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One aside: The people would not believe that the plague
was hitting them. For one thing, it seemed so unreal, so
stupid, like wars. They felt as if it was a war or a
plague that would surely be short, because nobody would ever
want to get involved in a long seige. This was long in
terms of plagues, it started in April and ended in about
February the next year.
There were all sorts of people. The main characters
became very saintly in this thing. But they were certainly
not in the majority, because most people were not able to
cope with it, as is so true in our everyday life. On page
97 we read that as things were, such influence is unavailing.
For the most part the people there were men with well-defined
and sound ideas on everything concerning exports, banking,
and the fruit or wine trade. And we go on to quote thay and
wind up by saying "what struck one most was the excellence
of the men's intentions, but as regards the plague, their
competence was practically nil." And it's this situation
that we find so many times, where we have people who are
so competent in everyday life, but when they meet the
unexpected, the unpredicted, particularly the distressing
and disaster. Among these people, often from the ranks
of the less promising, come those philosophers, those men
of good will, those men of great insight, men of moral
strength, men of compassion and leadership, which carry the
day. Of course, here we have the usual big dealers. Rambert
was his name. He didn't belong here, his wife was up in Paris,

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