ever been seen. Then I should
recall all that they have made me go through, and should pay them
back with good interest all the advances that they have been good
enough to make me. I am fond of command, and I will command. I am
fond of praise, and I will make them praise me. I will have in my
pay the whole troop of flatterers, parasites, and buffoons, and
I'll say to them, as has been said to me: "Come, knaves, let me be
amused," and amused I shall be; "Pull me some honest folk to
pieces," and so they will be, if honest folk can be found. We will
be jolly over our cups, we will have all sorts of vices and
whimsies; it will be delicious. We will prove that Voltaire has no
genius; that Buffon, everlastingly perched upon his stilts, is only
a turgid declaimer; that Montesquieu is nothing more than a man
with a touch of ingenuity; we will send D'Alembert packing to his
fusty mathematics. We will welcome before and behind all the pigmy
Catos like you, whose modesty is the prop of pride, and whose
sobriety is a fine name for not being able to help yourselves.

_I._--From the worthy use to which you would put your riches, I
perceive what a pity it is that you are a beggar. You would live
thus in a manner that would be eminently honourable to the human
race, eminently useful to your countrymen, and eminently glorious
for yourself.

_He._--You are mocking me, sir philosopher. But you do not know
whom you are laughing at. You do not suspect that at this moment I
represent the most important part of the town and the court. Our
millionaires in all ranks have, or have not, said to themselves
exactly the same things as I have just confided to you; but the
fact is, the life that I should lead is precisely their life. What
a notion you people have; you think that the same sort of happiness
is made for all the world. What a strange vision! Yours supposes a
certain romantic spirit that we know nothing of, a singular
character, a peculiar taste. You adorn this incongruous mixture
with the name of philosophy; but now, are virtue and philosophy
made for all the world? He has them who can get them, and he keeps
them who can. Imagine the universe sage and philosophical; agree
that it would be a most diabolically gloomy spot. Come, long live
philosophy! The wisdom o