"I, Sir, I become the mistress of a -"
"Say the word, Therese, out with it: a scoundrel, eh? Oh, I admit it, but I have no other titles to offer you; that our sort does not marry you are doubtless well aware: marriage is one of the sacraments, Therese, and full of an undiscriminating contempt for them all, with none do we ever bother. However, be a little reasonable; that sooner or later you lose what is so dear to you is an indispensable necessity, hence would it not be better to sacrifice it to a single man who thereupon will become your support and protector, is that not better, I say, than to be prostituted to everyone?"
"But why must it be," I replied, "that I have no other alternative?"
"Because, Therese, we have got you, and because the stronger is always the better reason; La Fontaine made the remark ages ago. Truthfully," he continued rapidly, "is it not a ridiculous extravagance to assign, as you do, such a great value to the most futile2 of all things? How can a girl be so dull-witted as to believe that virtue3 may depend upon the somewhat greater or lesser4 diameter of one of her physical parts ? What difference does it make to God or man whether this part be intact or tampered5 with? I will go further: it being the intention of Nature that each individual fulfill6 on this earth all of the purposes for which he has been formed, and women existing only to provide pleasure for men, it is plainly to outrage7 her thus to resist the intention she has in your regard. It is to wish to be a creature useless in this world and consequently one contemptible8. This chimerical9 propriety10, which they have had the absurdity11 to present to you as a virtue and which, since infancy12, far from being useful to Nature and society, is an obvious defiance13 of the one and the other, this propriety, I say, is no more than a reprehensible14 stubbornness of which a person as mettlesome15 and full of intelligence as you should not wish to be guilty. No matter; continue to hear me out, dear girl, I am going to prove my desire to please you and to respect your weakness. I will not by any means touch that phantom16, Therese, whose possession causes all your delight; a girl has more than one favor to give, and one can offer to Venus in many a temple; I will be content with the most mediocre17; you know, my dear, near the Cyprean altar, there is situate an obscure grot into whose solitude18 Love retires, the more energetically to seduce19 us: such will be the altar where I will burn my incense20; no disadvantages there, Therese; if pregnancies21 affright you, 'tis not in this manner they can come about, never will your pretty figure be deformed22 this way; the maidenhead so cherished by you will be preserved unimpaired, and whatever be the use to which you decide to put it, you can propose it unattainted. Nothing can betray a girl from this quarter, however rude or multiple the attacks may be; as soon as the bee has left off sucking the pollen23, the rose's calix closes shut again; one would never imagine it had been opened. There exist girls who have known ten years of pleasure this way, even with several men, women who were just as much married as anyone else after it all, and on their wedding nights they proved quite as virgin24 as could be wished. How many fathers, what a multitude of brothers have thuswise abused their daughters and sisters without the latter having become on that account any the less worthy25 of a later hymeneal sacrifice! How many confessors have not employed the same route to satisfaction, without parents experiencing the mildest disquiet26; in one word, 'tis the mystery's asylum27, 'tis there where it connects itself with love by ties of prudence28.... Need I tell you further, Therese, that although this is the most secret temple it is howbeit the most voluptuous29; what is necessary to happiness is found nowhere else, and that easy vastness native to the adjacent aperture30 falls far short of having the piquant31 charms of a locale into which one does not enter without effort, where one takes up one's abode32 only at the price of some trouble; women themselves reap an advantage from it, and those whom reason compels to know this variety of pleasure, never pine after the others. Try it, Therese, try, and we shall both be contented33."
"Oh Monsieur," I replied, "I have no experience of the thing; but I have heard it said that this perversion34 you recommend outrages35 women in a yet more sensitive manner.... It more grievously offends Nature. The hand of Heaven takes its vengeance36 upon it in this world, Sodom provides the example."
"What innocence37, my dear, what childishness," the libertine38 retorted; "who ever told you such a thing? Yet a little more attention, Therese, let me proceed to rectify39 your ideas.
