Page:Jean Jaurès socialist and humanitarian 1917.djvu/16

 who knew him as a promise that was unfulfilled, a power growing into authority, suddenly crushed out. But Jaurès belongs to the world.

In this little book, Mrs. Pease has given us some idea of the man and his mind; she has explained the fascination of his personality and the authority of his intellect. He was the greatest democratic personal force in Europe—even in the world. We have popular politicians who make speeches, who fashion toys from ideas, and with the fickleness of children pass from cause to cause, and from emotion to emotion in response to the swaying of mass opinion. Jaurès was none of these. Jaures could say "I know in what I believe." Whether as editor and in great part writer of the monumental History of Socialism in France, or as author of L’Armée Nouvelle; as the orator swaying crowds, or as the Parliamentary leader facing a hostile Chamber, he fought his life-long battle for the attainment of a goal set steadily and immovably in front of him. He fought. He sought favours from no enemy. Every great campaign in which he engaged roused bitter enmity amongst opponents. When he championed Dreyfus, France howled;