,,proteus ,,to-,,day ,,and ,,to-,,morrow ,,series ,d,,dalus1 or ,science and the ,future ,by ,j4 ,b4 ,s4 ,haldane ,,icarus1 or ,the ,future of ,science ,by the ,hon4 ,bertrand ,russell1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,,the ,,mongol ,,in ,,our ,,midst ,by ,f4 ,g4 ,crookshank1 ,m4,d4 ,fully ,illustrated ,,wireless ,,possibilities ,by ,prof4 ,a4 ,m4 ,low4 ,with four ,diagrams ,,narcissus1 or ,an ,anatomy of ,clothes ,by ,gerald ,heard4 ,illustrated ,,tantalus1 or ,the ,future of ,man ,by ,f4 ,c4 ,s4 ,schiller ,,the ,,passing ,,of ,,the ,,phantoms ,by ,prof4 ,c4 ,j4 ,patten1 ,m4,a41 ,m4,d41 ,sc4,d41 ,f4,r4,a4,i4 ,,callinicus1 ,a ,defense of ,chemical ,warfare ,by ,j4 ,b4 ,s4 ,haldane ,,quo ,,vadimus8 ,some ,glimpses of the ,future ,by ,e4 ,e4 ,fournier d',albe1 ,d4,sc41 ,f4,inst4,p4 ,,the ,,conquest ,,of ,,cancer ,by ,h4 ,w4 ,s4 ,wright1 ,m4,s41 ,f4,r4,c4,s4 ,,hypatia1 or ,woman and ,knowledge ,by ,dora ,russell 7,the ,hon4 ,mrs4 ,bertrand ,russell7 ,,lysistrata1 or ,woman's ,future and ,future ,woman ,by ,a4 ,m4 ,ludovici ,,what ,i ,,believe ,by the ,hon4 ,bertrand ,russell1 ,f4,r4,s4 ,,perseus1 or ,of ,dragons ,by ,h4 ,f4 ,scott ,stokes1 ,m4,a4 ,,the ,,future ,,of ,,sex ,by ,rebecca ,west ,,the ,,evocation ,,of ,,genius ,by ,alan ,porter ,,aesculapius1 or ,disease and ,the ,man ,by ,f4 ,g4 ,crookshank1 ,m4,d4 ,,proteus1 or ,the ,future of ,intelligence ,by ,vernon ,lee ,other ,volumes in ,preparation ,e4 ,p4 ,,dutton ,,company ,,proteus ,,or ,,the ,,future ,,of ,,intelligence ,,by ,,vernon ,,lee1 ,,litt4,d4 ,author of ,vital ,lies1 ,satan the ,waster1 ,the ,handling of ,words1 etc4 ,illustration ,new ,york ,e4 ,p4 ,,dutton ,,company #fha ,fifth ,avenue ,copyright #aibe ,by ,e4 ,p4 ,dutton ,company ,all ,rights ,reserved ,printed in the ,united ,states of ,america ,to my dear friend ,,bella ,,duffy with thanks for a lifetime of intelligent talk4 #ahhj-aibe ,,table ,,of ,,contents ,,chapter ,,page ,i ,,intelligence ,,and ,,proteus #a ,,ii ,,proteus ,,and ,,ethics #be ,,iii ,,proteus ,,and ,,sthetics #ch ,,iv ,,proteus ,,and ,,intellectual ,,manners #db ,v ,,uses ,,and ,,abuses #ej ,,proteus ,,or ,,the ,,future ,,of ,,intelligence ,i ,,intelligence ,,and ,,proteus ,there seems not to exist a wordfor words are old while meanings may be newwhich answers exactly to what ,i shall speak of as ,intelligence4 ,but space being short for what has to be said1 ,i will not waste any in preliminary definitions4 ,that which ,i mean by ,intelligence will become evident by what ,i expect from its presence and attribute to its absence4 ,i start from the assumption that it already exists1 however insufficiently2 and ,i deduce from what it has done that its nature is to intensify and extend4 ,whether this will be witnessed in the near future1 or whether it may be checked by adverse circumstances1 is no concern of mine4 ,writers of this series1 and several others besides1 have enlarged on the political and economic contingencies to which ,intelligence1 or persons presumed to have it1 seem likely to be exposed4 ,whether ,intelligence may become the weapon of a dominant caste1 as was the hope of ,comte1 of ,renan1 and1 at one moment1 of ,mr4 ,h4 ,g4 ,wells2 or whether1 as proposed by ,m4 ,charles ,maurras1 ,intelligence shall be honoured with a subordinate function in some sort of ,fascist ,state1 ,i am inadequate to judge4 ,nor do ,i even feel certain that history has shown1 or economic theory demonstrated1 that ,intelligence can be bullied or starved out of existence4 ,meanwhile let me confess that what ,i have to say about the ,future of ,intelligence is the expression as much of my hopes as of my convictions1 both1 however1 arising from a longish experience of changes already brought about1 and changes beginning to be brought about1 by the particular1 and perhaps rather modern1 something ,i mean by ,intelligence4 ,what ,i mean1 and what1 under restriction to that meaning1 appears to me likely or desirable4 ,by underlining these personal pronouns1 ,i am able to forestall the mention of one great change which ,intelligence is already initiating1 namely1 the recognition and avowal that what one thinks 7as distinguished from what primers1 manuals and other authorities have taught one to believe7 iswell1 just what one does think1 and neither the consensus of human opinion nor the revelation of the ,deity's irrefragable truth4 ,returning to the word ,intelligence1 the meaning ,i attach to it will become sooner obvious by clearing away some misconceptions thereof which may occur to my reader4 ,and first3 ,the ,intelligence whose future interests me is not the same thing as the ,intelligentsia4 ,those of us who belong to that class presumably possess ,intelligence1 since we live1 or try to live1 by its exercise4 ,but it is no monopoly of ours1 nor do we always employ it in the manner which answers to my meaning4 ,for living on or by its employment may1 as is often seen among men of science and philosophers1 result in their capital of natural ,intelligence being sunk in a few enterprises of especial value1 leaving them1 as in the notorious case of ,dr4 ,faust1 but a scanty balance for current use and pleasure4 ,i have brought in the word pleasure because the pleasantness of its varied exercise is one of the chief characteristics of what ,i mean by ,intelligence1 fostering that nimbleness1 elasticity1 hence also pervasiveness1 which makes it a chief factor of human progress1 as well as one of progressive mankind's indisputable marks and unalienable rewards4 ,now these same pleasant properties1 so often sacrificed by very studious persons1 turn ,intelligence into the stock-in-trade 7eked out with plentiful surrogates7 of that other branch of the ,intelligentsia1 those who make a livelihood by living down to their readers1 relieving their boredom1 lapping their thick skins in sentimentality1 and keeping up the sooty flame of their collective passions2 for alas1 the ,man of ,letters is tempted to serve his public not merely as an unconsidered jester but as a respected moral guide4 ,thus it comes about that we of the ,intelligentsia cannot stand as faultless specimens of ,intelligence4 ,besides1 our facility for self-expression and our habit of holding forth unchecked combine to exaggerate1 stereotype and warp our best ideas3 only think of ,carlyle and ,ruskin1 let alone ,tolstoy and ,nietzsche6 ,having so far established what ,i do not mean by ,intelligence1 and before entering on discussion of ,intelligence's future achievements1 it seems fitting to say a word or two about ,proteus1 to whom this little treatise is consecrated4 ,it is so1 ,i confess1 partly because ,i am attracted by the classical titles1 ,ddalus1 ,icarus1 ,tantalus1 of my predecessors1 and then because1 as described by ,virgil1 ,proteus is to me one of the most engaging figures of mythology3 444 8,ille1 suae contra non immemor artis1 omnia transformat sese in miracula rerum1 ignemque1 horribilem feram1 fluviumque liquentem44440 ,but here again ,i must forestall another wrong identification likely to jump into the reader's mind3 to wit1 of ,proteus with ,intelligence4 ,on the contrary3 ,proteus1 multiform and ever-elusive1 represents that which ,intelligence 7lighter equipped than specialized ,intellect for such rapid hunts7 can sometimes catch sight of and1 for however brief a contact1 sometimes even clutch4 ,proteus1 in my mythology1 is the mysterious whole which we know must exist1 but know not how to descry3 ,reality4 ,for1 whatever