Page:Ninety-three.djvu/364

 "And you in mathematics."

"Harmony is a dream."

"There are unknown quantities in Algebra."

"I would have man made according to Euclid."

"And I," said Gauvain, "I would rather have him made according to Homer."

Cimourdain's stern smile rested on Gauvain, as if to hold back his soul.

"Poetry. Place no trust in poets."

"Yes, I know that saying. Put no trust in breezes, sunbeams, put no trust in perfumes, put no trust in flowers, put no trust in constellations."

"None of them will give you anything to eat."

"How do you know. Ideas too, are food. To think is to eat."

"No abstractions. The Republic is two and two make four. When I have given to each what belongs to him──"

"It will remain for you to give to each what does not belong to him."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean the vast reciprocal concession that each owes to all, and all owe to each, and which is the whole social law."

"There is nothing beyond strict law."

"There is everything."

"I see nothing but justice."

"For my part, I see higher."

"What is there above justice?"

"Equity."

Occasionally, they stopped, as if to catch glimpses of light.

Cimourdain resumed,—

"I challenge you to explain."

"I will do so. You would have military service obligatory; against whom? Against other men. But I would not have any military service at all. I want peace. You would have the wretched assisted, but I would have misery suppressed. You would have proportional taxes. I would have no taxes at all. I want the common expenses reduced to their simplest form, and paid by the overplus of society."

"What do you mean by that?"