And Jaurès possessed this mastery, and because of it he was the pilot of European democracy.
How clear and far reaching was his foresight! In years to come, when the record of the war of to-day is set down, he will appear therein as a terrible witness. Was there anything he did not foresee? One needs only to read through his speeches during the last ten years.[1] It is yet too early, in the midst of the conflict, to quote freely his predictions concerning the coming retribution. Let us recall only his agonised presentiment, ever since the year 1905, of the monstrous war which was imminent;[2] his consciousness "of the antagonism, now muffled, now acute, but always profound and terrible, between Germany and England" (November 18, 1909);[3] his denunciation of the secret dealings of European finance and diplomacy, dealings which are encouraged by the "torpor of public spirit"; his cry of alarm
- ↑ Or the extracts given by Charles Rappoport in his excellent book Jean Jaurès, l'homme, le penseur, le socialiste (1915, Paris, l'Emancipatrice), with an introduction by Anatole France. See also the pamphlet by René Legand, Jean Jaurès. From this book are quoted the passages referred to in the notes which follow. Jean Jaurès, a brochure by René Legand, should also be read.
- ↑ Rappoport, op. cit., pp. 70-77.
- ↑ Rappoport, p. 234.
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