And not only do we know that some Therese, perhaps all the Thereses, made a mistake in this instance, but we have come to feel that whenever danger arises Therese is inevitably wrong; her mind, such as it is, closes up and she fails to show those _sentiments_ and that _bon sens_ which drew down the applause of the princes and the persons _du haut rang_ who have been praising the deposit of virtue that she carries in her breast. We have watched the course of Therese confronted by other and smaller fears since the close of the war, and we have reached the conclusion that Therese always reacts a certain way. In that large range of situations which may be artfully presented to her simple mind as perils she is no longer _d'un conseil excellent_; her heart _d'un ange_ hardens; she abandons her babies quite unfeelingly at the hospital of the _Nouveaux Nes_. Therefore you do not reach the "deposit for virtue" by simply employing an intelligence unencumbered by mental processes. You must at least assure that intelligence against fear, a serious limitation upon the doctrine of an infallible public opinion. Students of public opinion will for a long time go back to the period of the war for their materials. Opinion was then unmistakable. The methods by which it was formed were clear. In times of great peril men throw off their polite disguises and are frank; so too are institutions. The making of opinion became an official function in which we all co-operated. We bound ourselves voluntarily not to publish and not to regard any information inconsistent with the state of mind which it was deemed expedient to create and maintain. We probably always in the forming of opinion tacitly impose voluntary censorships, but they are so habitual, so unconscious, so covered with traditional hypocrisy, that it is difficult to bring them into the light. Conscious self-deception to the good end of keeping ourselves united and determined was during the war a great virtue. Playing upon prejudice, rousing the depths of the primitive mind in man, was a laudable act of patriotism. What happened then was only an exaggeration of what happens all the time, for war makes no new contributions to the art of self-government. In war we merely throw off the restraints of peace and impose others which operate in the reverse direction. In peace we are shamefaced about direct killing; in war we brag of it. In peace we are shamefaced about manufacturing public opinion; in war it is our patriotic duty. No, war has made us rather doubtful about Therese. After all Rousseau was a prejudiced witness. When you take to your bosom a lady who cannot learn to tell time by the clock, you have to make out a case for her--or for yourself. When like Jefferson and his successors you take to your bosom the public, you have to make out a case for it, for the deposit for substantial and genuine virtue that you rely upon.