Ireneus, who had listened in silence to this long profession of faith, asked himself if it was worth while to contradict it. The words of his uncle were contradictory of one of those doctrines, which are the more difficult to shake, as they have their hold in the philosophy of the heart, and are fenced around with many noble sentiments. His loyalty, however, seemed to require some reply, and he spoke as follows: "I understand well enough, my dear uncle, the chain of circumstances which has led you almost to lay aside the principles which now seem prejudices to you. I myself willingly immolate on the altar of new ideas that pride of nobility which delights in the study of old parchments, and makes a kind of fetish of scutcheons carved on the walls of an ancient castle. I condemn as a foolish error, the airs of superiority affected by old nobles in respect to merit sprung from the people; and if, in the opinion of my father, your marriage with the daughter of your friend, seemed a degradation, forgive him. Remember that he died at an epoch of strife and convulsion in which every noble defended, with the greatest possible ardor, the prerogatives of his rank, which he saw were attacked by the maddest passion, and were in danger of being lost. Since then we have made much progress. The barriers which formerly divided society into two classes have been destroyed, space has been opened for every one to carve his own way, and the people participate in governments, and in the royal councils. "The majority of the ministers of the Restoration were chosen from among the people. In relation to this, I admit all the reasonings of the philosophers of the eighteenth century, and of the liberals of our own times. In them I find expansion of heart, intelligence, and I care not for genealogy. The qualities of mind, grace and beauty seem to me signs of distinction marked by the finger of God, who is wiser far than D'Hozier.[A] I cannot, however, forget that this race of nobles, so cruelly persecuted thirty years ago, so often trampled on in our own times, was the glory and the power of France. I was forced with pain to see with what incessant malignity this race, though stripped of its ancient power, was attacked. I have often said that in sapping the foundations of the aristocratic edifice, that in crushing the legitimacy of the nobles, an attack was made on the legitimacy of monarchy. The revolution just over has but too well justified my apprehensions. This revolution which by a species of criminal conversion, selects one of the old royal blood to occupy the throne of the exile, which selects the one nearest the throne, is perhaps but the first of a series of convulsions, in which will be engulfed, by ambition and pride, the wisdom and experience of the past." [Footnote A: A genealogist of great repute in France, twenty years since.]