the language of M. Flaubert. Now, if you please, we come to
another scene, that of the extreme unction. Oh! Mr. Government
Attorney, how you have deceived yourself when, stopping at the first
words, you accuse my client of mingling the sacred with the profane;
when he has been content to translate the beautiful formulas of extreme
unction, at the moment when the priest touches the organs of sense, at
the moment where, according to the ritual, he says: _Per istam
unctionem, et suam piissimam misericordiam, indulgeat tibi Dominus
quid-quid deliquisti_!

You said it was not necessary to touch upon holy things. With what right
do you misinterpret these holy words:

"May God, in His holy pity, pardon you for all the sins that you have
committed through sight, taste, hearing, etc.?"

Wait, I am going to read the condemned passage, and that will be all my
vengeance. I dare say vengeance, because the author has need of being
avenged! Yes, it is necessary for M. Flaubert to go out of here not
only acquitted, but avenged! You will see from what kind of reading he
has been nourished. The condemned passage is on page 271 of the
December 15th number, and runs thus:

"Pale as a statue, and with eyes red as fire, Charles, not weeping,
stood opposite her at the foot of the bed, while the priest bending one
knee, was muttering words in a low voice."

This whole picture is magnificent, and the wording of it
irresistible. But be quiet, and I will not prolong it beyond
measure. Now here is the condemnation!

"She turned her face slowly, and seemed filled with joy on seeing
suddenly the violet stole, no doubt finding again, in the midst of a
temporary lull in her pain, the lost voluptuousness of her first
mystical transports, with the visions of eternal beatitude that were
beginning.

"The priest rose to take the crucifix: then she stretched forward her
neck as one who is athirst, and gluing her lips to the body of the
Man-God, she pressed upon it with all her expiring strength the fullest
kiss of love that she had ever given."

The extreme unction has not yet begun; but we are reproached for this
kiss. I am not going to search in the history of Saint Theresa whom you
perhaps know, but the memory of whom is too far away, I am not going to
seek in Fenelon for the mysticism of Madame Guyon, nor in more modern
mysticisms, in which I find much reason. I only wish to ask of those
schools which you designate as belonging to sensual Chri