Gabriel, seeing our
poverty. Our children die of hunger on their mother's knees, while
these idols are covered with wealth, come along, Gabriel, do not let
us lose any more time."

"Come along, uncle," said the Tato, "have a little courage. You must
admit we ignorant people know how to manage things when it comes to
the point."

Gabriel was not listening to them; surprise had made him fall into a
reverie of self-examination. He thought--terrified of the great error
he had committed--he saw an immense gulf opening between himself and
those he had believed to be his disciples. He remembered his brother's
words. Ah, the good sense of the simpleminded! He, with all his
reading, had never foreseen the danger of teaching these ignorant
people in a few months what required a whole life of thought and
study. What happened to people stirred up by revolution was happening
here on a small scale. The most noble thoughts become corrupted
passing through the sieve of vulgarity; the most generous aspirations
are poisoned by the dregs of poverty.

He had sown the revolutionary seed in these outcasts of the Church,
drowsing in the atmosphere of two centuries ago. He had thought to
help on the revolution of the future by forming men, but on awaking
from his dreams he found only common criminals. What a terrible
mistake! His ideas had only tended to destruction. In removing from
the dulled brains the prejudices of ignorance, and the superstitions
of the slave, he had only succeeded in making them daring for evil.
Selfishness was the only passion vibrating in them. They had only
learnt that they were wretched and ought not to be so. The fate of
their companions in misfortune, of the greater part of humanity,
wretched and sad, had no interest for them. If they could get out of
their present state, bettering themselves in whatever way they could,
they cared very little if the world went on just as it did before;
that tears, and pain and hunger should reign below, in order to ensure
the comfort of those above. He had sown his thoughts in them hoping
to accelerate the harvest, but like all those forced and artificial
cultivations, that grow with astonishing rapidity only to give rotten
fruit, the result of his propaganda was moral corruption. Men in the
end, like all of them! The human wild beast, seeking his own welfare
at the cost of his fellow, perpetuating the disorders of pain for the
majority, as long as he can enjoy plenty during t