conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is a description for a book titled The fall of public man about Fall, Public with the genre: Health, Fitness & Dieting, Psychology & Counseling?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: "The Fall of Public Man" is a book in the great tradition of sociological scholarship. the author writes first of the tension between the public and private realms in which we live, arguing that different types of behavior and activity are appropriate in each. He argues that the barrier between these different realms has been eroded, and that this breakdown is so profound that public man has been left with no certain idea of his role in society. the author sees the development of the city as the single most important element of the social change he describes, and puts his argument in its historical perspective through an analysis of the changes in our built environment from the 18th century to the present day.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: the author writes first of the tension between the public and private realms in which we live, arguing that different types of behavior and activity are appropriate in each. He argues that the barrier between these different realms has been eroded, and that this breakdown is so profound that public man has been left with no certain idea of his role in society. the author sees the development of the city as the single most important element of the social change he describes, and puts his argument in its historical perspective through an analysis of the changes in our built environment from the 18th century to the present day.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the first five paragraphs for this book?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The fall of public man
  Will you permit me, in my gratitude for the kindly welcome that you once extended to me, to have a care for the glory that belongs to you, and to say to you that your star, so lucky hitherto, is threatened with the most shameful, the most ineffaceable, of stains?
  Since they have dared, I too will dare. I will tell the truth, for I have promised to tell it, if the courts, once regularly appealed to, did not bring it out fully and entirely. It is my duty to speak; I will not be an accomplice. My nights would be haunted by the specter of the innocent man, who is atoning, in a far-away country, by the most frightful of tortures, for a crime that he did not commit.
  And to you, Monsieur le Président, will I cry this truth, with all the force of an honest man's revolt. Because of your honor I am convinced that you are ignorant of it. And to whom, then, shall I denounce the malevolent gang of the really guilty, if not to you, the first magistrate of the country?
  But here is Dreyfus before the council of war. The most absolute secrecy is demanded. Had a traitor opened the frontier to the enemy in order to lead the German emperor to Notre Dame, they would not have taken stricter measures of silence and mystery. The nation is awe-struck; there are whisperings of terrible doings, of those monstrous treasons that excite the indignation of History, and naturally the nation bows. There is no punishment severe enough; it will applaud even public degradation; it will wish the guilty man to remain upon his rock of infamy, eaten by remorse. Are they real then,—these unspeakable things, these dangerous things, capable of setting Europe aflame, which they have had to bury carefully behind closed doors? No, there was nothing behind them save the romantic and mad fancies of Major du Paty de Clam. All this was done only to conceal the most ridiculous of newspaper novels. And, to assure one's self of it, one need only study attentively the indictment read before the council of war.
  These, then, Monsieur le Président, are the facts which explain how it was possible to commit a judicial error; and the moral proofs, the position of Dreyfus as a man of wealth, the absence of motive, this continual cry of innocence, complete the demonstration that he is a victim of the extraordinary fancies of Major du Paty de Clam, of his clerical surroundings, of that hunting down of the "dirty Jews" which disgraces our epoch.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is two more paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: There you have, then, Monsieur le President, the Esterhazy case,—a guilty man to be declared innocent. We can follow the beautiful business, hour by hour, for the last two months. I abridge, for this is but the resume of a story whose burning pages will some day be written at length. So we have seen General de Pellieux, and then Major Ravary, carrying on a rascally investigation whence knaves come transfigured and honest people sullied. Then they convened the council of war.
  They have rendered an iniquitous verdict which will weigh forever upon our councils of war, which will henceforth tinge with suspicion all their decrees. The first council of war may have been lacking in comprehension; the second is necessarily criminal. Its excuse, I repeat, is that the supreme chief had spoken, declaring the thing judged unassailable, sacred and superior to men, so that their inferiors could say naught to the contrary. They talk to us of the honor of the Army; they want us to love it, to respect it. Ah! certainly, yes, the Army which would rise at the first threat, which would defend French soil; that Army is the whole people, and we have for it nothing but tenderness and respect. But it is not a question of that Army, whose dignity is our special desire, in our need of justice. It is the sword that is in question; the master that they may give us tomorrow. And piously kiss the sword hilt, the god? No!
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Swap the first and the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: And piously kiss the sword hilt, the god? No!. We can follow the beautiful business, hour by hour, for the last two months. I abridge, for this is but the resume of a story whose burning pages will some day be written at length. So we have seen General de Pellieux, and then Major Ravary, carrying on a rascally investigation whence knaves come transfigured and honest people sullied. Then they convened the council of war.
  They have rendered an iniquitous verdict which will weigh forever upon our councils of war, which will henceforth tinge with suspicion all their decrees. The first council of war may have been lacking in comprehension; the second is necessarily criminal. Its excuse, I repeat, is that the supreme chief had spoken, declaring the thing judged unassailable, sacred and superior to men, so that their inferiors could say naught to the contrary. They talk to us of the honor of the Army; they want us to love it, to respect it. Ah! certainly, yes, the Army which would rise at the first threat, which would defend French soil; that Army is the whole people, and we have for it nothing but tenderness and respect. But it is not a question of that Army, whose dignity is our special desire, in our need of justice. It is the sword that is in question; the master that they may give us tomorrow.There you have, then, Monsieur le President, the Esterhazy case,—a guilty man to be declared innocent.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is the last five paragraphs?
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: I accuse the three experts in handwriting, Belhomme, Varinard, and Couard, of having made lying and fraudulent reports, unless a medical examination should declare them afflicted with diseases of the eye and of the mind.
  I accuse, finally, the first council of war of having violated the law by condemning an accused person on the strength of a secret document, and I accuse the second council of war of having covered this illegality, in obedience to orders, in committing in its turn the judicial crime of knowingly acquitting a guilty man.
  In preferring these charges, I am not unaware that I lay myself liable under Articles 30 and 31 of the press law of July 29,1881 which punishes defamation. And it is wilfully that I expose myself thereto.
  As for the people whom I accuse, I do not know them, I have never seen them, I entertain against them no feeling of revenge or hatred. They are to me simple entities, spirits of social ill-doing. And the act that I perform here is nothing but a revolutionary measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice.
  I have but one passion, the passion for the light, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much, and which is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my soul. Let them dare, then, to bring me into the Assize Court, and let the investigation take place in the open day.