It reminds me of what King Bomba said of his valiant
soldiers; dress them in red or in green as you choose, they will take
to their heels just the same. One says peace and the other war, but
neither means anything, there is only universal servitude, multitudes
swept along like the ebb and flow of tides; and this will continue as
long as no strong souls raise themselves above the human ocean, as
long as no one dares to fight against the fate that sways these great
masses."
"Fight against nature," said Coulanges. "Would you resist her laws?"
"There are no immutable laws," said Clerambault, laws like beings,
live, change, and die. It is the duty of the spirit, not to accept
these as the Stoics taught us, but rather to modify and shape them to
our needs. Laws are the outside form of the soul, and if it grows they
must grow also. The only just laws are those that suit me. Am I wrong
in thinking that the shoe should be made to fit the foot, not the foot
for the shoe?"
"I do not say that you are wrong," said the Count, "we force nature
all the time in cattle-breeding, so that even the shape and instincts
of the animals are modified; why not the human creature? No, far from
blaming you, I maintain on the contrary that the object and the duty
of every man worthy of the name is, just as you say, to alter human
nature.
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