TWO DECLARATIONS BY ANDRE GIDE
399
nomies, we are rather confronted,
in
each case, with two aspects of a
single civilization, with twa moments of
its
development, with two
historical expressions of one and the same ethical, cultural, and social
reality."
A:ruir6 Gide sent off his reply within a day or two of receiving
the letter from Venice:
Paris, 28
January
1951
Sir:
I have reread your letter several times--not that it
is
lacking
in eloquence, but your eloquence pleads.a cause that does not seem to
me defensible. Despite your efforts at reconciliation, the two ethics
you describe are in opposition. It
is
self-evident that an agreement
between them would be desirable; but, alas, it does not strike me as
possible. At our present stage of development, it could only be
the result of a misunderstanding, I ought to say of trickery on one
side or the other-a necessarily precarious and illusory result in
which one or the other of the opposing sides would immediately
snatch from the other everything it had originally pretended to
yield. It would be but a pretense of reconciliation and the situation
would later on turn out to be, not the same, but seriously jeopardized
by such an attempt at compromise.
It
is better
to
examine the ques–
tion calmly while we still can, and I was about to say: with a level
head while we still have our heads on our shoulders.
But I should first like to consider this: capitalism is a hybrid
thing. In no country has it been able or willing to assert itself and
realize itself fully. The freedom of the individual has nowhere been
altogether compromised despite some deplorable accidents, which,
however terrifying, have always been exceptions; but after all they
have never become the rule and almost always the minDrity has
found some possibility of recourse against them. Let me add that
such accidents are constantly decreasing in number. You know as
well as I that in the countries (I was about to say
the
country) in
which unification of thought, of conscience, and of behavior is ac–
cepted, protected, and even imposed by the State, the slightest ec–
centricity is liable to the worst punishments. The sole concern of the
citizen,
if
he does not agree with the watchword, is not to let this
become apparent. And I even believe that the best examples of. this
