_Jean Christophe_ was the deliberate divergence from a generation. _Colas Breugnon_ is another divergence, unconsciously effected; a divergence from the traditional France, heedlessly cheerful. This "bourguinon salé" wished to show his fellow countrymen of a later day how life can be salted with mockery and yet be full of enjoyment. Rolland here displayed all the riches of his beloved homeland, displaying above all the most beautiful of these goods, the joy of life. A heedless world, our world of to-day, was to be awakened by the poet singing of an earlier world which had been likewise impoverished, had likewise wasted its energies in futile hostility. A call to joy from a Frenchman, echoing down the ages, was to answer the voice of the German, Jean Christophe. Their two voices were to mingle harmoniously as the voices mingle in the Ode to Joy of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. During the tranquil summer the pages were stacked like golden sheaves. The book was in the press, to appear during the next summer, that of 1914. But the summer of 1914 reaped a bloody harvest. The roar of the cannon, drowning Jean Christophe's warning cry, deafened the ears of those who might otherwise have hearkened also to the call to joy. For five years, the five most terrible years in the world's history, the luminous figure stood unheeded in the darkness. There was no conjuncture between _Colas Breugnon_ and "la douce France"; for this book, with its description of the cheerful France of old, was not to appear until that Old France had vanished for ever. PART SIX THE CONSCIENCE OF EUROPE One who is aware of values which he regards as a hundredfold more precious than the wellbeing of the "fatherland," of society, of the kinships of blood and race, values which stand above fatherlands and races, international values, such a man would prove himself hypocrite should he try to play the patriot. It is a degradation of mankind to encourage national hatred, to admire it, or to extol it. NIETZSCHE, _Vorreden Material im Nachlass_. La vocation ne peut être connue et prouvée que par le sacrifice que fait le savant et l'artiste de son repos et son bien-être pour suivre sa vocation. LETTER DE TOLSTOI A ROMAIN ROLLAND. 4, Octobre, 1887. CHAPTER I THE WARDEN OF THE INHERITANCE The events of August 2, 1914, broke Europe into fragments. Therewith collapsed the faith which the brothers in the spirit, Jean Christophe and Olivier, had been building with their lives. A great heritage was cast aside. The idea of human brotherhood, once sacred, was buried contemptuously by the grave-diggers of all the lands at war, buried among the million corpses of the slain.