else we may believe it to be1 ,reality when thus partially revealed1 is never twice the same4 ,nor merely because of what we call waxing and waning1 growth and decay1 and whatever other phases of individual and racial transformation biology has made us superficially familiar with4 ,there may well be some outside and irrespective of our thoughts2 indeed1 it may have been in miming the universal flux that our thoughts themselves have grown protean4 ,look1 for instance1 at that strange 7well named auxiliary7 verb whereby we testify belief in reality1 esse1 to be2 which holds in its emptiness the possibility of all qualities and happenings and implies in its assertion of mere blank existence the assurance of continual change3 a future and past4 ,for1 whenever we speak of what we call a thing1 its mere name1 like the name of ,virgil's ,proteus1 is a spell making us witness aspect after aspect1 take stock of relation after relation1 admit likelihood after likelihood4 ,and our belief in that thing's reality1 in its being that thing and no other1 means that it has had a certain1 however unknown2 past1 and will have a more or less certain future4 ,in this sense ,reality1 the fact of aspects perceived1 remembered and expected in regularly connected sequences and combinations1 that is what ,i mean by ,proteus4 ,maybe that ,proteus does not change at all except in our narrow1 and shifting1 field of vision4 ,maybe that the multiform ,virgilian ,proteus might turn out to undergo but one first and last transformation1 into that great auxiliary esse1 to be1 holding in its stark emptiness all that1 for us1 is things and happenings4444 ,such a transcendent and sole real ,reality ,i leave to metaphysicians1 not without wondering secretly whence1 save from occasional experience of this 7to them7 unreal ,proteus1 they ever got to think about ,reality at all4 ,so1 dealing in this shallow treatise solely with such 7even if spurious7 ,reality as ,proteus represents1 ,i need now only justify my outrageous claim that mere ,intelligence can have any privileged intercourse therewith4 ,my ground for saying so is that specialized intellect screws its marvellous lenses down on only a single1 and singled out1 aspect of ,reality2 employs subtle reagents revealing only the properties for which they have been devised4 ,moreover1 that the world of regular1 foretellable sequences which science constructs is a map teaching us why to turn to the right or the left1 but not a moving slice of the landscape we are moving in4 ,instead of which mere ,intelligence1 with its rule-of-thumb logic and well-nigh automatic movements1 may be fairly fitted1 not indeed to inventory and schedule separate items of ,proteus' multifold embodiments1 but to keep us aware that ,proteus is there at that eternal game of his3 changing his aspects perpetually1 whether you watch him or not1 nay1 changing aspect by the very fact of your watching him4 ,this may suggest that ,intelligence is never at rest2 and no more it is4 ,but its movements being responsive to what strikes it from outside1 are1 just as the outside's own ways1 orderly1 and such as organize themselves into regular rhythms of sameness and diversity4 ,for ,proteus is absolutely unexpected only to persons like ,virgil's ,aristus who1 you must remember1 was so hide-bound in his business of honey-making 7alter one letter1 you won't alter my meaning67 as to be wholly unaware that his own caddish behaviour had occasioned the death of ,eurydice and so remarkable an event as the ,descent of ,orpheus into ,hell4 ,practical people like that are nearly always astonished and dismayed when confronted with ,proteus2 8they had forgotten44440 ,now ,intelligence is as much memory as perception2 and for it there is always in the transformations it is watching something familiar which carries it back to what it has already witnessed1 and forwards1 expectantly1 to something it may be going to witness4 ,hence to ,intelligence there is never mere repetition1 just as there is never utter novelty4 ,and its frequent doubts are always conditioned by its habitual beliefs4 ,that explains why ,intelligence is so chock-full of prejudices1 as all those are aware who have ever asked it to accept miracles and ghosts on their testimony or on someone else's authority4 ,such people exclaim at the sceptic's blindness to evidence1 because they do not know that doubting and even denying are part of ,intelligence's active rhythm of grasping and acquiescing2 a process of assimilation and elimination in which the already experienced and accepted selects that which shall be accepted or rejected4 ,moreover1 such selective action often expresses itself in the most impertinent 7because most pertinent7 queries1 as3 8,now how would you explain that80 8,in what sense are you using that word80 etc41 etc41 etc4 ,queries1 all of them1 which in their exasperating amateurishness have probably done more than the elaborate arguments of specialized ,intellect to shoo away some of the many ,chimras1 ,entities1 and ,essences1 which1 as ,rabelais already remarked1 had gone on bombinating in vacuo through the resounding spaciousness of philosophy and science1 leaving behind only the fainter buzz of ,historical and ,economic ,laws1 ,entelechies1 ,teleologies and ,vital ,elans4 ,it was1 ,i take it1 ,intelligence which first scoffed in ,molire's play at opium's ,virtus ,dormitiva4444 ,at this point a parenthesis must be opened on account of a reader asking1 not impertinently1 whether what ,i have been talking of under the name of ,intelligence is not plain ,common ,sense4 ,yes2 but also ,no4 ,since1 on behalf of practicality1 ,common ,sense usually warns us off from just such questions as ,intelligence should deal with4 ,so one might say that ,intelligence is a kind of ,common ,sense1 but applied to uncommon 7not common or garden67 subjects1 and as yet1 alas1 only by rather uncommon people4 ,if ,proteus be taken to represent that ,reality which all save metaphysicians believe to be real1 he represents especially that half of it which ,i have 7elsewhere7 called ,otherness1 that is to say1 whatever is not ourself4 ,and just as the essential1 unshareable ourself is what we feel1 to wit3 moods1 passions1 efforts1 hope and fear1 liking and disliking2 so the not-ourself 7other persons as well as other things1 and even our own personalities when viewed as if they were not our own7the ,otherness in short1 is1 on the contrary1 seen1 because it is outside us4 ,seen by the mental eye of ,intelligence1 which1 like the bodily one1 moves in every direction and focuses to all distances1 thereby informing us of the proportions and relations of whatever is not ourself1 and following step by step the actions which are not our own4 ,and though it must borrow the lenses of ,science 7which centuries of thinkers cut and polished7 before it can know things in their microscopic detail or their astronomical remoteness1 yet with no aid save everyday experience1 ,intelligence suffices to teach us the most important and most overlooked fact concerning that ,reality which is ,otherness3 namely1 that it has ways of its own and does not exist merely to suit our likings4 ,the habit of taking 8otherness0 into account1 and a wider and wider circle thereof1 might serve as a rough test of ,intelligence and of its progress3 young children1 as is notorious1 referring everything to themselves2 and 8uneducated0 people1 from the narrowness of their knowledge1 rarely conceiving anything beyond