mony, or attain to justice.
When one must first question words and intentions, and start from the
premise that everything said and written is meant to offer us illusion
in place of truth, life becomes strangely complicated. This is the case
to-day. There is so much craft, so much diplomacy, so much subtle
legerdemain, that we all have no end of trouble to inform ourselves on
the simplest subject and the one that most concerns us. Probably what I
have just said would suffice to show my thought, and each one's
experience might bring to its support an ample commentary with
illustrations. But I am none the less moved to insist on this point, and
to strengthen my position with examples.

Formerly the means of communication between men were considerably
restricted. It was natural to suppose that in perfecting and multiplying
avenues of information, a better understanding would be brought about.
Nations would learn to love each other as they became acquainted;
citizens of one country would feel themselves bound in closer
brotherhood as more light was thrown on what concerned their common
life. When printing was invented, the cry arose: _fiat lux!_ and with
better cause when the habit of reading and the taste for newspapers
increased. Why should not men have reasoned thus:--"Two lights illumine
better than one, and many better than two: the more periodicals and
books there are, the better we shall know what happens, and those who
wish to write history after us will be right fortunate; their hands will
be full of documents"? Nothing could have seemed more evident. Alas!
this reasoning was based upon the nature and capacity of the
instruments, without taking into account the human element, always the
most important factor. And what has really come about is this: that
cavilers, calumniators, and crooks--all gentlemen glib of tongue, who
know better than any one else how to turn voice and pen to account--have
taken the utmost advantage of these extended means for circulating
thought, with the result that the men of our times have the greatest
difficulty in the world to know the truth about their own age and their
own affairs. For every newspaper that fosters good feeling and good
understanding between nations, by trying to rightly inform its neighbors
and to study them without reservations, how many spread defamation and
distrust! What unnatural and dangerous currents of opinion set in
motion! what false alarms and malicious interp