MLLE. MEUNIER
Among my pupils was a certain Mlle. Meunier, a wealthy old lady with no
dependents, who was fond of travel, and studied Spanish with the object
of visiting my country. She was a convinced Catholic and a very
scrupulous observer of the rules of her Church. To her, religion and
morality were the same thing, and unbelief—or “impiety,” as the
faithful say—was an evident sign of vice and crime.
She detested revolutionaries, and she regarded with impulsive and
undiscriminating aversion every display of popular ignorance. This was
due, not only to her education and social position, but to the
circumstance that during the period of the Commune she had been
insulted by children in the streets of Paris as she went to church with
her mother. Ingenuous and sympathetic, without regard to antecedents,
accessories, or consequences, she always expressed her dogmatic
convictions without reserve, and I had many opportunities to open her
eyes to the inaccuracy of her opinions.
In our many conversations I refrained from taking any definite side; so
that she did not recognise me as a partisan of any particular belief,
but as a careful reasoner with whom it was a pleasure to confer. She
formed so flattering an opinion of me, and was so solitary, that she
gave me her full confidence and friendship, and invited me to accompany
her on her travels. I accepted the offer, and we travelled in various
countries. My conduct and our constant conversation compelled her to
recognise the error of thinking that every unbeliever was perverse and
every atheist a hardened criminal, since I, a convinced atheist,
manifested symptoms very different from those which her religious
prejudice had led her to expect.
She thought, however, that my conduct was exceptional, and reminded me
that the exception proves the rule. In the end the persistency and
logic of my arguments forced her to yield to the evidence, and, when
her prejudice was removed, she was convinced that a rational and
scientific education would preserve children from error, inspire men
with a love of good conduct, and reorganise society in accord with the
demands of justice. She was deeply impressed by the reflection that she
might have been on a level with the children who had insulted her if,
at their age, she had been reared in the same conditions as they. When
she had given up her belief in innate ideas, she was greatly
preoccupied with the following problem: If a child were educated
without hearing anything about religion, what idea of the Deity would
it have on reaching the age of reason?
After a while, it seemed to me that we were wasting time if we were not
prepared to go on from words to deeds. To be in possession of an
important privilege through the imperfect organisation of society and
by the accident of birth, to conceive ideas of reform, and to remain
inactive or indifferent amid a life of pleasure, seemed to me to incur
a responsibility similar to that of a man who refused to lend a hand to
a person whom he could save from danger. One day, therefore, I said to
Mlle. Meunier:—
“Mlle., we have reached a point at which it is necessary to reconsider
our position. The world appeals to us for our assistance, and we cannot
honestly refuse it. It seems to me that to expend entirely on comforts
and pleasures resources which form part of the general patrimony, and
which would suffice to establish a useful institution, is to commit a
fraud; and that would be sanctioned neither by a believer nor an
unbeliever. I must warn you, therefore, that you must not count on my
company in your further travels. I owe myself to my ideas and to
humanity, and I think that you ought to have the same feeling now that
you have exchanged your former faith for rational principles.”
She was surprised, but recognised the justice of my decision, and,
without other stimulus than her own good nature and fine feeling, she
gave me the funds for the establishment of an institute of rational
education. The Modern School, which already existed in my mind, was
thus ensured of realisation by this generous act.
All the malicious statements that have been made in regard to this
matter—for instance, that I had to submit to a judicial
interrogation—are sheer calumnies. It has been said that I used a power
of suggestion over Mlle. Meunier for my own purposes. This statement,
which is as offensive to me as it is insulting to the memory of that
worthy and excellent lady, is absolutely false. I do not need to
justify myself; I leave my vindication to my acts, my life, and the
impartial judgment of my contemporaries. But Mlle. Meunier is entitled
to the respect of all men of right feeling, of all those who have been
delivered from the despotism of sect and dogma, who have broken all
connection with error, who no longer submit the light of reason to the
darkness of faith nor the dignity of freedom to the yoke of obedience.
She believed with honest faith. She had been taught that between the
Creator and the creature there is a hierarchy of intermediaries whom
one must obey, and that one must bow to a series of mysteries contained
in the dogmas imposed by a divinely instituted Church. In that belief
she remained perfectly tranquil. The remarks I made and advice I
offered her were not spontaneous commentaries on her belief, but
natural replies to her efforts to convert me; and, from her want of
logic, her feeble reasoning broke down under the strength of my
arguments, instead of her persuading me to put faith before reason. She
could not regard me as a tempting spirit, since it was always she who
attacked my convictions; and she was in the end vanquished by the
struggle of her faith and her own reason, which was aroused by her
indiscretion in assailing the faith of one who opposed her beliefs.
She now ingenuously sought to exonerate the Communist boys as poor and
uneducated wretches, the offspring of crime, disturbers of the social
order on account of the injustice which, in face of such a disgrace,
permits others, equal disturbers of the social order, to live
unproductive lives, enjoy great wealth, exploit ignorance and misery,
and trust that they will continue throughout eternity to enjoy their
pleasures on account of their compliance with the rites of the Church
and their works of charity. The idea of a reward of easy virtue and
punishment of unavoidable sin shocked her conscience and moderated her
religious feeling, and, seeking to break the atavistic chain which so
much hampers any attempt at reform, she decided to contribute to the
founding of a useful work which would educate the young in a natural
way and in conditions which would help them to use to the full the
treasures of knowledge which humanity has acquired by labour, study,
observation, and the methodical arrangement of its general conclusions.
In this way, she thought, with the aid of a supreme intelligence which
veils itself in mystery from the mind of man, or by the knowledge which
humanity has gained by suffering, contradiction, and doubt, the future
will be realised; and she found an inner contentment and vindication of
her conscience in the idea of contributing, by the bestowal of her
property, to a work of transcendent importance.