"The wasting of the seed destined40 to perpetuate41 the human species, dear girl, is the only crime which can exist such is the hypothesis; according to it, this seed is put in us for the sole purpose of reproduction, and if that were true I would grant you that diverting it is an offense42. But once it is demonstrated that her situating this semen in our loins is by no means enough to warrant supposing that Nature's purpose is to have all of it employed for reproduction, what then does it matter, Therese, whether it be spilled in one place or in another? Does the man who diverts it perform a greater evil than Nature who does not employ all of it? Now, do not those natural losses, which we can imitate if we please, occur in an abundance of instances? Our very ability to provoke them, firstly, is an initial proof that they do not offend Nature in the slightest. It would be contrary to all the equity43 and profound wisdom we everywhere recognize in her laws for them to permit what might affront44 her; secondly45, those losses occur a hundred hundred million times every day, and she instigates46 them herself; nocturnal pollutions, the inutility of semen during the periods of woman's pregnancy47, are they not authorized48 by her laws, enjoined49 by them, and do they not prove that, very little concerned for what may result from this liquid to which we so foolishly attach a disproportionate value, she permits us its waste with the same indifference50 she herself causes it every day to be wasted; she tolerates reproduction, yes, but much is wanting to prove reproduction is one of her intentions; she lets us go ahead with our reproducing to be sure, but it being no more to her advantage than our abstaining51 therefrom, the choice we happen to make is as one to her. Is it not clear that leaving us the power to create, not to create, or to destroy, we will not delight her at all or disappoint her any more by adopting toward the one or the other the attitude which suits us best; and what could be more self-evident than that the course we choose, being but the result of her power over us and the influence upon us of her actions, will far more surely please than it will risk offending her. Ah, Therese ! believe me, Nature frets53 very little over those mysteries we are great enough fools to turn into worship of her. Whatever be the temple at which one sacrifices, immediately she allows incense to be burned there, one can be sure the homage54 offends her in no wise; refusals to produce, waste of the semen employed in production, the obliteration55 of that seed when it has germinated56, the annihilation of that germ even long after its formation, all those, Therese, are imaginary crimes which are of no interest to Nature and at which she scoffs57 as she does at all the rest of our institutions which offend more often than they serve her."
Coeur-de-fer waxed warm while expounding58 his perfidious59 maxims60, and I soon beheld61 him again in the state which had so terrified me the night before; in order to give his lesson additional impact, he wished instantly to join practice to precept62; and, my resistances notwithstanding, his hands strayed toward the altar into which the traitor63 wanted to penetrate64.... Must I declare, Madame, that, blinded by the wicked man's seductions; content, by yielding a little, to save what seemed the more essential; reflecting neither upon his casuistries' illogicalities nor upon what I was myself about to risk since the dishonest fellow, possessing gigantic proportions, had not even the possibility to see a woman in the most permissible65 place and since, urged on by his native perversity66, he most assuredly had no object but to maim67 me; my eyes as I say, perfectly68 blind to all that, I was going to abandon myself and become criminal through virtue; my opposition69 was weakening; already master of the throne, the insolent70 conqueror71 concentrated all his energies in order to establish himself upon it; and then there was heard the sound of a carriage moving along the highway. Upon the instant, Coeur-de-fer forsakes72 his pleasures for his duties; he assembles his followers73 and flies to new crimes. Not long afterward74, we hear cries, and those bandits, all bloodied75 over, return triumphant76 and laden77 with spoils.
"Let's decamp smartly," says Coeur-de-fer, "we've killed three men, the corpses78 are on the road, we're safe no longer." The booty is divided, Coeur-de-fer wants me to have my share; it comes to twenty louis, which I am compelled to accept. I tremble at the obligation to take such money; however, we are in a hurry, everyone snatches up his belongings79 and off we go.
The next day we find ourselves out of danger and in the forest of Chantilly; during supper, the men reckon what their latest operation has been worth to them, and evaluate the total capture at no more than two hundred louis.
"Indeed," says one of them, "it wasn't worth the trouble to commit three murders for such a little sum."
"Softly, my friends," Dubois answers, "it was not for the sake of their purses I exhorted80 you not to spare those travelers, it was solely81 in the interests of our security; the law's to be blamed for these crimes, the fault's not ours; so long as thieves are hanged like murderers, thefts shall never be committed without assassinations82. The two misdeeds are punished equally; why then abstain52 from the second when it may cover up the first? What makes you suppose, furthermore," the horrid83 creature continued, "that two hundred louis are not worth three killings84 ? One must never appraise85 values save in terms of our own interests. The cessation of the victims' existences is as nothing compared to the continuation of ours, not a mite86 does it matter to us whether any individual is alive or in the grave; consequently, if one of the two cases involves what in the smallest way affects our welfare, we must, with perfect unremorse, determine the thing in our own favor; for in a completely indifferent matter we should, if we have any wits and are master of the situation, undoubtedly87 act so as to turn it to the profitable side, entirely88 neglecting whatever may befall our adversary89; for there is no rational commensuration between what affects us and what affects others; the first we sense physically90, the other only touches us morally, and moral feelings are made to deceive; none but physical sensations are authentic91; thus, not only do two hundred louis suffice for three murders, but even thirty centimes would have sufficed, for those thirty centimes would have procured93 a satisfaction which, although light, must necessarily affect us to a much more lively degree than would three men murdered, who are nothing to us, and by the wrongs done whom we are not in the least touched, no, not even scratched; our organic feebleness, careless thinking, the accursed prejudices in which we were brought up, the vain terrors of religion and law, those are what hamper94 idiots and confound their criminal careers, those are what prevent them from arriving at greatness; but every strong and healthy individual, endowed with an energetically organized mind, who preferring himself to others, as he must, will know how to weigh their interests in the balance against his own, will laugh God and mankind to the devil, will brave death and mock at the law, fully1 aware that it is to himself he must be faithful, that by himself all must be measured, will sense that the vastest multitude of wrongs inflicted95 upon others cannot offset96 the least enjoyment97 lost to himself or be as important as his slightest pleasure purchased by an unheard-of host of villainies. Joy pleases him, it is in him, it is his own, crime's effect touches him not, is exterior98 to him; well, I ask, what thinking man will not prefer what causes his delectation to what is alien to him? who will not consent to commit this deed whereof~ he experiences nothing unpleasant, in order to procure92 what moves him most agreeably?"
