and his ideas rejuvenate -you like fresh water. The eloquence of -Maurin is like a tonic in your hours of recreation. -But there are desolate evenings when what you undoubtedly -need is the deep voice of Cauchois and his -affectionate silence.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span></p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>In spite of the legendary ages, in spite of the religions, -in spite of the poets, in spite of the marvelous -traditions and, above all, in spite of our own -deepest aspirations, we must unquestionably abandon -the hope of an occult correspondence between souls.</p> - -<p>It is a renunciation that it is hard to admit. -Every day events envelop us that seem to revive the -vanished perfume of mystery. Our reason is in no -haste to dissipate these clouds, to pierce these appearances: -too well they soothe the irritating need of -not being quite solitary in the interior of ourselves, -of not being quite exiles in an inaccessible desert.</p> - -<p>That nothing outside our senses can reveal to us -the proximity of a beloved person, the danger that -is approaching him, the death that is coming to -clasp him, is an extremity to which we find ourselves -reduced without ever submissively making up -our minds to it.</p> - -<p>A few courageous men have halted before this -mountain and undertaken to lift it. Let us leave -them toiling in the shadow; let us aid them, if not -by our effort, at least by our silence, and wait.</p> - -<p>Let us wait, but let us not cease to go forth to -other battles. The unknown never fails us. And -as for what we shall choose, there is so much in the -unknown to allure us, to enchant us! If we give up<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> -surmounting one obstacle another will always rise -before our feet. From obstacle to obstacle we shall -always be led to the foot of the same wall. We -shall consume our whole life in the struggle, knowing -that the very interest of life lies in that struggle -and in those obstacles.</p> - -<p>Now and then, detached by great efforts of the -pickaxe and the mattock, a fragment of the somber -mountain rolls at our feet. We stop it with rapture, -we examine it, we lift it with a sort of sadness, -in order to try its weight. There is no victory -that demands so great a price or seems to us more -desolate. It is as if we roused ourselves to a frenzy -to destroy the unknown in order that our success -might fill us with bitterness. Happily, the unknown -is always there.</p> - -<p>I find myself alone with the person who of all the -world is the closest to me, the best loved, the most -perfectly chosen. The silence exhales a light perfume, -a unique perfume that seems that of our kindred -souls. Oh! how we should like to believe that -the essences of our beings, delivered at last, might -communicate and unite with each other in the intermediate -space, in the impassable abyss!</p> - -<p>At this very moment we surprise in one another’s -eyes a common thought. Simultaneously, it escapes -our lips with a sort of rapturous precipitancy, as if -we were afraid of not arriving at exactly the same<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span> -moment at the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">rendez-vous</i>, as if we wished, with -the harmonious precision of a well-rehearsed duet, to -confess together some matchless certainty.</p> - -<p>We are happy, filled with astonishment.... But -I am not deceived.</p> - -<p>I do not yet hold it, palpitating, for good and -all, between my fingers, the proof that has been so -long sought for. Not yet, this day, have I met -face to face either God or the immortal soul.</p> - -<p>Only too well I know that some slight sound, some -rhythm outside us, the beating of a bird’s wing, the -boring of an insect in the old wood of the furniture, -the sigh of the wind under the door,—that it is one -of these things which has suddenly set our souls in -tune, awakened the echoes of affinity in the abysses -of our two separate selves. We have so many memories -in common, we have so carefully matched -our tastes, we have so well unified our material -world and tried to blend even our futures together -that the very touch of the violinist’s bow suffices to -make us vibrate in harmony.</p> - -<p>But there must be the touch of the bow, there -must be the perfume, so faint that one experiences -its suggestions without being sure of its presence; -perhaps there is necessary only one of those obscure -phenomena which pass the limit of our senses in the -twilight where our inadequate organs can only -gropingly divine the world.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</span></p> - -<p>This is our meager certainty. Very well! Let -us not reject it in our spite; for it has its depth, its -beauty. We must make it our own, force it to enrich -us.</p> - -<p>Where the exercise of the intelligence seems to result -in the fatal imprisonment of the soul within -itself, love enables us to see how the soul can reach -beyond its own limits into time and space. In vain -does the intelligence prove to us that all this is only -an illusion. That illusion is beautiful; let us make -up our minds to give it shape. Through its very -longings to escape from its confines, the soul may -perhaps succeed in breaking them, and it is to love -without a doubt that it will owe the miracle of its -deliverance.</p> - -<p>We possess only an imperfect means of communion. -So be it! Let us labor tenderly to perfect -that means. It is thus that the creators of science -and industry labor, and we must admit that -their stubbornness has succeeded in making a very -great evil out of a small one. Let us not be less -ingenious! This sinister progress ought to give us -encouragement: moral civilization deserves as much -care as the other sort.</p> - -<p>With our brothers, our wives, our friends, let us -freely seek to have so many things in common, let -us strive so passionately to understand one another, -that our thoughts, ceaselessly pressing toward this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span> -goal, may continually experience the sense of infinity -and eternity.</p> - -<p>There lies our path; if it urges us to possess the -largest portion we can of the human world, let us -first begin by intimately possessing what we love. -This possession I am sure is the only real one. -They knew it very well, those desperate men who -have loved fiercely the mere bodies of women without -ever receiving the real gift that can be yielded -in a glance, from a distance, with the swiftness of -lightning.</p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>There are men who set out from their homes in -the morning in the pursuit of wealth. They walk -with their eyes on the pavement, they fling themselves -furiously into all sorts of petty labors. -They dream of lost money, princely gifts, scandalous -inheritances, lotteries. They think of gold -as of an inaccessible woman whom they can strike -down and ravish in a corner. They return home in -the evening worn out, exasperated, famished, as -poor as ever. They have not even seen the face of -the man who sat next them in the subway. That face -itself was a fortune.</p> - -<p>Do you seek out your friend because, on occasion, -he can lend you the sum you foresee you are going -to need, because he can speak to some cabinet official<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> -on your behalf, because he is a jovial host? -If that is the case, you are a slave, you possess -nothing. Do you, on the contrary, love him for -that way of smiling he has that so delights you, for -the candor and tenderness his hesitating voice betrays, -his gift of tears and his stormy repentances? -If this is so, you are very rich: that man is yours -and he is a treasure worth having.</p> - -<p>Can you recall the use you made of your first five-franc -piece? Most assuredly not! But you will -never forget a certain expression which, in your -eyes, distorted or made more beautiful some well-loved -face when you were a little child. That has, -and always will have, a place among your treasures: -that day you really learned something of importance, -and you have never ceased since to recall the -victory and turn it to account.</p> - -<p>If you have little inclination to squander your -fortune, what is to prevent you from assembling it -under one title-deed? A single face, a single soul, is -yet an inestimable estate. One may believe one has -exhausted all one’s resources, but one is always deceived, -for like the earth, the human landscape is -always perpetually laboring and bears fruit every -season.</p> - -<p>The peasant who possesses only an acre is full of -pride nevertheless, for he knows that his possession -goes down to the very center of the earth.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span></p> - -<p>For many years I have watched the same face, like -the faithful horizon stretched across the aperture of -a window. It contrives, that face, a thousand -things, it expresses and reflects a thousand things, -I alone know its touching beauty, since I alone am -able to reap all its harvests, since I alone cannot, -without a glance, allow the tiniest flower of every -day to die.</p> - - -<h3>VII</h3> - -<p>It is not wholly within your power to be without -enemies; it behooves you, indeed, not to lack adversaries. -Above all, it behooves you to know your -adversaries. From that to conquering them is but -a short step. From that to loving them is no step -at all.</p> - -<p>Do not dread an experience too much; consider -your adversary attentively and try to imagine his -motives, those that he declares as well as those that -he conceals, those that he invents as well as those of -which he is ignorant. Think long enough and with -enough intensity to understand these reasons, and -even to discover new ones of which your adversary -has not thought; this will not be difficult for you if -you have any knowledge of yourself.</p> - -<p>Then make a strong effort to put yourself, in -spirit, in the place of him you are combatting. Do -not go so far as to detest yourself, but do not refuse<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> -this opportunity of judging yourself severely. -For a test: perhaps you have entered upon this experience -with your teeth and fists clenched; stop -when you find that you are smiling and that your -hands are relaxed.</p> - -<p>One has no idea how much this exercise inclines -one to justice, how profitable it is and how destructive -of hatred. Too much imagination would perhaps -lead you to neglect your own cause; stop in -time, therefore, unless you wish to become, as the -spectators may decide, either a fool or a hero.</p> - -<p>For my part, I have no hesitation in counselling -such a practice: it teaches one to conquer, to conquer -smilingly. It teaches one to know one’s adversary. -And then, too, it is good as everything is -good that forestalls and destroys hatred.</p> - -<p>There is only one single thing in the world that is, -perhaps, really hateful, stupidity. But even that -is disputable, and moreover it is always a presumptuous -assertion.</p> - -<p>Happy is the man who has no enemies. But, I -repeat, he who has no adversaries, he who has not -accepted those that life offers him, or has not been -able to procure any of his own will, is ignorant of a -great source of wealth.</p> - -<p>There is but small merit in understanding those -whom we love; there is a great, a crowningly bitter -pleasure, in penetrating a soul that is hostile to us,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> -in making it our own by main force, in colonizing it.</p> - -<p>Not to choose our friends, that is to be too self-denying, -too modest. Not to choose our adversaries, -that is altogether too stupid; it is inexcusable.</p> - -<p>A voice whispers in my ear: “We do not choose -our vermin, we do not choose our mad dogs....” -Alas, no! but that is quite another matter.</p> - - -<h3>VIII</h3> - -<p>Every time I hear someone use the word “promiscuity,” -I recall an experience I once had. An -experience,—that is a great deal to say, it was such -a slight affair after all.</p> - -<p>It was in the days when there still used to be in -Paris those omnibuses with upper stories. I was returning -home quite late, on one of those fresh, airy -nights when one suddenly draws in, through the -fetid breath of the streets, a gust that comes from -afar and seems unwilling to let itself be defiled, obliterated. -I was dreaming all alone, quite to myself, -about things of no interest to anyone but myself, -but that happily filled the infinite space of the -world.</p> - -<p>Through the depths of this reverie I became -aware of a slight, muffled blow against my right -shoulder. This did not rouse me from my own -absorption. A second time the blow came, followed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> -by a soft, continuous contact. It gave me a disagreeable -sensation.</p> - -<p>By my side there was a young boy of sixteen or -seventeen, dressed like an apprentice. The uncertain -glimmer of the street-lamps lighted up his pale, -weary face. His eyes were closed and he seemed -overwhelmed with sleep. I noticed that every few -moments his head, swaying with the jolts of the -vehicle, would strike against my shoulder. He -would raise it up with an instinctive movement, only -to let it fall back the more heavily the next moment. -Once he let it lie there. At the time I was so lost in -my dreams that the animal in me alone rose to its -defense: I pushed the young lad gently back into his -place. It was trouble lost; the next second he abandoned -himself anew against my shoulder with a sort -of desperate ingenuousness. I pushed him back two -or three times, then I gave it up and tried, in spite -of this slight burden, to continue my glorious excursion -in the interior of my own self.</p> - -<p>But I did not succeed. An extraordinary, unforeseen, -unknown sensation was sweeping over me. -It was a penetrating animal warmth. It came from -that head propped against my shoulder, and also -from a certain frail, bent arm which I felt slowly -digging into my side. The little apprentice was -sound asleep.</p> - -<p>I bent down my face and felt his breath like that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> -of a child passing in little puffs over my cheek and -my chin. From that moment on, I ceased completely -to think of my important personal affairs -and I had only one anxiety: to see to it that the boy -did not awaken.</p> - -<p>I do not know how long this sleep lasted: I was -warm with a strange, delicate warmth; I had a sense -of well-being, I was absorbed, I was penetrating into -an unknown universe, as vast, as starry as my own. -I could not understand how this contact could have -offended me at first, even disgusted me. I had torn -off the prickly shell and was tasting, like a nourishing -kernel, that human presence and companionship. -I was happy and interested.</p> - -<p>We reached a place where there were shouts and -lights. The little fellow sat up with a start, rubbed -his eyes and ran stumbling towards the stairway -and disappeared; he had not even seen me.</p> - -<p>He did not know what I owed him and that he -would never be forgotten.</p> - - -<h3>IX</h3> - -<p>One must not, at first sight, say that a man is uninteresting -and that his face is expressionless. One -might as well say that the water of a river is empty -when it swarms with vegetable and animal life.</p> - -<p>In one’s manner of listening to a man there may -be prejudice and suspicion, there must not be indifference<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> -or indolence. The soul has, in its arsenal, -lenses, microscopes, and powerful sources of light -for exploring objects to their depths, through their -transparencies, into the innermost recesses of their -organs.</p> - -<p>At the beginning of the war I lived for two years -with a comrade who was invariably silent and indolent; -his handsome face remained always so gloomy, -his actions remained so devoid of purpose and significance, -that I despaired of ever making him my -prey; I was simply never touched with a desire to -get hold of him.</p> - -<p>Then a day came when I heard him greet some -happening with a word, pronounced in such a challenging -tone that I decided to undertake the expedition. -I spent days and days at it, with the pickaxe, -mattock, and little lantern of the miner. I -have thought of him ever since with stupefaction, as -of those subterranean, half-explored chasms where -one finds rivers, colonnades, domes, blind animals -and terrible shapes of stone.</p> - -<p>The nature of the object should not discourage -one’s interest. The viper is a dangerous and vindictive -creature. The naturalists who have been able -to study it have only been able to do so because they -have studied with passion, that is to say, with love.</p> - -<p>So much to tell you that that sort of zoological -curiosity you may bring to the study of your neighbor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> -no more authorizes cruelty than it allows you -to dispense with affection.</p> - -<p>Extreme attention resembles affection. Contemplation -is pure love.</p> - - -<h3>X</h3> - -<p>It is after my own taste that I mean to enjoy my -possessions.</p> - -<p>First, I wish to have part possession of my companions. -There is no question of my being the only -one to possess them, or of my limiting my empire to -one or two of them. What I plan is to undertake -each conquest separately. This word, we shall see, -does not signify seduction, but a knowledge that is -full of respect, a profound, lasting interest, an enthusiasm, -a passionate contemplation.</p> - -<p>Observe them, your comrades: say you have -twenty-three of them; you will find through them -twenty-three distinct representations of yourself, -and that in spite of yourself, through the mere -play of everyday life. One of them knows -chiefly your tireless patience; another, who works -beside you all day, knows that you are painstaking -and irritable; he is, however, ignorant -of what a third, the friend of your fireside, knows,—that -you are a careful and anxious father. There -are others for whom you are, above all, a soul torn -by religion or a mind familiar with everything that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> -concerns social questions, or a great lover of reading. -Others, finally, see in you only a good billiard-player, -or a crack shot, or a courteous companion.</p> - -<p>You are, of course, all these things. The totality -of these various aspects is, indeed, you, provided -that we add also many other qualities that no -one suspects. But each one of your comrades sees -an aspect of you that is different from what his -neighbor sees. For this reason, avoid confusion, -avoid mixing things. Be lavish of yourself in every -sense, but begin by being prudent, careful of your -resources and skilful in the art of grouping them.</p> - -<p>One day you were having an affectionate conversation -with Maurin. You were delighted with one -another, delighted to be together, satisfied with your -fellowship, your mutual possession. You were not -talking of anything very private. But then Blèche -came up, Blèche with whom you have such profitable, -such intimate talks, and all the charm of -Maurin’s company disappeared without your being -able to compensate yourself with the usual pleasure -you take in the society of Blèche. This was because, -in the presence of both, you could not give -each one what you are accustomed to give him, nor -could you ask from him what he gives only to you.</p> - -<p>These combinations, like those of the chemists, -demand much care and judgment. Don’t protest!<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> -Don’t exclaim that such notions are too subtle, too -complex: you do not receive all your friends pell-mell. -However much of an epicure you may be, you -still give more attention to the selection of your -guests than to the composition of the menu. Of -what importance is the most delicate fare in comparison -with the delight the conversation of carefully -chosen human beings gives us?</p> - -<p>That is why, when you are sure of two persons for -whom you feel an interest that borders on passion, -you experience such a delicious anxiety at the moment -of presenting them to one another, of bringing -them together in your presence.</p> - -<p>You are like the maker of fireworks who is about -to mix changeable substances with explosive properties -in his mortar. You weigh them carefully and -combine them in well-defined proportions. You -take time preparing each of the spiritual elements of -this mixture.</p> - -<p>And when the union is accomplished, you seem to -be saying to each of them: “I have prepared a -magnificent gift for you. Come, now, and know -one another.”</p> - -<p>Your heart throbs, because each of them is not -only going to know the other but is going to learn to -know you through the eyes of the other.</p> - -<p>Could there be a better reason for living?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span></p> - - -<h3>XI</h3> - -<p>However brief may be the intercourse we have -with a man, we always come away from it somewhat -modified: we find we are a little greater than we were -before, or a little less great, better or worse, exalted -or diminished.</p> - -<p>I have learned this from having, in the course of -my life, approached many men, both famous and obscure, -who do not dream what I owe them or the -harm they have been able to do me.</p> - -<p>We instinctively recognize and classify individuals -according to this faculty they have, some -of drawing us out, others of crushing us. It is a -faculty they usually exert without knowing it, even -against their will: they are tonic or depressing just -as one is short or tall, just as one has black eyes or -green. But the comparison breaks down in this -respect, that it is always possible to modify the -reaction we produce on others.</p> - -<p>In this matter we exhibit a special sensibility that -may be compared to the tropisms which push plants -up toward the light or make them struggle against -gravitation. We go toward some and flee from -others, regardless of our interests or our prejudices.</p> - -<p>The man whose companionship we seek because it -stimulates us is not necessarily he who strives to give<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> -us a good opinion of ourselves. Often he is taciturn, -sometimes surly, occasionally ironical and cutting. -Nevertheless, there emanates from his whole -person something like approbation, a confession of -confidence. Even if he insists, harshly, noisily, -upon calling attention to our faults, he does not -make us despair of ourselves and our future. And -if he never speaks to us about ourselves we yet know, -by some imperceptible gesture, by some tone in his -voice, by a gleam in his eye, that he is interested in -us.</p> - -<p>Every time we leave him we like him better, we like -ourselves better, we like all humanity better, we look -at everything with a smile, we are as full of plans as -a tree in April.</p> - -<p>The other sort of man, on the contrary, is forever -deluding himself. He pursues before our very eyes -an end which we see, with grief and bitterness, he -regularly fails to attain. Whatever he does, whatever -he says, he always shows us that he is a -stranger to us, that he is superior and that we do -not interest him. Even in his manner of wishing to -give us his attention, he exhibits a certain difficulty -in seeing us at all. If he tries to seem talkative, -important, majestic, his natural gifts turn against -him; his cordiality disgusts us, his bearing irritates -us, his self-importance makes us want to laugh. We -cannot forgive him anything, and especially the fact<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> -that we always leave him with the same vague depression, -the same disgust of life, and the same distrust -of our own undertakings. What we are always -escapes him, and although what he is does not -escape us, we are discouraged by him all the same.</p> - -<p>We must be the first of these two men, he who is, -amid all things, in spite of all things, a rich man, he -whom the poet of the <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">Livre d’amour</i> justly called -“a conqueror.”</p> - - -<h3>XII</h3> - -<p>You must not violate your gifts, you must simply -study their possibilities. It is what we do with -trees and animals in which we are able to instil virtues -they do not seem to possess at all naturally.</p> - -<p>However humble your position in society may be, -however great your poverty, in the crude sense men -give to this word, you may none the less become rich -and successful without so much as leaving the room -where you are in conversation with your comrade, -your wife or your favorite adversary. Find your -study there. You have observed that when two men -meet they begin by sacrificing to the old custom of -enquiring briefly about one another’s health and -affairs, after which, without waiting for the other’s -reply, each one begins to speak of himself. This is -such an old usage that they do not even know they -are doing it. Each one speaks of himself for a few<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> -moments, then allows the other to talk about himself -for about the same length of time. When this -has gone on long enough they separate, and each -preserves for his partner a vague feeling of gratitude, -not so much because he has listened as because -he has made a pretense of listening to matters that -were of no concern to him.