would have turned out! Fool! to have sacrificed my likings and my money,
for nearly twenty years, to the education of a thankless son! Was it for
this I took the trouble to cure myself of drinking, to break with my
friends, to become an example to the neighborhood? The jovial good
fellow has made a goose of himself. Oh! if I had to begin again! No,
no! you see women and children are our bane. They soften our hearts;
they lead us a life of hope and affection; we pass a quarter of our lives
in fostering the growth of a grain of corn which is to be everything to
us in our old age, and when the harvest-time comes--good-night, the ear
is empty!"

While he was speaking, Michael's voice became hoarse, his eyes fierce,
and his lips quivered. I wished to answer him, but I could only think of
commonplace consolations, and I remained silent. The joiner pretended he
needed a tool, and left me.

Poor father! Ah! I know those moments of temptation when virtue has
failed to reward us, and we regret having obeyed her! Who has not felt
this weakness in hours of trial, and who has not uttered, at least once,
the mournful exclamation of Brutus?

But if virtue is only a word, what is there then in life that is true
and real? No, I will not believe that goodness is in vain! It does not
always give the happiness we had hoped for, but it brings some other.
In the world everything is ruled by order, and has its proper and
necessary consequences, and virtue cannot be the sole exception to the
general law. If it had been prejudicial to those who practised it,
experience would have avenged them; but experience has, on the contrary,
made it more universal and more holy. We only accuse it of being a
faithless debtor because we demand an immediate payment, and one apparent