Monsieur de Camors — Complete. Feuillet Octave

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СКАЧАТЬ at present in Paris; a society the brain of which is atheistic, and

       the heart religious. And at bottom there will be no more belief in

       Christ than in Jupiter; nevertheless, churches will continue to be

       built mechanically. There are no longer even Deists; for the old

       chimera of a personal, moral God-witness, sanction, and judge—is

       virtually extinct; and yet hardly a word is said, or a line written,

       or a gesture made, in public or private life, which does not ever

       affirm that chimera. This may have its uses perchance, but it is

       nevertheless despicable. Slip forth from the common herd, my son,

       think for yourself, and write your own catechism upon a virgin page.

       “As for myself, my life has been a failure, because I was born many

       years too soon. As yet the earth and the heavens were heaped up and

       cumbered with ruins, and people did not see. Science, moreover, was

       relatively still in its infancy. And, besides, I retained the

       prejudices and the repugnance to the doctrines of the new world that

       belonged to my name. I was unable to comprehend that there was

       anything better to be done than childishly to pout at the conqueror;

       that is, I could not recognize that his weapons were good, and that

       I should seize and destroy him with them. In short, for want of a

       definite principle of action I have drifted at random, my life

       without plan—I have been a mere trivial man of pleasure.

       “Your life shall be more complete, if you will only follow my

       advice.

       “What, indeed, may not a man of this age become if he have the good

       sense and energy to conform his life rigidly to his belief!

       “I merely state the question, you must solve it; I can leave you

       only some cursory ideas, which I am satisfied are just, and upon

       which you may meditate at your leisure. Only for fools or the weak

       does materialism become a debasing dogma; assuredly, in its code

       there are none of those precepts of ordinary morals which our

       fathers entitled virtue; but I do find there a grand word which may

       well counterbalance many others, that is to say, Honor, self-esteem!

       Unquestionably a materialist may not be a saint; but he can be a

       gentleman, which is something. You have happy gifts, my son, and I

       know of but one duty that you have in the world—that of developing

       those gifts to the utmost, and through them to enjoy life

       unsparingly. Therefore, without scruple, use woman for your

       pleasure, man for your advancement; but under no circumstances do

       anything ignoble.

       “In order that ennui shall not drive you, like myself, prematurely

       from the world so soon as the season for pleasure shall have ended,

       you should leave the emotions of ambition and of public life for the

       gratification of your riper age. Do not enter into any engagements

       with the reigning government, and reserve for yourself to hear its

       eulogium made by those who will have subverted it. That is the

       French fashion. Each generation must have its own prey. You will

       soon feel the impulse of the coming generation. Prepare yourself,

       from afar, to take the lead in it.

       “In politics, my son, you are not ignorant that we all take our

       principles from our temperament. The bilious are demagogues, the

       sanguine, democrats, the nervous, aristocrats. You are both

       sanguine and nervous, an excellent constitution, for it gives you a

       choice. You may, for example, be an aristocrat in regard to

       yourself personally, and, at the same time, a democrat in relation

       to others; and in that you will not be exceptional.

       “Make yourself master of every question likely to interest your

       contemporaries, but do not become absorbed in any yourself. In

       reality, all principles are indifferent—true or false according to

       the hour and circumstance. Ideas are mere instruments with which

       you should learn to play seasonably, so as to sway men. In that

       path, likewise, you will have associates.

       “Know, my son, that having attained my age, weary of all else, you

       will have need of strong sensations. The sanguinary diversions of

       revolution will then be for you the same as a love-affair at twenty.

       “But I am fatigued, my son, and shall recapitulate. To be loved by

       women, to be feared by men, to be as impassive and as imperturbable

       as a god before the tears of the one and the blood of the other, and

       to end in a whirlwind—such has been the lot in which I have failed,

       but which, nevertheless, I bequeath to you. With your great

       faculties you, however, are capable of accomplishing it, unless

       indeed you should fail through some ingrained weakness of the heart

       that I have noticed in you, and which, doubtless, you have imbibed

       with your mother’s milk.

       “So long as man shall be born of woman, there will be something

       faulty and incomplete in his character. In fine, strive to relieve

       yourself from all thraldom, from all natural instincts, affections,

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