Page 999 - les-miserables

CHAPTER IX

THE OLD SOUL OF GAUL

There was something of that boy in Poquelin, the son of
the fish-market; Beaumarchais had something of it. Gamin-
erie is a shade of the Gallic spirit. Mingled with good sense,
it sometimes adds force to the latter, as alcohol does to wine.
Sometimes it is a defect. Homer repeats himself eternally,
granted; one may say that Voltaire plays the gamin. Camille
Desmoulins was a native of the faubourgs. Championnet,
who treated miracles brutally, rose from the pavements of
Paris; he had, when a small lad, inundated the porticos of
Saint-Jean de Beauvais, and of Saint-Etienne du Mont; he
had addressed the shrine of Sainte-Genevieve familiarly to
give orders to the phial of Saint Januarius.
The gamin of Paris is respectful, ironical, and inso-
lent. He has villainous teeth, because he is badly fed and
his stomach suffers, and handsome eyes because he has wit.
If Jehovah himself were present, he would go hopping up
the steps of paradise on one foot. He is strong on boxing.
All beliefs are possible to him. He plays in the gutter, and
straightens himself up with a revolt; his effrontery persists
even in the presence of grape-shot; he was a scapegrace,

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