latter must be above all ingenious and possessed of an imagination unbridled by sagacity and knowledge.
429
The new passion.—Why do we dread and loathe the thought of a possible return to barbarism? Is it because it would make people less happy than they are? Certainly not! The barbarians of all ages had greater happiness than we. But our craving for knowledge is too strong to allow us to value happiness without knowledge or the happiness of a strong, fixed delusion: it is painful even to imagine such conditions. Let us not deceive ourselves. The restless pursuit of discoveries and divi- nations has grown to us as attractive and indispensable as hapless love to the lover, which he would not at any price exchange for indifference—nay, perhaps we too are hapless lovers! Knowledge in our hearts has de- veloped into a passion which does not shrink from any Sacrifice, and really fears nothing but its own extinction. We honestly believe that, in the stress and suffering of this passion, all mankind are bound to feel more exalted and comforted than of old, when they had not yet ceased being envious of the coarser comfort which follows in the train of barbarism. Perhaps mankind may even perish in this love of knowledge. Even this thought fails to daunt us! Did Christianity ever shrink from a similar thought ? Are love and death not brethren ? Indeed, we loathe barbarism; we all prefer the destruc-
