self to another recognizes in others only inferior rights; this is the principle of all crimes, of all iniquities. It is the formula and doctrine of nationalist barbarism, and teachers who … spread this base idea commit the crime of lèse-humanity and lèse-fatherland.… Miserable patriots, who to love and serve France must 'prefer' it, that is, must disparage other peoples, the other great moral forces of humanity.… The true formula of patriotism is the equal right of all countries to liberty and justice, and the duty of every citizen to strengthen in his country liberty and justice."
Jaurès was a man of faith, with a glowing vision which he was doing all that a man could do to realize. He was full of ardent hope for the future, a hope which the crushing events of the past two years seem to have proved unwarranted, at any rate as regards so near a future as his words sometimes implied. Yet even in his most optimistic moments he was keenly conscious of the tremendous difficulties to be overcome; they were probably far more apparent to his clear intellect than to the minds of the shallow pessimists who know nothing of the self-sacrificing effort of creation made by the man of faith.
In L'Armée Nouvelle he says that the proletariat knows what a difficult task it is at once to struggle against war and to safeguard the
