Trials (Obscenity) -- France -- History -- 19th century
"This splendid vision dwelt in her memory as the most beautiful thing
that it was possible to dream, so that now she strove to recall her
sensation, that still lasted, however, but in a less exclusive fashion
and with a deeper sweetness. Her soul, tortured by pride, at length
found rest in Christian humility, and, tasting the joy of weakness, she
saw within herself the destruction of her will, that must have left a
wide entrance for the inroads of heavenly grace. There existed, then, in
the place of happiness, still greater joys,--another love beyond all
loves, without pause and without end, one that would grow eternally! She
saw amid the illusions of her hope a state of purity floating above the
earth mingling with heaven, to which she aspired. She wanted to become a
saint. She bought chaplets and wore amulets; she wished to have in her
room, by the side of her bed, a reliquary set in emeralds that she might
kiss it every evening."
Here are some of his religious sentiments! And if you wish to pause a
moment to consider the author's thought, I will ask you to turn the page
and read the first three lines of the second paragraph:
"She grew provoked at the doctrines of religion; the arrogance of the
polemic writings displeased her by their inveteracy in attacking people
she did not know; and the secular stories, relieved with religion,
seemed to her written in such ignorance of the world, that they
insensibly estranged her from the truths for whose proof she was
looking."
This is the language of M. Flaubert. Now, if you please, we come to
another scene, that of the extreme unction. Oh! Mr. Government
Attorney, how you have deceived yourself when, stopping at the first
words, you accuse my client of mingling the sacred with the profane;
when he has been content to translate the beautiful formulas of extreme
unction, at the moment when the priest touches the organs of sense, at
the moment where, according to the ritual, he says: _Per istam
unctionem, et suam piissimam misericordiam, indulgeat tibi Dominus
quid-quid deliquisti_!
You said it was not necessary to touch upon holy things. With what right
do you misinterpret these holy words:
"May God, in His holy pity, pardon you for all the sins that you have
committed through sight, taste, hearing, etc.?"
Wait, I am going to read the condemned passage, and that will be all my
vengeance. I dare say vengeance, because the author has need of being
avenged! Yes, it is necessary for M. Flaubert to go out of here not
only acquitted, but avenged! You will see from what kind of reading he
has been nourished. The condemned passage is on page 271 of the
December 15th number, and runs thus:
"Pale as a statue, and with eyes red as fire, Charles, not weeping,
stood opposite her at the foot of the bed, while the priest bending one
knee, was muttering words in a low voice."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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