The people scarcely ever attempt to justify their failings by reasoning, or to reduce their vices to a system; for there exists in them a sense of justice and integrity which, when they are calm, leads them to confess that they are unworthy to live.
A man [Footnote 10] who was in the habit of mixing with the least moral class in Paris, relates that he one day had the following conversation with the father of a family whose union had not been blessed by religion.
[Footnote 10: M. Gossin, Manuel de la Société de Saint-François Régis, p. 143.]
"I must apologize," he remarks, "for reproducing this colloquy in all its original crudity; but I shall invent nothing; I shall merely repeat what was actually said by both parties the first time this argmnentum ad hominem was employed.
"'I regret to find that we cannot understand each other. What! you persist in maintaining that in seducing the woman at your side eighteen years ago you did nothing wrong?'
"'Nothing at all. I am an honest man; I have never stolen nor committed murder. I was rather gay when young; but there is no harm in that. As to the woman, I did not compel her. Why did she allow herself to be enticed?'
"'Let us speak on another subject. … Are all these your children?'
"No, sir; we have another at home, a young lass named Seraphine.'
"'I am sorry you have not produced her. I should have been very glad to see her.'