</p> - -<p>This fact suggests a great lesson. The majority -of men suffer from a sort of neglect, they suffer -from not being possessed by anyone, from offering -themselves in vain. Stretch out your hand and -seize them. Learn to say the word that will assure -you the mastery, the domination.</p> - -<p>It is inconceivable that so many spirits, tormented -by the need for power, by the passion for authority, -should waste and sterilize themselves in order to -hoard money, win rank, obtain a title. They gain -nothing from it but a pride that withers them; they -clasp only the shadow of what they pursue.</p> - -<p>Seek a little and you will soon find that they are -legion who ask nothing better than to cast themselves -into your nets. Do not believe that they are -always the mediocre victims. It is not only the -wretched who wish to be understood and consoled. -There are many sceptics who await with anguish the -touch of a hand to deliver them from their scepticism. -There are many happy men, too, who cannot -bear to be alone with their happiness, for man<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> -has even more need of help in joy than in sorrow.</p> - -<p>It has often happened, while walking with a comrade, -a stranger or an adversary, that I would find -him hard, defiant, rebellious at every touch. -Thereupon, I would set out openly, under his very -eye, to capture him. I would begin to speak to him -about himself. I would say to him: “The unique -things about you are....” And I would confide -to him everything I thought about him, being particularly -careful to say nothing more about myself. -I would interest myself in him, not fictitiously—that -is a barren and a perilous game—but with all -my heart, with all my intelligence. I would tell him -what I knew, what I already possessed of him, his -virtues and his faults. Confused or irritated, he -would come to my feet, he would appear as if before -a bar to give thanks or to plead, to show his -claws or to purr. The things I had said to him -might be very severe; I still felt that he was grateful -to me for having cared about him, even in order -to attack him. No longer was he in any haste to -leave me. Often he would come back on the days -that followed and make me unexpected visits; -though I could see that he was provoked, I knew -nevertheless that he had come to pay homage, to -attest that he was a faithful subject.</p> - -<p>“The unique things about you are”.... That -is a chance phrase. There are others, there are a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span> -thousand of them. When you are ready, a grip of -the hand or some other human sign may take its -place. I remember the story of a certain prefect -who, having no worse enemy than a traitor in his -department, had the happy thought one day of asking -him to have a drink and going away without -paying for it. This extraordinary proof of confidence -attached the man to him forever.</p> - -<p>Not that all your victims will be so tremblingly -easy. There are proud souls who set a high price -on their conquest, fantastic and sick souls whom one -has to seize suddenly and overthrow almost before -they are aware of it.</p> - -<p>You must set the time and choose the hour of the -attack.</p> - -<p>Do not accost the business man in the roar of the -Exchange; attempt the field rather at the hour -when, wearied, he is counting over and reckoning -his disillusionments. Do not seize the man of action -on the battlefield, but in the moment of leisure when -he does not know what to do with his solitude.</p> - -<p>What marvelous opportunities must the shy Las -Casas have glimpsed at Saint Helena, even though -he was pursuing other aims!</p> - -<p>I once saw a simple soul publicly congratulate a -master surgeon whose skill had for long years placed -him above all felicitations. And the celebrated man -blushed, bowed, gave in.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span></p> - -<p>A successful lawyer said to me one day: “Each -one of my clients imagines that I think only of him, -that I occupy myself exclusively with him.”</p> - -<p>Remember, too, that certain women never capitulate -twice: they never forgive themselves for having -yielded completely even for a moment. The same -thing is true with others who are offended with you -because you have “taken” them by force. Do not -regret this sacrifice too much: it leaves a beautiful -jewel in your casket.</p> - -<p>Truly the whole vast race of men belongs to you.</p> - -<p>Take and eat, you cannot find more noble food.</p> - -<p>See, there is the world you must conquer. It is -not that for whose possession proud peoples are -driven to declare war; it is indeed quite another -world than that which Satan showed Jesus from the -summit of the mountain.</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" >IV<br /> -ON DISCOVERING THE WORLD</h2> -</div> - - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>The world contains not one single object that -might not be a source of happiness. Sorrow -springs from this, that man outdoes himself in misusing -everything. He turns against his own body -or his own spirit all sorts of things that seem well -made for his joy.</p> - -<p>Every being contains an unbelievable store of -happiness, and this one virtue reveals the angle -from which he ought to be judged.</p> - -<p>Your true business man makes a practice of -weighing everything in terms of gold: a human being, -a field of wheat, a beam, a precious stone. His -tables of value are false, but the principle of valuation -remains none the less efficacious, fundamental. -The mistake of these persons is in testing everything -by a single measure, in reducing everything to this -gold which enables them to seek their chosen pleasure. -If it is drink, or woman, they transmute an orchard -into wine or into women, losing terribly by the exchange.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> -They thus produce a sort of analogy to -what the physicists call the degradation of energy: -little by little, the traffickers degrade their pleasures -until they obtain those they prefer. But happiness -is higher than this: it cannot be degraded, -bought, transmuted. It is a pure relationship between -the soul and the world. It will never be the -mere object of a transaction. Many are the men -who have fastened their hope, their future upon the -acquisition of some material good only to experience -after years of effort and privation a burning -disillusion. That is because happiness is too proud -and free a thing to obey the commands of merchants. -It follows laws of its own that seem like inspirations, -it does not come at the bidding of business men. -The castle we have coveted so long may open at -the appointed hour; joy will not take up its abode -there unless we have deserved it.</p> - -<p>It must be repeated again: the principle of evaluation -is at the base of our moral life. But each thing -should be valued in itself and for itself.</p> - -<p>A tuft of violets is worth a great deal for its perfume -and its beauty, it can bring joy or consolation -to a great many hearts. But it has only the slightest -commercial value; estimated in terms of building -lumber or freestone it signifies nothing, or virtually -nothing.</p> - -<p>That so many men should cut and sell wood, shape<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> -and barter the stone of which our houses are built, -go gathering violets through the May thickets to -sell them to townsfolk, is undoubtedly right and necessary. -The real question is quite a different one: -we must first possess for their own sakes all the -blessings that are offered us, and not obstinately -transform them, without an important reason, beyond -our strict needs, at the risk of forever losing -our understanding and our true possession of them.</p> - -<p>It is almost a truism that men who are obliged -by their profession to handle, store or sell substances -famous for their power of giving pleasure, perfumes, -fruits, silks, end by losing all appreciation of them -and even by contracting a disgust and contempt for -them. Cooks have no appetite. Let us not be -cooks, then, in the presence of this vast world; let -us know how to preserve or restore to each object -its original savor and significance.</p> - -<p>I say “restore” intentionally, for the world seems -to be more and more turning from its true sense, that -is to say, its human sense, the only one for us.</p> - -<p>A stone is a beautiful thing, beautiful from all -points of view; its grain, its color, its brilliancy, its -hardness are all so many virtues that exercise and -satisfy our senses, excite our reflections. We have -a thousand noble uses, speculative or practical, to -which we can put such an object. We shall be the -kings of the universe if we assert boldly that we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> -find in these uses and in our joy the very destiny of -the stone.</p> - -<p>I remember seeing hills that had been disemboweled -by a bombardment and were sown with long -splinters of twisted iron; the base of a monstrous -shell appeared before me, one day, under these conditions, -and it seemed to me truly inhuman, this -product of the work of men: the noble metal, with -which so many good and beautiful things can be -made, took on a hateful appearance. Man had -achieved the mournful miracle of denaturing nature, -rendering it ignoble and criminal.</p> - -<p>Truly, we are equally guilty every time we turn -an object aside from its mission, which is altogether -one of happiness. We are guilty again every time -we fail to extract, for others and for ourselves, all -the happiness an object holds in store and only asks -to be allowed to yield.</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>It is because every fragment of the earth is a -source of happiness that men ceaselessly dream of -winning that source for their own profit.</p> - -<p>They do not wish to have all humanity refresh -itself, plunge its feverish face and lips in the cool -waters.</p> - -<p>Once the springs were the delight and the wealth -of whole peoples; they were conducted magnificently<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> -along majestically proportioned aqueducts; their -liquid opulence, crossing valleys and mountains, entered -the cities with a great outburst of architectural -joy; it shone and sparkled in the sunlight from -a thousand embellished apertures before it went to -bathe and nourish the people.</p> - -<p>The statues of the gods watched over this treasure.</p> - -<p>Today, the most beautiful springs are guarded -by railings; one goes to a wicket and pays in order -to drink there.</p> - -<p>In the same way, all the springs of joy seem to -have been sequestered for the profit of a few people.</p> - -<p>This is not always for the sake of gain. In most -cases it is simply for exclusiveness. The man who -owns something capable of giving joy naïvely -imagines that he will be happier if he is the only -one to drink from this inexhaustible breast. He becomes -infatuated with it and thinks of nothing but -how to shut up his treasure. He puts up a wall and -provides it with fragments of sharp glass, so that -the wall may show its teeth, so that it may be not -only defensive but, in some sense, offensive. At -times, yawning with ennui in the very midst of his -material prosperity, he makes an opening in the wall, -only to correct this imprudence with a ditch; and -from behind this he seems to say, “Now see how -rich I am; look and proclaim it in a loud voice, you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> -who pass by, for I am beginning not to be so sure -of it myself.”</p> - -<p>To shut up a picture, a beautiful tree, a sumptuous -tapestry for one’s own exclusive benefit is, after all, -only a trifling folly; but there are some who undertake -to capture a river, a mountain, a horizon, the -sea.</p> - -<p>A few years ago, I visited the shore of the Mediterranean, -between Cannes and Menton. I was struck -by a strange thing: the road that follows the edge -of the sea, at the foot of the hills, through a thousand -natural beauties, continually loses sight of the waves; -it seems as if pushed back, held aside.</p> - -<p>People have appropriated the horizon; they have -driven their fortune like a wedge between the divine -sea and the road of the common folk. They wish to -be the only ones to possess the ocean, dawn, the gold -and sapphire of moon, the tempests and the -thunders of the open sea.</p> - -<p>Do not be alarmed, mistaken brothers, do not -tremble; we shall not throw down your walls. Live -in peace in your sumptuous prison, our portion remains -so beautiful and so great that we shall never -exhaust it.</p> - -<p>Close your gates, you will not shut in the perfume -of your shrubbery, nor all the wind, nor all the sky. -You will not imprison the fragrant odor of your -flower-beds. We shall breathe them, as we pass, lovingly,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> -and continue on our way. We shall go on -still further, for we have many things to acquaint -ourselves with, we divine so many, many of them -that a whole life is short in the light of such a destiny. -But if it pleases you to join our vagabond -company you will discover, perhaps, the other side of -your own walls, which are hung with flax-weed and -wild geranium. The road that skirts them outside -leads to joy also.</p> - -<p>And besides, one does not find these ingenuous -walls everywhere. The greed of men has not yet -subjected all the beauty of things. You have -snatched up in your fingers a fleeting draught of -water: the ocean does not seem to be aware of it.</p> - -<p>You must understand that we really possess nothing -by ourselves. Veil, if you wish, the faces of -your women and visit every day the gold in the -depths of your vaults. Exclusiveness yields you no -wealth save that which is dead and unproductive.</p> - -<p>But he is truly rich for whom life is a perpetual -discovery.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>Discovery! It seems as if this word were one of a -cluster of magic keys, one of those keys that make all -doors open before our feet. We know that to possess -is to understand, to comprehend. That, in a -supreme sense, is what discovery means.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span></p> - -<p>To understand the world can well be compared -to the peaceful, enduring wealth of the great landowner; -to make discoveries is, in addition to this, -to come into sudden, overflowing riches, to have one -of those sudden strokes of fortune which double a -man’s capital by a windfall that seems like an inspiration.</p> - -<p>The life of a child who grows up unconstrainedly -is a chain of discoveries, an enriching of each moment, -a succession of dazzling surprises.</p> - -<p>I cannot go on without thinking of the beautiful -letter I received today about my little boy; it said: -“Your son knows how to find extraordinary riches, -inexhaustible treasures, even in the barrenest fields, -and when I set him on the grass, I cannot guess the -things he is going to bring out of it. He has an -admirable appreciation of the different kinds of soil; -if he finds sand he rolls in it, buries himself in it, -grabs up handfuls and flings them delightedly over -his hair. Yesterday he discovered a molehole, and -you cannot imagine all the pleasure he took in it. -He also knows the joys of a slope which one can -descend on one’s feet, or head over heels, or by rolling, -and which is also splendid for somersaults. -Every rise of ground interests him, and I wish you -could see him pushing his cart up them. There is a -little ditch where on the edge he likes to lie with his -feet at the bottom and his body pressed tight against<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> -the slope. He played interminably, the other day, -on top of a big stone; he kept stroking it, he had -truly found a new pleasure there. And as for me, -I find my wealth in watching him discover all these -things.”</p> - -<p>It is thus a child of fifteen months gives man lessons -in appreciation.</p> - -<p>Unfortunately, most systems of education do their -best to substitute hackneyed phrases for the sense of -discovery. A series of conventions are imposed on -the child; he ceases to discover and experience the -objects in the world in pinning them down with dry, -formal labels by the help of which he can recognize -them. He reduces his moral life little by little to -the dull routine of classifying pins and pegs, and in -this fashion begins the journey to maturity.</p> - -<p>Discover! You must discover in order to be rich! -You must not be satisfied to accept the night good-humoredly, -to go to sleep after a day empty of all -discovery. There are no small victories, no negligible -discoveries: if you bring back from your -day’s journey the memory of the white cloud of -pollen the ripe plantain lets fall, in May, at the -stroke of your switch, it may be little, but your day -is not lost. If you have only encountered on the -road the tiny urn of jade which the moss delightedly -balances at the end of its frail stem, it may seem -little, but be patient! Tomorrow will perhaps be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> -more fruitful. If for the first time you have seen a -swarm of bees go by in search of a hive, or heard the -snapping pods of the broom scattering its seeds in -the heat, you have nothing to complain of, and life -ought to seem beautiful to you. If, on that same -day, you have also enriched your collection of humanity -with a beautiful or an interesting face, confess -that you will go to sleep upon a treasure.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>There will be days when you will be like a peaceful -sovereign seated under a tree: the whole world will -come to render homage to you and bring you tribute. -Those will be your days of contemplation.</p> - -<p>There will be days when you will have to take your -staff and wallet and go and seek your living along -the highways. On these days you must be contented -with what you gain from observing, from hunting; -have no fear: it will be beautiful.</p> - -<p>It is sweet to receive; it is thrilling to take. You -must, by turns, charm and compel the universe. -When you have gazed long at the tawny rock, with -its lichens, its velvety mosses, it is most amusing to -lift it up: then you will discover its weight and the -little nest of orange-bellied salamanders that live -there in the cool.</p> - -<p>You have only to lie among the hairy mints and -the horse-tails to admire the religious dance of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> -dragon-fly going to lay its eggs in the brook, or to -hear in early June the clamorous orgy of the tree-toads, -drunk with love; and it is very pleasant, too, -to dip one’s hands in the water, to stir the gravel at -the bottom, whence bubble up a thousand tiny, agile -existences, or to pick the fleshy stalk of the water-lily -that lifts its tall head out of the depths.</p> - -<p>There are people who have passed a plant a thousand -times without ever thinking of picking one of its -leaves and rubbing it between their fingers. Do this -always and you will discover hundreds of new perfumes. -Each of these perfumes may seem quite insignificant, -and yet when you have breathed it once, -you wish to breathe it again; you think of it often, -and something has been added to you.</p> - -<p>It is an unending game and it resembles love, this -possession of a world that now yields itself, now -conceals itself. It is a serious, a divine game.</p> - -<p>Marcus Aurelius, whose philosophy cannot be -called futile, does not hesitate, amid many austere -counsels, to urge his friends to the contemplation -of those natural spectacles that are always so rich -in meaning and suggestion: “Everything that comes -forth from the works of nature,” he writes, “has its -grace and beauty. The face wrinkles in middle age, -the very ripe olive is almost decomposed, but the -fruit has, for all that, a unique beauty. The bending -of the corn toward the earth, the bushy brows<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> -of the lion, the foam that drips from the mouth of -the wild boar and many other things, considered -by themselves, are far from being beautiful; nevertheless, -since they are accessory to the works of -nature, they embellish them and add a certain charm. -Thus a man who has a sensitive soul, and who is capable -of deep reflection, will see, in whatever exists -in the world, hardly anything that is not pleasant in -his eyes, since it is related, in some way, to the -totality of things.”</p> - -<p>This philosopher is right as the poets are right. -As our days permit us, let us reflect and observe, let -us never cease to see in each fragment of the great -whole a pure source of happiness. Like children -drawn into a marvelous dance, let us not relax our -hold upon the hand that sustains us and directs us.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>Chalifour was a locksmith. I knew him in my -childhood. You would have said that he was just a -simple country laborer. Why has he left the memory -of a rich and powerful man? His image will always -be for me that of the “master of metals.”</p> - -<p>He worked in a mean, encumbered room, full of the -pungent, acrid odor of the forge, which seemed to -me a sort of annex to those other underground -vaults that used to be peopled by the earth-spirits.</p> - -<p>How I loved to see him, with his little apron of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> -blackened leather! He would seize a bar of iron and -this iron at once became his. He had his own way -of handling the object of his labor that was full of -love and authority. His gnarled hands touched -everything with a mixture of respect and daring; I -used to admire them as if they were the somber -workmen of some sovereign power.</p> - -<p>It seemed as if some pact had been made between -Chalifour and the hard metal, which gave the man -complete mastery over the material. One might -have thought that solemn vows had been exchanged.</p> - -<p>I see him again with his pensive air working the -panting bellows and watching the metal whose incandescence -was almost transparent. I see him at -the anvil: the hammer, handled forcefully, delicately, -obeying like a subject demon. I see him before the -drill, starting the great wheel, following the measured -exigencies of a ceremonial rite. Especially I -see him before the smoky window with its pale flood -of light, surveying, with that fine smile under his -white beard, the conquered piece of metal, the creature -of his will, which he had charged with destiny.</p> - -<p>O ancient laborer, great, simple man, how rich and -enviable you were, you who aspired to just one thing: -to do well what you were doing, to possess intimately -the object of your toil! No one better than you -has understood the ponderous, obedient iron, no one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> -than you has worked it with greater love and constancy.</p> - -<p>Somewhere there exists, I believe, an unhappy man -eaten up with nerves and stomach-disorder. He -lives crouched up against his telephone, and sends -his orders to all the stock exchanges of the world. -People call him the “iron king,” for some reason that -has to do with finance. I don’t believe he has ever -touched or weighed a morsel of real iron. Let us -smile, Chalifour! Let us smile, my master!</p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>I should like to tell you about Bernier, too. They -say he is a very poor man because his coat is all -shiny from wear and his shoes have the weary, -wretched look of things that have never been young, -because the sweat of many summers has soaked and -stained the ribbon of his hat and his baggy trousers -give him the air of always kneeling.</p> - -<p>Bernier has a poor little drooping moustache with -nothing glorious about it. You know only too well -that he earns a hundred and twenty francs a month -in some government bureau and that people say of -him, “He’s a poor devil with a miserable job.”</p> - -<p>As for me, I know that Bernier is rich, and I have -seen him smile in the hour of his wealth,—for the -true wealth has its times of slumber and its awakenings. -Bernier possesses something which is quite<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> -strange and almost inexpressible; it is a space, a -white space, vast and virgin, and it is his power to -be able to trace there certain harmonious lines which -he alone knows how to trace in the right way.</p> - -<p>Why have you never seen, why have you never been -able to see Bernier at the moment when he begins his -work, when the whole sickly light of the office seems -concentrated on the beautiful white page? His face -is serene, smiling, assured. He half closes his eyes -and draws back his head; he holds, adroitly and -elegantly, a certain chosen pen, flexible, with a good -point, a pen that belongs to him alone, which he has -prepared for himself and which he would throw -away if some blundering fool happened to touch it. -And then he begins!</p> - -<p>His kingdom is ranged all about him: ink pure -from all dust, a brightly lined ruler, a collection of -pens with all sorts of points. He begins, and the -black line obeys him, springs up, curves in, stops, -bounds forward or falls back, prances, yields. Look -at Bernier’s face: is it really the face of that poor -wretch you have just described to me? No! No! -It is the face of a masterful man, calm, sure of himself -and his wealth, who is doing something that -no one can do as well as he: across a snowy, limitless -desert he directs, as if in a dream, a black line that -advances, advances, now slowly, now dizzily, like -time itself.