Joseph Balsamo (53 page)
And he broke it in two, keeping one half for himself and returning the other to the old man ; then he sat down on the grass a couple of paces from his companion, who looked at him with increasing wonder.
The repast did not last very long. There was but little bread, and Gilbert was very hungry. The old man did not disturb his occupation by a word ; he continued to observe him furtively but silently, bestowing, apparently, great attention on the plants and flowers in his box, which, when
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he opened it again, raised their odoriferous heads to the level of the edge, as if to inhale the air. But seeing Gilbert approach the pond, he cried, hastily, ” Do not drink that water, young man, it is rendered unwholesome by the remains of last year’s plants, and by the spawn of frogs now on its surface. Take instead a few of these cherries, they will refresh you as much as the water. Take them, I beg of you, for you are not a forward guest, I see.”
“It is true, sir, forwardness is the reverse of my nature, and I fear nothing so much as being intrusive. I have just experienced that at Versailles.”
“Oh, you come from Versailles?” said the stranger, eying Gilbert with a strong expression of curiosity.
” Yes, sir.”
” It is a rich town ; one must be either very poor or very proud to be starving there.”
“I am both, sir.”
” You have had a quarrel with your master, perhaps ? ” said the stranger, while he apparently arranged the plants in his box, yet giving Gilbert a rapid, interrogating glance.
“I have no master, sir.”
” My friend,” replied the old man, putting on his hat, “that is too ambitious a reply.”
“It is the truth, however.”
” No, young man. Every one has his master here below ; we do not place our pride on a proper object when we say we have no master.”
“How?”
” Yes. Whether old or young, it is so ordered that we must submit to some ruling power. Some are ruled by men, others by principles ; and the severest masters are not always those who order with the voice or strike with the hand.”
” Be it so,” said Gilbert. ” Then I am governed by principles, I confess. Principles are the only masters which a reflecting mind can recognize without shame.”
” And what are your principles ? Let me hear them. You seem to be very young, my friend, to have any decided principles.”
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” Sir, I know that all men are brethren, and that every man, from his birth, is bound to fulfil certain duties to-ward his fellow-men. I know that God has bestowed on me a certain amount of value in society ; and as I acknowledge the worth of other men, I have a right to-exact from them that they should acknowledge mine, if I do not exaggerate its importance. So long as I do nothing unjust and dishonorable, I merit some regard, even were it only as a human being.”
“Oh, ho !” said the stranger, “you have studied, I perceive.”
” Alas ! sir, I have not ; but I have read the ” Disconrs snr Flnegalite des Conditions,’ and ‘ Le Contrat Social.’ From those two books I have learned all I know, and even all I have dreamed.”
At these words the eyes of the stranger flashed, and by an involuntary movement he was nearly destroying a beautiful chrysanthemum, which he was trying to place securely in his box.
” And such are the principles which you profess ? ” said he.
” They may not be yours, sir,” replied the young man ; ” but they are those of Jean Jacques Rousseau.”
” But,” said the stranger, with a distrust so apparent that it was rather humbling to Gilbert’s vanity, ” but are you sure you have rightly understood those principles ? “
” I understand French, I think, sir, particularly when it is pure and poetical.”
” You see that you do not,” said the old man, smiling ; ” for what I ask you, if not poetical, is, at least, quite plain. I mean, have your philosophical studies enabled you to understand the groundwork of the system of “
He stopped, almost blushing.
” Of Rousseau, sir ? ” continued Gilbert. ” Oh, sir, I have not studied my philosophy in a college ; but there is an instinct within me which revealed the excellence and utility of ‘ Le Contrat Social, ‘ above all other books that I had read.”
” A dry book for a young man, sir a barren subject for
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reverie at twenty years of age a bitter and uufragrant flower for fancy in its spring-time ! ” said the old man, with gentle sadness.
“Misfortune ripens man before his time, sir,” answered Gilbert ; ” and as to reverie, if we give it a free and unre-strained course, it very often lends to ill.”
