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Penguin Island-Part33_Anatole France_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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domes, its air-passages, and its crowds of men, covered with a veil of



silence, and seemingly enchanted by the distance. This square was the

healthiest place in the capital; here no smoke obscured the sky, and children



were brought here to play. In summer some employees from the neighbouring

offices and laboratories used to resort to it for a moment after their



luncheons, but they did not disturb its solitude and peace.

It was owing to this custom that, one day in June, about mid-day, a telegraph



clerk, Caroline Meslier, came and sat down on a bench at the end of a terrace.

In order to refresh her eyes by the sight of a little green, she turned her



back to the town. Dark, with brown eyes, robust and placid, Caroline appeared

to be from twenty-five to twenty-eight years of age. Almost immediately, a



clerk in the Electricity Trust, George Clair, took his place beside her. Fair,

thin, and supple, he had features of a femininedelicacy; he was scarcely



older than she, and looked still younger. As they met almost every day in this

place, a comradeship had sprung up between them, and they enjoyed chatting



together. But their conversation had never been tender, affectionate, or even

intimate. Caroline, although it had happened to her in the past to repent of



her confidence, might perhaps have been less reserved had not George Clair

always shown himself extremely restrained in his expressions and behaviour. He



always gave a purelyintellectualcharacter to the conversation, keeping it

within the realm of general ideas, and, moreover, expressing himself on all



subjects with the greatest freedom. He spoke frequently of the organization of

society, and the conditions of labour.



"Wealth," said he, "is one of the means of living happily; but people have

made it the sole end of existence."



And this state of things seemed monstrous to both of them.

They returned continually to various scientific subjects with which they were



both familiar.

On that day they discussed the evolution of chemistry.



"From the moment," said Clair, "that radium was seen to be transformed into

helium, people ceased to affirm the immutability of simple bodies; in this way



all those old laws about simple relations and about the indestructibility of

matter were abolished."



"However," said she, "chemical laws exist."

For, being a woman, she had need of belief.



He resumed carelessly:

"Now that we can procure radium in sufficient quantities, science possesses



incomparable means of analysis; even at present we get glimpses, within what

are called simple bodies, of extremely diversified complex ones, and we



discover energies in matter which seem to increase even by reason of its

tenuity."



As they talked, they threw bits of bread to the birds, and some children

played around them.



Passing from one subject to another:

"This hill, in the quaternary epoch," said Clair, "was inhabited by wild



horses. Last year, as they were tunnelling for the water mains, they found a

layer of the bones of primeval horses."



She was anxious to know whether, at that distant epoch, man had yet appeared.

He told her that man used to hunt the primeval horse long before he tried to



domesticate him.

"Man," he added, "was at first a hunter, then he became a shepherd, a






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