The injustice we commit speedily reduces us to petty,
material pleasures; but, as we revel in these, we envy our victim;
for our tyranny has thrown open the door to joys whereof we cannot
deprive him--joys that are wholly beyond our reach, joys that are
purely spiritual. And the door that opens wide to the victim is
sealed in the tyrant's soul; and the sufferer breathes a purer air
than he who has made him suffer. In the hearts of the persecuted
there is radiance, where those who persecute have only gloom; and is
it not on the light within us that the wellbeing of happiness
depends? He who brings sorrow with him stifles more happiness within
himself than in the man he overwhelms. Which of us, had he to
choose, but would rather be Pierrette than Rogron? The instinct of
happiness within us needs no telling that he who is morally right
must be happier than he who is wrong, though the wrong be done from
the height of a throne. And, even though the Rogrons be unaware of
their Injustice, it alters nothing; for, be we aware or unaware of
the evil we commit, the air we breathe will still be heavily
charged. Nay, more--to him who knows he does wrong there may come,
perhaps, the desire to escape from his prison; but the other will
die in his cell, without even his thoughts having travelled beyond
the gloomy walls that conceal from him the true destiny of man.
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