diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:42 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:42 -0700 |
| commit | a4d3b43503e32c8bbdb09ca39c1900f3f0b38011 (patch) | |
| tree | 45487cbb2ee03c55305d7408d4f0452cb6921362 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1220-0.txt | 707 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1220-h/1220-h.htm | 832 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/1220-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 24912 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/1220-h/1220-h.htm | 1237 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/1220.txt | 1095 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/1220.zip | bin | 0 -> 23651 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/1220.20040516.txt | 1126 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/20051203-1220.txt | 1092 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/20051203-1220.zip | bin | 0 -> 23674 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/athms10.txt | 1020 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/old/athms10.zip | bin | 0 -> 21648 bytes |
14 files changed, 7125 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1220-0.txt b/1220-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8d7d42 --- /dev/null +++ b/1220-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,707 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1220 *** + +THE ATHEIST'S MASS + + +By Honore De Balzac + + +Translated by Clara Bell + + + +This is dedicated to Auguste Borget by his friend De Balzac + + + + + +THE ATHEIST'S MASS + + +Bianchon, a physician to whom science owes a fine system of theoretical +physiology, and who, while still young, made himself a celebrity in the +medical school of Paris, that central luminary to which European doctors +do homage, practised surgery for a long time before he took up medicine. +His earliest studies were guided by one of the greatest of French +surgeons, the illustrious Desplein, who flashed across science like a +meteor. By the consensus even of his enemies, he took with him to the +tomb an incommunicable method. Like all men of genius, he had no heirs; +he carried everything in him, and carried it away with him. The glory of +a surgeon is like that of an actor: they live only so long as they are +alive, and their talent leaves no trace when they are gone. Actors +and surgeons, like great singers too, like the executants who by their +performance increase the power of music tenfold, are all the heroes of a +moment. + +Desplein is a case in proof of this resemblance in the destinies of +such transient genius. His name, yesterday so famous, to-day almost +forgotten, will survive in his special department without crossing its +limits. For must there not be some extraordinary circumstances to exalt +the name of a professor from the history of Science to the general +history of the human race? Had Desplein that universal command of +knowledge which makes a man the living word, the great figure of his +age? Desplein had a godlike eye; he saw into the sufferer and his malady +by an intuition, natural or acquired, which enabled him to grasp the +diagnostics peculiar to the individual, to determine the very time, +the hour, the minute when an operation should be performed, making due +allowance for atmospheric conditions and peculiarities of individual +temperament. To proceed thus, hand in hand with nature, had he then +studied the constant assimilation by living beings, of the elements +contained in the atmosphere, or yielded by the earth to man who absorbs +them, deriving from them a particular expression of life? Did he work +it all out by the power of deduction and analogy, to which we owe the +genius of Cuvier? Be this as it may, this man was in all the secrets of +the human frame; he knew it in the past and in the future, emphasizing +the present. + +But did he epitomize all science in his own person as Hippocrates did +and Galen and Aristotle? Did he guide a whole school towards new worlds? +No. Though it is impossible to deny that this persistent observer of +human chemistry possessed that antique science of the Mages, that is +to say, knowledge of the elements in fusion, the causes of life, life +antecedent to life, and what it must be in its incubation or ever it +_is_, it must be confessed that, unfortunately, everything in him was +purely personal. Isolated during his life by his egoism, that egoism is +now suicidal of his glory. On his tomb there is no proclaiming statue +to repeat to posterity the mysteries which genius seeks out at its own +cost. + +But perhaps Desplein's genius was answerable for his beliefs, and for +that reason mortal. To him the terrestrial atmosphere was a generative +envelope; he saw the earth as an egg within its shell; and not being +able to determine whether the egg or the hen first was, he would +not recognize either the cock or the egg. He believed neither in the +antecedent animal nor the surviving spirit of man. Desplein had no +doubts; he was positive. His bold and unqualified atheism was like +that of many scientific men, the best men in the world, but invincible +atheists--atheists such as religious people declare to be impossible. +This opinion could scarcely exist otherwise in a man who was accustomed +from his youth to dissect the creature above all others--before, during, +and after life; to hunt through all his organs without ever finding the +individual soul, which is indispensable to religious theory. When he +detected a cerebral centre, a nervous centre, and a centre for aerating +the blood--the first two so perfectly complementary that in the latter +years of his life he came to a conviction that the sense of hearing is +not absolutely necessary for hearing, nor the sense of sight for +seeing, and that the solar plexus could supply their place without any +possibility of doubt--Desplein, thus finding two souls in man, confirmed +his atheism by this fact, though it is no evidence against God. This man +died, it is said, in final impenitence, as do, unfortunately, many noble +geniuses, whom God may forgive. + +The life of this man, great as he was, was marred by many meannesses, to +use the expression employed by his enemies, who were anxious to +diminish his glory, but which it would be more proper to call apparent +contradictions. Envious people and fools, having no knowledge of the +determinations by which superior spirits are moved, seize at once on +superficial inconsistencies, to formulate an accusation and so to pass +sentence on them. If, subsequently, the proceedings thus attacked are +crowned with success, showing the correlations of the preliminaries and +the results, a few of the vanguard of calumnies always survive. In our +day, for instance, Napoleon was condemned by our contemporaries when he +spread his eagle's wings to alight in England: only 1822 could explain +1804 and the flatboats at Boulogne. + +As, in Desplein, his glory and science were invulnerable, his enemies +attacked his odd moods and his temper, whereas, in fact, he was simply +characterized by what the English call eccentricity. Sometimes very +handsomely dressed, like Crebillon the tragical, he would suddenly +affect extreme indifference as to what he wore; he was sometimes seen +in a carriage, and sometimes on foot. By turns rough and kind, harsh and +covetous on the surface, but capable of offering his whole fortune to +his exiled masters--who did him the honor of accepting it for a few +days--no man ever gave rise to such contradictory judgements. Although +to obtain a black ribbon, which physicians ought not to intrigue for, he +was capable of dropping a prayer-book out of his pocket at Court, in +his heart he mocked at everything; he had a deep contempt for men, +after studying them from above and below, after detecting their genuine +expression when performing the most solemn and the meanest acts of their +lives. + +The qualities of a great man are often federative. If among these +colossal spirits one has more talent than wit, his wit is still superior +to that of a man of whom it is simply stated that "he is witty." Genius +always presupposes moral insight. This insight may be applied to a +special subject; but he who can see a flower must be able to see the +sun. The man who on hearing a diplomate he has saved ask, "How is the +Emperor?" could say, "The courtier is alive; the man will follow!"--that +man is not merely a surgeon or a physician, he is prodigiously witty +also. Hence a patient and diligent student of human nature will +admit Desplein's exorbitant pretensions, and believe--as he himself +believed--that he might have been no less great as a minister than he +was as a surgeon. + +Among the riddles which Desplein's life presents to many of his +contemporaries, we have chosen one of the most interesting, because the +answer is to be found at the end of the narrative, and will avenge him +for some foolish charges. + +Of all the students in Desplein's hospital, Horace Bianchon was one +of those to whom he most warmly attached himself. Before being a house +surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, Horace Bianchon had been a medical student +lodging in a squalid boarding house in the _Quartier Latin_, known as +the Maison Vauquer. This poor young man had felt there the gnawing +of that burning poverty which is a sort of crucible from which great +talents are to emerge as pure and incorruptible as diamonds, which may +be subjected to any shock without being crushed. In the fierce fire of +their unbridled passions they acquire the most impeccable honesty, and +get into the habit of fighting the battles which await genius with the +constant work by which they coerce their cheated appetites. + +Horace was an upright young fellow, incapable of tergiversation on a +matter of honor, going to the point without waste of words, and as ready +to pledge his cloak for a friend as to give him his time and his night +hours. Horace, in short, was one of those friends who are never anxious +as to what they may get in return for what they give, feeling sure that +they will in their turn get more than they give. Most of his +friends felt for him that deeply-seated respect which is inspired by +unostentatious virtue, and many of them dreaded his censure. But Horace +made no pedantic display of his qualities. He was neither a puritan nor +a preacher; he could swear with a grace as he gave his advice, and +was always ready for a jollification when occasion offered. A jolly +companion, not more prudish than a trooper, as frank and outspoken--not +as a sailor, for nowadays sailors are wily diplomates--but as an honest +man who has nothing in his life to hide, he walked with his head erect, +and a mind content. In short, to put the facts into a word, Horace was +the Pylades of more than one Orestes--creditors being regarded as the +nearest modern equivalent to the Furies of the ancients. + +He carried his poverty with the cheerfulness which is perhaps one of +the chief elements of courage, and, like all people who have nothing, +he made very few debts. As sober as a camel and active as a stag, he was +steadfast in his ideas and his conduct. + +The happy phase of Bianchon's life began on the day when the famous +surgeon had proof of the qualities and the defects which, these no less +than those, make Doctor Horace Bianchon doubly dear to his friends. When +a leading clinical practitioner takes a young man to his bosom, that +young man has, as they say, his foot in the stirrup. Desplein did not +fail to take Bianchon as his assistant to wealthy houses, where some +complimentary fee almost always found its way into the student's pocket, +and where the mysteries of Paris life were insensibly revealed to the +young provincial; he kept him at his side when a consultation was to +be held, and gave him occupation; sometimes he would send him to a +watering-place with a rich patient; in fact, he was making a practice +for him. The consequence was that in the course of time the Tyrant of +surgery had a devoted ally. These two men--one at the summit of +honor and of his science, enjoying an immense fortune and an immense +reputation; the other a humble Omega, having neither fortune nor +fame--became intimate friends. + +The great Desplein told his house surgeon everything; the disciple knew +whether such or such a woman had sat on a chair near the master, or on +the famous couch in Desplein's surgery, on which he slept. Bianchon knew +the mysteries of that temperament, a compound of the lion and the bull, +which at last expanded and enlarged beyond measure the great man's +torso, and caused his death by degeneration of the heart. He studied the +eccentricities of that busy life, the schemes of that sordid avarice, +the hopes of the politician who lurked behind the man of science; he was +able to foresee the mortifications that awaited the only sentiment that +lay hid in a heart that was steeled, but not of steel. + +One day Bianchon spoke to Desplein of a poor water-carrier of the +Saint-Jacques district, who had a horrible disease caused by fatigue and +want; this wretched Auvergnat had had nothing but potatoes to eat during +the dreadful winter of 1821. Desplein left all his visits, and at the +risk of killing his horse, he rushed off, followed by Bianchon, to the +poor man's dwelling, and saw, himself, to his being removed to a sick +house, founded by the famous Dubois in the Faubourg Saint-Denis. Then +he went to attend the man, and when he had cured him he gave him +the necessary sum to buy a horse and a water-barrel. This Auvergnat +distinguished himself by an amusing action. One of his friends fell ill, +and he took him at once to Desplein, saying to his benefactor, "I could +not have borne to let him go to any one else!" + +Rough customer as he was, Desplein grasped the water-carrier's hand, and +said, "Bring them all to me." + +He got the native of Cantal into the Hotel-Dieu, where he took the +greatest care of him. Bianchon had already observed in his chief a +predilection for Auvergnats, and especially for water carriers; but as +Desplein took a sort of pride in his cures at the Hotel-Dieu, the pupil +saw nothing very strange in that. + +One day, as he crossed the Place Saint-Sulpice, Bianchon caught sight of +his master going into the church at about nine in the morning. Desplein, +who at that time never went a step without his cab, was on foot, and +slipped in by the door in the Rue du Petit-Lion, as if he were stealing +into some house of ill fame. The house surgeon, naturally possessed +by curiosity, knowing his master's opinions, and being himself a rabid +follower of Cabanis (_Cabaniste en dyable_, with the _y_, which in +Rabelais seems to convey an intensity of devilry)--Bianchon stole into +the church, and was not a little astonished to see the great Desplein, +the atheist, who had no mercy on the angels--who give no work to the +lancet, and cannot suffer from fistula or gastritis--in short, this +audacious scoffer kneeling humbly, and where? In the Lady Chapel, +where he remained through the mass, giving alms for the expenses of the +service, alms for the poor, and looking as serious as though he were +superintending an operation. + +"He has certainly not come here to clear up the question of the Virgin's +delivery," said Bianchon to himself, astonished beyond measure. "If I +had caught him holding one of the ropes of the canopy on Corpus Christi +day, it would be a thing to laugh at; but at this hour, alone, with no +one to see--it is surely a thing to marvel at!" + +Bianchon did not wish to seem as though he were spying the head surgeon +of the Hotel-Dieu; he went away. As it happened, Desplein asked him to +dine with him that day, not at his own house, but at a restaurant. At +dessert Bianchon skilfully contrived to talk of the mass, speaking of it +as mummery and a farce. + +"A farce," said Desplein, "which has cost Christendom more blood than +all Napoleon's battles and all Broussais' leeches. The mass is a papal +invention, not older than the sixth century, and based on the _Hoc est +corpus_. What floods of blood were shed to establish the Fete-Dieu, the +Festival of Corpus Christi--the institution by which Rome established +her triumph in the question of the Real Presence, a schism which rent +the Church during three centuries! The wars of the Count of Toulouse +against the Albigenses were the tail end of that dispute. The Vaudois +and the Albigenses refused to recognize this innovation." + +In short, Desplein was delighted to disport himself in his most +atheistical vein; a flow of Voltairean satire, or, to be accurate, a +vile imitation of the _Citateur_. + +"Hallo! where is my worshiper of this morning?" said Bianchon to +himself. + +He said nothing; he began to doubt whether he had really seen his chief +at Saint-Sulpice. Desplein would not have troubled himself to tell +Bianchon a lie, they knew each other too well; they had already +exchanged thoughts on quite equally serious subjects, and discussed +systems de natura rerum, probing or dissecting them with the knife and +scalpel of incredulity. + +Three months went by. Bianchon did not attempt to follow the matter up, +though it remained stamped on his memory. One day that year, one of the +physicians of the Hotel-Dieu took Desplein by the arm, as if to question +him, in Bianchon's presence. + +"What were you doing at Saint-Sulpice, my dear master?" said he. + +"I went to see a priest who has a diseased knee-bone, and to whom the +Duchesse d'Angouleme did me the honor to recommend me," said Desplein. + +The questioner took this defeat for an answer; not so Bianchon. + +"Oh, he goes to see damaged knees in church!--He went to mass," said the +young man to himself. + +Bianchon resolved to watch Desplein. He remembered the day and hour when +he had detected him going into Saint-Sulpice, and resolved to be there +again next year on the same day and at the same hour, to see if he +should find him there again. In that case the periodicity of his +devotion would justify a scientific investigation; for in such a man +there ought to be no direct antagonism of thought and action. + +Next year, on the said day and hour, Bianchon, who had already ceased +to be Desplein's house surgeon, saw the great man's cab standing at +the corner of the Rue de Tournon and the Rue du Petit-Lion, whence his +friend jesuitically crept along by the wall of Saint-Sulpice, and once +more attended mass in front of the Virgin's altar. It was Desplein, +sure enough! The master-surgeon, the atheist at heart, the worshiper +by chance. The mystery was greater than ever; the regularity of the +phenomenon complicated it. When Desplein had left, Bianchon went to +the sacristan, who took charge of the chapel, and asked him whether the +gentleman were a constant worshiper. + +"For twenty years that I have been here," replied the man, "M. Desplein +has come four times a year to attend this mass. He founded it." + +"A mass founded by him!" said Bianchon, as he went away. "This is as +great a mystery as the Immaculate Conception--an article which alone is +enough to make a physician an unbeliever." + +Some time elapsed before Doctor Bianchon, though so much his friend, +found an opportunity of speaking to Desplein of this incident of his +life. Though they met in consultation, or in society, it was difficult +to find an hour of confidential solitude when, sitting with their feet +on the fire-dogs and their head resting on the back of an armchair, two +men tell each other their secrets. At last, seven years later, after +the Revolution of 1830, when the mob invaded the Archbishop's residence, +when Republican agitators spurred them on to destroy the gilt crosses +which flashed like streaks of lightning in the immensity of the ocean +of houses; when Incredulity flaunted itself in the streets, side by +side with Rebellion, Bianchon once more detected Desplein going into +Saint-Sulpice. The doctor followed him, and knelt down by him without +the slightest notice or demonstration of surprise from his friend. They +both attended this mass of his founding. + +"Will you tell me, my dear fellow," said Bianchon, as they left the +church, "the reason for your fit of monkishness? I have caught you three +times going to mass---- You! You must account to me for this mystery, +explain such a flagrant disagreement between your opinions and your +conduct. You do not believe in God, and yet you attend mass? My dear +master, you are bound to give me an answer." + +"I am like a great many devout people, men who on the surface are deeply +religious, but quite as much atheists as you or I can be." + +And he poured out a torrent of epigrams on certain political personages, +of whom the best known gives us, in this century, a new edition of +Moliere's _Tartufe_. + +"All that has nothing to do with my question," retorted Bianchon. "I +want to know the reason for what you have just been doing, and why you +founded this mass." + +"Faith! my dear boy," said Desplein, "I am on the verge of the tomb; I +may safely tell you about the beginning of my life." + +At this moment Bianchon and the great man were in the Rue des +Quatre-Vents, one of the worst streets in Paris. Desplein pointed to +the sixth floor of one of the houses looking like obelisks, of which the +narrow door opens into a passage with a winding staircase at the end, +with windows appropriately termed "borrowed lights"--or, in French, +_jours de souffrance_. It was a greenish structure; the ground floor +occupied by a furniture-dealer, while each floor seemed to shelter a +different and independent form of misery. Throwing up his arm with a +vehement gesture, Desplein exclaimed: + +"I lived up there for two years." + +"I know; Arthez lived there; I went up there almost every day during my +first youth; we used to call it then the pickle-jar of great men! What +then?" + +"The mass I have just attended is connected with some events which took +place at the time when I lived in the garret where you say Arthez lived; +the one with the window where the clothes line is hanging with linen +over a pot of flowers. My early life was so hard, my dear Bianchon, that +I may dispute the palm of Paris suffering with any man living. I have +endured everything: hunger and thirst, want of money, want of clothes, +of shoes, of linen, every cruelty that penury can inflict. I have blown +on my frozen fingers in that _pickle-jar of great men_, which I should +like to see again, now, with you. I worked through a whole winter, +seeing my head steam, and perceiving the atmosphere of my own moisture +as we see that of horses on a frosty day. I do not know where a man +finds the fulcrum that enables him to hold out against such a life. + +"I was alone, with no one to help me, no money to buy books or to pay +the expenses of my medical training; I had not a friend; my irascible, +touchy, restless temper was against me. No one understood that this +irritability was the distress and toil of a man who, at the bottom of +the social scale, is struggling to reach the surface. Still, I had, as +I may say to you, before whom I need wear no draperies, I had that +ground-bed of good feeling and keen sensitiveness which must always be +the birthright of any man who is strong enough to climb to any height +whatever, after having long trampled in the bogs of poverty. I could +obtain nothing from my family, nor from my home, beyond my inadequate +allowance. In short, at that time, I breakfasted off a roll which the +baker in the Rue du Petit-Lion sold me cheap because it was left from +yesterday or the day before, and I crumbled it into milk; thus my +morning meal cost me but two sous. I dined only every other day in a +boarding-house where the meal cost me sixteen sous. You know as well +as I what care I must have taken of my clothes and shoes. I hardly know +whether in later life we feel grief so deep when a colleague plays us +false as we have known, you and I, on detecting the mocking smile of a +gaping seam in a shoe, or hearing the armhole of a coat split, I drank +nothing but water; I regarded a cafe with distant respect. Zoppi's +seemed to me a promised land where none but the Lucullus of the _pays +Latin_ had a right of entry. 'Shall I ever take a cup of coffee there +with milk in it?' said I to myself, 'or play a game of dominoes?' + +"I threw into my work the fury I felt at my misery. I tried to master +positive knowledge so as to acquire the greatest personal value, +and merit the position I should hold as soon as I could escape from +nothingness. I consumed more oil than bread; the light I burned during +these endless nights cost me more than food. It was a long duel, +obstinate, with no sort of consolation. I found no sympathy anywhere. +To have friends, must we not form connections with young men, have a +few sous so as to be able to go tippling with them, and meet them +where students congregate? And I had nothing! And no one in Paris +can understand that nothing means _nothing_. When I even thought of +revealing my beggary, I had that nervous contraction of the throat which +makes a sick man believe that a ball rises up from the oesophagus into +the larynx. + +"In later life I have met people born to wealth who, never having wanted +for anything, had never even heard this problem in the rule of three: +A young man is to crime as a five-franc piece is to X.--These gilded +idiots say to me, 'Why did you get into debt? Why did you involve +yourself in such onerous obligations?' They remind me of the princess +who, on hearing that the people lacked bread, said, 'Why do not they buy +cakes?' I should like to see one of these rich men, who complain that I +charge too much for an operation,--yes, I should like to see him alone +in Paris without a sou, without a friend, without credit, and forced to +work with his five fingers to live at all! What would he do? Where would +he go to satisfy his hunger? + +"Bianchon, if you have sometimes seen me hard and bitter, it was +because I was adding my early sufferings on to the insensibility, the +selfishness of which I have seen thousands of instances in the highest +circles; or, perhaps, I was thinking of the obstacles which hatred, +envy, jealousy, and calumny raised up between me and success. In Paris, +when certain people see you ready to set your foot in the stirrup, some +pull your coat-tails, others loosen the buckle of the strap that you may +fall and crack your skull; one wrenches off your horse's shoes, another +steals your whip, and the least treacherous of them all is the man whom +you see coming to fire his pistol at you point blank. + +"You yourself, my dear boy, are clever enough to make acquaintance +before long with the odious and incessant warfare waged by mediocrity +against the superior man. If you should drop five-and-twenty louis one +day, you will be accused of gambling on the next, and your best friends +will report that you have lost twenty-five thousand. If you have a +headache, you will be considered mad. If you are a little hasty, no one +can live with you. If, to make a stand against this armament of pigmies, +you collect your best powers, your best friends will cry out that you +want to have everything, that you aim at domineering, at tyranny. In +short, your good points will become your faults, your faults will be +vices, and your virtues crime. + +"If you save a man, you will be said to have killed him; if he reappears +on the scene, it will be positive that you have secured the present at +the cost of the future. If he is not dead, he will die. Stumble, and +you fall! Invent anything of any kind and claim your rights, you will be +crotchety, cunning, ill-disposed to rising younger men. + +"So, you see, my dear fellow, if I do not believe in God, I believe +still less in man. But do not you know in me another Desplein, +altogether different from the Desplein whom every one abuses?--However, +we will not stir that mud-heap. + +"Well, I was living in that house, I was working hard to pass my first +examination, and I had no money at all. You know. I had come to one of +those moments of extremity when a man says, 'I will enlist.' I had one +hope. I expected from my home a box full of linen, a present from one +of those old aunts who, knowing nothing of Paris, think of your shirts, +while they imagine that their nephew with thirty francs a month is +eating ortolans. The box arrived while I was at the schools; it had cost +forty francs for carriage. The porter, a German shoemaker living in a +loft, had paid the money and kept the box. I walked up and down the Rue +des Fosses-Saint-Germain-des-Pres and the Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine +without hitting on any scheme which would release my trunk without the +payment of the forty francs, which of course I could pay as soon as I +should have sold the linen. My stupidity proved to me that surgery was +my only vocation. My good fellow, refined souls, whose powers move in a +lofty atmosphere, have none of that spirit of intrigue that is fertile +in resource and device; their good genius is chance; they do not invent, +things come to them. + +"At night I went home, at the very moment when my fellow lodger also +came in--a water-carrier named Bourgeat, a native of Saint-Flour. We +knew each other as two lodgers do who have rooms off the same landing, +and who hear each other sleeping, coughing, dressing, and so at last +become used to one another. My neighbor informed me that the landlord, +to whom I owed three quarters' rent, had turned me out; I must clear +out next morning. He himself was also turned out on account of his +occupation. I spent the most miserable night of my life. Where was I to +get a messenger who could carry my few chattels and my books? How +could I pay him and the porter? Where was I to go? I repeated these +unanswerable questions again and again, in tears, as madmen repeat their +tunes. I fell asleep; poverty has for its friends heavenly slumbers full +of beautiful dreams. + +"Next morning, just as I was swallowing my little bowl of bread soaked +in milk, Bourgeat came in and said to me in his vile Auvergne accent: + +"'_Mouchieur l'Etudiant_, I am a poor man, a foundling from the hospital +at Saint-Flour, without either father or mother, and not rich enough to +marry. You are not fertile in relations either, nor well supplied with +the ready? Listen, I have a hand-cart downstairs which I have hired for +two sous an hour; it will hold all our goods; if you like, we will try +to find lodgings together, since we are both turned out of this. It is +not the earthly paradise, when all is said and done.' + +"'I know that, my good Bourgeat,' said I. 'But I am in a great fix. I +have a trunk downstairs with a hundred francs' worth of linen in it, +out of which I could pay the landlord and all I owe to the porter, and I +have not a hundred sous.' + +"'Pooh! I have a few dibs,' replied Bourgeat joyfully, and he pulled out +a greasy old leather purse. 