Paris, June 26.
M. Poincaré thinks that Gambetta's celebrated saying about journalism leading to anything on condition that one gels out of it, should not be taken tog literal-Jy. Speaking at a Press banquet the other evening, the Premier asked who were the journalists who left their profession without any idea of coming back to it? When mau, he said, has once fasted the delight of giving independent expression to ideas which he believes to be for the good of the community, how can he abandon the struggle? The only gateway through which a real journalist can leave journalism is that of the burial vault where Tie will one day go to rest from the toils of this life: There is no genuine journalist. who is_ not passionately attached to hi8 profession which, in spite of its uncertainty and its perils, is one of the finest and highest of all, as it helps* towards the supremacy of human thought and the final victory of truth.
I know well enough, he went on, that the truth is not always easy to grasp at once. We always have scientific theories which we think are eternal principles until we find them staggering under the blows of newer theories. The life of nations, alas, is made up of even more fugitive contingencies, and when we look at facts we are never quite certain of being able to grasp the whole truth. We only see bits of it. What was true yesterday is not quite true to-day, and what may be thought true today may be looked upon to-morrow as error. Let not this tempt us, however, to give way to scepticism. Do not let us amuse ourselves by throwing away what we have in our hands. 'Any genuine effort, however slight, leaves a deeper trace on the work of civilization than the most brilliant forms of dilettantism or irony. As we are ys liable to be mistaken,' and misunderstand what may be the perfectly genuine convictions of our adversaries, let us abstain -from putting forward our own views Th any violent or offensive form. know that insult and calumny are very tempting to the fan who writes, jtist as they are to the man who speaks. They are so convenient, and they save us. the trouble of looking for reasons and reasonings: but, ater the terrible crisis we have gone through, we need' peace and unity. It is for French journalists to impress upon their fellow citizens the vital need. for concord, and to set them the example.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.