is old Bernard gave us a good supper, and continued conversing
with us for the rest of the evening without showing any signs of
discomposure or fatigue. As we begged him to develop what he called
the moral of his story a little further, he proceeded to a few general
considerations which impressed me with their soundness and good sense.

I spoke of phrenology, he said, not with the object of criticising a
system which has its good side, in so far as it tends to complete
the series of physiological observations that aim at increasing our
knowledge of man; I used the word phrenology because the only fatality
that we believe in nowadays is that created by our own instincts. I do
not believe that phrenology is more fatalistic than any other system of
this kind; and Lavater, who was also accused of fatalism in his time,
was the most Christian man the Gospel has ever formed.

Do not believe in any absolute and inevitable fate; and yet acknowledge,
in a measure, that we are moulded by instincts, our faculties,
the impressions of our infancy, the surroundings of our earliest
childhood--in short, by all that outside world which has presided over
the development of our soul. Admit that we are not always absolutely
free to choose between good and evil, if you would be indulgent towards
the guilty--that is to say, just even as Heaven is just; for there
is infinite mercy in God's judgments; otherwise His justice would be
imperfect.

What I am saying now is not very orthodox, but, take my word for it, it
is Christian, because it is true. Man is not born wicked; neither is he
born good, as is maintained by Jean Jacques Rousseau, my beloved Edmee's
old master. Man is born with more or less of passions, with more or less
power to satisfy them, with more or less capacity for turning them to a
good or bad account in society. But education can and must find a remedy
for everything; that is the great problem to be solved, to discover the
education best suited to each individual. If it seems necessary that
education should be general and in common, does it follow that it ought
to be the same for all? I quite believe that if I had been sent to
school when I was ten, I should have become a civilized being earlier;
but would any one have thought of correcting my violent passions, and
of teaching me how to conquer them as Edmee did? I doubt it. Every
man needs to be loved before he can be worth anything; but each in
a different way; one with ne