Page 294 - les-miserables

sibility of education. Social education, when well done, can
always draw from a soul, of whatever sort it may be, the util-
ity which it contains.
This, be it said, is of course from the restricted point of
view of the terrestrial life which is apparent, and without
prejudging the profound question of the anterior or ulterior
personality of the beings which are not man. The visible I in
nowise authorizes the thinker to deny the latent I. Having
made this reservation, let us pass on.
Now, if the reader will admit, for a moment, with us, that
in every man there is one of the animal species of creation,
it will be easy for us to say what there was in Police Officer
Javert.
The peasants of Asturias are convinced that in every lit-
ter of wolves there is one dog, which is killed by the mother
because, otherwise, as he grew up, he would devour the oth-
er little ones.
Give to this dog-son of a wolf a human face, and the re-
sult will be Javert.
Javert had been born in prison, of a fortune-teller, whose
husband was in the galleys. As he grew up, he thought
that he was outside the pale of society, and he despaired of
ever re-entering it. He observed that society unpardoning-
ly excludes two classes of men,— those who attack it and
those who guard it; he had no choice except between these
two classes; at the same time, he was conscious of an in-
describable foundation of rigidity, regularity, and probity,
complicated with an inexpressible hatred for the race of bo-
hemians whence he was sprung. He entered the police; he

294 Les Miserables