“’This union would have a salutary tendency; for it seems to me that upon union, upon the association of men together, must depend the future happiness of mankind.

“’The Company, which so long persecuted my family, is one of the most striking examples of the power of association, even when applied to evil.

“’There is something so fruitful and divine in this principle, that it sometimes forces to good the worst and most dangerous combinations.

“’Thus, the missions have thrown a scanty but pure and generous light on the darkness of this Company of Jesus—­founded with the detestable and impious aim of destroying, by a homicidal education, all will, thought, liberty, and intelligence, in the people, so as to deliver them, trembling, superstitious, brutal, and helpless, to the despotism of kings, governed in their turn by confessors belonging to the Society.’”

At this passage of the will, there was another strange look exchanged between Gabriel and Father d’Aigrigny.  The notary continued: 

“’If a perverse association, based upon the degradation of humanity, upon fear and despotism, and followed by the maledictions of the people, has survived for centuries, and often governed the world by craft and terror—­how would it be with an association, which, taking fraternity and evangelic love for its means, had for its end to deliver man and woman from all degrading slavery, to invite to the enjoyment of terrestrial happiness those who have hitherto known nothing of life but its sorrows and miseries, and to glorify and enrich the labor that feeds the state?—­to enlighten those whom ignorance has depraved?—­to favor the free expansion of all the passions, which God, in His infinite wisdom, and inexhaustible goodness, gave to man as so many powerful levers?—­to sanctify all the gifts of Heaven:  love, maternity, strength, intelligence, beauty, genius?—­to make men truly religious, and deeply grateful to their Creator, by making them understand the splendors of Nature, and bestowing on them their rightful share in the treasures which have been poured upon us?

“’Oh! if it be Heaven’s will that, in a century and a half, the descendants of my family, faithful to the last wishes of a heart that loved humanity, meet in this sacred union!—­if it be Heaven’s will that amongst them be found charitable and passionate souls, full of commiseration for those who suffer, and lofty minds, ardent for liberty! warm and eloquent natures! resolute characters! women, who unite beauty and wit with goodness—­oh! then, how fruitful, how powerful will be the harmonious union of all these ideas, and influences, and forces—­of all these attractions grouped round that princely fortune, which, concentrated by association, and wisely managed, would render practicable the most admirable Utopias!

“’What a wondrous centre of fertile and generous thoughts!  What precious and life-giving rays would stream incessantly from this focus of charity, emancipation, and love!  What great things might be attempted what magnificent examples given to the world!  What a divine mission!  What an irresistible tendency towards good might be impressed on the whole human race by a family thus situated, and in possession of such means!