'Keep your linen.' + +"Bourgeat paid up my arrears and his own, and settled with the porter. +Then he put our furniture and my box of linen in his cart, and pulled +it along the street, stopping in front of every house where there was a +notice board. I went up to see whether the rooms to let would suit us. +At midday we were still wandering about the neighborhood without having +found anything. The price was the great difficulty. Bourgeat proposed +that we should eat at a wine shop, leaving the cart at the door. Towards +evening I discovered, in the Cour de Rohan, Passage du Commerce, at the +very top of a house next the roof, two rooms with a staircase between +them. Each of us was to pay sixty francs a year. So there we were +housed, my humble friend and I. We dined together. Bourgeat, who earned +about fifty sous a day, had saved a hundred crowns or so; he would +soon be able to gratify his ambition by buying a barrel and a horse. +On learning of my situation--for he extracted my secrets with a quiet +craftiness and good nature, of which the remembrance touches my heart +to this day, he gave up for a time the ambition of his whole life; for +twenty-two years he had been carrying water in the street, and he now +devoted his hundred crowns to my future prospects." + +Desplein at these words clutched Bianchon's arm tightly. "He gave me the +money for my examination fees! That man, my friend, understood that I +had a mission, that the needs of my intellect were greater than his. He +looked after me, he called me his boy, he lent me money to buy books, he +would come in softly sometimes to watch me at work, and took a mother's +care in seeing that I had wholesome and abundant food, instead of the +bad and insufficient nourishment I had been condemned to. Bourgeat, a +man of about forty, had a homely, mediaeval type of face, a prominent +forehead, a head that a painter might have chosen as a model for that +of Lycurgus. The poor man's heart was big with affections seeking an +object; he had never been loved but by a poodle that had died some time +since, of which he would talk to me, asking whether I thought the Church +would allow masses to be said for the repose of its soul. His dog, said +he, had been a good Christian, who for twelve years had accompanied him +to church, never barking, listening to the organ without opening his +mouth, and crouching beside him in a way that made it seem as though he +were praying too. + +"This man centered all his affections in me; he looked upon me as +a forlorn and suffering creature, and he became, to me, the most +thoughtful mother, the most considerate benefactor, the ideal of the +virtue which rejoices in its own work. When I met him in the street, he +would throw me a glance of intelligence full of unutterable dignity; he +would affect to walk as though he carried no weight, and seemed happy in +seeing me in good health and well dressed. It was, in fact, the devoted +affection of the lower classes, the love of a girl of the people +transferred to a loftier level. Bourgeat did all my errands, woke me at +night at any fixed hour, trimmed my lamp, cleaned our landing; as good +as a servant as he was as a father, and as clean as an English girl. He +did all the housework. Like Philopoemen, he sawed our wood, and gave to +all he did the grace of simplicity while preserving his dignity, for he +seemed to understand that the end ennobles every act. + +"When I left this good fellow, to be house surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, I +felt an indescribable, dull pain, knowing that he could no longer live +with me; but he comforted himself with the prospect of saving up money +enough for me to take my degree, and he made me promise to go to see him +whenever I had a day out: Bourgeat was proud of me. He loved me for my +own sake, and for his own. If you look up my thesis, you will see that I +dedicated it to him. + +"During the last year of my residence as house surgeon I earned enough +to repay all I owed to this worthy Auvergnat by buying him a barrel and +a horse. He was furious with rage at learning that I had been depriving +myself of spending my money, and yet he was delighted to see his wishes +fulfilled; he laughed and scolded, he looked at his barrel, at his +horse, and wiped away a tear, as he said, 'It is too bad. What a +splendid barrel! You really ought not. Why, that horse is as strong as +an Auvergnat!' + +"I never saw a more touching scene. Bourgeat insisted on buying for +me the case of instruments mounted in silver which you have seen in my +room, and which is to me the most precious thing there. Though enchanted +with my first success, never did the least sign, the least word, escape +him which might imply, 'This man owes all to me!' And yet, but for him, +I should have died of want; he had eaten bread rubbed with garlic that I +might have coffee to enable me to sit up at night. + +"He fell ill. As you may suppose, I passed my nights by his bedside, +and the first time I pulled him through; but two years after he had a +relapse; in spite of the utmost care, in spite of the greatest exertions +of science, he succumbed. No king was ever nursed as he was. Yes, +Bianchon, to snatch that man from death I tried unheard-of things. I +wanted him to live long enough to show him his work accomplished, to +realize all his hopes, to give expression to the only need for gratitude +that ever filled my heart, to quench a fire that burns in me to this +day. + +"Bourgeat, my second father, died in my arms," Desplein went on, after +a pause, visibly moved. "He left me everything he possessed by a will +he had had made by a public scrivener, dating from the year when we had +gone to live in the Cour de Rohan. + +"This man's faith was perfect; he loved the Holy Virgin as he might have +loved his wife. He was an ardent Catholic, but never said a word to me +about my want of religion. When he was dying he entreated me to spare +no expense that he might have every possible benefit of clergy. I had +a mass said for him every day. Often, in the night, he would tell me of +his fears as to his future fate; he feared his life had not been saintly +enough. Poor man! he was at work from morning till night. For whom, +then, is Paradise--if there be a Paradise? He received the last +sacrament like the saint that he was, and his death was worthy of his +life. + +"I alone followed him to the grave. When I had laid my only benefactor +to rest, I looked about to see how I could pay my debt to him; I found +he had neither family nor friends, neither wife nor child. But he +believed. He had a religious conviction; had I any right to dispute it? +He had spoken to me timidly of masses said for the repose of the dead; +he would not impress it on me as a duty, thinking that it would be a +form of repayment for his services. As soon as I had money enough I paid +to Saint-Sulpice the requisite sum for four masses every year. As the +only thing I can do for Bourgeat is thus to satisfy his pious wishes, on +the days when that mass is said, at the beginning of each season of the +year, I go for his sake and say the required prayers; and I say with +the good faith of a sceptic--'Great God, if there is a sphere which Thou +hast appointed after death for those who have been perfect, remember +good Bourgeat; and if he should have anything to suffer, let me suffer +it for him, that he may enter all the sooner into what is called +Paradise.' + +"That, my dear fellow, is as much as a man who holds my opinions can +allow himself. But God must be a good fellow; He cannot owe me any +grudge. I swear to you, I would give my whole fortune if faith such as +Bourgeat's could enter my brain." + + + +Bianchon, who was with Desplein all through his last illness, dares +not affirm to this day that the great surgeon died an atheist. Will not +those who believe like to fancy that the humble Auvergnat came to open +the gate of Heaven to his friend, as he did that of the earthly temple +on whose pediment we read the words--"A grateful country to its great +men." + + +PARIS, January 1836. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson + In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + + Desplein + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atheist's Mass, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1220 *** diff --git a/1220-h/1220-h.htm b/1220-h/1220-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e7399f --- /dev/null +++ b/1220-h/1220-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,832 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Atheist's Mass, by Honore de Balzac + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1220 ***</div> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE ATHEIST'S MASS + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Honore De Balzac + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by Clara Bell + </h3> + <p> + <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + This is dedicated to Auguste Borget by his friend De Balzac + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> THE ATHEIST'S MASS </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0002"> ADDENDUM </a> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE ATHEIST'S MASS + </h1> + <p> + Bianchon, a physician to whom science owes a fine system of theoretical + physiology, and who, while still young, made himself a celebrity in the + medical school of Paris, that central luminary to which European doctors + do homage, practised surgery for a long time before he took up medicine. + His earliest studies were guided by one of the greatest of French + surgeons, the illustrious Desplein, who flashed across science like a + meteor. By the consensus even of his enemies, he took with him to the tomb + an incommunicable method. Like all men of genius, he had no heirs; he + carried everything in him, and carried it away with him. The glory of a + surgeon is like that of an actor: they live only so long as they are + alive, and their talent leaves no trace when they are gone. Actors and + surgeons, like great singers too, like the executants who by their + performance increase the power of music tenfold, are all the heroes of a + moment. + </p> + <p> + Desplein is a case in proof of this resemblance in the destinies of such + transient genius. His name, yesterday so famous, to-day almost forgotten, + will survive in his special department without crossing its limits. For + must there not be some extraordinary circumstances to exalt the name of a + professor from the history of Science to the general history of the human + race? Had Desplein that universal command of knowledge which makes a man + the living word, the great figure of his age? Desplein had a godlike eye; + he saw into the sufferer and his malady by an intuition, natural or + acquired, which enabled him to grasp the diagnostics peculiar to the + individual, to determine the very time, the hour, the minute when an + operation should be performed, making due allowance for atmospheric + conditions and peculiarities of individual temperament. To proceed thus, + hand in hand with nature, had he then studied the constant assimilation by + living beings, of the elements contained in the atmosphere, or yielded by + the earth to man who absorbs them, deriving from them a particular + expression of life? Did he work it all out by the power of deduction and + analogy, to which we owe the genius of Cuvier? Be this as it may, this man + was in all the secrets of the human frame; he knew it in the past and in + the future, emphasizing the present. + </p> + <p> + But did he epitomize all science in his own person as Hippocrates did and + Galen and Aristotle? Did he guide a whole school towards new worlds? No. + Though it is impossible to deny that this persistent observer of human + chemistry possessed that antique science of the Mages, that is to say, + knowledge of the elements in fusion, the causes of life, life antecedent + to life, and what it must be in its incubation or ever it <i>is</i>, it + must be confessed that, unfortunately, everything in him was purely + personal. Isolated during his life by his egoism, that egoism is now + suicidal of his glory. On his tomb there is no proclaiming statue to + repeat to posterity the mysteries which genius seeks out at its own cost. + </p> + <p> + But perhaps Desplein's genius was answerable for his beliefs, and for that + reason mortal. To him the terrestrial atmosphere was a generative + envelope; he saw the earth as an egg within its shell; and not being able + to determine whether the egg or the hen first was, he would not recognize + either the cock or the egg. He believed neither in the antecedent animal + nor the surviving spirit of man. Desplein had no doubts; he was positive. + His bold and unqualified atheism was like that of many scientific men, the + best men in the world, but invincible atheists—atheists such as + religious people declare to be impossible. This opinion could scarcely + exist otherwise in a man who was accustomed from his youth to dissect the + creature above all others—before, during, and after life; to hunt + through all his organs without ever finding the individual soul, which is + indispensable to religious theory. When he detected a cerebral centre, a + nervous centre, and a centre for aerating the blood—the first two so + perfectly complementary that in the latter years of his life he came to a + conviction that the sense of hearing is not absolutely necessary for + hearing, nor the sense of sight for seeing, and that the solar plexus + could supply their place without any possibility of doubt—Desplein, + thus finding two souls in man, confirmed his atheism by this fact, though + it is no evidence against God. This man died, it is said, in final + impenitence, as do, unfortunately, many noble geniuses, whom God may + forgive. + </p> + <p> + The life of this man, great as he was, was marred by many meannesses, to + use the expression employed by his enemies, who were anxious to diminish + his glory, but which it would be more proper to call apparent + contradictions. Envious people and fools, having no knowledge of the + determinations by which superior spirits are moved, seize at once on + superficial inconsistencies, to formulate an accusation and so to pass + sentence on them. If, subsequently, the proceedings thus attacked are + crowned with success, showing the correlations of the preliminaries and + the results, a few of the vanguard of calumnies always survive. In our + day, for instance, Napoleon was condemned by our contemporaries when he + spread his eagle's wings to alight in England: only 1822 could explain + 1804 and the flatboats at Boulogne. + </p> + <p> + As, in Desplein, his glory and science were invulnerable, his enemies + attacked his odd moods and his temper, whereas, in fact, he was simply + characterized by what the English call eccentricity. Sometimes very + handsomely dressed, like Crebillon the tragical, he would suddenly affect + extreme indifference as to what he wore; he was sometimes seen in a + carriage, and sometimes on foot. By turns rough and kind, harsh and + covetous on the surface, but capable of offering his whole fortune to his + exiled masters—who did him the honor of accepting it for a few days—no + man ever gave rise to such contradictory judgements. Although to obtain a + black ribbon, which physicians ought not to intrigue for, he was capable + of dropping a prayer-book out of his pocket at Court, in his heart he + mocked at everything; he had a deep contempt for men, after studying them + from above and below, after detecting their genuine expression when + performing the most solemn and the meanest acts of their lives. + </p> + <p> + The qualities of a great man are often federative. If among these colossal + spirits one has more talent than wit, his wit is still superior to that of + a man of whom it is simply stated that "he is witty." Genius always + presupposes moral insight. This insight may be applied to a special + subject; but he who can see a flower must be able to see the sun. The man + who on hearing a diplomate he has saved ask, "How is the Emperor?" could + say, "The courtier is alive; the man will follow!"—that man is not + merely a surgeon or a physician, he is prodigiously witty also. Hence a + patient and diligent student of human nature will admit Desplein's + exorbitant pretensions, and believe—as he himself believed—that + he might have been no less great as a minister than he was as a surgeon. + </p> + <p> + Among the riddles which Desplein's life presents to many of his + contemporaries, we have chosen one of the most interesting, because the + answer is to be found at the end of the narrative, and will avenge him for + some foolish charges. + </p> + <p> + Of all the students in Desplein's hospital, Horace Bianchon was one of + those to whom he most warmly attached himself. Before being a house + surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, Horace Bianchon had been a medical student + lodging in a squalid boarding house in the <i>Quartier Latin</i>, known as + the Maison Vauquer. This poor young man had felt there the gnawing of that + burning poverty which is a sort of crucible from which great talents are + to emerge as pure and incorruptible as diamonds, which may be subjected to + any shock without being crushed. In the fierce fire of their unbridled + passions they acquire the most impeccable honesty, and get into the habit + of fighting the battles which await genius with the constant work by which + they coerce their cheated appetites. + </p> + <p> + Horace was an upright young fellow, incapable of tergiversation on a + matter of honor, going to the point without waste of words, and as ready + to pledge his cloak for a friend as to give him his time and his night + hours. Horace, in short, was one of those friends who are never anxious as + to what they may get in return for what they give, feeling sure that they + will in their turn get more than they give. Most of his friends felt for + him that deeply-seated respect which is inspired by unostentatious virtue, + and many of them dreaded his censure. But Horace made no pedantic display + of his qualities. He was neither a puritan nor a preacher; he could swear + with a grace as he gave his advice, and was always ready for a + jollification when occasion offered. A jolly companion, not more prudish + than a trooper, as frank and outspoken—not as a sailor, for nowadays + sailors are wily diplomates—but as an honest man who has nothing in + his life to hide, he walked with his head erect, and a mind content. In + short, to put the facts into a word, Horace was the Pylades of more than + one Orestes—creditors being regarded as the nearest modern + equivalent to the Furies of the ancients. + </p> + <p> + He carried his poverty with the cheerfulness which is perhaps one of the + chief elements of courage, and, like all people who have nothing, he made + very few debts. As sober as a camel and active as a stag, he was steadfast + in his ideas and his conduct. + </p> + <p> + The happy phase of Bianchon's life began on the day when the famous + surgeon had proof of the qualities and the defects which, these no less + than those, make Doctor Horace Bianchon doubly dear to his friends. When a + leading clinical practitioner takes a young man to his bosom, that young + man has, as they say, his foot in the stirrup. Desplein did not fail to + take Bianchon as his assistant to wealthy houses, where some complimentary + fee almost always found its way into the student's pocket, and where the + mysteries of Paris life were insensibly revealed to the young provincial; + he kept him at his side when a consultation was to be held, and gave him + occupation; sometimes he would send him to a watering-place with a rich + patient; in fact, he was making a practice for him. The consequence was + that in the course of time the Tyrant of surgery had a devoted ally. These + two men—one at the summit of honor and of his science, enjoying an + immense fortune and an immense reputation; the other a humble Omega, + having neither fortune nor fame—became intimate friends. + </p> + <p> + The great Desplein told his house surgeon everything; the disciple knew + whether such or such a woman had sat on a chair near the master, or on the + famous couch in Desplein's surgery, on which he slept. Bianchon knew the + mysteries of that temperament, a compound of the lion and the bull, which + at last expanded and enlarged beyond measure the great man's torso, and + caused his death by degeneration of the heart. He studied the + eccentricities of that busy life, the schemes of that sordid avarice, the + hopes of the politician who lurked behind the man of science; he was able + to foresee the mortifications that awaited the only sentiment that lay hid + in a heart that was steeled, but not of steel. + </p> + <p> + One day Bianchon spoke to Desplein of a poor water-carrier of the + Saint-Jacques district, who had a horrible disease caused by fatigue and + want; this wretched Auvergnat had had nothing but potatoes to eat during + the dreadful winter of 1821. Desplein left all his visits, and at the risk + of killing his horse, he rushed off, followed by Bianchon, to the poor + man's dwelling, and saw, himself, to his being removed to a sick house, + founded by the famous Dubois in the Faubourg Saint-Denis. Then he went to + attend the man, and when he had cured him he gave him the necessary sum to + buy a horse and a water-barrel. This Auvergnat distinguished himself by an + amusing action. One of his friends fell ill, and he took him at once to + Desplein, saying to his benefactor, "I could not have borne to let him go + to any one else!" + </p> + <p> + Rough customer as he was, Desplein grasped the water-carrier's hand, and + said, "Bring them all to me." + </p> + <p> + He got the native of Cantal into the Hotel-Dieu, where he took the + greatest care of him. Bianchon had already observed in his chief a + predilection for Auvergnats, and especially for water carriers; but as + Desplein took a sort of pride in his cures at the Hotel-Dieu, the pupil + saw nothing very strange in that. + </p> + <p> + One day, as he crossed the Place Saint-Sulpice, Bianchon caught sight of + his master going into the church at about nine in the morning. Desplein, + who at that time never went a step without his cab, was on foot, and + slipped in by the door in the Rue du Petit-Lion, as if he were stealing + into some house of ill fame. The house surgeon, naturally possessed by + curiosity, knowing his master's opinions, and being himself a rabid + follower of Cabanis (<i>Cabaniste en dyable</i>, with the <i>y</i>, which + in Rabelais seems to convey an intensity of devilry)—Bianchon stole + into the church, and was not a little astonished to see the great + Desplein, the atheist, who had no mercy on the angels—who give no + work to the lancet, and cannot suffer from fistula or gastritis—in + short, this audacious scoffer kneeling humbly, and where? In the Lady + Chapel, where he remained through the mass, giving alms for the expenses + of the service, alms for the poor, and looking as serious as though he + were superintending an operation. + </p> + <p> + "He has certainly not come here to clear up the question of the Virgin's + delivery," said Bianchon to himself, astonished beyond measure. "If I had + caught him holding one of the ropes of the canopy on Corpus Christi day, + it would be a thing to laugh at; but at this hour, alone, with no one to + see—it is surely a thing to marvel at!" + </p> + <p> + Bianchon did not wish to seem as though he were spying the head surgeon of + the Hotel-Dieu; he went away. As it happened, Desplein asked him to dine + with him that day, not at his own house, but at a restaurant. At dessert + Bianchon skilfully contrived to talk of the mass, speaking of it as + mummery and a farce. + </p> + <p> + "A farce," said Desplein, "which has cost Christendom more blood than all + Napoleon's battles and all Broussais' leeches. The mass is a papal + invention, not older than the sixth century, and based on the <i>Hoc est + corpus</i>. What floods of blood were shed to establish the Fete-Dieu, the + Festival of Corpus Christi—the institution by which Rome established + her triumph in the question of the Real Presence, a schism which rent the + Church during three centuries! The wars of the Count of Toulouse against + the Albigenses were the tail end of that dispute. The Vaudois and the + Albigenses refused to recognize this innovation." + </p> + <p> + In short, Desplein was delighted to disport himself in his most + atheistical vein; a flow of Voltairean satire, or, to be accurate, a vile + imitation of the <i>Citateur</i>. + </p> + <p> + "Hallo! where is my worshiper of this morning?" said Bianchon to himself. + </p> + <p> + He said nothing; he began to doubt whether he had really seen his chief at + Saint-Sulpice. Desplein would not have troubled himself to tell Bianchon a + lie, they knew each other too well; they had already exchanged thoughts on + quite equally serious subjects, and discussed systems de natura rerum, + probing or dissecting them with the knife and scalpel of incredulity. + </p> + <p> + Three months went by. Bianchon did not attempt to follow the matter up, + though it remained stamped on his memory. One day that year, one of the + physicians of the Hotel-Dieu took Desplein by the arm, as if to question + him, in Bianchon's presence. + </p> + <p> + "What were you doing at Saint-Sulpice, my dear master?" said he. + </p> + <p> + "I went to see a priest who has a diseased knee-bone, and to whom the + Duchesse d'Angouleme did me the honor to recommend me," said Desplein. + </p> + <p> + The questioner took this defeat for an answer; not so Bianchon. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, he goes to see damaged knees in church!—He went to mass," said + the young man to himself. + </p> + <p> + Bianchon resolved to watch Desplein. He remembered the day and hour when + he had detected him going into Saint-Sulpice, and resolved to be there + again next year on the same day and at the same hour, to see if he should + find him there again. In that case the periodicity of his devotion would + justify a scientific investigation; for in such a man there ought to be no + direct antagonism of thought and action. + </p> + <p> + Next year, on the said day and hour, Bianchon, who had already ceased to + be Desplein's house surgeon, saw the great man's cab standing at the + corner of the Rue de Tournon and the Rue du Petit-Lion, whence his friend + jesuitically crept along by the wall of Saint-Sulpice, and once more + attended mass in front of the Virgin's altar. It was Desplein, sure + enough! The master-surgeon, the atheist at heart, the worshiper by chance. + The mystery was greater than ever; the regularity of the phenomenon + complicated it. When Desplein had left, Bianchon went to the sacristan, + who took charge of the chapel, and asked him whether the gentleman were a + constant worshiper. + </p> + <p> + "For twenty years that I have been here," replied the man, "M. Desplein + has come four times a year to attend this mass. He founded it." + </p> + <p> + "A mass founded by him!" said Bianchon, as he went away. "This is as great + a mystery as the Immaculate Conception—an article which alone is + enough to make a physician an unbeliever." + </p> + <p> + Some time elapsed before Doctor Bianchon, though so much his friend, found + an opportunity of speaking to Desplein of this incident of his life. + Though they met in consultation, or in society, it was difficult to find + an hour of confidential solitude when, sitting with their feet on the + fire-dogs and their head resting on the back of an armchair, two men tell + each other their secrets. At last, seven years later, after the Revolution + of 1830, when the mob invaded the Archbishop's residence, when Republican + agitators spurred them on to destroy the gilt crosses which flashed like + streaks of lightning in the immensity of the ocean of houses; when + Incredulity flaunted itself in the streets, side by side with Rebellion, + Bianchon once more detected Desplein going into Saint-Sulpice. The doctor + followed him, and knelt down by him without the slightest notice or + demonstration of surprise from his friend. They both attended this mass of + his founding. + </p> + <p> + "Will you tell me, my dear fellow," said Bianchon, as they left the + church, "the reason for your fit of monkishness? I have caught you three + times going to mass—— You! You must account to me for this + mystery, explain such a flagrant disagreement between your opinions and + your conduct. You do not believe in God, and yet you attend mass? My dear + master, you are bound to give me an answer." + </p> + <p> + "I am like a great many devout people, men who on the surface are deeply + religious, but quite as much atheists as you or I can be." + </p> + <p> + And he poured out a torrent of epigrams on certain political personages, + of whom the best known gives us, in this century, a new edition of + Moliere's <i>Tartufe</i>. + </p> + <p> + "All that has nothing to do with my question," retorted Bianchon. "I want + to know the reason for what you have just been doing, and why you founded + this mass." + </p> + <p> + "Faith! my dear boy," said Desplein, "I am on the verge of the tomb; I may + safely tell you about the beginning of my life." + </p> + <p> + At this moment Bianchon and the great man were in the Rue des + Quatre-Vents, one of the worst streets in Paris. Desplein pointed to the + sixth floor of one of the houses looking like obelisks, of which the + narrow door opens into a passage with a winding staircase at the end, with + windows appropriately termed "borrowed lights"—or, in French, <i>jours + de souffrance</i>. It was a greenish structure; the ground floor occupied + by a furniture-dealer, while each floor seemed to shelter a different and + independent form of misery. Throwing up his arm with a vehement gesture, + Desplein exclaimed: + </p> + <p> + "I lived up there for two years." + </p> + <p> + "I know; Arthez lived there; I went up there almost every day during my + first youth; we used to call it then the pickle-jar of great men! What + then?" + </p> + <p> + "The mass I have just attended is connected with some events which took + place at the time when I lived in the garret where you say Arthez lived; + the one with the window where the clothes line is hanging with linen over + a pot of flowers. My early life was so hard, my dear Bianchon, that I may + dispute the palm of Paris suffering with any man living. I have endured + everything: hunger and thirst, want of money, want of clothes, of shoes, + of linen, every cruelty that penury can inflict. I have blown on my frozen + fingers in that <i>pickle-jar of great men</i>, which I should like to see + again, now, with you. I worked through a whole winter, seeing my head + steam, and perceiving the atmosphere of my own moisture as we see that of + horses on a frosty day. I do not know where a man finds the fulcrum that + enables him to hold out against such a life. + </p> + <p> + "I was alone, with no one to help me, no money to buy books or to pay the + expenses of my medical training; I had not a friend; my irascible, touchy, + restless temper was against me. No one understood that this irritability + was the distress and toil of a man who, at the bottom of the social scale, + is struggling to reach the surface. Still, I had, as I may say to you, + before whom I need wear no draperies, I had that ground-bed of good + feeling and keen sensitiveness which must always be the birthright of any + man who is strong enough to climb to any height whatever, after having + long trampled in the bogs of poverty. I could obtain nothing from my + family, nor from my home, beyond my inadequate allowance. In short, at + that time, I breakfasted off a roll which the baker in the Rue du + Petit-Lion sold me cheap because it was left from yesterday or the day + before, and I crumbled it into milk; thus my morning meal cost me but two + sous. I dined only every other day in a boarding-house where the meal cost + me sixteen sous. You know as well as I what care I must have taken of my + clothes and shoes. I hardly know whether in later life we feel grief so + deep when a colleague plays us false as we have known, you and I, on + detecting the mocking smile of a gaping seam in a shoe, or hearing the + armhole of a coat split, I drank nothing but water; I regarded a cafe with + distant respect. Zoppi's seemed to me a promised land where none but the + Lucullus of the <i>pays Latin</i> had a right of entry. 'Shall I ever take + a cup of coffee there with milk in it?' said I to myself, 'or play a game + of dominoes?' + </p> + <p> + "I threw into my work the fury I felt at my misery. I tried to master + positive knowledge so as to acquire the greatest personal value, and merit + the position I should hold as soon as I could escape from nothingness. I + consumed more oil than bread; the light I burned during these endless + nights cost me more than food. It was a long duel, obstinate, with no sort + of consolation. I found no sympathy anywhere. To have friends, must we not + form connections with young men, have a few sous so as to be able to go + tippling with them, and meet them where students congregate? And I had + nothing! And no one in Paris can understand that nothing means <i>nothing</i>. + When I even thought of revealing my beggary, I had that nervous + contraction of the throat which makes a sick man believe that a ball rises + up from the oesophagus into the larynx. + </p> + <p> + "In later life I have met people born to wealth who, never having wanted + for anything, had never even heard this problem in the rule of three: A + young man is to crime as a five-franc piece is to X.—These gilded + idiots say to me, 'Why did you get into debt? Why did you involve yourself + in such onerous obligations?' They remind me of the princess who, on + hearing that the people lacked bread, said, 'Why do not they buy cakes?' I + should like to see one of these rich men, who complain that I charge too + much for an operation,—yes, I should like to see him alone in Paris + without a sou, without a friend, without credit, and forced to work with + his five fingers to live at all! What would he do? Where would he go to + satisfy his hunger? + </p> + <p> + "Bianchon, if you have sometimes seen me hard and bitter, it was because I + was adding my early sufferings on to the insensibility, the selfishness of + which I have seen thousands of instances in the highest circles; or, + perhaps, I was thinking of the obstacles which hatred, envy, jealousy, and + calumny raised up between me and success. In Paris, when certain people + see you ready to set your foot in the stirrup, some pull your coat-tails, + others loosen the buckle of the strap that you may fall and crack your + skull; one wrenches off your horse's shoes, another steals your whip, and + the least treacherous of them all is the man whom you see coming to fire + his pistol at you point blank. + </p> + <p> + "You yourself, my dear boy, are clever enough to make acquaintance before + long with the odious and incessant warfare waged by mediocrity against the + superior man. If you should drop five-and-twenty louis one day, you will + be accused of gambling on the next, and your best friends will report that + you have lost twenty-five thousand. If you have a headache, you will be + considered mad. If you are a little hasty, no one can live with you. If, + to make a stand against this armament of pigmies, you collect your best + powers, your best friends will cry out that you want to have everything, + that you aim at domineering, at tyranny. In short, your good points will + become your faults, your faults will be vices, and your virtues crime. + </p> + <p> + "If you save a man, you will be said to have killed him; if he reappears + on the scene, it will be positive that you have secured the present at the + cost of the future. If he is not dead, he will die. Stumble, and you fall! + Invent anything of any kind and claim your rights, you will be crotchety, + cunning, ill-disposed to rising younger men. + </p> + <p> + "So, you see, my dear fellow, if I do not believe in God, I believe still + less in man. But do not you know in me another Desplein, altogether + different from the Desplein whom every one abuses?—However, we will + not stir that mud-heap. + </p> + <p> + "Well, I was living in that house, I was working hard to pass my first + examination, and I had no money at all. You know. I had come to one of + those moments of extremity when a man says, 'I will enlist.' I had one + hope. I expected from my home a box full of linen, a present from one of + those old aunts who, knowing nothing of Paris, think of your shirts, while + they imagine that their nephew with thirty francs a month is eating + ortolans. The box arrived while I was at the schools; it had cost forty + francs for carriage. The porter, a German shoemaker living in a loft, had + paid the money and kept the box. I walked up and down the Rue des + Fosses-Saint-Germain-des-Pres and the Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine without + hitting on any scheme which would release my trunk without the payment of + the forty francs, which of course I could pay as soon as I should have + sold the linen. My stupidity proved to me that surgery was my only + vocation. My good fellow, refined souls, whose powers move in a lofty + atmosphere, have none of that spirit of intrigue that is fertile in + resource and device; their good genius is chance; they do not invent, + things come to them. + </p> + <p> + "At night I went home, at the very moment when my fellow lodger also came + in—a water-carrier named Bourgeat, a native of Saint-Flour. We knew + each other as two lodgers do who have rooms off the same landing, and who + hear each other sleeping, coughing, dressing, and so at last become used + to one another. My neighbor informed me that the landlord, to whom I owed + three quarters' rent, had turned me out; I must clear out next morning. He + himself was also turned out on account of his occupation. I spent the most + miserable night of my life. Where was I to get a messenger who could carry + my few chattels and my books? How could I pay him and the porter? Where + was I to go? I repeated these unanswerable questions again and again, in + tears, as madmen repeat their tunes. I fell asleep; poverty has for its + friends heavenly slumbers full of beautiful dreams. + </p> + <p> + "Next morning, just as I was swallowing my little bowl of bread soaked in + milk, Bourgeat came in and said to me in his vile Auvergne accent: + </p> + <p> + "'<i>Mouchieur l'Etudiant</i>, I am a poor man, a foundling from the + hospital at Saint-Flour, without either father or mother, and not rich + enough to marry. You are not fertile in relations either, nor well + supplied with the ready? Listen, I have a hand-cart downstairs which I + have hired for two sous an hour; it will hold all our goods; if you like, + we will try to find lodgings together, since we are both turned out of + this. It is not the earthly paradise, when all is said and done.' + </p> + <p> + "'I know that, my good Bourgeat,' said I. 