Monseigneur Bienvenu on Contentment
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, Chapter One (1862)
As we have seen, prayer, celebration of the religious offices, alms,
consoling the afflicted, the cultivation of a little piece of ground,
fraternity, frugality, self-sacrifice, confidence, study, and work,
filled up each day of his life. Filled up is exactly the word, and in
fact, the bishop's day was full to the brim with good thoughts, good
words, and good actions. Nevertheless it was not complete if cold or
rainy weather prevented his passing an hour or two in the evening, when
the two women had retired, in his garden before going to sleep. It
seemed as if it were a sort of rite with him, to prepare himself for
sleep by meditating in presence of the great spectacle of the starry
firmament. Sometimes at a late hour of the night, if the two women were
awake, they would hear him slowly promenading the walks. He was there
alone with himself, collected, tranquil, adoring, comparing the
serenity of his heart with the serenity of the skies, moved in the
darkness by the visible splendors of the constellations, and the
invisible splendor of God, opening his soul to the thoughts which fall
from the unknown. In such moments, offering up his heart at the hour
when the flowers of night inhale their perfume, lighted like a lamp in
the center of the starry night, expanding his soul in ecstasy in the
midst of the universal radiance of creation, he could not himself
perhaps have told what was passing in his own mind; he felt something
depart from him, and something descend upon him, mysterious
interchanges of the depths of the soul with the depths of the universe.
He would sit upon a wooden bench leaning against a broken trellis and
look at the stars through the irregular outlines of his fruit trees.
This quarter of an acre of ground, so poorly cultivated, so cumbered
with shed and ruins, was dear to him, and satisfied him. What more was
needed by this old man who divided the leisure hours of his life, where
had so little leisure, between gardening in the daytime, and
contemplation at night? Was not this narrow enclosure, with the sky for
a background, enough to enable him to adore God in his most beautiful
as well as in his most sublime works? Indeed, is not that all, and what
more can be desired? A little garden to walk, and immensity to reflect
upon. At his feet something to cultivate and gather; above his head
something to study and meditate upon: a few flowers on the earth, and
all the stars in the sky.
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