Even we, with all our education, our science, the superior moral atmosphere which we breathe,--are we always blameless? When the people look above them, do they always find good examples in the higher classes of society? What would you have them think when they see men who ought to be patterns of virtue, when they see, to use their own expression, _respectable scoundrels_, with money in their hands and lying words on their lips, endeavoring to seduce their wives or their daughters? {68} Nevertheless, they have not lost the courage of truthfulness: a rare thing nowadays. They have still moral energy enough to condemn themselves, to condemn their own mode of life, and to admit that they are wrong-doers. A notorious reprobate, after hearing a sermon, remarked to his companion: "All right; religion, after all, is not such a humbug as it has been represented." Scarcely any but the people retain such ingenuousness. Elsewhere the truth is not relished, is not recognized, is rather thrust aside as an intruder. Where, I should like to know, among other classes, will you hear the admission:--"I am misled; I am in the wrong?" The people scarcely ever attempt to justify their failings by reasoning, or to reduce their vices to a system; for there exists in them a sense of justice and integrity which, when they are calm, leads them to confess that they are unworthy to live. A man [Footnote 10] who was in the habit of mixing with the least moral class in Paris, relates that he one day had the following conversation with the father of a family whose union had not been blessed by religion. [Footnote 10: M. Gossin, _Manuel de la Société de Saint-François Régis_, p. 143.] {69} "I must apologize," he remarks, "for reproducing this colloquy in all its original crudity; but I shall invent nothing; I shall merely repeat what was actually said by both parties the first time this _argmnentum ad hominem_ was employed. "'I regret to find that we cannot understand each other. What! you persist in maintaining that in seducing the woman at your side eighteen years ago you did nothing wrong?' "'Nothing at all. I am an honest man; I have never stolen nor committed murder. I was rather gay when young; but there is no harm in that. As to the woman, I did not compel her. Why did she allow herself to be enticed?' "'Let us speak on another subject. ... Are all these your children?' "No, sir; we have another at home, a young lass named Seraphine.' "'I am sorry you have not produced her. I should have been very glad to see her.' "'It is very civil of you to say so, sir.' "'Is she grown-up?' "'Tolerably: she is twelve years old. She is getting on nicely with the Sisters, which is very satisfactory. She sews well already, and is a promising girl.' "'Your boys here are comely and well-behaved, and do credit to the mother's care.' {70}