'But I am in a great fix. I have + a trunk downstairs with a hundred francs' worth of linen in it, out of + which I could pay the landlord and all I owe to the porter, and I have not + a hundred sous.' + </p> + <p> + "'Pooh! I have a few dibs,' replied Bourgeat joyfully, and he pulled out a + greasy old leather purse. 'Keep your linen.' + </p> + <p> + "Bourgeat paid up my arrears and his own, and settled with the porter. + Then he put our furniture and my box of linen in his cart, and pulled it + along the street, stopping in front of every house where there was a + notice board. I went up to see whether the rooms to let would suit us. At + midday we were still wandering about the neighborhood without having found + anything. The price was the great difficulty. Bourgeat proposed that we + should eat at a wine shop, leaving the cart at the door. Towards evening I + discovered, in the Cour de Rohan, Passage du Commerce, at the very top of + a house next the roof, two rooms with a staircase between them. Each of us + was to pay sixty francs a year. So there we were housed, my humble friend + and I. We dined together. Bourgeat, who earned about fifty sous a day, had + saved a hundred crowns or so; he would soon be able to gratify his + ambition by buying a barrel and a horse. On learning of my situation—for + he extracted my secrets with a quiet craftiness and good nature, of which + the remembrance touches my heart to this day, he gave up for a time the + ambition of his whole life; for twenty-two years he had been carrying + water in the street, and he now devoted his hundred crowns to my future + prospects." + </p> + <p> + Desplein at these words clutched Bianchon's arm tightly. "He gave me the + money for my examination fees! That man, my friend, understood that I had + a mission, that the needs of my intellect were greater than his. He looked + after me, he called me his boy, he lent me money to buy books, he would + come in softly sometimes to watch me at work, and took a mother's care in + seeing that I had wholesome and abundant food, instead of the bad and + insufficient nourishment I had been condemned to. Bourgeat, a man of about + forty, had a homely, mediaeval type of face, a prominent forehead, a head + that a painter might have chosen as a model for that of Lycurgus. The poor + man's heart was big with affections seeking an object; he had never been + loved but by a poodle that had died some time since, of which he would + talk to me, asking whether I thought the Church would allow masses to be + said for the repose of its soul. His dog, said he, had been a good + Christian, who for twelve years had accompanied him to church, never + barking, listening to the organ without opening his mouth, and crouching + beside him in a way that made it seem as though he were praying too. + </p> + <p> + "This man centered all his affections in me; he looked upon me as a + forlorn and suffering creature, and he became, to me, the most thoughtful + mother, the most considerate benefactor, the ideal of the virtue which + rejoices in its own work. When I met him in the street, he would throw me + a glance of intelligence full of unutterable dignity; he would affect to + walk as though he carried no weight, and seemed happy in seeing me in good + health and well dressed. It was, in fact, the devoted affection of the + lower classes, the love of a girl of the people transferred to a loftier + level. Bourgeat did all my errands, woke me at night at any fixed hour, + trimmed my lamp, cleaned our landing; as good as a servant as he was as a + father, and as clean as an English girl. He did all the housework. Like + Philopoemen, he sawed our wood, and gave to all he did the grace of + simplicity while preserving his dignity, for he seemed to understand that + the end ennobles every act. + </p> + <p> + "When I left this good fellow, to be house surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, I + felt an indescribable, dull pain, knowing that he could no longer live + with me; but he comforted himself with the prospect of saving up money + enough for me to take my degree, and he made me promise to go to see him + whenever I had a day out: Bourgeat was proud of me. He loved me for my own + sake, and for his own. If you look up my thesis, you will see that I + dedicated it to him. + </p> + <p> + "During the last year of my residence as house surgeon I earned enough to + repay all I owed to this worthy Auvergnat by buying him a barrel and a + horse. He was furious with rage at learning that I had been depriving + myself of spending my money, and yet he was delighted to see his wishes + fulfilled; he laughed and scolded, he looked at his barrel, at his horse, + and wiped away a tear, as he said, 'It is too bad. What a splendid barrel! + You really ought not. Why, that horse is as strong as an Auvergnat!' + </p> + <p> + "I never saw a more touching scene. Bourgeat insisted on buying for me the + case of instruments mounted in silver which you have seen in my room, and + which is to me the most precious thing there. Though enchanted with my + first success, never did the least sign, the least word, escape him which + might imply, 'This man owes all to me!' And yet, but for him, I should + have died of want; he had eaten bread rubbed with garlic that I might have + coffee to enable me to sit up at night. + </p> + <p> + "He fell ill. As you may suppose, I passed my nights by his bedside, and + the first time I pulled him through; but two years after he had a relapse; + in spite of the utmost care, in spite of the greatest exertions of + science, he succumbed. No king was ever nursed as he was. Yes, Bianchon, + to snatch that man from death I tried unheard-of things. I wanted him to + live long enough to show him his work accomplished, to realize all his + hopes, to give expression to the only need for gratitude that ever filled + my heart, to quench a fire that burns in me to this day. + </p> + <p> + "Bourgeat, my second father, died in my arms," Desplein went on, after a + pause, visibly moved. "He left me everything he possessed by a will he had + had made by a public scrivener, dating from the year when we had gone to + live in the Cour de Rohan. + </p> + <p> + "This man's faith was perfect; he loved the Holy Virgin as he might have + loved his wife. He was an ardent Catholic, but never said a word to me + about my want of religion. When he was dying he entreated me to spare no + expense that he might have every possible benefit of clergy. I had a mass + said for him every day. Often, in the night, he would tell me of his fears + as to his future fate; he feared his life had not been saintly enough. + Poor man! he was at work from morning till night. For whom, then, is + Paradise—if there be a Paradise? He received the last sacrament like + the saint that he was, and his death was worthy of his life. + </p> + <p> + "I alone followed him to the grave. When I had laid my only benefactor to + rest, I looked about to see how I could pay my debt to him; I found he had + neither family nor friends, neither wife nor child. But he believed. He + had a religious conviction; had I any right to dispute it? He had spoken + to me timidly of masses said for the repose of the dead; he would not + impress it on me as a duty, thinking that it would be a form of repayment + for his services. As soon as I had money enough I paid to Saint-Sulpice + the requisite sum for four masses every year. As the only thing I can do + for Bourgeat is thus to satisfy his pious wishes, on the days when that + mass is said, at the beginning of each season of the year, I go for his + sake and say the required prayers; and I say with the good faith of a + sceptic—'Great God, if there is a sphere which Thou hast appointed + after death for those who have been perfect, remember good Bourgeat; and + if he should have anything to suffer, let me suffer it for him, that he + may enter all the sooner into what is called Paradise.' + </p> + <p> + "That, my dear fellow, is as much as a man who holds my opinions can allow + himself. But God must be a good fellow; He cannot owe me any grudge. I + swear to you, I would give my whole fortune if faith such as Bourgeat's + could enter my brain." + </p> + <p> + Bianchon, who was with Desplein all through his last illness, dares not + affirm to this day that the great surgeon died an atheist. Will not those + who believe like to fancy that the humble Auvergnat came to open the gate + of Heaven to his friend, as he did that of the earthly temple on whose + pediment we read the words—"A grateful country to its great men." + </p> + <p> + PARIS, January 1836. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ADDENDUM + </h2> + <h3> + The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson + In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + + Desplein + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1220 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f57c3d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #1220 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1220) diff --git a/old/1220-h.zip b/old/1220-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a67063b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1220-h.zip diff --git a/old/1220-h/1220-h.htm b/old/1220-h/1220-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8140cd0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1220-h/1220-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1237 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Atheist's Mass, by Honore de Balzac + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atheist's Mass, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Atheist's Mass + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell + +Release Date: February 21, 2010 [EBook #1220] +Last Updated: April 3, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATHEIST'S MASS *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE ATHEIST'S MASS + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Honore De Balzac + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by Clara Bell + </h3> + <p> + <br /><br /> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + This is dedicated to Auguste Borget by his friend De Balzac + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> THE ATHEIST'S MASS </a><br /><br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0002"> ADDENDUM </a> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE ATHEIST'S MASS + </h1> + <p> + Bianchon, a physician to whom science owes a fine system of theoretical + physiology, and who, while still young, made himself a celebrity in the + medical school of Paris, that central luminary to which European doctors + do homage, practised surgery for a long time before he took up medicine. + His earliest studies were guided by one of the greatest of French + surgeons, the illustrious Desplein, who flashed across science like a + meteor. By the consensus even of his enemies, he took with him to the tomb + an incommunicable method. Like all men of genius, he had no heirs; he + carried everything in him, and carried it away with him. The glory of a + surgeon is like that of an actor: they live only so long as they are + alive, and their talent leaves no trace when they are gone. Actors and + surgeons, like great singers too, like the executants who by their + performance increase the power of music tenfold, are all the heroes of a + moment. + </p> + <p> + Desplein is a case in proof of this resemblance in the destinies of such + transient genius. His name, yesterday so famous, to-day almost forgotten, + will survive in his special department without crossing its limits. For + must there not be some extraordinary circumstances to exalt the name of a + professor from the history of Science to the general history of the human + race? Had Desplein that universal command of knowledge which makes a man + the living word, the great figure of his age? Desplein had a godlike eye; + he saw into the sufferer and his malady by an intuition, natural or + acquired, which enabled him to grasp the diagnostics peculiar to the + individual, to determine the very time, the hour, the minute when an + operation should be performed, making due allowance for atmospheric + conditions and peculiarities of individual temperament. To proceed thus, + hand in hand with nature, had he then studied the constant assimilation by + living beings, of the elements contained in the atmosphere, or yielded by + the earth to man who absorbs them, deriving from them a particular + expression of life? Did he work it all out by the power of deduction and + analogy, to which we owe the genius of Cuvier? Be this as it may, this man + was in all the secrets of the human frame; he knew it in the past and in + the future, emphasizing the present. + </p> + <p> + But did he epitomize all science in his own person as Hippocrates did and + Galen and Aristotle? Did he guide a whole school towards new worlds? No. + Though it is impossible to deny that this persistent observer of human + chemistry possessed that antique science of the Mages, that is to say, + knowledge of the elements in fusion, the causes of life, life antecedent + to life, and what it must be in its incubation or ever it <i>is</i>, it + must be confessed that, unfortunately, everything in him was purely + personal. Isolated during his life by his egoism, that egoism is now + suicidal of his glory. On his tomb there is no proclaiming statue to + repeat to posterity the mysteries which genius seeks out at its own cost. + </p> + <p> + But perhaps Desplein's genius was answerable for his beliefs, and for that + reason mortal. To him the terrestrial atmosphere was a generative + envelope; he saw the earth as an egg within its shell; and not being able + to determine whether the egg or the hen first was, he would not recognize + either the cock or the egg. He believed neither in the antecedent animal + nor the surviving spirit of man. Desplein had no doubts; he was positive. + His bold and unqualified atheism was like that of many scientific men, the + best men in the world, but invincible atheists—atheists such as + religious people declare to be impossible. This opinion could scarcely + exist otherwise in a man who was accustomed from his youth to dissect the + creature above all others—before, during, and after life; to hunt + through all his organs without ever finding the individual soul, which is + indispensable to religious theory. When he detected a cerebral centre, a + nervous centre, and a centre for aerating the blood—the first two so + perfectly complementary that in the latter years of his life he came to a + conviction that the sense of hearing is not absolutely necessary for + hearing, nor the sense of sight for seeing, and that the solar plexus + could supply their place without any possibility of doubt—Desplein, + thus finding two souls in man, confirmed his atheism by this fact, though + it is no evidence against God. This man died, it is said, in final + impenitence, as do, unfortunately, many noble geniuses, whom God may + forgive. + </p> + <p> + The life of this man, great as he was, was marred by many meannesses, to + use the expression employed by his enemies, who were anxious to diminish + his glory, but which it would be more proper to call apparent + contradictions. Envious people and fools, having no knowledge of the + determinations by which superior spirits are moved, seize at once on + superficial inconsistencies, to formulate an accusation and so to pass + sentence on them. If, subsequently, the proceedings thus attacked are + crowned with success, showing the correlations of the preliminaries and + the results, a few of the vanguard of calumnies always survive. In our + day, for instance, Napoleon was condemned by our contemporaries when he + spread his eagle's wings to alight in England: only 1822 could explain + 1804 and the flatboats at Boulogne. + </p> + <p> + As, in Desplein, his glory and science were invulnerable, his enemies + attacked his odd moods and his temper, whereas, in fact, he was simply + characterized by what the English call eccentricity. Sometimes very + handsomely dressed, like Crebillon the tragical, he would suddenly affect + extreme indifference as to what he wore; he was sometimes seen in a + carriage, and sometimes on foot. By turns rough and kind, harsh and + covetous on the surface, but capable of offering his whole fortune to his + exiled masters—who did him the honor of accepting it for a few days—no + man ever gave rise to such contradictory judgements. Although to obtain a + black ribbon, which physicians ought not to intrigue for, he was capable + of dropping a prayer-book out of his pocket at Court, in his heart he + mocked at everything; he had a deep contempt for men, after studying them + from above and below, after detecting their genuine expression when + performing the most solemn and the meanest acts of their lives. + </p> + <p> + The qualities of a great man are often federative. If among these colossal + spirits one has more talent than wit, his wit is still superior to that of + a man of whom it is simply stated that "he is witty." Genius always + presupposes moral insight. This insight may be applied to a special + subject; but he who can see a flower must be able to see the sun. The man + who on hearing a diplomate he has saved ask, "How is the Emperor?" could + say, "The courtier is alive; the man will follow!"—that man is not + merely a surgeon or a physician, he is prodigiously witty also. Hence a + patient and diligent student of human nature will admit Desplein's + exorbitant pretensions, and believe—as he himself believed—that + he might have been no less great as a minister than he was as a surgeon. + </p> + <p> + Among the riddles which Desplein's life presents to many of his + contemporaries, we have chosen one of the most interesting, because the + answer is to be found at the end of the narrative, and will avenge him for + some foolish charges. + </p> + <p> + Of all the students in Desplein's hospital, Horace Bianchon was one of + those to whom he most warmly attached himself. Before being a house + surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, Horace Bianchon had been a medical student + lodging in a squalid boarding house in the <i>Quartier Latin</i>, known as + the Maison Vauquer. This poor young man had felt there the gnawing of that + burning poverty which is a sort of crucible from which great talents are + to emerge as pure and incorruptible as diamonds, which may be subjected to + any shock without being crushed. In the fierce fire of their unbridled + passions they acquire the most impeccable honesty, and get into the habit + of fighting the battles which await genius with the constant work by which + they coerce their cheated appetites. + </p> + <p> + Horace was an upright young fellow, incapable of tergiversation on a + matter of honor, going to the point without waste of words, and as ready + to pledge his cloak for a friend as to give him his time and his night + hours. Horace, in short, was one of those friends who are never anxious as + to what they may get in return for what they give, feeling sure that they + will in their turn get more than they give. Most of his friends felt for + him that deeply-seated respect which is inspired by unostentatious virtue, + and many of them dreaded his censure. But Horace made no pedantic display + of his qualities. He was neither a puritan nor a preacher; he could swear + with a grace as he gave his advice, and was always ready for a + jollification when occasion offered. A jolly companion, not more prudish + than a trooper, as frank and outspoken—not as a sailor, for nowadays + sailors are wily diplomates—but as an honest man who has nothing in + his life to hide, he walked with his head erect, and a mind content. In + short, to put the facts into a word, Horace was the Pylades of more than + one Orestes—creditors being regarded as the nearest modern + equivalent to the Furies of the ancients. + </p> + <p> + He carried his poverty with the cheerfulness which is perhaps one of the + chief elements of courage, and, like all people who have nothing, he made + very few debts. As sober as a camel and active as a stag, he was steadfast + in his ideas and his conduct. + </p> + <p> + The happy phase of Bianchon's life began on the day when the famous + surgeon had proof of the qualities and the defects which, these no less + than those, make Doctor Horace Bianchon doubly dear to his friends. When a + leading clinical practitioner takes a young man to his bosom, that young + man has, as they say, his foot in the stirrup. Desplein did not fail to + take Bianchon as his assistant to wealthy houses, where some complimentary + fee almost always found its way into the student's pocket, and where the + mysteries of Paris life were insensibly revealed to the young provincial; + he kept him at his side when a consultation was to be held, and gave him + occupation; sometimes he would send him to a watering-place with a rich + patient; in fact, he was making a practice for him. The consequence was + that in the course of time the Tyrant of surgery had a devoted ally. These + two men—one at the summit of honor and of his science, enjoying an + immense fortune and an immense reputation; the other a humble Omega, + having neither fortune nor fame—became intimate friends. + </p> + <p> + The great Desplein told his house surgeon everything; the disciple knew + whether such or such a woman had sat on a chair near the master, or on the + famous couch in Desplein's surgery, on which he slept. Bianchon knew the + mysteries of that temperament, a compound of the lion and the bull, which + at last expanded and enlarged beyond measure the great man's torso, and + caused his death by degeneration of the heart. He studied the + eccentricities of that busy life, the schemes of that sordid avarice, the + hopes of the politician who lurked behind the man of science; he was able + to foresee the mortifications that awaited the only sentiment that lay hid + in a heart that was steeled, but not of steel. + </p> + <p> + One day Bianchon spoke to Desplein of a poor water-carrier of the + Saint-Jacques district, who had a horrible disease caused by fatigue and + want; this wretched Auvergnat had had nothing but potatoes to eat during + the dreadful winter of 1821. Desplein left all his visits, and at the risk + of killing his horse, he rushed off, followed by Bianchon, to the poor + man's dwelling, and saw, himself, to his being removed to a sick house, + founded by the famous Dubois in the Faubourg Saint-Denis. Then he went to + attend the man, and when he had cured him he gave him the necessary sum to + buy a horse and a water-barrel. This Auvergnat distinguished himself by an + amusing action. One of his friends fell ill, and he took him at once to + Desplein, saying to his benefactor, "I could not have borne to let him go + to any one else!" + </p> + <p> + Rough customer as he was, Desplein grasped the water-carrier's hand, and + said, "Bring them all to me." + </p> + <p> + He got the native of Cantal into the Hotel-Dieu, where he took the + greatest care of him. Bianchon had already observed in his chief a + predilection for Auvergnats, and especially for water carriers; but as + Desplein took a sort of pride in his cures at the Hotel-Dieu, the pupil + saw nothing very strange in that. + </p> + <p> + One day, as he crossed the Place Saint-Sulpice, Bianchon caught sight of + his master going into the church at about nine in the morning. Desplein, + who at that time never went a step without his cab, was on foot, and + slipped in by the door in the Rue du Petit-Lion, as if he were stealing + into some house of ill fame. The house surgeon, naturally possessed by + curiosity, knowing his master's opinions, and being himself a rabid + follower of Cabanis (<i>Cabaniste en dyable</i>, with the <i>y</i>, which + in Rabelais seems to convey an intensity of devilry)—Bianchon stole + into the church, and was not a little astonished to see the great + Desplein, the atheist, who had no mercy on the angels—who give no + work to the lancet, and cannot suffer from fistula or gastritis—in + short, this audacious scoffer kneeling humbly, and where? In the Lady + Chapel, where he remained through the mass, giving alms for the expenses + of the service, alms for the poor, and looking as serious as though he + were superintending an operation. + </p> + <p> + "He has certainly not come here to clear up the question of the Virgin's + delivery," said Bianchon to himself, astonished beyond measure. "If I had + caught him holding one of the ropes of the canopy on Corpus Christi day, + it would be a thing to laugh at; but at this hour, alone, with no one to + see—it is surely a thing to marvel at!" + </p> + <p> + Bianchon did not wish to seem as though he were spying the head surgeon of + the Hotel-Dieu; he went away. As it happened, Desplein asked him to dine + with him that day, not at his own house, but at a restaurant. At dessert + Bianchon skilfully contrived to talk of the mass, speaking of it as + mummery and a farce. + </p> + <p> + "A farce," said Desplein, "which has cost Christendom more blood than all + Napoleon's battles and all Broussais' leeches. The mass is a papal + invention, not older than the sixth century, and based on the <i>Hoc est + corpus</i>. What floods of blood were shed to establish the Fete-Dieu, the + Festival of Corpus Christi—the institution by which Rome established + her triumph in the question of the Real Presence, a schism which rent the + Church during three centuries! The wars of the Count of Toulouse against + the Albigenses were the tail end of that dispute. The Vaudois and the + Albigenses refused to recognize this innovation." + </p> + <p> + In short, Desplein was delighted to disport himself in his most + atheistical vein; a flow of Voltairean satire, or, to be accurate, a vile + imitation of the <i>Citateur</i>. + </p> + <p> + "Hallo! where is my worshiper of this morning?" said Bianchon to himself. + </p> + <p> + He said nothing; he began to doubt whether he had really seen his chief at + Saint-Sulpice. Desplein would not have troubled himself to tell Bianchon a + lie, they knew each other too well; they had already exchanged thoughts on + quite equally serious subjects, and discussed systems de natura rerum, + probing or dissecting them with the knife and scalpel of incredulity. + </p> + <p> + Three months went by. Bianchon did not attempt to follow the matter up, + though it remained stamped on his memory. One day that year, one of the + physicians of the Hotel-Dieu took Desplein by the arm, as if to question + him, in Bianchon's presence. + </p> + <p> + "What were you doing at Saint-Sulpice, my dear master?" said he. + </p> + <p> + "I went to see a priest who has a diseased knee-bone, and to whom the + Duchesse d'Angouleme did me the honor to recommend me," said Desplein. + </p> + <p> + The questioner took this defeat for an answer; not so Bianchon. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, he goes to see damaged knees in church!—He went to mass," said + the young man to himself. + </p> + <p> + Bianchon resolved to watch Desplein. He remembered the day and hour when + he had detected him going into Saint-Sulpice, and resolved to be there + again next year on the same day and at the same hour, to see if he should + find him there again. In that case the periodicity of his devotion would + justify a scientific investigation; for in such a man there ought to be no + direct antagonism of thought and action. + </p> + <p> + Next year, on the said day and hour, Bianchon, who had already ceased to + be Desplein's house surgeon, saw the great man's cab standing at the + corner of the Rue de Tournon and the Rue du Petit-Lion, whence his friend + jesuitically crept along by the wall of Saint-Sulpice, and once more + attended mass in front of the Virgin's altar. It was Desplein, sure + enough! The master-surgeon, the atheist at heart, the worshiper by chance. + The mystery was greater than ever; the regularity of the phenomenon + complicated it. When Desplein had left, Bianchon went to the sacristan, + who took charge of the chapel, and asked him whether the gentleman were a + constant worshiper. + </p> + <p> + "For twenty years that I have been here," replied the man, "M. Desplein + has come four times a year to attend this mass. He founded it." + </p> + <p> + "A mass founded by him!" said Bianchon, as he went away. "This is as great + a mystery as the Immaculate Conception—an article which alone is + enough to make a physician an unbeliever." + </p> + <p> + Some time elapsed before Doctor Bianchon, though so much his friend, found + an opportunity of speaking to Desplein of this incident of his life. + Though they met in consultation, or in society, it was difficult to find + an hour of confidential solitude when, sitting with their feet on the + fire-dogs and their head resting on the back of an armchair, two men tell + each other their secrets. At last, seven years later, after the Revolution + of 1830, when the mob invaded the Archbishop's residence, when Republican + agitators spurred them on to destroy the gilt crosses which flashed like + streaks of lightning in the immensity of the ocean of houses; when + Incredulity flaunted itself in the streets, side by side with Rebellion, + Bianchon once more detected Desplein going into Saint-Sulpice. The doctor + followed him, and knelt down by him without the slightest notice or + demonstration of surprise from his friend. They both attended this mass of + his founding. + </p> + <p> + "Will you tell me, my dear fellow," said Bianchon, as they left the + church, "the reason for your fit of monkishness? I have caught you three + times going to mass—— You! You must account to me for this + mystery, explain such a flagrant disagreement between your opinions and + your conduct. You do not believe in God, and yet you attend mass? My dear + master, you are bound to give me an answer." + </p> + <p> + "I am like a great many devout people, men who on the surface are deeply + religious, but quite as much atheists as you or I can be." + </p> + <p> + And he poured out a torrent of epigrams on certain political personages, + of whom the best known gives us, in this century, a new edition of + Moliere's <i>Tartufe</i>. + </p> + <p> + "All that has nothing to do with my question," retorted Bianchon. "I want + to know the reason for what you have just been doing, and why you founded + this mass." + </p> + <p> + "Faith! my dear boy," said Desplein, "I am on the verge of the tomb; I may + safely tell you about the beginning of my life." + </p> + <p> + At this moment Bianchon and the great man were in the Rue des + Quatre-Vents, one of the worst streets in Paris. Desplein pointed to the + sixth floor of one of the houses looking like obelisks, of which the + narrow door opens into a passage with a winding staircase at the end, with + windows appropriately termed "borrowed lights"—or, in French, <i>jours + de souffrance</i>. It was a greenish structure; the ground floor occupied + by a furniture-dealer, while each floor seemed to shelter a different and + independent form of misery. Throwing up his arm with a vehement gesture, + Desplein exclaimed: + </p> + <p> + "I lived up there for two years." + </p> + <p> + "I know; Arthez lived there; I went up there almost every day during my + first youth; we used to call it then the pickle-jar of great men! What + then?" + </p> + <p> + "The mass I have just attended is connected with some events which took + place at the time when I lived in the garret where you say Arthez lived; + the one with the window where the clothes line is hanging with linen over + a pot of flowers. My early life was so hard, my dear Bianchon, that I may + dispute the palm of Paris suffering with any man living. I have endured + everything: hunger and thirst, want of money, want of clothes, of shoes, + of linen, every cruelty that penury can inflict. I have blown on my frozen + fingers in that <i>pickle-jar of great men</i>, which I should like to see + again, now, with you. I worked through a whole winter, seeing my head + steam, and perceiving the atmosphere of my own moisture as we see that of + horses on a frosty day. I do not know where a man finds the fulcrum that + enables him to hold out against such a life. + </p> + <p> + "I was alone, with no one to help me, no money to buy books or to pay the + expenses of my medical training; I had not a friend; my irascible, touchy, + restless temper was against me. No one understood that this irritability + was the distress and toil of a man who, at the bottom of the social scale, + is struggling to reach the surface. Still, I had, as I may say to you, + before whom I need wear no draperies, I had that ground-bed of good + feeling and keen sensitiveness which must always be the birthright of any + man who is strong enough to climb to any height whatever, after having + long trampled in the bogs of poverty. I could obtain nothing from my + family, nor from my home, beyond my inadequate allowance. In short, at + that time, I breakfasted off a roll which the baker in the Rue du + Petit-Lion sold me cheap because it was left from yesterday or the day + before, and I crumbled it into milk; thus my morning meal cost me but two + sous. I dined only every other day in a boarding-house where the meal cost + me sixteen sous. You know as well as I what care I must have taken of my + clothes and shoes. I hardly know whether in later life we feel grief so + deep when a colleague plays us false as we have known, you and I, on + detecting the mocking smile of a gaping seam in a shoe, or hearing the + armhole of a coat split, I drank nothing but water; I regarded a cafe with + distant respect. Zoppi's seemed to me a promised land where none but the + Lucullus of the <i>pays Latin</i> had a right of entry. 