第一百五十章 第四章 也许有用处
巴黎始于游手好闲者，终于流浪儿，这两种人任何其他城市都无法比拟：被动接受者满足于观望，而无穷的主动者则是普吕多姆和富尤。唯有巴黎在自然史中拥有这一点。整座君主制度包含在游手好闲者中，整个无政府状态包含在顽童中。
这个巴黎城郊的苍白孩子生活着，发展着，结交朋友，在痛苦中"变得柔韧"，面对社会现实和人类事物，他是一个沉思的见证人。他自以为是漫不经心的，其实不然。他望着一旁，几乎要笑出来；同时他也几乎要笑出别的什么来。无论你是谁，如果你的名字是偏见、滥用、无知、压迫、不公、专制、不义、狂热、暴政，当心那个张着嘴的流浪儿吧。
这小家伙会长大的。
他是用什么黏土捏成的？就是用随手抓来的第一把泥。一把尘土，一口气，便成了亚当。只要有上帝经过就够了。上帝总在流浪儿头上经过。命运在这个小不点身上劳作。我们说"命运"，在某种程度上是指机遇。这个用普通泥土捏成的侏儒，无知、文盲、轻浮、粗俗、卑下。他会成为爱奥尼亚人还是彼奥提亚人？等着瞧吧，轱辘在转呢，巴黎的精神，这个创造偶然之子与命运之人的魔鬼，颠倒拉丁陶工的过程，把陶罐变成双耳瓶。
Paris begins with the lounger and ends with the street Arab, two beings of which no other city is capable; the passive acceptance, which contents itself with gazing, and the inexhaustible initiative; Prudhomme and Fouillou. Paris alone has this in its natural history. The whole of the monarchy is contained in the lounger; the whole of anarchy in the gamin.
This pale child of the Parisian faubourgs lives and develops, makes connections, “grows supple” in suffering, in the presence of social realities and of human things, a thoughtful witness. He thinks himself heedless; and he is not. He looks and is on the verge of laughter; he is on the verge of something else also. Whoever you may be, if your name is Prejudice, Abuse, Ignorance, Oppression, Iniquity, Despotism, Injustice, Fanaticism, Tyranny, beware of the gaping gamin.
The little fellow will grow up.
Of what clay is he made? Of the first mud that comes to hand. A handful of dirt, a breath, and behold Adam. It suffices for a God to pass by. A God has always passed over the street Arab. Fortune labors at this tiny being. By the word “fortune” we mean chance, to some extent. That pigmy kneaded out of common earth, ignorant, unlettered, giddy, vulgar, low. Will that become an Ionian or a Bœotian? Wait, _currit rota_, the Spirit of Paris, that demon which creates the children of chance and the men of destiny, reversing the process of the Latin potter, makes of a jug an amphora.