their own personal experience4 ,at the risk of incurring the same criticism1 ,i hazard my own impression that the dominance of possessive pronouns1 the restriction of interest to one's own history and circle of acquaintances1 has become less usual among 8educated0 persons4 ,similarly1 that there is getting to be something rather old-fashioned about settling general questions on the strength of single personal experiences4 ,except where strong likes and dislikes come into play1 it is rarer than formerly to hear 7shall we say87 divorce condemned because of the sad case of ,mrs4 ,blank2 or the eight-hours day rejected on account of last harvest having been soaked2 or the practical utility of a classical education justified by the career of ,mr4 ,gladstone4 ,modes of thought like this seem to be 7slowly67 disappearing in the wake of the anecdote-mongering and epigram-and-joke button-holing of ancient bores who may have been brilliant conversationalists at ,meredithian dinner-tables4 ,and when one thinks of it3 was not such the substance of much of our grandparents' wit and wisdom8 ,nay1 a little further back did not 8gentlemen0 ask the ladies riddles after themselves exchanging smutty ,joe ,millers over their wine8 ,and behold6 there opens up a vista of euphuism1 of pedantic discussions1 of 8sonnet1 c'est un sonnet10 of 8delici eruditorum10 and 8faceti02 boredom incalculable back through ,htels de ,rambouillets and ,medicean academies to ,courts of ,love and the stale scurrilities of ,shakespearian clowns4444 ,nay1 was not ,shakespeare himself ready to adorn with supremest poetry and philosophy stories often preposterously cock-and-bull8 ,which makes one suspect that ,intelligence1 in the sense in which ,i have been using the word1 is of amazingly recent growth2 and that the people of the past1 superior though they may have been in genius1 wit1 humour1 and even wisdom1 would have struck us 7and we shall doubtless strike future generations7 as decidedly stupid4 ,for instance 7returning to ,proteus671 in their capacity of thinking in terms of change4 ,this seems an intrinsic part of thinking in terms of otherness2 yet1 as1 a fact1 it dates only from the days of ,montesquieu1 ,voltaire1 ,gibbon and ,condorcet4 ,this last name brings home that until the eighteenth century the only ,future which people thought about was the ,future in ,heaven or ,hell4 ,the importance of the latter alternative explains quite sufficiently why no interest was left over for any other after-life1 to wit1 that of unborn generations4 ,indeed1 the sway of religious conceptions accounts also for our ancestors having been no less cut off from the ,past and replacing it 7as their painters dressed ,abraham or ,csar in ,renaissance costume7 by the ,present4 ,for all religion tends to think sub specie ternitatis1 as of the god who is sacrificed afresh at every celebration1 and who consecrates the routine of the seasons and the seasonal monotony of agriculture and pastoral life2 whence1 no doubt1 the persistence of the amazing fallacy that there is nothing new under the sun1 with its corollary that there ought to be nothing not old4 ,whence also the double superstition 7till ,science broke in with something different67 of chewing and rechewing the cud of ,scripture and the ,classics4 ,with1 in turn1 the practical results that ,milton's ,puritans modelled themselves on ,joshua and ,gideon2 and frilled and waistcoated ,french ,revolutionaries postured as heroes of ,plutarch4 ,why1 at this very moment do we not see the rods and axes of antique hangmen figuring 7not merely in figurative manner67 as emblems of post-war ,italy1 itself identified 7to the neglect of schools and irrigation works7 with a particularly high and palmy ,rome8 ,rome6 to rule which squalid medival village ,dante called on a ,csar who was a ,kaiser elected by ,german feudatories2 ,rome1 which we may take as a reductio ad absurdum of the refusal to realize that ,past is ,past and ,present is ,present4 ,which is perhaps the only 8,lesson of ,history02 and whose application would dissolve many mythical alloys of conflicting nations welded together by the passionate white-heat of a name3 ,england1 ,france1 ,america1 ,christianity1 and nowadays1 ,i fear1 also ,socialism1 nations1 and creeds concerning which1 when asked for our allegiance1 we have need to inquire3 ,in which of its phases1 which of its characteristics and embodiments8 ,for ,intelligence warns us that we are dealing with ,proteus1 with him of ceaseless change4 ,not with the eternal1 immutable divinities to whom our forebears brought their sometimes quaint and lovely1 but1 quite as often1 obscene and grisly oblations4 ,but while ignoring distinctions between ,past and ,present1 even our nearer ancestors conducted much of their thinking in elaborate water-tight compartments2 for they conceived of 8,truth0 as a battleship1 continually exposed to the murderous broadsides of 8,error40 ,of these hermetic partitions1 say1 between ,faith and ,reason1 ,body and ,soul1 or ,good and ,evil1 ,intelligence has already rammed in a number1 without drowning us4 ,error itself has lost its capital ,e1 being usually called ,mistake4 ,and1 what is more important1 we have begun to notice that it and ,truth are not at all irreconcilable1 but cradled originally together1 and sometimes intermarrying1 with mixed or alternating generations1 as by ,mendelian rules2 but very rarely1 either ,truth or ,error1 affording us a pure breed4 ,these examples will have justified1 ,i trust1 my contention that ,intelligence is specially fitted to deal with ,change4 ,not to praise or blame it after mature deliberation1 like solemn and sedentary ,reason2 still less to filter concrete realities into immutable1 because purely abstract1 entities1 which is the business of scientific thought2 but just to perceive change on its passage and in so far help us to make the best of its coming4 ,need one add that ,intelligence is far more liable to mistakes than either 8,reason0 or 8,logic08 ,but its mistakes1 though so much more numerous1 are1 methinks1 less massively enthroned and less likely to block the way than theirs1 for there is something self-satisfied and without appeal about 8,reason0 and 8,logic03 does not the one issue 8dictates0 and the other enunciate 8laws08 ,whereas the mistakes which ,intelligence commits to-day1 it will1 in its light-hearted way1 correct to-morrow1 being as little ashamed of revokes as its disconcerting friend ,proteus is of transformations4 ,of course1 ,intelligence is rather irresponsible and1 one might add1 cannot help being so because it is essentially responsive4 ,like the human eye 7to which ,i have compared it7 ,intelligence turns to whichever side the light comes from1 adjusting itself1 in discursive1 often desultory fashion1 to all manner of directions and distances1 comparing and measuring with unabashed slovenliness1 extracting the qualities which strike it and hastening on to connect them with something it was struck by before4 ,being thus rapidly responsive1 ,intelligence may often1 ,i admit1 seem on the pounce1 and more so than politeness warrants4 ,but it can also take its time1 poise circling round and round1 and reverse its movement1 because it is never motionless and always able to readjust its balance4 ,such do ,i see ,intelligence in those who possess it2 such do ,i feel it1 on some delightful occasions1 in myself4 ,such also ,i frequently notice it failing to make itself agreeable to some kinds of persons4 ,those who take a just pride in ,reason or ,logic are often a little ruffled2 or else1 as ,wagner said of ,mozart1 they find ,intelligence just a little frivol4 ,but in the long run they recognize an ally2 and their conscious superiority makes them indulgent4 ,not so with people,i might have said ,peopleswho happen to be indulging in the glorious unimpeded violence of collective passions1 specially those which are magnanimous and cruel1 as1 for instance1 in war time1 when a conscientious objector may come off better than an intelligent one4 ,in like fashion ,intelligence's passionate pleasure in dealing with ,otherness and in looking out for ,proteus1 ,intelligence's frequent indifference to here and now1 disrespect to self and refusal to regard means as endsall this renders it unpopular with those practical-minded men who are bent on personal advantage and on outstripping competitors in the great race to ,nowhere4 ,these acute persons are quite aware that ,intelligence might make an invaluable slave1 only you cannot keep its nose1 with any regularity1 to the grindstone4 ,in default of such practical usefulness it may be worth hiring1 as one buys a yacht or an old master1 for a mark of wealth and being in the know4 ,but let us have none of your whys and wherefores6 ,besides1 the ,rulers of ,men have by this time mostly recognized that ,intelligence is harder to deal with than any number of ,high ,principles1 for you cannot hope to bamboozle it into serving you unawares4 ,but ,intelligence1 though thus in some quarters deservedly unpopular is adored by all who have it2 and that is the reason why1 once it has got a footing in the world1 it is bound to increase and multiply and eventually conquer its promised land4 ,,ii ,,proteus ,,and ,,ethics ,i have just come across a passage from ,huxley's famous ,romanes ,lecture1 read thirty years ago and long since forgotten2 and which has brought home to me all our elusive ,proteus has been doing in the domain of ethics2 moreover the share of ,intelligence in confirming those changes4 ,huxley is pointing out a fact which he finds disconcerting1 namely1 8that ethical nature1 while born of cosmic nature1 is necessarily at enmity with its parent40 ,the allusion to the harmony reigning in ,victorian families may make one smile1 like some well-bred ,du ,maurier illustration4 ,but how those words bring back what some of us are old enough to have suffered in days when ,free ,thought drew a terrifying line between religious dogmas and moral ones1 clinging to these to steady itself after jettisoning the others6 ,one's youthful deistic anguish 7as cruel1 perhaps1 as any believer's sense of ,god's forsaking him7 at discarding ,god for insufficient morality1 was merely transferred to one's terms with ,huxley's ogre ,cosmos1 devouring the moral instincts itself had begotten4 ,occupied as my studies then were with art-history1 ,i can remember wrestling with the horrid inconsistency of the art of ,michael ,angelo and ,rafael having arisen in a civilization described by ,taine as partaking of the brothel and the cut-throat's den4 ,and ,i remember the heavenly relief of hitting on the notion that1 since such art is not born in a day1 it must have been begotten and incubated during the ,franciscan ,age1 immune from all ,borgian infections4 ,of course1 the generation immediately younger than mine was taught by ,nietzsche that ,michael ,angelo's greatness was1 on the contrary1 due to presiding ,renaissance villainy2 but that pseudo-,nietzschian generation is1 in its turn1 superannuated1 and the cult of immoralism along with it4 ,not only because paradoxes do not bear repetition1 but for another reason which that quotation from ,huxley has made me realize4 ,namely1 that we have left off thinking of art as either moral or immoral1 simply because morality no longer holds the same place in our thoughts as1 say1 in those of ,ruskin1 ,george ,eliot1 or1 as that quotation shows1 even in those of ,huxley4 ,not the same 7if one may say so1 ubiquitous7 place2 a place more clearly defined1 but only the more important1 ever since ,intelligence1 ferreting about among ,golden ,boughs1 ,religion of the ,semites1 and similar books1 has quietly stripped from our moral valuations that half-supernatural1 half-sthetic halo which is but the shrunken religious involucrum wherein they came into the world4 ,the 8problem of evil0 has already become the problem not of its toleration by ,god1 but of its diminution by ,man4 ,that is the great change we are still witnessing2 a change1 ,i cannot but think1 greater than any brought about by the material applications of science1 and implying a deliverance from individual suffering not less than that we owe to ,pasteur and to ,lister4 ,whether we notice it or not1 ,morality is already taking a new status1 independent alike of an absentee 7or absent7 ,deity1 and of an indifferent ,cosmos4 ,but its new domain1 narrow and self-governing1 essentially sui generis1 has sanctions and imperatives only the stronger for being man-made and man-regarding4 ,and1 one may add1 only the more austerely binding on the present that we shall recognize them as different from those of the ,past and different1 no doubt1 from those into which the ,future will transform them4 ,thus we are already conceiving of punishment only as a mechanism1 successful or not1 for social defence4 ,and we scarcely ever hear more than the last echo of those incentives to virtue and deterrents from vice of the ,sandford and ,merton type of my own childhood's copybooks4 ,still less of the ,stoical1 and 7alas67 ,platonic mendacities about remorse torturing evil-doers1 and the unhappy life of ,browning's ,instans ,tyrannus with his 8,then ,i was afraid40 ,neither do we talk any longer of the virtuous glows which 7failing the increase of flocks and herds67 used to reward the virtuous acts of the generation adorned by ,butler's ,mr4 ,pontifex4 ,we are getting to think of our own virtues1 supposing we have any1 as conducive not to our own advantage but to that of other folk4 ,consonantly with the psychologist's recognition that1 of the two polar feelings determining human action1 the 7positive7 attraction of pleasure is far less potent than the 7negative7 repulsion of pain1 it seems as if our future ethics would emphasize not good actions but bad ones4 ,that will be following up the rule-of-thumb wisdom of the ,commandments1 of which the surviving ones are all 8thou shalt not02 the positive ones about loving ,god and honouring ,father and ,mother having become either difficult to enforce or optional4 ,i am glad of that word optional1 because it leads to the remark that ,intelligence is surely abolishing that neutral territory whence 8good actions0 can issue at 8good0 people's good pleasure and as an expression of their goodness1 but which no one has a right to insist upon2 indeed1 which they have a perfect right to withhold1 since they are patted on the back for doing them1 or have their hands kissed1 as children were taught to kiss those of the 8revered author of their being40 ,i expect that before so very long ,intelligence may bluntly suggest that if the action1 whatever it happen to be1 is really good1 that must mean that it is really needed2 and if it is really needed1 your fellow men can claim it and oblige you to claim it from your unwilling self4 ,and to dishonour that claim may become in their eyes 7mirrored in your own71 mean1 disgraceful1 dirty4 ,in the language of contemporary youth1 it