Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 7.djvu/44

 xxvui PROSPER MERIMEE happiness to which it was his right to aspire. Through his fear of being a dupe, he was suspicious in every phase of Ufa — in love, in science, in art; ' and yet he was the dupe of his own mistrust. One is sure always of being the dupe of something, and it may be better, perhaps, to reconcile oneself to the fact in advance. H. Taine. November, 1873. ' Letters to an Unknown, I, p. 7. "Abandon your optimistic ideas and realise that we are in this world to struggle and contend with our fellows. . . . Learn, abo, that nothing is more common than to do wrong merely for the pleasure of doing it."