engaged in the highest intellectual occupation, and I am sorry to
see her sink to this sort of thing."

"Now the difference is defined. I was silly enough till now to think
that even in a drawing-room one saw something of the highest form of
humanity, and that aristocratic society is the flower of
civilization."

"Those are opinions which are spread by clever men of the world to
excuse their shallow behavior in their own eyes and in the eyes of
others. What these people come here for is to satisfy their lower
inclinations--you must see this for yourself; if you do not allow
yourself to be influenced by these pretentious, ceremonious forms,
at least try to discover the reality that lies beneath them. What
you call the height of civilization seems to me the lowest. Do you
understand? I feel that cultured people in their drawing-room
society are in the condition of savages, and even allied to
animals."

"Bravo, Wilhelm! go on; this is most edifying."

"You may jeer, but in spite of you I believe that this is so. Try to
discover what is going on in the brains of all these people at this
moment. Their highest power of activity of mind, which makes men of
them, slumbers. They do not think, they only feel. The old gentlemen
enjoy themselves with cigars, ices, the prospect of supper; the
young men seek pleasant sensations in dancing with beautiful girls.
The ladies seek in their partners and admirers to kindle feelings
and desires--vanity, self-seeking, pleasure of the senses,
gratification of the palate, in short, all the grosser tastes. All