be symbolic, of a natural and happy life.  Observe how rhythmic human existence becomes in its useful moments.  Look at the man who is leading the horses, at that other who throws up the sheaves on his fork, at the women bending over the corn, and the children at play. . . .  They have not displaced a stone, or removed a spadeful of earth, to add to the beauty of the scenery; nor do they take one step, plant a tree or a flower, that is not necessary.  All that we see is merely the involuntary result of the effort that man puts forth to subsist for a moment in nature; and yet those among us whose desire is only to create or imagine spectacles of peace, deep thoughtfulness, or beatitude, have been able to find no scene more perfect than this, which indeed they paint or describe whenever they seek to present us with a picture of beauty or happiness.  Here we have the first semblance, which some will call the truth.”

[92]

“Let us draw nearer.  Can you distinguish the song that blended so well with the whispering of the leaves?  It is made up of abuse and insult; and when laughter bursts forth, it is due to an obscene remark some man or woman has made, to a jest at the expense of the weaker,—­of the hunchback unable to lift his load, the cripple they have knocked over, or the idiot whom they make their butt.

“I have studied these people for many years.  We are in Normandy; the soil is rich and easily tilled.  Around this stack of corn there is rather more comfort than one would usually associate with a scene of this kind.  The result is that most of the men, and many of the women, are alcoholic.  Another poison also, which I need not name, corrodes the race.  To that, to the alcohol, are due the children whom you see there:  the dwarf, the one with the hare-lip, the others who are knock-kneed, scrofulous, imbecile.  All of them, men and women, young and old, have the ordinary vices of the peasant.  They are brutal, suspicious, grasping, and envious; hypocrites, liars, and slanderers; inclined to petty, illicit profits, mean interpretations, and coarse flattery of the stronger.  Necessity brings them together, and compels them to help each other; but the secret wish of every individual is to harm his neighbour as soon as this can be done without danger to himself.  The one substantial pleasure of the village is procured by the sorrows of others.  Should a great disaster befall one of them, it will long be the subject of secret, delighted comment among the rest.  Every man watches his fellow, is jealous of him, detests and despises him.  While they are poor, they hate their masters with a boiling and pent-up hatred because of the harshness and avarice these last display; should they in their turn have servants, they profit by their own experience of servitude to reveal a harshness and avarice greater even than that from which they have suffered.  I could give you minutest details of the meanness, deceit, injustice, tyranny, and malice that underlie