will not be decent4#a ,that substitution of the word decency for the word virtue gives1 methinks1 the clue to the future revaluation of our moral standards4 ,it implies1 as ,i have suggested1 a more intelligent and1 in some ways1 more indulgent1 morality2 but a morality on the whole more austere1 a stark notion of duty armed with the relentless imperative which nowadays makes us abashed at the revelation in ourself of physical cowardice or bodily dirtiness4 ,a morality1 ,i venture to add1 eventually able to do without the adornments coming under the head of 8,moral ,beauty40 #a 8,no1 we may not be as moral as they 7i4e4 the older generation7 are1 but we are fifty times decenter40,g4 ,b4 ,stern1 ,tents of ,israel1 #aibd2 p4 #bdd4 ,and1 speaking of a future standard of 8decency10 there will necessarily come sundry revaluations quite intolerable to our present morality4 ,i will not speak 7since far too much is nowadays being spoken concerning what1 after all1 is but a small part of conduct7 about such revaluations of sexual morals as ,ddalus prognosticates from transplantation of ovaries4 ,that1 and coming facilitations for changing one's sex1 cannot1 indeed1 fail to modify family arrangements2 although ,i have greater belief in the effects of future methods of producing and exchanging1 not offspring1 but other commodities1 and the consequent alteration in our tenure and conception of property4 ,indissoluble marriage1 which already strikes some of us as scarcely decent1 will lose its practical utility once inheritance is more or less abolished1 and the subsistence and education of children no longer a charge on parents4 ,nor is this all3 a more restricted practice and therefore habitual notion of ownership may at some distant day educate men and women1 parents and children1 lovers and friends1 nay1 masters and disciples1 to admit ,proteus even into the impregnable stronghold and inviolable sanctuary of human selfishness called ,love4 ,the 8marriage of true minds0 may1 like the other one1 come to be supplemented by honourable divorce4 ,exclusive reciprocal attachment1 surely of all spiritual essences the most delicate1 if not most volatile1 may cease to be regarded as an inalienable piece of property1 guaranteed by honour more terrible than law2 and which1 while all else 7and ourselves most67 alters and shifts1 cannot be altered and shifted without guilt of theft4 ,there may come an end to the ideal of such fidelity as implies the claim of him or her once preferred to be preferred for ever2 the duty also of continuing to prefer once having begun4 ,like much of the morality of a more intelligent age1 8decent0 behaviour in matters of sentiment will be based less upon an ought than an is4 ,and ,i can conceive that such a change may make love's tenure less insecure and less routinish and perfunctory4 ,it will1 at least1 save one of the finest kinds of happiness 7and the multiplying factor of many other ones7 not indeed from the passing misery of change1 but from the ignominy of claimed or accepted sacrifice1 and the cruel pollution of jealousy1 not between lovers only1 but between all who love4 ,and when there shall be applied to love the solemn saying 8the ,lord giveth and the ,lord taketh away0 we may learn to temper our loss by the intenser gratitude for whatever1 even if only for a time1 has been ours4 ,as with fidelity in love1 so also with 8loyalty0 to persons1 even to causes and ideas4 ,but such1 too often degrading1 loyalty will1 ,i imagine1 be more than compensated for by the condemnation of a new sin against the ,holy ,ghost1 and by insistence on a minimum 7at least67 of consistency in one's own ideas and a minimum of conformity between one's judgment of others and one's judgment of oneself3 the mote in one's brother's eye awakening the suspicion of the beam in one's own4 ,at the same time 7which is not our time671 and as ,intelligence takes on a leading part in morals1 there will come the indulgent recognition that such a 8decency0 as we may exact 7or try to exact7 from ourselves1 cannot1 any more than personal cleanliness in our own day1 be exacted from all our neighbours4 ,it may take a good many transformations of ,proteus before the mote can always be removed from our brother's eye1 even supposing the beam to have been taken away from our own4 ,it is no easy matter to be always clean inside and out1 especially when1 like the little boy in ,stevenson's rhyme1 8your dear ,papa is poor10 poor in spirit1 perchance one of a long line of moral paupers4 ,neither is 8decency0 always attainable where there has been no past charwoman to prepare your easy tidiness at expense of previous dirty hands4 ,still less when1 as nowadays1 wallowing in excess or in cruelty is the only excitement many people can get out of life4 ,hence it may be a long while yet before the bare decencies of the spirit1 even if recognized for such1 can lose the value of rarity and the status of virtues4 ,for1 let us remember that1 the fouler mankind's surroundings and sores1 the greater the need for incense and myrrh and even for the questionable odour of sanctity4 ,is not early ,christianity's1 say ,st4 ,paul's1 insistence on chastity and mansuetude the expression of the otherwise inexpressible bestiality1 cruelty1 and vaingloriousness of decadent ,rome8 ,and what is the foolish ,franciscan laudation of beggary save the measure of medival rapine and simony8 ,so1 for the time being and the world as it may1 alas6 long continue1 mankind will need something besides a taste for moral decency1 to wit1 an admiration for generous1 nay1 quixotic impulses and for tender sensibilities4 ,these ,intelligence1 respectful towards the need for them1 can neither create1 nor1 except by negative measures1 even increase4 ,but it can do something as necessary4 ,intelligence1 and only ,intelligence1 can see to it that1 even to-day1 such rare and precious impulses and sensibilities be not diverted to evil results1 wasted in barren self-sacrifice1 or the fostering of hide-bound selfishness4 ,wasted1 above all1 in hecatombs to the ,molochs of collective superstition1 like the one which is only just over1 and may begin again to-morrow4 ,,iii ,,proteus ,,and ,,sthetics 8,if there be any truth in these forecasts of what your fine ,intelligence may bring about or justify in the domain of ethics1 then0 7it's a certain kind of reader interrupting71 8then may ,i never enter1 nay1 cast a glance into this detestable world of rationalized righteousness6 ,human do you call it1 because you have made it godless8 ,what is this ,intelligence of yours worth if it fails to perceive that ,god exists because ,man has need of ,him2 and that the true mission of virtue1 of truth1 of heroism1 is not to make the world more endurable1 but to satisfy our deepest human craving1 that for greater harmony and loveliness1 for deeper1 steadier passion than otherwise life affords80 ,my answer is that such a craving will become stronger1 or at least wider-spread1 in proportion as mankind grows more intelligent1 therefore less exhausted by struggling against adverse circumstances1 inbred defects and inherited superstitions4 ,in proportion1 likewise1 as it will have learned to value its own virtues as they can minister to man's prosperity and betterment4 ,nay1 more3 the time will come when we shall turn with disgust and wrath at their cultivation for any other purpose2 and when pleasure in virtue and in heroism for its own sake may come to be accounted so much sthetic dilettantism1 