The Plague

Qui sort sain et sauf de cette prodigieuse machinerie n’en saurait rendre grâces qu’à Dieu. « Sortir vivant de la guerre » n’a pas beaucoup plus de sens que « sortir vivant d’une épidémie de choléra ». À cette différence près que les grandes épidémies ont généralement coïncidé avec un non moins grand relâchement des mœurs, les hommes se consolant d

THE MADMAN----Have you not heard of that madman who lit

a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market place,

and cried incessantly: "I seek God! I seek God!"---As

many of those who did not believe in God were standing around

just then, he provoked much laughter. Has he got lost? asked one.

Did he lose his way like a child? asked ano

Why were so many Americans treated by their government as though their lives were as disposable as paper facial tissues? Because that was the way authors customarily treated bit-part players in their made-up tales.

Before the modern period, it was perhaps clearer that even an ordinary life can’t be fully conceived. Major events often bore neither a signature nor a sensible explanation. People met plague, famine, and war and didn’t have full information about what was going on. They might think that plague had something to do with rats or was related to an unf