would nowadays be called vivisection--to place her, all convulsed, on

his anatomical table; to dissect her alive, at his leisure, in some

surgery; to cut her up, as an amateur, while she should scream--this

dream delighted Barkilphedro!

To arrive at this result it was necessary to suffer somewhat himself; he

did so willingly. We may pinch ourselves with our own pincers. The knife

as it shuts cuts our fingers. What does it matter? That he should

partake of Josiana's torture was a matter of little moment. The

executioner handling the red-hot iron, when about to brand a prisoner,

takes no heed of a little burn. Because another suffers much, he suffers

nothing. To see the victim's writhings takes all pain from the

inflicter.

Do harm, whatever happens.

To plan evil for others is mingled with an acceptance of some hazy

responsibility. We risk ourselves in the danger which we impel towards

another, because the chain of events sometimes, of course, brings

unexpected accidents. This does not stop the man who is truly malicious.

He feels as much joy as the patient suffers agony. He is tickled by the

laceration of the victim. The malicious man blooms in hideous joy. Pain

reflects itself on him in a sense of welfare. The Duke of Alva used to

warm his hands at the stake. The pile was torture, the reflection of it

pleasure. That such transpositions should be possible makes one shudder.

Our dark side is unfathomable. Supplice exquis (exquisite

torture)--the expression is in Bodin[12]--has perhaps this terrible

364

The Man Who Laughs