Page 99 - les-miserables
P. 99

them, create individualities in unity, proportions in extent,
         the innumerable in the infinite, and, through light, produce
         beauty. These conjunctions are formed and dissolved inces-
         santly; hence life and death.
            He  seated  himself  on  a  wooden  bench,  with  his  back
         against a decrepit vine; he gazed at the stars, past the puny
         and stunted silhouettes of his fruit-trees. This quarter of an
         acre, so poorly planted, so encumbered with mean build-
         ings and sheds, was dear to him, and satisfied his wants.
            What more was needed by this old man, who divided the
         leisure of his life, where there was so little leisure, between
         gardening in the daytime and contemplation at night? Was
         not this narrow enclosure, with the heavens for a ceiling, suf-
         ficient to enable him to adore God in his most divine works,
         in turn? Does not this comprehend all, in fact? and what
         is there left to desire beyond it? A little garden in which to
         walk, and immensity in which to dream. At one’s feet that
         which can be cultivated and plucked; over head that which
         one can study and meditate upon: some flowers on earth,
         and all the stars in the sky.














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