Page 164 - les-miserables

tree-pruner of Faverolles, the formidable convict of Toulon,
had become capable, thanks to the manner in which the gal-
leys had moulded him, of two sorts of evil action: firstly, of
evil action which was rapid, unpremeditated, dashing, en-
tirely instinctive, in the nature of reprisals for the evil which
he had undergone; secondly, of evil action which was seri-
ous, grave, consciously argued out and premeditated, with
the false ideas which such a misfortune can furnish. His
deliberate deeds passed through three successive phases,
which natures of a certain stamp can alone traverse,—rea-
soning, will, perseverance. He had for moving causes his
habitual wrath, bitterness of soul, a profound sense of in-
dignities suffered, the reaction even against the good, the
innocent, and the just, if there are any such. The point of
departure, like the point of arrival, for all his thoughts, was
hatred of human law; that hatred which, if it be not arrested
in its development by some providential incident, becomes,
within a given time, the hatred of society, then the hatred
of the human race, then the hatred of creation, and which
manifests itself by a vague, incessant, and brutal desire to
do harm to some living being, no matter whom. It will be
perceived that it was not without reason that Jean Valjean’s
passport described him as a very dangerous man.
From year to year this soul had dried away slowly, but
with fatal sureness. When the heart is dry, the eye is dry. On
his departure from the galleys it had been nineteen years
since he had shed a tear.

164 Les Miserables