But what is most admirable is that its decisions are not mechanical nor
mathematically pre-established. In this it resembles those pastimes in
which chance and knowledge are marvellously mingled in order to question
our fortune: pastimes almost mystical and always enthralling, in which
man delights to sound his luck on the confines of his existence.
Bring face to face two adversaries of manifestly unequal powers: it is
not inevitable, it is not even certain that the more vigorous and the
more skilful will gain the day over the other. Once that we have
conquered our personal mastership, our sword becomes ourself, with our
qualities and our defects. It is our firmness, our devotion, our will,
our daring, our conviction, our justice, our hesitation, our impatience,
our fear. We have cultivated it with care. We have risen to the height
of the possibilities which it was able to offer us. We have given it all
that we were able to dispose of; it restores to us integrally all that
we entrusted to it. We have nothing wherewith to reproach ourselves; we
are in accord with the instinct and duty of self-preservation. But the
sword represents something more, and exactly that part of us which we
are compelled to risk at the graver moments of existence. It personifies
an unknown portion of our being and personifies it in the most
favourable and solemn conjuncture that man can imagine wherein to call
upon his destiny, that is to say, in circumstances in which the
mysterious entity that lives within him is directly seconded by all the
faculties subjected to his consciousness.
It thus brings face to face not only two forces, two intelligences and
two liberties, but also two chances, two fortunes, two mysteries, two
destinies, which, over and above the rest, like the gods of Homer,
preside over the combat, run, flash, dart and meet upon its blade. When
it seems to be striking before us in space, it is really knocking at the
doors of our fate; and, while death hovers around it, he who handles it
feels that it is escaping from its previous bondage and suddenly obeying
other laws than those which used to guide it in the fencing-school. It
fulfils a secret mission; before pronouncing sentence, it judges us; or
rather, by the mere fact that we are wielding it distractedly in the
presence of the great and formidable enigma, it forces our destiny to
judge ourselves.