And thus "the individual withers, and the world is more and more!" But _is_ the world more and more in any sense that can be admitted to be desirable, in view of the eternity of that same Individual?
As for the Bretons, the individual has withered to that extent that he now wears trousers instead of breeches, while his world has become more and more assimilated to that of the Faubourg St.Antoine, with the result of losing all those really very notable and stiff and sturdy virtues which differentiated the Breton peasant, when I first knew him, while it would be difficult indeed to say what it has gained.

At all events the progress which can be stated is mainly to be stated in negatives.

The Breton, as I first knew him, believed in all sorts of superstitious rubbish.

He now believes in nothing at all.
He was disposed to honour and respect God, and his priest, and his seigneur perhaps somewhat too indiscriminately.

Now he neither honours nor respects any earthly or heavenly thing.