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PARTISAN REVIEW
world. And yet he was a "gentleman": he had a huge fortune, a
good part of which he gave away to help poor students."
Thus this prince of science, the first time I heard speak of him,
had inspired me with strong feelings. Now I stood before
him
and he
smiled at me. What intelligence and affability
in
his smile! His plump
body sank softly into the hollows of the great leather armchair. This
wise man, without pretentiousness, put people at their ease imme–
diately. He would have been taken for a good fellow except for the
spirituality of his gaze.
It didn't take long to guess the reason for his prestige: he was
loved because he understood everything, one could tell him every–
thing. On the whole, he resembled Renan a little, with more distinc–
tion. He was one of those who say:
"The Socialists? Oh well, I go farther than they do"' Following
him down this perilous path, one had soon to abandon, shuddering,
fami~y,
country, property rights, one's most sacred values. One even
doubted for a moment the right of the bourgeois elite to command.
One step further and suddenly everything was re-established on the
ancient footing, marvelously founded on solid reasoning. Returning,
one perceived behind one, already distant and small, the socialists
waving their handkerchiefs, crying "Wait for us."
I knew also, through Wakefield, that the Master loved, as he him–
self admitted with a smile, "to deliver souls." Having remained young,
he surrounded himself with youth: he often received young people
of good family who were destined to become doctors. Wakefield had
been to dinner at his home many times. After dinner they went into
the smoking room. The Master treated as men these students who
were not yet far from their first cigarets: he offered them cigars.
He would stretch himself out on a couch and talk at length, his eyes
half-closed, surrounded by the avid group of disciples. He recalled
memories, told stories, drawing from them a piquant and profound
moral. And when among these well-brought-up young people there
was one who showed a vigorous mind, Parrottin became particularly
interested in
him.
He made him talk, listened attentively, gave him
ideas, things to think about. It happened by chance that one day
the young man, overflowing with ideas, excited by the hostility of his
family, weary of thinking alone and in opposition to everyone else,
demanded that the Master receive him alone, and, stammering in his
timidity, delivered himself of his most intimate thoughts, his indigna–
tions, his hopes. Parrottin pressed him to his heart. He said: "I under–
stand you, I have understood you since the first day." They talked
