Page 876 - les-miserables

examination! Let us not apply a flame where only a light is
required.
So, given the nineteenth century, we are opposed, as a
general proposition, and among all peoples, in Asia as well
as in Europe, in India as well as in Turkey, to ascetic claus-
tration. Whoever says cloister, says marsh. Their putrescence
is evident, their stagnation is unhealthy, their fermentation
infects people with fever, and etiolates them; their multipli-
cation becomes a plague of Egypt. We cannot think without
affright of those lands where fakirs, bonzes, santons, Greek
monks, marabouts, talapoins, and dervishes multiply even
like swarms of vermin.
This said, the religious question remains. This question
has certain mysterious, almost formidable sides; may we be
permitted to look at it fixedly.

876 Les Miserables