Page 2395 - les-miserables

of nature. Nature, as we have elsewhere said, ‘looks before
her.’ Nature divides living beings into those who are arriv-
ing and those who are departing. Those who are departing
are turned towards the shadows, those who are arriving to-
wards the light. Hence a gulf which is fatal on the part of the
old, and involuntary on the part of the young. This breach,
at first insensible, increases slowly, like all separations of
branches. The boughs, without becoming detached from
the trunk, grow away from it. It is no fault of theirs. Youth
goes where there is joy, festivals, vivid lights, love. Old age
goes towards the end. They do not lose sight of each other,
but there is no longer a close connection. Young people feel
the cooling off of life; old people, that of the tomb. Let us not
blame these poor children.

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