Paul et Virginie. English
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cited to me many instances of celebrated men who, born ina mean condition, had conferred honour upon their country. It was yourwish, then, by concealing the truth to stimulate my ardour?
_The Old Man._--Never, my son, would I lower it. I told you the truthwith regard to the past; but now, every thing has undergone a greatchange. Every thing in France is now to be obtained by interest alone;every place and employment is now become as it were the patrimony of asmall number of families, or is divided among public bodies. The kingis a sun, and the nobles and great corporate bodies surround him like somany clouds; it is almost impossible for any of his rays to reach you.Formerly, under less exclusive administrations, such phenomena have beenseen. Then talents and merit showed themselves every where, as newlycleared lands are always loaded with abundance. But great kings, who canreally form a just estimate of men, and choose them with judgment, arerare. The ordinary race of monarchs allow themselves to be guided by thenobles and people who surround them.
_Paul._--But perhaps I shall find one of these nobles to protect me.
_The Old Man._--To gain the protection of the great you must lendyourself to their ambition, and administer to their pleasures. You wouldnever succeed; for, in addition to your obscure birth, you have too muchintegrity.
_Paul._--But I will perform such courageous actions, I will be sofaithful to my word, so exact in the performance of my duties, sozealous and so constant in my friendships, that I will render myselfworthy to be adopted by some one of them. In the ancient histories, youhave made me read, I have seen many examples of such adoptions.
_The Old Man._--Oh, my young friend! among the Greeks and Romans, evenin their decline, the nobles had some respect for virtue; but out ofall the immense number of men, sprung from the mass of the people, inFrance, who have signalized themselves in every possible manner, Ido not recollect a single instance of one being adopted by any greatfamily. If it were not for our kings, virtue, in our country, wouldbe eternally condemned as plebeian. As I said before, the monarchsometimes, when he perceives it, renders to it due honour; but in thepresent day, the distinctions which should be bestowed on merit aregenerally to be obtained by money alone.
_Paul._--If I cannot find a nobleman to adopt me, I will seek to pleasesome public body. I will espouse its interests and its opinions: I willmake myself beloved by it.
_The Old Man._--You will act then like other men?--you will renounceyour conscience to obtain a fortune?
_Paul._--Oh no! I will never lend myself to any thing but the truth.
_The Old Man._--Instead of making yourself beloved, you would become anobject of dislike. Besides, public bodies have never taken much interestin the discovery of truth. All opinions are nearly alike to ambitiousmen, provided only that they themselves can gain their ends.
_Paul._--How unfortunate I am! Every thing bars my progress. I amcondemned to pass my life in ignoble toil, far from Virginia.
As he said this he sighed deeply.
_The Old Man._--Let God be your patron, and mankind the public bodyyou would serve. Be constantly attached to them both. Families,corporations, nations and kings have, all of them, their prejudices andtheir passions; it is often necessary to serve them by the practice ofvice: God and mankind at large require only the exercise of the virtues.
But why do you wish to be distinguished from other men? It is hardly anatural sentiment, for, if all men possessed it, every one would be atconstant strife with his neighbour. Be satisfied with fulfilling yourduty in the station in which Providence has placed you; be grateful foryour lot, which permits you to enjoy the blessing of a quiet conscience,and which does not compel you, like the great, to let your happinessrest on the opinion of the little, or, like the little, to cringe to thegreat, in order to obtain the means of existence. You are now placedin a country and a condition in which you are not reduced to deceive orflatter any one, or debase yourself, as the greater part of those whoseek their fortune in Europe are obliged to do; in which the exerciseof no virtue is forbidden you; in which you may be, with impunity, good,sincere, well-informed, patient, temperate, chaste, indulgent to others'faults, pious and no shaft of ridicule be aimed at you to destroy yourwisdom, as yet only in its bud. Heaven has given you liberty, health, agood conscience, and friends; kings themselves, whose favour you desire,are not so happy.
