At a rather tart remark of Pécuchet, the farmer grasped his pitchfork tightly.
"Clear out, in God's name, or I'll smash your head!"
They scampered off.
No matter! the problem was solved: ecstasy is dependent on material causes.
What, then, is matter? What is spirit? Whence comes the influence of the one on the other, and the reciprocal exchange of influence?
In order to inform themselves on the subject, they made researches in the works of Voltaire, Bossuet, Fénelon; and they renewed their subscription to a circulating library.
The ancient teachers were inaccessible owing to the length of their works, or the difficulty of the language; but Jouffroy and Damiron initiated them into modern philosophy, and they had authors who dealt with that of the last century.
Bouvard derived his arguments from Lamettrie, Locke, and Helvetius; Pécuchet from M. Cousin, Thomas Reid, and Gérando. The former adhered to experience; for the latter, the ideal was everything. The one belonged to the school of Aristotle, the other to that of Plato; and they proceeded to discuss the subject.
"The soul is immaterial," said Pécuchet.
"By no means," said his friend. "Lunacy, chloroform, a bleeding will overthrow it; and, inasmuch as it is not always thinking, it is not a substance which does nothing but think."