THE EQUINOX
While the world does not understand these three words :
Truth, Reason, Justice, and these : Duty, Hierarchy, Society,
the revolutionary motto, ‘‘ Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, ” will
be nothing but a threefold lie.
CHAPTER III
MYSTERIOUS INFLUENCES
No middle course is possible. Every man is either good
or bad. The indifferent, the lukewarm are not good; they are
consequently bad, and the worst of all the bad, for they are
imbecile and cowardly. The battle of life is like a civil war;
those who remain neutral betray both parties alike, and re-
nounce the right to be numbered among the children of the
fatherland.
We all of us breathe in the life of others, and we breathe
upon them in some sort a part of our own existence. Good
and intelligent men are, unknown to themselves, the doctors
of humanity; foolish and wicked men are public poisoners.
There are people in whose company one feels refreshed.
Look at that young society woman! She chatters, she
laughs, she dresses like everybody else; why, then, is every-
thing in her better and more perfect? Nothing is more
natural than her manner, nothing franker and more nobly
free than her conversation. Near her everything should be
at its ease, except bad sentiments, but near her they are im-
possible. She does not seek hearts, but draws them to
herself and lifts them up. She does not intoxicate, she
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