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span></p> - - -<h3>VII</h3> - -<p>You are willing to pay ten francs to see an acrobat -or a trained dog. Perhaps you have never watched -a spider about to prepare its web. In that case, do -not miss the spectacle at the very next opportunity. -When you have had a good glimpse of the extraordinary -creature revolving about the center of the -work and fastening, with its hind leg, so quickly -and accurately, the thread that it unwinds in just -the right quantity, you will be so delighted that you -will want to show the marvel to all those you love.</p> - -<p>It is strange what a contempt men have for the -joys that are offered them freely. And yet this does -not argue a shallowness in our natures: there is a certain -beauty in our prizing an object just because -it has cost us some trouble. You must not imagine, -however, that the marvels of nature come for nothing: -they cost patience, time and attention.</p> - -<p>An unhealthy curiosity and the taste for anomalies -incline us to take pleasure in seeing a creature -perform an action for which its own organism seems -unsuited. It palls very quickly. For a long time -now, for example, the flight of aviators has ceased -to excite our interest: we know all about that unmysterious -machine; its very sound and its presence in -the sky defile the silence and the space whose virginity -was a refuge for us. On the other hand, I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span> -assure you I never cease to be fascinated by the -mysterious manœuvers of a swarm of gnats, their -interweaving curves, the spherical movement which, -from instant to instant, transports the whole group -of insects and seems the result of some secret password, -and so many other subtle and profound mysteries -that remain, for the imagination, full of allurement, -full, one might say, of resources.</p> - -<p>And do you think there is nothing disturbing in -the beauty of the imperious flight of the great -dragon-fly, in its sudden, meditative pauses, in its -peremptory starts that lash the air like a supple, -furious whip?</p> - -<p>To whatever school of philosophy they belong, the -great observers of natural phenomena, the Darwins, -Lamarcks, Fabres, give us a magnificent lesson in -love. But why do we nourish ourselves only on their -harvests instead of providing our own? Why do -we buy and read their books without drawing any -real profit from them, without ever taking the trouble -to look down at our own feet, without ever going to -live, with the creatures of the sand and the grass, -their minute, thrilling existence, in which everything -would be for us full of novelty, discovery, suggestion?</p> - - -<h3>VIII</h3> - -<p>The world is so generous and I feel my heart so -full, so overflowing, that I do not even dream of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> -arranging in order all these things I have to say to -you. I should wish first of all to see your brow -relax, to hear you say that you are less dispirited -and that you refuse to be bored.</p> - -<p>I should like to know all of you, and each in -particular, to take you by the arm and walk with -you through one of the streets of your town, or -along the highroad if you live in the country. You -would tell me of your cares and we should search -together and see if there is indeed nothing in the universe -for which you are especially destined, if there -does not indeed exist, all ready for your wound, -the precise balm that is necessary to anoint and -heal it.</p> - -<p>I came out this morning from my shelter of planks. -The barren, chalky soil that surrounds it is surely -the most sterile in all Champagne, but it had rained -and the storm had brought up out of this miserable -soil, which is almost without vegetation, all sorts of -kindly odors. They were worth more than all the -perfumes of Florida, for they were the humble gift -of poverty.</p> - -<p>At the end of next February I could show you, -some morning, if the sun were out, the color of the -birches against the blue of the winter sky. All the -slender branches will seem ablaze with purple fire, -and the sky, through this delicate flame, will survey -you with an exquisite tenderness. You must wait,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span> -you must drink it in deeply, and not go on your way -before you have understood it. From it you will -be able to store up enough happiness to last you -till another winter comes and gives birth once more -to this prodigy of light.</p> - -<p>Last year, during the hard summer months on the -Aisne, I used to escape each day, for a second, -toward the end of the afternoon, from the overheated -tent where we carried on the bloody work of the -ambulance. One of my comrades was in the habit -of eating an apple at this hour. I used to ask him -to be good enough to lend it to me for a moment. -I loved to breathe its delicate, penetrating perfume -which, every day, changed with the fruit. That was -indeed a rare, a beautiful moment amid the fatigues -of that concert of suffering and death.</p> - -<p>I requisitioned this imponderable part of another’s -wealth; then I returned the apple to my comrade. I -could have wished that you had all been with me to -taste that poignant little joy.</p> - -<p>When peace comes again, if you wish to see me -in May, I will take you out under the great sycamore -that is turning green at the bottom of the meadow. -And there as you listen to the flying, the humming, -the loving and the living of the millions of creatures -that people its cool foliage, we shall set out together -on a journey so rare that you will leave your heaviest -sorrows along the way.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span></p> - - -<h3>IX</h3> - -<p>Some years ago, a magazine undertook to ask a -number of writers in what chosen spot they would -like to pass a few beautiful hours. Emile Verhaeren -answered:</p> - -<p>“In a certain corner of the harbor of Hamburg.”</p> - -<p>Verhaeren is among those who have revealed to us -the mournful grandeur of city views, of factory -towns, those places that seem accursed and from -which one might think that happiness was forever -exiled.</p> - -<p>The aspirations of our souls are so plentiful, so -tenacious, so fertile that we find something to console -us, satisfy us, exalt us in those very spots where -suffering rules tyrannically, where the valley of -Gehenna is most precipitous.</p> - -<p>I visited the docks of Liverpool with a sort of -horror. There were tall brick buildings, their roofs -lost in the smoke, windows covered with grime, their -interiors nothing but monstrous heaps of cotton -bales. Men were climbing about there like flies. -Everything smelt of fog and mould. Narrow pavements, -slimy with rain, ran along by the dry-docks -where the steamers, like immense corpses, were being -assailed by the frantic crowd. The workers toiled -amid a bombardment of hammers, a whirl of sparks.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> -The drills snarled like whipped cats. A hideous -light, smothered by the smoke and the mist of the -Mersey, drowned everything in its fetid flood.</p> - -<p>And yet, since then, I have often dreamed of that -terrible spot and felt the need of living there.</p> - -<p>For two years I attended the wounded of the First -Army Corps, all of them men from the north, -stained by the coal on face and chest, men from the -factories or the mines. I walked with them through -the smiling landscapes of the Aisne, the Vesle, the -Marne, when those lovely valleys had not yet been -too much disfigured by the war. Certainly they all -enjoyed the slopes with their gracious groves of -trees, the beautiful cultivated fields, draped like -many-colored shawls over the shoulders of the little -hills, but they all thought most, with love and regret, -of cylinders, mine shafts, machines, and a smoky -horizon.</p> - -<p>I can understand it: one’s native soil, one’s own -habitude, the familiar human landscape, moulded -upon the other and transfiguring it. Above everything -we have to recognize that the soul is sensitive -to many infinitely varied and often contradictory -things. Grace of lines, rustic charm are qualities -that attach us to a country; fierce and desolate -grandeur is another such, and this indeed has almost -the strongest nostalgic power of all.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span></p> - -<p>When beauty seems to have abandoned the world, -we must realize that it has first deserted our own -hearts.</p> - - -<h3>X</h3> - -<p>Between your five senses, open like the dazzling -portholes on the side of a ship, do you really believe -there is nothing, nothing but the void, the night, the -dumb wall?</p> - -<p>I do not know, I do not know.... I cannot believe....</p> - -<p>The sound rises, rises like the skylark, and the -ear rises with it. And then comes a moment when -the sound still rises and the hearing stops, like those -birds that do not frequent the loftiest altitudes.</p> - -<p>Tell me, are they lost truly and forever, those -sounds that hold sway at the gates of your soul, -those sounds to which your senses are not equal?</p> - -<p>Wait! Hope! Some day perhaps we shall know.</p> - -<p>You will say to me: “The light is so beautiful, so -beautiful! It adds luster to so many things that are -dear to me. Have I any need to dream of other -rays than these? My eyes have already so much -to do that they are overcome by their delight. The -beauty of sound and silence ceaselessly intoxicates -my ear.”</p> - -<p>True! Your soul has active purveyors. They -do not leave it idle. They come and heap at its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> -feet riches that demand its enthusiasm and its solicitude.</p> - -<p>But often there is in your soul something your -senses have not brought there, an exquisite joy, an -inexpressible sadness. Do not forget that you live -bathed in a multitude of rays to only some of which -you are sensible. The others are perhaps not quite -strange to you. What is passing, in contraband, -across the frontiers of your being? Do not obstinately -try to bring it under control. Submit, experience, -be merely attentive and respectful to -everything. Some day we shall perhaps know more -things than we are able to divine now.</p> - - -<h3>XI</h3> - -<p>One of the greatest delights of the religious faith -is to abandon ourselves to gratitude, to be able to -thank, from an overflowing heart, the moral being -to whom we feel indebted for our wealth.</p> - -<p>Why then, since I have long lost this faith, do I -still feel each day, and several times a day, the great -need of singing the canticle of Francis of Assisi, the -lovely canticle in which he says:</p> - -<div class="blockquot small1"> - -<p>Praise be unto Thee, O Lord, and unto all Thy creatures, -especially our gracious brother the sun, who gives us the -day and through whom Thou showest us Thy light. He -is beautiful and radiant with a great splendor. He is the -symbol of Thee, Most High.</p> - -<p>Praise be unto Thee, O Lord, for our sister the moon and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> -the stars, fashioned by Thee in the sky, clear, precious, and -beautiful.</p> - -<p>Praise be unto Thee, O Lord, for our mother the wind, -and for the air and the clouds, for the pure sky, and for -all the time during which Thou givest to thy creatures life -and sustenance.</p> - -<p>Praise be unto Thee, O Lord, for our sister the water, -who is so useful, precious and clean.</p> - -<p>Praise be unto Thee, O Lord, for our brother the fire, -through whom Thou illuminest the night. He is lovely and -gay, courageous and strong.</p> - -<p>Praise unto Thee, O Lord, for our mother the earth, who -sustains us and nourishes us, and brings forth divers fruits -and flowers of a thousand colors and the grass.</p> -</div> - -<p>A poet has transposed these divine strophes into -the harmony of French verse and sings thus:</p> - -<p> -I shall praise you, Lord, for having made so lovely and so bright<br /> -This world where you wish us to await our life.<br /> -</p> - -<p>Now, I know very well that in this world I am -not awaiting life, I am living. I know very well that -it is here I must live and lose no time about it. My -gratitude is all the more pressing, all the more intense.</p> - -<p>What if it does rise to an empty heaven, that infinite -gratitude!</p> - -<p>It will not be lost. And is that heaven ever -empty to which we breathe out so many dreams, -where there trembles so much beauty!</p> - -<p>The sweetest of human voices has said: “Lay up -for yourselves in heaven the treasures that do not -perish.” Perhaps we shall be pardoned if we dare<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> -to murmur: “Lay up for yourselves, in this world, -the treasures that do not perish.”</p> - -<p>They will not perish, these treasures, O my son, -and all you whom I love, they will not perish if you -thirst to discover them only that you may share them -with others, that you may bequeath them to a devout -posterity.</p> - -<p>They will not perish if they find their being, their -supreme reason, in that region of the soul where -believers have raised up the tabernacle of a God.</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" >V<br /> -THE LYRICS OF LIFE</h2> -</div> - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>During the cruellest hours, when the war -about me has been heaping agony upon agony, -when I have been able to find nothing, nothing to -which I could any longer attach my confidence and -my need of hope, I have often been surprised to find, -running through my head, one of those airs that I -know so well, those airs that I love and that escort -my soul, like watchful and radiant personages, -through the chaos of the days. And I would think -bitterly: “Just fifteen quite simple notes! but they -carry a meaning so beautiful, so profound, so commanding -that they would suffice, I am certain, to -resolve all conflicts, to discourage all hatreds, if men -knew them well enough to sing them all together with -the same attentive tenderness.”</p> - -<p>It may be that the philosophy which absorbs you -is one that leaves no room for indulgence. Perhaps -you feel yourself full of bitterness for your fellows, -perhaps you have made up your mind not to see in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> -the activity of the living any but motives of greed -and covetousness. Do not laugh! Do not be in -too great haste to prove yourself right! Above -everything, do not rejoice in being right in so dismal -a fashion.</p> - -<p>I say it again, if certain pages of Beethoven were -better known to those who suffer and slaughter one -another they would succeed in disarming many a -resentment, they would restore to many a tense face -a soft, ineffable smile.</p> - -<p>If you do not believe this, you are not accustomed -to living among simple people, you have never -watched an irrepressible class of little children whom -their master dominates and calms by making them -sing, you have never heard a multitude of people -intoning a hymn in some cathedral, you have never -seen a great flood of workingmen, in some foul slum, -break into the rhythm of a revolutionary song, perhaps -you have never even seen a poor man weeping -because a violin had just recalled to him his youth -and the obscure thoughts he believed he had never -in all his life confessed to anyone.</p> - -<p>Think of all these things and then form some notion -of what it is the thoughts of the great masters -can do with the soul. Why, why is it not better -known, this thing which is, indeed, knowledge and -revelation itself? Why does it not reign over the -empires, this which is sovereignty, grandeur,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> -majesty? Why is it not more ardently invoked in -the hour of crisis, this that teaches, equally well, -fruitful doubt and serene resolution?</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>True, he who says ecstatically, “The world is -governed by love, goodness, generous passions,” surrenders -himself to a childish error. But he who -cries, “The whole world is enslaved by egoism, violence -and base passions,” speaks foolishly.</p> - -<p>As we look about us, we might perhaps imagine -that from one or the other of these two moral attitudes -there is no escape. Must we believe that -the spirit of system has such an irresistible hold -over everyone who sets about the business of living?</p> - -<p>The world! The world! It is much more beautiful -and complex than that. It always upsets our -prearrangements, and that is why we cherish it so -dearly. But we also love to foresee things, and system -seems to arrange them so that we can.</p> - -<p>What does it signify in a world that is capable of -everything? Amid the evil and the mediocre there -will always shine forth consolingly something noble, -something wondrous. Is it not shameful to predict -the basest things so glibly only to close our eyes the -more obstinately before the beauty that is unknown -and unforeseen?</p> - -<p>I assure you, in spite of all, that two lines of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span> -music can turn a multitude back and agitate the -deepest springs of its behavior. If the miracle does -not result from harmonious sounds, it will be borne, -perhaps, of ten warm, rhythmical words, or the sight -of a statue or the evocation of an image.</p> - -<p>The worship of immediate realities leads us to -those easy victories that intoxicate the coarse spirits. -At times it results in irreparable disasters, for it inclines -us to misprize those secret and delicate things -that pave the way for the soul’s most daring flights -and ventures.</p> - -<p>Some other time I shall tell the story of the general -who, in order to allay the grievances of his -mutinous troops, offered them a cask of wine and, -thanks to this blunder, suffered a defeat.</p> - -<p>People who reason in a wholesale fashion get along -successfully from day to day till the hour when a -tiny error destroys their success forever.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>If the thoughts of great men no longer cause miracles -it is because they are too little understood, -or are misunderstood, or are purposely distorted. -You are mistaken if you think they are powerless -because they are beautiful.</p> - -<p>The war, which has crushed such great masses of -men, has brought us face to face with this melancholy -evidence, it has enabled us thoroughly to examine<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> -many individuals and to put many experiences -to the proof. It has permitted us to measure -the whole humiliation of moral civilization before that -other, the scientific and industrial civilization which -we might still better call practical civilization.</p> - -<p>Gifted, serious, good men have said to me, “First -of all one has to live. You can see, in the midst of -this hurricane, what would become of a people weakened -by idealism and given over to the works of the -spirit. My son will study chemistry. The coming -century will be a hard one, my son will perhaps never -have the time to read Emerson or acquaint himself -with the works of Bach! Too bad! But first of all -one has to live.”</p> - -<p>Does it not seem as if error had a dazzling power -to seduce us and overwhelm us? Men are always -hoping to conquer it by yielding to its demands. No -one has the courage to turn his own steps away from -its shifting shore. No one, for example, says to me: -“The moral culture of the world is in peril. Mechanical -progress monopolizes and swallows up all -human energy. The generous soul of the best men -is forgotten, in exile. Let us, with a common voice, -with all our strength, summon it to come back to us, -or let us go and die in exile with it, in an exile that -is noble and pure.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span></p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>I shall speak to you again of all these things; we -must talk a great deal more about the future if we -wish to enter it without blindness, shame, and horror.</p> - -<p>For the moment, glance at the people who surround -us, the restless people we see on all sides. -There are some of them who know what is beautiful. -They rejoice in it, almost in secrecy, and despise -those who do not share their faith. As for the others, -they do not know it, and that is all one can say. -They are, according to their several characters, ignorant -and sceptical, or just simply ignorant. They -see how works of art and the spirit miraculously survive -the decadence and the prosperity of empires: -that astonishes them without convincing them. Many -divine that this has something to do with a secret -and sacred power, but they do not dare and they do -not know how to avail themselves of it. They catch -glimpses of the feast of the heroes and they cannot -realize that their place is marked and waiting for -them.</p> - -<p>Among my everyday companions are many educated -men upon whom the universities have lavished -their care and their degrees. Many of them are -interested neither in their duties, nor in their comrades, -nor, one would say, in their own thoughts. -They play cards, read the papers, think about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> -women and complain of ennui, for the war has enthroned -boredom. And yet these souls, I assure you, -are of good material and full of energy and resource.</p> - -<p>What is to be done? How is one to introduce -them to a larger, fuller life? How can one dare to -do that without presumption, and also without fear -of pomposity? How do it with affection, without -lecturing them, without preaching to them? How -be useful and friendly with simplicity? They have -suffered, they have experience and obstinate views of -their own. They do not believe that they have been -dispossessed of anything. You have to listen very -attentively to hear their soul groaning in the depths.</p> - -<p>I spoke to one of them about music. He replied -with an indifference in which there was a touch of -discouragement; “For my part, I don’t understand -music. It can’t interest me.” We went on talking -and I discovered that he was strangely sensitive to -architectual matters, that he had a very subtle understanding -and lacked nothing but enlightenment, -knowledge, to have applied himself to it with passionate -interest.</p> - -<p>It is usually that way. The field of moral activity -is so large that it has in reserve for every soul -a path of his own choice, accessible and full of allurement. -I do not believe there is a single individual -who cannot end by meeting, in the limitless realm<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> -of art, with a mode of expression that touches him, -conforms quite accurately to his powers and tastes.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>You see I have waited a long time before pronouncing -the word. I must at last make up my -mind to call art by its name. Listen and do not -confuse modesty with timidity.</p> - -<p>The past century has produced important artists -in every country in the world. That was a beautiful, -fertile and truly generous century! And yet -it witnessed the birth of a misunderstanding that -grows more obdurate, that increases as it grows older. -Should one ever allow a misunderstanding to grow -old?</p> - -<p>The romantic writers and, following them, all the -artists of their epoch, intoxicated with their own -genius, honored art as a religion. It was natural -enough since at that moment, as we know, mankind -was beginning to detach itself from its divinities, and -it is hard to live without God. I cannot bring myself -to condemn that enthusiasm. I love art too -well, and I shall always hold it as one of the distinguishing -marks of man and one of the greatest things -in this world.</p> - -<p>But the priests of this new God have acted like -all priests: they have hurled anathemas and brought -in a reign of intolerance. They have grown mad<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span> -with pride, when there was reason and when there -was no reason for it. They have cried out at all -hours of the day, “Away, profane ones!” Many of -them, who have had very noble souls, have discouraged, -as if designedly, those whom their radiant -face has fascinated. Others, instead of struggling, -have held the epoch responsible for their ill-fortune. -All of them, poets, painters, musicians, have let it -be understood that they exercised a divine power and -that the mass of men must only wonder and be silent, -without themselves attempting anything of the -sort.</p> - -<p>No doubt there is a certain virtue in this attitude; -it has lavished solitary consolations on those who -have turned their backs on fashion.</p> - -<p>The worthiest heirs of these illustrious men have -confirmed their tradition. They have devised a -splendid isolation, raised up a tower of ivory and -dug all about it a moat that every day grows deeper. -They have also stirred up childish and shame-faced -adversaries with a desire for the commonest sort of -popularity, and the confirmation of billboard success.</p> - -<p>Yet humanity is waiting and longs to be treated -neither as intruders nor as children.</p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>It cannot be said any longer that pure art is of no -use: it helps us to live.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span></p> - -<p>It helps us to live, in the most practical manner -and every day.