'Shall I ever take + a cup of coffee there with milk in it?' said I to myself, 'or play a game + of dominoes?' + </p> + <p> + "I threw into my work the fury I felt at my misery. I tried to master + positive knowledge so as to acquire the greatest personal value, and merit + the position I should hold as soon as I could escape from nothingness. I + consumed more oil than bread; the light I burned during these endless + nights cost me more than food. It was a long duel, obstinate, with no sort + of consolation. I found no sympathy anywhere. To have friends, must we not + form connections with young men, have a few sous so as to be able to go + tippling with them, and meet them where students congregate? And I had + nothing! And no one in Paris can understand that nothing means <i>nothing</i>. + When I even thought of revealing my beggary, I had that nervous + contraction of the throat which makes a sick man believe that a ball rises + up from the oesophagus into the larynx. + </p> + <p> + "In later life I have met people born to wealth who, never having wanted + for anything, had never even heard this problem in the rule of three: A + young man is to crime as a five-franc piece is to X.—These gilded + idiots say to me, 'Why did you get into debt? Why did you involve yourself + in such onerous obligations?' They remind me of the princess who, on + hearing that the people lacked bread, said, 'Why do not they buy cakes?' I + should like to see one of these rich men, who complain that I charge too + much for an operation,—yes, I should like to see him alone in Paris + without a sou, without a friend, without credit, and forced to work with + his five fingers to live at all! What would he do? Where would he go to + satisfy his hunger? + </p> + <p> + "Bianchon, if you have sometimes seen me hard and bitter, it was because I + was adding my early sufferings on to the insensibility, the selfishness of + which I have seen thousands of instances in the highest circles; or, + perhaps, I was thinking of the obstacles which hatred, envy, jealousy, and + calumny raised up between me and success. In Paris, when certain people + see you ready to set your foot in the stirrup, some pull your coat-tails, + others loosen the buckle of the strap that you may fall and crack your + skull; one wrenches off your horse's shoes, another steals your whip, and + the least treacherous of them all is the man whom you see coming to fire + his pistol at you point blank. + </p> + <p> + "You yourself, my dear boy, are clever enough to make acquaintance before + long with the odious and incessant warfare waged by mediocrity against the + superior man. If you should drop five-and-twenty louis one day, you will + be accused of gambling on the next, and your best friends will report that + you have lost twenty-five thousand. If you have a headache, you will be + considered mad. If you are a little hasty, no one can live with you. If, + to make a stand against this armament of pigmies, you collect your best + powers, your best friends will cry out that you want to have everything, + that you aim at domineering, at tyranny. In short, your good points will + become your faults, your faults will be vices, and your virtues crime. + </p> + <p> + "If you save a man, you will be said to have killed him; if he reappears + on the scene, it will be positive that you have secured the present at the + cost of the future. If he is not dead, he will die. Stumble, and you fall! + Invent anything of any kind and claim your rights, you will be crotchety, + cunning, ill-disposed to rising younger men. + </p> + <p> + "So, you see, my dear fellow, if I do not believe in God, I believe still + less in man. But do not you know in me another Desplein, altogether + different from the Desplein whom every one abuses?—However, we will + not stir that mud-heap. + </p> + <p> + "Well, I was living in that house, I was working hard to pass my first + examination, and I had no money at all. You know. I had come to one of + those moments of extremity when a man says, 'I will enlist.' I had one + hope. I expected from my home a box full of linen, a present from one of + those old aunts who, knowing nothing of Paris, think of your shirts, while + they imagine that their nephew with thirty francs a month is eating + ortolans. The box arrived while I was at the schools; it had cost forty + francs for carriage. The porter, a German shoemaker living in a loft, had + paid the money and kept the box. I walked up and down the Rue des + Fosses-Saint-Germain-des-Pres and the Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine without + hitting on any scheme which would release my trunk without the payment of + the forty francs, which of course I could pay as soon as I should have + sold the linen. My stupidity proved to me that surgery was my only + vocation. My good fellow, refined souls, whose powers move in a lofty + atmosphere, have none of that spirit of intrigue that is fertile in + resource and device; their good genius is chance; they do not invent, + things come to them. + </p> + <p> + "At night I went home, at the very moment when my fellow lodger also came + in—a water-carrier named Bourgeat, a native of Saint-Flour. We knew + each other as two lodgers do who have rooms off the same landing, and who + hear each other sleeping, coughing, dressing, and so at last become used + to one another. My neighbor informed me that the landlord, to whom I owed + three quarters' rent, had turned me out; I must clear out next morning. He + himself was also turned out on account of his occupation. I spent the most + miserable night of my life. Where was I to get a messenger who could carry + my few chattels and my books? How could I pay him and the porter? Where + was I to go? I repeated these unanswerable questions again and again, in + tears, as madmen repeat their tunes. I fell asleep; poverty has for its + friends heavenly slumbers full of beautiful dreams. + </p> + <p> + "Next morning, just as I was swallowing my little bowl of bread soaked in + milk, Bourgeat came in and said to me in his vile Auvergne accent: + </p> + <p> + "'<i>Mouchieur l'Etudiant</i>, I am a poor man, a foundling from the + hospital at Saint-Flour, without either father or mother, and not rich + enough to marry. You are not fertile in relations either, nor well + supplied with the ready? Listen, I have a hand-cart downstairs which I + have hired for two sous an hour; it will hold all our goods; if you like, + we will try to find lodgings together, since we are both turned out of + this. It is not the earthly paradise, when all is said and done.' + </p> + <p> + "'I know that, my good Bourgeat,' said I. 'But I am in a great fix. I have + a trunk downstairs with a hundred francs' worth of linen in it, out of + which I could pay the landlord and all I owe to the porter, and I have not + a hundred sous.' + </p> + <p> + "'Pooh! I have a few dibs,' replied Bourgeat joyfully, and he pulled out a + greasy old leather purse. 'Keep your linen.' + </p> + <p> + "Bourgeat paid up my arrears and his own, and settled with the porter. + Then he put our furniture and my box of linen in his cart, and pulled it + along the street, stopping in front of every house where there was a + notice board. I went up to see whether the rooms to let would suit us. At + midday we were still wandering about the neighborhood without having found + anything. The price was the great difficulty. Bourgeat proposed that we + should eat at a wine shop, leaving the cart at the door. Towards evening I + discovered, in the Cour de Rohan, Passage du Commerce, at the very top of + a house next the roof, two rooms with a staircase between them. Each of us + was to pay sixty francs a year. So there we were housed, my humble friend + and I. We dined together. Bourgeat, who earned about fifty sous a day, had + saved a hundred crowns or so; he would soon be able to gratify his + ambition by buying a barrel and a horse. On learning of my situation—for + he extracted my secrets with a quiet craftiness and good nature, of which + the remembrance touches my heart to this day, he gave up for a time the + ambition of his whole life; for twenty-two years he had been carrying + water in the street, and he now devoted his hundred crowns to my future + prospects." + </p> + <p> + Desplein at these words clutched Bianchon's arm tightly. "He gave me the + money for my examination fees! That man, my friend, understood that I had + a mission, that the needs of my intellect were greater than his. He looked + after me, he called me his boy, he lent me money to buy books, he would + come in softly sometimes to watch me at work, and took a mother's care in + seeing that I had wholesome and abundant food, instead of the bad and + insufficient nourishment I had been condemned to. Bourgeat, a man of about + forty, had a homely, mediaeval type of face, a prominent forehead, a head + that a painter might have chosen as a model for that of Lycurgus. The poor + man's heart was big with affections seeking an object; he had never been + loved but by a poodle that had died some time since, of which he would + talk to me, asking whether I thought the Church would allow masses to be + said for the repose of its soul. His dog, said he, had been a good + Christian, who for twelve years had accompanied him to church, never + barking, listening to the organ without opening his mouth, and crouching + beside him in a way that made it seem as though he were praying too. + </p> + <p> + "This man centered all his affections in me; he looked upon me as a + forlorn and suffering creature, and he became, to me, the most thoughtful + mother, the most considerate benefactor, the ideal of the virtue which + rejoices in its own work. When I met him in the street, he would throw me + a glance of intelligence full of unutterable dignity; he would affect to + walk as though he carried no weight, and seemed happy in seeing me in good + health and well dressed. It was, in fact, the devoted affection of the + lower classes, the love of a girl of the people transferred to a loftier + level. Bourgeat did all my errands, woke me at night at any fixed hour, + trimmed my lamp, cleaned our landing; as good as a servant as he was as a + father, and as clean as an English girl. He did all the housework. Like + Philopoemen, he sawed our wood, and gave to all he did the grace of + simplicity while preserving his dignity, for he seemed to understand that + the end ennobles every act. + </p> + <p> + "When I left this good fellow, to be house surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, I + felt an indescribable, dull pain, knowing that he could no longer live + with me; but he comforted himself with the prospect of saving up money + enough for me to take my degree, and he made me promise to go to see him + whenever I had a day out: Bourgeat was proud of me. He loved me for my own + sake, and for his own. If you look up my thesis, you will see that I + dedicated it to him. + </p> + <p> + "During the last year of my residence as house surgeon I earned enough to + repay all I owed to this worthy Auvergnat by buying him a barrel and a + horse. He was furious with rage at learning that I had been depriving + myself of spending my money, and yet he was delighted to see his wishes + fulfilled; he laughed and scolded, he looked at his barrel, at his horse, + and wiped away a tear, as he said, 'It is too bad. What a splendid barrel! + You really ought not. Why, that horse is as strong as an Auvergnat!' + </p> + <p> + "I never saw a more touching scene. Bourgeat insisted on buying for me the + case of instruments mounted in silver which you have seen in my room, and + which is to me the most precious thing there. Though enchanted with my + first success, never did the least sign, the least word, escape him which + might imply, 'This man owes all to me!' And yet, but for him, I should + have died of want; he had eaten bread rubbed with garlic that I might have + coffee to enable me to sit up at night. + </p> + <p> + "He fell ill. As you may suppose, I passed my nights by his bedside, and + the first time I pulled him through; but two years after he had a relapse; + in spite of the utmost care, in spite of the greatest exertions of + science, he succumbed. No king was ever nursed as he was. Yes, Bianchon, + to snatch that man from death I tried unheard-of things. I wanted him to + live long enough to show him his work accomplished, to realize all his + hopes, to give expression to the only need for gratitude that ever filled + my heart, to quench a fire that burns in me to this day. + </p> + <p> + "Bourgeat, my second father, died in my arms," Desplein went on, after a + pause, visibly moved. "He left me everything he possessed by a will he had + had made by a public scrivener, dating from the year when we had gone to + live in the Cour de Rohan. + </p> + <p> + "This man's faith was perfect; he loved the Holy Virgin as he might have + loved his wife. He was an ardent Catholic, but never said a word to me + about my want of religion. When he was dying he entreated me to spare no + expense that he might have every possible benefit of clergy. I had a mass + said for him every day. Often, in the night, he would tell me of his fears + as to his future fate; he feared his life had not been saintly enough. + Poor man! he was at work from morning till night. For whom, then, is + Paradise—if there be a Paradise? He received the last sacrament like + the saint that he was, and his death was worthy of his life. + </p> + <p> + "I alone followed him to the grave. When I had laid my only benefactor to + rest, I looked about to see how I could pay my debt to him; I found he had + neither family nor friends, neither wife nor child. But he believed. He + had a religious conviction; had I any right to dispute it? He had spoken + to me timidly of masses said for the repose of the dead; he would not + impress it on me as a duty, thinking that it would be a form of repayment + for his services. As soon as I had money enough I paid to Saint-Sulpice + the requisite sum for four masses every year. As the only thing I can do + for Bourgeat is thus to satisfy his pious wishes, on the days when that + mass is said, at the beginning of each season of the year, I go for his + sake and say the required prayers; and I say with the good faith of a + sceptic—'Great God, if there is a sphere which Thou hast appointed + after death for those who have been perfect, remember good Bourgeat; and + if he should have anything to suffer, let me suffer it for him, that he + may enter all the sooner into what is called Paradise.' + </p> + <p> + "That, my dear fellow, is as much as a man who holds my opinions can allow + himself. But God must be a good fellow; He cannot owe me any grudge. I + swear to you, I would give my whole fortune if faith such as Bourgeat's + could enter my brain." + </p> + <p> + Bianchon, who was with Desplein all through his last illness, dares not + affirm to this day that the great surgeon died an atheist. Will not those + who believe like to fancy that the humble Auvergnat came to open the gate + of Heaven to his friend, as he did that of the earthly temple on whose + pediment we read the words—"A grateful country to its great men." + </p> + <p> + PARIS, January 1836. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ADDENDUM + </h2> + <h3> + The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson + In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + + Desplein + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atheist's Mass, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATHEIST'S MASS *** + +***** This file should be named 1220-h.htm or 1220-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/2/1220/ + +Produced by Dagny, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/old/1220.txt b/old/1220.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..17e0ecc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1220.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1095 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atheist's Mass, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Atheist's Mass + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell + +Release Date: February, 1998 [Etext #1220] +Posting Date: February 21, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATHEIST'S MASS *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny + + + + + +THE ATHEIST'S MASS + + +By Honore De Balzac + + +Translated by Clara Bell + + + +This is dedicated to Auguste Borget by his friend De Balzac + + + + + +THE ATHEIST'S MASS + + +Bianchon, a physician to whom science owes a fine system of theoretical +physiology, and who, while still young, made himself a celebrity in the +medical school of Paris, that central luminary to which European doctors +do homage, practised surgery for a long time before he took up medicine. +His earliest studies were guided by one of the greatest of French +surgeons, the illustrious Desplein, who flashed across science like a +meteor. By the consensus even of his enemies, he took with him to the +tomb an incommunicable method. Like all men of genius, he had no heirs; +he carried everything in him, and carried it away with him. The glory of +a surgeon is like that of an actor: they live only so long as they are +alive, and their talent leaves no trace when they are gone. Actors +and surgeons, like great singers too, like the executants who by their +performance increase the power of music tenfold, are all the heroes of a +moment. + +Desplein is a case in proof of this resemblance in the destinies of +such transient genius. His name, yesterday so famous, to-day almost +forgotten, will survive in his special department without crossing its +limits. For must there not be some extraordinary circumstances to exalt +the name of a professor from the history of Science to the general +history of the human race? Had Desplein that universal command of +knowledge which makes a man the living word, the great figure of his +age? Desplein had a godlike eye; he saw into the sufferer and his malady +by an intuition, natural or acquired, which enabled him to grasp the +diagnostics peculiar to the individual, to determine the very time, +the hour, the minute when an operation should be performed, making due +allowance for atmospheric conditions and peculiarities of individual +temperament. To proceed thus, hand in hand with nature, had he then +studied the constant assimilation by living beings, of the elements +contained in the atmosphere, or yielded by the earth to man who absorbs +them, deriving from them a particular expression of life? Did he work +it all out by the power of deduction and analogy, to which we owe the +genius of Cuvier? Be this as it may, this man was in all the secrets of +the human frame; he knew it in the past and in the future, emphasizing +the present. + +But did he epitomize all science in his own person as Hippocrates did +and Galen and Aristotle? Did he guide a whole school towards new worlds? +No. Though it is impossible to deny that this persistent observer of +human chemistry possessed that antique science of the Mages, that is +to say, knowledge of the elements in fusion, the causes of life, life +antecedent to life, and what it must be in its incubation or ever it +_is_, it must be confessed that, unfortunately, everything in him was +purely personal. Isolated during his life by his egoism, that egoism is +now suicidal of his glory. On his tomb there is no proclaiming statue +to repeat to posterity the mysteries which genius seeks out at its own +cost. + +But perhaps Desplein's genius was answerable for his beliefs, and for +that reason mortal. To him the terrestrial atmosphere was a generative +envelope; he saw the earth as an egg within its shell; and not being +able to determine whether the egg or the hen first was, he would +not recognize either the cock or the egg. He believed neither in the +antecedent animal nor the surviving spirit of man. Desplein had no +doubts; he was positive. His bold and unqualified atheism was like +that of many scientific men, the best men in the world, but invincible +atheists--atheists such as religious people declare to be impossible. +This opinion could scarcely exist otherwise in a man who was accustomed +from his youth to dissect the creature above all others--before, during, +and after life; to hunt through all his organs without ever finding the +individual soul, which is indispensable to religious theory. When he +detected a cerebral centre, a nervous centre, and a centre for aerating +the blood--the first two so perfectly complementary that in the latter +years of his life he came to a conviction that the sense of hearing is +not absolutely necessary for hearing, nor the sense of sight for +seeing, and that the solar plexus could supply their place without any +possibility of doubt--Desplein, thus finding two souls in man, confirmed +his atheism by this fact, though it is no evidence against God. This man +died, it is said, in final impenitence, as do, unfortunately, many noble +geniuses, whom God may forgive. + +The life of this man, great as he was, was marred by many meannesses, to +use the expression employed by his enemies, who were anxious to +diminish his glory, but which it would be more proper to call apparent +contradictions. Envious people and fools, having no knowledge of the +determinations by which superior spirits are moved, seize at once on +superficial inconsistencies, to formulate an accusation and so to pass +sentence on them. If, subsequently, the proceedings thus attacked are +crowned with success, showing the correlations of the preliminaries and +the results, a few of the vanguard of calumnies always survive. In our +day, for instance, Napoleon was condemned by our contemporaries when he +spread his eagle's wings to alight in England: only 1822 could explain +1804 and the flatboats at Boulogne. + +As, in Desplein, his glory and science were invulnerable, his enemies +attacked his odd moods and his temper, whereas, in fact, he was simply +characterized by what the English call eccentricity. Sometimes very +handsomely dressed, like Crebillon the tragical, he would suddenly +affect extreme indifference as to what he wore; he was sometimes seen +in a carriage, and sometimes on foot. By turns rough and kind, harsh and +covetous on the surface, but capable of offering his whole fortune to +his exiled masters--who did him the honor of accepting it for a few +days--no man ever gave rise to such contradictory judgements. Although +to obtain a black ribbon, which physicians ought not to intrigue for, he +was capable of dropping a prayer-book out of his pocket at Court, in +his heart he mocked at everything; he had a deep contempt for men, +after studying them from above and below, after detecting their genuine +expression when performing the most solemn and the meanest acts of their +lives. + +The qualities of a great man are often federative. If among these +colossal spirits one has more talent than wit, his wit is still superior +to that of a man of whom it is simply stated that "he is witty." Genius +always presupposes moral insight. This insight may be applied to a +special subject; but he who can see a flower must be able to see the +sun. The man who on hearing a diplomate he has saved ask, "How is the +Emperor?" could say, "The courtier is alive; the man will follow!"--that +man is not merely a surgeon or a physician, he is prodigiously witty +also. Hence a patient and diligent student of human nature will +admit Desplein's exorbitant pretensions, and believe--as he himself +believed--that he might have been no less great as a minister than he +was as a surgeon. + +Among the riddles which Desplein's life presents to many of his +contemporaries, we have chosen one of the most interesting, because the +answer is to be found at the end of the narrative, and will avenge him +for some foolish charges. + +Of all the students in Desplein's hospital, Horace Bianchon was one +of those to whom he most warmly attached himself. Before being a house +surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, Horace Bianchon had been a medical student +lodging in a squalid boarding house in the _Quartier Latin_, known as +the Maison Vauquer. This poor young man had felt there the gnawing +of that burning poverty which is a sort of crucible from which great +talents are to emerge as pure and incorruptible as diamonds, which may +be subjected to any shock without being crushed. In the fierce fire of +their unbridled passions they acquire the most impeccable honesty, and +get into the habit of fighting the battles which await genius with the +constant work by which they coerce their cheated appetites. + +Horace was an upright young fellow, incapable of tergiversation on a +matter of honor, going to the point without waste of words, and as ready +to pledge his cloak for a friend as to give him his time and his night +hours. Horace, in short, was one of those friends who are never anxious +as to what they may get in return for what they give, feeling sure that +they will in their turn get more than they give. Most of his +friends felt for him that deeply-seated respect which is inspired by +unostentatious virtue, and many of them dreaded his censure. But Horace +made no pedantic display of his qualities. He was neither a puritan nor +a preacher; he could swear with a grace as he gave his advice, and +was always ready for a jollification when occasion offered. A jolly +companion, not more prudish than a trooper, as frank and outspoken--not +as a sailor, for nowadays sailors are wily diplomates--but as an honest +man who has nothing in his life to hide, he walked with his head erect, +and a mind content. In short, to put the facts into a word, Horace was +the Pylades of more than one Orestes--creditors being regarded as the +nearest modern equivalent to the Furies of the ancients. + +He carried his poverty with the cheerfulness which is perhaps one of +the chief elements of courage, and, like all people who have nothing, +he made very few debts. As sober as a camel and active as a stag, he was +steadfast in his ideas and his conduct. + +The happy phase of Bianchon's life began on the day when the famous +surgeon had proof of the qualities and the defects which, these no less +than those, make Doctor Horace Bianchon doubly dear to his friends. When +a leading clinical practitioner takes a young man to his bosom, that +young man has, as they say, his foot in the stirrup. Desplein did not +fail to take Bianchon as his assistant to wealthy houses, where some +complimentary fee almost always found its way into the student's pocket, +and where the mysteries of Paris life were insensibly revealed to the +young provincial; he kept him at his side when a consultation was to +be held, and gave him occupation; sometimes he would send him to a +watering-place with a rich patient; in fact, he was making a practice +for him. The consequence was that in the course of time the Tyrant of +surgery had a devoted ally. These two men--one at the summit of +honor and of his science, enjoying an immense fortune and an immense +reputation; the other a humble Omega, having neither fortune nor +fame--became intimate friends. + +The great Desplein told his house surgeon everything; the disciple knew +whether such or such a woman had sat on a chair near the master, or on +the famous couch in Desplein's surgery, on which he slept. Bianchon knew +the mysteries of that temperament, a compound of the lion and the bull, +which at last expanded and enlarged beyond measure the great man's +torso, and caused his death by degeneration of the heart. He studied the +eccentricities of that busy life, the schemes of that sordid avarice, +the hopes of the politician who lurked behind the man of science; he was +able to foresee the mortifications that awaited the only sentiment that +lay hid in a heart that was steeled, but not of steel. + +One day Bianchon spoke to Desplein of a poor water-carrier of the +Saint-Jacques district, who had a horrible disease caused by fatigue and +want; this wretched Auvergnat had had nothing but potatoes to eat during +the dreadful winter of 1821. Desplein left all his visits, and at the +risk of killing his horse, he rushed off, followed by Bianchon, to the +poor man's dwelling, and saw, himself, to his being removed to a sick +house, founded by the famous Dubois in the Faubourg Saint-Denis. Then +he went to attend the man, and when he had cured him he gave him +the necessary sum to buy a horse and a water-barrel. This Auvergnat +distinguished himself by an amusing action. One of his friends fell ill, +and he took him at once to Desplein, saying to his benefactor, "I could +not have borne to let him go to any one else!" + +Rough customer as he was, Desplein grasped the water-carrier's hand, and +said, "Bring them all to me." + +He got the native of Cantal into the Hotel-Dieu, where he took the +greatest care of him. Bianchon had already observed in his chief a +predilection for Auvergnats, and especially for water carriers; but as +Desplein took a sort of pride in his cures at the Hotel-Dieu, the pupil +saw nothing very strange in that. + +One day, as he crossed the Place Saint-Sulpice, Bianchon caught sight of +his master going into the church at about nine in the morning. Desplein, +who at that time never went a step without his cab, was on foot, and +slipped in by the door in the Rue du Petit-Lion, as if he were stealing +into some house of ill fame. The house surgeon, naturally possessed +by curiosity, knowing his master's opinions, and being himself a rabid +follower of Cabanis (_Cabaniste en dyable_, with the _y_, which in +Rabelais seems to convey an intensity of devilry)--Bianchon stole into +the church, and was not a little astonished to see the great Desplein, +the atheist, who had no mercy on the angels--who give no work to the +lancet, and cannot suffer from fistula or gastritis--in short, this +audacious scoffer kneeling humbly, and where? In the Lady Chapel, +where he remained through the mass, giving alms for the expenses of the +service, alms for the poor, and looking as serious as though he were +superintending an operation. + +"He has certainly not come here to clear up the question of the Virgin's +delivery," said Bianchon to himself, astonished beyond measure. "If I +had caught him holding one of the ropes of the canopy on Corpus Christi +day, it would be a thing to laugh at; but at this hour, alone, with no +one to see--it is surely a thing to marvel at!" + +Bianchon did not wish to seem as though he were spying the head surgeon +of the Hotel-Dieu; he went away. As it happened, Desplein asked him to +dine with him that day, not at his own house, but at a restaurant. At +dessert Bianchon skilfully contrived to talk of the mass, speaking of it +as mummery and a farce. + +"A farce," said Desplein, "which has cost Christendom more blood than +all Napoleon's battles and all Broussais' leeches. The mass is a papal +invention, not older than the sixth century, and based on the _Hoc est +corpus_. What floods of blood were shed to establish the Fete-Dieu, the +Festival of Corpus Christi--the institution by which Rome established +her triumph in the question of the Real Presence, a schism which rent +the Church during three centuries! The wars of the Count of Toulouse +against the Albigenses were the tail end of that dispute. The Vaudois +and the Albigenses refused to recognize this innovation." + +In short, Desplein was delighted to disport himself in his most +atheistical vein; a flow of Voltairean satire, or, to be accurate, a +vile imitation of the _Citateur_. + +"Hallo! where is my worshiper of this morning?" said Bianchon to +himself. + +He said nothing; he began to doubt whether he had really seen his chief +at Saint-Sulpice. Desplein would not have troubled himself to tell +Bianchon a lie, they knew each other too well; they had already +exchanged thoughts on quite equally serious subjects, and discussed +systems de natura rerum, probing or dissecting them with the knife and +scalpel of incredulity. + +Three months went by. Bianchon did not attempt to follow the matter up, +though it remained stamped on his memory. One day that year, one of the +physicians of the Hotel-Dieu took Desplein by the arm, as if to question +him, in Bianchon's presence. + +"What were you doing at Saint-Sulpice, my dear master?" said he. + +"I went to see a priest who has a diseased knee-bone, and to whom the +Duchesse d'Angouleme did me the honor to recommend me," said Desplein. + +The questioner took this defeat for an answer; not so Bianchon. + +"Oh, he goes to see damaged knees in church!