"Very well, then. You demand compulsory military service. Against whom? Against mankind. I object to military service; I would have peace. You desire to help the wretched; what I wish is the abolition of their misery. You demand proportionate taxation; I would have no taxes whatsoever. I would have the public expenses reduced to the lowest level, and paid for by the social surplus." "What do you mean by that?" "This: In the first place, it is for you to suppress sycophancy,--that of the priest, the soldier, and the judge. Then, use your wealth to the best advantage; distribute over your furrows all that fertilizing matter which is now thrown into your sewers. Three quarters of the soil lies fallow; plough it up; redeem the waste pastures; divide the communal lands; let each man have a farm, and each farm a man. You will increase a hundredfold the social product. At the present time, France affords her peasants meat but four times a year; well cultivated, she could feed three millions of men, all Europe. Utilize nature, that gigantic auxiliary; enlist every breeze, every waterfall, every magnetic current, in your service. This globe has a subterranean network of veins, through which flows a marvellous circulation of water, oil, and fire; pierce this vein of the globe, and let the water feed your fountains, the oil your lamps, and the fire your hearths. Consider the action of the waves,--the ebb and flow of the tides. What is the ocean? A prodigious force wasted. How stupid is the earth, to make no use of the ocean!" "There you go, in full career with your dreams!" "You mean with my realities." Gauvain continued,-- "And woman,--how do you dispose of her?" Cimourdain replied,-- "Leave her as she is,--the servant of man." "Yes, under one condition." "What is that?" "That man shall be the servant of woman." "What are you thinking of?" exclaimed Cimourdain. "Man a servant? Never! Man is the master. I admit but one kingdom,--that of the fire-side. Man is king in his own home." "Yes, on one condition." "What is that?" "That woman shall be its queen." "You mean that you demand for both man and woman--" "Equality." "'Equality'! Can you dream of such a thing? The two beings are so entirely unlike!" "I said equality, not identity." There was another pause, a sort of truce as it were, between these two minds exchanging their lightning flashes. Cimourdain broke it. "And the child? To whose care would you intrust that?" "First to the father who begets, then to the mother who gives him birth, later to the master who educates, and to the city that makes a man of him, then to the country which is his supreme mother, and lastly to humanity which is his great ancestress." "You have not mentioned God." "Each step--father, mother, master, city, country, humanity--is but a rung in the ladder that leads to God." Cimourdain was silent, while Gauvain continued: