THE NEST
55
ambivalence, piously reaffirmed. For rather than accept the fact that
duty can
be
a form of ingratitude,
we
support the scandalous duplicity
on which the family
is
founded. We cannot push our moral hygiene
so far
as
to reject and openly disown this attitude, the residue of
former pleasure the very thought of which now shocks us. But perhaps
a little rebellious purity lingers in the instinct which makes the most
manly little boys tear up nests after they have robbed them.
(Translated
by
Bowden Broadwater)
