“Those who understand how to imbibe thoroughly the lessons of common sense, never ignore the fact that morality is always closely related to self-interest.

“If each one of us would observe this rule individual happiness would not be long in creating a harmony from which all men would benefit.

“One thing we should avoid, for the attainment of universal tranquility, and that is the perpetual conflict between individual and social interest.

“The day when each one of us can comprehend that he is a part of this ‘all,’ which is called society, he will admit that sinning against society may be considered the same as sinning against oneself.

“Passing one day before an immense cabin, built of bamboo, which stood near a rice-plantation, I perceived a man who hid himself from my view, without however being able to escape my notice altogether.  I went resolutely to him, to ask him the explanation of his suspicious movement.

“After an unsuccessful attempt to escape, he resigned himself to allow me to approach him, and I understood the reason of his apprehension: 

“He was carrying several pieces of bamboo which he had detached from the house.  He wanted, he said, to make a little blaze because the dampness was chilling him.

“Without replying to him, I led him by the hand to the place where the branches taken away had left a large space, a kind of opening in the side of the house, through which a keen wind was rushing.

“‘Look,’ I said to him, ’the blaze that you are going to make will warm you for a few minutes, but, during the whole night the cold wind will freeze you—­you and your companions.

“’In order to procure for yourself an agreeable but passing sensation you are going to inflict upon them continued sufferings, of which you can not escape your share.’

“The man hung his head and said:  ’I had not thought of this; I was cold and I allowed myself to be tempted by the anticipated pleasure of warming myself, even if only for a few minutes.’

“And, convinced by common sense, he repaired the harm which he had done, first by reason of selfishness, then by thoughtlessness, but, above all, by lack of self-control.

“To dominate oneself to the point of not allowing oneself to become the slave of miserable contingencies which appear as temptations to self-indulgence, and conceal from their pettiness the beauty of the consistent action—­this is only given to the chosen few and can only be understood by those who cultivate common sense.”

Is this to say that reasoning should be a school for abnegation.

Such a thought is far from our minds.

Neither habitual abnegation nor modesty is among the militant virtues, and for this reason the critics ought often to relegate them to their proper place, which is the last, very close to defects to which they closely approach and among whose ranks one must sometimes go in order to discover them.