登陆注册
12107900000021

第21章 PART ONE(20)

Just as there are bigwigs elsewhere,there are big mitres in the Church.These are the bishops who stand well at Court,who are rich,well endowed,skilful,accepted by the world,who know how to pray,no doubt,but who know also how to beg,who feel little scruple at making a whole diocese dance attendance in their person,who are connecting links between the sacristy and diplomacy,who are abbes rather than priests,prelates rather than bishops.Happy those who approach them!

Being persons of influence,they create a shower about them,upon the assiduous and the favored,and upon all the young men who understand the art of pleasing,of large parishes,prebends,archidiaconates,chaplaincies,and cathedral posts,while awaiting episcopal honors.

As they advance themselves,they cause their satellites to progress also;it is a whole solar system on the march.

Their radiance casts a gleam of purple over their suite.

Their prosperity is crumbled up behind the scenes,into nice little promotions.

The larger the diocese of the patron,the fatter the curacy for the favorite.

And then,there is Rome.

A bishop who understands how to become an archbishop,an archbishop who knows how to become a cardinal,carries you with him as conclavist;you enter a court of papal jurisdiction,you receive the pallium,and behold!you are an auditor,then a papal chamberlain,then monsignor,and from a Grace to an Eminence is only a step,and between the Eminence and the Holiness there is but the smoke of a ballot.

Every skull-cap may dream of the tiara.The priest is nowadays the only man who can become a king in a regular manner;and what a king!the supreme king.

Then what a nursery of aspirations is a seminary!

How many blushing choristers,how many youthful abbes bear on their heads Perrette's pot of milk!Who knows how easy it is for ambition to call itself vocation?in good faith,perchance,and deceiving itself,devotee that it is.

Monseigneur Bienvenu,poor,humble,retiring,was not accounted among the big mitres.

This was plain from the complete absence of young priests about him.

We have seen that he'did not take'in Paris.

Not a single future dreamed of engrafting itself on this solitary old man.

Not a single sprouting ambition committed the folly of putting forth its foliage in his shadow.

His canons and grand-vicars were good old men,rather vulgar like himself,walled up like him in this diocese,without exit to a cardinalship,and who resembled their bishop,with this difference,that they were finished and he was completed.

The impossibility of growing great under Monseigneur Bienvenu was so well understood,that no sooner had the young men whom he ordained left the seminary than they got themselves recommended to the archbishops of Aix or of Auch,and went off in a great hurry.

For,in short,we repeat it,men wish to be pushed.

A saint who dwells in a paroxysm of abnegation is a dangerous neighbor;he might communicate to you,by contagion,an incurable poverty,an anchylosis of the joints,which are useful in advancement,and in short,more renunciation than you desire;and this infectious virtue is avoided.

Hence the isolation of Monseigneur Bienvenu.

We live in the midst of a gloomy society.Success;that is the lesson which falls drop by drop from the slope of corruption.

Be it said in passing,that success is a very hideous thing.

Its false resemblance to merit deceives men.

For the masses,success has almost the same profile as supremacy.

Success,that Menaechmus of talent,has one dupe,——history.

Juvenal and Tacitus alone grumble at it.In our day,a philosophy which is almost official has entered into its service,wears the livery of success,and performs the service of its antechamber.

Succeed:

theory.

Prosperity argues capacity.Win in the lottery,and behold!you are a clever man.

He who triumphs is venerated.

Be born with a silver spoon in your mouth!everything lies in that.

Be lucky,and you will have all the rest;be happy,and people will think you great.

Outside of five or six immense exceptions,which compose the splendor of a century,contemporary admiration is nothing but short-sightedness.Gilding is gold.

It does no harm to be the first arrival by pure chance,so long as you do arrive.

The common herd is an old Narcissus who adores himself,and who applauds the vulgar herd.

That enormous ability by virtue of which one is Moses,Aeschylus,Dante,Michael Angelo,or Napoleon,the multitude awards on the spot,and by acclamation,to whomsoever attains his object,in whatsoever it may consist.Let a notary transfigure himself into a deputy:

let a false Corneille compose Tiridate;let a eunuch come to possess a harem;let a military Prudhomme accidentally win the decisive battle of an epoch;let an apothecary invent cardboard shoe-soles for the army of the Sambre-and-Meuse,and construct for himself,out of this cardboard,sold as leather,four hundred thousand francs of income;let a pork-packer espouse usury,and cause it to bring forth seven or eight millions,of which he is the father and of which it is the mother;let a preacher become a bishop by force of his nasal drawl;let the steward of a fine family be so rich on retiring from service that he is made minister of finances,——and men call that Genius,just as they call the face of Mousqueton Beauty,and the mien of Claude Majesty.

With the constellations of space they confound the stars of the abyss which are made in the soft mire of the puddle by the feet of ducks.

