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| − | + | Les Misérables, Volume 1: Fantine, Book First: A Just Man, Chapter 13: What he believed<br /> | |
| + | (Tome 1: Fantine, Livre premier: Un juste, Chapitre 13: Ce qu'il croyait) | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==General notes on this chapter== | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==French text== | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Au point de vue de l'orthodoxie, nous n'avons point à sonder M. l'évêque | ||
| + | de Digne. Devant une telle âme, nous ne nous sentons en humeur que de | ||
| + | respect. La conscience du juste doit être crue sur parole. D'ailleurs, | ||
| + | de certaines natures étant données, nous admettons le développement | ||
| + | possible de toutes les beautés de la vertu humaine dans une croyance | ||
| + | différente de la nôtre. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Que pensait-il de ce dogme-ci ou de ce mystère-là? Ces secrets du for | ||
| + | intérieur ne sont connus que de la tombe où les âmes entrent nues. Ce | ||
| + | dont nous sommes certain, c'est que jamais les difficultés de foi ne se | ||
| + | résolvaient pour lui en hypocrisie. Aucune pourriture n'est possible au | ||
| + | diamant. Il croyait le plus qu'il pouvait. ''Credo in Patrem'', | ||
| + | s'écriait-il souvent. Puisant d'ailleurs dans les bonnes œuvres cette | ||
| + | quantité de satisfaction qui suffit à la conscience, et qui vous dit | ||
| + | tout bas: «Tu es avec Dieu.» | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Ce que nous croyons devoir noter, c'est que, en dehors, pour ainsi dire, | ||
| + | et au-delà de sa foi, l'évêque avait un excès d'amour. C'est par là, | ||
| + | ''quia multum amavit'', qu'il était jugé vulnérable par les «hommes | ||
| + | sérieux», les «personnes graves» et les «gens raisonnables»; locutions | ||
| + | favorites de notre triste monde où l'égoïsme reçoit le mot d'ordre du | ||
| + | pédantisme. Qu'était-ce que cet excès d'amour? C'était une bienveillance | ||
| + | sereine, débordant les hommes, comme nous l'avons indiqué déjà, et, dans | ||
| + | l'occasion, s'étendant jusqu'aux choses. Il vivait sans dédain. Il était | ||
| + | indulgent pour la création de Dieu. Tout homme, même le meilleur, a en | ||
| + | lui une dureté irréfléchie qu'il tient en réserve pour l'animal. | ||
| + | L'évêque de Digne n'avait point cette dureté-là, particulière à beaucoup | ||
| + | de prêtres pourtant. Il n'allait pas jusqu'au bramine, mais il semblait | ||
| + | avoir médité cette parole de l'Ecclésiaste: «Sait-on où va l'âme des | ||
| + | animaux?» Les laideurs de l'aspect, les difformités de l'instinct, ne le | ||
| + | troublaient pas et ne l'indignaient pas. Il en était ému, presque | ||
| + | attendri. Il semblait que, pensif, il en allât chercher, au-delà de la | ||
| + | vie apparente, la cause, l'explication ou l'excuse. Il semblait par | ||
| + | moments demander à Dieu des commutations. Il examinait sans colère, et | ||
| + | avec l'œil du linguiste qui déchiffre un palimpseste, la quantité de | ||
| + | chaos qui est encore dans la nature. Cette rêverie faisait parfois | ||
| + | sortir de lui des mots étranges. Un matin, il était dans son jardin; il | ||
| + | se croyait seul, mais sa sœur marchait derrière lui sans qu'il la vît; | ||
| + | tout à coup, il s'arrêta, et il regarda quelque chose à terre; c'était | ||
| + | une grosse araignée, noire, velue, horrible. Sa sœur l'entendit qui | ||
| + | disait: | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | —Pauvre bête! ce n'est pas sa faute. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Pourquoi ne pas dire ces enfantillages presque divins de la bonté? | ||
| + | Puérilités, soit; mais ces puérilités sublimes ont été celles de saint | ||
| + | François d'Assise et de Marc-Aurèle. Un jour il se donna une entorse | ||
| + | pour n'avoir pas voulu écraser une fourmi. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Ainsi vivait cet homme juste. Quelquefois, il s'endormait dans son | ||
| + | jardin, et alors il n'était rien de plus vénérable. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Monseigneur Bienvenu avait été jadis, à en croire les récits sur sa | ||
| + | jeunesse et même sur sa virilité, un homme passionné, peut-être violent. | ||