</p> - -<p>Every moment you make instinctive, reiterated, -and forcible appeals to all the forms of art. And -that not only in order to express your thought, but -still more and above all to shape your thought, to -think your thought.</p> - -<p>You find yourself in the midst of a landscape, and -there is an image at the back of your eye. The manner -in which you accept and interpret this image -bears the mark of your personality and also of a -crowd of other personalities which you call to your -aid without knowing it.</p> - -<p>The day when the painters of our continent invented -that convention we call perspective, they -modified and determined, for many long years, our -way of seeing things. It must be recognized equally -that since the reign of impressionism we have understood, -possessed in a new way, the colors of the -world.</p> - -<p>You live in a sonorous universe where everything -is rhythm, tone, number and harmony: human voices, -the great sounds of nature, the artificial uproar of -society envelopes you in a vibrant and complex network -that you ought unceasingly to decipher and -translate. Well, this you cannot do without submitting -to the influence of the great souls who have -occupied themselves with these things. The understanding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</span> -of movements, harmonies, rhythms, only -comes to you at the moment when the musicians reveal -their secret to you, since they have been able, -in some fashion, to interest you in them.</p> - -<p>And this is true in regard to everything. If you -discover something in your environment, if you perceive -an interesting harmony between two beings, a -curious relation between two ideas, you will succeed -in throwing them into relief, in giving happy expression -to them, only by means of the poet’s art, and -if you cannot find terms and images of your own, -you can freely borrow them from Hugo, from -Baudelaire, from those unknown artists who have -elaborated the common language of men.</p> - -<p>We do not think alone. Resign yourself, therefore, -to being the delighted prisoner of a vast, human -system from which you cannot escape without error -and loss. Become, with good grace, the friend and -the guest of great men.</p> - - -<h3>VII</h3> - -<p>They will introduce you to a profound, passionate, -lyrical life. They will aid you to possess the world. -Art is not simply a manner of moving the pencil, the -pen or the bow. It is not a secret, technical process. -It is, above everything else, a way of living.</p> - -<p>If your business is to grow wheat or to smelt copper, -perform it with interest and skill. That will<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</span> -render service to other men whose function is to -assemble colors, shapes, words or sounds. They -will know how to render service to you, in their own -fashion, repay you in turn. But do not imagine that -their works are destined merely to divert your leisure. -They have a more sacred, a more beautiful mission: -that of placing you in possession of your own wealth.</p> - -<p>Art is the supreme gift that men make of their -discoveries, their riches.</p> - -<p>No one has possessed the world better than Lucretius, -Shakespeare or Goethe. What do you know -of Croesus, who heaped up his gold to such an abnormal -and monstrous degree? Nothing has remained -of that chimerical fortune but a vague memory. -But the fortune of Rembrandt has become and -will remain the fortune of our race.</p> - -<p>To follow the example of these masters is not so -much to try, with pen or palette in hand, to imitate -them, as to understand with them, and thanks to -them, what they have understood.</p> - -<p>This cannot hurt your pride or hinder the expansion -of your own personality. Quite the contrary. -This studious humility is the surest path toward the -conquest of your own soul. The anatomists will explain -to you that the human embryo adopts successively, -in its quick evolution, all the forms the species -has known before its actual flowering. This great -law rules also in the moral order, and do not count<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</span> -on escaping it. It is by first knowing the world -through the masters that you will succeed some day -in grasping it in your hands, dominating it yourself.</p> - -<p>Ambition is an intoxicating passion, but to go to -school to genius is a prudent measure and a sweet -experience, too.</p> - - -<h3>VIII</h3> - -<p>If you are unhappy, oppressed, if you have melancholy -doubts of your future, of your ability, of your -power to love, and if nothing in heaven replies to -your prayer, to your need for deliverance, remember -that you are not abandoned without resource. Men -remain to you. The best among them have made for -your consolation, for your redemption, statues, books -and songs.</p> - -<p>Open one of these books, therefore, and plunge into -it! Sink into it as into a cool forest, as into a deep, -running brook.</p> - -<p>A man is speaking to you of himself or of the -world. Read! Read on! Little by little the harmonious -voice envelopes you, cradles you, lifts you -up and suddenly bears you away. The tightness in -your throat seems to relax, you breathe with a sort -of fervor and exaltation. Generous tears start to -your eyes or your whole soul shakes with laughter.</p> - -<p>This great and wholesome exaltation people attribute<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</span> -to the miraculous presence of beauty. No -doubt, no doubt! But that vague and simple explanation -is an almost mythical one.</p> - -<p>For you must realize that the man with whom you -have just been having a sort of intimate colloquy has -comforted you and carried you out of yourself -mainly because he has been able to prove to you that -you were neither abandoned, nor destitute, nor truly -disgraced. He has seemed to you great but, in recalling -to you that you are of the same race as himself, -he has effaced himself before you. He has given -you happy, courageous, new thoughts, and you have -suddenly seen that you were thinking them also. -For a second you have both communed together. -And you have felt yourself once more in possession -of a treasure that was escaping you.</p> - -<p>It is true, all these thoughts are your own, since -it is enough for you to see them in writing to recognize -them. It is true, you too have your grandeur, -your nobility and infinite resources. How could -you have forgotten it for a moment? It is enough -for you to open that book or to hum that song to -remember it. It is true, your life also is astonishing -and full of adventures. How did you fall into -that despair? What did that discouragement signify?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</span></p> - - -<h3>IX</h3> - -<p>During the winter of 1917, I made the acquaintance -of a young provincial musician who was serving -in the same unit with me. At Soissons we found -a room where we were able to meet and play together.</p> - -<p>Our new comrade was a simple man with a country -accent.</p> - -<p>He played the violin carefully and with talent. -Often, during our concerts, we watched his face as it -bent over the instrument, and it seemed to us that in -those moments that humble violinist was in communion -with the great souls of Bach, Beethoven, and Franck, -that he was holding a brotherly and affectionate conversation -with them. I felt then that he had nothing -to envy in the princes of this world. And it is a -fact, I believe, that he did not envy them anything.</p> - -<p>Do not tell me that you do not know how to play -any instrument. That signifies nothing. There are -two skilful professional musicians in my group who -play their instruments only just enough to enable -them not to lose practice for their calling. They -are a sort of mechanician. As for you, you have a -heart, ears, and a memory. And that’s the main -thing.</p> - -<p>Believe that what you hold in your memory is more -precious than everything else, for you carry that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</span> -with you wherever you go, through all your days.</p> - -<p>Do you think I can ever bore myself, with all those -thousands of airs that sing in my head, that secretly -accompany all my thoughts and offer a sort -of harmonious comment upon all the acts of my life?</p> - -<p>If this does not seem possible to you, remember -that you possess the immense library of humankind -and all its museums. Think of all you have read -and admired. Think of it with pride and affection. -Think of all that remains to you to see and to read -and tell yourself how marvelous it is to be so ignorant -as to have such riches in reserve, to have such -treasures to conquer.</p> - -<p>Amid the ordeals and the disillusionments of your -existence, lift your soul every day toward those divine -brothers who are our masters, and repeat with -a proud humility: “It is sweet to sit down at your -feast! And how good to think that it is to you we -owe our opulence and our prosperity!”</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" >VI<br /> -SORROW AND RENUNCIATION</h2> -</div> - - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>If, concerning an old man, some one said to us: -“He has been perfectly happy all his life, he is -going to die without ever having suffered,” we should -be incredulous at first; then, if we were obliged to -admit the truth of the remark, we should feel for -this old man not so much envy as pity. With our -astonishment would be mingled, in spite of all, something -a little like contempt.</p> - -<p>Happiness is our aim, the final reason for our -living. But is it fair to say that sorrow is opposed -to happiness?</p> - -<p>There are sorrows that one cannot, that one should -not, escape. They are the very price we pay for -happiness. It is by means of them that we travel -toward our own development. They prepare us for -joy and render us worthy of it. Without them, -could we ever know that we were happy?</p> - -<p>If I believed, O my unknown friend for whom today<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</span> -I am hoping these consolations, if I believed that -you could reach happiness, that is to say, the harmonious -prosperity of your soul, without experiencing -any agonies, I should not undertake to praise -your suffering. But you suffer, I know it, and you -are called to other sufferings. Henceforth I shall -not refrain from praising what wounds you. For -one does not console anyone by depreciating his -grief, but by showing him how beautiful, how rare, -how desirable it is, and your suffering can truly be -called that.</p> - -<p>I do not dream, then, of depriving you of your -wealth. I only hope that you will be able to appreciate -its full value. I beg that you will pardon -me if I chance to hurt you by placing my hand upon -your wound. I do it, you may be sure, with the -affection and the solicitude of a man who has consecrated -his life to such tasks.</p> - -<p>They will tell you, my friend, that I am seeking to -flatter your distress by reasonings that are full of -guile, that I am singing to lull you to sleep and -deceive you, that I am dressing in the gilded clothes -of an age that is past the black demon that torments -you. Let me still have your confidence: I have only -one ambition,—it is your own greatest joy. I -could not lead you astray without shame and without -deceiving myself; for are you not indeed myself, O -my friend?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</span></p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>There are some material fortunes which humble -and reasonable men do not desire because they divine, -in spite of the pleasures that result from them, what -a crushing load they are.</p> - -<p>By contrast, among the spiritual riches that we -are able to possess, grief seems surrounded by a -simple aureole. It is tyrannical, redoubtable, mutilating; -its favorites are its victims. It does not -descend upon its chosen ones with the softness of a -dove, it pounces like a bird of prey, and those whom -it carries off into the sky bear upon their sides the -marks of its clenched claws.</p> - -<p>But it is the sign of life; of all our possessions -it is the last to leave us, it is the one that escorts us -to the brink of the abyss.</p> - -<p>It gives us the measure of man. He who has not -suffered always seems to us a little like a child or -a pauper.</p> - -<p>The bitterness of men who have been often visited -by sorrow is so truly a treasure that, if they could, -they would not rid themselves of it for anything in -the world: it resembles authority.</p> - -<p>Through his tears, through his martyrdom, he who -is charged with a great sorrow feels that he is the -abode of some terrible thing that is also sacred and -majestic. Great griefs command our respect. Before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</span> -them knees tremble and heads bow as in the presence -of thrones and tabernacles.</p> - -<p>He who has suffered greatly makes us feel timid -and humble before him. He knows things that we -can only guess. We gaze upon him with passionate -admiration as upon a traveller who has journeyed -over oceans and explored far countries. It is at the -time of his first wounds that the young man discovers -his soul and plumbs his inner nobility.</p> - -<p>Our grief is so precious a blessing that for its -sake we dread inquisitive contacts. We preserve it -jealously from the touch of those who might, through -clumsiness or stupidity, debase this terrible and precious -treasure. We long only that people should -leave us alone with this bitter possession! Let them -beware of frustrating us when they imagine that they -are working for our relief!</p> - -<p>When sorrow leaves us too soon, we feel a sort of -shame and think less well of ourselves: it shone out -of its shadowy casket, out of the deepest depths of -the chest where we heap up our true treasures, and -now, behold, it has vanished! We find ourselves almost -miserable and utterly dispossessed.</p> - -<p>The man who beats a retreat before a great ordeal -fills us with distrust and pity. Something in us rejoices -that he has not suffered. But something regrets -that he has not given his measure, that he has -not been the hero, the potent, exceptional man we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</span> -hoped he would be. And that is not a mere perversion -of our need for the spectacular: we are not -less exacting with ourselves.</p> - -<p>When sorrow comes to us, and we manage to escape -it, the first sense of deliverance we feel is marred -by an obscure, obstinate regret, as if we had lost an -opportunity to enrich ourselves.</p> - -<p>Tell me, what man among us did not, at the outset -of the present great catastrophe, interrogate his own -fate with a double anguish: the anguish to know what -sufferings were in store for him, the fear also that -he might not suffer enough, that he might not receive, -and quickly, an adequate share of the ordeal.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>This religious respect we experience in the face of -grief gives its meaning and beauty to the feeling of -sympathy.</p> - -<p>We do not wish to admit that a great grief can -live side by side with us without demanding that we -should share it. As a man of lowly station wistfully -approaches the table of princes, so we revolve about -the grief of others in the hope of being invited to -partake of it.</p> - -<p>It is an overmastering impulsion that rises from -the depths of our natures. The eagerness we are -able to bring to the sharing of others’ joys is but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</span> -lukewarm beside the insurmountable urge that makes -us share in their sorrow.</p> - -<p>This is because our taste for joy is stamped with -a keen quality of reserve, an irreducible delicacy. -The joy even of those who are nearest to us can -easily become repugnant to us. We are too proud -to seem eager for it. True grief, on the contrary, -attracts us, fascinates us. It disarms our critical -sense and leaves us only an obscure feeling of envy.</p> - -<p>Sympathy stirs us gently without overwhelming -us; it is for this reason too that we find it so full of -savor.</p> - -<p>Although we recoil from the terrors of the leading -part, sympathy permits us to play passionately the -rôle of supernumeraries.</p> - -<p>It is not we who are struck down and yet we can -taste the mystic horror of the wound. The chosen -victim bestows alms upon us and we accept them -without shame. We have the perfume of the Host -on our lips and it is not our blood that has paid the -sacrifice. We are the guests at a sumptuous and -tragic feast. We bear the reflected light of the -great funeral pyre, without undergoing the flames -and the destruction.</p> - -<p>That explains our leaning toward those works of -art that find their strength and their subjects in -human grief. It is for this reason, surely, that we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</span> -love so dearly to shed tears at the theater. The -great artists have drawn from grief their most beautiful -inspirations. We vow eternal gratitude to -those who can revive in us a faithful image of our -torments and call them back to our forgetful souls, -to those who know so well how to give us a foretaste -of the delights that future suffering has in store for -us.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>Not all griefs exalt us and add to us. There are -some that are sterile, withering, unconfessable.</p> - -<p>Such griefs bring only misery and impoverishment. -In the moral order they stand for debts and failures. -However great may be our blind indulgence for ourselves, -we cannot, on principle, impute them to ourselves. -They do not bear the stamp of destiny but -of our own baseness.</p> - -<p>Who, indeed, would wish to share them with us, -when we do not even let them appear?</p> - -<p>Who would wish to associate himself with our -weaknesses, our shames, our jealousies, our betrayals? -Who can feel sympathy for a grief that disavows -everything pure and generous that exists in -us? No mention is made of these griefs in the Beatitudes.</p> - -<p>Christ himself might ask us to kiss the face of a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</span> -leper. But what charity could so sacrifice itself as -to embrace our shame and our degradation?</p> - -<p>That is the cup we must put away from our lips.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>The stoics pursue their strange happiness with an -impassibility that is worse than death. Epictetus -writes: “If you love an earthen vessel, tell yourself -that you love an earthen vessel, for then if that vessel -is broken you will not be troubled by it. If you -love your son or your wife, tell yourself that you -love a mortal being, for then if that being chance -to die you will not be troubled by it.”</p> - -<p>Comes our wisdom at such a price? If so, I renounce -and abhor it. Better trouble and sorrow -than this inhuman serenity!</p> - -<p>Certainly I willingly renounce the earthen vessel; -the sound of its breaking will never be loud enough -to interrupt the conversation our souls pursue. But -those dear faces that are my horizon, my heaven and -my homeland, can I think without anguish of losing -them forever? How irreparably I should despise -myself if, on that condition, I succeeded in winning -my own salvation!</p> - -<p>This philosophy is poor, forsaken, desperate, -rather than truly wise. It renounces, by degrees, -everything, for the sake of an ironical peace. It<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</span> -withdraws from life the least debatable motives for -continuing it. It seeks to close the heart to sorrow. -But since that remains inevitable, it is better to love -it, better to make an ally of it, better to conquer it -by main strength and possess it intimately.</p> - -<p>Dryness of heart cannot be a good thing. What, -is everything to be taken away from me, even my -grief, even that grief which remains to us when all -other blessings have been ravished away?</p> - -<p>The resources of philosophy are poor and destitute -unless the heart can anoint them, sanctify them, -and invest them with its own supreme authority.</p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>The fanaticism of grief is a fact so profoundly -human that religions and governments have exploited -it successfully. This almost mystical passion flourishes -so well among peoples that are permeated with -the ancient traditions of suffering and renunciation!</p> - -<p>Nevertheless, the path does not lie through this -sublime error, which is altogether too favorable for -the enterprises of criminal ambition.</p> - -<p>Sorrow cannot be a thing that one covets. It is, -it ought to be, simply a thing that one accepts. -Like certain terrible dignities, like certain overwhelming -honors, one receives it, one does not seek -it. Destiny brings a sufficient burden of mourning -and cruelty, it should not be tempted. The noble<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</span> -life demands that we shall be courageous, it does not -require us to be foolhardy. To him who “seeks -while he groans,” suffering will never be wanting.</p> - -<p>At this hour the whole world is intoxicated with it, -satiated, it would seem, for all time. At this hour -there rises an immense cry of pity and supplication.</p> - -<p>All generous souls are wounded to the quick and -stagger. It is not in the moment when they beg for -mercy that one would desire a superaddition of -martyrdom. It is enough to assume the sanguinary -wealth with which we are overwhelmed.</p> - -<p>No one will ever be deprived of it who lives for -love. We shall all be honored according to our merits. -And we shall know that grief is its own reward; -for it is in sorrow and abnegation that our -soul becomes supremely aware of the beauty of the -world and of its own virtues.</p> - -<p>We cannot ask to be indemnified for our -riches....</p> - - -<h3>VII</h3> - -<p>In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children!</p> - -<p>It is true! Our child was born in sorrow, in your -sorrow, O my friend! I am jealous because of it. -Forgive me!</p> - -<p>Forgive me, for your part is more beautiful than -mine, inasmuch as it contains more suffering. Let<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</span> -me look upon you with envy. Let me think of my -own lot with regret.</p> - -<p>You have borne, you have brought forth, you have -nourished. It was not in my side that this little -body lay. It is not my flesh this tender, greedy -mouth has clung to. I have known nothing of that -suffering. You have kept it all for yourself. I -have only picked up the crumbs, like a beggar, like -a pauper.</p> - -<p>I have not suffered! I have not suffered enough! -I look on my happiness as upon something usurped. -It is your happiness that I share. It is your wealth -that overflows even upon me.</p> - -<p>I know that a day may come when we shall both -suffer together because of this son. But whatever -may be our common anguish, you will always keep -the first place, you will always walk before me. -You have forever outdistanced me along the shining -road.</p> - -<p>How can I help regarding you with envy, I who -have not suffered enough?</p> - - -<h3>VIII</h3> - -<p>Exalted spirits, struck by our many resemblances -to the beasts, have striven to find what was the distinguishing -mark of man. It is a noble solicitude, -for wheresoever the mark of men may be it is that -way we must go. If we really possess a characteristic<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</span> -virtue of which the animals are deprived, it is -that which we must exalt, in order to be completely, -proudly, men.</p> - -<p>Pascal said: “Man is obviously made to think; -and his whole dignity, his whole merit, and his whole -duty lies in thinking rightly.”</p> - -<p>Can we indeed believe that no other being has this -grandeur to any degree? Are we so sure that “a -tree does not know it is miserable”?</p> - -<p>Even art, which may turn out to be the instrument -of our redemption, is not certainly the lot of -our race alone. Song and the dance triumph among -the animals and often appear like the beautiful inventions -of a gratuitous activity, with no other end -than themselves and the emotions they give or interpret.</p> - -<p>In renunciation, perhaps, lies our distinction, the -trait which stamps us and sets us apart.</p> - -<p>I say “perhaps,” because animals also offer us -examples of abnegation. Sacrifice beautifies even -their habits. With them, too, the individual sacrifices -himself for the group, the hero sacrifices itself -for the race. At the moment when I am writing -these lines we are in autumn; a swarm of bees is -dying of cold on a branch beside me. They are -dying with a sort of resignation, in order that their -hive, so poor in resources, may survive the winter.</p> - -<p>Why not share, then, with these humble victims,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</span> -our most beautiful quality? Why refuse to possess -something in common with them, since it is a virtue? -Why cut ourselves off haughtily from the rest of -life?</p> - -<p>Over and above this, the renunciation that has no -particular or general motive of interest, the pure -and absolute renunciation which is a heroic folly, is -undoubtedly our business. I am not speaking now -of the renunciation of the better religions, the renunciation -that counts on celestial rewards, but of -the renunciation which is an end in itself, which -finds in itself its own sorrowful recompense.