University of Virginia Library

11. CHAPTER XI.

"ALL marry in this way. And I did like the
rest. If the young people who dream of the
honeymoon only knew what a disillusion it is,
and always a disillusion! I really do not know
why all think it necessary to conceal it.

"One day I was walking among the shows in
Paris, when, attracted by a sign, I entered an
establishment to see a bearded woman and a
water-dog. The woman was a man in disguise,
and the dog was an ordinary dog, covered with
a sealskin, and swimming in a bath. It was not
in the least interesting, but the Barnum accom-
panied me to the exit very courteously, and, in
addressing the people who were coming in, made
an appeal to my testimony. 'Ask the gentleman
if it is not worth seeing! Come in, come in! It

only costs a franc!' And in my confusion I did
not dare to answer that there was nothing curi-
ous to be seen, and it was upon my false shame
that the Barnum must have counted.

"It must be the same with the persons who
have passed through the abominations of the
honeymoon. They do not dare to undeceive
their neighbor. And I did the same.

"The felicities of the honeymoon do not exist.

On the contrary, it is a period of uneasiness, of
shame, of pity, and, above all, of
ennui
,—of
ferocious
ennui
. It is something like the feeling
of a youth when he is beginning to smoke. He
desires to vomit; he drivels, and swallows his
drivel, pretending to enjoy this little amusement.

The vice of marriage" . . .

"What! Vice?" I said. "But you are talk-
ing of one of the most natural things."

"Natural!" said he. "Natural! No, I con-
sider on the contrary that it is against nature,
and it is I, a perverted man, who have reached
this conviction. What would it be, then, if I had
not known corruption? To a young girl, to
every unperverted young girl, it is an act ex-
tremely unnatural, just as it is to children. My

sister married, when very young, a man twice
her own age, and who was utterly corrupt. I
remember how astonished we were the night of
her wedding, when, pale and covered with tears,
she fled from her husband, her whole body
trembling, saying that for nothing in the world
would she tell what he wanted of her.

"You say natural? It is natural to eat; that
is a pleasant, agreeable function, which no one
is ashamed to perform from the time of his
birth. No, it is not natural. A pure young girl
wants one thing,—children. Children, yes, not
a lover." . . .

"But," said I, with astonishment, "how would
the human race continue?"

"But what is the use of its continuing?" he
rejoined, vehemently.

"What! What is the use ? But then we
should not exist."

"And why is it necessary that we should
exist?"

"Why, to live, to be sure."

"And why live? The Schopenhauers, the
Hartmanns, and all the Buddhists, say that the
greatest happiness is Nirvana, Non-Life; and

they are right in this sense,—that human happi-
ness is coincident with the annihilation of 'Self.'

Only they do not express themselves well. They
say that Humanity should annihilate itself to
avoid its sufferings, that its object should be to
destroy itself. Now the object of Humanity
cannot be to avoid sufferings by annihilation,
since suffering is the result of activity. The
object of activity cannot consist in suppressing
its consequences. The object of Man, as of Hu-
manity, is happiness, and, to attain it, Humanity
has a law which it must carry out. This law
consists in the union of beings. This union is
thwarted by the passions. And that is why, if
the passions disappear, the union will be accom-
plished. Humanity then will have carried out
the law, and will have no further reason to
exist."

"And before Humanity carries out the law?"

"In the meantime it will have the sign of the
unfulfilled law, and the existence of physical
love. As long as this love shall exist, and be-
cause of it, generations will be born, one of
which will finally fulfil the law. When at last
the law shall be fulfilled, the Human Race will

be annihilated. At least it is impossible for us
to conceive of Life in the perfect union of peo-
ple."