shape their own conduct; but they never talk about it. There, in
short, is the most marked difference between my man and most of
those about us. He avowed the vices that he had, and that others
have; but he was no hypocrite. He was neither more nor less
abominable than they; he was only more frank, and more consistent,
and sometimes he was profound in the midst of his depravity. I
trembled to think what his child might become under such a master.
It is certain that after ideas of bringing-up, so strictly traced
on the pattern of our manners, he must go far, unless prematurely
stopped on the road.]

_He._--Oh, fear nothing. The important point, the difficult point,
to which a good father ought to attend before everything else, is
not to give to his child vices that enrich, or comical tricks such
as make him valuable to people of quality--all the world does that,
if not on system as I do, at least by example and precept. The
important thing is to impress on him the just proportion, the art
of keeping out of disgrace and the arm of the law. There are
certain discords in the social harmony that you must know exactly
how to place, to prepare, and to hold. Nothing so tame as a
succession of perfect chords; there needs something that
stimulates, that resolves the beam, and scatters its rays.

_I._--Quite so; by your image you bring me back from morals to
music, and I am very glad, for, to be quite frank with, you, I
like you better as musician than as moralist.

_He._--Yet, I am a mere subaltern in music, and a really superior
figure in morals.

_I._--I doubt that; but even if it were so, I am an honest man, and
your principles are not mine.

_He._--So much the worse for you. Ah, if I only had your talents!

_I._--Never mind my talents; let us return to yours.

_He._--If I could only express myself like you! But I have an
infernally absurd jargon--half the language of men of the world and
of letters, half of Billingsgate.

_I._--Nay, I am a poor talker enough. I only know how to speak the
truth, and that does not always answer, as you know.

_He._--But it is not for speaking the truth--on the contrary, it is
for skilful lying that I covet your gift. If I knew how to write,
to cook up a book, to turn a dedicatory epistle, to intoxicate