For it alone offered some hope for the future, which the war could
only destroy. But to prefer a party does not mean that you yield to it
all independence of thought. It is the error and abuse of democracies
that they wish that all should have the same duties, and impose the
same tasks on all; but in an advancing community there are multiple
tasks. While the main body fights to gain an immediate advantage in
progress, there are others who should maintain eternal values far
above the victors of tomorrow or yesterday and which are beyond
all the rest and throw light on the way above the smoke of battle.
Clerambault had allowed himself to be too long blinded by this smoke;
he could not plunge into a fresh fight; but in this short-sighted
world it is an impropriety, almost a fault to see more clearly than
your neighbours.
This sardonic truth was brought home to him in a discussion with these
young St. Justs. They pointed out his mistakes, impertinently enough,
by comparing him to the "Astrologer who fell into the Pit":
... "They said, poor creature, if your eye
What lies beneath can hardly spy,
Think you your gaze can pierce the sky?"
He had enough sense of humour to see the justice of the comparison;
yes, he was of the number of:
"Those whom phantoms alarm
While some serious harm
Threatens them or their farm.
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