rbier, wrote to the under-prefect of Bayeux, on the
13th of August last. Lastly, that of Madmlle. H----, of Rouen, whom
the attorney-general (_procureur du roi_), of Rouen, was obliged to
remove from the establishment of Bon-Sauveur."--_National_ (newspaper),
March 10, 1845.

[8] The inspection of convents ought to be shared between the judiciary
and municipal magistracy, and the administrations of charity. The bar
is too much occupied to be able to undertake it alone. If these houses
are necessary as asylums for poor women, who earn too little in a
solitary life, at least let them be free asylums like the _beguinages_
of Flanders; but not under the same direction. When a woman has ended
the task of the wife, she begins that of the mother or grandmother.

CHAPTER VI.

ABSORPTION OF THE WILL.--GOVERNMENT OF ACTS, THOUGHTS, AND
WILLS.--ASSIMILATION.--TRANSHUMANATION.--TO BECOME THE GOD OF
ANOTHER.--PRIDE.--PRIDE AND DESIRE.

If we believe politicians, happiness consists in reigning. They
sincerely think so, since they accept in exchange for happiness so much
trouble and so many annoyances; a martyrdom often that perhaps the
saints would have shrunk from.

But the reign must be real. Are we quite sure that it is really to
reign, to make ordinances that are not executed, to enact with great
effort, and as a supreme victory, one law more, which is doomed to
sleep in the bulletin of laws at the side of thirty thousand of the
same kin?

It is of no use to prescribe acts, if we are not first masters of the
mind; in order to govern the bodily world, we must reign in the
intellectual world. This is the opinion of the thinking man, the
profound writer; and he believes he reigns. He is, indeed, a king; at
least for the next age. If he is really original, he outsteps his
century, and is postponed till another time. But he will reign
to-morrow, and the day after, and so on for ages, and ever more
absolute. To-day he will be alone; every success costs a friend, but
he acquires others; and I am willing to believe both ardent and
numerous; those he loses were, no doubt, worth less, but they were
those he loved; and he will never see the others. Work, then,
disinterested man, work on; you will have for your reward a little
noise and smoke. Is not that a sufficient reward for you? King of
ages yet unborn, you will live and die empty-handed. On the shore of
that sea of unknown ages, you, a child, have picked