That's different from mere failure. Great statesmen have been
failures; we've seen them go down, you and I--too big, too far-seeing for
their day. But they went down _full_, with all the weight of their
great convictions and principles still to their credit. I'm empty. Time
has played me out. That's the difference.
DIST. V. I am confident that history will give a different verdict.
CHAMBERLAIN. Will it? When exactly does history begin to get written? Is a
man's reputation for statesmanship safe, even after a hundred years? What
about Pitt? Can one be so sure of him now? His European policy may have
been a blunder; his great work in Ireland may yet have to be reversed.
DIST. V. In reversed circumstances, that may become logical. But what has
held good for a hundred year, I should incline to regard as statesmanship.
CHAMBERLAIN. "Held good"? Fetters a man can't break "hold good "; but they
make a prisoner of him all the same. Policies have done that to nations
before now. But would you, on that score, say of them that they have held
good?
DIST. V. But let me understand, my dear Chamberlain, what exactly in
Pitt's policy you now question?
CHAMBERLAIN. Nothing: I can't see far enough ahead to question anything. I
only say, when does history begin to get written? We don't know.
DIST. V. What more can one do than direct it for the generation in which
one lives? That, it seems to me, is our main responsibility.
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