But now that he had been warned to
distrust everything, by the constant: "Keep still,--take care," and
knew that Kant led straight to Krupp, he dared admire nothing without
official sanction. The sympathetic modesty that caused him in times
of peace to accept with the respect due to words of Holy Writ the
publications of learned and distinguished men, now in the war took on
the proportions of a fabulous credulity. He swallowed without a gulp
the strange discoveries made at this time by the intellectuals of his
country, treading under foot the art, the intelligence, the science
of the enemy throughout the centuries; an effort frantically
disingenuous, which denied all genius to our adversary, and either
found in its highest claims to glory the mark of its present infamy
or rejected its achievements altogether and bestowed them on another
race.
Clerambault was overwhelmed, beside himself, but (though he did not
admit it), in his heart he was glad.
Seeking for someone to share in his excitement and keep it up by fresh
arguments, he went to his friend Perrotin.
Hippolyte Perrotin was of one of those types, formerly the pride of
the higher instruction in France but seldom met with in these days--a
great humanist. Led by a wide and sagacious curiosity, he walked
calmly through the garden of the centuries, botanising as he went.
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