Does that please you?"
"Ah! my kind Monsieur Alain, your eloquence awakens--"
"No, my child, it is not I who speak well; it is things that are
eloquent. We can be sure of being great, even sublime, in obeying God,
in imitating Jesus Christ,--imitating him, I mean, as much as men are
able to do so, aided by faith."
"This moment, then, decides my life!" cried Godefroid. "I feel within
me the fervor of a neophyte; I wish to spend my life in doing good."
"That is the secret of remaining in God," replied Alain. "Have you
studied our motto,--/Transire benefaciendo/? /Transire/ means to go
beyond this world, leaving benefits on our way."
"Yes, I have understood it; I have put the motto of the order before
my bed."
"That is well; it is a trifling action, but it counts for much in my
eyes. And now I have your first affair, your first duel with misery,
prepared for you; I'll put your foot in the stirrup. We are about to
part. Yes, I myself am detached from the convent, to live for a time
in the crater of a volcano. I am to be a clerk in a great manufactory,
where the workmen are infected with communistic doctrines, and dream
of social destruction, the abolishment of masters,--not knowing that
that would be the death of industry, of commerce, of manufactures. I
shall stay there goodness knows how long,--perhaps a year,--keeping
the books and paying the wages.
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