Page 192 - madame-bovary

‘And this is what you have understood,’ said the council-
lor.
‘You, farmers, agricultural labourers! you pacific pio-
neers of a work that belongs wholly to civilization! you,
men of progress and morality, you have understood, I say,
that political storms are even more redoubtable than atmo-
spheric disturbances!’
‘It comes one day,’ repeated Rodolphe, ‘one day suddenly,
and when one is despairing of it. Then the horizon expands;
it is as if a voice cried, ‘It is here!’ You feel the need of confid-
ing the whole of your life, of giving everything, sacrificing
everything to this being. There is no need for explanations;
they understand one another. They have seen each other in
dreams!’
(And he looked at her.) ‘In fine, here it is, this treasure so
sought after, here before you. It glitters, it flashes; yet one
still doubts, one does not believe it; one remains dazzled, as
if one went out iron darkness into light.’
And as he ended Rodolphe suited the action to the word.
He passed his hand over his face, like a man seized with gid-
diness. Then he let it fall on Emma’s. She took hers away.
‘And who would be surprised at it, gentlemen? He only
who is so blind, so plunged (I do not fear to say it), so plunged
in the prejudices of another age as still to misunderstand
the spirit of agricultural populations. Where, indeed, is to
be found more patriotism than in the country, greater devo-
tion to the public welfare, more intelligence, in a word? And,
gentlemen, I do not mean that superficial intelligence, vain
ornament of idle minds, but rather that profound and bal-

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