The stranger opened his eyes, which he usually kept half closed in his moments of calmness and reflection, a peculiarity which gave an indefinable charm to his countenance.
” To whom do you allude ?” asked he, reddening.
” Not to any one, sir ‘ said Gilbert.
” Oh, yes, you do.”
“No ; I assure you I do not.”
” You appear to have studied the philosopher of Geneva. Did you not allude to his life ? “
“I know nothing of his life,” replied Gilbert, frankly.
“Do you not?” and the stranger sighed. “Young man, he is a wretched creature.”
“Impossible! Jean Jacques Rousseau wretched ? Then there is no justice on earth. Wretched ? The man who has devoted his life to the happiness of mankind ? “
“Well, well! I see that you do know nothing about him. Let us speak of yourself, my friend, if you please.”
” I should prefer going on with our present subject. What, can I tell you of myself worth hearing, sir I who am a mere nobody ? “
” And, besides, you do not know me, and are afraid of trusting a stranger.”
” Oh, sir, what have I to fear from any one ? Who can make me more wretched than I am ? Recollect in what guise I came before you alone, poor, hungry.”
” Where were you going ?”
” I was going to Paris. Are you a Parisian, sir ? “
” Yes ; that is to say, no.”
” Which of the two am I to believe ?” asked Gilbert, smiling.
” I abhor falsehood, and every moment I perceive how necessary it is to reflect befor speaking. I am a Parisian, if by that is meant a man who has lived in Paris for a long
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time, and has mixed in its society ; but I was not born in that city. But why do you ask ?”
” It was from an association of ideas arising out of our conversation. I thought, if you lived in Paris, you might have seen Eousseau, of whom we were speaking just now.”
” I have, indeed, seen him sometimes.”
” People look at him as he passes by, do they not ? He is admired, and pointed out as the benefactor of the hu-man race ? “
” No ; children, incited by their parents, follow him and throw stones at him.”
” Good heavens ! ” exclaimed Gilbert, with the most painful astonishment. “But at least he is rich ?”
” He has sometimes to ask himself, as .you asked yourself this morning, ‘Where shall I procure a breakfast ?’”
” But, poor as he is, he is esteemed, has influence, is respected ? “
” He knows not at night, when he lies down, whether he may not awake in the morning in the Bastile.”
” Oh, how he must hate mankind ! “
“He neither loves them nor hates them : he is disgusted with them that is .all.”
” How can we avoid hating people who treat us ill ?” cried Gilbert : ” I cannot comprehend that.”
“Rousseau has always been free, sir Rousseau has always been strong enough to rely on himself alone. It is strength and freedom which make men mild and kind slavery and weakness alone can make them malevolent.”
“Those are my reasons for wishing to be free,” said Gilbert, proudly. ” I have long thought what you have just so well explained to me.”
” But one may be free even in prison, my friend,” replied the stranger. “Suppose Rousseau were in the Bastile to-morrow and he certainly will be in it one day or other he would think and write as freely as among the mountains of Switzerland. I have never thought, for my part that man’s freedom consists in his being able to do whatever he wills, but that he should not by any human power, be forced to do what is against his will.”
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‘ ‘ Has Rousseau written what you have just said, sir ? “
” I think he has.”
” It is not in ‘ Th Social Contrat.’”
” No ; it is in a new work of his, called ‘ The Reveries of a Solitary Walker
” Sir,” said Gilbert, warmly, ” I think we shall agree on one point.”
“What is that?”
” That we both love and admire Rousseau.”
” Speak for yourself, young man ; you are still in the age of illusions.”
” We may be deceived about things, but not about men.”
” Alas ! you will learn at a later period that it is in the characters of men more than in aught else that we are deceived. Rousseau may be a little more just than other men, but, believe me, he has faults, and very great ones.”
Gilbert shook his head in a way which showed that he was far from being convinced ; but, notwithstanding this rather uncivil demonstration, the stranger continued to treat him with the same kindness.
Let us return to the point at which we set out,” said the stranger. “I was saying thut you had quitted your master at Versailles.”