</p> - - -<h3>IX</h3> - -<p>Can we ever forget, my friend, that woman who -was the lesson of your youth, your counsellor and -your example?</p> - -<p>She lived in that dark, low room where you so -loved to go and to which you used to show me the -way, a way that seemed to me that of veneration -itself.</p> - -<p>Disillusionments, griefs, sickness and, without -doubt, a great need for renunciation had gradually -sequestered her in that unlovely place of refuge, -encumbered with old books and full of the odor of -dust. She seemed cut off from the world; but in -the shadow of that retreat her eye sparkled so -vivaciously, she spoke with so melodious a voice that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</span> -the world pursued her who had abandoned it even -into her retirement: the friendship of young people, -that friendship which is so pure and spontaneous, -was for her a constant testimony. This was the -only thing she would not renounce, her only ornament, -her last elegance, her possession.</p> - -<p>Year by year death came to snatch from her affection -those of her own blood. Every sort of happiness -withdrew from her as she retired into her -abode, light itself she dreaded more and more, and -more and more renounced.</p> - -<p>Every time we passed through her little door, so -slow in opening, we had at first an insurmountable -feeling of being suffocated, for we were still intoxicated -with our radiant life, our destiny and our -ambitions.</p> - -<p>But soon our eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, -our souls recognized the humble, penetrating -odor of the hangings, and we found again that beautiful, -commanding glance, that voice with its supernatural -freshness.</p> - -<p>Her malady struck her new blows. This woman -who still possessed the space of three rooms had to -shut herself in one of them. And then, even of this -she possessed no more than a corner. Her world -was only a little wall and the wood of an old bed.</p> - -<p>That ardent eye still shone. That spiritual -voice still prevailed. One day the voice faltered<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</span> -and sank, like a ship disabled in a storm which gives -up all resistance.</p> - -<p>That day we were sad, sad, we who had not learned -to renounce.</p> - - -<h3>X</h3> - -<p>Delivered from romanticism, the nineteenth century -toward its close and the twentieth century at -its beginning, exalted an image full of the pride of -physical life, of impetuous health.</p> - -<p>Never had humanity seemed more intoxicated with -its carnal development, with its splendid animality, -than at the very moment when the war broke out. -Our humanity! behold it now, covered with wounds -so deep that for long decades the sight of them will -baffle us and fill our pity with despair.</p> - -<p>Behold it now, like a vast race of invalids. It -creeps over a world where now there are more graveyards -than villages.</p> - -<p>We have had an unparalleled experience of sorrow -and renunciation.</p> - -<p>And yet the desire for happiness is deeply rooted: -the unanimous voice to which our world listens -repeats, from amid the sobs: “We shall renounce -nothing!”</p> - -<p>To him who listens with an attentive ear, it says -again, it says particularly: “We shall renounce -nothing, not even renunciation!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</span></p> - -<p>But let us leave this immense grief to itself. Let -us leave it to satiate and appease itself with its own -contemplation—Silence!</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" >VII<br /> -THE SHELTER OF LIFE</h2> -</div> - - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>Two immense worlds remain faithful to me when -the others discourage or betray me. Two -refuges open to my heart when it is weary, faltering -or harassed with temptation.</p> - -<p>I should like very much to tell you about them, -since you are my friend. I can tell you, since you -have nothing to envy me, since you bear within yourself -two such worlds, two kingdoms that will submit -to you undividedly, without contest.</p> - -<p>Yesterday I was watching some prisoners working. -They were pushing the trunk of a tree lashed to a -cart. Sweat was rolling down their faces, for the -heat was great, the slope steep and the load heavy. -An armed soldier was watching them. Large letters -were printed on their clothes to proclaim their servitude. -And I thought: they live, they do not look too -unhappy, they do not seem crushed by their condition. -And if this is so, it is not because they have -the placidity of beasts. No! Look at their eyes,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</span> -listen to their voices. It is precisely because they -are men and they carry everywhere with them two -refuges, whither the gaoler cannot follow them, two -precious possessions that no punitive discipline can -snatch from them: their future and their memories.</p> - -<p>The longer I watch, from close by, those men who, -for four years have led the inhuman life of the army, -the better I understand the meaning of their incredible -patience: between the future and the remembered -past they have the air of awaiting the passage -of a storm. They are gulping down, you would -say, hastily and with closed eyes, this bitter and -criminal present, in order to reserve their hearts all -the better for the things of the future and the past. -One feels in their conversation only these two luminous -existences. They seek and unite them unceasingly -above the bloody abyss. I have also observed -that, in the concerts they give themselves to cheer -their periods of rest, their souls always return, with -the same rapture, to their former way of living, to -their old sons, their familiar ways of being sad or -joyous. The artistic attempts that are carried on -to interest them, at the bottom of their hearts, in -the formidable present, remain sterile and, as it were, -dry.</p> - -<p>They seem to reply, silently: “What have all -these things to do with us? Isn’t it enough for us -to live them? Isn’t it enough for us to do them,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</span> -every day with our blood and tears? Give us back -our dear kingdom. Give back to our souls that -memory which is their most imperishable and marvelous -possession.”</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>Between the future and the remembered past, man -is left to struggle with what he possesses least, the -present.</p> - -<p>And yet this present is lavish of all sorts of materials -that we can transform into riches. It is our -liquid fortune, mobile and in circulation. It is the -well-filled purse upon which we draw for our daily -needs.</p> - -<p>It reaches us out of the depths of time, like a -great river, loaded with sailing-ships and steamers, -deep, flowing, beautiful with all its reflections, and -rolling gold in its sands.</p> - -<p>But it has its rages, its whims, its cruelties. According -to the season, it overflows and desolates the -land or suddenly dries up and deserts the fields that -it refreshed with its floods!</p> - -<p>So be it! If the present refuses to yield its -manna, we will draw upon our last resources. If -the times overwhelm us with bitterness, we will flee -to our refuges, where we have nothing to fear from -intruders or masters or tormentors.</p> - -<p>Common-sense folk, who have the secret of debasing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</span> -life in the name of a reason that is more mischievous -than actual stupidity, are in the habit of -devoting an almost superstitious worship to the present -reality. To tell the truth, they are greatly -afraid that the taste for memory and hope will turn -young men away from that immediate action which -is necessary for the conquest and preservation of -material wealth.</p> - -<p>They honor with great pomp the origins in the -past of those traditions that are favorable to them; -and the way they invoke and prepare for the future -loads the present with chains and shackles.</p> - -<p>They dread, in reverie, an enemy of action. As -if there were any great actions that have not their -source in great dreams!</p> - -<p>These people deceive themselves. They sacrifice -an unequalled consolation to the needs of a fleeting -fortune. But do not imagine that the failure of -their fortune leaves these men utterly abandoned: -the refuges open gladly, even for those who have despised -them.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>An intimate friend once said to me, as he watched -his little son playing: “You see; he’s no longer the -baby you knew last year. He’s another child. I -have been cheated of the one I had last year. I -shall never have him again. I have lost a child.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</span></p> - -<p>O dear, big heart, how beautiful and how unjust -those words are! How human! How they overflow -with ingratitude and with adoration!</p> - -<p>You know quite well that every object that appears -on the horizon of our souls has, for us, two -existences. One is sudden, sharp, almost always -penetrated with an intense and, so to say, corrosive -flavor: that is the existence of the present. Men -agree in recognizing that its duration is hardly -measurable. But the other existence is perennial, as -ample as the measure of our life and our thoughts; -in this sense it is almost infinite.</p> - -<p>Thus each moment of the present survives in memory -for years, and doubtless for centuries, since posterity -can gather up and prolong the best of our -acts and our works.</p> - -<p>It is true, my friend, that each moment dispossesses -us, even of the object we never withdraw our arms -from. The miser, infatuated with his material -riches, may well suffer agony of mind over them, -but we, we? Do we not know that each moment restores -to us, transfigured, all the treasures it has -snatched away from us? It robs us of the frailer -blessings, it offers us imperishable blessings, less -mortal than ourselves.</p> - -<p>You have conquered one whole happy day. Contemplate -without regret the sleep that marks its -end, for you will continue to live this day during<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</span> -all the rest of jour life. And if this day was truly -beautiful, do you not know that others after you -will continue to live it, down, ever farther down, the -succession of the years?</p> - -<p>Let your son grow, without too much anxiety, like -a beautiful tree: the child he was once, the child he -was but now, the child he is at present, you will not -lose them, O insatiable heart! They will escort you -toward old age, like a beloved multitude that increases -every day and cannot die.</p> - -<p>Owing to the war, I have seen my own child only -seven times, and each time I have hardly recognized -him. Seven times I have believed him lost. I know -now that I have seven lovely images in my soul, seven -children to adorn and hearten my solitude.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>There are beauties which the present fails to appreciate. -That is natural, because it is greedy, disordered, -care-ridden. Memory exists to see that -justice is done. To it falls the divine rôle of restoring -and, at times, pardoning. (It is memory which, -in the last resort, vindicates and judges. It is in its -light that things appear to us under the aspect of -eternity.)</p> - -<p>None of our thoughts would be really happy that -had not received the approbation of memory, that -did not find themselves sealed at last with its sovereign<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</span> -imprint. We do not know the true value of -our moments until they have undergone the test of -memory. Like the images the photographer plunges -into a golden bath, our sentiments take on color; -and only then, after that recoil and that transfiguration, -do we understand their real meaning and -enjoy them in all their tranquil splendor.</p> - -<p>Days of ours that had seemed to us dull and hopeless -show themselves in memory luminous and decisive. -Journeys undertaken without eagerness, -without enthusiasm, and without any of the freshness -of surprise, become, from a distance, fruitful -in revelations and discoveries.</p> - -<p>Every reality develops with time a thousand -aspects of itself that are just as real, as charged -with meaning and consequence, as the original aspect. -We cannot foretell what memory will contrive for us. -It is a treasure all the more precious and unexpected -because it is so independent of our rudimentary logic. -For the logic of memory is more subtle than ours; -it seems entirely free from our miserable calculations; -it draws its inspirations from our true interests, -which we ourselves are forever misapprehending. -The slow task it pursues testifies to so rare a virtue -and so munificent a wisdom that man, struck with his -own unworthiness, might well seek there the signs of -a divine intervention.</p> - -<p>Sometimes it is a friend, whom we have misunderstood<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</span> -or misjudged, who takes on in memory his -true aspect and his true stature and reveals the -profound influence which, without our knowing it, he -has exercised over our thoughts.</p> - -<p>Sometimes it is a word which we heard at first -with an inattentive or distrustful ear, and which we -find again engraved in letters of gold over the portico -of the secret temple where we love to collect our -thoughts.</p> - -<p>Like some skilful goldsmith, memory seizes the -materials that our life accumulates haphazard. It -submits them to the touchstone, fashions them, embellishes -them and imprints upon them that mysterious -sheen which gives them their distinctive meaning -and their value.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>The cult of memory should not turn us away from -the present out of which memory itself draws its -nourishment.</p> - -<p>We sometimes meet men of whom plain people say, -with profound wisdom, “Their mind is elsewhere.” -It is true; they are the timid and tormented souls who -have early sought in memory a refuge which nothing, -it seems, could ever make them renounce.</p> - -<p>Let us beware of troubling this retreat. Some -day, perhaps, we may long for one like it. But however -deeply one may seem to have taken refuge in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</span> -memory, one cannot escape the clutch, the invasion -of the present.</p> - -<p>It is best, therefore, and with all the strength that -is in us, to accept, honor, love this present as the -principal source of our riches.</p> - -<p>If the true cult of memory were a less exceptional -moral usage, many men would hesitate to create bad -memories for themselves; for our worst memories are -not those of our sufferings, our ordeals, our privations, -but of our shameful acts, our cowardices and -our betrayals.</p> - -<p>Our weakness lasted only a moment; must we -really, for thirty years, feel the hostile stare of that -moment resting heavily upon us? Who knows? -Hope, even so, in the clemency of memory, which is -able to mitigate and pardon everything. It is indulgent -and full of pity. In a world given over to -spite and reprisals, it remains the only inviolable -refuge of the outcast, as the cathedrals used to be -in the days of the right of sanctuary.</p> - -<p>For him who descends with true fervor into his -own depths, memory always preserves some corner -pure from all baseness. Do we not know, moreover, -that in order to console us memory consents to work -in concert even with its enemy, forgetfulness?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</span></p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>Who can dispute with us the world of memory? -No one! And who would dare, without fear, to do -so? It is because we are more ardently attached to -this possession than to any other.</p> - -<p>At times, a clumsy or malevolent hand succeeds -in smirching one of our dear memories. Then we -experience an indignation and a despair as lasting -and profound as if these sentiments recognized their -cause in the loss or the fall of a loved being.</p> - -<p>Happily this criminal work implies a rarely evil -spirit, a sort of perverse genius of which humanity -is none too prodigal. And then our memory is a -territory too vast, too mountainous, too impregnable -as a whole for the rage of hostile destruction -to be able to defile or mar large portions of it. The -best of our memories thus remain in safety and for -us alone. Besides, we keep careful watch around -this fortune.</p> - -<p>Our great memories are actual moral personages, -so necessary to our happiness that we bear them -under a sacred arch, sheltered from all injury, from -all contact. It is into this solitude that we go -ceaselessly to question them, invoke them, call them -to witness.</p> - -<p>A past in common does not always give memories -in common, so true it is that the heart defends itself,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</span> -in its innermost retreat, as the physical self defends -its flesh against the intrusions of the stranger.</p> - -<p>It sometimes happens that men find pleasure in -recalling in our presence the episodes of an existence -that was passed, by themselves or by them and us, -in companionship. It is then that we measure the -road our soul has travelled on its solitary path: -these things of which they speak to us, these deeds -which, it seems, we have performed, these landscapes -which they remember having crossed in our company, -we no longer recognize; we do not even wish to recognize -them. We smile in an embarrassed, awkward, -unhappy way. Our whole attitude says: “Is it -really true that we have drunk from the same cup? -For all that, it was not the same wine we drank, and -my intoxication is not yours.”</p> - -<p>We cannot give to one who is dear to us a greater -proof of love than to admit him to the intimacy of -our memories. We have need of all our tenderness -to help us to introduce another soul into the subterranean -basilica, to lead that soul as close as possible -to the refuge where, in spite of all, there is only -room for one.</p> - -<p>Perfect communion in memory is an extraordinary -favor, and an admonition. If it is given to you to -enjoy it, open your arms and receive one elect soul.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</span></p> - - -<h3>VII</h3> - -<p>No doubt you have had the experience, when passing -through a country where you were travelling for -the first time, of stopping short, as you rounded a -mountain, before some unknown horizon, and finding -it strangely familiar.</p> - -<p>No doubt you have had the experience of arriving -at night in a dark square where you knew you had -never been before, and briskly finding your way -through it, just as if you were resuming some old -habit.</p> - -<p>At times the spectacle of a smiling valley arrests -you at the top of some hill. You thought you knew -nothing of this country, and yet strange and sure -impressions guide you; they are like old memories. -You advance, and behold, you are looking at everything -as if you recognized it. That road which -winds between the pastures, as supple and sinuous as -a beautiful river of yellow water,—you are almost -certain you have followed it long ago, in some misty, -far-off existence which, nevertheless, is not your own.</p> - -<p>There are times, too, when you are dreaming, as -you sit alone, and suddenly a memory passes over -you: the memory of some act the man you are surely -never performed. Yet it is not a fabrication, an invention. -You know, you feel, that it is a personal -memory. A memory of what world? Of what life?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</span></p> - -<p>Do not reject this shadowy treasure, and do not -tremble! Do not accept complacently the explanations -of the superstitious or of the pseudo-scientists. -The flesh of your flesh was not born yesterday. -Something survives in it that is contemporaneous -with all the generations. Many a revelation awaits -us. Let us keep for them a soul that is accessible, -experienced, and not too distrustful.</p> - - -<p>VIII</p> - -<p>Do not imagine that to possess memory is to possess -a dead world.</p> - -<p>Among your friends there is surely one who has a -house and a garden. From time to time he invites -you to visit him. Every time you enter his house -you observe some striking change: he has connected -two parts of the building which till then had no -means of communication. He has planted some new -trees. The old elms are flourishing. Some rosebushes -have died. Urns have been set out on the -lawn. The life of men, of animals, of plants has -drawn the inanimate world into its toils, modeled it, -sculptured it, forced it to take part in the movement -of the soul.</p> - -<p>It is in like fashion that the domains of memory -cultivate themselves and live. They are not ruins, -inalterable, rigid, fixed forever in the ice of some -past epoch. Life still penetrates and moves them;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</span> -they do not cease to share in its enterprises, its labors, -its festivals.</p> - -<p>When a man has opened for you several times the -same gate in the wall, when several times he has related -the same adventure to you, with intervals of a -few months or a few years, observe closely the spots -to which he leads you and the persons to whom he -presents you. Every time you will find new things, -you will find that roads have been laid out, underbrush -cut down, windows opened and unexpected -supernumeraries called in.</p> - -<p>Is it true then that that was a dead tale, wrapped -up in what we call the shroud of the past?</p> - -<p>The world of “living memory” is so indissolubly -bound up with our resolutions and our acts that in -accumulating memories we feel we are preparing, -erecting our future itself.</p> - - -<h3>IX</h3> - -<p>There is another refuge!</p> - -<p>“What makes hope so intense a pleasure,” writes -M. Bergson, “is that the future, which we fashion -to suit ourselves, appears to us at one and the same -time under a multitude of forms, all equally smiling, -equally possible. Even if the most desirable of them -all is realized, we must have sacrificed the others, and -we shall have lost much. The idea of the future, -pregnant with infinite possibilities, is therefore more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</span> -fertile than the future itself, and that is why we find -more charm in hope than in possession, in reverie -than in reality.”</p> - -<p>The idea of the future alone interests us: that -alone is our treasure, that alone is endowed with existence. -It is that indeed which we call the future. -And if M. Bergson, at the end of these admirable -lines, creates a distinction between the future and -the idea of the future, he does not make us forget -that he has just, and as if by design, caused the -confusion; for what “we fashion to suit ourselves” -is the idea of the future, and nothing else. But, -following the example of M. Bergson, let us call -our idea of the future the future itself.</p> - -<p>This idea is our cherished fortune. Certainly we -take a passionate interest in seeking, in what flows -out of the present, something that resembles the -realization of our dreams. And yet their realization, -like their failure, marks, in every sense, their end, -their exhaustion. And that is insupportable to us. -Whatever fate the present reserves for our imaginings, -we labor every day, as fast as time devours -them and destroys them by making them finite, to -push them further back into the infinite, to prolong -them, to reconstruct them, so that we may never -have less of a future at our disposal.</p> - -<p>This need of a future, which has no other connection -than our hope with the rugged actuality of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</span> -present, is so deep-rooted, so generally human a -thing, that one cannot contemplate it without a respect -which is almost religious. In order that this -future, so pregnant with dreams, should be as necessary -as it is to the moral life of most men, it must -represent a truly incomparable treasure. The embrace -we throw around it is the close and powerful -embrace we reserve for those possessions that lie -nearest our hearts. And, since we have already detached -the word “possession” from the gross meaning -that is usually attributed to it, let us say that -the possession of a dream, when it assures our happiness, -is a reality less debatable and less illusory -than the possession of a coal-mine or a field of -wheat.</p> - -<p>But as there is no possession without conquest, -without effort, we must merit our dreams and cultivate -them lovingly.</p> - -<p>If people who have taken the mould of reason reproach -us with distracting for a moment the men of -that practical reality which pretends to be preparing -the future, we are ready to reply to them:</p> - -<p>“Glance at those men to whom our words are -addressed. You know that they are crushed with -fatigue and privation. They have experienced -every danger and every sort of weariness. By what -right will you hinder them from taking refuge in -a world which is henceforth the least contestable of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</span> -their domains? Do not, on their account, be afraid -of reverie; it could never fill them with as much -bitterness as does this modern reality of which you -are the unpunished builders.