.. Show me the law!"
"Save yourself."
"But that would be to lose myself, if the price is the life of others,
if we do nothing. You and I, no effort would be too great,--the ruin
of Europe, of the whole world, is imminent."
Perrotin sat quietly, his elbows on the arms of his chair, his hands
folded over his Buddha-like belly. He twirled his thumbs, looking
kindly at Clerambault, shook his head, and replied: "Your generous
heart, and your artistic sensibilities urge you too far, my friend,
but fortunately the world is not near its end. This is not the first
time. And there will be many others. What is happening today is
painful, certainly, but not in the least abnormal. War has never kept
the earth from turning on its axis, nor prevented the evolution of
life; it is even one of the forms of its evolution. Let an old scholar
and philosopher oppose his calm inhumanity to your holy Man of
Sorrows. In spite of all it may bring you some benefit. This struggle,
this crisis which alarms you so much, is no more than a simple case
of systole, a cosmic contraction, tumultuous, but regulated, like the
folding of the earth crust accompanied by destructive earthquakes.
Humanity is tightening. And war is its _seismos_. Yesterday, in all
countries, provinces were at war with each other.
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