This clever ecclesiastic, devoted to the leading society, kind and
obliging to the second, apostolic to the poor and unfortunate, made
himself beloved by the whole town. He was cousin of the miller and
cousin of the Sarcuses, and belonged therefore to the neighborhood and
to its mediocracy. He always dined out and saved expenses; he went to
weddings but came away before the ball; he paid the costs of public
worship, saying, "It is my business." And the parish let him do it,
with the remark, "We have an excellent priest." The bishop, who knew
the Soulanges people and was not at all misled as to the true value of
the abbe, was glad enough to keep in such a town a man who made
religion acceptable, and who knew how to fill his church and preach to
sleepy heads.

It is unnecessary to remark that not only each of these worthy
burghers possessed some one of the special qualifications which are
necessary to existence in the provinces, but also that each cultivated
his field in the domain of vanity without a rival. Pere Guerbet
understood finance, Soudry might have been minister of war; if Cuvier
had passed that way incognito, the leading society of Soulanges would
have proved to him that he knew nothing in comparison with Monsieur
Gourdon the doctor. "Adolphe Nourrit with his thread of a voice,"
remarked the notary with patronizing indulgence, "was scarcely worthy
to accompany the nightingale of Soulanges." As to the author of the
"Cup-and-Ball" (which was then being printed at Bournier's), society
was satisfied that a poet of his force could not be met with in Paris,
for Delille was now dead.

This provincial bourgeoisie, so comfortably satisfied with itself,
took the lead through the various superiorities of its members.
Therefore the imagination of those who ever resided, even for a short