"Grand events are taking form. No one can comprehend the mysterious workings of revolution at the present time. Behind the visible achievement rests the invisible, the one concealing the other. The visible work seems cruel; the invisible is sublime. At this moment I can see it all very clearly. It is strange and beautiful. We have been forced to use the materials of the Past. Hence this wonderful '93. Beneath a scaffolding of barbarism we are building the temple of civilization. "Yes," replied Cimourdain, "these temporary expedients pave the way for the final adjustment, wherein justice and duty stand side by side, where taxation will be proportionate and progressive, and military service compulsory; where there is to be absolute equality in rank; and where, above all things else, the straight line of the Law is to be maintained,--the republic of the absolute." "I prefer the republic of the ideal," said Gauvain. He broke off, then continued:-- "But, oh, my master, where in the picture you have just drawn in words do you place devotion, sacrifice, abnegation, the sweet intermingling of kindliness and love? An accurate adjustment of proportions is a good thing, but harmony is still better. The lyre stands higher than the scales. Your republic deals with the material interest of man; mine transports him to the skies: it is like the difference between a theorem and an eagle." "You are lost in the clouds." "And you in your calculations." "There is an element of dreaminess in harmony." "So there is in algebra." "I would have man fashioned according to Euclid." "And I like him better as described by Homer." The stern smile of Cimourdain rested on Gauvain as though to stay the flight of his soul. [Illustration 135] "Poetry. Beware of poets!" "Yes; that is a familiar warning: beware zephyrs, beware of sunbeams, beware of perfumes, beware of flowers, beware of the stars." "That sort of thing can never supply us with food." "How can you tell? There is mental nourishment: a man finds food in thought." "Let us indulge in no abstractions! The republic is like two and two in mathematics: two and two make four. When I have given to each man his due--" "Then your duty is to give him what does not revert to him as a right." "What do you mean by that?" "I mean those mutual concessions which each man owes his neighbor, and which go to make up the sum of social life." "There is nothing beyond the just limits of the law." "Ah, but there is--everything!" "I see nothing but justice." "I look higher." "What stands higher than justice?" "Equity." Now and then both paused, as though a sudden light had flashed across their minds. Cimourdain continued,-- "Explain your assertion. I challenge you to do it."