as "Order
and Progress." He thought he had discovered that device.

Montessuy said:

"Well, Monsieur Garain, be sincere. Confess that there are no reforms to
be made, and that it is as much as one can do to change the color of
postage-stamps. Good or bad, things are as they should be. Yes, things
are as they should be; but they change incessantly. Since 1870 the
industrial and financial situation of the country has gone through four
or five revolutions which political economists had not foreseen and which
they do not yet understand. In society, as in nature, transformations are
accomplished from within."

As to matters of government his ideas were terse and decided. He was
strongly attached to the present, heedless of the future, and the
socialists troubled him little. Without caring whether the sun and
capital should be extinguished some day, he enjoyed them. According to
him, one should let himself be carried. None but fools resisted the
current or tried to go in front of it.

But Count Martin, naturally sad, had, dark presentiments. In veiled words
he announced catastrophes. His timorous phrases came through the flowers,
and irritated M. Schmoll, who began to grumble and to prophesy. He
explained that Christian nations were incapable, alone and by themselves,
of throwing off barbarism, and that without the Jews and the Arabs Europe
would be to-day, as in the time of the Crusades, sunk in ignorance,
misery, and cruelty.

"The Middle Ages," he said, "are closed only in the historical manuals
that are given to pupils to spoil their minds. In reality, barbarians are
always barbarians. Israel's mission is to instruct nations. It was Israel
which, in the Middle Ages, brought to Europe the wisdom of ages.
Socialism frightens you. It is a Christian evil, like priesthood. And
anarchy? Do you not recognize in it the plague of the Albigeois and of
the Vaudois? The Jews, who instructed and polished Europe, are the only
ones who can save it to-day from the evangelical evil by which it is
devoured. But they have not fulfilled their duty. They have made
Christians of themselves among the Christians. And God punishes them. He
permits them to be exiled and to be despoiled. Anti-Semitism is making
fearful progress everywhere. From Russia my co-religionists are expelled
like savage beasts. In France, civil and military employments are closing
against Jews. They have no longer access to aristocratic circles. My
nephew, young Isaac