</p> - -<p>“If you are not weary of glimpsing your future -through the specifications, the account-books, the -cage-bars, and the unbreathable fumes of industrialism, -at least allow these to cherish a marvelous and, -in spite of all its disappointments, an efficacious future. -It is not a question of forgetting life,—that -is too beautiful and too desirable, but rather of amplifying -and fertilizing it. Whatever may be the -outcome of a generous dream, it always ennobles the -man who has entertained it. Allow the unhappy to -be rich in a possession that costs them only love and -simple faith. Do not let your reason dispossess -them of the only treasure that your greed has not -been able to snatch from them. It is the cult of -the future and of memory that sustains man in the -uncertainty of the present hour. If he walks by -instinct towards these refuges, do not turn him -aside, and think, O priests of reason, of the warning -of Pascal: ‘It is on the knowledge of the heart -and of the instincts that Reason has to lean, and establish -there the whole of her discourse’.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</span></p> - - -<h3>X</h3> - -<p>I have seen thousands of men suffer and die. -Every day I see new ones enter the somber arena and -struggle. My part is to help them in this torment, -to assure them aid and hope. I have a wide experience -of these things now and I know that men are -never denied a future, even when life is on the point -of betraying them.</p> - -<p>Philosophers and poets, led astray by religion or -by a mystical passion for death, have given the severe -counsel that we should never conceal from the dying -the approach of their annihilation. It is a theoretical -view of charity, an artificial, mischievous doctrine -that does not stand the test, that should not -be put to the test. Its partisans suspect falsehood -where there is only pity and modesty, for it is not -the part of man to be so proud of his own judgment -as to take away from someone with the certitude of -life that fabulous future which is more precious than -life itself.</p> - -<p>I remember, in 1915, a wounded man, who had -just received the visit of a priest moved by praiseworthy -intentions and a clumsy exaltation, saying -to me suddenly, “I know now that I am going to -die!” and beginning to weep terribly. I went to see -the priest and reproached him for his behavior. -“What!” that eloquent man replied haughtily, “do<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</span> -you who are incapable of preserving this unhappy -man’s earthly life blame me for assuring him his future -life?” Alas! Alas! I still think of the sobs -of that wounded man; they were those of one who -has just lost his supreme wealth and to whom nothing -else can make amends.</p> - -<p>Soldiers who, in the full vigor of their youth, -suffer a severe, a final mutilation experience at first -that is like a veritable amputation of their future, -so true is it that every part of our physical self is -intimately bound up with the labors of our dream. -Then, with surprising rapidity, and long before the -disorder of the tissues has been exorcised, one sees -them filling in the moral breach, raising up the -crumbled wall, propping it hastily and reconstructing, -quite as new but quite complete and tightly shut, -the sacred fortress outside which their soul remains -vulnerable and disarmed.</p> - -<p>In truth, the man who is condemned to death is -still rich in the future, even when his body sinks, ten -times pierced by bullets, even when he has only one -drop of blood left, one flickering spark of life.</p> - - -<h3>XI</h3> - -<p>O present hour, magnificent, foaming fountain, -you know very well that we shall be faithful -to you! With your thousand animated faces, your -landscapes, your problems, your combats and that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</span> -heavy burden of jostling ideas you carry with you, -you will always attract us, you will see us all together -drinking of your waters.</p> - -<p>But when you no longer contain for us anything -but anger and hatred, greed and cruelty, then indeed -we must each of us abandon you and turn to our -refuges; we must each of us withdraw into the -Thebaid where all things still respond to our voice, to -our voice alone.</p> - -<p>May our fate preserve us from the greatest of all -misfortunes! May our refuges never lose in our -eyes their virtue and their security! This supreme -affliction at times befalls us, and it is then that our -souls, exiled from their homeland, must set themselves -humbly to the search for the lost grace.</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" >VIII<br /> -THE CHOICE OF THE GRACES</h2> -</div> - - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>What man, tell me, what man, were he suddenly -delivered from disgust with himself, -from terror of the world, from the sadness of an -age that is without pity, from remorse for a thing he -has done, from the fear of things he has to do, what -man, suffering from one of these evils, or from several -of them or from all at once, would not experience -an immense relief, would not feel a certain absolution -for the errors of the universe, a certain alleviation -of his own in the contemplation of this -little osier-bed which I descry this evening, at the -turning of a lane?</p> - -<p>What is there so profound, so divine in that -scene?</p> - -<p>Nothing, nothing, no doubt. Everything, perhaps. -For who would venture to maintain that -there is anything in the world that might not be a -sign for my heart and yet be nothing more? -I was following a stone wall, an indecipherable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</span> -wall at present, without significance, without compassion, -an enemy. It shut in my view and -my thoughts, it was covered with cold mosses -and all the dampness of winter. And then, -all at once, the wall ended and there was a little -valley crowned with these osiers. Yes, I mean -crowned, for it seemed as if all its desires had been -granted, all its aspirations satisfied, all its prayers -fulfilled.</p> - -<p>Thousands of crimson branches rose in a chorus -toward heaven, like clusters of some smooth, straight, -up-springing coral. All the branches rose together, -with one brotherly impulse, like the desires of a -world freed from ambitions and vowed to the one, -the noblest ambition of all. But why seek for -words, why strive to paint it? Surely it was not -the flaming sap of the young shoots any more than -the little rivulets smoking like censers at their feet,—it -was neither of these things that promised relief -and deliverance. It was the entire world that manifested -itself in this, its smallest fragment, just as -the most secretive man will betray himself by the -trembling of his little finger or the flutter of an -eyelash.</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>I was once saved by the tarpaulin of a humble delivery -wagon. That tarpaulin certainly knew no<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</span> -more about it than did the men who owned it, or had -the use of it here below. There are, in every object, -qualities we are ignorant of and that are precisely -those through which this object fulfils its most beautiful -rôle in the universe, those to which it inclines -as if toward some miraculous purpose, which are -indeed its vocation and its true destiny.</p> - -<p>I remember it was a morning in February, one of -those hopeless mornings which we feel do not deserve -the evening and will hardly attain it. I do not -know what I had done to myself or to my men to -have so completely lost all courage and purpose; but -that morning I was certainly the most destitute of -beings and the least worthy of an act of grace.</p> - -<p>Yet for all that, grace was shown me, for that -marvelous tarpaulin appeared. It was of heavy canvas, -yellow and green. Its color, its folds, its whole -appearance, the form it concealed, in fact I know -not what element in it, showed me that I still could -live, that my faults were forgiven me, that nothing -about me was irremediable.</p> - -<p>I am willing to pass for a man who is eager for -forgiveness, a man who is satisfied with little. We -wish to set our own value on everything, as if the -things of the spirit meant the same thing as money, -as if they did not depend upon quite another spirit -than that of the accountants and geometricians.</p> - -<p>I met a priest,—it was since the war began,—with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</span> -whom I often talked about penance and contrition. -I asked him one day what price he would -ask for the remission of the heaviest burden on one’s -conscience. He answered without hesitation: -“Three paters and three aves.” This man was corrupted -by the customs of the world and its authorities. -He filled me with a sort of desire to insult -him, and I confess I gave him some rude shocks. -Since then I have reflected. I have not become -reconciled to the memory of that priest, but I believe -that grace touches us in a most unforeseen way; it -shines out suddenly, without any reason, like the -radiant blue in a sky where one has not expected it. -It manifests itself without regard to the efforts we -make to deserve it, and the occasions it selects are -not in proportion to our distress. But how sovereign -it is, how much the most desirable of all blessings!</p> - -<p>Remember, remember! you were walking through -the streets, a prey to some irremediable pain. Your -poverty seemed unlimited, for it could not be palliated -by more money, an improvement in your health or -the renewal of a broken friendship. And yet, nevertheless, -you suddenly breathed in the wind an imperceptible -odor, familiar, charged with memories, -you suddenly encountered in the color of a house, or -in the look of an unknown face, some mysterious sign, -and you felt that your wealth had been given back<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</span> -to you, that it flowed through you once more as the -saving blood returns to the heart of the dying man.</p> - -<p>I was walking one day along the banks of the -Aisne, the prey of an illimitable mental torture -which, just because there was no reason for it, -seemed incurable. The image of a bridge in the -water suddenly gave me back my confidence in myself -and my accustomed joyousness. It was only a -reflection; but never believe those who tell you that -these things are nothing but reflections.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>When a man who is cruelly wounded in his body or -his spirit preserves a cheerful faith and never ceases -to be the master of his misfortune, I say that he -has grace.</p> - -<p>When a true man is able, for an hour, to contemplate -without uneasiness his own thoughts and actions, -I say that he is touched with grace, and I hope -that hour may last a day and that day an entire -life.</p> - -<p>Like a sailing-vessel that stretches through the air -its slender, vibrant cables, probes the sky with its -strong and supple masts, offers to the wind, at ever-varying -angles, the white resistance of its sails and -marvelously dominates all the forces of the air while -seeming to obey them, the man who possesses grace -enjoys a communion that is profound, perfect, exquisite,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</span> -not only with whatever in the world is perceptible -to us, but above all with what is unknown.</p> - -<p>That man weighs much in the baskets of the winnower. -That man does not see only within the limits -of his own flesh. He fills in his own self almost -the whole universe, participates gloriously in the infinite.</p> - -<p>I know that it often happens that the beautiful -ship sees its sails sinking in distress and no longer -feels its ropes trembling in the wind. The time -comes when it stops painfully in the stupor and indifference -of noon.</p> - -<p>The time comes when the rich man suddenly finds -himself on Job’s dung-heap. The time comes when, -without reason, grace deserts the heart.</p> - -<p>Wait expectantly, with sails spread like an ear, -with rigging firm, and perhaps, where others less -trustful would find themselves abandoned, you will -perceive a certain relenting breeze.</p> - -<p>You must never lose contact with the universe if -you wish to live in the state of grace.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>Welcome your own true thought, whatever may -be the hour at which it visits you. If it chooses to -rouse you in the middle of the night, rise to do it -honor and look at it with clear eyes.</p> - -<p>There are some who have just missed an hour of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</span> -greatness because they preferred to slumber under -the warm eiderdown. The spirit called them in a -low voice, in the darkness of the cold room; they did -not rise and they will never know what they might -have become. They will try to console themselves -by thinking they have dreamed; will they ever console -themselves?</p> - -<p>There are some who, suddenly, through the mist of -tobacco smoke, have seen their souls, like some -long-awaited supernatural being, watching them.</p> - -<p>At the moment they were playing cards or reading -their paper; they thought: “Wait, I’ll join you -in a moment.” The game ended, or the paper -thrown aside, the visitor had departed.</p> - -<p>They rushed forth in pursuit, their hearts convulsed -with shame and anguish. Alas! the deep -melancholy glance will perhaps never shine upon -them again. Perhaps they will never again come -face to face with themselves.</p> - -<p>In the midst of pleasure, when you are enjoying -the company of a woman or the conversation of bold, -intelligent men, if you chance to hear the voice of -solitude singing like a siren at your feet, leave -everything to flee with her.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>When Epictetus said: “Our good and evil exist -only in our own will,” he misstated the problem.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</span> -That is one way of solving it, but more often it is a -way of assuming that it has been solved, an expedient -for passing it over.</p> - -<p>I am not happy today; I am not pleased with myself, -I am not pleased with anyone; I feel quite certain -that everything I undertake will be a failure, -above all, above all, I do not want to undertake anything; -I view all things with an unprofitable eye, an -irritable and apparently dried-up soul. I am driven -to suffer myself and make others suffer. Oh! I -am without grace! I know it and I am far from -admiring myself. Secretly I long to feel grace at -last descending on my head and shoulders like a -mantle of soft sunshine, like the honeyed perfume -that falls from the lime-trees.</p> - -<p>What does that old man want? Why does he repeat -with a sort of obstinacy: “It depends upon you -to make a good use of every event”?</p> - -<p>No doubt it depends upon me!</p> - -<p>But what are we to do when nothing can be blamed -upon events? And what when, indeed, there are no -events.</p> - -<p>Is it true that it depends upon me to be myself at -such times also? Answer me, great, silent trees! -Answer me, fir-tree, weighted down with sleet and -dreaming—Heine has told me—of the palm consumed -with burning heat in the tropics.</p> - -<p>“Drive out,” replies the philosopher, “drive out<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</span> -your desires and your fears and you will never again -suffer tyranny.”</p> - -<p>True; but I have only one fear: not to be the -best man I may; only one desire, not to give in to -myself.</p> - -<p>The sage shrugs his shoulders and then says in a -gentle voice: “Bear and forbear.” And he is not -thinking only of the storms that come from without.</p> - -<p>He says this because he well knows that in order -to be happy one must be visited by grace.</p> - -<p>All the stoics have drawn up rules of virtue. Not -one has suggested the means that will give us the -strength to apply them. For the wish is not enough. -The gift is necessary, that secret impulse which is -grace itself.</p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>Praise be to thee, divine world, that hast delivered -me from anger by revealing to me in time that -trembling blossom of the convolvulus!</p> - -<p>Praise be to thee, divine world, that, at the very -limit of my fatigue, in the midst of my perils, hast -chosen mysterious ways to light me with an inner -smile!</p> - -<p>Millions of unhappy men who are suffering at this -moment on the fields of distracted Europe are aware -that at the blackest moment of distress a strange -consolation can penetrate them; it is as if the fingers<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</span> -clutching one’s heart suddenly relaxed their grip. -There are some who call this God. Many others give -no name to the miracle, but long for it on their knees -all the same.</p> - -<p>The voice no longer speaks from the burning bush. -Sometimes it is the sound of last year’s leaves still -rustling in the branches of an oak. Sometimes -there is no sound; only the speaking glance of a -veronica in ecstasy among the April fields.</p> - -<p>I am quite willing to bear, but I do not wish to -forbear. I do not wish not to meet grace halfway, -not to seek for it in the night flooded with frosty -perfumes, in the tossing forest where two interlocked -branches groan through the long hours, on -the plateau haunted with thistles that labor with -feverish piety to perpetuate their innumerable -lineage.</p> - -<p>I ask only to be allowed to interrogate the earth -like those who seek minerals and water-courses, and -to experience every morning the green ascent of the -spring-time over the rocky slopes.</p> - -<p>I do not know by what path joy will come; I ask -only to be permitted, none the less, to go to meet -it, for truly I cannot sit here by this mile-post at the -cross-roads, and placidly await it.</p> - -<p>One joy has come to me during the war, one that -is undoubtedly the greatest joy of my life: that of -having a child. My reason did not revolt at it, it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</span> -did not dare to tell me that it was foolhardy to desire -a child at a time when the human world was left -without defense against confusion, disorder and -crime. Yes, I rejoiced to have a man-child born -to me now when the future of men seems to be corrupted -for long years to come. I even hailed the -child as a savior. You see, the paths of joy are as -unknown to us as those of grace.</p> - -<p>I shall not forbear, therefore, and when I feel my -heart bleeding from an unjust wound I shall go with -respectful steps and recover myself in the world of -solitude. I shall not ask in the name of justice, I -shall not insist, I shall not importune; I shall wait -until it manifests itself and sets me free, I shall wait -until at last it bestows upon me the grace which, like -a fine sap, like mother’s milk, it always contains.</p> - -<p>Solitude! I can still conquer it among a hundred -thousand chattering companions; I know how to -sing to myself little songs that surround me with the -silence of the steppes.</p> - -<p>I will go back again to the ravine where, the whole -summer long, a blackbird I know of whistles that -same liquid song that grows purer and more perfect -from week to week. Ten notes are his whole career -and his reason for being. Perhaps on a day that -music will be just what my soul needs to recover its -flight, like a stranded bark which a lazy wave has -just set floating.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</span></p> - -<p>I will go back to the spots where I have been -happy, and I do not think this will be very imprudent; -for, like the perfume a woman leaves in her -garments, like a drop of wine in the bottom of a -glass, a little happiness often remains attached to -things.</p> - -<p>I shall go out again behind the hamlet, where I -know that every morning a couple of turtle-doves -mingle a plaint that secretly cuts the silence, hollows -it with a melodious tunnel.</p> - -<p>And I shall stretch myself out there, my face to -the sky, like a well-exposed vine that longs to ripen -some fine fruit.</p> - -<p>I am saying what I shall do, with the sole purpose, -with the deep desire, that you will all do the same, -and that you will each turn to your favorite star; -and all this with the earnest desire that you will not -be content to remain sheep marked, without redemption, -for the knife.</p> - -<p>It requires little at times. The soul is not more -exacting than the body. I have seen exhausted soldiers -whom a single swallow of brandy raised up -again to the heights of courage. I have seen seriously -wounded men brought back to life when their -bodies were turned a little in order to facilitate the -uncertain flow of the blood.</p> - -<p>The soul is no less fragile, no less sensitive. If -the western view keeps you sad, turn lightly to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</span> -south. We do not know what the divine world holds -in store.</p> - - -<h3>VII</h3> - -<p>Happy are those who are able to pray. It is -thus that Christians solicit grace.</p> - -<p>It is easy to fall on one’s knees; but to be able to -pray one must already possess that grace which one -implores. It is so great a gift, the gift of prayer, -that it is almost indelicate to desire anything else -from it.</p> - -<p>To drink is a small matter. To be thirsty is -everything.</p> - -<p>Why do the Christians, who counsel us to pray -in order to obtain grace, never tell us what we must -do in order to be able to pray? It is not for nothing, -nevertheless, that they arrange the play of light -and shade through their stained-glass windows, the -odor of stones and incense, the silence of the vaults -and the propitiatory sights of the organ, all those -harmonious snares set for the wandering prayer.</p> - -<p>As for me, I shall take a staff and go out seeking -the solitude of the world. If this world is a city -street at dawn,—that will do! A misty dock, its -outline broken by rails and masts,—that will do! -A sunken road, lighted by the flowering broom,—that -will do! The court of a barrack, the muddy enclosure<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</span> -of a prison-camp, oh! pitiful as it may seem -to me, may it still seem good!</p> - -<p>If I can walk, straight before me or far and wide, -I can pray. If I can see a scrap of the sky, I can -pray. And with all nature offered to my soul, I -can pray, I can pray in spite of everything and as -if without willing it. I must see that osier-bed, or -the radiant awning of that wagon, or the image of -the bridge in the water. I must hear the moaning -of those interlaced branches; then I am able to feel -myself bathed in grace.</p> - -<p>Grace! It is indeed the fleeting consciousness man -has of his divinity.</p> - -<p>And now, now especially, and more than ever, we -say to ourselves, man must have faith in his divinity!</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" >IX<br /> -APOSTLESHIP</h2> -</div> - - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>The beautiful legend of the multiplication of the -loaves of bread is miraculous only in the material -order to which we try to confine it. But the -infinite multiplication of moral nourishment is our -daily spectacle, our joy, our encouragement.</p> - -<p>We know that the possession of material goods inclines -us to exclusiveness, solitary satisfaction: if I -wish to share with you this beautiful apple I hold in -my hand, I must make up my mind to enjoy only half -of it myself. And if there are four of us the part -each one has will be proportionally reduced. Ah! -blessed would be the wonder-worker who could refresh -us all with a single glass of water, stay us all -with a single mouthful of bread.</p> - -<p>That miracle flashes forth every day before our -eyes. All moral wealth seems to increase by being -possessed in common. The more a truth is spread -abroad the more its beauty, its prestige, and in a -way its efficacy, grows. The veneration a hundred<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</span> -peoples throw round a painting of da Vinci’s, a song -of Glück’s, or a saying of Spinoza’s has not partitioned -these lovely treasures but has added to their -importance and their glory, has developed and opened -up the whole sum of joy that lies latent in them. -Great ideas have such radiant strength! They cross -space and time like avalanches: they carry along -with them whatever they touch. They are the only -riches that one shares without ever dividing them.</p> - -<p>This fact invites each one of us to make himself -the modest and persevering apostle of his own truths, -the propagator of his discoveries, the dispenser of -his moral riches. Our own interest demands it imperatively, -no less than the interest of others. We -shall never be really happy until we have admitted -and converted to our joy those whom we love; and -we shall love them all the better for having brought -them some joy, for being among the causes of their -comfort.</p> - -<p>The journeys we have made alone without companions -leave us a memory that is melancholy and -without warmth. It is because we have had no one to -whom we could communicate our admiration, our -wonder. Seated alone before the most majestic -landscapes, we have had no one to whom we could -express our enthusiasm, and deprived of this expansion -it has been stunted, it has remained, we might -say, poor. Sharing it would have enriched it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</span></p> - -<p>We love solitude, indeed; it is the cold and silent -fountain at which our soul is purified and confirmed. -But what would it profit us to have amassed great -riches, by the help of solitude, if we had no one to -whom to offer them?