Conscience -- Volume 1

th his old comrades; instead of shunning them, or keeping them at a distance, he took pleasure in gathering them about him, glad to open

t was a holiday for which his friends prepared themselves. When a new idea occurred to one of the habitu

the wife, who, having been an actress, held to the religion of comradeship: On a table were small pitchers of beer and glasses; wi

bblings, or gossiping about absent friends, but the great question

preachers of ideas and of new religions, thinkers, reformers, apostles, politicians, aesthetes, and even babblers in search of ears more or less complaisant that would listen to them, met together. Any one

ght him only ten francs in order that he might not be a slave to money; living with a woman whom he loved, he had always insisted, although he had two daughters, on living with her 'en union libre', and in not acknowledging his children legally, because the law debased the ties which attached him to them and lessened his duties; it was conscience that sanctioned these duties; and nature, like conscience, made him the most faithful of lovers, the best, the m

embourg Gardens, and on Wednesday at the house of his old comrade Crozat. How many he had had! But, unfortunately, the greater number turned out badly. Several be

y large enough to open a profitable discussion. Crozat, near the door, smiled at the arrivals on shaking hands, and Brigard, his soft felt hat on his head, pr

lashed with his twenty-six years, gave him more the appearance of a man of ambition than of an apostle. And when one knew that Glady was the owner of a beautiful hou

have two tribunes whence the good word would fall on the multitude with more weight. They might be counted on. When Nougarede began to come to the Wednesday reunions he was as empty as a drum, and if he spoke brilliantly on no matter what subject with an imperturbable eloquence,

aiming his law, his hat on his head; for, if he had made a rule never to take it off, he manipulated it continually while he spoke, frequently push

"that we scatter our great force

ed down

for us to assert ourselves as a group, and it i

with the manifest intention of disturbing no one; but Croza

niel! Good-d

ning, my

ble; the beer i

I am very

ng on the collar of his coat, a long, curled beard, a face energetic, but troubled and wan, to which the pale blue eyes gave an expressio

d cont

mply because he said it-"it is incontestable that in the struggle for existence the dogma of consci

d toward whom?" i

d one'

are our duties, and codify w

sy," some o

elieve that it is not a fault to run away with the wife of a friend, not a crime to appropriate something that they want, or to kill an enemy! Where are the duties

clamations at this, w

n, shall men obe

e last word of the

and progressive exterminatio

ags about without power to advance or to free itself, finally sinking under the load. Is it

rom a doctor," interrupted Crozat, "si

preserve them for t

unded on reciprocity, on good fellowship; and in doing so you can create for the strong a state of suspic

o you get that-the force of things, the tatum? There is no beginnin

uences. Success or defeat may yet be immaterial, for the accomplishment of an act that you have believed condemnable may serve the race, while another that you have

an to

that the conclusion at

n was necessarily interrupted, every one drawing up to the table where C

dy with the manifest intention of detaining him, but Glady had said that he was obliged t

o Crozat and Nougarede, who were near him

said, "because he is sound and intelligent. H