_Paul._--Ah! I only want to have Virginia with me: without her I havenothing,--with her, I should possess all my desire. She alone is to mebirth, glory, and fortune. But, since her relations will only give herto some one with a great name, I will study. By the aid of study and ofbooks, learning and celebrity are to be attained. I will become a man ofscience: I will render my knowledge useful to the service of my country,without injuring any one, or owning dependence on any one. I will becomecelebrated, and my glory shall be achieved only by myself.
_The Old Man._--My son, talents are a gift yet more rare than eitherbirth or riches, and undoubtedly they are a greater good than either,since they can never be taken away from us, and that they obtain forus every where public esteem. But they may be said to be worth allthat they cost us. They are seldom acquired but by every species ofprivation, by the possession of exquisite sensibility, which oftenproduces inward unhappiness, and which exposes us without to the maliceand persecutions of our contemporaries. The lawyer envies not, inFrance, the glory of the soldier, nor does the soldier envy that of thenaval officer; but they will all oppose you, and bar your progress todistinction, because your assumption of superior ability will woundthe self-love of them all. You say that you will do good to men; butrecollect, that he who makes the earth produce a single ear of cornmore, renders them a greater service than he who writes a book.
_Paul._--Oh! she, then, who planted this papaw tree, has made a moreuseful and more grateful present to the inhabitants of these foreststhan if she had given them a whole library.
So saying, he threw his arms around the tree, and kissed it withtransport.
_The Old Man._--The best of books,--that which preaches nothing butequality, brotherly love, charity, and peace,--the Gospel, has served asa pretext, during many centuries, for Europeans to let loose all theirfury. How many tyrannies, both public and private, are still practisedin its name on the face of the earth! After this, who will dare toflatter himself that any thing he can write will be of service to hisfellow men? Remember the fate of most of the philosophers who havepreached to them wisdom. Homer, who clothes it in such noble verse,asked for alms all his life. Socrates, whose conversation and examplegave such admirable lessons to the Athenians, was sentenced by them tobe poisoned. His sublime disciple, Plato was delivered over to slaveryby the order of the very prince who protected him; and, before them,Pythagoras, whose humanity extended even to animals, was burned aliveby the Crotoniates. What do I say?--many even of these illustrious nameshave descended to us disfigured by some traits of satire by whichthey became characterized, human ingratitude taking pleasure in thusrecognising them; and if, in the crowd, the glory of some names is comedown to us without spot or blemish, we shall find that they who haveborne them have lived far from the society of their contemporaries;like those statues which are found entire beneath the soil in Greeceand Italy, and which, by being hidden in the bosom of the earth, haveescaped uninjured, from the fury of the barbarians.
You see, then, that to acquire the glory which a turbulent literarycareer can give you, you must not only be virtuous, but ready, ifnecessary, to sacrifice life itself. But, after all, do not fancy thatthe great in France trouble themselves about such glory as this. Littledo they care for literary men, whose knowledge brings them neitherhonours, nor power, nor even admission at court. Persecution, itis true, is rarely practised in this age, because it is habituallyindifferent to every thing except wealth and luxury; but knowledge andvirtue no longer lead to distinction, since every thing in the stateis to be purchased with money. Formerly, men of letters were certainof reward by some place in the church, the magistracy, or theadministration; now they are considered good for not
hing but to writebooks. But this fruit of their minds, little valued by the world atlarge, is still worthy of its celestial origin. For these booksis reserved the privilege of shedding lustre on obscure virtue, ofconsoling the unhappy, of enlightening nations, and of telling the trutheven to kings. This is, unquestionably, the most august commission withwhich Heaven can honour a mortal upon this earth. Where is the authorwho would not be consoled for the injustice or contempt of those who arethe dispensers of the ordinary gifts of fortune, when he reflects thathis work may pass from age to age, from nation to nation, opposing abarrier to error and to tyranny; and that, from amidst the obscurityin which he has lived, there will shine forth a glory which will effacethat of the common herd of monarchs, the monuments of whose deeds perishin oblivion, notwithstanding the flatterers who erect and magnify them?
_Paul._--Ah! I am only covetous of glory to bestow it on Virginia, andrender her dear to the whole world. But can you, who know so much, tellme whether we shall ever be married?