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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tampered
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| v.窜改( tamper的过去式 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄 | |
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fulfill
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| vt.履行，实现，完成；满足，使满意 | |
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outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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contemptible
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| adj.可鄙的，可轻视的，卑劣的 | |
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chimerical
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| adj.荒诞不经的，梦幻的 | |
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propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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reprehensible
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| adj.该受责备的 | |
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mettlesome
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| adj.（通常指马等）精力充沛的，勇猛的 | |
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phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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mediocre
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| adj.平常的，普通的 | |
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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seduce
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| vt.勾引，诱奸，诱惑，引诱 | |
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incense
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| v.激怒；n.香，焚香时的烟，香气 | |
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pregnancies
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| 怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 ) | |
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deformed
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| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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pollen
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| n.[植]花粉 | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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disquiet
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| n.担心，焦虑 | |
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asylum
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| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
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prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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voluptuous
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| adj.肉欲的，骄奢淫逸的 | |
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aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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piquant
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| adj.辛辣的，开胃的，令人兴奋的 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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perversion
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| n.曲解；堕落；反常 | |
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outrages
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| 引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 ) | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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libertine
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| n.淫荡者；adj.放荡的，自由思想的 | |
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rectify
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| v.订正，矫正，改正 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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perpetuate
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| v.使永存，使永记不忘 | |
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offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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equity
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| n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票 | |
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affront
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| n./v.侮辱，触怒 | |
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secondly
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| adv.第二，其次 | |
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instigates
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| n.使（某事物）开始或发生，鼓动( instigate的名词复数 )v.使（某事物）开始或发生，鼓动( instigate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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pregnancy
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| n.怀孕，怀孕期 | |
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authorized
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| a.委任的，许可的 | |
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enjoined
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| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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abstaining
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| 戒（尤指酒），戒除( abstain的现在分词 )； 弃权（不投票） | |
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abstain
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| v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免 | |
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frets
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| 基质间片； 品丝（吉他等指板上定音的）( fret的名词复数 ) | |
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homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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obliteration
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| n.涂去，删除；管腔闭合 | |
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germinated
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| v.（使）发芽( germinate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scoffs
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| 嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的第三人称单数 ) | |
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expounding
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| 论述，详细讲解( expound的现在分词 ) | |
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perfidious
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| adj.不忠的，背信弃义的 | |
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maxims
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| n.格言，座右铭( maxim的名词复数 ) | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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precept
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| n.戒律；格言 | |
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traitor
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| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
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penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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permissible
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| adj.可允许的，许可的 | |
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perversity
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| n.任性；刚愎自用 | |
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maim
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| v.使残废，使不能工作，使伤残 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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forsakes
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| 放弃( forsake的第三人称单数 )； 弃绝； 抛弃； 摒弃 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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bloodied
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| v.血污的( bloody的过去式和过去分词 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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exhorted
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| v.劝告，劝说( exhort的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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assassinations
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| n.暗杀( assassination的名词复数 ) | |
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horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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killings
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| 谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发 | |
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appraise
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| v.估价，评价，鉴定 | |
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mite
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| n.极小的东西；小铜币 | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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adversary
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| adj.敌手，对手 | |
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90
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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91
authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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92
procure
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| vt.获得，取得，促成；vi.拉皮条 | |
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93
procured
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
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94
hamper
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| vt.妨碍，束缚，限制；n.(有盖的)大篮子 | |
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95
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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offset
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| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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97
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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98
exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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