--He went to mass," said the +young man to himself. + +Bianchon resolved to watch Desplein. He remembered the day and hour when +he had detected him going into Saint-Sulpice, and resolved to be there +again next year on the same day and at the same hour, to see if he +should find him there again. In that case the periodicity of his +devotion would justify a scientific investigation; for in such a man +there ought to be no direct antagonism of thought and action. + +Next year, on the said day and hour, Bianchon, who had already ceased +to be Desplein's house surgeon, saw the great man's cab standing at +the corner of the Rue de Tournon and the Rue du Petit-Lion, whence his +friend jesuitically crept along by the wall of Saint-Sulpice, and once +more attended mass in front of the Virgin's altar. It was Desplein, +sure enough! The master-surgeon, the atheist at heart, the worshiper +by chance. The mystery was greater than ever; the regularity of the +phenomenon complicated it. When Desplein had left, Bianchon went to +the sacristan, who took charge of the chapel, and asked him whether the +gentleman were a constant worshiper. + +"For twenty years that I have been here," replied the man, "M. Desplein +has come four times a year to attend this mass. He founded it." + +"A mass founded by him!" said Bianchon, as he went away. "This is as +great a mystery as the Immaculate Conception--an article which alone is +enough to make a physician an unbeliever." + +Some time elapsed before Doctor Bianchon, though so much his friend, +found an opportunity of speaking to Desplein of this incident of his +life. Though they met in consultation, or in society, it was difficult +to find an hour of confidential solitude when, sitting with their feet +on the fire-dogs and their head resting on the back of an armchair, two +men tell each other their secrets. At last, seven years later, after +the Revolution of 1830, when the mob invaded the Archbishop's residence, +when Republican agitators spurred them on to destroy the gilt crosses +which flashed like streaks of lightning in the immensity of the ocean +of houses; when Incredulity flaunted itself in the streets, side by +side with Rebellion, Bianchon once more detected Desplein going into +Saint-Sulpice. The doctor followed him, and knelt down by him without +the slightest notice or demonstration of surprise from his friend. They +both attended this mass of his founding. + +"Will you tell me, my dear fellow," said Bianchon, as they left the +church, "the reason for your fit of monkishness? I have caught you three +times going to mass---- You! You must account to me for this mystery, +explain such a flagrant disagreement between your opinions and your +conduct. You do not believe in God, and yet you attend mass? My dear +master, you are bound to give me an answer." + +"I am like a great many devout people, men who on the surface are deeply +religious, but quite as much atheists as you or I can be." + +And he poured out a torrent of epigrams on certain political personages, +of whom the best known gives us, in this century, a new edition of +Moliere's _Tartufe_. + +"All that has nothing to do with my question," retorted Bianchon. "I +want to know the reason for what you have just been doing, and why you +founded this mass." + +"Faith! my dear boy," said Desplein, "I am on the verge of the tomb; I +may safely tell you about the beginning of my life." + +At this moment Bianchon and the great man were in the Rue des +Quatre-Vents, one of the worst streets in Paris. Desplein pointed to +the sixth floor of one of the houses looking like obelisks, of which the +narrow door opens into a passage with a winding staircase at the end, +with windows appropriately termed "borrowed lights"--or, in French, +_jours de souffrance_. It was a greenish structure; the ground floor +occupied by a furniture-dealer, while each floor seemed to shelter a +different and independent form of misery. Throwing up his arm with a +vehement gesture, Desplein exclaimed: + +"I lived up there for two years." + +"I know; Arthez lived there; I went up there almost every day during my +first youth; we used to call it then the pickle-jar of great men! What +then?" + +"The mass I have just attended is connected with some events which took +place at the time when I lived in the garret where you say Arthez lived; +the one with the window where the clothes line is hanging with linen +over a pot of flowers. My early life was so hard, my dear Bianchon, that +I may dispute the palm of Paris suffering with any man living. I have +endured everything: hunger and thirst, want of money, want of clothes, +of shoes, of linen, every cruelty that penury can inflict. I have blown +on my frozen fingers in that _pickle-jar of great men_, which I should +like to see again, now, with you. I worked through a whole winter, +seeing my head steam, and perceiving the atmosphere of my own moisture +as we see that of horses on a frosty day. I do not know where a man +finds the fulcrum that enables him to hold out against such a life. + +"I was alone, with no one to help me, no money to buy books or to pay +the expenses of my medical training; I had not a friend; my irascible, +touchy, restless temper was against me. No one understood that this +irritability was the distress and toil of a man who, at the bottom of +the social scale, is struggling to reach the surface. Still, I had, as +I may say to you, before whom I need wear no draperies, I had that +ground-bed of good feeling and keen sensitiveness which must always be +the birthright of any man who is strong enough to climb to any height +whatever, after having long trampled in the bogs of poverty. I could +obtain nothing from my family, nor from my home, beyond my inadequate +allowance. In short, at that time, I breakfasted off a roll which the +baker in the Rue du Petit-Lion sold me cheap because it was left from +yesterday or the day before, and I crumbled it into milk; thus my +morning meal cost me but two sous. I dined only every other day in a +boarding-house where the meal cost me sixteen sous. You know as well +as I what care I must have taken of my clothes and shoes. I hardly know +whether in later life we feel grief so deep when a colleague plays us +false as we have known, you and I, on detecting the mocking smile of a +gaping seam in a shoe, or hearing the armhole of a coat split, I drank +nothing but water; I regarded a cafe with distant respect. Zoppi's +seemed to me a promised land where none but the Lucullus of the _pays +Latin_ had a right of entry. 'Shall I ever take a cup of coffee there +with milk in it?' said I to myself, 'or play a game of dominoes?' + +"I threw into my work the fury I felt at my misery. I tried to master +positive knowledge so as to acquire the greatest personal value, +and merit the position I should hold as soon as I could escape from +nothingness. I consumed more oil than bread; the light I burned during +these endless nights cost me more than food. It was a long duel, +obstinate, with no sort of consolation. I found no sympathy anywhere. +To have friends, must we not form connections with young men, have a +few sous so as to be able to go tippling with them, and meet them +where students congregate? And I had nothing! And no one in Paris +can understand that nothing means _nothing_. When I even thought of +revealing my beggary, I had that nervous contraction of the throat which +makes a sick man believe that a ball rises up from the oesophagus into +the larynx. + +"In later life I have met people born to wealth who, never having wanted +for anything, had never even heard this problem in the rule of three: +A young man is to crime as a five-franc piece is to X.--These gilded +idiots say to me, 'Why did you get into debt? Why did you involve +yourself in such onerous obligations?' They remind me of the princess +who, on hearing that the people lacked bread, said, 'Why do not they buy +cakes?' I should like to see one of these rich men, who complain that I +charge too much for an operation,--yes, I should like to see him alone +in Paris without a sou, without a friend, without credit, and forced to +work with his five fingers to live at all! What would he do? Where would +he go to satisfy his hunger? + +"Bianchon, if you have sometimes seen me hard and bitter, it was +because I was adding my early sufferings on to the insensibility, the +selfishness of which I have seen thousands of instances in the highest +circles; or, perhaps, I was thinking of the obstacles which hatred, +envy, jealousy, and calumny raised up between me and success. In Paris, +when certain people see you ready to set your foot in the stirrup, some +pull your coat-tails, others loosen the buckle of the strap that you may +fall and crack your skull; one wrenches off your horse's shoes, another +steals your whip, and the least treacherous of them all is the man whom +you see coming to fire his pistol at you point blank. + +"You yourself, my dear boy, are clever enough to make acquaintance +before long with the odious and incessant warfare waged by mediocrity +against the superior man. If you should drop five-and-twenty louis one +day, you will be accused of gambling on the next, and your best friends +will report that you have lost twenty-five thousand. If you have a +headache, you will be considered mad. If you are a little hasty, no one +can live with you. If, to make a stand against this armament of pigmies, +you collect your best powers, your best friends will cry out that you +want to have everything, that you aim at domineering, at tyranny. In +short, your good points will become your faults, your faults will be +vices, and your virtues crime. + +"If you save a man, you will be said to have killed him; if he reappears +on the scene, it will be positive that you have secured the present at +the cost of the future. If he is not dead, he will die. Stumble, and +you fall! Invent anything of any kind and claim your rights, you will be +crotchety, cunning, ill-disposed to rising younger men. + +"So, you see, my dear fellow, if I do not believe in God, I believe +still less in man. But do not you know in me another Desplein, +altogether different from the Desplein whom every one abuses?--However, +we will not stir that mud-heap. + +"Well, I was living in that house, I was working hard to pass my first +examination, and I had no money at all. You know. I had come to one of +those moments of extremity when a man says, 'I will enlist.' I had one +hope. I expected from my home a box full of linen, a present from one +of those old aunts who, knowing nothing of Paris, think of your shirts, +while they imagine that their nephew with thirty francs a month is +eating ortolans. The box arrived while I was at the schools; it had cost +forty francs for carriage. The porter, a German shoemaker living in a +loft, had paid the money and kept the box. I walked up and down the Rue +des Fosses-Saint-Germain-des-Pres and the Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine +without hitting on any scheme which would release my trunk without the +payment of the forty francs, which of course I could pay as soon as I +should have sold the linen. My stupidity proved to me that surgery was +my only vocation. My good fellow, refined souls, whose powers move in a +lofty atmosphere, have none of that spirit of intrigue that is fertile +in resource and device; their good genius is chance; they do not invent, +things come to them. + +"At night I went home, at the very moment when my fellow lodger also +came in--a water-carrier named Bourgeat, a native of Saint-Flour. We +knew each other as two lodgers do who have rooms off the same landing, +and who hear each other sleeping, coughing, dressing, and so at last +become used to one another. My neighbor informed me that the landlord, +to whom I owed three quarters' rent, had turned me out; I must clear +out next morning. He himself was also turned out on account of his +occupation. I spent the most miserable night of my life. Where was I to +get a messenger who could carry my few chattels and my books? How +could I pay him and the porter? Where was I to go? I repeated these +unanswerable questions again and again, in tears, as madmen repeat their +tunes. I fell asleep; poverty has for its friends heavenly slumbers full +of beautiful dreams. + +"Next morning, just as I was swallowing my little bowl of bread soaked +in milk, Bourgeat came in and said to me in his vile Auvergne accent: + +"'_Mouchieur l'Etudiant_, I am a poor man, a foundling from the hospital +at Saint-Flour, without either father or mother, and not rich enough to +marry. You are not fertile in relations either, nor well supplied with +the ready? Listen, I have a hand-cart downstairs which I have hired for +two sous an hour; it will hold all our goods; if you like, we will try +to find lodgings together, since we are both turned out of this. It is +not the earthly paradise, when all is said and done.' + +"'I know that, my good Bourgeat,' said I. 'But I am in a great fix. I +have a trunk downstairs with a hundred francs' worth of linen in it, +out of which I could pay the landlord and all I owe to the porter, and I +have not a hundred sous.' + +"'Pooh! I have a few dibs,' replied Bourgeat joyfully, and he pulled out +a greasy old leather purse. 'Keep your linen.' + +"Bourgeat paid up my arrears and his own, and settled with the porter. +Then he put our furniture and my box of linen in his cart, and pulled +it along the street, stopping in front of every house where there was a +notice board. I went up to see whether the rooms to let would suit us. +At midday we were still wandering about the neighborhood without having +found anything. The price was the great difficulty. Bourgeat proposed +that we should eat at a wine shop, leaving the cart at the door. Towards +evening I discovered, in the Cour de Rohan, Passage du Commerce, at the +very top of a house next the roof, two rooms with a staircase between +them. Each of us was to pay sixty francs a year. So there we were +housed, my humble friend and I. We dined together. Bourgeat, who earned +about fifty sous a day, had saved a hundred crowns or so; he would +soon be able to gratify his ambition by buying a barrel and a horse. +On learning of my situation--for he extracted my secrets with a quiet +craftiness and good nature, of which the remembrance touches my heart +to this day, he gave up for a time the ambition of his whole life; for +twenty-two years he had been carrying water in the street, and he now +devoted his hundred crowns to my future prospects." + +Desplein at these words clutched Bianchon's arm tightly. "He gave me the +money for my examination fees! That man, my friend, understood that I +had a mission, that the needs of my intellect were greater than his. He +looked after me, he called me his boy, he lent me money to buy books, he +would come in softly sometimes to watch me at work, and took a mother's +care in seeing that I had wholesome and abundant food, instead of the +bad and insufficient nourishment I had been condemned to. Bourgeat, a +man of about forty, had a homely, mediaeval type of face, a prominent +forehead, a head that a painter might have chosen as a model for that +of Lycurgus. The poor man's heart was big with affections seeking an +object; he had never been loved but by a poodle that had died some time +since, of which he would talk to me, asking whether I thought the Church +would allow masses to be said for the repose of its soul. His dog, said +he, had been a good Christian, who for twelve years had accompanied him +to church, never barking, listening to the organ without opening his +mouth, and crouching beside him in a way that made it seem as though he +were praying too. + +"This man centered all his affections in me; he looked upon me as +a forlorn and suffering creature, and he became, to me, the most +thoughtful mother, the most considerate benefactor, the ideal of the +virtue which rejoices in its own work. When I met him in the street, he +would throw me a glance of intelligence full of unutterable dignity; he +would affect to walk as though he carried no weight, and seemed happy in +seeing me in good health and well dressed. It was, in fact, the devoted +affection of the lower classes, the love of a girl of the people +transferred to a loftier level. Bourgeat did all my errands, woke me at +night at any fixed hour, trimmed my lamp, cleaned our landing; as good +as a servant as he was as a father, and as clean as an English girl. He +did all the housework. Like Philopoemen, he sawed our wood, and gave to +all he did the grace of simplicity while preserving his dignity, for he +seemed to understand that the end ennobles every act. + +"When I left this good fellow, to be house surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, I +felt an indescribable, dull pain, knowing that he could no longer live +with me; but he comforted himself with the prospect of saving up money +enough for me to take my degree, and he made me promise to go to see him +whenever I had a day out: Bourgeat was proud of me. He loved me for my +own sake, and for his own. If you look up my thesis, you will see that I +dedicated it to him. + +"During the last year of my residence as house surgeon I earned enough +to repay all I owed to this worthy Auvergnat by buying him a barrel and +a horse. He was furious with rage at learning that I had been depriving +myself of spending my money, and yet he was delighted to see his wishes +fulfilled; he laughed and scolded, he looked at his barrel, at his +horse, and wiped away a tear, as he said, 'It is too bad. What a +splendid barrel! You really ought not. Why, that horse is as strong as +an Auvergnat!' + +"I never saw a more touching scene. Bourgeat insisted on buying for +me the case of instruments mounted in silver which you have seen in my +room, and which is to me the most precious thing there. Though enchanted +with my first success, never did the least sign, the least word, escape +him which might imply, 'This man owes all to me!' And yet, but for him, +I should have died of want; he had eaten bread rubbed with garlic that I +might have coffee to enable me to sit up at night. + +"He fell ill. As you may suppose, I passed my nights by his bedside, +and the first time I pulled him through; but two years after he had a +relapse; in spite of the utmost care, in spite of the greatest exertions +of science, he succumbed. No king was ever nursed as he was. Yes, +Bianchon, to snatch that man from death I tried unheard-of things. I +wanted him to live long enough to show him his work accomplished, to +realize all his hopes, to give expression to the only need for gratitude +that ever filled my heart, to quench a fire that burns in me to this +day. + +"Bourgeat, my second father, died in my arms," Desplein went on, after +a pause, visibly moved. "He left me everything he possessed by a will +he had had made by a public scrivener, dating from the year when we had +gone to live in the Cour de Rohan. + +"This man's faith was perfect; he loved the Holy Virgin as he might have +loved his wife. He was an ardent Catholic, but never said a word to me +about my want of religion. When he was dying he entreated me to spare +no expense that he might have every possible benefit of clergy. I had +a mass said for him every day. Often, in the night, he would tell me of +his fears as to his future fate; he feared his life had not been saintly +enough. Poor man! he was at work from morning till night. For whom, +then, is Paradise--if there be a Paradise? He received the last +sacrament like the saint that he was, and his death was worthy of his +life. + +"I alone followed him to the grave. When I had laid my only benefactor +to rest, I looked about to see how I could pay my debt to him; I found +he had neither family nor friends, neither wife nor child. But he +believed. He had a religious conviction; had I any right to dispute it? +He had spoken to me timidly of masses said for the repose of the dead; +he would not impress it on me as a duty, thinking that it would be a +form of repayment for his services. As soon as I had money enough I paid +to Saint-Sulpice the requisite sum for four masses every year. As the +only thing I can do for Bourgeat is thus to satisfy his pious wishes, on +the days when that mass is said, at the beginning of each season of the +year, I go for his sake and say the required prayers; and I say with +the good faith of a sceptic--'Great God, if there is a sphere which Thou +hast appointed after death for those who have been perfect, remember +good Bourgeat; and if he should have anything to suffer, let me suffer +it for him, that he may enter all the sooner into what is called +Paradise.' + +"That, my dear fellow, is as much as a man who holds my opinions can +allow himself. But God must be a good fellow; He cannot owe me any +grudge. I swear to you, I would give my whole fortune if faith such as +Bourgeat's could enter my brain." + + + +Bianchon, who was with Desplein all through his last illness, dares +not affirm to this day that the great surgeon died an atheist. Will not +those who believe like to fancy that the humble Auvergnat came to open +the gate of Heaven to his friend, as he did that of the earthly temple +on whose pediment we read the words--"A grateful country to its great +men." + + +PARIS, January 1836. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson + In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + + Desplein + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atheist's Mass, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATHEIST'S MASS *** + +***** This file should be named 1220.txt or 1220.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/2/1220/ + +Produced by Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/1220.zip b/old/1220.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0c8abb3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1220.zip diff --git a/old/old/1220.20040516.txt b/old/old/1220.20040516.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a99f98 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/1220.20040516.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1126 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atheist's Mass, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: The Atheist's Mass + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Release Date: May 16, 2004 [EBook #1220] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATHEIST'S MASS *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny and Bonnie + + + + +THE ATHEIST'S MASS + +BY + +HONORE DE BALZAC + + + +Translator, Clara Bell + + + +This is dedicated to Auguste Borget by his friend De Balzac + + + + +Bianchon, a physician to whom science owes a fine system of theoretical +physiology, and who, while still young, made himself a celebrity in the +medical school of Paris, that central luminary to which European doctors +do homage, practised surgery for a long time before he took up medicine. +His earliest studies were guided by one of the greatest of French +surgeons, the illustrious Desplein, who flashed across science like a +meteor. By the consensus even of his enemies, he took with him to the +tomb an incommunicable method. Like all men of genius, he had no heirs; +he carried everything in him, and carried it away with him. The glory of +a surgeon is like that of an actor: they live only so long as they are +alive, and their talent leaves no trace when they are gone. Actors and +surgeons, like great singers too, like the executants who by their +performance increase the power of music tenfold, are all the heroes of a +moment. + +Desplein is a case in proof of this resemblance in the destinies of such +transient genius. His name, yesterday so famous, to-day almost +forgotten, will survive in his special department without crossing its +limits. For must there not be some extraordinary circumstances to exalt +the name of a professor from the history of Science to the general +history of the human race? Had Desplein that universal command of +knowledge which makes a man the living word, the great figure of his +age? Desplein had a godlike eye; he saw into the sufferer and his malady +by an intuition, natural or acquired, which enabled him to grasp the +diagnostics peculiar to the individual, to determine the very time, the +hour, the minute when an operation should be performed, making due +allowance for atmospheric conditions and peculiarities of individual +temperament. To proceed thus, hand in hand with nature, had he then +studied the constant assimilation by living beings, of the elements +contained in the atmosphere, or yielded by the earth to man who absorbs +them, deriving from them a particular expression of life? Did he work it +all out by the power of deduction and analogy, to which we owe the +genius of Cuvier? Be this as it may, this man was in all the secrets of +the human frame; he knew it in the past and in the future, emphasizing +the present. + +But did he epitomize all science in his own person as Hippocrates did +and Galen and Aristotle? Did he guide a whole school towards new worlds? +No. Though it is impossible to deny that this persistent observer of +human chemistry possessed that antique science of the Mages, that is to +say, knowledge of the elements in fusion, the causes of life, life +antecedent to life, and what it must be in its incubation or ever it IS, +it must be confessed that, unfortunately, everything in him was purely +personal. Isolated during his life by his egoism, that egoism is now +suicidal of his glory. On his tomb there is no proclaiming statue to +repeat to posterity the mysteries which genius seeks out at its own +cost. + +But perhaps Desplein's genius was answerable for his beliefs, and for +that reason mortal. To him the terrestrial atmosphere was a generative +envelope; he saw the earth as an egg within its shell; and not being +able to determine whether the egg or the hen first was, he would not +recognize either the cock or the egg. He believed neither in the +antecedent animal nor the surviving spirit of man. Desplein had no +doubts; he was positive. His bold and unqualified atheism was like that +of many scientific men, the best men in the world, but invincible +atheists--atheists such as religious people declare to be impossible. +This opinion could scarcely exist otherwise in a man who was accustomed +from his youth to dissect the creature above all others--before, during, +and after life; to hunt through all his organs without ever finding the +individual soul, which is indispensable to religious theory. When he +detected a cerebral centre, a nervous centre, and a centre for aerating +the blood--the first two so perfectly complementary that in the latter +years of his life he came to a conviction that the sense of hearing is +not absolutely necessary for hearing, nor the sense of sight for seeing, +and that the solar plexus could supply their place without any +possibility of doubt--Desplein, thus finding two souls in man, confirmed +his atheism by this fact, though it is no evidence against God. This man +died, it is said, in final impenitence, as do, unfortunately, many noble +geniuses, whom God may forgive. + +The life of this man, great as he was, was marred by many meannesses, to +use the expression employed by his enemies, who were anxious to diminish +his glory, but which it would be more proper to call apparent +contradictions. Envious people and fools, having no knowledge of the +determinations by which superior spirits are moved, seize at once on +superficial inconsistencies, to formulate an accusation and so to pass +sentence on them. If, subsequently, the proceedings thus attacked are +crowned with success, showing the correlations of the preliminaries and +the results, a few of the vanguard of calumnies always survive. In our +day, for instance, Napoleon was condemned by our contemporaries when he +spread his eagle's wings to alight in England: only 1822 could explain +1804 and the flatboats at Boulogne. + +As, in Desplein, his glory and science were invulnerable, his enemies +attacked his odd moods and his temper, whereas, in fact, he was simply +characterized by what the English call eccentricity. Sometimes very +handsomely dressed, like Crebillon the tragical, he would suddenly +affect extreme indifference as to what he wore; he was sometimes seen in +a carriage, and sometimes on foot. By turns rough and kind, harsh and +covetous on the surface, but capable of offering his whole fortune to +his exiled masters--who did him the honor of accepting it for a few +days--no man ever gave rise to such contradictory judgements. Although +to obtain a black ribbon, which physicians ought not to intrigue for, he +was capable of dropping a prayer-book out of his pocket at Court, in his +heart he mocked at everything; he had a deep contempt for men, after +studying them from above and below, after detecting their genuine +expression when performing the most solemn and the meanest acts of their +lives. + +The qualities of a great man are often federative. If among these +colossal spirits one has more talent than wit, his wit is still superior +to that of a man of whom it is simply stated that "he is witty." Genius +always presupposes moral insight. This insight may be applied to a +special subject; but he who can see a flower must be able to see the +sun. The man who on hearing a diplomate he has saved ask, "How is the +Emperor?" could say, "The courtier is alive; the man will follow!"--that +man is not merely a surgeon or a physician, he is prodigiously witty +also. Hence a patient and diligent student of human nature will admit +Desplein's exorbitant pretensions, and believe--as he himself believed +--that he might have been no less great as a minister than he was as a +surgeon. + +Among the riddles which Desplein's life presents to many of his +contemporaries, we have chosen one of the most interesting, because the +answer is to be found at the end of the narrative, and will avenge him +for some foolish charges. + +Of all the students in Desplein's hospital, Horace Bianchon was one of +those to whom he most warmly attached himself. Before being a house +surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, Horace Bianchon had been a medical student +lodging in a squalid boarding house in the Quartier Latin, known as the +Maison Vauquer. This poor young man had felt there the gnawing of that +burning poverty which is a sort of crucible from which great talents are +to emerge as pure and incorruptible as diamonds, which may be subjected +to any shock without being crushed. In the fierce fire of their +unbridled passions they acquire the most impeccable honesty, and get +into the habit of fighting the battles which await genius with the +constant work by which they coerce their cheated appetites. + +Horace was an upright young fellow, incapable of tergiversation on a +matter of honor, going to the point without waste of words, and as ready +to pledge his cloak for a friend as to give him his time and his night +hours. Horace, in short, was one of those friends who are never anxious +as to what they may get in return for what they give, feeling sure that +they will in their turn get more than they give. Most of his friends +felt for him that deeply-seated respect which is inspired by +unostentatious virtue, and many of them dreaded his censure. But Horace +made no pedantic display of his qualities. He was neither a puritan nor +a preacher; he could swear with a grace as he gave his advice, and was +always ready for a jollification when occasion offered. A jolly +companion, not more prudish than a trooper, as frank and outspoken--not +as a sailor, for nowadays sailors are wily diplomates--but as an honest +man who has nothing in his life to hide, he walked with his head erect, +and a mind content. In short, to put the facts into a word, Horace was +the Pylades of more than one Orestes--creditors being regarded as the +nearest modern equivalent to the Furies of the ancients. + +He carried his poverty with the cheerfulness which is perhaps one of the +chief elements of courage, and, like all people who have nothing, he +made very few debts. As sober as a camel and active as a stag, he was +steadfast in his ideas and his conduct. + +The happy phase of Bianchon's life began on the day when the famous +surgeon had proof of the qualities and the defects which, these no less +than those, make Doctor Horace Bianchon doubly dear to his friends. When +a leading clinical practitioner takes a young man to his bosom, that +young man has, as they say, his foot in the stirrup. Desplein did not +fail to take Bianchon as his assistant to wealthy houses, where some +complimentary fee almost always found its way into the student's pocket, +and where the mysteries of Paris life were insensibly revealed to the +young provincial; he kept him at his side when a consultation was to be +held, and gave him occupation; sometimes he would send him to a +watering-place with a rich patient; in fact, he was making a practice +for him. The consequence was that in the course of time the Tyrant of +surgery had a devoted ally. These two men--one at the summit of honor +and of his science, enjoying an immense fortune and an immense +reputation; the other a humble Omega, having neither fortune nor fame +--became intimate friends. + +The great Desplein told his house surgeon everything; the disciple knew +whether such or such a woman had sat on a chair near the master, or on +the famous couch in Desplein's surgery, on which he slept. Bianchon knew +the mysteries of that temperament, a compound of the lion and the bull, +which at last expanded and enlarged beyond measure the great man's +torso, and caused his death by degeneration of the heart. He studied the +eccentricities of that busy life, the schemes of that sordid avarice, +the hopes of the politician who lurked behind the man of science; he was +able to foresee the mortifications that awaited the only sentiment that +lay hid in a heart that was steeled, but not of steel. + +One day Bianchon spoke to Desplein of a poor water-carrier of the +Saint-Jacques district, who had a horrible disease caused by fatigue and +want; this wretched Auvergnat had had nothing but potatoes to eat during +the dreadful winter of 1821. Desplein left all his visits, and at the +risk of killing his horse, he rushed off, followed by Bianchon, to the +poor man's dwelling, and saw, himself, to his being removed to a sick +house, founded by the famous Dubois in the Faubourg Saint-Denis. Then he +went to attend the man, and when he had cured him he gave him the +necessary sum to buy a horse and a water-barrel. This Auvergnat +distinguished himself by an amusing action. One of his friends fell ill, +and he took him at once to Desplein, saying to his benefactor, "I could +not have borne to let him go to any one else!" + +Rough customer as he was, Desplein grasped the water-carrier's hand, and +said, "Bring them all to me." + +He got the native of Cantal into the Hotel-Dieu, where he took the +greatest care of him. Bianchon had already observed in his chief a +predilection for Auvergnats, and especially for water carriers; but as +Desplein took a sort of pride in his cures at the Hotel-Dieu, the pupil +saw nothing very strange in that. + +One day, as he crossed the Place Saint-Sulpice, Bianchon caught sight of +his master going into the church at about nine in the morning. Desplein, +who at that time never went a step without his cab, was on foot, and +slipped in by the door in the Rue du Petit-Lion, as if he were stealing +into some house of ill fame. The house surgeon, naturally possessed by +curiosity, knowing his master's opinions, and being himself a rabid +follower of Cabanis (Cabaniste en dyable, with the y, which in Rabelais +seems to convey an intensity of devilry)--Bianchon stole into the +church, and was not a little astonished to see the great Desplein, the +atheist, who had no mercy on the angels--who give no work to the lancet, +and cannot suffer from fistula or gastritis--in short, this audacious +scoffer kneeling humbly, and where? In the Lady Chapel, where he +remained through the mass, giving alms for the expenses of the service, +alms for the poor, and looking as serious as though he were +superintending an operation. + +"He has certainly not come here to clear up the question of the Virgin's +delivery," said Bianchon to himself, astonished beyond measure. "If I +had caught him holding one of the ropes of the canopy on Corpus Christi +day, it would be a thing to laugh at; but at this hour, alone, with no +one to see--it is surely a thing to marvel at!" + +Bianchon did not wish to seem as though he were spying the head surgeon +of the Hotel-Dieu; he went away. As it happened, Desplein asked him to +dine with him that day, not at his own house, but at a restaurant. At +dessert Bianchon skilfully contrived to talk of the mass, speaking of it +as mummery and a farce. + +"A farce," said Desplein, "which has cost Christendom more blood than +all Napoleon's battles and all Broussais' leeches. The mass is a papal +invention, not older than the sixth century, and based on the Hoc est +corpus. What floods of blood were shed to establish the Fete-Dieu, the +Festival of Corpus Christi--the institution by which Rome established +her triumph in the question of the Real Presence, a schism which rent +the Church during three centuries! The wars of the Count of Toulouse +against the Albigenses were the tail end of that dispute. The Vaudois +and the Albigenses refused to recognize this innovation." + +In short, Desplein was delighted to disport himself in his most +atheistical vein; a flow of Voltairean satire, or, to be accurate, a +vile imitation of the Citateur. + +"Hallo! where is my worshiper of this morning?" said Bianchon to +himself. + +He said nothing; he began to doubt whether he had really seen his chief +at Saint-Sulpice. Desplein would not have troubled himself to tell +Bianchon a lie, they knew each other too well; they had already +exchanged thoughts on quite equally serious subjects, and discussed +systems de natura rerum, probing or dissecting them with the knife and +scalpel of incredulity. + +Three months went by. Bianchon did not attempt to follow the matter up, +though it remained stamped on his memory. One day that year, one of the +physicians of the Hotel-Dieu took Desplein by the arm, as if to question +him, in Bianchon's presence. + +"What were you doing at Saint-Sulpice, my dear master?" said he. + +"I went to see a priest who has a diseased knee-bone, and to whom the +Duchesse d'Angouleme did me the honor to recommend me," said Desplein. + +The questioner took this defeat for an answer; not so Bianchon. + +"Oh, he goes to see damaged knees in church!