In a century
or two Paris will be dead, like ancient Athens and ancient Rome, and we
shall have fallen to the rank that Greece now occupies. Paris seems
determined to die."
But Santerre protested: "No, no; Paris simply wishes to remain
stationary, and it wishes this precisely because it is the most
intelligent, most highly civilized city in the world. The more nations
advance in civilization the smaller becomes their birth-rate. We are
simply giving the world an example of high culture, superior
intelligence, and other nations will certainly follow that example when
in turn they also attain to our state of perfection. There are signs of
this already on every side."
"Quite so!" exclaimed Seguin, backing up his friend. "The phenomenon is
general; all the nations show the same symptoms, and are decreasing in
numbers, or will decrease as soon as they become civilized. Japan is
affected already, and the same will be the case with China as soon as
Europe forces open the door there."
Mathieu had become grave and attentive since the two society men, seated
before him in evening dress, had begun to talk more rationally. The pale,
slim, flat virgin, their ideal of feminine beauty, was no longer in
question.
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