While the siege of Paris was at its worst he talked in his
garden with his friends, Linus the great traveller, Musee, Dean of the
Faculty of Medicine, and the writer Orphee. Poor wretches lay dead of
starvation in the streets, women cried out that pike-men were eating
children near the Temple; but with their eyes filled with these
horrible pictures these wise men sought to raise their unhappy
thoughts to the heights where one can reach the mind of the ages
and reckon up that which has survived the test. As I re-read these
Dialogues during the war I more than once felt myself close to that
true Frenchman who wrote: Man is born to see and know everything, and
it is an injustice to limit him to one place on the earth. To the wise
man the whole world is his country. God lends us the world to enjoy in
common on one condition only, that we act uprightly.
R.R.
PARIS,
May, 1920
INTRODUCTION [1]
[Footnote 1: This Introduction was published in the Swiss newspapers
in December, 1917, with an episode of the novel and a note explaining
the original title, _L'Un contre Tous_. "This somewhat ironical name
was suggested--with a difference--by La Boetie's _Le Contr' Un_; but
it must not be supposed that the author entertained the extravagant
idea of setting one man in opposition to all others; he only wishes
to summon the personal conscience to the most urgent conflict of our
time, the struggle against the herd-spirit.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25