The Bet

His hair was already streaked with silver, and seeing his emaciated, aged-looking face, no one would have believed that he was only forty.

On my part it was the caprice of a pampered man, and on his part simple greed for money ..."

They considered that form of punishment out of date, immoral, and unsuitable for Christian States.

It was all nonsensical and meaningless.

All that the unresting thought of man has created in the ages is compressed into a small compass in my brain.

With a clear conscience I tell you, as before God, who beholds me, that I despise freedom and life and health, and all that in your books is called the good things of the world.

It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage.

Desperate gambling on the Stock Exchange, wild speculation and the excitability whic h he could not get over even in advancing years, had by degrees led to the decline of his fortune and the proud, fearless, self-confident millionaire had become a banker of middling rank, trembling at every rise and fall in his investments.

Then he groped his way into a little passage and lighted a match.

"I have not tried either the death penalty or imprisonment for life, but if one may judge a priori, the death penalty is more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life.

His reading suggested a man swimming in the sea among the wreckage of his ship, and trying to save his life by greedily clutching first at one spar and then at another.

He was a skeleton with the skin drawn tight over his bones, with long curls like a woman's and a shaggy beard.

"To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by, I renounce the two million of which I once dreamed as of paradise and which now I despise.

In the second half of the sixth year the prisoner began zealously studying languages, philosophy, and history.

It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage.

They considered that form of punishment out of date, immoral, and unsuitable for Christian States.

In the last two years of his confinement the prisoner read an immense quantity of books quite indiscriminately.

You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly globe.

I have watched from there the lightning flashing over my head and cleaving the storm-clouds.

His reading suggested a man swimming in the sea among the wreckage of his ship, and trying to save his life by greedily clutching first at one spar and then at another.

"I have not tried either the death penalty or imprisonment for life, but if one may judge a priori, the death penalty is more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life.

It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage.

The banker, spoilt and frivolous, with millions beyond his reckoning, was delighted at the bet.

His hair was already streaked with silver, and seeing his emaciated, aged-looking face, no one would have believed that he was only forty.

Beauties as ethereal as clouds, created by the magic of your poets and geniuses, have visited me at night, and have whispered in my ears wonderful tales that have set my brain in a whirl.

You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth.

It is true I have not seen the earth nor men, but in your books I have drunk fragrant wine, I have sung songs, I have hunted stags and wild boars in the forests, have loved women ...

If they find not one mistake I implore you to fire a shot in the garden.

Theology and histories of religion followed the Gospels.

On my part it was the caprice of a pampered man, and on his part simple greed for money ..."

The seals on the door leading to the prisoner's rooms were intact.

It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage.

The banker, spoilt and frivolous, with millions beyond his reckoning, was delighted at the bet.

To avoid arousing unnecessary talk, he took from the table the writing in which the millions were renounced, and when he got home locked it up in the fireproof safe.

Don't forget either, you unhappy man, that voluntary confinement is a great deal harder to bear than compulsory.

And I have only to take this half-dead man, throw him on the bed, stifle him a little with the pillow, and the most conscientious expert would find no sign of a violent death.

In the fifth year music was audible again, and the prisoner asked for wine.

To deprive myself of the right to the money I shall go out from here five hours before the time fixed, and so break the compact ..."

The banker, spoilt and frivolous, with millions beyond his reckoning, was delighted at the bet.

You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly globe.

There were notes in which he demanded at the same time books on chemistry, and a manual of medicine, and a novel, and some treatise on philosophy or theology.

I have heard the singing of the sirens, and the strains of the shepherds' pipes; I have touched the wings of comely devils who flew down to converse with me of God ...

"For fifteen years I have been intently studying earthly life.

He will take my last penny from me, he will marry, will enjoy life, will gamble on the Exchange; while I shall look at him with envy like a beggar, and hear from him every day the same sentence: 'I am indebted to you for the happiness of my life, let me help you!'

Wine, he wrote, excites the desires, and desires are the worst foes of the prisoner; and besides, nothing could be more dreary than drinking good wine and seeing no one.

In the course of four years some six hundred volumes were procured at his request.

Desperate gambling on the Stock Exchange, wild speculation and the excitability whic h he could not get over even in advancing years, had by degrees led to the decline of his fortune and the proud, fearless, self-confident millionaire had become a banker of middling rank, trembling at every rise and fall in his investments.

In your books I have climbed to the peaks of Elburz and Mont Blanc, and from there I have seen the sun rise and have watched it at evening flood the sky, the ocean, and the mountain-tops with gold and crimson.

Wine, he wrote, excites the desires, and desires are the worst foes of the prisoner; and besides, nothing could be more dreary than drinking good wine and seeing no one.

The banker expected to hear at once footsteps and a cry of astonishment, but three minutes passed and it was as quiet as ever in the room.

With a clear conscience I tell you, as before God, who beholds me, that I despise freedom and life and health, and all that in your books is called the good things of the world.

"Cursed bet!" muttered the old man, clutching his head in despair "Why didn't the man die?