Page 986 - les-miserables

CHAPTER V

HIS FRONTIERS

The gamin loves the city, he also loves solitude, since he
has something of the sage in him. Urbis amator, like Fuscus;
ruris amator, like Flaccus.
To roam thoughtfully about, that is to say, to lounge, is
a fine employment of time in the eyes of the philosopher;
particularly in that rather illegitimate species of campaign,
which is tolerably ugly but odd and composed of two na-
tures, which surrounds certain great cities, notably Paris.
To study the suburbs is to study the amphibious animal.
End of the trees, beginning of the roofs; end of the grass,
beginning of the pavements; end of the furrows, beginning
of the shops, end of the wheel-ruts, beginning of the pas-
sions; end of the divine murmur, beginning of the human
uproar; hence an extraordinary interest.
Hence, in these not very attractive places, indelibly
stamped by the passing stroller with the epithet: melancholy,
the apparently objectless promenades of the dreamer.
He who writes these lines has long been a prowler about
the barriers of Paris, and it is for him a source of profound
souvenirs. That close-shaven turf, those pebbly paths, that

986 Les Miserables