Page 54 - les-miserables

soning is hollow. Down with that great All, which torments
me! Hurrah for Zero which leaves me in peace! Between you
and me, and in order to empty my sack, and make confes-
sion to my pastor, as it behooves me to do, I will admit to
you that I have good sense. I am not enthusiastic over your
Jesus, who preaches renunciation and sacrifice to the last
extremity. ‘Tis the counsel of an avaricious man to beggars.
Renunciation; why? Sacrifice; to what end? I do not see one
wolf immolating himself for the happiness of another wolf.
Let us stick to nature, then. We are at the top; let us have a
superior philosophy. What is the advantage of being at the
top, if one sees no further than the end of other people’s
noses? Let us live merrily. Life is all. That man has another
future elsewhere, on high, below, anywhere, I don’t believe;
not one single word of it. Ah! sacrifice and renunciation are
recommended to me; I must take heed to everything I do; I
must cudgel my brains over good and evil, over the just and
the unjust, over the fas and the nefas. Why? Because I shall
have to render an account of my actions. When? After death.
What a fine dream! After my death it will be a very clever
person who can catch me. Have a handful of dust seized by
a shadow-hand, if you can. Let us tell the truth, we who are
initiated, and who have raised the veil of Isis: there is no
such thing as either good or evil; there is vegetation. Let us
seek the real. Let us get to the bottom of it. Let us go into it
thoroughly. What the deuce! let us go to the bottom of it!
We must scent out the truth; dig in the earth for it, and seize
it. Then it gives you exquisite joys. Then you grow strong,
and you laugh. I am square on the bottom, I am. Immor-

54 Les Miserables