"But, my dear fellow, the truth of this must be evident to any one who looks about him. If
the human mind, ordained by an omniscient Creator, had been intended to be what it has
become, exacting, inquiring, agitated, tormented--so different from mere animal thought
and resignation--would the world which was created to receive the beings which we now
are have been this unpleasant little park for small game, this salad patch, this wooded, rocky
and spherical kitchen garden where your improvident Providence had destined us to live
naked, in caves or under trees, nourished on the flesh of slaughtered animals, our brethren,
or on raw vegetables nourished by the sun and the rain?
"But it is sufficient to reflect for a moment, in order to understand that this world was not
made for such creatures as we are. Thought, which is developed by a miracle in the nerves
of the cells in our brain, powerless, ignorant and confused as it is, and as it will always
remain, makes all of us who are intellectual beings eternal and wretched exiles on earth.
"Look at this earth, as God has given it to those who inhabit it. Is it not visibly and solely
made, planted and covered with forests for the sake of animals? What is there for us?
Nothing. And for them, everything, and they have nothing to do but to eat or go hunting and
eat each other, according to their instincts, for God never foresaw gentleness and peaceable
manners; He only foresaw the death of creatures which were bent on destroying and
devouring each other. Are not the quail, the pigeon and the partridge the natural prey of the
hawk? the sheep, the stag and the ox that of the great flesh-eating animals, rather than meat
to be fattened and served up to us with truffles, which have been unearthed by pigs for our
special benefit?
"As to ourselves, the more civilized, intellectual and refined we are, the more we ought to
conquer and subdue that animal instinct, which represents the will of God in us. And so, in
order to mitigate our lot as brutes, we have discovered and made everything, beginning with
houses, then exquisite food, sauces, sweetmeats, pastry, drink, stuffs, clothes, ornaments,
beds, mattresses, carriages, railways and innumerable machines, besides arts and sciences,
writing and poetry. Every ideal comes from us as do all the amenities of life, in order to
make our existence as simple reproducers, for which divine Providence solely intended us,
less monotonous and less hard.
"Look at this theatre. Is there not here a human world created by us, unforeseen and
unknown to eternal fate, intelligible to our minds alone, a sensual and intellectual
distraction, which has been invented solely by and for that discontented and restless little
animal, man?
"Look at that woman, Madame de Mascaret. God intended her to live in a cave, naked or
wrapped up in the skins of wild animals. But is she not better as she is? But, speaking of
her, does any one know why and how her brute of a husband, having such a companion by
his side, and especially after having been boorish enough to make her a mother seven times,
has suddenly left her, to run after bad women?"
Grandin replied: "Oh! my dear fellow, this is probably the only reason. He found that
raising a family was becoming too expensive, and from reasons of domestic economy he
has arrived at the same principles which you lay down as a philosopher."
Just then the curtain rose for the third act, and they turned round, took off their hats and sat