"A week ago," he exclaimed, "I was an anti-militarist! How far away that
seems now--as if a year had gone by! I keep thinking as before! I
love peace and hate war like all my comrades. But the French have not
offended anybody, and yet they threaten us, wishing to enslave us. . . .
But we French can be fierce, since they oblige us to be, and in order
to defend ourselves it is just that nobody should shirk, that all should
obey. Discipline does not quarrel with Revolution. Remember the armies
of the first Republic--all citizens, Generals as well as soldiers, but
Hoche, Kleber and the others were rough-hewn, unpolished benefactors who
knew how to command and exact obedience."
The carpenter was well read. Besides the papers and pamphlets of "the
Idea," he had also read on stray sheets the views of Michelet and other
liberal actors on the stage of history.
"We are going to make war on War," he added. "We are going to fight so
that this war will be the last."
This statement did not seem to be expressed with sufficient clearness,
so he recast his thought.
"We are going to fight for the future; we are going to die in order
that our grandchildren may not have to endure a similar calamity. If
the enemy triumphs, the war-habit will triumph, and conquest will be the
only means of growth. First they will overcome Europe, then the rest of
the world.
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