Page:The world set free.djvu/181

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THE ENDING OF WAR

see, in regard to the calendar, I am for democracy and you are for aristocracy. All things I hold, are august, and have a right to be lived through on their merits. No day should be sacrificed on the grave of departed events. What do you think of it, Wilhelm?"

"For the noble, yes, all days should be noble."

"Exactly my position," said the king, and felt pleased at what he had been saying.

And then, since the American pressed his idea, the king contrived to shift the talk from the question of celebrating the epoch they were making to the question of the probabilities that lay ahead. Here every one became diffident. They could see the world unified and at peace, but what detail was to follow from that unification they seemed indisposed to discuss. This diffidence struck the king as remarkable. He plunged upon the possibilities of science. All the huge expenditure that had hitherto gone into unproductive naval and military preparations, must now, he declared, place research upon a new footing. "Where one man worked we will have a thousand." He appealed to Holsten. "We have only begun to peep into these possibilities," he said. "You at any rate have sounded the vaults of the treasure house."

"They are unfathomable," smiled Holsten.

"Man," said the American, with a manifest

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