TWO NOVELS BY LEON BLOY
is,
quite simply,
le Pauvre.
What demiurge
is
responsible for the
bourgeoisie? Bloy, luckily, does not say. Peguy, who stood in far
greater danger of excommunication, was less extreme in this matter.
Peguy distinguished clearly between poverty and destitution
(pau–
vrete
and
misere)
and stated that, while the former
is
man's normal
and blessed state, it is every man's duty to destroy the latter. Bloy
makes of destitution-poverty not so much a vocation as a sacrament.
Though he did not propose this addition with the bland cynicism
which prompted Montherlant to suggest that divorce should be made
a sacrament, yet he was looking for the truth in premises long vacated
by the faith to which he belonged.
191