| + | Sa mansuétude universelle était moins un instinct de nature que le | ||
| + | résultat d'une grande conviction filtrée dans son cœur à travers la vie | ||
| + | et lentement tombée en lui, pensée à pensée; car, dans un caractère | ||
| + | comme dans un rocher, il peut y avoir des trous de gouttes d'eau. Ces | ||
| + | creusements-là sont ineffaçables; ces formations-là sont | ||
| + | indestructibles. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | En 1815, nous croyons l'avoir dit, il atteignit soixante-quinze ans, | ||
| + | mais il n'en paraissait pas avoir plus de soixante. Il n'était pas | ||
| + | grand; il avait quelque embonpoint, et, pour le combattre, il faisait | ||
| + | volontiers de longues marches à pied, il avait le pas ferme et n'était | ||
| + | que fort peu courbé, détail d'où nous ne prétendons rien conclure; | ||
| + | Grégoire XVI, à quatre-vingts ans, se tenait droit et souriant, ce qui | ||
| + | ne l'empêchait pas d'être un mauvais évêque. Monseigneur Bienvenu avait | ||
| + | ce que le peuple appelle «une belle tête», mais si aimable qu'on | ||
| + | oubliait qu'elle était belle. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Quand il causait avec cette santé enfantine qui était une de ses grâces, | ||
| + | et dont nous avons déjà parlé, on se sentait à l'aise près de lui, il | ||
| + | semblait que de toute sa personne il sortît de la joie. Son teint coloré | ||
| + | et frais, toutes ses dents bien blanches qu'il avait conservées et que | ||
| + | son rire faisait voir, lui donnaient cet air ouvert et facile qui fait | ||
| + | dire d'un homme: «C'est un bon enfant», et d'un vieillard: «C'est un | ||
| + | bonhomme». C'était, on s'en souvient, l'effet qu'il avait fait à | ||
| + | Napoléon. Au premier abord, et pour qui le voyait pour la première fois, | ||
| + | ce n'était guère qu'un bonhomme en effet. Mais si l'on restait quelques | ||
| + | heures près de lui, et pour peu qu'on le vît pensif, le bonhomme se | ||
| + | transfigurait peu à peu et prenait je ne sais quoi d'imposant; son front | ||
| + | large et sérieux, auguste par les cheveux blancs, devenait auguste aussi | ||
| + | par la méditation; la majesté se dégageait de cette bonté, sans que la | ||
| + | bonté cessât de rayonner; on éprouvait quelque chose de l'émotion qu'on | ||
| + | aurait si l'on voyait un ange souriant ouvrir lentement ses ailes sans | ||
| + | cesser de sourire. Le respect, un respect inexprimable, vous pénétrait | ||
| + | par degrés et vous montait au cœur, et l'on sentait qu'on avait devant | ||
| + | soi une de ces âmes fortes, éprouvées et indulgentes, où la pensée est | ||
| + | si grande qu'elle ne peut plus être que douce. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Comme on l'a vu, la prière, la célébration des offices religieux, | ||
| + | l'aumône, la consolation aux affligés, la culture d'un coin de terre, la | ||
| + | fraternité, la frugalité, l'hospitalité, le renoncement, la confiance, | ||
| + | l'étude, le travail remplissaient chacune des journées de sa vie. | ||
| + | ''Remplissaient'' est bien le mot, et certes cette journée de l'évêque | ||
| + | était bien pleine jusqu'aux bords de bonnes pensées, de bonnes paroles | ||
| + | et de bonnes actions. Cependant elle n'était pas complète si le temps | ||
| + | froid ou pluvieux l'empêchait d'aller passer, le soir, quand les deux | ||
| + | femmes s'étaient retirées, une heure ou deux dans son jardin avant de | ||
| + | s'endormir. Il semblait que ce fût une sorte de rite pour lui de se | ||
| + | préparer au sommeil par la méditation en présence des grands spectacles | ||
| + | du ciel nocturne. Quelquefois, à une heure même assez avancée de la | ||
| + | nuit, si les deux vieilles filles ne dormaient pas, elles l'entendaient | ||
| + | marcher lentement dans les allées. Il était là, seul avec lui-même, | ||
| + | recueilli, paisible, adorant, comparant la sérénité de son cœur à la | ||
| + | sérénité de l'éther, ému dans les ténèbres par les splendeurs visibles | ||
| + | des constellations et les splendeurs invisibles de Dieu, ouvrant son âme | ||
| + | aux pensées qui tombent de l'inconnu. Dans ces moments-là, offrant son | ||
| + | cœur à l'heure où les fleurs nocturnes offrent leur parfum, allumé | ||
| + | comme une lampe au centre de la nuit étoilée, se répandant en extase au | ||
| + | milieu du rayonnement universel de la création, il n'eût pu peut-être | ||
