This proud individualism, stated by Froment with burning eloquence,
was a support to Clerambault's mind, prone to waver, and undecided
from good-nature, self-distrust, and the wish to understand others.
Froment rendered Clerambault another important service. More in the
current of world-thought, and through his family coming in closer
contact with foreign thinkers, an accomplished linguist besides,
Froment could bring to mind those other men in all nations who, great
in their isolation, fought for the right to a free conscience. It
was a consoling spectacle; all the work under the surface of thought
suppressed, but struggling towards truth, and the knowledge that
the worst tyranny that has crushed the soul of humanity since the
Inquisition has failed to stifle the indomitable will to remain free
and true.
No doubt these lofty individualities were rare, but their power was
all the greater; the fine outline was more striking, seen against the
dark horizon. In the fall of the nations to the foot of the precipice
where millions lie in a shapeless mass, their voices seemed to rise
with the only human note, and their action gained emphasis from the
anger with which it was met. A century ago Chateaubriand wrote:
"It is vain to struggle longer; henceforward the only important thing
is to be.
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