war I more than once felt myself close to that
true Frenchman who wrote: Man is born to see and know everything, and
it is an injustice to limit him to one place on the earth. To the wise
man the whole world is his country. God lends us the world to enjoy in
common on one condition only, that we act uprightly.

R.R.

PARIS,

May, 1920

INTRODUCTION [1]

[Footnote 1: This Introduction was published in the Swiss newspapers
in December, 1917, with an episode of the novel and a note explaining
the original title, _L'Un contre Tous_. "This somewhat ironical name
was suggested--with a difference--by La Boetie's _Le Contr' Un_; but
it must not be supposed that the author entertained the extravagant
idea of setting one man in opposition to all others; he only wishes
to summon the personal conscience to the most urgent conflict of our
time, the struggle against the herd-spirit."]

This book is not written about the war, though the shadow of the war
lies over it. My theme is that the individual soul has been swallowed
up and submerged in the soul of the multitude; and in my opinion such
an event is of far greater importance to the future of the race than
the passing supremacy of one nation.

I have left questions of policy in the background intentionally, as I
think they should be reserved for special study. No matter what causes
may be assigned as the origins of the war, no matter what theses
support them, nothing in the world can excuse the abdication of
individual judgment before general opinion.

The universal development of democracies, vitiated by a fossilized
survival, the outrageous "reason of State," has led the mind of Europe
to hold as an article of faith that there can be no higher ideal than
to serve the community. This community is then defined as the State.

I venture to say that he who makes himself the servant of a blind or
blinded nation,--and most of the states are in this condition at the
present day,--does not truly serve it but lowers both it and himself;
for in general a few men, incapable of understanding the complexities
of the people, force thoughts and acts upon them in harmony with their
own passions and interests by means of the falsehoods of the press and
the implacable machinery of a centralised government. He who would be
useful to others must first be free himself; for love itself has no
value coming from a slave.

Independent minds and firm characters are what the world needs