r tire themselves, they are never refreshed.

_He._--Don't suppose that either. They are incessantly worn out.

_I._--Pleasure is always a business for them, never the
satisfaction of a necessity.

_He._--So much the better; necessity is always a trouble.

_I._--They wear everything out. Their soul gets blunted, weariness
seizes them. A man who should take their life in the midst of all
their crushing abundance would do them a kindness. The only part of
happiness that they know is the part that loses its edge. I do not
despise the pleasures of the senses: I have a palate, too, and it
is tickled by a well-seasoned dish or a fine wine; I have a heart
and eyes, and I like to see a handsome woman. Sometimes with my
friends, a gay party, even if it waxes somewhat tumultuous, does
not displease me. But I will not dissemble from you that it is
infinitely pleasanter to me to have succoured the unfortunate, to
have ended some thorny business, to have given wholesome counsel,
done some pleasant reading, taken a walk with some man or woman
dear to me, passed instructive hours with my children, written a
good page, fulfilled the duties of my position, said to the woman
that I love a few soft things that bring her arm round my neck. I
know actions which I would give all that I possess to have done.
_Mahomet_ is a sublime work; I would a hundred times rather have
got justice for the memory of the Calas. A person of my
acquaintance fled to Carthagena; he was the younger son in a
country where custom transfers all the property to the eldest.
There he learns that his eldest brother, a petted son, after having
despoiled his father and mother of all that they possessed, had
driven them out of the castle, and that the poor old souls were
languishing in indigence in some small country town. What does he
do--this younger son who in consequence of the harsh treatment he
had received at the hand of his parents had gone to seek his
fortune far away? He sends them help; he makes haste to set his
affairs in order, he returns with his riches, he restores his
father and mother to their home, and finds husbands for his
sisters. Ah, my dear Rameau, that man looked upon this period as
the happiest in his life; he had tears in his eyes when he spoke to
me of it, and even a