Claretie had written were supremely
justified or were not.

"You are young," Renan said to the new Immortal, "and you will see this
question solved, . . . some years hence it will be known; if in ten or
twenty years France is prosperous and free, faithful to right, strong
in the friendship of the free peoples of the world, then the cause of
the young Revolutionists is won; the world will enjoy the fruits of
their endeavor without having had to know their unripe bitterness."

Joffre quoted this part of Renan's address, in taking his seat.
Claretie had not lived quite long enough to see, save with the eye of
faith, that day Renan foretold; but Claretie's successor in the French
Academy had seen it! And it was like him to say:

"I think, gentlemen, that in doing me the honor of receiving me into
your august body, your desire is to pay homage to that glorious French
army which has proved that the soul of France is steadfast for the
rights of man, even unto death that men may be free."

Accepting the honor as paid through him to the men who had proved the
worth of that Liberty, Equality and Fraternity the Revolution declared
and decreed, Joffre asked permission to name those to whom, he deemed,
the gratitude of France and of France's Immortals was due. And first
among them he named Foch.

This was gracious; it was generous; but it was more than that. And
though Joffre went on to name many leaders, many armies, many moral
forces incarnate in many men as co-responsible for victory, no one
could know quite so well as he how completely the France of which Renan
dreamed as a glorious possibility, is realized and typified in the man
whose name leads all the rest as having saved not France only but the
liberties of mankind.

Bonaparte, although he was not French (save technically) and not a
democrat, captured the hearts of France in spite of all he cost them;
because he aggrandized France, made her supreme in many things besides
extent and power. It is instinctive in every Frenchman (or woman, or
child!) to revere anyone who does new credit to the name of France or
brings new glory to it; for the passionate love of country is the
primary religion of the French--they may or may not have another, but
unless they are totally renegade they have that faith, that devotion.

In Ferdinand Foch they have a great leader who is in no sense an
"accident" (as Bonaparte was), a sporadic development in their midst, a
spectacular growt