questionable and well-nigh obsolete4 ,for with the orientation of morals towards human usefulness1 towards dutifulness conceived as decency1 people will get to understand that what man craves for as consolation and enhancement1 the passion deeper and steadier1 the harmony more complete than real life furnishes1 ,man creates for himself in poetry and art1 and in the things of reality seen as poetry and art4 ,in all this he has made himself a realm where truth is never betrayed1 because in its sheer existence true and false become words without a meaning2 moreover1 where the deepest and highest passions are satisfied without being misapplied or wasted1 because satisfied by their mere expression4 ,art and whatever the poor word ,art may stand foris the man-made sanctuary of the legitimate1 the innocent1 the immaculately decent1 because it is closed to the shifting needs1 the partial truths1 above all1 the mine and thine1 which trouble real life4 ,this1 in its way1 is also a realm of otherness1 inasmuch as it transcends the self with its here and its now4 ,yet an otherwise not merely recognized by ,intelligence1 but made by the heart's desire out of the heart's own substance and in desire's own shape2 for of such are the forms of the painter and sculptor1 no less than the counterfeit presentments of the poet4 ,above all1 in the twin arts of architecture and of music do we already meet the clarified embodiment of the longing and clinging1 the solemn appeasement and victorious stress and fulfilment of human passion4 ,here1 in art's interludes of life1 we can obtain what religious creeds lay open to the reproach of being false because they give it for true2 and what love seeks to make unchanging1 only to taste the bitterness of change4 ,so that many as have been and will be the successive responses to our sthetic cravings1 the manifold satisfactions thereof1 embodying as they do the purified essence of our feelings and activities1 will1 in the endless shifting of our valuations1 perhaps constitute the one region where we need not be watching for ,proteus4 ,,iv ,,proteus ,,and ,,intellectual ,,manners ,though many other causes will bring about such moral revaluations as ,i have mentioned1 ,intelligence will play its part in justifying them4 ,but ,intelligence will itself effectuate great changes1 methinks1 in the minor moral realm of intellectual manners4 ,for instance1 proscribing perfunctoriness2 making us ashamed1 which we are not1 of offering in the guise of opinion much which we know to be stop-gap and shoddy4 ,the condemnation of perfunctoriness will lead to discarding heckler's tricks and dialectic pit-falls like that concerning the future status of the widow of seven successive husbands1 wherewith the ,sadducees1 though disbelieving in any after-life at all1 tried to trip up ,jesus4 ,his answer3 that there would be neither marrying nor giving in marriage1 may stand as the typical silencer to many queries with which debaters embarrass each other without advancing a step in the inquiry4 ,for instance3 8then1 what do you propose to do80 ,well6 we may be intelligent enough to know that in nine cases out of ten there is nothing to propose4 ,since the more habitually we get to regard the ,future as resulting from the ,present and the ,present from the ,past1 the more often we must admit that we know too little of the hidden ,past1 and less of the fleeting ,present1 to make sure what new combinations1 including reciprocal neutralizations1 are preparing to arise4 ,the oftener we have watched the ,old ,man ,proteus1 the less1 perhaps1 our cocksureness about his next metamorphosis4 ,or1 take another question which intellectual good breeding will refrain from because ,intelligence foresees no answer3 8,in that case1 what will you put in its place80 ,it being1 let us say1 indissoluble marriage1 exclusive private ownership1 war 7you remember ,william ,james was1 shortly before #aiad1 looking out for a surrogate67 or even what used to be called ,god1 but may now be thankful when philosophers 7like ,mr4 ,lloyd ,morgan7 allow it merely adjectival rank as 8,deity40 ,how do you know that it1 whatever it is1 will leave a place8 ,do we not daily see that1 when things vanish1 their place 7place in the world1 in our thoughts1 and also1 in our hearts67 are apt to vanish along with them and be forgotten8 ,and among such things as may some day vanish and be forgotten there will1 ,i trust1 be the dialectic ju-jitsu which makes many pages even of ,plato such dreary reading4 ,lacking1 as the world then did1 all discipline of experimental science1 such acrobatics may have afforded an indispensable training to logical thought1 and a preparation for that latest-comer of all intellectual habits3 care for the exact sense in which a word is being employed4 ,apart1 however1 from this1 controversy of this kind has but a personal value1 adding nothing to knowledge1 just as nothing is added to wealth when one gamester loses money to another3 the personal value of downing an adversary and magnifying oneself by mere comparison1 which may be reckoned in some distant ,future an intellectual entertainment fit for cads4 ,such are a few of the improvements one might foresee in our intellectual manners4 ,allied with these is one which appertains to our intellectual morals4 ,in another book#b ,i have written at some length against the survival of the lawyer's and politician's arts of ,persuasion1 and of the priestly arts of ,exhortation and ,denunciation1 both sets of them intended to influence men to think1 feel and act differently from how they would otherwise do1 but in compliance with the persuasive person's wishes4 ,some day or other such attempts may be accounted impertinent where they fail1 and dishonest where they succeed2 they and the sway of words should constitute a chapter of intellectual morals4 #b ,the ,handling of ,words4 ,returning to mere intellectual manners1 ,i think intellectual prize fights1 duels and vendettas1 such as wasted half the life of the greatest intellects from ,ablard to ,samuel ,butler1 are a little going out of fashion1 like the quarrels for precedence we read about in ,herbert of ,cherbury and such-like3 they stop the traffic1 make a noise and1 after a minute1 bore us6 ,moreover1 ,i fancy ,i see a reason why1 let alone mere spectators of such frays1 even those who might have been principals in them will refrain and call them ill-mannered4 ,i mean that1 as people grow more intelligent1 or more people grow intelligent at all1 we shall discover other opportunities for exercising intellectual energy and for obtaining the thrill and uplift of intellectual prowess4 ,there will appear other adversaries to wrestle with and circumvent3 ,things1 ,reasons why1 the ,universe's riddles2 not any longer mere other people trying to make us write ourselves down asses as we try to make them4 ,the finest sport in all the world is hunting ,proteus4444 ,nor will ,i let myself be heckled with the objection that joys like these are reserved for minds like yours and mine1 dear reader1 minds ,creative4444 ,as if books1 pictures1 policies1 opinions1 etc41 etc41 were created ex nihilo1 obeying that august fiat which evolutional philosophy has filched from the old ,creator of all things to bestow on every member of the ,intelligentsia4 ,no1 no1 the joys ,i speak of are unprofessional4 ,and the chief creative joy is that of understanding and appreciating2 say the joy of every deserving reader outrunning the straight path of the