y notes. We
appealed to the office of the Attorney-General--who informed us that the
prohibition was absolute and could not be removed.

Well, so be it! We should have published the book with our notes and
observation's; but now I ask you, gentlemen, if your first reading has
left you in doubt, to give it a second reading. You will willingly do
this, as you desire the truth; and you could not be among those who,
when two lines of a man's writing is brought to them, are sure to make
it fit any condition that may be. You do not wish a man to be judged
upon a few cuttings more or less skilfully made. You would not allow
that; you would not deprive him of the ordinary means of defense. Well,
you have the book, and although it may be less easy than you might wish,
you will make your own divisions, observations, and meanings, because
you desire the truth, because truth is necessary for the basis of your
judgment, and truth will come from a serious examination of the book.

However, I cannot stop here. The Public Minister has attacked the book,
and it is necessary for me to defend it, to complete the quotations he
has made, and show the nothingness of the accusation against each
incriminated passage; that will be all my defense.

I shall not attempt, assuredly, to place myself in opposition to the
exalted, animated, pathetic appreciation with which the Public Attorney
has surrounded all that he said, by striving for appreciation of the
same kind; the defense would have no right to make use of such a manner
of procedure; it must content itself with citing the text, such as it
is.

And in the first place, I declare that nothing is more false than what
has just been said about lascivious colour. Lascivious colour! Where can
you find it? My client has depicted in _Madame Bovary_ what sort of
woman? My God! it is sad to say, and yet it is true, a young girl,
born, as they nearly all are, honest; at least the greater number are
honest, but very fragile, when education, instead of fortifying them,
softens them and turns them into bad paths. He has depicted a young
girl. Is she of perverse nature? No, but of an impressionable nature,
susceptible of exaltation.

The Government Attorney has said: "This young girl has constantly been
presented in a lascivious light." No! she is represented as born in the
country, born on a farm, where she is occupied with all her father's
labor, and where no kind of lasciviousness can find a way to