“Alone with his _pride_!” murmured Charney, reclining his elbow on the arm of the bench, and his face upon his hand. “Pride! of what?—of knowledge? of science? Oh, why should man labour to destroy the elements of his happiness by seeking to analyze them or to sound their depths? Even if indebted for his joys to a deception, why seek to raise the mask and accelerate the disenchantment of his future life? Is truth so dear to him? Does knowledge suffice the desires of his ambition? Madman! such was my own delusion. ‘I am but a worm,’ said I to myself, ‘a worm destined to annihilation’: then, raising myself in the dust where I was crawling, I felt proud of the discovery—vain of my helpless nakedness. I believed neither in virtue nor happiness; but at the thought of annihilation I stopped proudly short and accorded my unlimited faith. My degradation appeared a triumph to me, for it was assured by a discovery of my own. Was I not justified in my estimation of a theory for which I had given in exchange no less than my regal mantle—the countless treasure of my immortality?” The old man extended his hand encouragingly towards his companion. [Illustration] “Be judged by your own image of the worm,” said Girardi. “The worm, after crawling its season on the earth, fed with bitter leaves, condemned to the slime of the marsh or the dust of the road, constructs his own chrysalis—a temporary coffin—from which to emerge, transformed, purified—to flutter from flower to flower and feed upon their precious perfumes. On two radiant wings the new creature takes its flight towards the skies, even as man, the image of his Creator, rises to the bosom of his God.” Charney replied by a negative movement of the head. “Your disease was more deeply rooted than my own,” observed Girardi, with a mournful smile, “for your convalescence, I see, will be more tedious. Have you already forgot the lessons of Picciola?” “Not one of them!” replied Charney, in a tone of deep emotion. “I believe in GOD. I believe in a first cause. I believe in an omniscient Power, the eternal Controller of the universe. But your comparison of the worm supposes the immortality of the soul; and by what is it demonstrated to my reason?”