</p> - -<p>It is because he feels this anxiety that man seeks -a lasting union. Among a thousand generosities, -love offers him the opportunity to enjoy companionship -without renouncing solitude. A happy home -is the solitude of many a soul. The man who has -entered into a beautiful union is sure of at least one -person to whom he can give the best that he possesses.</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>Perhaps you will say to me: “How can I be an -apostle when I have in myself only a wavering faith? -I would enjoy being generous, but I am obliged to -beg from the generosity of others. Such advice is -for those rich souls who, precisely because they are -rich, have no need of advice. It is with this kind of -fortune as it is with money, it crowns those who already -possess it! My soul is poor and timid; what -sort of comfort would it be for other souls that are -poor and timid also?”</p> - -<p>O my friend, how deceived you are in yourself! -How much like ingratitude your modesty seems! -First of all, let me tell you that the heart that doubts -its resources is rich without knowing it. The passion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</span> -of humility weighs it down; let it free itself -without becoming proud! In the realm of the intelligence, -you have surely observed, it is only actual -imbeciles who never doubt their faculties. The man -who can admit his own insufficiency at once gives -proof of a rare perspicacity. In the same way, if -you think you are poor it is because you are not. -The only natures that are truly arid are those who -do not recognize and never will recognize their own -sterility.</p> - -<p>This morning you went out at dawn to take up -your duties. In the marsh that slumbers along the -edge of the road there were such delicate green and -purple reflections that you were struck by them. -You spoke to me about them, very subtly and sensitively, -as soon as you were able to see me. You -were generous with me. You shared your good fortune -with me. Thank you!</p> - -<p>Who spoke to me about Faisne’s unhappiness? -Who suddenly opened my eyes and made me realize -the profound misery of that soul? It was you! I -am still touched by your affectionate insight, I still -marvel at your fortune.</p> - -<p>You remember that night when we were lying -stretched out together in the fields, looking up at a -sky that was rippling with milky light. You said -nothing to me, but I understood that evening that -you were possessed, to the point of intoxication,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</span> -with an immense, terrible idea, that of infinity. -Thanks to your silence, I shared with you that overwhelming -treasure.</p> - -<p>Who lent me that beautiful Swedish book I did -not know? Who spoke to me so enthusiastically -about it? It was you, you again!</p> - -<p>Who sings to me, when I am tired, that song as -poignant and serene as a breath that has come from -beyond the midnight oceans? You know very well, -my friend, it is you.</p> - -<p>I could tell you of a thousand instances of your -generosity, a thousand apostolic words that have -issued from your lips.</p> - -<p>Ah! my friend, can you disavow such riches? Can -you show at the same time such bitterness and such -prodigality?</p> - -<p>Every day you discover a means of transforming -into happiness the elements that others possess and -neglect. Do not hesitate, therefore: show them the -fruitful use they ought to make of their blessings.</p> - -<p>And do not ask any other recompense than the -pleasure of having been the giver, the initiator.</p> - -<p>The total amount of joy that prevails on the face -of our world is of great importance to you and to -me. One must always labor to augment it, whoever -the direct beneficiaries may be. There is no one who, -in the end, will not catch its echo, who will not receive -his own personal profit from it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</span></p> - -<p>And that is also why, in the present immense misery -of the world, the selfish pleasure-seekers feel -themselves ill at ease, even when their untimely pleasures -are seen by nobody.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>If you will, we can begin with the resolution never -to undeceive anyone who thinks he possesses anything.</p> - -<p>There are some who make it their care and pride -to deprive their neighbors of those illusions that -Ibsen calls “the vital illusions.” The characteristic -of these illusions is that they cannot be replaced. -To tear them away leaves a man mutilated, without -any possible reparation.</p> - -<p>Young people, assuredly, have a very exuberant -sap and all sorts of encumbering shoots. Skillful -and careful shears may well cut off, here and there, -these over-greedy branches—and the tree will bear -heavier and more fragrant fruit.</p> - -<p>But can you without guilt take away his wealth -from that old man whose illusion is his only pleasure? -Beware of cutting off all its leaves from that -old trunk that will never bring forth again and has -nothing but its foliage with which to subsist and -feel the sun.</p> - -<p>Distrust those men who have what is like a false -passion for truth. They are swollen with presumptuous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</span> -vanity. They do not know that real truth -exists only where there is faith, even faith without -an object. Of what importance is the object? It is -in faith itself that our grandeur lies.</p> - -<p>In my childhood, I often used to stop in to see a -certain humble, white-haired shopkeeper. She vegetated -in a dark little shop and was always sitting -behind her window, where the dust lay thick over -the toys and trinkets. Her business was very poor, -but she loved to say at night: “The passers-by were -very good today. They looked in the window a -great deal.”</p> - -<p>I noticed, in fact, that nearly all who went by -turned toward the dark shop a long, dreamy look, -full of unusual interest, that sometimes caused them -to stop short.</p> - -<p>One day, as I was myself passing before the poor -little display, I suddenly understood what it was the -passers-by looked at so kindly: it was their own faces -reflected in the dark window-pane.</p> - -<p>I was still very young, but I realized vaguely that -it would never do to disclose this disastrous discovery -to my old friend.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>But this passive good will is not enough. It is -not enough not to harm things. Marcus Aurelius, I -believe, has said; “One is often as unjust in doing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</span> -nothing as in doing what one does.” You must understand, -therefore, that not to share your inner -fortune is, in some sort, to rob those who surround -you.</p> - -<p>We must first declare our blessings: we must try -to do this without shame and without arrogance. -Those who enjoy an intense and efficacious inner life -draw from it a great deal of pride; they would gladly -communicate it if they did not know that these treasures -seem ridiculous to the common men; it is really -shame, therefore, that prevents them from being -proud.</p> - -<p>In spite of the cry of Hamlet, it is through words -that one discovers and possesses the world.</p> - -<p>The rhetoricians have done their work so well -that at times words seem dry, empty of pulp, empty -of juice. They are no longer nourishing food, they -are discordant sounds.</p> - -<p>It needs only a little confidence and generosity to -restore their meaning and their weight. Then they -become precious and faithful. We call them, like -devoted persons, to our aid; they come at once out -of the shadow and show themselves docile to our -wishes.</p> - -<p>Marcus Aurelius, of whom we have just spoken, -has said this also: “I wish always to define or describe -the object that presents itself to my thoughts, -so as to see, distinctly and in its nakedness, what it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</span> -is in its substance, considered as a whole, and separately -in all its parts, so as to be able to tell myself -its true name as well as the true names of the parts -of which it is composed and into which it can be -resolved. For nothing is so suited to elevate the -soul as to analyze as much as possible, with method -and justice, everything that one meets with in life, -and always to examine each object so as to be able -to recognize at once to what order of things it belongs, -of what, use it is, and what is its importance -in the universe and, relatively, to man.”</p> - -<p>It is with words that this task is accomplished.</p> - -<p>I have noted another beautiful expression on this -subject; it is from M. Anatole France. “Words,” -he says, “are ideas.... I think the highest race -in the world is that which has the best syntax. It -often happens that men cut each other’s throats -over words they do not understand. If they understood -each other they would embrace each other.”</p> - -<p>Be very sure then that the words of which we -make use are deserving of all our care, all our respect. -They are the witnesses of our thoughts. -They will betray us if we degrade them to base uses.</p> - -<p>Choose them with great tenderness; that is a quality -as enviable as precision. And by means of these -choice words, loyally express your fortune.</p> - -<p>Tell what you have discovered, what you know. -In affirming your possession you render it sure,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</span> -positive. You labor for others and for yourself. -You give form to your treasure and yield it, as if -perfected, to those who truly wish to avail themselves -of it.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>Yes, in acting in this way, you are also working -for your own profit. Do not let us leave this burning -subject too quickly.</p> - -<p>If I were not afraid of giving a conviction the -form of a whim, I should say: “You do your work -and it does good to you.”</p> - -<p>Among the ideas that are dear to you and that -you are glad to express are not only certainties, -verified results, the testimony of experience. There -are many wishes, many longings, too. By virtue of -being enunciated, these end by reacting upon you, -by gently imprisoning you. When you speak of virtue, -or happiness, or the spirit of adventure or courage, -you further certain things that are indeed your -own; you further also many other things that you -passionately wish to have become your own, your -unique and recognized quality. By virtue of expressing -them, it comes to pass that they in turn react -upon you; a moment arrives when you are morally -constrained to become the product of your opinions. -In this sense your work does for you the good that -you have done for it.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</span></p> - -<p>Admit, therefore, that if it pleases you to see and -to paint your life in generous, harmonious colors, it -is inevitable that harmony and generosity should -little by little imprint their stamp on your serious -thoughts and on your acts.</p> - -<p>Therefore speak, speak of your dream. Every -time someone tells you: “You do not live up to what -you say,” think, with a smile: “Not yet, undoubtedly; -but I feel sure that one day my words, that is -to say, my thoughts, will prove to be truer than my -vagaries.”</p> - -<p>When you have tried and proved this method, you -will attempt to bestow it upon others.</p> - -<p>To that end strive to win a reputation among uncertain, -hesitating people. Be prudent: this is the -time when it is of great importance to choose the -right ideas and words. But if you see one of your -companions torn between two opposing reputations, -imprison him in the better of the two.</p> - -<p>I once knew a man who had done many good acts -and a considerable number of reprehensible ones. -One day, when I saw him hesitating between these -two different tendencies, I began to address certain -phrases to him that opened somewhat like this: “You -who are so good.... You who have done such and -such fine things.” ... And the result was that that -man became really good, in order not to betray the -reputation he had gained.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</span></p> - -<p>I foresee that you are about to pronounce the -word vanity. Stop a moment! It is not a base -stratagem that causes a barren soul to bring forth -a fine harvest. If I had called the attention of that -man to what was mean and sordid in his character, -he would have perhaps become a villain altogether, -and that would have been a shame for him, for me, -and for everybody.</p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>We have discovered together, you will recall, that -the world is offered to all men that it may be possessed -by each with the help of all. You see, then, -that in your modest rôle of apostle there is a means -of making others rich while securing their help for -your own undertakings.</p> - -<p>Estimate your wealth according to the importance -of what you give. Dispossess yourself boldly. -Everything will be returned to you at the right time -and a hundredfold.</p> - -<p>If the great apostles were able to bring the good -news, it was because they had faith; but nothing -could have exalted their faith more than to bring the -good news.</p> - -<p>If you have been interested in something you have -read, in a walk, if you have been astonished at some -spectacle, invite all those whom you know to read -what you have read, to take that walk, to contemplate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</span> -that spectacle. Show some discernment in -your invitations. Distrust the sceptics a little, the -ironical, cruel, or contradictory spirits. Distrust -them, but do not abandon them: they are the strayed -sheep whose return ought to rejoice your heart supremely. -When you have made them admit: “Yes, -there’s something really fine! Yes, there’s something -interesting, there’s something worth the pain of living!” -you may fall asleep with a smile; your day will -not have been lost.</p> - -<p>At times, you will make a discovery so rare, so -delicate that, by some secret warning, you will know -it cannot be communicated, that it is strictly individual, -that it ought to remain as a private relation -between the world and your soul. In that case, -keep your own counsel. Perhaps a day will come -when your thought will have gained in precision -through being amplified; on that day you will be -mysteriously informed that your treasure has lost -its private character, that it has become suitable for -sustaining your communion with others. When that -day comes, speak forth. Until that day, however, -be patient; do not fall into the error of those spirits -who are called obscure because they offer us impressions -that have been insufficiently ripened and experienced, -impressions that are not for all humanity.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, when someone offers you one of -these obscure impressions, do not reject it, do not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</span> -laugh with disdain. Force yourself to feel what has -been pictured for you in this faulty fashion. You -will do your partner a service in visualizing his discovery, -and you will perhaps be able to increase your -own stock. Perhaps there will be something worth -seizing and understanding at the bottom of it.</p> - -<p>Always seek communion. It is the most precious -thing men possess. In this respect, the symbol of the -religions is indeed full of majesty. Where there is -communion there is something that is more than -human, there is surely something divine.</p> - -<p>When you deem that you have grasped a truth do -not forget, in communicating it to others, that there -are two conditions of truth. Any truth one receives -is but a small fortune in comparison with the value -of that which one experiences. Therefore persuade -those you love into the experiencing of truths, into -the religious, courageous, persistent experiencing of -the well-beloved truth.</p> - - -<h3>VII</h3> - -<p>One dreams of a life in which everyone would be the -apostle of what he possesses and where all would be -the disciples of each.</p> - -<p>If you wish to be an apostle, begin by never mislaying -any of your wealth.</p> - -<p>I once had a friend who said to me almost every -day: “This morning I had a beautiful thought; but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</span> -I can’t find it again, I’ve forgotten it, I’ve lost it.”</p> - -<p>You have a purse to contain your money; condescend -to have a scrap of paper on which you can put -your thoughts, where you can set them in order. -It is a slight means to what will eventually be a great -end. Be economical of your treasures so that you -may be lavish of them at the opportune moment. -Do not lose what you wish to give away.</p> - -<p>You are like the seeker after gold, on your knees -by the bank of a river that rolls with sand and with -nuggets.</p> - -<p>The rushing flood of your soul flows by, and you -watch it with fear and delight. Every sort of thing -is in it: mud, grass, gold, flowers, formless and nameless -debris. Gather to one side what you deem -worthy to be preserved, do not let it escape in the -torrent.</p> - -<p>This mass of thoughts that crowd and elbow one -another, this storm that tumbles its way over you, -this unending dream that you have when you are -awake, when your soul abandons itself to its natural, -spontaneous impulses, there, indeed, is matter -to terrify you! So many things appear and are -swallowed up again that scandalize or horrify you; -so many contradictions bewilder you, so many jewels -shine furtively forth, that you are by turns filled -with consternation, stupefied, dazzled.</p> - -<p>You must choose among all these things. You<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</span> -must draw out of the current what you recognize as -of value to you, and let the rest sink.</p> - -<p>I beg you, keep the reckoning of your own soul. -Keep a little book in your pocket that is carefully -brought up to date. And do not trust your memory; -it is a net full of holes; the most beautiful prizes -slip through it.</p> - -<p>You must not have too much fear of not being -up to your task when you are approaching great -problems and great works.</p> - -<p>That is something worth meditating for him who -sets himself to obtaining possession of the world, -who wishes to invite his companions to do the same.</p> - -<p>Though it may have all the appearance of naïveté, -confidence is less to be feared than the terror of -ridicule that paralyzes so many souls at the beginning -of the most beautiful adventures.</p> - -<p>The fear of enthusiasm does as much harm as obvious -wickedness.</p> - -<p>It is better to pass for a simpleton and become -the laughing-stock of the disillusioned than to miss -the opportunity to serve as the apostle of one’s beloved -verities. It is better to squander one’s fortune -than to run the risk of being the only one to -profit from it. There will always be a farthing to -fall into eager hands.</p> - -<p>The main thing is to be, above everything else, a -man of good will.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</span></p> - -<p>The true enemy, if there is any such, is the pharisee, -the man of outward observance, he who adopts -every religion as a matter of fashion, who speaks -frequently and passionately of his soul in the same -way in which he speaks of his necktie.</p> - - -<h3>VIII</h3> - -<p>If you are only two against a thousand in leading -this beautiful, pure life, rejoice that there are at -least two of you and do not despair of your course -of action.</p> - -<p>Is it not Renan who has uttered this profound -saying: “The great things in any race are usually -accomplished by the minority”?</p> - -<p>Do not rejoice because there are slaves. Let their -example be a fearful warning to you; let it fill you -with an overmastering desire to free them from servitude.</p> - -<p>To the apostle Paul is ascribed that disquieting -utterance of the conquering soldier: “Oportet -hæreses esse.”</p> - -<p>Yes, undoubtedly, whoever wishes to fight needs an -enemy.</p> - -<p>The dazzling chance of such conquests is not, alas, -the thing you will be most likely to miss. But every -conquest is vain that does not tend toward peace.</p> - -<p>One thinks with ecstasy of the joy of a universal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</span> -communion, from which no one would be left out, -in which no one would be the victim.</p> - -<p>Must there be heretics? Yes! To convince -them, but not to vanquish them, and still less to put -them to the stake.</p> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" >X<br /> -ON THE REIGN OF THE HEART</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="blockquot small1"> - -<p>“The knowledge of external things does not make up for -me, in times of affliction, for my ignorance of the moral -world; but my knowledge of the moral world always consoles -me for my ignorance of external things.”—<em>Pascal</em>.</p> -</div> - - -<h3>I</h3> - -<p>It has come, the time of affliction!</p> - -<p>Whatever may be the outcome of this war, it -marks a period of profound despair for humanity. -However great may be the pride of victory, however -generous such a victory may be, under whatever -light the distant consequences may be presented to -us, we live, none the less, in a blighted age, on an -earth that will be devastated for long years, in the -midst of a society that is decimated, ruined, crushed -by its wounds.</p> - -<p>Among all our disillusionments, if there is one that -remains especially painful to us it is the sort of -bankruptcy of which our whole civilization is convicted.</p> - -<p>Man had never been prouder than at the beginning -of the twentieth century of the discoveries he had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</span> -realized in the domain of what Pascal called “the -external sciences.”</p> - -<p>We must admit that there was some excuse for this -intoxication, this error. In its struggle with matter, -humanity had experienced a success that was so daring, -so disconcerting, and above all so repeated that -it lost a just conception of its adversary and forgot -that its principal enemy was itself.</p> - -<p>Events have recalled this to it in a flash. In the -last year or two it has expressed its discomfiture -through millions of simple lips. It has asked with -anguish how “a century so advanced in civilization” -could give birth to this demoralizing catastrophe. -Stupefied, it sees turning against itself all those -inventions which, it had been told, were made for its -happiness. For hardly one is absent. Even those -that seemed the highest in moral significance, even -they, have contributed in some degree to the disaster. -Only the fear of creating an uncontrollable -situation has prevented certain of the belligerents -from forming an alliance with the very germs of -epidemic diseases and thus debasing the noblest of -all the acquisitions of science.</p> - -<p>A doubt has grown up in all hearts: what, after all, -is this civilization from which we draw such pride -and which we claim the right to impose upon the -peoples of the other continents? What is this thing -that has suddenly revealed itself as so cruel, so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</span> -dangerous, as destitute of soul as its own machines?</p> - -<p>Eyes have been opened, spirits have been illuminated: -never did barbarism, in all its brutality and -destructiveness, attain results as monstrous as those -of which our industrial and scientific civilization has -proved itself capable. Is it indeed anything but a -travesty on barbarism?</p> - -<p>What inclines one to believe this is that the peoples -which have dedicated to the gods of the factory and -the laboratory the most fervent and the most vainglorious -worship have shown themselves in this way -by far the cruellest, the most fertile in inhumane -and disgraceful inventions.</p> - -<p>M. Bergson has said, of the intelligence, that it -is “characterized by a natural incomprehension of -life.” To this one might add: and by a complete -incomprehension of happiness, which is the very aim -of life.</p> - -<p>With its retinue of ingenious inventions and clever -complications, the intelligence plays the part of -something irresponsible or criminal in the great disorder -of the world. It seems not only incapable of -giving happiness to men, but actually adapted to -bewilder them, corrupt them, set them quarreling. -It knows how to provoke conflicts; it is unable either -to exorcise them or to resolve them.</p> - -<p>Scientific and industrial civilization based upon the -intelligence is condemned. For long years it has<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</span> -monopolized and distracted all human energies. Its -reign has ended in an immense defeat.</p> - - -<h3>II</h3> - -<p>It is toward the resources of the heart that our -hope turns. Betrayed by this clever intelligence, -whose formidable works have at times the very look -of stupidity itself, we aspire to the reign of the -heart; all our desires turn toward a moral civilization, -such as is alone capable of exalting us, satisfying -us, protecting us, assuring us the true burgeoning -of our race.</p> - -<p>It is by juggling with words that people have been -able to attach the idea of true progress to the development -of the mechanical, chemical or biological -sciences. True progress concerns nothing but the -soul, it remains independent of the expedients and -the practices of science. This latter is able to triumph -even when the true progress, the ascent of -mankind toward happiness, is interrupted and -thwarted in its profoundest tendencies.