We no longer
believe either in the nothingness of the tomb or in salvation purchased
by obligatory renunciation; we want life to be good because we want it
to be fruitful. Lazarus must leave his dunghill, so that the poor may no
longer rejoice at the death of the rich. All must be happy, so that the
happiness of some may not be a crime and accursed of God. The husbandman
as he sows his grain must know that he is working at the work of life,
and not rejoice because Death is walking beside him. In a word, death
must no longer be the punishment of prosperity or the consolation of
adversity. God did not destine death as a punishment or a compensation
for life; for he blessed life, and the grave should not be a refuge to
which it is permitted to send those who cannot be made happy.
Certain artists of our time, casting a serious glance upon their
surroundings, strive to depict grief, the abjectness of poverty,
Lazarus's dunghill. That may be within the domain of art and philosophy;
but, by representing poverty as so ugly, so base, and at times so
vicious and criminal a thing, do they attain their end, and is the
effect as salutary as they could wish? We do not dare to say. We may be
told that by pointing out the abyss that yawns beneath the fragile crust
of opulence, they terrify the wicked rich man, as, in the time of the
_Danse Macabre_, they showed him its yawning ditch, and Death ready to
wind its unclean arms about him.
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