La Faute de l'Abbe Mouret.
At sixty years of age Pascal was so fresh and vigorous that, though his
hair and beard were white, he might have been mistaken for a young man
with powdered locks. He had lived for seventeen years at La Souleiade,
near Plassans, with his niece Clotilde and his old servant Martine,
having amassed a little fortune, which was sufficient for his needs. He
had devoted his life to the study of heredity, finding typical examples
in his own family. He brought up Clotilde without imposing on her his
own philosophic creed, even allowing Martine to take her to church
regularly. But this tolerance brought about a serious misunderstanding
between them, for the girl fell under the influence of religious
mysticism, and came to look with horror on the savant's scientific
pursuits. Discovered by him in an attempt to destroy his documents, he
explained to Clotilde fully and frankly the bearing of their terrible
family history on his theory of heredity, with the result that her
outlook on life was entirely changed; he had opposed the force of human
truth against the shadows of mysticism.
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