the vulgar prejudices which make up the ordinary morals, and abandons
himself to the impression of the spectacle which he contemplates. Jesus
had a success without parallel. This success was based on charlatanism;
and it is habitually so. To lead the nations by deceiving them is the
lesson of history, and the good rule to follow. We find falsehood
fortunate as matter of fact, we explain it, we approve it.

Whither then are we bound, under the guidance of modern science? An
irresistible current is drawing us on, and causing us to leave the
morals of Philinthe in our rear. We are coming to those which Racine has
engraven in immortal traits in the person of Mathan. When once
conscience is put aside, all means are good in order to succeed; and the
experience of the world teaches us that, to succeed, the worst means are
often the best.

It is not only at the theatre that such lessons are received; they come
out but too commonly from the ordinary dealings of life. Set a young man
face to face with the world as it exhibits itself, and tell him to give
himself up to what he sees, to let himself be fashioned by life. He will
soon come to know that strict probity is a virtue of the olden times,
chastity a fantastic excellence, and conscientious scruples an honorable
simplicity. Evil will become in his eyes the ordinary rule of life. When
the socialist Proudhon wrote that celebrated sentence, "Property is
robbery," there arose an immense outcry. Ought there not to arise a
louder outcry around a theory which arrives by a fatal necessity at this
consequence: "Evil is good"?

But do these doctrines exercise any influence for the perversion of
public morals? Much; their influence is disastrous. And do the men who
profess them believe them, taking the word 'believe' in its real and
deep meaning? No; they often do mischief which they do not mean to do,
and do not see that they do. They are intoxicated with a bad philosophy,
and intoxication renders blind. It is easy to prove that these
optimists, who in theory find that everything is right, are perpetually
contradicting themselves in practice. Address yourselves to one of them,
and say to him: "Your doctrine is big with immorality. You do not
yourself believe it; and when you pretend to believe it, you lie." This
man who tolerates everything will not tolerate your freedom of speech.
He will get angry, and, according to the old doctrines, he will have the
right to be so, for insult i