," said the Count, "we force nature
all the time in cattle-breeding, so that even the shape and instincts
of the animals are modified; why not the human creature? No, far from
blaming you, I maintain on the contrary that the object and the duty
of every man worthy of the name is, just as you say, to alter human
nature. It is the source of all real progress; even to strive after
the impossible has a concrete value. But that does not mean that we
shall succeed in what we undertake."

"It is possible that we may not succeed for ourselves and our
children; it is, even more, probable. Perhaps our unhappy nation, the
entire West is on the downward path. There are many things that make
me fear that we are hastening to our fall; our vices and our virtues,
which are almost equally injurious, the pride and hatred, the jealous
spite worthy of a big village, the endless chain of revenges, the
blind obstinacy, the clinging to the past with its superannuated
conceptions of honour and duty, which causes us to sacrifice the
future for the past; all these make me fear that the terrible warning
of this war has taught nothing to our slothful and turbulent heroism.
There was a time when I should have been overwhelmed by such a thought
as this, but now I feel lifted above it, as I am above my own mortal
body; the only tie between me and it is made of pity. My spirit is
brother to that which, on the other side of the globe, is now touched
by the new fire. Do you remember the beautiful words of the Seer of
St. Jean d'Acre?[1]"

[Footnote 1: Reference to Abdul Baha, at present the head of the
Babists or Bahaists. He was at that time a prisoner at St. Jean
d'Acre. See "Lessons of St. Jean d'Acre," by Abdul Baha, collected by
Laura Clifford Barney. (Author.)]

"'_The Sun of Truth is like our sun. It rises in many different places.
One day it appears in the sign of Cancer, on another it rises in
Libra, but it is always the same sun. Once the Sun of Truth rose in
the constellation of Abraham, and set in that of Moses, flaming over
the whole horizon; and later it was seen in the sign of Christ, bright
and resplendent. When its light shone over Sinai, the followers of
Abraham were blinded. But wherever the sun may rise, my eyes will be
fixed upon it; even if it should appear in the west it will always be
the sun._'"

"'_C'est du Nord aujourd'hui que nous vient la lumiere_,'"[1] said
Moreau, laughing ("It is from the North that our light comes t