When these irregular pulsations fade out, the shadows
appear deeper, and the spirit totters and then--. It was hard for
Clerambault to get along without other people.
He decided to visit all his friends, of whom he had many, in the
literary world, in the University, and among the intelligent
_bourgeoisie_. He was sure to find some among them who, better than
he, could divine the problems which beset him, and help him in their
solution.
Timidly, without as yet betraying his own mind, he tried to read
theirs, to listen and observe; but he had not realised that the veil
had fallen from his eyes; and the vision that he saw of a world, once
well-known to him, seemed strange and cold.
The whole world of letters was mobilised; so that personalities were
no longer to be distinguished. The universities formed a ministry of
domesticated intelligence; its functions were to draw up the acts of
the State, its master and patron; the different departments were known
by their professional twists.
The professors of literature were above all skilful in developing
moral arguments oratorically under the three terms of the syllogism.
Their mania was an excessive simplification of argument; they put
high-sounding words in the place of reason, and made too much of a few
ideas, always the same, lifeless for lack of colour or shading.
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