--He went to mass," said the +young man to himself. + +Bianchon resolved to watch Desplein. He remembered the day and hour when +he had detected him going into Saint-Sulpice, and resolved to be there +again next year on the same day and at the same hour, to see if he +should find him there again. In that case the periodicity of his +devotion would justify a scientific investigation; for in such a man +there ought to be no direct antagonism of thought and action. + +Next year, on the said day and hour, Bianchon, who had already ceased to +be Desplein's house surgeon, saw the great man's cab standing at the +corner of the Rue de Tournon and the Rue du Petit-Lion, whence his +friend jesuitically crept along by the wall of Saint-Sulpice, and once +more attended mass in front of the Virgin's altar. It was Desplein, sure +enough! The master-surgeon, the atheist at heart, the worshiper by +chance. The mystery was greater than ever; the regularity of the +phenomenon complicated it. When Desplein had left, Bianchon went to the +sacristan, who took charge of the chapel, and asked him whether the +gentleman were a constant worshiper. + +"For twenty years that I have been here," replied the man, "M. Desplein +has come four times a year to attend this mass. He founded it." + +"A mass founded by him!" said Bianchon, as he went away. "This is as +great a mystery as the Immaculate Conception--an article which alone is +enough to make a physician an unbeliever." + +Some time elapsed before Doctor Bianchon, though so much his friend, +found an opportunity of speaking to Desplein of this incident of his +life. Though they met in consultation, or in society, it was difficult +to find an hour of confidential solitude when, sitting with their feet +on the fire-dogs and their head resting on the back of an armchair, two +men tell each other their secrets. At last, seven years later, after the +Revolution of 1830, when the mob invaded the Archbishop's residence, +when Republican agitators spurred them on to destroy the gilt crosses +which flashed like streaks of lightning in the immensity of the ocean of +houses; when Incredulity flaunted itself in the streets, side by side +with Rebellion, Bianchon once more detected Desplein going into +Saint-Sulpice. The doctor followed him, and knelt down by him without the +slightest notice or demonstration of surprise from his friend. They both +attended this mass of his founding. + +"Will you tell me, my dear fellow," said Bianchon, as they left the +church, "the reason for your fit of monkishness? I have caught you three +times going to mass---- You! You must account to me for this mystery, +explain such a flagrant disagreement between your opinions and your +conduct. You do not believe in God, and yet you attend mass? My dear +master, you are bound to give me an answer." + +"I am like a great many devout people, men who on the surface are deeply +religious, but quite as much atheists as you or I can be." + +And he poured out a torrent of epigrams on certain political personages, +of whom the best known gives us, in this century, a new edition of +Moliere's Tartufe. + +"All that has nothing to do with my question," retorted Bianchon. "I +want to know the reason for what you have just been doing, and why you +founded this mass." + +"Faith! my dear boy," said Desplein, "I am on the verge of the tomb; I +may safely tell you about the beginning of my life." + +At this moment Bianchon and the great man were in the Rue des Quatre- +Vents, one of the worst streets in Paris. Desplein pointed to the sixth +floor of one of the houses looking like obelisks, of which the narrow +door opens into a passage with a winding staircase at the end, with +windows appropriately termed "borrowed lights"--or, in French, jours de +souffrance. It was a greenish structure; the ground floor occupied by a +furniture-dealer, while each floor seemed to shelter a different and +independent form of misery. Throwing up his arm with a vehement gesture, +Desplein exclaimed: + +"I lived up there for two years." + +"I know; Arthez lived there; I went up there almost every day during my +first youth; we used to call it then the pickle-jar of great men! What +then?" + +"The mass I have just attended is connected with some events which took +place at the time when I lived in the garret where you say Arthez lived; +the one with the window where the clothes line is hanging with linen +over a pot of flowers. My early life was so hard, my dear Bianchon, that +I may dispute the palm of Paris suffering with any man living. I have +endured everything: hunger and thirst, want of money, want of clothes, +of shoes, of linen, every cruelty that penury can inflict. I have blown +on my frozen fingers in that PICKLE-JAR OF GREAT MEN, which I should +like to see again, now, with you. I worked through a whole winter, +seeing my head steam, and perceiving the atmosphere of my own moisture +as we see that of horses on a frosty day. I do not know where a man +finds the fulcrum that enables him to hold out against such a life. + +"I was alone, with no one to help me, no money to buy books or to pay +the expenses of my medical training; I had not a friend; my irascible, +touchy, restless temper was against me. No one understood that this +irritability was the distress and toil of a man who, at the bottom of +the social scale, is struggling to reach the surface. Still, I had, +as I may say to you, before whom I need wear no draperies, I had that +ground-bed of good feeling and keen sensitiveness which must always be +the birthright of any man who is strong enough to climb to any height +whatever, after having long trampled in the bogs of poverty. I could +obtain nothing from my family, nor from my home, beyond my inadequate +allowance. In short, at that time, I breakfasted off a roll which the +baker in the Rue du Petit-Lion sold me cheap because it was left from +yesterday or the day before, and I crumbled it into milk; thus my +morning meal cost me but two sous. I dined only every other day in a +boarding-house where the meal cost me sixteen sous. You know as well as +I what care I must have taken of my clothes and shoes. I hardly know +whether in later life we feel grief so deep when a colleague plays us +false as we have known, you and I, on detecting the mocking smile of a +gaping seam in a shoe, or hearing the armhole of a coat split, I drank +nothing but water; I regarded a cafe with distant respect. Zoppi's +seemed to me a promised land where none but the Lucullus of the pays +Latin had a right of entry. 'Shall I ever take a cup of coffee there +with milk in it?' said I to myself, 'or play a game of dominoes?' + +"I threw into my work the fury I felt at my misery. I tried to master +positive knowledge so as to acquire the greatest personal value, and +merit the position I should hold as soon as I could escape from +nothingness. I consumed more oil than bread; the light I burned during +these endless nights cost me more than food. It was a long duel, +obstinate, with no sort of consolation. I found no sympathy anywhere. To +have friends, must we not form connections with young men, have a few +sous so as to be able to go tippling with them, and meet them where +students congregate? And I had nothing! And no one in Paris can +understand that nothing means NOTHING. When I even thought of revealing +my beggary, I had that nervous contraction of the throat which makes a +sick man believe that a ball rises up from the oesophagus into the +larynx. + +"In later life I have met people born to wealth who, never having wanted +for anything, had never even heard this problem in the rule of three: A +young man is to crime as a five-franc piece is to X.--These gilded +idiots say to me, 'Why did you get into debt? Why did you involve +yourself in such onerous obligations?' They remind me of the princess +who, on hearing that the people lacked bread, said, 'Why do not they buy +cakes?' I should like to see one of these rich men, who complain that I +charge too much for an operation,--yes, I should like to see him alone +in Paris without a sou, without a friend, without credit, and forced to +work with his five fingers to live at all! What would he do? Where would +he go to satisfy his hunger? + +"Bianchon, if you have sometimes seen me hard and bitter, it was because +I was adding my early sufferings on to the insensibility, the +selfishness of which I have seen thousands of instances in the highest +circles; or, perhaps, I was thinking of the obstacles which hatred, +envy, jealousy, and calumny raised up between me and success. In Paris, +when certain people see you ready to set your foot in the stirrup, some +pull your coat-tails, others loosen the buckle of the strap that you may +fall and crack your skull; one wrenches off your horse's shoes, another +steals your whip, and the least treacherous of them all is the man whom +you see coming to fire his pistol at you point blank. + +"You yourself, my dear boy, are clever enough to make acquaintance +before long with the odious and incessant warfare waged by mediocrity +against the superior man. If you should drop five-and-twenty louis one +day, you will be accused of gambling on the next, and your best friends +will report that you have lost twenty-five thousand. If you have a +headache, you will be considered mad. If you are a little hasty, no one +can live with you. If, to make a stand against this armament of pigmies, +you collect your best powers, your best friends will cry out that you +want to have everything, that you aim at domineering, at tyranny. In +short, your good points will become your faults, your faults will be +vices, and your virtues crime. + +"If you save a man, you will be said to have killed him; if he reappears +on the scene, it will be positive that you have secured the present at +the cost of the future. If he is not dead, he will die. Stumble, and you +fall! Invent anything of any kind and claim your rights, you will be +crotchety, cunning, ill-disposed to rising younger men. + +"So, you see, my dear fellow, if I do not believe in God, I believe +still less in man. But do not you know in me another Desplein, +altogether different from the Desplein whom every one abuses?--However, +we will not stir that mud-heap. + +"Well, I was living in that house, I was working hard to pass my first +examination, and I had no money at all. You know. I had come to one of +those moments of extremity when a man says, 'I will enlist.' I had one +hope. I expected from my home a box full of linen, a present from one of +those old aunts who, knowing nothing of Paris, think of your shirts, +while they imagine that their nephew with thirty francs a month is +eating ortolans. The box arrived while I was at the schools; it had cost +forty francs for carriage. The porter, a German shoemaker living in a +loft, had paid the money and kept the box. I walked up and down the Rue +des Fosses-Saint-Germain-des-Pres and the Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine +without hitting on any scheme which would release my trunk without the +payment of the forty francs, which of course I could pay as soon as I +should have sold the linen. My stupidity proved to me that surgery was +my only vocation. My good fellow, refined souls, whose powers move in a +lofty atmosphere, have none of that spirit of intrigue that is fertile +in resource and device; their good genius is chance; they do not invent, +things come to them. + +"At night I went home, at the very moment when my fellow lodger also +came in--a water-carrier named Bourgeat, a native of Saint-Flour. We +knew each other as two lodgers do who have rooms off the same landing, +and who hear each other sleeping, coughing, dressing, and so at last +become used to one another. My neighbor informed me that the landlord, +to whom I owed three quarters' rent, had turned me out; I must clear out +next morning. He himself was also turned out on account of his +occupation. I spent the most miserable night of my life. Where was I to +get a messenger who could carry my few chattels and my books? How could +I pay him and the porter? Where was I to go? I repeated these +unanswerable questions again and again, in tears, as madmen repeat their +tunes. I fell asleep; poverty has for its friends heavenly slumbers full +of beautiful dreams. + +"Next morning, just as I was swallowing my little bowl of bread soaked +in milk, Bourgeat came in and said to me in his vile Auvergne accent: + +"'Mouchieur l'Etudiant, I am a poor man, a foundling from the hospital +at Saint-Flour, without either father or mother, and not rich enough to +marry. You are not fertile in relations either, nor well supplied with +the ready? Listen, I have a hand-cart downstairs which I have hired for +two sous an hour; it will hold all our goods; if you like, we will try +to find lodgings together, since we are both turned out of this. It is +not the earthly paradise, when all is said and done.' + +"'I know that, my good Bourgeat,' said I. 'But I am in a great fix. I +have a trunk downstairs with a hundred francs' worth of linen in it, out +of which I could pay the landlord and all I owe to the porter, and I +have not a hundred sous.' + +"'Pooh! I have a few dibs,' replied Bourgeat joyfully, and he pulled +out a greasy old leather purse. 'Keep your linen.' + +"Bourgeat paid up my arrears and his own, and settled with the porter. +Then he put our furniture and my box of linen in his cart, and pulled it +along the street, stopping in front of every house where there was a +notice board. I went up to see whether the rooms to let would suit us. +At midday we were still wandering about the neighborhood without having +found anything. The price was the great difficulty. Bourgeat proposed +that we should eat at a wine shop, leaving the cart at the door. Towards +evening I discovered, in the Cour de Rohan, Passage du Commerce, at the +very top of a house next the roof, two rooms with a staircase between +them. Each of us was to pay sixty francs a year. So there we were +housed, my humble friend and I. We dined together. Bourgeat, who earned +about fifty sous a day, had saved a hundred crowns or so; he would soon +be able to gratify his ambition by buying a barrel and a horse. On +learning of my situation--for he extracted my secrets with a quiet +craftiness and good nature, of which the remembrance touches my heart to +this day, he gave up for a time the ambition of his whole life; for +twenty-two years he had been carrying water in the street, and he now +devoted his hundred crowns to my future prospects." + +Desplein at these words clutched Bianchon's arm tightly. "He gave me the +money for my examination fees! That man, my friend, understood that I +had a mission, that the needs of my intellect were greater than his. He +looked after me, he called me his boy, he lent me money to buy books, he +would come in softly sometimes to watch me at work, and took a mother's +care in seeing that I had wholesome and abundant food, instead of the +bad and insufficient nourishment I had been condemned to. Bourgeat, a +man of about forty, had a homely, mediaeval type of face, a prominent +forehead, a head that a painter might have chosen as a model for that of +Lycurgus. The poor man's heart was big with affections seeking an +object; he had never been loved but by a poodle that had died some time +since, of which he would talk to me, asking whether I thought the Church +would allow masses to be said for the repose of its soul. His dog, said +he, had been a good Christian, who for twelve years had accompanied him +to church, never barking, listening to the organ without opening his +mouth, and crouching beside him in a way that made it seem as though he +were praying too. + +"This man centered all his affections in me; he looked upon me as a +forlorn and suffering creature, and he became, to me, the most +thoughtful mother, the most considerate benefactor, the ideal of the +virtue which rejoices in its own work. When I met him in the street, he +would throw me a glance of intelligence full of unutterable dignity; he +would affect to walk as though he carried no weight, and seemed happy in +seeing me in good health and well dressed. It was, in fact, the devoted +affection of the lower classes, the love of a girl of the people +transferred to a loftier level. Bourgeat did all my errands, woke me at +night at any fixed hour, trimmed my lamp, cleaned our landing; as good +as a servant as he was as a father, and as clean as an English girl. He +did all the housework. Like Philopoemen, he sawed our wood, and gave to +all he did the grace of simplicity while preserving his dignity, for he +seemed to understand that the end ennobles every act. + +"When I left this good fellow, to be house surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, I +felt an indescribable, dull pain, knowing that he could no longer live +with me; but he comforted himself with the prospect of saving up money +enough for me to take my degree, and he made me promise to go to see him +whenever I had a day out: Bourgeat was proud of me. He loved me for my +own sake, and for his own. If you look up my thesis, you will see that I +dedicated it to him. + +"During the last year of my residence as house surgeon I earned enough +to repay all I owed to this worthy Auvergnat by buying him a barrel and +a horse. He was furious with rage at learning that I had been depriving +myself of spending my money, and yet he was delighted to see his wishes +fulfilled; he laughed and scolded, he looked at his barrel, at his +horse, and wiped away a tear, as he said, 'It is too bad. What a +splendid barrel! You really ought not. Why, that horse is as strong as +an Auvergnat!' + +"I never saw a more touching scene. Bourgeat insisted on buying for me +the case of instruments mounted in silver which you have seen in my +room, and which is to me the most precious thing there. Though enchanted +with my first success, never did the least sign, the least word, escape +him which might imply, 'This man owes all to me!' And yet, but for him, +I should have died of want; he had eaten bread rubbed with garlic that I +might have coffee to enable me to sit up at night. + +"He fell ill. As you may suppose, I passed my nights by his bedside, and +the first time I pulled him through; but two years after he had a +relapse; in spite of the utmost care, in spite of the greatest exertions +of science, he succumbed. No king was ever nursed as he was. Yes, +Bianchon, to snatch that man from death I tried unheard-of things. I +wanted him to live long enough to show him his work accomplished, to +realize all his hopes, to give expression to the only need for gratitude +that ever filled my heart, to quench a fire that burns in me to this +day. + +"Bourgeat, my second father, died in my arms," Desplein went on, after a +pause, visibly moved. "He left me everything he possessed by a will he +had had made by a public scrivener, dating from the year when we had +gone to live in the Cour de Rohan. + +"This man's faith was perfect; he loved the Holy Virgin as he might have +loved his wife. He was an ardent Catholic, but never said a word to me +about my want of religion. When he was dying he entreated me to spare no +expense that he might have every possible benefit of clergy. I had a +mass said for him every day. Often, in the night, he would tell me of +his fears as to his future fate; he feared his life had not been saintly +enough. Poor man! he was at work from morning till night. For whom, +then, is Paradise--if there be a Paradise? He received the last +sacrament like the saint that he was, and his death was worthy of his +life. + +"I alone followed him to the grave. When I had laid my only benefactor +to rest, I looked about to see how I could pay my debt to him; I found +he had neither family nor friends, neither wife nor child. But he +believed. He had a religious conviction; had I any right to dispute it? +He had spoken to me timidly of masses said for the repose of the dead; +he would not impress it on me as a duty, thinking that it would be a +form of repayment for his services. As soon as I had money enough I paid +to Saint-Sulpice the requisite sum for four masses every year. As the +only thing I can do for Bourgeat is thus to satisfy his pious wishes, on +the days when that mass is said, at the beginning of each season of the +year, I go for his sake and say the required prayers; and I say with the +good faith of a sceptic--'Great God, if there is a sphere which Thou +hast appointed after death for those who have been perfect, remember +good Bourgeat; and if he should have anything to suffer, let me suffer +it for him, that he may enter all the sooner into what is called +Paradise.' + +"That, my dear fellow, is as much as a man who holds my opinions can +allow himself. But God must be a good fellow; He cannot owe me any +grudge. I swear to you, I would give my whole fortune if faith such as +Bourgeat's could enter my brain." + + + +Bianchon, who was with Desplein all through his last illness, dares not +affirm to this day that the great surgeon died an atheist. Will not +those who believe like to fancy that the humble Auvergnat came to open +the gate of Heaven to his friend, as he did that of the earthly temple +on whose pediment we read the words--"A grateful country to its great +men." + + + +PARIS, January 1836. + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Desplein + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atheist's Mass, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATHEIST'S MASS *** + +***** This file should be named 1220.txt or 1220.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.net/1/2/2/1220/ + +Produced by Dagny and Bonnie + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.net/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.net + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + + http://www.gutenberg.net/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + http://www.gutenberg.net/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + http://www.gutenberg.net/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + http://www.gutenberg.net/GUTINDEX.ALL + + +Note: This eBook is an updated edition of a pre #10000 PG file which +is being inserted into the modern PG filename directory system; though +it has an eBook number below #10000 it is filed as the eBooks with numbers +over #10000. See the link at the beginning of this trailer. diff --git a/old/old/20051203-1220.txt b/old/old/20051203-1220.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d38bdba --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/20051203-1220.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1092 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atheist's Mass, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: The Atheist's Mass + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Clara Bell + +Release Date: December 3, 2005 [EBook #1220] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATHEIST'S MASS *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny and Bonnie + + + + + + THE ATHEIST'S MASS + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated by + Clara Bell + + + + This is dedicated to Auguste Borget by his friend De Balzac + + + + +Bianchon, a physician to whom science owes a fine system of theoretical +physiology, and who, while still young, made himself a celebrity in the +medical school of Paris, that central luminary to which European doctors +do homage, practised surgery for a long time before he took up medicine. +His earliest studies were guided by one of the greatest of French +surgeons, the illustrious Desplein, who flashed across science like a +meteor. By the consensus even of his enemies, he took with him to the +tomb an incommunicable method. Like all men of genius, he had no heirs; +he carried everything in him, and carried it away with him. The glory of +a surgeon is like that of an actor: they live only so long as they are +alive, and their talent leaves no trace when they are gone. Actors and +surgeons, like great singers too, like the executants who by their +performance increase the power of music tenfold, are all the heroes of a +moment. + +Desplein is a case in proof of this resemblance in the destinies of such +transient genius. His name, yesterday so famous, to-day almost +forgotten, will survive in his special department without crossing its +limits. For must there not be some extraordinary circumstances to exalt +the name of a professor from the history of Science to the general +history of the human race? Had Desplein that universal command of +knowledge which makes a man the living word, the great figure of his +age? Desplein had a godlike eye; he saw into the sufferer and his malady +by an intuition, natural or acquired, which enabled him to grasp the +diagnostics peculiar to the individual, to determine the very time, the +hour, the minute when an operation should be performed, making due +allowance for atmospheric conditions and peculiarities of individual +temperament. To proceed thus, hand in hand with nature, had he then +studied the constant assimilation by living beings, of the elements +contained in the atmosphere, or yielded by the earth to man who absorbs +them, deriving from them a particular expression of life? Did he work it +all out by the power of deduction and analogy, to which we owe the +genius of Cuvier? Be this as it may, this man was in all the secrets of +the human frame; he knew it in the past and in the future, emphasizing +the present. + +But did he epitomize all science in his own person as Hippocrates did +and Galen and Aristotle? Did he guide a whole school towards new worlds? +No. Though it is impossible to deny that this persistent observer of +human chemistry possessed that antique science of the Mages, that is to +say, knowledge of the elements in fusion, the causes of life, life +antecedent to life, and what it must be in its incubation or ever it _is_, +it must be confessed that, unfortunately, everything in him was purely +personal. Isolated during his life by his egoism, that egoism is now +suicidal of his glory. On his tomb there is no proclaiming statue to +repeat to posterity the mysteries which genius seeks out at its own +cost. + +But perhaps Desplein's genius was answerable for his beliefs, and for +that reason mortal. To him the terrestrial atmosphere was a generative +envelope; he saw the earth as an egg within its shell; and not being +able to determine whether the egg or the hen first was, he would not +recognize either the cock or the egg. He believed neither in the +antecedent animal nor the surviving spirit of man. Desplein had no +doubts; he was positive. His bold and unqualified atheism was like that +of many scientific men, the best men in the world, but invincible +atheists--atheists such as religious people declare to be impossible. +This opinion could scarcely exist otherwise in a man who was accustomed +from his youth to dissect the creature above all others--before, during, +and after life; to hunt through all his organs without ever finding the +individual soul, which is indispensable to religious theory. When he +detected a cerebral centre, a nervous centre, and a centre for aerating +the blood--the first two so perfectly complementary that in the latter +years of his life he came to a conviction that the sense of hearing is +not absolutely necessary for hearing, nor the sense of sight for seeing, +and that the solar plexus could supply their place without any +possibility of doubt--Desplein, thus finding two souls in man, confirmed +his atheism by this fact, though it is no evidence against God. This man +died, it is said, in final impenitence, as do, unfortunately, many noble +geniuses, whom God may forgive. + +The life of this man, great as he was, was marred by many meannesses, to +use the expression employed by his enemies, who were anxious to diminish +his glory, but which it would be more proper to call apparent +contradictions. Envious people and fools, having no knowledge of the +determinations by which superior spirits are moved, seize at once on +superficial inconsistencies, to formulate an accusation and so to pass +sentence on them. If, subsequently, the proceedings thus attacked are +crowned with success, showing the correlations of the preliminaries and +the results, a few of the vanguard of calumnies always survive. In our +day, for instance, Napoleon was condemned by our contemporaries when he +spread his eagle's wings to alight in England: only 1822 could explain +1804 and the flatboats at Boulogne. + +As, in Desplein, his glory and science were invulnerable, his enemies +attacked his odd moods and his temper, whereas, in fact, he was simply +characterized by what the English call eccentricity. Sometimes very +handsomely dressed, like Crebillon the tragical, he would suddenly +affect extreme indifference as to what he wore; he was sometimes seen in +a carriage, and sometimes on foot. By turns rough and kind, harsh and +covetous on the surface, but capable of offering his whole fortune to +his exiled masters--who did him the honor of accepting it for a few +days--no man ever gave rise to such contradictory judgements. Although +to obtain a black ribbon, which physicians ought not to intrigue for, he +was capable of dropping a prayer-book out of his pocket at Court, in his +heart he mocked at everything; he had a deep contempt for men, after +studying them from above and below, after detecting their genuine +expression when performing the most solemn and the meanest acts of their +lives. + +The qualities of a great man are often federative. If among these +colossal spirits one has more talent than wit, his wit is still superior +to that of a man of whom it is simply stated that "he is witty." Genius +always presupposes moral insight. This insight may be applied to a +special subject; but he who can see a flower must be able to see the +sun. The man who on hearing a diplomate he has saved ask, "How is the +Emperor?" could say, "The courtier is alive; the man will follow!"