trees, nourished on the flesh of slaughtered animals, our
brethren, or on raw vegetables nourished by the sun and the rain?

"But it is sufficient to reflect for a moment, in order to understand
that this world was not made for such creatures as we are. Thought,
which is developed by a miracle in the nerves of the cells in our brain,
powerless, ignorant and confused as it is, and as it will always remain,
makes all of us, who are intellectual beings, eternal and wretched
exiles on earth.

"Look at this earth, as God has given it to those who inhabit it. Is it
not visibly and solely made, planted and covered with forests, for the
sake of animals? What is there for us? Nothing. And for them,
everything, and they have nothing to do but to eat, or go hunting and
eat each other, according to their instincts, for God never foresaw
gentleness and peaceable manners; He only foresaw the death of creatures
which were bent on destroying and devouring each other. Are not the
quail, the pigeon and the partridge the natural prey of the hawk? the
sheep, the stag and the ox that of the great flesh-eating animals,
rather than meat that has been fattened to be served up to us with
truffles, which have been unearthed by pigs, for our special benefit?

"As to ourselves, the more civilized, intellectual and refined we are,
the more we ought to conquer and subdue that animal instinct, which
represents the will of God in us. And so, in order to mitigate our lot
as brutes, we have discovered and made everything, beginning with
houses, then exquisite food, sauces, sweetmeats, pastry, drink, stuffs,
clothes, ornaments, beds, mattresses, carriages, railways, and
innumerable machines, besides arts and sciences, writing and poetry.
Every ideal comes from us and all the amenities of life, in order to
make our existence as simple reproducers, for which divine Providence
solely intended us, less monotonous and less hard.

"Look at this theater. Is there not here a human world created by us,
unforeseen and unknown by Eternal destinies, comprehensible by our minds
alone, a sensual and intellectual distraction, which has been invented
solely by and for that discontented and restless little animal that we
are.

"Look at that woman, Madame de Mascaret. God intended her to live in a
cave naked, or wrapped up in the skins of wild animals, but is she not
better as she is? But, speaking of her, does anyone know why and how her
brute of a husband, having