"There is no one in the world, dear doctor, except you, who could have such ideas. I was entirely absorbed in your sophistical but intelligent conversation."
"Ah, abbé, abbé, you overwhelm me!"
"You wish, in a word, doctor, to prove to me that gluttony is a noble, sublime passion, do you not?"
"Sublime, abbé, that is the word, sublime,—if not in itself at least in its consequences; above all, in the interest of agriculture and commerce."
"Come, doctor, that is a paradox. Agriculture and commerce are sustained as other things are."
"It is not a paradox, it is a fact, yes, a fact, and if it is demonstrated to you positively, mathematically, practically, and economically, what can you say? Will you still doubt it?"
"I will doubt, or rather I will believe this abomination less than ever."
"How, in spite of evidence, abbé?"
"Because of evidence, if so be that this evidence can ever exist, for it is by just such means of these pretended evidences, these perfidious appearances, that the bad spirit leads us into the most dangerous snares."
"What, abbé, the devil! I am not a seminarian whom you are preparing to take the bands. You are a man of mind and of knowledge. When I talk reason to you, talk reason to me, and not of the devil and his horns."