writer in circles like those of a dog pleased to be taken a walk4 ,amateurishness6 ,i can hear those of you pshah6 and tosh6 who believe in training the 7involuntary7 attention and who value work less by results than by efforts4 ,amateurish8 ,why1 of course1 that's just the fun and the good of it4 ,also the unsought moral gain4 ,for1 are we not made more 8decent0 by these private1 irresponsible dealings with the ,unknown 7at least to us72 for instance1 those secret inaccurate guesses at geological and historical riddles which make up half the pleasure of a journey8 ,since these amateurish stalkings of ,proteus attain an attractiveness such that personal controversy seems insipid or odious by comparison4 ,i have had the good fortune once or twice1 even in an old-fashioned lifetime1 to witness the full flowering of such selfless intellectual happiness3 to watch a mind so passionately interested in certain subjects as to care nothing whether the enchanting new ideas were its own or other folks'2 nay1 whether its own were by them confirmed or utterly demolished4 ,i have seen that unusual spectacle1 but once or twice only4 ,for ,intelligence has yet to establish its claim to such generous happiness4 ,once or twice only4 ,but never more clearly have ,i seen it than in you1 ,mario ,calderoni1 dear dead young friend1 who have embodied my hopes for the ,intelligence of a distant ,future1 when you will not have received a posthumous recognition and ,i may be entirely forgotten4 ,v ,,uses ,,and ,,abuses ,considering the great pleasantness1 let alone the various uses1 of the mental habits ,i have summed up as ,intelligence1 it is surprising there should not yet be more of it forthcoming4 ,it has1 at present1 a way of giving out suddenly in individuals and nations1 just when its mixture of light-hearted scepticism and steady hopefulness would seem most needed4 ,by which inadequacy of its supply ,i am confirmed in the suspicion that ,intelligence is a much more recent human accomplishment than the ,past's other achievements in art and poetry and wit and humour would lead us to expect4 ,indeed1 the deserved prestige of that ,past1 and the consequent survival of its educational and religious traditions and institutions1 is very likely what has so strangely delayed the advent of modern ,intelligence4 ,and it is their dwindling1 itself partly attributable to nascent ,intelligence1 which has delivered our intellectual activities from sundry blind alleys and sloughs of despond1 like those presided over by the terrible1 and most unintelligent1 word ,salvation4 ,for ,intelligence1 one of whose virtues is abolishing ,fear1 is itself stifled by the obsession of danger in this world or the next3 are we not seeing the most naturally intelligent of all countries fallen into incredible self-defeating stupidity through its present mania for 8,security08 ,it is1 of course1 evident that1 apart from the decay of religious and classical superstition1 the growth of ,intelligence in our own days has been enormously fostered by increase both of scientific knowledge and of civic liberty1 and also1 as far as it goes1 of well-being2 also of opportunities for variety of impression at least for the well-to-do classes4 ,and one hopes there may be other kinds of yet unforeseen novelties coming to ,intelligence's assistance in the ,future4 ,yet1 the chief obstacles once removed1 my hope is chiefly in what one might call ,intelligence's own natural proliferation4 ,one intelligent mode of thought inevitably leads to another1 and puts out of action an unintelligent one4 ,every intelligent book adds1 let us hope1 to the intelligence of at least one reader2 so that we could almost do without the tremendous launchings-forth of the great challengers1 ,ruskin1 ,tolstoy1 ,ibsen1 ,nietzsche2 even of the more purely beneficent 7because lighter-hearted7 stirrers-up of thought like ,bernard ,shaw4 ,believing1 therefore1 in such spontaneous multiplication of ,intelligence1 ,i do not find much use for the methods1 whereof that one is but an extreme example which is attributed to the late ,dr4 ,metchnikoff1 proposing 7it is said7 to increase the output of genius by judicious doses of syphilitic virus4 ,surely1 the supply of raw genius would be fairly adequate if only we could put it to the best use8 ,and the best use of genius is not1 in my opinion1 the practical application of science to methods of reciprocal slaughter and devastation4 ,nor even its application to easier locomotion1 intercourse and the cheapening of food1 heat and light1 except to the extent which would secure more health1 more leisure and more opportunity all round2 certainly at present not the case4 ,and1 speaking for myself1 the best use of genius and the most necessary application of science1 seems to be teaching people what ,descartes called 7whatever his precise meaning7 the mthode de bien conduire son esprit2 at least to the slight degree of not letting obsolete shibboleths and new-fangled catchwords carry us1 as they did ten years ago1 headlong into the disasters we were trying to avoid4 ,the next best thing to be done with our existing supply of genius might be to train it to check1 by application of common sense and a little modesty1 certain ailments inherent in its own constitution1 namely3 exaggeration1 contrariness and1 of course1 megalomania4 ,such self-purification1 on the part of persons of genius or what passes for such1 would save the rest of us the disheartening task of throwing half of their sayings onto the scrap-heap1 and of picking out of the scrap-heap some of the sayings of rival persons of genius consigned thereunto at their bidding4 ,there is quite enough to be done in the way of selection1 assimilation and elimination 7since all understanding means that7 without setting such ,intelligence as we have to play scavenger to wasteful or slatternly genius4444 ,and yet1 and yet4444 ,may not those trashinesses of genius1 and the scavengering entailed thereby1 be that which secures to ,intelligence its highest activities1 and in so far fulfils one of ,genius's chief missions8 ,for1 after all1 ,intelligence is the living1 changing mass of unprofessional thought1 the averaged1 habitual thought of the majority of us4 ,and is not the chief use of all such genius as is not set aside in science or in art1 rather to make the rest of us think1 than to furnish us with ready-made thoughts1 however true or sublime8 ,nay1 ,i would hazard the supposition that it was because the men of the ,past were presented with such a mass of ready-made thoughts1 creeds1 philosophies1 and moral formul 7think of ,deuteronomy67 all given for perfect and definitively valid1 that there did not appear till so late in the day just what ,i have called ,intelligence1 which alone could give that without which the greatest genius is solitary and barren3 an audience1 a reader1 a mind able to carry on the thinking and1 in so far1 able to eliminate the deciduous1 the rubbishy elements of the thought already offered to it4 ,the consideration of this loss which mankind may have suffered through the notion that thoughts must be accepted ready-made rather than transformed into one's own1 and that1 consequently1 men must be set apart to do the thinking 7as the priests once did the praying and sacrificing7 for others2 this consideration is at the bottom of my present hatred of the idea 7which ,i shared in my youth7 that exceptionally gifted persons should consecrate themselves into a caste1 ministers1 maybe1 