--that +man is not merely a surgeon or a physician, he is prodigiously witty +also. Hence a patient and diligent student of human nature will admit +Desplein's exorbitant pretensions, and believe--as he himself believed +--that he might have been no less great as a minister than he was as a +surgeon. + +Among the riddles which Desplein's life presents to many of his +contemporaries, we have chosen one of the most interesting, because the +answer is to be found at the end of the narrative, and will avenge him +for some foolish charges. + +Of all the students in Desplein's hospital, Horace Bianchon was one of +those to whom he most warmly attached himself. Before being a house +surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, Horace Bianchon had been a medical student +lodging in a squalid boarding house in the _Quartier Latin_, known as the +Maison Vauquer. This poor young man had felt there the gnawing of that +burning poverty which is a sort of crucible from which great talents are +to emerge as pure and incorruptible as diamonds, which may be subjected +to any shock without being crushed. In the fierce fire of their +unbridled passions they acquire the most impeccable honesty, and get +into the habit of fighting the battles which await genius with the +constant work by which they coerce their cheated appetites. + +Horace was an upright young fellow, incapable of tergiversation on a +matter of honor, going to the point without waste of words, and as ready +to pledge his cloak for a friend as to give him his time and his night +hours. Horace, in short, was one of those friends who are never anxious +as to what they may get in return for what they give, feeling sure that +they will in their turn get more than they give. Most of his friends +felt for him that deeply-seated respect which is inspired by +unostentatious virtue, and many of them dreaded his censure. But Horace +made no pedantic display of his qualities. He was neither a puritan nor +a preacher; he could swear with a grace as he gave his advice, and was +always ready for a jollification when occasion offered. A jolly +companion, not more prudish than a trooper, as frank and outspoken--not +as a sailor, for nowadays sailors are wily diplomates--but as an honest +man who has nothing in his life to hide, he walked with his head erect, +and a mind content. In short, to put the facts into a word, Horace was +the Pylades of more than one Orestes--creditors being regarded as the +nearest modern equivalent to the Furies of the ancients. + +He carried his poverty with the cheerfulness which is perhaps one of the +chief elements of courage, and, like all people who have nothing, he +made very few debts. As sober as a camel and active as a stag, he was +steadfast in his ideas and his conduct. + +The happy phase of Bianchon's life began on the day when the famous +surgeon had proof of the qualities and the defects which, these no less +than those, make Doctor Horace Bianchon doubly dear to his friends. When +a leading clinical practitioner takes a young man to his bosom, that +young man has, as they say, his foot in the stirrup. Desplein did not +fail to take Bianchon as his assistant to wealthy houses, where some +complimentary fee almost always found its way into the student's pocket, +and where the mysteries of Paris life were insensibly revealed to the +young provincial; he kept him at his side when a consultation was to be +held, and gave him occupation; sometimes he would send him to a +watering-place with a rich patient; in fact, he was making a practice +for him. The consequence was that in the course of time the Tyrant of +surgery had a devoted ally. These two men--one at the summit of honor +and of his science, enjoying an immense fortune and an immense +reputation; the other a humble Omega, having neither fortune nor fame +--became intimate friends. + +The great Desplein told his house surgeon everything; the disciple knew +whether such or such a woman had sat on a chair near the master, or on +the famous couch in Desplein's surgery, on which he slept. Bianchon knew +the mysteries of that temperament, a compound of the lion and the bull, +which at last expanded and enlarged beyond measure the great man's +torso, and caused his death by degeneration of the heart. He studied the +eccentricities of that busy life, the schemes of that sordid avarice, +the hopes of the politician who lurked behind the man of science; he was +able to foresee the mortifications that awaited the only sentiment that +lay hid in a heart that was steeled, but not of steel. + +One day Bianchon spoke to Desplein of a poor water-carrier of the +Saint-Jacques district, who had a horrible disease caused by fatigue and +want; this wretched Auvergnat had had nothing but potatoes to eat during +the dreadful winter of 1821. Desplein left all his visits, and at the +risk of killing his horse, he rushed off, followed by Bianchon, to the +poor man's dwelling, and saw, himself, to his being removed to a sick +house, founded by the famous Dubois in the Faubourg Saint-Denis. Then he +went to attend the man, and when he had cured him he gave him the +necessary sum to buy a horse and a water-barrel. This Auvergnat +distinguished himself by an amusing action. One of his friends fell ill, +and he took him at once to Desplein, saying to his benefactor, "I could +not have borne to let him go to any one else!" + +Rough customer as he was, Desplein grasped the water-carrier's hand, and +said, "Bring them all to me." + +He got the native of Cantal into the Hotel-Dieu, where he took the +greatest care of him. Bianchon had already observed in his chief a +predilection for Auvergnats, and especially for water carriers; but as +Desplein took a sort of pride in his cures at the Hotel-Dieu, the pupil +saw nothing very strange in that. + +One day, as he crossed the Place Saint-Sulpice, Bianchon caught sight of +his master going into the church at about nine in the morning. Desplein, +who at that time never went a step without his cab, was on foot, and +slipped in by the door in the Rue du Petit-Lion, as if he were stealing +into some house of ill fame. The house surgeon, naturally possessed by +curiosity, knowing his master's opinions, and being himself a rabid +follower of Cabanis (_Cabaniste en dyable_, with the _y_, which in +Rabelais seems to convey an intensity of devilry)--Bianchon stole into the +church, and was not a little astonished to see the great Desplein, the +atheist, who had no mercy on the angels--who give no work to the lancet, +and cannot suffer from fistula or gastritis--in short, this audacious +scoffer kneeling humbly, and where? In the Lady Chapel, where he +remained through the mass, giving alms for the expenses of the service, +alms for the poor, and looking as serious as though he were +superintending an operation. + +"He has certainly not come here to clear up the question of the Virgin's +delivery," said Bianchon to himself, astonished beyond measure. "If I +had caught him holding one of the ropes of the canopy on Corpus Christi +day, it would be a thing to laugh at; but at this hour, alone, with no +one to see--it is surely a thing to marvel at!" + +Bianchon did not wish to seem as though he were spying the head surgeon +of the Hotel-Dieu; he went away. As it happened, Desplein asked him to +dine with him that day, not at his own house, but at a restaurant. At +dessert Bianchon skilfully contrived to talk of the mass, speaking of it +as mummery and a farce. + +"A farce," said Desplein, "which has cost Christendom more blood than +all Napoleon's battles and all Broussais' leeches. The mass is a papal +invention, not older than the sixth century, and based on the _Hoc est +corpus_. What floods of blood were shed to establish the Fete-Dieu, the +Festival of Corpus Christi--the institution by which Rome established +her triumph in the question of the Real Presence, a schism which rent +the Church during three centuries! The wars of the Count of Toulouse +against the Albigenses were the tail end of that dispute. The Vaudois +and the Albigenses refused to recognize this innovation." + +In short, Desplein was delighted to disport himself in his most +atheistical vein; a flow of Voltairean satire, or, to be accurate, a +vile imitation of the _Citateur_. + +"Hallo! where is my worshiper of this morning?" said Bianchon to +himself. + +He said nothing; he began to doubt whether he had really seen his chief +at Saint-Sulpice. Desplein would not have troubled himself to tell +Bianchon a lie, they knew each other too well; they had already +exchanged thoughts on quite equally serious subjects, and discussed +systems de natura rerum, probing or dissecting them with the knife and +scalpel of incredulity. + +Three months went by. Bianchon did not attempt to follow the matter up, +though it remained stamped on his memory. One day that year, one of the +physicians of the Hotel-Dieu took Desplein by the arm, as if to question +him, in Bianchon's presence. + +"What were you doing at Saint-Sulpice, my dear master?" said he. + +"I went to see a priest who has a diseased knee-bone, and to whom the +Duchesse d'Angouleme did me the honor to recommend me," said Desplein. + +The questioner took this defeat for an answer; not so Bianchon. + +"Oh, he goes to see damaged knees in church!--He went to mass," said the +young man to himself. + +Bianchon resolved to watch Desplein. He remembered the day and hour when +he had detected him going into Saint-Sulpice, and resolved to be there +again next year on the same day and at the same hour, to see if he +should find him there again. In that case the periodicity of his +devotion would justify a scientific investigation; for in such a man +there ought to be no direct antagonism of thought and action. + +Next year, on the said day and hour, Bianchon, who had already ceased to +be Desplein's house surgeon, saw the great man's cab standing at the +corner of the Rue de Tournon and the Rue du Petit-Lion, whence his +friend jesuitically crept along by the wall of Saint-Sulpice, and once +more attended mass in front of the Virgin's altar. It was Desplein, sure +enough! The master-surgeon, the atheist at heart, the worshiper by +chance. The mystery was greater than ever; the regularity of the +phenomenon complicated it. When Desplein had left, Bianchon went to the +sacristan, who took charge of the chapel, and asked him whether the +gentleman were a constant worshiper. + +"For twenty years that I have been here," replied the man, "M. Desplein +has come four times a year to attend this mass. He founded it." + +"A mass founded by him!" said Bianchon, as he went away. "This is as +great a mystery as the Immaculate Conception--an article which alone is +enough to make a physician an unbeliever." + +Some time elapsed before Doctor Bianchon, though so much his friend, +found an opportunity of speaking to Desplein of this incident of his +life. Though they met in consultation, or in society, it was difficult +to find an hour of confidential solitude when, sitting with their feet +on the fire-dogs and their head resting on the back of an armchair, two +men tell each other their secrets. At last, seven years later, after the +Revolution of 1830, when the mob invaded the Archbishop's residence, +when Republican agitators spurred them on to destroy the gilt crosses +which flashed like streaks of lightning in the immensity of the ocean of +houses; when Incredulity flaunted itself in the streets, side by side +with Rebellion, Bianchon once more detected Desplein going into +Saint-Sulpice. The doctor followed him, and knelt down by him without the +slightest notice or demonstration of surprise from his friend. They both +attended this mass of his founding. + +"Will you tell me, my dear fellow," said Bianchon, as they left the +church, "the reason for your fit of monkishness? I have caught you three +times going to mass---- You! You must account to me for this mystery, +explain such a flagrant disagreement between your opinions and your +conduct. You do not believe in God, and yet you attend mass? My dear +master, you are bound to give me an answer." + +"I am like a great many devout people, men who on the surface are deeply +religious, but quite as much atheists as you or I can be." + +And he poured out a torrent of epigrams on certain political personages, +of whom the best known gives us, in this century, a new edition of +Moliere's _Tartufe_. + +"All that has nothing to do with my question," retorted Bianchon. "I +want to know the reason for what you have just been doing, and why you +founded this mass." + +"Faith! my dear boy," said Desplein, "I am on the verge of the tomb; I +may safely tell you about the beginning of my life." + +At this moment Bianchon and the great man were in the Rue des +Quatre-Vents, one of the worst streets in Paris. Desplein pointed to +the sixth floor of one of the houses looking like obelisks, of which +the narrow door opens into a passage with a winding staircase at the +end, with windows appropriately termed "borrowed lights"--or, in French, +_jours de souffrance_. It was a greenish structure; the ground floor +occupied by a furniture-dealer, while each floor seemed to shelter a +different and independent form of misery. Throwing up his arm with a +vehement gesture, Desplein exclaimed: + +"I lived up there for two years." + +"I know; Arthez lived there; I went up there almost every day during my +first youth; we used to call it then the pickle-jar of great men! What +then?" + +"The mass I have just attended is connected with some events which took +place at the time when I lived in the garret where you say Arthez lived; +the one with the window where the clothes line is hanging with linen +over a pot of flowers. My early life was so hard, my dear Bianchon, that +I may dispute the palm of Paris suffering with any man living. I have +endured everything: hunger and thirst, want of money, want of clothes, +of shoes, of linen, every cruelty that penury can inflict. I have blown +on my frozen fingers in that _pickle-jar of great men_, which I should +like to see again, now, with you. I worked through a whole winter, +seeing my head steam, and perceiving the atmosphere of my own moisture +as we see that of horses on a frosty day. I do not know where a man +finds the fulcrum that enables him to hold out against such a life. + +"I was alone, with no one to help me, no money to buy books or to pay +the expenses of my medical training; I had not a friend; my irascible, +touchy, restless temper was against me. No one understood that this +irritability was the distress and toil of a man who, at the bottom of +the social scale, is struggling to reach the surface. Still, I had, +as I may say to you, before whom I need wear no draperies, I had that +ground-bed of good feeling and keen sensitiveness which must always be +the birthright of any man who is strong enough to climb to any height +whatever, after having long trampled in the bogs of poverty. I could +obtain nothing from my family, nor from my home, beyond my inadequate +allowance. In short, at that time, I breakfasted off a roll which the +baker in the Rue du Petit-Lion sold me cheap because it was left from +yesterday or the day before, and I crumbled it into milk; thus my +morning meal cost me but two sous. I dined only every other day in a +boarding-house where the meal cost me sixteen sous. You know as well as +I what care I must have taken of my clothes and shoes. I hardly know +whether in later life we feel grief so deep when a colleague plays us +false as we have known, you and I, on detecting the mocking smile of a +gaping seam in a shoe, or hearing the armhole of a coat split, I drank +nothing but water; I regarded a cafe with distant respect. Zoppi's +seemed to me a promised land where none but the Lucullus of the _pays +Latin_ had a right of entry. 'Shall I ever take a cup of coffee there +with milk in it?' said I to myself, 'or play a game of dominoes?' + +"I threw into my work the fury I felt at my misery. I tried to master +positive knowledge so as to acquire the greatest personal value, and +merit the position I should hold as soon as I could escape from +nothingness. I consumed more oil than bread; the light I burned during +these endless nights cost me more than food. It was a long duel, +obstinate, with no sort of consolation. I found no sympathy anywhere. To +have friends, must we not form connections with young men, have a few +sous so as to be able to go tippling with them, and meet them where +students congregate? And I had nothing! And no one in Paris can +understand that nothing means _nothing_. When I even thought of revealing +my beggary, I had that nervous contraction of the throat which makes a +sick man believe that a ball rises up from the oesophagus into the +larynx. + +"In later life I have met people born to wealth who, never having wanted +for anything, had never even heard this problem in the rule of three: A +young man is to crime as a five-franc piece is to X.--These gilded +idiots say to me, 'Why did you get into debt? Why did you involve +yourself in such onerous obligations?' They remind me of the princess +who, on hearing that the people lacked bread, said, 'Why do not they buy +cakes?' I should like to see one of these rich men, who complain that I +charge too much for an operation,--yes, I should like to see him alone +in Paris without a sou, without a friend, without credit, and forced to +work with his five fingers to live at all! What would he do? Where would +he go to satisfy his hunger? + +"Bianchon, if you have sometimes seen me hard and bitter, it was because +I was adding my early sufferings on to the insensibility, the +selfishness of which I have seen thousands of instances in the highest +circles; or, perhaps, I was thinking of the obstacles which hatred, +envy, jealousy, and calumny raised up between me and success. In Paris, +when certain people see you ready to set your foot in the stirrup, some +pull your coat-tails, others loosen the buckle of the strap that you may +fall and crack your skull; one wrenches off your horse's shoes, another +steals your whip, and the least treacherous of them all is the man whom +you see coming to fire his pistol at you point blank. + +"You yourself, my dear boy, are clever enough to make acquaintance +before long with the odious and incessant warfare waged by mediocrity +against the superior man. If you should drop five-and-twenty louis one +day, you will be accused of gambling on the next, and your best friends +will report that you have lost twenty-five thousand. If you have a +headache, you will be considered mad. If you are a little hasty, no one +can live with you. If, to make a stand against this armament of pigmies, +you collect your best powers, your best friends will cry out that you +want to have everything, that you aim at domineering, at tyranny. In +short, your good points will become your faults, your faults will be +vices, and your virtues crime. + +"If you save a man, you will be said to have killed him; if he reappears +on the scene, it will be positive that you have secured the present at +the cost of the future. If he is not dead, he will die. Stumble, and you +fall! Invent anything of any kind and claim your rights, you will be +crotchety, cunning, ill-disposed to rising younger men. + +"So, you see, my dear fellow, if I do not believe in God, I believe +still less in man. But do not you know in me another Desplein, +altogether different from the Desplein whom every one abuses?--However, +we will not stir that mud-heap. + +"Well, I was living in that house, I was working hard to pass my first +examination, and I had no money at all. You know. I had come to one of +those moments of extremity when a man says, 'I will enlist.' I had one +hope. I expected from my home a box full of linen, a present from one of +those old aunts who, knowing nothing of Paris, think of your shirts, +while they imagine that their nephew with thirty francs a month is +eating ortolans. The box arrived while I was at the schools; it had cost +forty francs for carriage. The porter, a German shoemaker living in a +loft, had paid the money and kept the box. I walked up and down the Rue +des Fosses-Saint-Germain-des-Pres and the Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine +without hitting on any scheme which would release my trunk without the +payment of the forty francs, which of course I could pay as soon as I +should have sold the linen. My stupidity proved to me that surgery was +my only vocation. My good fellow, refined souls, whose powers move in a +lofty atmosphere, have none of that spirit of intrigue that is fertile +in resource and device; their good genius is chance; they do not invent, +things come to them. + +"At night I went home, at the very moment when my fellow lodger also +came in--a water-carrier named Bourgeat, a native of Saint-Flour. We +knew each other as two lodgers do who have rooms off the same landing, +and who hear each other sleeping, coughing, dressing, and so at last +become used to one another. My neighbor informed me that the landlord, +to whom I owed three quarters' rent, had turned me out; I must clear out +next morning. He himself was also turned out on account of his +occupation. I spent the most miserable night of my life. Where was I to +get a messenger who could carry my few chattels and my books? How could +I pay him and the porter? Where was I to go? I repeated these +unanswerable questions again and again, in tears, as madmen repeat their +tunes. I fell asleep; poverty has for its friends heavenly slumbers full +of beautiful dreams. + +"Next morning, just as I was swallowing my little bowl of bread soaked +in milk, Bourgeat came in and said to me in his vile Auvergne accent: + +"'_Mouchieur l'Etudiant_, I am a poor man, a foundling from the hospital +at Saint-Flour, without either father or mother, and not rich enough to +marry. You are not fertile in relations either, nor well supplied with +the ready? Listen, I have a hand-cart downstairs which I have hired for +two sous an hour; it will hold all our goods; if you like, we will try +to find lodgings together, since we are both turned out of this. It is +not the earthly paradise, when all is said and done.' + +"'I know that, my good Bourgeat,' said I. 'But I am in a great fix. I +have a trunk downstairs with a hundred francs' worth of linen in it, out +of which I could pay the landlord and all I owe to the porter, and I +have not a hundred sous.' + +"'Pooh! I have a few dibs,' replied Bourgeat joyfully, and he pulled +out a greasy old leather purse. 'Keep your linen.' + +"Bourgeat paid up my arrears and his own, and settled with the porter. +Then he put our furniture and my box of linen in his cart, and pulled it +along the street, stopping in front of every house where there was a +notice board. I went up to see whether the rooms to let would suit us. +At midday we were still wandering about the neighborhood without having +found anything. The price was the great difficulty. Bourgeat proposed +that we should eat at a wine shop, leaving the cart at the door. Towards +evening I discovered, in the Cour de Rohan, Passage du Commerce, at the +very top of a house next the roof, two rooms with a staircase between +them. Each of us was to pay sixty francs a year. So there we were +housed, my humble friend and I. We dined together. Bourgeat, who earned +about fifty sous a day, had saved a hundred crowns or so; he would soon +be able to gratify his ambition by buying a barrel and a horse. On +learning of my situation--for he extracted my secrets with a quiet +craftiness and good nature, of which the remembrance touches my heart to +this day, he gave up for a time the ambition of his whole life; for +twenty-two years he had been carrying water in the street, and he now +devoted his hundred crowns to my future prospects." + +Desplein at these words clutched Bianchon's arm tightly. "He gave me the +money for my examination fees! That man, my friend, understood that I +had a mission, that the needs of my intellect were greater than his. He +looked after me, he called me his boy, he lent me money to buy books, he +would come in softly sometimes to watch me at work, and took a mother's +care in seeing that I had wholesome and abundant food, instead of the +bad and insufficient nourishment I had been condemned to. Bourgeat, a +man of about forty, had a homely, mediaeval type of face, a prominent +forehead, a head that a painter might have chosen as a model for that of +Lycurgus. The poor man's heart was big with affections seeking an +object; he had never been loved but by a poodle that had died some time +since, of which he would talk to me, asking whether I thought the Church +would allow masses to be said for the repose of its soul. His dog, said +he, had been a good Christian, who for twelve years had accompanied him +to church, never barking, listening to the organ without opening his +mouth, and crouching beside him in a way that made it seem as though he +were praying too. + +"This man centered all his affections in me; he looked upon me as a +forlorn and suffering creature, and he became, to me, the most +thoughtful mother, the most considerate benefactor, the ideal of the +virtue which rejoices in its own work. When I met him in the street, he +would throw me a glance of intelligence full of unutterable dignity; he +would affect to walk as though he carried no weight, and seemed happy in +seeing me in good health and well dressed. It was, in fact, the devoted +affection of the lower classes, the love of a girl of the people +transferred to a loftier level. Bourgeat did all my errands, woke me at +night at any fixed hour, trimmed my lamp, cleaned our landing; as good +as a servant as he was as a father, and as clean as an English girl. He +did all the housework. Like Philopoemen, he sawed our wood, and gave to +all he did the grace of simplicity while preserving his dignity, for he +seemed to understand that the end ennobles every act. + +"When I left this good fellow, to be house surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, I +felt an indescribable, dull pain, knowing that he could no longer live +with me; but he comforted himself with the prospect of saving up money +enough for me to take my degree, and he made me promise to go to see him +whenever I had a day out: Bourgeat was proud of me. He loved me for my +own sake, and for his own. If you look up my thesis, you will see that I +dedicated it to him. + +"During the last year of my residence as house surgeon I earned enough +to repay all I owed to this worthy Auvergnat by buying him a barrel and +a horse. He was furious with rage at learning that I had been depriving +myself of spending my money, and yet he was delighted to see his wishes +fulfilled; he laughed and scolded, he looked at his barrel, at his +horse, and wiped away a tear, as he said, 'It is too bad. What a +splendid barrel! You really ought not. Why, that horse is as strong as +an Auvergnat!' + +"I never saw a more touching scene. Bourgeat insisted on buying for me +the case of instruments mounted in silver which you have seen in my +room, and which is to me the most precious thing there. Though enchanted +with my first success, never did the least sign, the least word, escape +him which might imply, 'This man owes all to me!' And yet, but for him, +I should have died of want; he had eaten bread rubbed with garlic that I +might have coffee to enable me to sit up at night. + +"He fell ill. As you may suppose, I passed my nights by his bedside, and +the first time I pulled him through; but two years after he had a +relapse; in spite of the utmost care, in spite of the greatest exertions +of science, he succumbed. No king was ever nursed as he was. Yes, +Bianchon, to snatch that man from death I tried unheard-of things. I +wanted him to live long enough to show him his work accomplished, to +realize all his hopes, to give expression to the only need for gratitude +that ever filled my heart, to quench a fire that burns in me to this +day. + +"Bourgeat, my second father, died in my arms," Desplein went on, after a +pause, visibly moved. "He left me everything he possessed by a will he +had had made by a public scrivener, dating from the year when we had +gone to live in the Cour de Rohan. + +"This man's faith was perfect; he loved the Holy Virgin as he might have +loved his wife. He was an ardent Catholic, but never said a word to me +about my want of religion. When he was dying he entreated me to spare no +expense that he might have every possible benefit of clergy. I had a +mass said for him every day. Often, in the night, he would tell me of +his fears as to his future fate; he feared his life had not been saintly +enough. Poor man! he was at work from morning till night. For whom, +then, is Paradise--if there be a Paradise? He received the last +sacrament like the saint that he was, and his death was worthy of his +life. + +"I alone followed him to the grave. When I had laid my only benefactor +to rest, I looked about to see how I could pay my debt to him; I found +he had neither family nor friends, neither wife nor child. But he +believed. He had a religious conviction; had I any right to dispute it? +He had spoken to me timidly of masses said for the repose of the dead; +he would not impress it on me as a duty, thinking that it would be a +form of repayment for his services. As soon as I had money enough I paid +to Saint-Sulpice the requisite sum for four masses every year. As the +only thing I can do for Bourgeat is thus to satisfy his pious wishes, on +the days when that mass is said, at the beginning of each season of the +year, I go for his sake and say the required prayers; and I say with the +good faith of a sceptic--'Great God, if there is a sphere which Thou +hast appointed after death for those who have been perfect, remember +good Bourgeat; and if he should have anything to suffer, let me suffer +it for him, that he may enter all the sooner into what is called +Paradise.' + +"That, my dear fellow, is as much as a man who holds my opinions can +allow himself. But God must be a good fellow; He cannot owe me any +grudge. I swear to you, I would give my whole fortune if faith such as +Bourgeat's could enter my brain." + + + +Bianchon, who was with Desplein all through his last illness, dares not +affirm to this day that the great surgeon died an atheist. Will not +those who believe like to fancy that the humble Auvergnat came to open +the gate of Heaven to his friend, as he did that of the earthly temple +on whose pediment we read the words--"A grateful country to its great +men." + + + +PARIS, January 1836. + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Desplein + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Atheist's Mass, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ATHEIST'S MASS *** + +***** This file should be named 1220.txt or 1220.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/2/1220/ + +Produced by Dagny and Bonnie + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.net/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.net + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/old/20051203-1220.zip b/old/old/20051203-1220.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a77c969 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/20051203-1220.zip diff --git a/old/old/athms10.txt b/old/old/athms10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7af2f83 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/athms10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1020 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac +#5 in our series by Balzac + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +The Atheist's Mass + +by Honore de Balzac + +Translated by Clara Bell + +February, 1998 [Etext #1220] + + +Project Gutenberg Etext of The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac +******This file should be named athms10.txt or athms10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, athms11.txt. +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, athms10a.txt. + + +Etext prepared by Dagny (dagnyj@hotmail.com) and Bonnie + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, for time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text +files per month, or 384 more Etexts in 1997 for a total of 1000+ +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach over 100 billion Etexts given away. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only 10% of the present number of computer users. 2001 +should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it +will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001. + + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +We would prefer to send you this information by email +(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail). + +****** +If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please +FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives: +[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type] + +ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd etext/etext90 through /etext96 +or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information] +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET INDEX?00.GUT +for a list of books +and +GET NEW GUT for general information +and +MGET GUT* for newsletters. + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny (dagnyj@hotmail.com) and Bonnie + +Typed and first proof by Dagny. +dagnyj@hotmail.com + + + + + +THE ATHEIST'S MASS + +BY + +HONORE DE BALZAC + + + +Translator, +Clara Bell + + + +This is dedicated to Auguste Borget by his friend De Balzac + + + + +Bianchon, a physician to whom science owes a fine system of +theoretical physiology, and who, while still young, made himself +a celebrity in the medical school of Paris, that central luminary +to which European doctors do homage, practised surgery for a long +time before he took up medicine. His earliest studies were guided +by one of the greatest of French surgeons, the illustrious +Desplein, who flashed across science like a meteor. By the +consensus even of his enemies, he took with him to the tomb an +incommunicable method. Like all men of genius, he had no heirs; +he carried everything in him, and carried it away with him. The +glory of a surgeon is like that of an actor: they live only so +long as they are alive, and their talent leaves no trace when +they are gone. Actors and surgeons, like great singers too, like +the executants who by their performance increase the power of +music tenfold, are all the heroes of a moment. + +Desplein is a case in proof of this resemblance in the destinies +of such transient genius. His name, yesterday so famous, to-day +almost forgotten, will survive in his special department without +crossing its limits. For must there not be some extraordinary +circumstances to exalt the name of a professor from the history +of Science to the general history of the human race? Had Desplein +that universal command of knowledge which makes a man the living +word, the great figure of his age? Desplein had a godlike eye; he +saw into the sufferer and his malady by an intuition, natural or +acquired, which enabled him to grasp the diagnostics peculiar to +the individual, to determine the very time, the hour, the minute +when an operation should be performed, making due allowance for +atmospheric conditions and peculiarities of individual +temperament. To proceed thus, hand in hand with nature, had he +then studied the constant assimilation by living beings, of the +elements contained in the atmosphere, or yielded by the earth to +man who absorbs them, deriving from them a particular expression +of life? Did he work it all out by the power of deduction and +analogy, to which we owe the genius of Cuvier? Be this as it may, +this man was in all the secrets of the human frame; he knew it in +the past and in the future, emphasizing the present. + +But did he epitomize all science in his own person as Hippocrates +did and Galen and Aristotle? Did he guide a whole school towards +new worlds? No. Though it is impossible to deny that this +persistent observer of human chemistry possessed that antique +science of the Mages, that is to say, knowledge of the elements +in fusion, the causes of life, life antecedent to life, and what +it must be in its incubation or ever it IS, it must be confessed +that, unfortunately, everything in him was purely personal. +Isolated during his life by his egoism, that egoism is now +suicidal of his glory. On his tomb there is no proclaiming statue +to repeat to posterity the mysteries which genius seeks out at +its own cost. + +But perhaps Desplein's genius was answerable for his beliefs, and +for that reason mortal. To him the terrestrial atmosphere was a +generative envelope; he saw the earth as an egg within its shell; +and not being able to determine whether the egg or the hen first +was, he would not recognize either the cock or the egg. He +believed neither in the antecedent animal nor the surviving +spirit of man. Desplein had no doubts; he was positive. His bold +and unqualified atheism was like that of many scientific men, the +best men in the world, but invincible atheists--atheists such as +religious people declare to be impossible. This opinion could +scarcely exist otherwise in a man who was accustomed from his +youth to dissect the creature above all others--before, during, +and after life; to hunt through all his organs without ever +finding the individual soul, which is indispensable to religious +theory. When he detected a cerebral centre, a nervous centre, and +a centre for aerating the blood--the first two so perfectly +complementary that in the latter years of his life he came to a +conviction that the sense of hearing is not absolutely necessary +for hearing, nor the sense of sight for seeing, and that the +solar plexus could supply their place without any possibility of +doubt--Desplein, thus finding two souls in man, confirmed his +atheism by this fact, though it is no evidence against God. This +man died, it is said, in final impenitence, as do, unfortunately, +many noble geniuses, whom God may forgive. + +The life of this man, great as he was, was marred by many +meannesses, to use the expression employed by his enemies, who +were anxious to diminish his glory, but which it would be more +proper to call apparent contradictions. Envious people and fools, +having no knowledge of the determinations by which superior +spirits are moved, seize at once on superficial inconsistencies, +to formulate an accusation and so to pass sentence on them. If, +subsequently, the proceedings thus attacked are crowned with +success, showing the correlations of the preliminaries and the +results, a few of the vanguard of calumnies always survive. In +our day, for instance, Napoleon was condemned by our +contemporaries when he spread his eagle's wings to alight in +England: only 1822 could explain 1804 and the flatboats at +Boulogne. + +As, in Desplein, his glory and science were invulnerable, his +enemies attacked his odd moods and his temper, whereas, in fact, +he was simply characterized by what the English call +eccentricity. Sometimes very handsomely dressed, like Crebillon +the tragical, he would suddenly affect extreme indifference as to +what he wore; he was sometimes seen in a carriage, and sometimes +on foot. By turns rough and kind, harsh and covetous on the +surface, but capable of offering his whole fortune to his exiled +masters--who did him the honor of accepting it for a few days--no +man ever gave rise to such contradictory judgements. Although to +obtain a black ribbon, which physicians ought not to intrigue +for, he was capable of dropping a prayer-book out of his pocket +at Court, in his heart he mocked at everything; he had a deep +contempt for men, after studying them from above and below, after +detecting their genuine expression when performing the most +solemn and the meanest acts of their lives. + +The qualities of a great man are often federative. If among these +colossal spirits one has more talent than wit, his wit is still +superior to that of a man of whom it is simply stated that "he is +witty." Genius always presupposes moral insight. This insight may +be applied to a special subject; but he who can see a flower must +be able to see the sun. The man who on hearing a diplomate he has +saved ask, "How is the Emperor?" could say, "The courtier is +alive; the man will follow!"