| + | dire lui-même ce qui se passait dans son esprit, il sentait quelque | ||
| + | chose s'envoler hors de lui et quelque chose descendre en lui. | ||
| + | Mystérieux échanges des gouffres de l'âme avec les gouffres de | ||
| + | l'univers! | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Il songeait à la grandeur et à la présence de Dieu; à l'éternité future, | ||
| + | étrange mystère; à l'éternité passée, mystère plus étrange encore; à | ||
| + | tous les infinis qui s'enfonçaient sous ses yeux dans tous les sens; et, | ||
| + | sans chercher à comprendre l'incompréhensible, il le regardait. Il | ||
| + | n'étudiait pas Dieu, il s'en éblouissait. Il considérait ces magnifiques | ||
| + | rencontres des atomes qui donnent des aspects à la matière, révèlent les | ||
| + | forces en les constatant, créent les individualités dans l'unité, les | ||
| + | proportions dans l'étendue, l'innombrable dans l'infini, et par la | ||
| + | lumière produisent la beauté. Ces rencontres se nouent et se dénouent | ||
| + | sans cesse; de là la vie et la mort. Il s'asseyait sur un banc de bois | ||
| + | adossé à une treille décrépite, et il regardait les astres à travers les | ||
| + | silhouettes chétives et rachitiques de ses arbres fruitiers. Ce quart | ||
| + | d'arpent, si pauvrement planté, si encombré de masures et de hangars, | ||
| + | lui était cher et lui suffisait. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Que fallait-il de plus à ce vieillard, qui partageait le loisir de sa | ||
| + | vie, où il y avait si peu de loisir, entre le jardinage le jour et la | ||
| + | contemplation la nuit? Cet étroit enclos, ayant les cieux pour plafond, | ||
| + | n'était-ce pas assez pour pouvoir adorer Dieu tour à tour dans ses | ||
| + | œuvres les plus charmantes et dans ses œuvres les plus sublimes? | ||
| + | N'est-ce pas là tout, en effet, et que désirer au-delà? Un petit jardin | ||
| + | pour se promener, et l'immensité pour rêver. À ses pieds ce qu'on peut | ||
| + | cultiver et cueillir; sur sa tête ce qu'on peut étudier et méditer; | ||
| + | quelques fleurs sur la terre et toutes les étoiles dans le ciel. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | ==English text== | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | We are not obliged to sound the Bishop of D—— on the score of | ||
| + | orthodoxy. In the presence of such a soul we feel ourselves in no mood but | ||
| + | respect. The conscience of the just man should be accepted on his word. | ||
| + | Moreover, certain natures being given, we admit the possible development | ||
| + | of all beauties of human virtue in a belief that differs from our own. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | What did he think of this dogma, or of that mystery? These secrets of the | ||
| + | inner tribunal of the conscience are known only to the tomb, where souls | ||
| + | enter naked. The point on which we are certain is, that the difficulties | ||
| + | of faith never resolved themselves into hypocrisy in his case. No decay is | ||
| + | possible to the diamond. He believed to the extent of his powers. "Credo | ||
| + | in Patrem," he often exclaimed. Moreover, he drew from good works that | ||
| + | amount of satisfaction which suffices to the conscience, and which | ||
| + | whispers to a man, "Thou art with God!" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | The point which we consider it our duty to note is, that outside of and | ||
| + | beyond his faith, as it were, the Bishop possessed an excess of love. In | ||
| + | was in that quarter, quia multum amavit,—because he loved much—that | ||
| + | he was regarded as vulnerable by "serious men," "grave persons" and | ||
| + | "reasonable people"; favorite locutions of our sad world where egotism | ||
| + | takes its word of command from pedantry. What was this excess of love? It | ||
| + | was a serene benevolence which overflowed men, as we have already pointed | ||
| + | out, and which, on occasion, extended even to things. He lived without | ||
| + | disdain. He was indulgent towards God's creation. Every man, even the | ||
| + | best, has within him a thoughtless harshness which he reserves for | ||
| + | animals. The Bishop of D—— had none of that harshness, which | ||
| + | is peculiar to many priests, nevertheless. He did not go as far as the | ||
