For the life of me, I can't make sense of a quote from Les Miserables and would love if someone could help me decipher it. This is an excerpt of chapter 8 where the Bishop Myriel and a senator discuss religion and the senator's ideas on agnosticism.
"You great lords have, so you say, a philosophy of your own, and for yourselves, which is exquisite, refined, accessible to the rich alone, good for all sauces, and which seasons the voluptuousness of life admirably. This philosophy has been extracted from the depths, and unearthed by special seekers.
But you are good-natured princes, and you do not think it a bad thing that belief in the good God should constitute the philosophy of the people, very much as the goose stuffed with chestnuts is the truffled turkey of the poor."
I understand the first part more or less reinstates what the senator says earlier in the passage (see: cartage.org.lb/en/themes/BookLibrary/books/bibliographie/H/Hugovictor/LesMiserables/VolumeI-Fantine/book1/ch8.html) about his views on life being a finite experience which you should maximize for you and your loved ones, instead of living a modest life / donating excess for the sake of humanity as a whole.
What really confuses me, though, starts at, "But you are good-natured princes..." I don't understand the stuffed goose metaphor and how it relates to belief in god being above the senator's philosophy. Included above is the link to the whole chapter for more context.
Thanks in advance!
"You great lords have, so you say, a philosophy of your own, and for yourselves, which is exquisite, refined, accessible to the rich alone, good for all sauces, and which seasons the voluptuousness of life admirably. This philosophy has been extracted from the depths, and unearthed by special seekers.
But you are good-natured princes, and you do not think it a bad thing that belief in the good God should constitute the philosophy of the people, very much as the goose stuffed with chestnuts is the truffled turkey of the poor."
I understand the first part more or less reinstates what the senator says earlier in the passage (see: cartage.org.lb/en/themes/BookLibrary/books/bibliographie/H/Hugovictor/LesMiserables/VolumeI-Fantine/book1/ch8.html) about his views on life being a finite experience which you should maximize for you and your loved ones, instead of living a modest life / donating excess for the sake of humanity as a whole.
What really confuses me, though, starts at, "But you are good-natured princes..." I don't understand the stuffed goose metaphor and how it relates to belief in god being above the senator's philosophy. Included above is the link to the whole chapter for more context.
Thanks in advance!