Note 61 — III The ‘Clerks’—The Great Betrayal

Certain nationalists, desirous of honouring cosmopolitanism, whose full value their intelligence perceives, and yet not wishing to sacrifice nationalism, declare that cosmopolitanism represents ‘enlightened nationalism’. M. Paul Bourget, who gives this definition (Paris-Times, June, 1924), quotes Goethe and Stendhal as examples, ‘the former of whom remained so profoundly German while striving to understand the whole movement of French thought, and the latter remained so profoundly French while he devoted himself to understanding Italy.’ One wonders how these two masters showed the least, even enlightened, ‘nationalism’ by remaining profoundly German and profoundly French. Obviously M. Bourget confuses national and nationalist.