world one must have one's feet warm. And then all that
would infallibly fill me with ill-humour; for why do we so
constantly see religious people so harsh, so querulous, so
unsociable? 'Tis because they have imposed a task upon themselves
which is not natural to them. They suffer, and when people suffer,
they make others suffer too. That is not my game, nor that of my
protectors either; I have to be gay, supple, amusing, comical.
Virtue makes itself respected, and respect is inconvenient; virtue
insists on being admired, and admiration is not amusing. I have to
do with people who are bored, and I must make them laugh. Now it is
absurdity and madness which make people laugh, so mad and absurd I
must be; and even if nature had not made me so, the simplest plan
would still be to feign it. Happily, I have no need to play
hypocrite; there are so many already of all colours, without
reckoning those who play hypocrite with themselves.... If your
friend Rameau were to apply himself to show his contempt for
fortune, and women, and good cheer, and idleness, and to begin to
Catonise, what would he be but a hypocrite? Rameau must be what he
is--a lucky rascal among rascals swollen with riches, and not a
mighty paragon of virtue, or even a virtuous man, eating his dry
crust of bread, either alone, or by the side of a pack of beggars.
And, to cut it short, I do not get on with your felicity, or with
the happiness of a few visionaries like yourself.

_I._--I see, my friend, that you do not even know what it is, and
that you are not even made to understand it.

_He._--So much the better, I declare; so much the better. It would
make me burst with hunger and weariness, and may be, with remorse.

_I._--Very well, then, the only advice I have to give you, is to
find your way back as quickly as you can into the house from which
your impudence drove you out.

_He._--And to do what you do not disapprove absolutely and yet is a
little repugnant to me relatively?

_I._--What a singularity!

_He._--Nothing singular in it at all; I wish to be abject, but I
wish to be so without constraint. I do not object to descend from
my dignity.... You laugh?

_I._--Yes, your dignity makes me laugh.

_He._--Everybody has his own dignity. I do not object to come down