ook for decent behaviour from
people who are born vicious and with vile and bad characters--are
they in their senses? Everything has its true wages in this world.
There are two Public Prosecutors, one at your door, chastising
offences against society; nature is the other. Nature knows all the
vices that escape the laws. Give yourself up to debauchery, and you
will end with dropsy; if you are crapulous, your lungs will find
you out; if you open your door to ragamuffins, and live in their
company, you will be betrayed, laughed at, despised. The shortest
way is to resign, one's self to the equity of these judgments, and
to say to one's self: That is as it should be; to shake one's ears
and turn over a new leaf, or else to remain what one is, but on the
conditions aforesaid....

_I._--You cannot doubt what judgment I pass on such a character as
yours?

_He._--Not at all; I am in your eyes an abject and most despicable
creature; and I am sometimes the same in my own eyes, though not
often: I more frequently congratulate myself on my vices than blame
myself for them; you are more constant in your contempt.

_I._--True; but why show me all your turpitude?

_He._--First, because you already know a good deal of it, and I saw
that there was more to gain than to lose, by confessing the rest.

_I._--How so, if you please?

_He._--It is important in some lines of business to reach
sublimity; it is especially so in evil. People spit upon a small
rogue, but they cannot refuse a kind of consideration to a great
criminal; his courage amazes you, his atrocity makes you shudder.
In all things, what people prize is unity of character.

_I._--But this estimable unity of character you have not quite got:
I find you from time to time vacillating in your principles; it is
uncertain whether you get your wickedness from nature or study, and
whether study has brought you as far as possible.

_He._--I agree with you, but I have done my best. Have I not had
the modesty to recognise persons more perfect in my own line than
myself. Have I not spoken to you of Bouret with the deepest
admiration? Bouret is the first person in the world for me.

_I._--But after Bouret you come.

_He._--No.

_I._--Palissot, then?

_He._--Palissot, but not Palissot a