a
fool as to his own merits, to insinuate myself into the good graces
of women!

_I._--And you do know all that a thousand times better than I. I
should not be worthy to be so much as your pupil.

_He._--How many great qualities lost, of which you do not know the
price.

_I._--I get the price that I ask.

_He._--If that were true, you would not be wearing that common
suit, that rough waistcoat, those worsted stockings, those thick
shoes, that ancient wig.

_I._--I grant that; a man must be very maladroit not to be rich, if
he sticks at nothing in order to become rich. But the odd thing is
that there are people like me who do not look on riches as the most
precious thing in the world; bizarre people, you know.

_He._--Bizarre enough. A man is not born with such a twist as that.
He takes the trouble to give it to himself, for it is not in
nature.

_I._--In the nature of man?

_He._--No; for everything that lives, without exception, seeks its
own wellbeing at the expense of any prey that is proper to its
purpose; and I am perfectly sure that if I let my little savage
grow up without saying a word to him on the matter, he would wish
to be richly clad, sumptuously fed, cherished by men, loved by
women, and to heap upon himself all the happiness of life.

_I._--If your little savage were left to himself, let him only
preserve all his imbecility, and add to the scanty reason of the
child in the cradle the violent passions of a man of thirty--why he
would strangle his father and dishonour his own mother.

_He._--That proves the necessity of a good education, and who
denies it? And what is a good education but one that leads to all
sorts of enjoyments without danger and without inconvenience?

_I._--I am not so far from your opinion, only let us keep clear of
explanations.

_He._--Why?

_I._--Because I am afraid that we only agree in appearance, and
that if we once begin to discuss what are the dangers and the
inconveniences to avoid, we should cease to understand one another.

_He._--What of that?

_I._--Let us leave all this, I tell you; what I know about it I
shall never get you to learn, and you will more easily teach me
what I do not know, and you do know, in music. Let us talk about
music, dear R