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Modeste Mignon-Part30_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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bankers,--

"He makes a mint of money."



"They say he is very grasping," added Canalis.

The praises which Modeste showered on Desplein had annoyed the poet.



Vanity acts like a woman,--they both think they are defrauded when

love or praise is bestowed on others. Voltaire was jealous of the wit



of a roue whom Paris admired for two days; and even a duchess takes

offence at a look bestowed upon her maid. The avarice excited by these



two sentiments is such that a fraction of them given to the poor is

thought robbery.



"Do you think, monsieur," said Modeste, smiling, "that we should judge

genius by ordinary standards?"



"Perhaps we ought first of all to define the man of genius," replied

Canalis. "One of the conditions of genius is invention,--invention of



a form, a system, a force. Napoleon was an inventor, apart from his

other conditions of genius. He invented his method of making war.



Walter Scott is an inventor, Linnaeus is an inventor, Geoffrey Saint-

Hilaire and Cuvier are inventors. Such men are men of genius of the



first rank. They renew, increase, or modify both science and art. But

Desplein is merely a man whose vast talent consists in properly



applying laws already known; in observing, by means of a natural gift,

the limits laid down for each temperament, and the time appointed by



Nature for an operation. He has not founded, like Hippocrates, the

science itself. He has invented no system, as did Galen, Broussais,



and Rasori. He is merely an executivegenius, like Moscheles on the

piano, Paganini on the violin, or Farinelli on his own larynx,--men



who have developed enormous faculties, but who have not created music.

You must permit me to discriminate between Beethoven and la Catalani:



to one belongs the immortal crown of genius and of martyrdom, to the

other innumerable five-franc pieces; one we can pay in coin, but the



world remains throughout all time a debtor to the other. Each day

increases our debt to Moliere, but Baron's comedies have been



overpaid."

"I think you make the prerogative of ideas too exclusive," said Ernest



de La Briere, in a quiet and melodious voice, which formed a sudden

contrast to the peremptory tones of the poet, whose flexible organ had



abandoned its caressing notes for the strident and magisterial voice

of the rostrum. "Genius must be estimated according to its utility;



and Parmentier, who brought potatoes into general use, Jacquart, the

inventor of silk looms; Papin, who first discovered the elastic



quality of steam, are men of genius, to whom statues will some day be

erected. They have changed, or they will change in a certain sense,



the face of the State. It is in that sense that Desplein will always

be considered a man of genius by thinkers; they see him attended by a



generation of sufferers whose pains are stifled by his hand."

That Ernest should give utterance to this opinion was enough to make



Modeste oppose it.

"If that be so, monsieur," she said, "then the man who could discover



a way to mow wheat without injuring the straw, by a machine that could

do the work of ten men, would be a man of genius."



"Yes, my daughter," said Madame Mignon; "and the poor would bless him

for cheaper bread,--he that is blessed by the poor is blessed of God."



"That is putting utility above art," said Modeste, shaking her head.

"Without utility what would become of art?" said Charles Mignon. "What



would it rest on? what would it live on? Where would you lodge, and

how would you pay the poet?"



"Oh! my dear papa, such opinions are fearfully flat and antediluvian!

I am not surprised that Gobenheim and Monsieur de La Briere, who are



interested in the solution of social problems should think so; but

you, whose life has been the most uselesspoetry of the century,--



useless because the blood you shed all over Europe, and the horrible

sufferings exacted by your colossus, did not prevent France from



losing ten departments acquired under the Revolution,--how can YOU

give in to such excessively pig-tail notions, as the idealists say? It



is plain you've just come from China."

The impertinence of Modeste's speech was heightened by a little air of



contemptuous disdain which she purposely put on, and which fairly

astounded Madame Mignon, Madame Latournelle, and Dumay. As for Madame



Latournelle, she opened her eyes so wide she no longer saw anything.




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