Notes on Bergson and Descartes by Péguy Charles; Ward Bruce K.;

Author:Péguy, Charles; Ward, Bruce K.; [Péguy, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781532650758
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2019-03-18T07:00:00+00:00

For in this system of thought143 it is not a question only of vanquishing. It is not even at all a question of vanquishing. It is a question of replacing. It is not a question of an empire crushing an empire. It is a question of a certain lamp not being extinguished, and as the same one144 said, of a certain light not being hidden under a bushel basket.145 It is not a question of whether Berlin crushes Paris; it is a question of whether Berlin can stand in place of Paris. And they are not even close, and not only are they not close but these unhappy, ponderous, ungrateful, dis-graced ones do not appear even to have entered on the path and they do not appear to be designated, to be marked out in the secret of the world, for such a great grace.

In the eternal debate of those who are vanquishers and those who are shaped, we do not know if they are destined to vanquish. But we certainly know they are not destined to be shaped.

“The passage of peoples,” says Halévy magnificently (Quelques nouveaux maîtres),146 “is not like that of herds, monotonous, blind, determined by a single play of forces and causes; another influence presses upon them, animates them, chooses certain among them and obliges them to work on its behalf. Who does not know these elect peoples? From Jerusalem to Paris (Athens, Rome, Florence mark off this route) one spiritual gesture traverses humanity, a long sacred uplifting that touches from a distance slower or lesser races, astonishes them, irritates them, and willy-nilly raises them up. France is the last of these elect peoples. It is thus that a Michelet, a Hugo, understand the history and mission of France. Their patriotism is no less absolute . . . .147 If it appears less harsh and less exclusive in its forms, less tense, less armed against the foreigner, it is because it matured in times that were more glorious, or more simply, happier.

Let us try to see how it is today, our country under attack and threatened. A grave movement, entirely contrary to her genius, has happened beside her and even within her. This material movement advantages brutal and disciplined peoples, bent under machines and regulations, advantages a dismal and lowly multitude, massively opposed to the human aspirations of the ancient world, of humanist and Christian Europe, of the old Europe that France led. And this France is there, weakened by lost blood, checked by regret for reckless mistakes, disarmed by the destruction of the order wherein she flourished. She has sunk; however, she retains a prestige for those new peoples who have the numbers and the strength; she still stands with all the hauteur of her failed endeavors. She still carries the sacred charge, she remains the most devout, the most inventive, and if any nation would be her heir, the least one can say is that we are still waiting for this nation.”

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