THE WORLD SET FREE
and have sat under a large reasonable green-lined umbrella and fished very neatly and successfully for gudgeon. . . ."
The president and the Japanese prince in spectacles protested together.
"If I do him an injustice," said the king, "it is only because I want to elucidate my argument. I want to make it clear how small are men and days, and how great is man in comparison. . . ."
§ 4.
So it was King Egbert talked at Brissago after they had proclaimed the unity of the world. Every evening after that the assembly dined together and talked at their ease and grew accustomed to each other and sharpened each other's ideas, and every day they worked together, and really for a time believed that they were inventing a new government for the world. They discussed a constitution. But there were matters needing attention too urgently to wait for any constitution. They attended to these incidentally. The constitution it was that waited. It was presently found convenient to keep the constitution waiting indefinitely as King Egbert had foreseen, and meanwhile, with an increasing self-confidence, that council went on governing. . . .
On this first evening of all the council's gather-
180
