Is it not indeed pitiful to see the strongest, the clearest-minded become mere children again under such blows of fate?
"Ah!" he faintly sighed, "if I could only suffer enough to be able to silence my reason, and kneel yonder and believe in all those fine stories." The pale smile, which at times still passed over Doctor Chassaigne's lips, reappeared on them.

"You mean the miracles ?" said he.

"You are a priest, my child, and I know what your misfortune is.

The miracles seem impossible to you.

But what do you know of them?
Admit that you know nothing, and that what to our senses seems impossible is every minute taking place.