Page 1229 - les-miserables

All the others, those above it, have but one object—to
suppress it. It is to this point that philosophy and progress
tend, with all their organs simultaneously, by their amelio-
ration of the real, as well as by their contemplation of the
absolute. Destroy the cavern Ignorance and you destroy the
lair Crime.
Let us condense, in a few words, a part of what we have
just written. The only social peril is darkness.
Humanity is identity. All men are made of the same
clay. There is no difference, here below, at least, in predes-
tination. The same shadow in front, the same flesh in the
present, the same ashes afterwards. But ignorance, mingled
with the human paste, blackens it. This incurable blackness
takes possession of the interior of a man and is there con-
verted into evil.

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