"Your argument is blasphemy," said Monsieur de Clagny.

"I grant it," said the journalist, "but not with malicious intent. You
cannot suppress historical fact. In my opinion, Pilate, when he
sentenced Jesus, and Anytus--who spoke for the aristocratic party at
Athens--when he insisted on the death of Socrates, both represented
established social interests which held themselves legitimate,
invested with co-operative powers, and obliged to defend themselves.
Pilate and Anytus in their time were not less logical than the public
prosecutors who demanded the heads of the sergeants of La Rochelle;
who, at this day, are guillotining the republicans who take up arms
against the throne as established by the revolution of July, and the
innovators who aim at upsetting society for their own advantage under
pretence of organizing it on a better footing. In the eyes of the
great families of Greece and Rome, Socrates and Jesus were criminals;
to those ancient aristocracies their opinions were akin to those of
the Mountain; and if their followers had been victorious, they would
have produced a little 'ninety-three' in the Roman Empire or in
Attica."

"What are you trying to come to, monsieur?" asked the lawyer.

"To adultery!--For thus, monsieur, a Buddhist as he smokes his pipe
may very well assert that the Christian religion is founded in
adultery; as we believe that Mahomet is an impostor; that his Koran is
an epitome of the Old Testament and the Gospels; and that God never
had the least intention of constituting that camel-driver His
Prophet."

"If there were many men like you in France--and there are more than