Page 193 - madame-bovary

anced intelligence that applies itself above all else to useful
objects, thus contributing to the good of all, to the common
amelioration and to the support of the state, born of respect
for law and the practice of duty—‘
‘Ah! again!’ said Rodolphe. ‘Always ‘duty.’ I am sick of the
word. They are a lot of old blockheads in flannel vests and of
old women with foot-warmers and rosaries who constantly
drone into our ears ‘Duty, duty!’ Ah! by Jove! one’s duty is
to feel what is great, cherish the beautiful, and not accept
all the conventions of society with the ignominy that it im-
poses upon us.’
‘Yet—yet—‘ objected Madame Bovary.
‘No, no! Why cry out against the passions? Are they not
the one beautiful thing on the earth, the source of heroism,
of enthusiasm, of poetry, music, the arts, of everything, in
a word?’
‘But one must,’ said Emma, ‘to some extent bow to the
opinion of the world and accept its moral code.’
‘Ah! but there are two,’ he replied. ‘The small, the con-
ventional, that of men, that which constantly changes, that
brays out so loudly, that makes such a commotion here be-
low, of the earth earthly, like the mass of imbeciles you see
down there. But the other, the eternal, that is about us and
above, like the landscape that surrounds us, and the blue
heavens that give us light.’
Monsieur Lieuvain had just wiped his mouth with a
pocket-handkerchief. He continued—
‘And what should I do here gentlemen, pointing out to you
the uses of agriculture? Who supplies our wants? Who pro-

1 Madame Bovary