When shall we have done with such puerile talk? When shall we banish
charlatanry from science? When shall we cease to manifest this
disgusting contradiction between our writings and our conduct? We hoot
at and spit upon _interest_, that is to say, the useful, the right
(for to say that all nations are interested in a thing, is to say that
that thing is good in itself), as if interest were not the necessary,
eternal, indestructible instrument to which Providence has intrusted
human perfectibility. Would not one suppose us all angels of
disinterestedness? And is it supposed that the public does not see
with disgust that this affected language blackens precisely those
pages for which it is compelled to pay highest? Affectation is truly
the malady of this age.
What! because comfort and peace are correlative things; because it has
pleased God to establish this beautiful harmony in the moral world;
you are not willing that we should admire and adore His providence,
and accept with gratitude laws which make justice the condition of
happiness.
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