prosperous looks upon his wife and child as two stumbling blocks.

But I am waiting for the happy man, for the moment when his forehead will
wrinkle, when disappointment will descend upon his head like a leaden
skull-cap, and when picking up the two blocks he has cursed he will make
two crutches of them.

I admit that Alexander the Great, Napoleon the First, and all the demi-
gods of humanity, have only felt at rare intervals the charm of being
fathers and husbands; but we other poor little men, who are less
occupied, must be one or the other.

I do not believe in the happy old bachelor; I do not believe in the
happiness of all those who, from stupidity or calculation, have withdrawn
themselves from the best of social laws. A great deal has been said on
this subject, and I do not wish to add to the voluminous documents in
this lawsuit. Acknowledge frankly all you who have heard the cry of your
new-born child and felt your heart tingle like a glass on the point of
breaking, unless you are idiots, acknowledge that you said to yourselves:
"I am in the right. Here, and here alone, lies man's part. I am
entering on a path, beaten and worn, but straight; I shall cross the
weary downs, but each step will bring me nearer the village spire. I am
not wandering through life, I am marching on, I stir with my feet the
dust in which my father has planted his. My child, on the same road,
will find the traces of my footsteps, and, perhaps, on seeing that I have
not faltered, will say: 'Let me act like my old father and not lose
myself in the ploughed land.'"

If the word holy has still a meaning, despite the uses it has been put
to, I do not see that a better use can be made of it than by placing it