These bombs did but accentuate and dramatise an already developing
problem.
Section 2
This assembly was no leap of exceptional minds and super-intelligences
into the control of affairs. It was teachable, its members trailed
ideas with them to the gathering, but these were the consequences of the
'moral shock' the bombs had given humanity, and there is no reason for
supposing its individual personalities were greatly above the average.
It would be possible to cite a thousand instances of error and
inefficiency in its proceedings due to the forgetfulness, irritability,
or fatigue of its members. It experimented considerably and blundered
often. Excepting Holsten, whose gift was highly specialised, it is
questionable whether there was a single man of the first order of human
quality in the gathering. But it had a modest fear of itself, and a
consequent directness that gave it a general distinction. There was,
of course, a noble simplicity about Leblanc, but even of him it may
be asked whether he was not rather good and honest-minded than in the
fuller sense great.
The ex-king had wisdom and a certain romantic dash, he was a man among
thousands, even if he was not a man among millions, but his memoirs, and
indeed his decision to write memoirs, give the quality of himself
and his associates.
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