| + | Brahmin, but he seemed to have weighed this saying of Ecclesiastes: "Who | ||
| + | knoweth whither the soul of the animal goeth?" Hideousness of aspect, | ||
| + | deformity of instinct, troubled him not, and did not arouse his | ||
| + | indignation. He was touched, almost softened by them. It seemed as though | ||
| + | he went thoughtfully away to seek beyond the bounds of life which is | ||
| + | apparent, the cause, the explanation, or the excuse for them. He seemed at | ||
| + | times to be asking God to commute these penalties. He examined without | ||
| + | wrath, and with the eye of a linguist who is deciphering a palimpsest, | ||
| + | that portion of chaos which still exists in nature. This revery sometimes | ||
| + | caused him to utter odd sayings. One morning he was in his garden, and | ||
| + | thought himself alone, but his sister was walking behind him, unseen by | ||
| + | him: suddenly he paused and gazed at something on the ground; it was a | ||
| + | large, black, hairy, frightful spider. His sister heard him say:— | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | "Poor beast! It is not its fault!" | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Why not mention these almost divinely childish sayings of kindness? | ||
| + | Puerile they may be; but these sublime puerilities were peculiar to Saint | ||
| + | Francis d'Assisi and of Marcus Aurelius. One day he sprained his ankle in | ||
| + | his effort to avoid stepping on an ant. Thus lived this just man. | ||
| + | Sometimes he fell asleep in his garden, and then there was nothing more | ||
| + | venerable possible. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | Monseigneur Bienvenu had formerly been, if the stories anent his youth, | ||
| + | and even in regard to his manhood, were to be believed, a passionate, and, | ||
| + | possibly, a violent man. His universal suavity was less an instinct of | ||
| + | nature than the result of a grand conviction which had filtered into his | ||
| + | heart through the medium of life, and had trickled there slowly, thought | ||
| + | by thought; for, in a character, as in a rock, there may exist apertures | ||
| + | made by drops of water. These hollows are uneffaceable; these formations | ||
| + | are indestructible. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | In 1815, as we think we have already said, he reached his seventy-fifth | ||
| + | birthday, but he did not appear to be more than sixty. He was not tall; he | ||
| + | was rather plump; and, in order to combat this tendency, he was fond of | ||
| + | taking long strolls on foot; his step was firm, and his form was but | ||
| + | slightly bent, a detail from which we do not pretend to draw any | ||
| + | conclusion. Gregory XVI., at the age of eighty, held himself erect and | ||
| + | smiling, which did not prevent him from being a bad bishop. Monseigneur | ||
| + | Welcome had what the people term a "fine head," but so amiable was he that | ||
| + | they forgot that it was fine. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | When he conversed with that infantile gayety which was one of his charms, | ||
| + | and of which we have already spoken, people felt at their ease with him, | ||
| + | and joy seemed to radiate from his whole person. His fresh and ruddy | ||
| + | complexion, his very white teeth, all of which he had preserved, and which | ||
| + | were displayed by his smile, gave him that open and easy air which cause | ||
| + | the remark to be made of a man, "He's a good fellow"; and of an old man, | ||
| + | "He is a fine man." That, it will be recalled, was the effect which he | ||
| + | produced upon Napoleon. On the first encounter, and to one who saw him for | ||
| + | the first time, he was nothing, in fact, but a fine man. But if one | ||
| + | remained near him for a few hours, and beheld him in the least degree | ||
| + | pensive, the fine man became gradually transfigured, and took on some | ||
| + | imposing quality, I know not what; his broad and serious brow, rendered | ||
| + | august by his white locks, became august also by virtue of meditation; | ||
| + | majesty radiated from his goodness, though his goodness ceased not to be | ||
| + | radiant; one experienced something of the emotion which one would feel on | ||
| + | beholding a smiling angel slowly unfold his wings, without ceasing to | ||
