Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the one hundred thirty-fifth chapter of Les Miserables.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Take it chapter by chapter one

fight at a time

so many adventures and mountains

we can climb

take it word for word, line by

line, one bite at a time.

>> Brie Carlisle: Welcome to Byte at a time books where we read you your

favorite classics one bite at a time. my name is

Bre Carlisle and I love to read and wanted to

share my passion with listeners like you. If you

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>> Brie Carlisle: Values today well be

continuing Les Miserable M by

Victor Hugo chapter

six the absolute goodness of

prayer with regard to

the modes of prayer, all are good,

provided that they are sincere. Turn your book

upside down and be in the infinite.

There is, as we know, a philosophy which

denies the infinite. There is also a

philosophy pathologically classified which

denies the son. This philosophy

is called blindness. To rack the

sense which we lack into a source of truth is a

fine blind mans self sufficiency.

The curious thing is the haughty, superior

and compassionate airs which this groping philosophy

assumes. Towards the philosophy which beholds God,

one fancies he hears a mole crying. I pity them with

their son. There are, as

we know, powerful and illustrious

atheists at bottom led back to the

truth by their very force. They are not absolutely sure

that they are atheists. It is with them only

a question of definition. And in any case,

if they do not believe in God being great

minds, they prove God. We

salute them as philosophers while inexorably denouncing their

philosophy. Let us go on

the remarkable thing about it is also their

facility in paying themselves off with words. A

metaphysical school of the north,

impregnated to some extent with fog,

has fancied that it has worked a revolution in human

understanding by replacing the word force with the word

will. To say the plant

wills instead of the plant grows.

This would be fecund in results. Indeed, if we

were to add the universe wills.

Why? Because it would come to this.

The plant wills, therefore it has an eye. the

universe wills, therefore it has a God.

As for us, who, however, in

contradistinction to this school, reject nothing, a

priory, a will in the plant accepted by

this school, appears to us more difficult

to admit than a will in the universe denied by it.

To deny the will of the infinite, that is

to say, God, is impossible on any other

conditions than a denial of the infinite. We

have demonstrated this. The negation of the

infinite leads straight to nihilism.

Everything becomes a mental conception.

With nihilism, no discussion is possible.

For the nihilist logic doubts the existence of its

interlocutor. And is not quite sure that it

exists itself. From its point of view,

it is possible that it may be for itself only a mental

conception. Only it does not

perceive that all which it has denied, it admits in the

lump simply by the utterance of the word mind.

In short, no way is opened to the thought

by a philosophy which makes all end in the monosyllable.

No. To know there is only one

reply. Yes,

nihilism has no point. There is no such

thing as nothingness. Zero does not

exist. Everything is something.

Nothing is nothing. Man lives by

affirmation even more than by bread. Even

to see and show does not suffice.

Philosophy should be an energy it should have

for effort and effect. To ameliorate the condition

of man, Socrates should enter into

Adam and produce Marcus Aurelius. In other

words, the man of wisdom should be made to emerge from the man of

felicity. Eden should be changed into

elysium. Science should be a

cordial to enjoy. What a

sad aim and what a paltry ambition the

brute enjoys. To offer thought to the

thirst of men, to give them all as an elixir. The

notion of God, to make conscience and science fraternize in

them, to render them just by this mysterious

confrontation. Such is the function

of real philosophy. Morality is a

blossoming out of truths. Contemplation leads to

action. The absolute should be

practicable. It is necessary that the ideal

should be breathable, drinkable and eatable. To the human

mind, it is the ideal which has the right

to say, take this is my body. This is my

blood. Wisdom is holy

communion. It is on this condition that it

ceases to be a sterile love of science and becomes the one

in sovereign mode of human rallying, and that

philosophy herself is promoted to religion.

Philosophy should not be a quarbel erected on mystery, to

gaze upon it at its ease, without any other

results than that of being convenient to curiosity.

for our part, adjourning the development of our thoughts to

another occasion, we will confine ourselves to saying that we

neither understand man as a point of departure

nor progress as an end. Without those two forces

which are their two motors, faith and

love. Progress is the

goal. The ideal is the

type. What is this ideal?

It is God. Ideal.

Absolute perfection. Infinity. Identical

words. Thank you for joining

Byte at a time books today while we read a bite of

one of your favorite classics. Again, my name

is Brie Carlisle, and I hope you come back

tomorrow for the next bite of le

miserable.

>> Brie Carlisle: Dont forget to sign up for our

newsletter@byteadatimebooks.com, and check

out the shop. You can check out the show notes or

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