” And I,” replied Gilbert, but more mildly than before, ” I answered that I had no master ; I should have added that it depended entirely on myself to have one, and a very illustrious one, too, and that I had refused a situation which many would have sought eagerly.”
” A situation ? “
” Yes ; one in which I should only have had to serve for the amusement of great lords in want of such an occupation ; but I thought that being young and able to study and push my way in life, I ought not to lose my most precious years, and compromise in my person the dignity of man.”
” And you decided well. But have you any fixed plan of pursuing your career ? “
”Sir, I should wish to be a physician.”
” A noble profession. In it you may choose between
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real science, ever modest and self-sacrificing, and qnack-ery, ever noisy and empty. If you would become a physician, young man, study ; if a quack, nothing but impudence and effrontery are necessary.”
” But it requires a great deal of money to study, does it not, sir ? “
” It certainly requires some money ; I should not say a great deal.”
” In fact, I believe that Jean Jacques Eousseau, who knows everything, studied at no expense.”
” At no expense ? Oh, young man ! ” said the stranger, with a sad smile, ” do you call it no expense when we ex-pend the most precious of God’s gifts innocence, health, sleep ? These are what it has cost the philosopher of Geneva to acquire the little that he knows.”
” The little ? ” repeated Gilbert, almost angrily.
” Yes ; ask any one about him, and you will hear him spoken of as I speak of him.”
” In the first place, he is a great musician.”
” Oh, because King Louis XV. sung a song out of an opera of Kousseau’s composing, that does not make it a good opera.”
“But he is a great botanist; I have only seen a lew odd sheets of his letters on botany, but you, who gather plants in the woods, have read them, I dare say.”
” Oh, sometimes a person thinks himself a botanist, and is only “
” Only what ? “
“Only a herbalist and even “
” And which are you herbalist or botanist ?”
” A very humble herbalist, and a very ignorant one, when I contemplate those marvels of God’s creation, plants and flowers.”
” He is a Latin schofor.”
” A very bad one.”
” But I read in a newspaper that he translated an ancient author called Tacitus.”
” Because, in his pride alas ! every man has his moments of pride because, in his pride, he thought he
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could undertake anything. In the preface, however, to the first book the only one which he translated he says he does not understand Latin well ; and Tacitus, who is a rude antagonist, soon wearied him. No, no, my good young man, in spite of your admiration, there is no such thing as a man of universal knowledge ; and, believe me, almost all men lose in depth what they gain in superficies. A little river, when swollen by the rains, may overflow its banks till it looks like a lake, but try to sail on it, and your boat will soon touch the ground.”
” Then you think Rousseau a superficial man ? “
” Yes ; perhaps he presents a greater superficies than other men, but that is all.”
” There are some, I think, who would be very glad to be superficial in his fashion.”
” l o you intend that for me ? ” asked the stranger, with a good-natured frankness, which quite disarmed Gilbert.
” Oh, no, sir ! I am too much delighted to converse with you to say anything disagreeable to you.”
” In what way does my conversation delight you ? Let me hear, for I do not think you would flatter me for a morsel of bread and a few cherries.”
” You do me justice ; I would not flatter to obtain the empire of the world. You shall hear why I am pleased ; you are the first person who has ever spoken to me without haughtiness who has reasoned with me in a tone of kindness, as if speaking to a young man and not to a child. Although we did not agree about Rousseau, there has been, in all that you have said, something so calm and elevated that it attracted me. I seem, when talking to you, to be in a richly furnished saloon, the window-shutters of which are closed, but of which, notwithstanding the darkness, I can guess the richness and magnificence. I know that you could, if you wished, permit a ray of light to penetrate into your conversation which would dazzle me.”
” But you yourself speak with a certain degree of refine-ment, which might lead me to think that you had received a better education than you have confessed.”
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” It is the first time, sir, that I have spoken so, and I am surprised myself at the terms which I have employed, there are even some of them of which I do not quite understand the signification, and which I have only heard once. I have met with them in books, but I did not comprehend them.’-‘