If not in its inner meaning, where then, is it? In your cuttings,
evidently. But here is the work entire, as the Court will judge it, and
it can see that the religious sentiment is so forcefully imprinted there
that the accusation of scepticism is pure slander. And now, the
Government Attorney will permit me to say to him that it was not for the
purpose of accusing the author of scepticism that all this trouble has
been made. Let us proceed:
"At mass on Sundays, when she looked up, she saw the gentle face of the
Virgin amid the blue smoke of the rising incense. Then she was moved;
she felt herself weak and quite deserted, like the down of a bird
whirled by the tempest, and it was unconsciously that she went towards
the church, inclined to no matter what devotions, so that her soul was
absorbed and all existence lost in it."
This, gentlemen, is the first appeal of religion to hold Emma from the
trend of her passions. She has fallen, poor woman, and then been
repelled by the foot of the man to whom she abandoned herself. She is
nearly dead, but raises herself and becomes reanimated; and you shall
see now what is written in the 15th of November number, 1856, page 548:
"One day, when at the height of her illness, she had thought herself
dying, and had asked for the communion; and while they were making the
preparations in her room for the sacrament, while they were turning the
night-table, covered with sirups, into an altar, and while Félicité was
strewing dahlia flowers on the floor, Emma felt some power passing over
her that freed her from her pains, from all perception, from all
feeling. Her body, relieved, no longer thought; another life was
beginning; it seemed to her that her being, mounting toward God, would
be annihilated in that love like a burning insense that melts into
vapour. [You see that this is the language in which M. Flaubert speaks
of religious things]. The bed-clothes were sprinkled with holy water,
the priest drew from the holy pyx the white wafer; and it was fainting
with a celestial joy that she put out her lips to accept the body of the
Saviour presented to her."
I ask the pardon of the Government Attorney, I ask the Court's pardon
for interrupting this passage; but I must needs say that it is the
author who is speaking, and bring to your notice in what terms he
expresses the mystery of the communion. Before going on with the
reading, I must needs impress the literary value of this picture upon
the Court and insist that they seize upon these expressions which are
the author's own:
"The curtains of the alcove floated gently round her like clouds, and
the rays of the two tapers burning on the night-table seemed to shine
like dazzling halos. Then she let her head fall back, fancying she heard
in space the music of seraphic harps, and perceived in an azure sky, on
a golden throne in the midst of saints holding green palms, God the
Father, resplendent with majesty, who with a sign sent to earth angels
with wings of fire to carry her away in their arms."
* * * * *
"This splendid vision dwelt in her memory as the most beautiful thing
that it was possible to dream, so that now she strove to recall her
sensation, that still lasted, however, but in a less exclusive fashion
and with a deeper sweetness. Her soul, tortured by pride, at length
found rest in Christian humility, and, tasting the joy of weakness, she
saw within herself the destruction of her will, that must have left a
wide entrance for the inroads of heavenly grace. There existed, then, in
the place of happiness, still greater joys,--another love beyond all
loves, without pause and without end, one that would grow eternally! She
saw amid the illusions of her hope a state of purity floating above the
earth mingling with heaven, to which she aspired. She wanted to become a
saint. She bought chaplets and wore amulets; she wished to have in her
room, by the side of her bed, a reliquary set in emeralds that she might
kiss it every evening."
Here are some of his religious sentiments! And if you wish to pause a
moment to consider the author's thought, I will ask you to turn the page
and read the first three lines of the second paragraph:
"She grew provoked at the doctrines of religion; the arrogance of the
polemic writings displeased her by their inveteracy in attacking people
she did not know; and the secular stories, relieved with religion,
seemed to her written in such ignorance of the world, that they
insensibly estranged her from the truths for whose proof she was
looking."
This is the language of M. Flaubert. Now, if you please, we come to
another scene, that of the extreme unction. Oh! Mr. Government
Attorney, how you have deceived yourself when, stopping at the first
words, you accuse my client of mingling the sacred with the profane;
when he has been content to translate the beautiful formulas of extreme
unction, at the moment when the priest touches the organs of sense, at
the moment where, according to the ritual, he says: _Per istam
unctionem, et suam piissimam misericordiam, indulgeat tibi Dominus
quid-quid deliquisti_!
You said it was not necessary to touch upon holy things. With what right
do you misinterpret these holy words:
"May God, in His holy pity, pardon you for all the sins that you have
committed through sight, taste, hearing, etc.?"
Wait, I am going to read the condemned passage, and that will be all my
vengeance. I dare say vengeance, because the author has need of being
avenged! Yes, it is necessary for M. Flaubert to go out of here not
only acquitted, but avenged! You will see from what kind of reading he
has been nourished. The condemned passage is on page 271 of the
December 15th number, and runs thus:
"Pale as a statue, and with eyes red as fire, Charles, not weeping,
stood opposite her at the foot of the bed, while the priest bending one
knee, was muttering words in a low voice."
This whole picture is magnificent, and the wording of it
irresistible. But be quiet, and I will not prolong it beyond
measure. Now here is the condemnation!
"She turned her face slowly, and seemed filled with joy on seeing
suddenly the violet stole, no doubt finding again, in the midst of a
temporary lull in her pain, the lost voluptuousness of her first
mystical transports, with the visions of eternal beatitude that were
beginning.
"The priest rose to take the crucifix: then she stretched forward her
neck as one who is athirst, and gluing her lips to the body of the
Man-God, she pressed upon it with all her expiring strength the fullest
kiss of love that she had ever given."
The extreme unction has not yet begun; but we are reproached for this
kiss. I am not going to search in the history of Saint Theresa whom you
perhaps know, but the memory of whom is too far away, I am not going to
seek in Fénelon for the mysticism of Madame Guyon, nor in more modern
mysticisms, in which I find much reason. I only wish to ask of those
schools which you designate as belonging to sensual Christianity, the
explanation of this kiss; it is Bossuet, Bossuet himself, of whom I
would ask it:
"Obey, and strive finally to enter into the disposition of Jesus in
communing, which is the disposition of harmony, joy and love; the whole
gospel proclaims it. Jesus wishes that we may be with Him; He wishes to
rejoice and He wishes us to rejoice with Him: He has given Himself...."
etc.