The Honourable
"The four species mentioned are those of fictitious innocence. We now let those of real innocence pass in review. It would be unfair to brand bankrupts en masse because nine-tenths of them are scoundrels. I shall adduce three truly excusable classes. We shall have but too many guilty ones to accuse; so let us first seek some honest people among this confraternity, which has become so numerous since the revolution†a that in some towns one no longer asks who has, but who has not gone bankrupt.
"5. Goose bankruptcy is that of an unfortunate one who does not peculate a mite, hands everything over to the creditors and throws himself on their mercy without any deception. The other bankrupts mock at him and declare him to be a simpleton†b for not at least feathering his nest; and in fact such a loyal man is unworthy of our century of perfectibility.
"6. Ecstatic bankruptcy is the work of a man who is desperate, considers himself dishonoured and sometimes shoots himself or jumps into the water. It means one is well behind the times if one wishes to be an honest man in the 19th century, and moreover in trade!
"All the same it is a pleasure for me to have to say that one still comes across such people in trade, but they are few and far between — rari nautes in gurgite vasto.†c Everybody foretells them their fate, so well known is the fact that out of ten villains that plunge into trade nine make their fortune, whereas out of ten honest people nine are ruined.
"7. 
Unprincipled bankruptcy is that of a booby 
who lets justice intervene and pronounce sentence branding him and stripping him naked instead of doing as so many clever people do, who manage to emerge from this predicament with honour and profit. — These three honest knights are so little worthy of the exalted confraternity that I pass over them quickly. We now come to a sort which is more capable of earning the applause of experts."