But did he then love God, or was it only the music, as an impudent priest said to him one day in jest, without thinking of the unhappiness which his … - Romain Rolland

آه، ای موسیقی که غرقاب‌های روح را می‌گشائی! تعادل مألوف اندیشه را تو برمی‌افکنی. در زندگی عادی، جان‌های عادی همچون اتاق‌های دربسته‌اند. نیروهای بی‌کار مانده، فضایل و رذایلی که به کار بستنشان مایه‌ی دردسر ماست، به دست عقل سلیم بزدل، که تنها چند گنجه از آن را که با نظمی بورژوائی چیده شده‌است نشان می‌دهد. ولی موسیقی ترکه‌ی جادوئی به دست دارد که قفل‌ها را می‌گشاید. درها باز می‌شود. دیوهای نهان‌خانه‌ی قلب پدیدار می‌گردند. و روح خود را برهنه می‌بیند.

But Melchior was one of those men who always do the opposite of what is expected of them and of what they expect of themselves. It is not that they are not warned — a man who is warned is worth two men, says the proverb. They profess never to be the dupe of anything, and that they steer their ship with unerring hand towards a definite point. But they reckon without themselves, for they do not know themselves. In one of those moments of forgetfulness which are habitual with them they let go the tiller, and, as is natural when things are left to themselves, they take a naughty pleasure in rounding on their masters. The ship which is released from its course at once strikes a rock, and Melchior, bent upon intrigue, married a cook. And yet he was neither drunk nor in a stupor on the day when he bound himself to her for life, and he was not under any passionate impulse; far from it. But perhaps there are in us forces other than mind and heart, other even than the senses — mysterious forces which take hold of us in the moments when the others are asleep; and perhaps it was such forces that Melchior had found in the depths of those pale eyes which had looked at him so timidly one evening when he had accosted the girl on the bank of the river, and had sat down beside her in the reeds — without knowing why — and had given her his hand.

Let us be bold and proclaim the truth to the elders of these young men, to their moral guides, to their religious and secular leaders, to the Churches, the great thinkers, the leaders of socialism; these living riches, these treasures of heroism you held in your hands; for what are you squandering them? What ideal have you held up to the devotion of these youths so eager to sacrifice themselves? Their mutual slaughter!