"When I see a clock——"
"Yes! yes! That's a well-known argument. But where is the clockmaker's father?"
"However, a cause is necessary."
Bouvard was doubtful about causes. "From the fact that one phenomenon succeeds another phenomenon, the conclusion is drawn that it is caused by the first. Prove it."
"But the spectacle of the universe indicates an intention and a plan."
"Why? Evil is as perfectly organised as good. The worm that works its way into a sheep's head and causes it to die, is as valuable from an anatomical point of view as the sheep itself. Abnormalities surpass the normal functions. The human body could be better constructed. Three fourths of the globe are sterile. That celestial lamp-post, the moon, does not always show itself! Do you think the ocean was destined for ships, and the wood of trees for fuel for our houses?"
Pécuchet answered: "Yet the stomach is made to digest, the leg to walk, the eye to see, although there are dyspepsias, fractures, and cataracts. No arrangements without an end. The effects came on at the exact time or at a later period. Everything depends on laws; therefore, there are final causes."
Bouvard imagined that perhaps Spinoza would furnish him with some arguments, and he wrote to Dumouchel to get him Saisset's translation.
Dumouchel sent him a copy belonging to his friend Professor Varelot, exiled on the 2nd of December.
Ethics terrified them with its axioms, its corollaries. They read only the pages marked with pencil, and understood this: