Page 104 - madame-bovary

to confess to fellows which such a temperament! I, if I were
the Government, I’d have the priests bled once a month. Yes,
Madame Lefrancois, every month—a good phlebotomy, in
the interests of the police and morals.’
‘Be quiet, Monsieur Homais. You are an infidel; you’ve
no religion.’
The chemist answered: ‘I have a religion, my religion,
and I even have more than all these others with their mum-
meries and their juggling. I adore God, on the contrary. I
believe in the Supreme Being, in a Creator, whatever he may
be. I care little who has placed us here below to fulfil our du-
ties as citizens and fathers of families; but I don’t need to go
to church to kiss silver plates, and fatten, out of my pocket,
a lot of good-for-nothings who live better than we do. For
one can know Him as well in a wood, in a field, or even
contemplating the eternal vault like the ancients. My God!
Mine is the God of Socrates, of Franklin, of Voltaire, and of
Beranger! I am for the profession of faith of the ‘Savoyard
Vicar,’ and the immortal principles of ‘89! And I can’t ad-
mit of an old boy of a God who takes walks in his garden
with a cane in his hand, who lodges his friends in the bel-
ly of whales, dies uttering a cry, and rises again at the end
of three days; things absurd in themselves, and completely
opposed, moreover, to all physical laws, which prove to us,
by the way, that priests have always wallowed in turpid ig-
norance, in which they would fain engulf the people with
them.’
He ceased, looking round for an audience, for in his bub-
bling over the chemist had for a moment fancied himself

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