Monsieur De Camors | Page 3

myself, my life has been a failure, because I was born many
years too soon. As yet the earth and the heavens were heaped up and
cumbered with ruins, and people did not see. Science, moreover, was
relatively still in its infancy. And, besides, I retained the prejudices and
the repugnance to the doctrines of the new world that belonged to my
name. I was unable to comprehend that there was anything better to be
done than childishly to pout at the conqueror; that is, I could not
recognize that his weapons were good, and that I should seize and
destroy him with them. In short, for want of a definite principle of
action I have drifted at random, my life without plan--I have been a
mere trivial man of pleasure.
"Your life shall be more complete, if you will only follow my advice.
"What, indeed, may not a man of this age become if he have the good

sense and energy to conform his life rigidly to his belief!
"I merely state the question, you must solve it; I can leave you only
some cursory ideas, which I am satisfied are just, and upon which you
may meditate at your leisure. Only for fools or the weak does
materialism become a debasing dogma; assuredly, in its code there are
none of those precepts of ordinary morals which our fathers entitled
virtue; but I do find there a grand word which may well counterbalance
many others, that is to say, Honor, self-esteem! Unquestionably a
materialist may not be a saint; but he can be a gentleman, which is
something. You have happy gifts, my son, and I know of but one duty
that you have in the world--that of developing those gifts to the utmost,
and through them to enjoy life unsparingly. Therefore, without scruple,
use woman for your pleasure, man for your advancement; but under no
circumstances do anything ignoble.
"In order that ennui shall not drive you, like myself, prematurely from
the world so soon as the season for pleasure shall have ended, you
should leave the emotions of ambition and of public life for the
gratification of your riper age. Do not enter into any engagements with
the reigning government, and reserve for yourself to hear its eulogium
made by those who will have subverted it. That is the French fashion.
Each generation must have its own prey. You will soon feel the
impulse of the coming generation. Prepare yourself, from afar, to take
the lead in it.
"In politics, my son, you are not ignorant that we all take our principles
from our temperament. The bilious are demagogues, the sanguine,
democrats, the nervous, aristocrats. You are both sanguine and nervous,
an excellent constitution, for it gives you a choice. You may, for
example, be an aristocrat in regard to yourself personally, and, at the
same time, a democrat in relation to others; and in that you will not be
exceptional.
"Make yourself master of every question likely to interest your
contemporaries, but do not become absorbed in any yourself. In reality,
all principles are indifferent--true or false according to the hour and
circumstance. Ideas are mere instruments with which you should learn

to play seasonably, so as to sway men. In that path, likewise, you will
have associates.
"Know, my son, that having attained my age, weary of all else, you will
have need of strong sensations. The sanguinary diversions of revolution
will then be for you the same as a love-affair at twenty.
"But I am fatigued, my son, and shall recapitulate. To be loved by
women, to be feared by men, to be as impassive and as imperturbable
as a god before the tears of the one and the blood of the other, and to
end in a whirlwind--such has been the lot in which I have failed, but
which, nevertheless, I bequeath to you. With your great faculties you,
however, are capable of accomplishing it, unless indeed you should fail
through some ingrained weakness of the heart that I have noticed in
you, and which, doubtless, you have imbibed with your mother's milk.
"So long as man shall be born of woman, there will be something faulty
and incomplete in his character. In fine, strive to relieve yourself from
all thraldom, from all natural instincts, affections, and sympathies as
from so many fetters upon your liberty, your strength.
"Do not marry unless some superior interest shall impel you to do so. In
that event, have no children.
"Have no intimate friends. Caesar having grown old, had a friend. It
was Brutus!
"Contempt for men is the beginning of wisdom.
"Change somewhat your style of fencing, it is altogether too open, my
son. Do not get angry. Rarely laugh, and never weep. Adieu.
"CAMORS."
The feeble