Page 393 - les-miserables

tle about others? The highest holiness is to think of others;
come, let us examine the matter. The I excepted, the I ef-
faced, the I forgotten, what would be the result of all this?
What if I denounce myself? I am arrested; this Champ-
mathieu is released; I am put back in the galleys; that is
well— and what then? What is going on here? Ah! here is
a country, a town, here are factories, an industry, workers,
both men and women, aged grandsires, children, poor peo-
ple! All this I have created; all these I provide with their
living; everywhere where there is a smoking chimney, it is
I who have placed the brand on the hearth and meat in the
pot; I have created ease, circulation, credit; before me there
was nothing; I have elevated, vivified, informed with life,
fecundated, stimulated, enriched the whole country-side;
lacking me, the soul is lacking; I take myself off, every-
thing dies: and this woman, who has suffered so much, who
possesses so many merits in spite of her fall; the cause of
all whose misery I have unwittingly been! And that child
whom I meant to go in search of, whom I have promised to
her mother; do I not also owe something to this woman, in
reparation for the evil which I have done her? If I disappear,
what happens? The mother dies; the child becomes what it
can; that is what will take place, if I denounce myself. If I do
not denounce myself? come, let us see how it will be if I do
not denounce myself.’
After putting this question to himself, he paused; he
seemed to undergo a momentary hesitation and trepidation;
but it did not last long, and he answered himself calmly:—
‘Well, this man is going to the galleys; it is true, but what

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