Blow it into a flame! Draw closer these
cold solitary hearts! If only one of the fruits of this war of nations
could be the fusion of the best among all classes, the union of the
youth of many countries--of the manual labourers and the thinkers--the
future would be re-born through their mutual aid.
But if unity is not one wanting to dominate the other, neither is it
that one prefers to be dominated. But this was precisely, however,
what these young revolutionaries thought, and insisted upon, with a
curious sort of self-will. They snubbed Clerambault, on the principle
that intelligence should be at the service of the proletariat ...
"Dienen, dienen ..." which was the last word even of the proud Wagner.
More than one lofty spirit brought low has said the same; if they
could not rule supreme, they would serve.
Clerambault reflected: "The rarest thing is to find honest people
who want to be simply my equals; but if we must choose, tyranny for
tyranny, I prefer that which held the bodies of Aesop and Epictetus
in slavery but left their minds free, to that which promises only
material liberty and enslaves the soul."
This intolerance made him feel that he could never attach himself
to any party, no matter what it was. Between the two sides, war or
revolution, he could frankly state his preference for one, revolution.
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