| + | smile. Respect, an unutterable respect, penetrated you by degrees and | ||
| + | mounted to your heart, and one felt that one had before him one of those | ||
| + | strong, thoroughly tried, and indulgent souls where thought is so grand | ||
| + | that it can no longer be anything but gentle. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | As we have seen, prayer, the celebration of the offices of religion, | ||
| + | alms-giving, the consolation of the afflicted, the cultivation of a bit of | ||
| + | land, fraternity, frugality, hospitality, renunciation, confidence, study, | ||
| + | work, filled every day of his life. Filled is exactly the word; certainly | ||
| + | the Bishop's day was quite full to the brim, of good words and good deeds. | ||
| + | Nevertheless, it was not complete if cold or rainy weather prevented his | ||
| + | passing an hour or two in his garden before going to bed, and after the | ||
| + | two women had retired. It seemed to be a sort of rite with him, to prepare | ||
| + | himself for slumber by meditation in the presence of the grand spectacles | ||
| + | of the nocturnal heavens. Sometimes, if the two old women were not asleep, | ||
| + | they heard him pacing slowly along the walks at a very advanced hour of | ||
| + | the night. He was there alone, communing with himself, peaceful, adoring, | ||
| + | comparing the serenity of his heart with the serenity of the ether, moved | ||
| + | amid the darkness by the visible splendor of the constellations and the | ||
| + | invisible splendor of God, opening his heart to the thoughts which fall | ||
| + | from the Unknown. At such moments, while he offered his heart at the hour | ||
| + | when nocturnal flowers offer their perfume, illuminated like a lamp amid | ||
| + | the starry night, as he poured himself out in ecstasy in the midst of the | ||
| + | universal radiance of creation, he could not have told himself, probably, | ||
| + | what was passing in his spirit; he felt something take its flight from | ||
| + | him, and something descend into him. Mysterious exchange of the abysses of | ||
| + | the soul with the abysses of the universe! | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | He thought of the grandeur and presence of God; of the future eternity, | ||
| + | that strange mystery; of the eternity past, a mystery still more strange; | ||
| + | of all the infinities, which pierced their way into all his senses, | ||
| + | beneath his eyes; and, without seeking to comprehend the incomprehensible, | ||
| + | he gazed upon it. He did not study God; he was dazzled by him. He | ||
| + | considered those magnificent conjunctions of atoms, which communicate | ||
| + | aspects to matter, reveal forces by verifying them, create individualities | ||
| + | in unity, proportions in extent, the innumerable in the infinite, and, | ||
| + | through light, produce beauty. These conjunctions are formed and dissolved | ||
| + | incessantly; hence life and death. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | He seated himself on a wooden bench, with his back against a decrepit | ||
| + | vine; he gazed at the stars, past the puny and stunted silhouettes of his | ||
| + | fruit-trees. This quarter of an acre, so poorly planted, so encumbered | ||
| + | with mean buildings and sheds, was dear to him, and satisfied his wants. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | What more was needed by this old man, who divided the leisure of his life, | ||
| + | where there was so little leisure, between gardening in the daytime and | ||
| + | contemplation at night? Was not this narrow enclosure, with the heavens | ||
| + | for a ceiling, sufficient to enable him to adore God in his most divine | ||
| + | works, in turn? Does not this comprehend all, in fact? and what is there | ||
| + | left to desire beyond it? A little garden in which to walk, and immensity | ||
| + | in which to dream. At one's feet that which can be cultivated and plucked; | ||
| + | over head that which one can study and meditate upon: some flowers on | ||
| + | earth, and all the stars in the sky. | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | ==Translation notes== | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Textual notes== | ||
| + | |||
| + | ==Citations== | ||
| + | <references /> | ||
