e are; we live in an era of greed; no one
troubles himself about the intrinsic value of a thing if he can only
make a profit on it by selling it to somebody else; so he passes it on
to his neighbor. The shareholder that thinks he sees a chance of making
money is just as covetous as the founder that offers him the opportunity
of making it."

"Isn't he fine, our Couture? Isn't he fine?" exclaimed Bixiou, turning
to Blondet. "He will ask us next to erect statues to him as a benefactor
of the species."

"It would lead people to conclude that the fool's money is the wise
man's patrimony by divine right," said Blondet.

"Gentlemen," cried Couture, "let us have our laugh out here to make
up for all the times when we must listen gravely to solemn nonsense
justifying laws passed on the spur of the moment."

"He is right," said Blondet. "What times we live in, gentlemen! When
the fire of intelligence appears among us, it is promptly quenched by
haphazard legislation. Almost all our lawgivers come up from little
parishes where they studied human nature through the medium of the
newspapers; forthwith they shut down the safety-valve, and when the
machinery blows up there is weeping and gnashing of teeth! We do nothing
nowadays but pass penal laws and levy taxes. Will you have the sum of it
all!--There is no religion left in the State!"

"Oh, bravo, Blondet!" cried Bixiou, "thou hast set thy finger on the
weak spot. Meddlesome taxation has lost us more victories here in France
than the vexatious chances of war. I once spent seven years in the hulks
of a government department, chained with bourgeois to my bench. There
was a clerk in the office, a man with a head on his shoulders; he
had set his mind upon making a sweeping reform of the whole fiscal
system--ah, well, we took the conceit out of him nicely. France might
have been too prosperous, you know she might have amused herself by
conquering Europe again; we acted in the interests of the peace of
nations. I slew Rabourdin with a caricature."[*]

[*] See Les Employes [The Government Clerks aka Bureaucracy].

"By _religion_ I do not mean cant; I use the word in its wide political
sense," rejoined Blondet.

"Explain your meaning," said Finot.

"Here it is," returned Blondet. "There has been a good deal said about
affairs at Lyons; about the Republic cannonaded in the streets; well,
there was not a word of truth in it all. The Republic took up the
riots, just as an insu