Tiridate ; let a eunuch come to possess a harem; let a military Prudhomme accidentally win the decisive battle of an epoch; let an apothecary invent cardboard shoe-soles for the army of the Sambre-and-Meuse, and construct for himself, out of this cardboard, sold as leather, four hundred thousand francs of income; let a pork-packer espouse usury, and cause it to bring forth seven or eight millions, of which he is the father and of which it is the mother; let a preacher become a bishop by force of his nasal drawl; let the steward of a fine family be so rich on retiring from service that he is made minister of finances⁠—and men call that Genius, just as they call the face of Mousqueton “Beauty,” and the mien of Claude “Majesty.” With the constellations of space they confound the stars of the abyss which are made in the soft mire of the puddle by the feet of ducks.

What He Believed