--I have only prepared my lecture up to this point....
... At these words there was a rustling among the audience; several,
feeling bored, wished to go out.
--Gentlemen, cried Prometheus, I beseech you to stay, it will not be
very long now; but the most important thing of all remains to be said,
if I have not already persuaded you.... Gentlemen!--for goodness’
sake.... Here! quickly: a few fireworks; I will keep the best for the
end.... Gentlemen!--sit down again, I pray you; look: do not think I
want to economize: I light six at a time.--But first, waiter, shut the
doors.
The fireworks were more or less effective. Nearly every one sat down
again.
--But where was I? cried Prometheus. I counted upon getting under
weigh; disturbance has checked me.
--So much the better, cried some one.
--Ah! I know ... continued Prometheus. I wished to tell you again....
--Enough! enough!! cried voices from all parts of the hall.
... That you must love your eagle.
Several cried “Why?” ironically.
--I hear, gentlemen, some one asks me “Why?” I reply: Because then he
will become beautiful.
--But if we become ugly?
--Gentlemen, I do not speak here words of self-interest....
--One can see that.
--They are words of self-devotion. Gentlemen, one must devote oneself
to one’s eagle.... (Agitation--many get up.) Gentlemen, do not
move: I will be personal. It is not necessary to remind you of the
history of Cocles and Damocles.--All here know it. Well--Well! I
will tell them to their faces: the secret of their lives is in their
self-devotion to their debt: You, Cocles, to your blow; you, Damocles,
to your bank-note. Cocles, your duty was to make your scar deeper
and your empty orbit emptier, oh! Cocles! yours, Damocles, to keep
your bank-note, to continue owing it, owing it without shame, owing
even more, owing it with joy. There is your eagle; there are other
and more glorious ones. But I tell you this: the eagle will devour us
anyway--vice or virtue--duty or passion,--cease to be commonplace and
you cannot escape it. But....
(Here the voice of Prometheus was barely heard in the tumult)--but if
you do not feed your eagle lovingly he will remain grey and miserable,
invisible to all and sly; then you will call him conscience, not worthy
of the torments he causes; without beauty.--Gentlemen, you must love
your eagle, love him to make him beautiful; for it is for his future
beauty that you must love your eagle....
Now I have finished, gentlemen, my eagle will make the collection.
Gentlemen, you must love my eagle.--In the meantime I will let off some
fireworks....
* * * * *
Thanks to the pyrotechnic diversion, the assembly dispersed without too
much trouble; but Damocles took cold on coming out of the hall.