of a new religion1 chosen vessels for a new-fangled deity4 ,and since we are discussing the reciprocal uses of ,genius and of mere ,intelligence 7,genius ever stimulating ,intelligence1 ,intelligence ever keeping ,genius within the bounds of sense and of decency71 allow me to set my face against all those oligarchies of genius and virtue which every ,utopian philosopher from ,plato to ,comte1 from ,renan to ,h4 ,g4 ,wells1 has wanted to foist on dull1 driven ,mankind4 ,and let us take to heart the reductio ad absurdum of all such schemes in the latest and hugest joke of our one great laughing philosopher1 when he shows us the world governed by bald1 toothless and passionless sages1 who1 even without having reached the years of ,methuselah1 have long survived the age when every decent person should retire to his or her coffin4 ,and before leaving the subject of the services 7sometimes scarcely desired7 which ,genius may need at the humble hands of ,intelligence1 let me point out how our men of genius or thereabouts 78,creative ,intellects0 is the official expression7 have latterly taken over one of the most remunerative and mischievous employments of all obsolete priesthoods1 to wit3 of frightening believers with bogies of their manufacture4 ,for1 just as the ,torments of ,hell and the ,pitfalls of ,sin formerly supplied matter for all the learning and eloquence of centuries of ,divines1 so nowadays encyclopdic science and journalistic emphasis are being applied to making our flesh creep with prophecies of ,perils4 ,there is ,peril from black1 brown1 yellow races2 from ,semites1 ,mongols1 ,latins 7in 8,nordic0 countries71 ,teutons 7in ,latin countries71 ,celts all over ,anglo-,saxondom1 ,jews throughout the globe2 ,bolsheviks1 ,fascists and ,junkers1 ,international ,communism and ,international ,finance1 ,militarism which was put an end to by the ,war1 besides our old friends ,jesuits and ,freemasons4 ,there is ,peril from the multiplication of ,idiots and the multiplication of ,supermen2 ,peril from depopulation and ,peril from overpopulation1 from unsexed women and over-sexed women2 ,peril from over-much altruism1 and ,peril from insufficient altruism4 ,perils which ,i cannot even remember1 but by whose side those of ,war1 ,pestilence and ,famine are1 of course1 too familiar to be noticed4 ,indeed1 it is characteristic of this latter-day apocalypse that none of the prophets of disaster prophesied the ,war and the ,fruits of ,victory1 except1 if ,i remember correctly1 ,mr4 ,h4 ,g4 ,wells1 who1 however1 once the ,war had been declared1 enlisted at once for the ,fleet ,street ,front and bid us unsheath the ,sword of ,peace for the final extermination of ,militarism4444 ,therefore1 it strikes me that in view of this multifold reincarnation of the spirit of prophecy in our ,men of ,science and of ,letters1 some increase of ,intelligence may well be needed to steady our nerves and allow us to recognize the real dangers of which1 heaven knows1 there are plenty requiring to be faced with 444 well1 the far-too-little ,intelligence already at our disposal4 ,for1 possibly because it is not 8creative0 7and creation usually implies chaos and refuse-heaps71 ,intelligence is especially preservative and sheltering4 ,it is the natural purifier and tidier-up where ,genius and ,stupidity1 disrupting and corrupting by turns1 have between them played the deuce with our poor mortal heritage4 ,and in the face of the millionfold sacrifices of self and others which ,ideals and ,heroisms have once again presented to our foolish admiration1 ,i would go so far as to add that ,intelligence is often more humane than ,sentiment1 and1 oftener still1 more beneficent than what we call ,virtue4 ,from the misapplications of our ,science1 the exaggerations and lunacies of our ,genius1 and the havoc wrought by our higher instincts1 we therefore need to be saved1 not by ,reason1 which is always too long in getting under weigh1 but by ,intelligence1 active1 alacritous and ubiquitous1 afraid neither of being laughed at nor of laughing at others4444 ,but even as ,i stammer out this old-fashioned demand for ,salvation1 the name of ,proteus sounds suddenly in the ear of my spirit4 ,how can ,i tell what ,proteus may next beperhaps already ischanging into8 ,and after prating about ,intelligence being one-half light-hearted scepticism and one-half steady confidence1 am ,i going to join the mixed choir1 ecstatic or growling1 of prophesying optimists and pessimists8 ,but1 though restrained by that thought of ,proteus and his frequently inconsiderate metamorphoses1 ,i should like to add a word on one question regarding the near future of ,intelligence1 but with the understanding that ,i do so not as a prophet of what may happen1 so much as a witness of half a century's already accomplished changes4 ,the question1 or rather query1 has doubtless occurred to some of my readers1 and is as follows3 ,granted that ,intelligence rids us of dangerous superstitions1 and rids us1 moreover1 of the habit of superstition1 which is a matter less of what than of how one believes2 granted that along with lucidity ,intelligence brings also intellectual equity1 cleanness and dignity2 granted all this1 may not such gains be paid for in disproportionate loss8 ,and may not ,intelligence itself constitute a danger8 ,has it not already begun despoiling life of many of the shelters built by the ,ages with unknowing or inspired hands8 ,worse still3 will it not replace with its narrow and wavering lucidity those dark unquestioning instincts and aspirations1 lurking ever ready in the obscure organization and the mysterious formul inherited from our remotest ancestors8 ,to this ,i would answer that1 so far as my observation tells me1 the soul will always find some shape and some material wherein to build1 or to restore1 the shelters needed in its moments of weariness and sorrow1 there to await the consolation which no creed seems to bring without the supreme aid of time4 ,on the other hand1 that the instinctive part of our nature1 when it is truly instinctive1 can surely be trusted to keep itself alive in the face of the 7alas67 inevitably feeble imperatives of such new-comers as ,reason and ,intelligence4 ,moreover1 that all the sciences dealing with man point to the fact that traditional commandments and1 even more1 physiologically transmitted tendencies1 have constituted themselves as responses to changing environments and needs1 so that their transformation may be expected as a result of the very movement of things which has produced them4 ,and1 finally1 ,i would add that1 even if all this were doubtful1 we must accept the risks which the coming of ,intelligence may entail upon us1 because 7so at least appears evident to me7 whatever sets-back and temporary overwhelmings it may suffer in the future1 ,intelligence is of such nature that1 once come1 it must develop1 or at least bide its time and revive in as yet unforeseeable manner4 ,and ,intelligence itself must prepare us to expect that every change may mean a loss1 but likewise mean an opportunity4 ,perhaps it may even sometimes show us how the one can turn into the other2 for does not ,intelligence keep an eye on ,proteus8 ,,finis4 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,a ,table of ,contents has been provided for the convenience of the reader1 and is granted to the public domain4 ,text in italics is enclosed by underscores 7italics74 ,punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected4