46 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE ch.

practise obstinacy; he could write Notes from Sinaior Olympus; he could remain unapproachable inthe White House or even in the Council of Tenand be safe. But if he once stepped down tothe intimate equality of the Four, the game wasevidently up.

Now it was that what I have called his theologicalor Presbyterian temperament became dangerous.Having decided that some concessions were unavoid-able, he might have sought by firmness and addressand the use of the financial power of the UnitedStates to secure as much as he could of th esubstance, even at some sacrifice of the letter. Butthe President was not capable of so clear an under-standing with himself as this implied. He was tooconscientious. Although compromises were nownecessary, he remained a man of principle and theFourteen Points a contract absolutely binding uponhim. He would do nothing that was not honourable ;he would do nothing that was not just and right;he would do nothing that was contrary to his greatprofession of faith. Thus, without any abatementof the verbal inspiration of the Fourteen Points,they became a document for gloss and interpretationand for all the intellectual apparatus of self-deception,by which, I daresay, the President's forefathers hadpersuaded themselves that the course they thoughtit necessary to take was consistent with every syllableof the Pentateuch .