“This is all very well,” said Clerambault, “but at this rate they will be the new proletariat, tyranny will merely change places.”

“Only for a time,” was the answer, “the last oppression, which will kill tyranny.”

“Yes, the same old war for right and liberty; which is always going to be the war to end war; but in the meantime it is stronger than ever, and rights like liberty are trampled under foot.”

Of course they all protested indignantly against this comparison; in their eyes war and those who waged it were equally infamous.

“None the less,” said Clerambault gently, “many of you have fought, and nearly all of you have believed in it ... no, do not deny it!  Besides, the feeling that inspired you had its noble side; a great wickedness was shown to you, and you threw yourselves upon it to root it out, in a very fine spirit.  Only you seem to think that there is only one wickedness in the world, and, that when that has been purged away, we shall all return to the Golden Age.  The same thing happened at the time of the Dreyfus Case; all the well-meaning people of Europe—­I among them—­seemed never to have heard before of the condemnation of an innocent man.  They were terribly upset by it, and they turned the world inside out to wash off the impurity.  Alas! this was done, but both washers and washed grew discouraged in the process, and when it was all over, lo,—­the world was just as black as ever!  It seems as if man were incapable of grasping the whole of human misery; he dreads to see the extent of the evil, and in order not to be overwhelmed by it, he fixes on some one point, where he localises all the trouble, and will see nothing further.  All this is human nature, and easy enough to understand, my friends; but we should have more courage, and acknowledge the truth that the evil is everywhere; among ourselves, as well as with the enemy.  You have found this out little by little in our own country, and seeing the tares in the wheat, you want to throw yourselves against your governments with the same fury that made you see incarnate evil in the person of the enemy.  But if ever you recognise that the tares are in you also, then you may turn on yourselves in utter despair.  Is not this much to be feared, after the revolutions we have seen, where those who came to bring justice found themselves, without knowing why, with soiled hands and hearts?  You are like big children.  When will you cease to insist on the absolute good?”

They might have replied that you must will the absolute, in order to arrive at the real; the mind can dally with shades of meaning, which are impossible to action, where it must be all or nothing.  Clerambault had the choice between them and their adversaries; there was no other.