;
for little Pierrette, miserable though she was, and cruelly tormented,
did yet experience joys that her tyrants never would know. In the midst
of her sorrow, she remained gentle, and tender, and loving; and therein
lies greater happiness than in hiding cruelty, hatred, and selfishness
beneath a smile. It is sad to love and be unloved, but sadder still to
be unable to love. And how great is the difference between the petty,
sordid desires, the grotesque delights, of the Rogrons, and the mighty
longing that filled the child's soul as she looked forward to the time
when injustice at last should cease! Little wistful Pierrette was
perhaps no wiser than those about her; but before such as must bear
unmerited suffering there stretches a wide horizon, which here and
again takes in the joys that only the loftiest know; even as the
horizon of the earth, though not seen from the mountain peak, would
appear at times to be one with the corner-stone of heaven. The
injustice we commit speedily reduces us to petty, material pleasures;
but, as we revel in these, we envy our victim; for our tyranny has
thrown open the door to joys whereof we cannot deprive him--joys that
are wholly beyond our reach, joys that are purely spiritual. And the
door that opens wide to the victim is sealed in the tyrant's soul; and
the sufferer breathes a purer air than he who has made him suffer. In
the hearts of the persecuted there is radiance, where those who
persecute have only gloom; and is it not on the light within us that
the wellbeing of happiness depends? He who brings sorrow with him
stifles more happiness within himself than in the man he overwhelms.
Which of us, had he to choose, but would rather be Pierrette than
Rogron? The instinct of happiness within us needs no telling that he
who is morally right must be happier than he who is wrong, though the
wrong be done from the height of a throne. And, even though the Rogrons
be unaware of their Injustice, it alters nothing; for, be we aware or
unaware of the evil we commit, the air we breathe will still be heavily
charged. Nay, more--to him who knows he does wrong there may come,
perhaps, the desire to escape from his prison; but the other will die
in his cell, without even his thoughts having travelled beyond the
gloomy walls that conceal from him the true destiny of man.

79. Why seek justice where it cannot be? and where can it be, save in
our soul? Its language is the natural language of the sp