r contradictory enactments derived from Gallic
customs, Roman laws, and Frank usages; the knowledge of all which,
you will agree, is not to be acquired without extended labor; it needs
tedious study to acquire this knowledge, and, when acquired, a strong
power of brain to retain it."

"I agree with you entirely, sir; but all that even you know with respect
to the French code, I know, not only in reference to that code, but as
regards the codes of all nations. The English, Turkish, Japanese, Hindu
laws, are as familiar to me as the French laws, and thus I was right,
when I said to you, that relatively (you know that everything is
relative, sir)--that relatively to what I have done, you have very
little to do; but that relatively to all I have learned, you have yet a
great deal to learn."

"But with what motive have you learned all this?" inquired Villefort,
in astonishment. Monte Cristo smiled. "Really, sir," he observed, "I see
that in spite of the reputation which you have acquired as a superior
man, you look at everything from the material and vulgar view of
society, beginning with man, and ending with man--that is to say, in
the most restricted, most narrow view which it is possible for human
understanding to embrace."

"Pray, sir, explain yourself," said Villefort, more and more astonished,
"I really do--not--understand you--perfectly."

"I say, sir, that with the eyes fixed on the social organization of
nations, you see only the springs of the machine, and lose sight of
the sublime workman who makes them act; I say that you do not recognize
before you and around you any but those office-holders whose commissions
have been signed by a minister or king; and that the men whom God has
put above those office-holders, ministers, and kings, by giving them a
mission to follow out, instead of a post to fill--I say that they
escape your narrow, limited field of observation. It is thus that human
weakness fails, from its debilitated and imperfect organs. Tobias took
the angel who restored him to light for an ordinary young man. The
nations took Attila, who was doomed to destroy them, for a conqueror
similar to other conquerors, and it was necessary for both to reveal
their missions, that they might be known and acknowledged; one was
compelled to say, 'I am the angel of the Lord'; and the other, 'I am
the hammer of God,' in order that the divine essence in both might be
revealed."

"Then," said Villefort, more and more a