--that man is not merely a surgeon or +a physician, he is prodigiously witty also. Hence a patient and +diligent student of human nature will admit Desplein's exorbitant +pretensions, and believe--as he himself believed--that he might +have been no less great as a minister than he was as a surgeon. + +Among the riddles which Desplein's life presents to many of his +contemporaries, we have chosen one of the most interesting, +because the answer is to be found at the end of the narrative, +and will avenge him for some foolish charges. + +Of all the students in Desplein's hospital, Horace Bianchon was +one of those to whom he most warmly attached himself. Before +being a house surgeon at the Hotel-Dieu, Horace Bianchon had been +a medical student lodging in a squalid boarding house in the +Quartier Latin, known as the Maison Vauquer. This poor young man +had felt there the gnawing of that burning poverty which is a +sort of crucible from which great talents are to emerge as pure +and incorruptible as diamonds, which may be subjected to any +shock without being crushed. In the fierce fire of their +unbridled passions they acquire the most impeccable honesty, and +get into the habit of fighting the battles which await genius +with the constant work by which they coerce their cheated +appetites. + +Horace was an upright young fellow, incapable of tergiversation +on a matter of honor, going to the point without waste of words, +and as ready to pledge his cloak for a friend as to give him his +time and his night hours. Horace, in short, was one of those +friends who are never anxious as to what they may get in return +for what they give, feeling sure that they will in their turn get +more than they give. Most of his friends felt for him that +deeply-seated respect which is inspired by unostentatious virtue, +and many of them dreaded his censure. But Horace made no pedantic +display of his qualities. He was neither a puritan nor a +preacher; he could swear with a grace as he gave his advice, and +was always ready for a jollification when occasion offered. A +jolly companion, not more prudish than a trooper, as frank and +outspoken--not as a sailor, for nowadays sailors are wily +diplomates--but as an honest man who has nothing in his life to +hide, he walked with his head erect, and a mind content. In +short, to put the facts into a word, Horace was the Pylades of +more than one Orestes--creditors being regarded as the nearest +modern equivalent to the Furies of the ancients. + +He carried his poverty with the cheerfulness which is perhaps one +of the chief elements of courage, and, like all people who have +nothing, he made very few debts. As sober as a camel and active +as a stag, he was steadfast in his ideas and his conduct. + +The happy phase of Bianchon's life began on the day when the +famous surgeon had proof of the qualities and the defects which, +these no less than those, make Doctor Horace Bianchon doubly dear +to his friends. When a leading clinical practitioner takes a +young man to his bosom, that young man has, as they say, his foot +in the stirrup. Desplein did not fail to take Bianchon as his +assistant to wealthy houses, where some complimentary fee almost +always found its way into the student's pocket, and where the +mysteries of Paris life were insensibly revealed to the young +provincial; he kept him at his side when a consultation was to be +held, and gave him occupation; sometimes he would send him to a +watering-place with a rich patient; in fact, he was making a +practice for him. The consequence was that in the course of time +the Tyrant of surgery had a devoted ally. These two men--one at +the summit of honor and of his science, enjoying an immense +fortune and an immense reputation; the other a humble Omega, +having neither fortune nor fame--became intimate friends. + +The great Desplein told his house surgeon everything; the +disciple knew whether such or such a woman had sat on a chair +near the master, or on the famous couch in Desplein's surgery, on +which he slept. Bianchon knew the mysteries of that temperament, +a compound of the lion and the bull, which at last expanded and +enlarged beyond measure the great man's torso, and caused his +death by degeneration of the heart. He studied the eccentricities +of that busy life, the schemes of that sordid avarice, the hopes +of the politician who lurked behind the man of science; he was +able to foresee the mortifications that awaited the only +sentiment that lay hid in a heart that was steeled, but not of +steel. + +One day Bianchon spoke to Desplein of a poor water-carrier of the +Saint-Jacques district, who had a horrible disease caused by +fatigue and want; this wretched Auvergnat had had nothing but +potatoes to eat during the dreadful winter of 1821. Desplein left +all his visits, and at the risk of killing his horse, he rushed +off, followed by Bianchon, to the poor man's dwelling, and saw, +himself, to his being removed to a sick house, founded by the +famous Dubois in the Faubourg Saint-Denis. Then he went to attend +the man, and when he had cured him he gave him the necessary sum +to buy a horse and a water-barrel. This Auvergnat distinguished +himself by an amusing action. One of his friends fell ill, and he +took him at once to Desplein, saying to his benefactor, "I could +not have borne to let him go to any one else!" + +Rough customer as he was, Desplein grasped the water-carrier's +hand, and said, "Bring them all to me." + +He got the native of Cantal into the Hotel-Dieu, where he took +the greatest care of him. Bianchon had already observed in his +chief a predilection for Auvergnats, and especially for water +carriers; but as Desplein took a sort of pride in his cures at +the Hotel-Dieu, the pupil saw nothing very strange in that. + +One day, as he crossed the Place Saint-Sulpice, Bianchon caught +sight of his master going into the church at about nine in the +morning. Desplein, who at that time never went a step without his +cab, was on foot, and slipped in by the door in the Rue du Petit- +Lion, as if he were stealing into some house of ill fame. The +house surgeon, naturally possessed by curiosity, knowing his +master's opinions, and being himself a rabid follower of Cabanis +(Cabaniste en dyable, with the y, which in Rabelais seems to +convey an intensity of devilry)--Bianchon stole into the church, +and was not a little astonished to see the great Desplein, the +atheist, who had no mercy on the angels--who give no work to the +lancet, and cannot suffer from fistula or gastritis--in short, +this audacious scoffer kneeling humbly, and where? In the Lady +Chapel, where he remained through the mass, giving alms for the +expenses of the service, alms for the poor, and looking as +serious as though he were superintending an operation. + +"He has certainly not come here to clear up the question of the +Virgin's delivery," said Bianchon to himself, astonished beyond +measure. "If I had caught him holding one of the ropes of the +canopy on Corpus Christi day, it would be a thing to laugh at; +but at this hour, alone, with no one to see--it is surely a thing +to marvel at!" + +Bianchon did not wish to seem as though he were spying the head +surgeon of the Hotel-Dieu; he went away. As it happened, Desplein +asked him to dine with him that day, not at his own house, but at +a restaurant. At dessert Bianchon skilfully contrived to talk of +the mass, speaking of it as mummery and a farce. + +"A farce," said Desplein, "which has cost Christendom more blood +than all Napoleon's battles and all Broussais' leeches. The mass +is a papal invention, not older than the sixth century, and +based on the Hoc est corpus. What floods of blood were shed to +establish the Fete-Dieu, the Festival of Corpus Christi--the +institution by which Rome established her triumph in the question +of the Real Presence, a schism which rent the Church during three +centuries! The wars of the Count of Toulouse against the +Albigenses were the tail end of that dispute. The Vaudois and the +Albigenses refused to recognize this innovation." + +In short, Desplein was delighted to disport himself in his most +atheistical vein; a flow of Voltairean satire, or, to be +accurate, a vile imitation of the Citateur. + +"Hallo! where is my worshiper of this morning?" said Bianchon to +himself. + +He said nothing; he began to doubt whether he had really seen his +chief at Saint-Sulpice. Desplein would not have troubled himself +to tell Bianchon a lie, they knew each other too well; they had +already exchanged thoughts on quite equally serious subjects, and +discussed systems de natura rerum, probing or dissecting them +with the knife and scalpel of incredulity. + +Three months went by. Bianchon did not attempt to follow the +matter up, though it remained stamped on his memory. One day that +year, one of the physicians of the Hotel-Dieu took Desplein by +the arm, as if to question him, in Bianchon's presence. + +"What were you doing at Saint-Sulpice, my dear master?" said he. + +"I went to see a priest who has a diseased knee-bone, and to whom +the Duchesse d'Angouleme did me the honor to recommend me," said +Desplein. + +The questioner took this defeat for an answer; not so Bianchon. + +"Oh, he goes to see damaged knees in church!--He went to mass," +said the young man to himself. + +Bianchon resolved to watch Desplein. He remembered the day and +hour when he had detected him going into Saint-Sulpice, and +resolved to be there again next year on the same day and at the +same hour, to see if he should find him there again. In that case +the periodicity of his devotion would justify a scientific +investigation; for in such a man there ought to be no direct +antagonism of thought and action. + +Next year, on the said day and hour, Bianchon, who had already +ceased to be Desplein's house surgeon, saw the great man's cab +standing at the corner of the Rue de Tournon and the Rue du +Petit-Lion, whence his friend jesuitically crept along by the +wall of Saint-Sulpice, and once more attended mass in front of +the Virgin's altar. It was Desplein, sure enough! The master- +surgeon, the atheist at heart, the worshiper by chance. The +mystery was greater than ever; the regularity of the phenomenon +complicated it. When Desplein had left, Bianchon went to the +sacristan, who took charge of the chapel, and asked him whether +the gentleman were a constant worshiper. + +"For twenty years that I have been here," replied the man, "M. +Desplein has come four times a year to attend this mass. He +founded it." + +"A mass founded by him!" said Bianchon, as he went away. "This is +as great a mystery as the Immaculate Conception--an article which +alone is enough to make a physician an unbeliever." + +Some time elapsed before Doctor Bianchon, though so much his +friend, found an opportunity of speaking to Desplein of this +incident of his life. Though they met in consultation, or in +society, it was difficult to find an hour of confidential +solitude when, sitting with their feet on the fire-dogs and their +head resting on the back of an armchair, two men tell each other +their secrets. At last, seven years later, after the Revolution +of 1830, when the mob invaded the Archbishop's residence, when +Republican agitators spurred them on to destroy the gilt crosses +which flashed like streaks of lightning in the immensity of the +ocean of houses; when Incredulity flaunted itself in the streets, +side by side with Rebellion, Bianchon once more detected Desplein +going into Saint-Sulpice. The doctor followed him, and knelt down +by him without the slightest notice or demonstration of surprise +from his friend. They both attended this mass of his founding. + +"Will you tell me, my dear fellow," said Bianchon, as they left +the church, "the reason for your fit of monkishness? I have +caught you three times going to mass---- You! You must account to +me for this mystery, explain such a flagrant disagreement between +your opinions and your conduct. You do not believe in God, and +yet you attend mass? My dear master, you are bound to give me an +answer." + +"I am like a great many devout people, men who on the surface are +deeply religious, but quite as much atheists as you or I can be." + +And he poured out a torrent of epigrams on certain political +personages, of whom the best known gives us, in this century, a +new edition of Moliere's Tartufe. + +"All that has nothing to do with my question," retorted Bianchon. +"I want to know the reason for what you have just been doing, and +why you founded this mass." + +"Faith! my dear boy," said Desplein, "I am on the verge of the +tomb; I may safely tell you about the beginning of my life." + +At this moment Bianchon and the great man were in the Rue des +Quatre-Vents, one of the worst streets in Paris. Desplein pointed +to the sixth floor of one of the houses looking like obelisks, of +which the narrow door opens into a passage with a winding +staircase at the end, with windows appropriately termed "borrowed +lights"--or, in French, jours de souffrance. It was a greenish +structure; the ground floor occupied by a furniture-dealer, while +each floor seemed to shelter a different and independent form of +misery. Throwing up his arm with a vehement gesture, Desplein +exclaimed: + +"I lived up there for two years." + +"I know; Arthez lived there; I went up there almost every day +during my first youth; we used to call it then the pickle-jar of +great men! What then?" + +"The mass I have just attended is connected with some events +which took place at the time when I lived in the garret where you +say Arthez lived; the one with the window where the clothes line +is hanging with linen over a pot of flowers. My early life was so +hard, my dear Bianchon, that I may dispute the palm of Paris +suffering with any man living. I have endured everything: hunger +and thirst, want of money, want of clothes, of shoes, of linen, +every cruelty that penury can inflict. I have blown on my frozen +fingers in that PICKLE-JAR OF GREAT MEN, which I should like to +see again, now, with you. I worked through a whole winter, seeing +my head steam, and perceiving the atmosphere of my own moisture +as we see that of horses on a frosty day. I do not know where a +man finds the fulcrum that enables him to hold out against such a +life. + +"I was alone, with no one to help me, no money to buy books or to +pay the expenses of my medical training; I had not a friend; my +irascible, touchy, restless temper was against me. No one +understood that this irritability was the distress and toil of a +man who, at the bottom of the social scale, is struggling to +reach the surface. Still, I had, as I may say to you, before whom +I need wear no draperies, I had that ground-bed of good feeling +and keen sensitiveness which must always be the birthright of any +man who is strong enough to climb to any height whatever, after +having long trampled in the bogs of poverty. I could obtain +nothing from my family, nor from my home, beyond my inadequate +allowance. In short, at that time, I breakfasted off a roll which +the baker in the Rue du Petit-Lion sold me cheap because it was +left from yesterday or the day before, and I crumbled it into +milk; thus my morning meal cost me but two sous. I dined only +every other day in a boarding-house where the meal cost me +sixteen sous. You know as well as I what care I must have taken +of my clothes and shoes. I hardly know whether in later life we +feel grief so deep when a colleague plays us false as we have +known, you and I, on detecting the mocking smile of a gaping seam +in a shoe, or hearing the armhole of a coat split, I drank +nothing but water; I regarded a cafe with distant respect. +Zoppi's seemed to me a promised land where none but the Lucullus +of the pays Latin had a right of entry. 'Shall I ever take a cup +of coffee there with milk in it?' said I to myself, 'or play a +game of dominoes?' + +"I threw into my work the fury I felt at my misery. I tried to +master positive knowledge so as to acquire the greatest personal +value, and merit the position I should hold as soon as I could +escape from nothingness. I consumed more oil than bread; the +light I burned during these endless nights cost me more than +food. It was a long duel, obstinate, with no sort of consolation. +I found no sympathy anywhere. To have friends, must we not form +connections with young men, have a few sous so as to be able to +go tippling with them, and meet them where students congregate? +And I had nothing! And no one in Paris can understand that +nothing means NOTHING. When I even thought of revealing my +beggary, I had that nervous contraction of the throat which makes +a sick man believe that a ball rises up from the oesophagus into +the larynx. + +"In later life I have met people born to wealth who, never having +wanted for anything, had never even heard this problem in the +rule of three: A young man is to crime as a five-franc piece is +to X.--These gilded idiots say to me, 'Why did you get into debt? +Why did you involve yourself in such onerous obligations?' They +remind me of the princess who, on hearing that the people lacked +bread, said, 'Why do not they buy cakes?' I should like to see +one of these rich men, who complain that I charge too much for an +operation,--yes, I should like to see him alone in Paris without +a sou, without a friend, without credit, and forced to work with +his five fingers to live at all! What would he do? Where would he +go to satisfy his hunger? + +"Bianchon, if you have sometimes seen me hard and bitter, it was +because I was adding my early sufferings on to the insensibility, +the selfishness of which I have seen thousands of instances in +the highest circles; or, perhaps, I was thinking of the obstacles +which hatred, envy, jealousy, and calumny raised up between me +and success. In Paris, when certain people see you ready to set +your foot in the stirrup, some pull your coat-tails, others +loosen the buckle of the strap that you may fall and crack your +skull; one wrenches off your horse's shoes, another steals your +whip, and the least treacherous of them all is the man whom you +see coming to fire his pistol at you point blank. + +"You yourself, my dear boy, are clever enough to make +acquaintance before long with the odious and incessant warfare +waged by mediocrity against the superior man. If you should drop +five-and-twenty louis one day, you will be accused of gambling on +the next, and your best friends will report that you have lost +twenty-five thousand. If you have a headache, you will be +considered mad. If you are a little hasty, no one can live with +you. If, to make a stand against this armament of pigmies, you +collect your best powers, your best friends will cry out that you +want to have everything, that you aim at domineering, at tyranny. +In short, your good points will become your faults, your faults +will be vices, and your virtues crime. + +"If you save a man, you will be said to have killed him; if he +reappears on the scene, it will be positive that you have secured +the present at the cost of the future. If he is not dead, he will +die. Stumble, and you fall! Invent anything of any kind and claim +your rights, you will be crotchety, cunning, ill-disposed to +rising younger men. + +"So, you see, my dear fellow, if I do not believe in God, I +believe still less in man. But do not you know in me another +Desplein, altogether different from the Desplein whom every one +abuses?--However, we will not stir that mud-heap. + +"Well, I was living in that house, I was working hard to pass my +first examination, and I had no money at all. You know. I had +come to one of those moments of extremity when a man says, 'I +will enlist.' I had one hope. I expected from my home a box full +of linen, a present from one of those old aunts who, knowing +nothing of Paris, think of your shirts, while they imagine that +their nephew with thirty francs a month is eating ortolans. The +box arrived while I was at the schools; it had cost forty francs +for carriage. The porter, a German shoemaker living in a loft, +had paid the money and kept the box. I walked up and down the Rue +des Fosses-Saint-Germain-des-Pres and the Rue de l'Ecole de +Medecine without hitting on any scheme which would release my +trunk without the payment of the forty francs, which of course I +could pay as soon as I should have sold the linen. My stupidity +proved to me that surgery was my only vocation. My good fellow, +refined souls, whose powers move in a lofty atmosphere, have none +of that spirit of intrigue that is fertile in resource and +device; their good genius is chance; they do not invent, things +come to them. + +"At night I went home, at the very moment when my fellow lodger +also came in--a water-carrier named Bourgeat, a native of Saint- +Flour. We knew each other as two lodgers do who have rooms off +the same landing, and who hear each other sleeping, coughing, +dressing, and so at last become used to one another. My neighbor +informed me that the landlord, to whom I owed three quarters' +rent, had turned me out; I must clear out next morning. He +himself was also turned out on account of his occupation. I spent +the most miserable night of my life. Where was I to get a +messenger who could carry my few chattels and my books? How could +I pay him and the porter? Where was I to go? I repeated these +unanswerable questions again and again, in tears, as madmen +repeat their tunes. I fell asleep; poverty has for its friends +heavenly slumbers full of beautiful dreams. + +"Next morning, just as I was swallowing my little bowl of bread +soaked in milk, Bourgeat came in and said to me in his vile +Auvergne accent: + +" 'Mouchieur l'Etudiant, I am a poor man, a foundling from the +hospital at Saint-Flour, without either father or mother, and not +rich enough to marry. You are not fertile in relations either, +nor well supplied with the ready? Listen, I have a hand-cart +downstairs which I have hired for two sous an hour; it will hold +all our goods; if you like, we will try to find lodgings +together, since we are both turned out of this. It is not the +earthly paradise, when all is said and done.' + +" 'I know that, my good Bourgeat,' said I. 'But I am in a great +fix. I have a trunk downstairs with a hundred francs' worth of +linen in it, out of which I could pay the landlord and all I owe +to the porter, and I have not a hundred sous.' + +" 'Pooh! I have a few dibs,' replied Bourgeat joyfully, and he +pulled out a greasy old leather purse. 'Keep your linen.' + +"Bourgeat paid up my arrears and his own, and settled with the +porter. Then he put our furniture and my box of linen in his +cart, and pulled it along the street, stopping in front of every +house where there was a notice board. I went up to see whether +the rooms to let would suit us. At midday we were still wandering +about the neighborhood without having found anything. The price +was the great difficulty. Bourgeat proposed that we should eat at +a wine shop, leaving the cart at the door. Towards evening I +discovered, in the Cour de Rohan, Passage du Commerce, at the +very top of a house next the roof, two rooms with a staircase +between them. Each of us was to pay sixty francs a year. So there +we were housed, my humble friend and I. We dined together. +Bourgeat, who earned about fifty sous a day, had saved a hundred +crowns or so; he would soon be able to gratify his ambition by +buying a barrel and a horse. On learning of my situation--for he +extracted my secrets with a quiet craftiness and good nature, of +which the remembrance touches my heart to this day, he gave up +for a time the ambition of his whole life; for twenty-two years +he had been carrying water in the street, and he now devoted his +hundred crowns to my future prospects." + +Desplein at these words clutched Bianchon's arm tightly. "He gave +me the money for my examination fees! That man, my friend, +understood that I had a mission, that the needs of my intellect +were greater than his. He looked after me, he called me his boy, +he lent me money to buy books, he would come in softly sometimes +to watch me at work, and took a mother's care in seeing that I +had wholesome and abundant food, instead of the bad and +insufficient nourishment I had been condemned to. Bourgeat, a man +of about forty, had a homely, mediaeval type of face, a prominent +forehead, a head that a painter might have chosen as a model for +that of Lycurgus. The poor man's heart was big with affections +seeking an object; he had never been loved but by a poodle that +had died some time since, of which he would talk to me, asking +whether I thought the Church would allow masses to be said for +the repose of its soul. His dog, said he, had been a good +Christian, who for twelve years had accompanied him to church, +never barking, listening to the organ without opening his mouth, +and crouching beside him in a way that made it seem as though he +were praying too. + +"This man centered all his affections in me; he looked upon me as +a forlorn and suffering creature, and he became, to me, the most +thoughtful mother, the most considerate benefactor, the ideal of +the virtue which rejoices in its own work. When I met him in the +street, he would throw me a glance of intelligence full of +unutterable dignity; he would affect to walk as though he carried +no weight, and seemed happy in seeing me in good health and well +dressed. It was, in fact, the devoted affection of the lower +classes, the love of a girl of the people transferred to a +loftier level. Bourgeat did all my errands, woke me at night at +any fixed hour, trimmed my lamp, cleaned our landing; as good as +a servant as he was as a father, and as clean as an English girl. +He did all the housework. Like Philopoemen, he sawed our wood, +and gave to all he did the grace of simplicity while preserving +his dignity, for he seemed to understand that the end ennobles +every act. + +"When I left this good fellow, to be house surgeon at the Hotel- +Dieu, I felt an indescribable, dull pain, knowing that he could +no longer live with me; but he comforted himself with the +prospect of saving up money enough for me to take my degree, and +he made me promise to go to see him whenever I had a day out: +Bourgeat was proud of me. He loved me for my own sake, and for +his own. If you look up my thesis, you will see that I dedicated +it to him. + +"During the last year of my residence as house surgeon I earned +enough to repay all I owed to this worthy Auvergnat by buying him +a barrel and a horse. He was furious with rage at learning that I +had been depriving myself of spending my money, and yet he was +delighted to see his wishes fulfilled; he laughed and scolded, he +looked at his barrel, at his horse, and wiped away a tear, as he +said, 'It is too bad. What a splendid barrel! You really ought +not. Why, that horse is as strong as an Auvergnat!' + +"I never saw a more touching scene. Bourgeat insisted on buying +for me the case of instruments mounted in silver which you have +seen in my room, and which is to me the most precious thing +there. Though enchanted with my first success, never did the +least sign, the least word, escape him which might imply, 'This +man owes all to me!' And yet, but for him, I should have died of +want; he had eaten bread rubbed with garlic that I might have +coffee to enable me to sit up at night. + +"He fell ill. As you may suppose, I passed my nights by his +bedside, and the first time I pulled him through; but two years +after he had a relapse; in spite of the utmost care, in spite of +the greatest exertions of science, he succumbed. No king was ever +nursed as he was. Yes, Bianchon, to snatch that man from death I +tried unheard-of things. I wanted him to live long enough to show +him his work accomplished, to realize all his hopes, to give +expression to the only need for gratitude that ever filled my +heart, to quench a fire that burns in me to this day. + +"Bourgeat, my second father, died in my arms," Desplein went on, +after a pause, visibly moved. "He left me everything he possessed +by a will he had had made by a public scrivener, dating from the +year when we had gone to live in the Cour de Rohan. + +"This man's faith was perfect; he loved the Holy Virgin as he +might have loved his wife. He was an ardent Catholic, but never +said a word to me about my want of religion. When he was dying he +entreated me to spare no expense that he might have every +possible benefit of clergy. I had a mass said for him every day. +Often, in the night, he would tell me of his fears as to his +future fate; he feared his life had not been saintly enough. Poor +man! he was at work from morning till night. For whom, then, is +Paradise--if there be a Paradise? He received the last sacrament +like the saint that he was, and his death was worthy of his life. + +"I alone followed him to the grave. When I had laid my only +benefactor to rest, I looked about to see how I could pay my debt +to him; I found he had neither family nor friends, neither wife +nor child. But he believed. He had a religious conviction; had I +any right to dispute it? He had spoken to me timidly of masses +said for the repose of the dead; he would not impress it on me as +a duty, thinking that it would be a form of repayment for his +services. As soon as I had money enough I paid to Saint-Sulpice +the requisite sum for four masses every year. As the only thing I +can do for Bourgeat is thus to satisfy his pious wishes, on the +days when that mass is said, at the beginning of each season of +the year, I go for his sake and say the required prayers; and I +say with the good faith of a sceptic--'Great God, if there is a +sphere which Thou hast appointed after death for those who have +been perfect, remember good Bourgeat; and if he should have +anything to suffer, let me suffer it for him, that he may enter +all the sooner into what is called Paradise.' + +"That, my dear fellow, is as much as a man who holds my opinions +can allow himself. But God must be a good fellow; He cannot owe +me any grudge. I swear to you, I would give my whole fortune if +faith such as Bourgeat's could enter my brain." + + + +Bianchon, who was with Desplein all through his last illness, +dares not affirm to this day that the great surgeon died an +atheist. Will not those who believe like to fancy that the humble +Auvergnat came to open the gate of Heaven to his friend, as he +did that of the earthly temple on whose pediment we read the +words--"A grateful country to its great men." + + + +PARIS, January 1836. + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Bianchon, Horace + Father Goriot + Cesar Birotteau + The Commission in Lunacy + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Secrets of a Princess + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Study of Woman + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + The Seamy Side of History + The Magic Skin + A Second Home + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + The Muse of the Department + The Imaginary Mistress + The Middle Classes + Cousin Betty + The Country Parson +In addition, M. Bianchon narrated the following: + Another Study of Woman + La Grande Breteche + +Desplein + Cousin Pons + Lost Illusions + The Thirteen + The Government Clerks + Pierrette + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Seamy Side of History + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Honorine + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Atheist's Mass by Honore de Balzac + diff --git a/old/old/athms10.zip b/old/old/athms10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b753a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/athms10.zip |