LET LIGHT BEACON

Light enlightens. Light makes whole. Therefore let light beacon.

All the generous sunrays of human society spring from science, letters, the arts and education. Make men, make men. Give them light so they can give you warmth.

Sooner or later, the splendid question of universal education will take its position with the irresistible authority of absolute truth; and then those who govern will have to make this choice: flames in the light or will o’ the wisps in the gloom. Though Plutarch may say, “The tyrant never grows old,” and humanity is a good soul. It accepts everything royally. As long as it laughs, it pardons; ugliness makes it merry, deformity puts it in good humor. Be amusing and you can likewise be a scamp; even hypocrisy, that sublimity of cynicism, does not revolt it. Albeit vice distracts it.

Thus humanity does more than lay down the law; it also lays down the fashion. It does more than lay down the fashion; it as well lays down the routine. Humanity can be stupid if it likes; sometimes it indulges itself in this luxury, and the whole universe is stupid along with it. Then humanity wakes up, rubs its eyes, and says, “Am I ever stupid!” and bursts out laughing in the face of mankind.

What a marvel, this humanity! How strange that all this mass of grandeur and burlesque could be so harmonious, that all this majesty is not disturbed by all the parody, and that the same mouth can blow the trump of the final judgement today and tomorrow a penny whistle. Humanity has an all-commanding joviality. Its gaiety comes with thunder and its humour holds a sceptre. Its hurricanes can spring from a grimace. Its outbursts, its great days, its masterpieces, its prodigies, its epics carry to the end of the universe, and so do its cock-and-bull stories. Its laughter is a volcano that spatters the whole earth. Its jeers are sparks that catch fire. It forces on nations its caricatures along with its ideal; the loftiest monuments of human civilization accept its sarcasms and lend their eternity to its japes.

Such is humanity. It always bares its teeth; when not scolding, it is laughing. The smoke of its rooftops is the thought of the universe. A heap of mud and stone if you like; but above all, a moral being. It is more than great, it is immense. Why? Because it dares.

To dare; progress comes at this price. All sublime conquests are, more or less, the rewards of daring. For the French Revolution to occur, it was not enough that Montesquieu should foresee it, that Diderot should preach it, that Beaumarchais should announce it, that Condorcet should calculate it, that Arouet should prepare it, that Rousseau should premeditate it; Danton had to dare it.

That cry of boldness is a Fiat Lux. The onward march of the human race requires that the heights around it constantly blaze with noble lessons of courage. Deeds of daring dazzle history and form one of man’s guiding lights. The dawn dares when it rises. To strive, to brave all risks, to persist, to persevere, to be faithful to oneself, to grapple hand to hand with destiny, to surprise defeat by the slight terror it inspires, at one time to confront unjust power, at another to defy drunken triumph, to hold fast, to hold hard – such is the example nations need, and the light that electrifies them. The same powerful lightning darts from the torch of Prometheus and Cambronne’s clay pipe.

It is in the faubourgs particularly, we insist, that Humanity is found; therein lies the pure blood; therein lies the true features; and this population toils and suffers and toiling and suffering are the two faces of mankind. And if so what does it matter? What difference does it make if Nigerian masses go barefooted like the child ‘Jonathan?’ They cannot read; never mind. Would you abandon them for that? Would you make their misfortune their curse? Can the light penetrate these masses?

Therefore let us return to that cry: Light! And let us persist in it! Light! Light! Who knows but that these opacities will become transparent? Are revolutions not transfigurations? Go on philosophers – teach, enlighten, kindle, think aloud, speak up, run joyfully toward broad daylight, fraternize in the public squares, announce the glad tidings, lavish your alphabets, proclaim human rights, sing your theories, sow enthusiasms, tear off green branches from the oak trees. Make thought a whirlwind. This multitude can be sublimated. Let us learn to avail ourselves of this vast conflagration of principles and virtues, which occasionally sparkles, bursts, and shudders. These bare feet, these naked arms, these rags, these shades of ignorance, depths of despair, the gloom can be used for the conquest of the ideal. Look through the medium of the people, and you will discern the truth. This lowly sand that you trample underfoot, if you throw it into the furnace and let it melt and seethe, will become a sparkling crystal; and thanks to such as this a Galileo and a Newton who discovered the stars. Thus there is eternity in just causes.

– The Grandmaster