</p> - -<p>There are not lacking people to tell us that the -war will mark with precision the advent of a new -world, that it has bought in the blood and the flame -the moral elevation necessary for a fruitful and final -peace. We cannot share this optimism of official -eloquence. It is not the performance of tasks of -murder that opens to men the road to justice and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</span> -converts them to good customs. Humanity must -grow unaccustomed to crime, and it is not the armed -intelligence that can accomplish this miracle. The -pacifying work of the war will remain in peril if -everything that is healthy and generous in humanity -does not labor to dethrone this scientific civilization -which still abuses society after having reduced -it to helplessness.</p> - -<p>I consider as negligible the objection of the stoics -who say that these miseries do not depend upon us -and that we ought obstinately to seek our happiness -through them, isolate our happiness from the surrounding -degradation. No! These miseries do depend -upon us. In spite of its disdainful nobility, the -stoic resignation has here too much the look of -egoism.</p> - -<p>This moral civilization, when its hour comes, will -revive Christianity and propagate it; it will not leave -the human race in the abandonment of the desperate -misery of today.</p> - - -<h3>III</h3> - -<p>The naturalists and the sociologists have contributed -to spread this idea that moral progress is, -for individuals, a function of the anatomical complex, -and for societies of the complex of habits, institutions -and industries. It is on this understanding -that they have undertaken the classification of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</span> -species and arranged the various human hierarchies.</p> - -<p>That is a view entirely external to things, it cannot -be verified as regards individual thought, it is a -sheer fabrication as regards collectivities: the war is -a bloody refutation of it.</p> - -<p>If we mean by moral progress that which affects -the conditions of happiness, nothing permits us to -conjecture what advantages have been realized in this -direction by the vegetable and animal organisms that -have not chosen us as confidents. Habits, as we -observe them, cannot be a criterion, even if we admit -that we ought to seek for evidence among them; -they seem as if designed to baffle all theories.</p> - -<p>Those animals whose anatomical structure closely -resembles ours, not to say that it is exactly analogous -to ours, such as cattle and sheep, give proof of -a moral activity that is insignificant beside the real -genius shown by the bee and so many other insects -whose nervous systems are still rudimentary in comparison -with those of the mammals.</p> - -<p>Certain sea animals, the barnacles, have suffered, -because of their sedentary existence, an anatomical -regression. We know that the mobile larvæ of the -barnacles possess more complicated organisms than -those of the adult and stationary animal. To conclude -from that that this anatomical regression is a -lowering of the species is to assume a great deal, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</span> -it is to accord to movement a very debatable significance.</p> - -<p>There exist species of plant life, especially among -the conifers and the ferns, which, for thousands of -centuries, seem to have remained in an almost stable -anatomical and functional stage. These species are -none the less very widely scattered and very long-lived, -very adaptable. They offer an outward appearance -of happiness and prosperity. On the other -hand, nothing permits us to affirm that certain -species, like the orchids, which have undergone a -delirious evolution resulting in forms of extreme anatomical -complexity, have attained a true progress, -have improved, that is to say, their moral destiny: -we see them subject to innumerable external servitudes. -Their reproduction, even, is only possible -thanks to the intervention of outside agencies and is -fraught with perils. A seductive argument that -smacks of anthropomorphism inclines us to believe -that these species, intoxicated with their material -difficulties, ought to have a less free and less serene -philosophical existence.</p> - -<p>The complexity of the individual organism, which -corresponds strictly to the political, economic and -scientific complexity of societies, adds neither to the -possibilities of life, nor to its scope of activity, nor -to its hopes.</p> - -<p>Certain fish, the pleuronectes, have sought their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</span> -salvation in a very bold, precocious development that -ends in a displacement of their eyes, of their mouth -and in a profound disorder of their original symmetry. -Looking at them, one has the impression -that this development has thrown them into an impasse, -into a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">cul-de-sac</i> from which it would be difficult -for them to escape into a new evolution; one has -the impression that this whole biological stratagem -has considerably restricted the destiny of the species.</p> - -<p>Besides, and the naturalists know it very well, the -species that are most highly evolved, most differentiated, -to employ the consecrated expression, -are in a certain sense the oldest species, imprisoned -in their own tradition and scarcely to be counted -upon for a new adaptation, a profound reformation -of their organs and their habits.</p> - - -<h3>IV</h3> - -<p>This digression, too long for our restlessness, but -too succinct in view of the facts it involves, raises -several criticisms.</p> - -<p>One might, in the first place, object that evolution -is a thing which species undergo and which they -cannot influence themselves. If that is true, humanity -finds itself forced into an adventure against -which it is puerile and presumptuous to contend.</p> - -<p>This attitude implies a submissive fatalism that denies -both our sense of experience and our thirst for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</span> -perfection. We are apt to construe our lessons in -such a way as to draw instruction from them. We -have shown this in many moments of crisis, and we -feel a certain repugnance to thinking that we cannot -turn to our own profit the most majestic lesson that -has ever been given to men.</p> - -<p>Certain minds, on the other hand, have concluded -that humanity is altogether too old, too highly -evolved a species to be capable of ever again renouncing -what is fundamental in its inveterate intellectual -traditions, its scientific acquisitions and the -customs that have sprung from them.</p> - -<p>If this conception of the world did not appear as -if stamped with lassitude and scepticism, it would -seem to leave us in the presence of a desperate alternative: -either the acceptance of a life without -restraint, given over to every sort of folly, exposed -to every sort of lapse into crime, or the solitary -search for an oblivion that only waits for death.</p> - -<p>But will the peoples who have struggled so fiercely -for their material interests remain disarmed in the -face of the moral danger that threatens the very -morning of the race, will they undertake nothing -truly efficacious for the sake of posterity?</p> - -<p>That is the anxiety that haunts generous souls -today.</p> - -<p>The political arrangements that will mark the end -of this war will be of no real interest if the minds<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</span> -that control the spiritual direction of the peoples do -not labor, from now on-and in the future, to modify -the meaning of the ideas of progress and civilization.</p> - -<p>We cannot believe that humanity is so deeply sunk -in its convictions and its intellectual habits as to -remain forever incapable of sudden change and -reform.</p> - -<p>The human world has already passed through important -crises; it has already been forced several -times to reshape the idea it had formed of culture -and civilization.</p> - -<p>It has always been amid its ruins that it has meditated -the conditions of a new life. If it is true that -ruins demand the revolution of customs, let us admit -that the heart of man has never been more urgently -entreated than today.</p> - -<p>In any case, there is no question of giving up those -customs that form an integral part of our vital economy. -It would be fantastic to consider the regeneration -of a society that was deprived, for example, of -the means of communication which have obtained for -a century and which we could scarcely abandon now -without suicide. But it is fair to consider how great -and dangerous is the hold of the false needs which -the study of the “external sciences” creates in us -and not to permit our ideal activity to be blindly enslaved -any longer by our material ingenuity.</p> - -<p>There exist in our nature ardent forces that one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</span> -cannot condemn without appeal and that will manifest -themselves against all discipline.</p> - -<p>The passion of the sciences must be deeply-rooted -when we see men, in love with love, peace, humanity, -consecrating themselves, as if in their own despite, -under the cover of some abstract sophistry, to tasks -whose results may contribute seriously to the wretchedness -and the debasement of society.</p> - -<p>If one might gather together all the faculties of -the spirit for the single cause of happiness!</p> - -<p>At least, and from now on, let us cease to consider -that the monstrous development of industrial science -represents civilization; otherwise let us withdraw -from this word its whole moral significance and seek -another for the needs of our ideal.</p> - -<p>Let us cease humiliating moral culture, the only -pledge we have of peace and happiness, before the -irresponsible and unruly genius that haunts the -laboratories. Scientific civilization, let us say, to -allow it to keep this name for a moment, has been -for us so prodigal in bitterness that we can no longer -abandon it uncontrolled to its devouring activity. -We must make use of it as a servant and cease any -longer to adore it as a goddess.</p> - - -<h3>V</h3> - -<p>We must revise all our definitions, all our values, -our whole vocabulary.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</span></p> - -<p>All fervent spirits should set themselves to this -work, and their task will be all the heavier the more -widely extended they are assured their influence will -be.</p> - -<p>We must strive to make our stunned humanity realize -that happiness does not consist in travelling at -the rate of sixty miles an hour, rising up into the -air on a machine or talking under the ocean, but -above all else in being rich in beautiful thoughts, contented -with its work, honored with warm affections.</p> - -<p>We must restore the cult of the arts which contribute -to the purification of the soul, which are consoling -in times of affliction and remain, by their nature, -incapable of serving ignoble ends.</p> - -<p>We must employ our strength to altering the -meaning of the words “riches,” “possessions,” “authority,” -to showing that they are things of the soul -and that the material acceptance of these terms corresponds -to realities that are perfidious and ironical. -We must at the same time transform the ideas of -benevolence and ambition, open a new career to these -virtues, create for them new ends and new satisfactions. -Those who consider such a program with -irony or scepticism make a great mistake. Its realization -may seem illusory, but it will undoubtedly become -a necessity. The material goods at the disposal -of humanity will find themselves considerably -reduced both by the destruction of which they have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</span> -been the object and by the long arrest of the production -of them.</p> - -<p>Their rarity and their growing expensiveness will -be the source of grave and almost insoluble conflicts, -which new effusions of blood will only make more -venomous.</p> - -<p>Humanity can hurl against this terrible future a -defiance full of grandeur. It can, under the influence -of its spiritual masters, seek its happiness in a wise -and passionate transformation of its desires.</p> - -<p>Let us not urge it toward resignation but toward -the conquest of the true riches, those that assure it -the moral possession of the world.</p> - - -<h3>VI</h3> - -<p>The economists, whose science the war has so often -tested, are laboring to define what will be the conditions -of life in the period that will follow the world -war; their estimates leave little room for the hope of -an agreeable and easy material existence; they hold -over the mass of men, conquered and conquerors -alike, the menace of desperate labor and slight and -wretched returns.</p> - -<p>These learned researches, added to the similar conclusions -of common sense, do not seem to discourage -the laborious race of men. They have been told they -must work, and even now, while they are struggling -against a hundred fearful perils, they are mentally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</span> -preparing to earn their difficult living, if only the -war does not take away their lives.</p> - -<p>The modern industrial monster sets these conditions -in advance. We already know that competition -will be pitiless, we know too that enjoyment will -only be for the highest bidder. Individuals, at the -sight of this future, mutually urge one another to be -stubborn. The world is preparing to take up again, -obstinately, the old order that has cost it so many -trials. As yet no one speaks of a new life.</p> - -<p>There will be so many voices to praise these desperate -resolutions, so many books will be written to -persuade men to persevere in their old hatreds that a -timid voice may well raise itself to protest against -the consummation of the error.</p> - -<p>A man whom I love and esteem above all others -once said to me:</p> - -<p>“When peace is signed and I return home, I shall -have to give up all the distractions I used to have if -I wish to work as much as will be necessary to recover -a situation as good as the one I had before.”</p> - -<p>Believe me, O my friend who said these words to -me, I love work too well to blame your decision; but -I was thinking only of your happiness, and it was -of your situation that you spoke to me. Are you -sure that they are rightly related, those two words, -those two ideas? What do you hope from the future<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</span> -if you are not going to allow a large place in it to -the soul?</p> - -<p>What compensation will be left for our passion of -today if we take up all our prejudices again, if we -return to our own vomit?</p> - -<p>The old civilization seems condemned. To break -with it, we must first of all seek our individual satisfaction -outside money, our happiness outside the -whirlpool of pleasure. We must flee deliberately -from the tyranny of luxury. In this way even the -events of the present oblige us to seek our true path. -Must we keep blindly and obstinately to the ways -of slavery? We have slighted the best sources of -interest, joy and wealth; shall we misprize them now -that they remain the only fresh and faithful things -in the aridity of our time? Shall we neglect our -souls again to seek a false fortune that can only betray -us? Shall we contend with exasperated brutes -over possessions we know to be unstable and deceptive?</p> - -<p>No! No! Here should lie the lesson and the one -benefit of this war: that we should undeceive ourselves -about ourselves and about our ends! Let us -not devote our courage to choosing a ferocious discipline -devoid of the ideal. Let us once for all reject -our calculating and demoralizing intelligence. Let -us organize, in the peace that returns, the reign of -the heart.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</span></p> - - -<h3>VII</h3> - -<p>The search for happiness cannot ignore the conditions -of the material life. Undoubtedly, well-being, -comfort, dispose us to a happy view of things; but -will they ever replace what a poet has called “the -contented heart”?</p> - -<p>The Anglo-American peoples, susceptible as they -are to all the moral and religious revolutions, have -applied themselves to altering the original sense of -simple well-being so as to identify it with luxurious -comfort. That is a way of giving a moral aspect to -pleasure, making an honest bargain with the corruptions -of money.</p> - -<p>The exigencies of this sort of life have largely contributed -to involving these peoples in a frenzied -whirlwind of business that wears a man out and bewilders -him. The anonymous writer of the “Letters -of an Elderly American to a Frenchman” says to -my countrymen: “Your most beautiful country-houses -and your best hotels are occupied most of -the time by foreigners, while your own people have to -content themselves with miserable little cheap holes. -Isn’t it absurd!” Perhaps, O Elderly American, -but that absurdity is dear to my heart. May the -God of journeys always turn my path away from -the tainted spots where rise those buildings in which -the existence you think so enviable is passed. If we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</span> -are to consecrate our friendship we ought to discuss -the value of words: what you call happiness does not -tempt me.</p> - -<p>The love of nature, the taste for those simple, -healthy joys that were so vaunted by the philosophers -of our eighteenth century have been the laughing-stock -of our contemporary writers. A laughable -excess has led, by reaction, to a furious and -ignoble excess.</p> - -<p>The dramatists and novelists of our time who, by -the quality of their opinions or by their political -positions are ostensibly laboring for a moral or religious -end, have betrayed, in most of their works, a -servile and ill-concealed love of luxury. It is useless -to give names; let us say only that none of the -modern novels of certain of our authors lack those -descriptions and professions of faith that reveal the -quivering longing of the pauper for the delights and -enjoyments on which all his eager desires are fixed.</p> - -<p>It is partly to the influence of this literature that -our old world owes the headlong rush of all classes -of humanity toward those pleasures that are only the -phantoms of happiness and will never be anything -else.</p> - -<p>If genius wishes to consecrate itself to a labor that -is truly reconstructive, truly pacific, it must discover -other subjects for its works.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</span></p> - - -<p>VIII</p> - -<p>If the future laws governing labor do not allow -enough time for the cultivation and the flourishing -of the soul, a sacred struggle will become inevitable.</p> - -<p>The organizers of the modern world, who have -shown themselves powerless to avert war and did not -realize the vanity of our old civilization, do not yet -seem to foresee the urgency of radical changes in the -moral education of the peoples.</p> - -<p>They continue to talk to us about the superhuman -efforts we must make in order to redeem their faults.</p> - -<p>No one shrinks before these efforts. Society is -weary of crime but not of peaceful tasks. Everyone -prepares with joyous energy to take up his -former position and his tools again.</p> - -<p>It rests with us all to mitigate the severity of economic -conflicts by working to transform the current -idea of happiness.</p> - -<p>The possessors of material wealth have, in general, -for centuries, given to those whom they employ and -direct so scandalous and basely immoral an example -that they themselves are the principal fomenters of -the attacks which they will henceforth have to undergo.</p> - -<p>In the machinery of modern industry, work has -lost a great many of its attractive virtues: all the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</span> -methods in force tend to diminish the part played by -the soul and the heart, and the workman, imprisoned -in an almost mechanical function, no longer expects -from work the personal satisfaction he once obtained; -as a poet has said: “His empty labor is the fate he -fights against.”</p> - -<p>Certain American methods have based their theory -upon a clever sophism; they exaggerate the automatic -under the pretext of thus cutting short the -length of the work. That is not a happy solution, -to cut short the hours of labor by emptying it of all -joy, of all professional interest. It is better to undertake -a long piece of work with relish than to hurry -through a short task with repugnance.</p> - -<p>The specialization that is rendered necessary by -the very extent of scientific and industrial activity -remains a dangerous thing, especially among an old -race of encyclopedists like ourselves.</p> - -<p>However that may be, the peoples consent to yield -themselves to the discretion of the modern world. -May the monster leave them some scraps of a liberty -that is still honorable enough for them to think of -cultivating their souls. There will not be lacking -men of good will who will be glad to devote themselves -to directing this liberty, to transforming the -meaning and the demands of joy, propagating a culture -which, unlike those old errors, will support education -more readily than instruction,—men who will<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</span> -more often address themselves to the heart than to -the disastrous reason.</p> - - -<h3>IX</h3> - -<p>France has suffered, suffers and will suffer more -deeply than all the other countries of the world. -She is at once the altar and the holocaust. She has -sacrificed her men, her cities, and her soil. It is in -the heart of her beautiful fields that the devastating -storm whirls and roars.</p> - -<p>In the depths of my soul I hope that, because of -this great grief, it will be France that will give the -signal for redemption. I hope that the reign of the -heart will begin just here where the old civilization -will leave imperishable traces of its murderous folly.</p> - -<p>The resources of the French people in perseverance, -in self-reliance, in goodness, in subtle delicacy -are so great that one feels a word would suffice to -rally all hearts and give them their bearings. One -feels that at the mere phrase “moral civilization” -thousands and thousands of noble heads will nod approval, -thousands of hands will reach out to find each -other.</p> - -<p>People who have obstinate views on the political -meaning of wars, on the eminently economic nature of -the peril that has been run by humanity, and on the -efficacy of the industrial and scientific civilization, -will not fail to proclaim that France ought first of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</span> -all to return to its furious task and apply itself to -surpassing the peoples that have outstripped it along -this path.</p> - -<p>But France has always been the country of initiation -and revelation. It is the chosen land of spiritual -revolutions. May the bloody baptism it has received -give it precedence in the discussion of the future!</p> - -<p>Do you wish it to lose the glorious rank it holds in -the moral order, at the head of the nations, that it -may fall in line behind the peoples who are enslaved -by automatism and swear allegiance to a worn-out, -condemned, bankrupt social and economic religion?</p> - -<p>If the destiny of our country is to make a humanity -that is plunged in affliction give ear to the words -of peace, consolation and love, let it accomplish this -beautiful mission, let it teach the other peoples the -generous laws of the true possession of the world.</p> - - -<h3>X</h3> -<p>My work is finished, and now the time has come -for me to part with it.</p> - -<p>It is going off into this misty autumn night. My -heart is both glad and sorrowful.</p> - -<p>It is going away from me, henceforth to follow a -destiny of its own that will no longer depend only -upon my love.</p> - -<p>I shall turn to other duties, I shall assume other -cares. A voice tells me that they will always be the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</span> -same duties, the same cares, and that there is no -longer but one great task for men, one single task -with a hundred radiant aspects.</p> - -<p>It is late. The night is drawing to a close; it is -calm and yet penetrated with a vast, subdued murmur -of joy. They say it is one of the last nights of -the war.</p> - -<p>I hear about me the panting breath of the wounded. -There are several hundred of them; they are sleeping -or longing for sleep and rest. Their burning breath -is like a lamentation. Many of them will never see -the peace they have so dearly bought. They are -perhaps the wounded of the last battle, the last victims, -the last martyrs.</p> - -<p>Over the whole face of the world souls are suffering -with them, for them, souls which the angel of -death laboring here this night will not deliver.</p> - -<p>My work is finished. It begins to withdraw from -me. If it can bring any consolation to a single one -of these suffering souls, let me believe that it has fulfilled -its destiny.</p> - - -<p class="p2 center big1">THE END</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART'S DOMAIN ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ -concept and trademark. 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