"My son," replied Monsieur Cardonnet, somewhat disturbed by this effusive exordium, "you have acquired, _yonder_, a habit of using emphatic language which I cannot imitate. This manner of talking is ill-advised, in that the mind gets heated and excited, and soon goes astray in an outburst of exaggerated emotion. I know that you love me and believe in me. You know that I cherish you above all things, and that your future is my only aim, my only thought. Let us talk reasonably, then, and coolly, if it is possible. Let us first of all review your brief and happy life. You were born in comfort, and as I worked hard and constantly, wealth took its place under your feet, so quickly and so naturally that you hardly noticed it. Each year increased the possibilities of your future career, and you were hardly more than a child when I began to think of your old age and of the future of your children. You showed a praiseworthy disposition to work--but only at useless arts, drawing, music, poetry,--ornamental accomplishments. It was my duty to combat and I did combat the development of these artistic instincts, when I saw that they threatened to stifle more essential and more solid faculties. "By creating your fortune, I created duties for you. The fine arts are the blessing and the treasure of the poor man; but wealth demands powers of a sterner temper to support the weight of the obligations it imposes. I questioned myself; I saw what my own education lacked, and it seemed to me that we ought to complement each other, since we were, by the law of blood, partners in the same enterprise. I was well versed in the industrial theories to which I had devoted myself; but as I had not had experience in putting them in practice early enough in life, as I had not studied the practical part of my vocation and could solve problems in geometry and mechanics only by instinct and a sort of divination, I was likely to make mistakes, to start upon false scents, to allow myself to be led astray by my own dreams or those of other people, in a word, to lose, in addition to large sums of money, days, weeks, years, that is to say, time, which is the most valuable of all forms of capital. I determined therefore that you should be instructed in the mechanical sciences immediately after leaving school, and you forced yourself to work hard and faithfully, despite your youth. But your mind soon chose to take a flight which carried you away from my goal.