"Kant? Yet another ball flung out for fools to sport with, sir!
Materialism and spiritualism are a fine pair of battledores with which
charlatans in long gowns keep a shuttlecock a-going. Suppose that God
is everywhere, as Spinoza says, or that all things proceed from God,
as says St. Paul . . . the nincompoops, the door shuts or opens, but
isn't the movement the same? Does the fowl come from the egg, or the
egg from the fowl? . . . Just hand me some duck . . . and there, you
have all science."
"Simpleton!" cried the man of science, "your problem is settled by
fact!"
"What fact?"
"Professors' chairs were not made for philosophy, but philosophy for
the professors' chairs. Put on a pair of spectacles and read the
budget."
"Thieves!"
"Nincompoops!"
"Knaves!"
"Gulls!"
"Where but in Paris will you find such a ready and rapid exchange of
thought?" cried Bixiou in a deep, bass voice.
"Bixiou! Act a classical farce for us! Come now."
"Would you like me to depict the nineteenth century?"
"Silence."
"Pay attention."
"Clap a muffle on your trumpets."
"Shut up, you Turk!"
"Give him some wine, and let that fellow keep quiet."
"Now, then, Bixiou!"
The artist buttoned his black coat to the collar, put on yellow
gloves, and began to burlesque the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ by acting a
squinting old lady; but the uproar drowned his voice, and no one heard
a word of the satire.
Pages:
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92