Patriotism is a perfect example of this deliberate balancing of one emphasis against another emphasis.
The instinct of the Pagan empire would have said, "You shall all be Roman citizens, and grow alike; let the German grow less slow and reverent; the Frenchmen less experimental and swift." But the instinct of Christian Europe says, "Let the German remain slow and reverent, that the Frenchman may the more safely be swift and experimental.

We will make an equipoise out of these excesses.

The absurdity called Germany shall correct the insanity called France." Last and most important, it is exactly this which explains what is so inexplicable to all the modern critics of the history of Christianity.

I mean the monstrous wars about small points of theology, the earthquakes of emotion about a gesture or a word.

It was only a matter of an inch; but an inch is everything when you are balancing.