XIII WHAT HE BELIEVED

We are not obliged to sound the Bishop of D——on the score of orthodoxy.

In the presence of such a soul we feel ourselves in no mood but respect.

The conscience of the just man should be accepted on his word.

Moreover,certain natures being given,we admit the possible development of all beauties of human virtue in a belief that differs from our own.

What did he think of this dogma,or of that mystery?

同类推荐
  • 华严大意

    华严大意

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 海幢阿字无禅师语录

    海幢阿字无禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 时古对类

    时古对类

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 难提释经

    难提释经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 宝授菩萨菩提行经

    宝授菩萨菩提行经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 男神,我暗恋你

    男神,我暗恋你

    男猪脚看似高冷迷人,实则腹黑闷骚女猪脚看似精明可爱,实则蠢萌雷人某日,某女向某男表白:“男神,我暗恋你!”某男冷哼一声挑高半边眉毛:“暗恋?”某女点点头:“暗恋!”某男:“全校谁不知道你喜欢我?”某女哀怨地瞪了一眼这人,“嗷呜”一声掩面窜逃。某男狡黠一笑,想跑?没门儿!
  • 天剑灭神

    天剑灭神

    一个偏远的小镇,废物主角身怀剑之世界提剑一路杀破天地.
  • 天降妖孽之极品魔妃

    天降妖孽之极品魔妃

    这里是源天大陆,这里万物皆有灵,以武为尊,追求武道极致,这里的人每到六岁便进行元力觉醒,元力的觉醒层次代表武者的天赋。这里人族,妖族,灵异族,魔族等万族并立。沐九,现代古武天才,佣兵之王,却因意外来到这里,变成一个6岁的小萝莉。小萝莉睁开双眼,但见这个家里家徒四壁,内忧外患……且看她将如何逆袭,踏上武道至尊?成神原来也不是神话!男主:你救了本尊,就得对本尊负责。字正腔圆,面容冷静。......女主:不然呢?男主:上穷碧落下黄泉,(吃饭,睡觉,修炼,上茅厕,你在哪,我在哪!)女主:......本文爽文,很爽很腹黑!男女主身心干净,一对一。
  • 彼岸盛宠:邪魅特工倾世天下

    彼岸盛宠:邪魅特工倾世天下

    她是世界王牌杀手,因为一次任务,她与她的团队来到异世大陆,倾世天下,傲视苍生!
  • 键盘和鼠标

    键盘和鼠标

    如果,我用好人的标准要求自己,是不是,我就是个好人了?键盘:能再次遇见你,人生都美好了。。。鼠标:童养媳?呵呵!混蛋!!!林帅:得到金手指?走上人生巅峰?想想我就很激动\(≧▽≦)/!才怪
  • 诡夜风云

    诡夜风云

    神秘的夜晚,总有不安响动。荒漠的枯坟,总需要来打理。荒废的枯井,藏着哪些神秘。变幻的山河,总会出现异状。诡夜风云,为你讲述三十年以来一位驱灵组从年轻懵懂无知少年,到之后的君临天下。敬请各位读者,观看这位少年跌跌撞撞的驱灵生涯。
  • 滏水集

    滏水集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • EXO之四少的宝贝甜心

    EXO之四少的宝贝甜心

    边伯贤:“没有你的日子,我无法去过。你知道嘛,当你不告而别的时候,我是有多着急。”吴世勋:“那个女人是你介绍给我的,她伤了我的心,可是我却还不怪你。只有你才能叫我勋勋,奶包。”鹿晗:”对于你,我从不神秘,鹿鹿也只给你一个人叫,可是你从来要我帮助过你,帮助你可以让我开心
  • 王俊凯:清茶如温

    王俊凯:清茶如温

    “为什么!为什么你要利用我来报仇?!”“因为我恨你!王俊凯!我恨透了你!是你毁掉了我的幸福,是你!就是你王俊凯!”——她,从小就是一名孤儿;而他,是当红的明星;她,在一场车祸彻底地看清楚了陪伴自己十几年的好姐妹的真面目…浴火重生的她决定拿回属于她的一切…重回故地,他,发誓再也不让她离开自己…姐妹的陷害,亲人的离世,情敌的暗算,相继向她涌来,使她心力交瘁……面对种种的挫折,她在那个雨夜,流下清泪,朝着天空大喊:“老天爷!你要怎么样才肯放我过我啊?!”终了,她,彻底绝望了……所有的一切,都因他而起……【本书已出第二部,第二部叫《王俊凯:爱如清茶》】
  • 万古天界

    万古天界

    孔宏,一个身怀天脉的绝世奇才,却因为没有合适的功法一直被埋没,意外开启古宝古玉,得到了大妖蝶的帮助。金钱、财富、美女、丹药这些他都没有,修炼最难修炼的妖族功法,开启肉身极限,一步步走向强者。万古天界万古天,鸿蒙初现道通玄。