184 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



tion ? And most of what goes forth from the press is 

 not worthy of even that name, or is information which 

 a man had better be without. We are proud of being 

 a nation of readers. And reading is good, if a man 

 thinks about what he reads ; otherwise it is like undi- 

 gested food in the stomach, an injury and a curse. A 

 dyspeptic gourmand is helped by " cutting down his 

 rations." In our mental disease we need the same 

 course of treatment. Let us read fewer books and 

 papers and think more about what we do read. 



Society may foster original thinking ; it is none the 

 less opposed to it. 



" Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look, 

 He thinks too much ; such men are dangerous." 



This is the motto of all great parties in Church and 

 State. Still social life has undoubtedly fostered thought. 

 We think vastly more and better than primitive man ; 

 still we have much to learn. Society puts the experi- 

 ence of centuries at the service of every individual. 

 Poor and unsatisfactory as are our modes of education, 

 they are a great blessing intellectually and will become 

 more helpful. And, after all, the friction of mind 

 against mind in social life provided social intercourse 

 is this, and not the commingling of two vacua is a 

 continual education of inestimable advantage. And 

 all these advantages would without language have been 

 absolutely impossible. Intellectually our debt to so- 

 ciety is inestimable. 



And how does social life aid man morally ? I can- 

 not help believing that primitive society was the first 

 school of the human conscience. It was a rude school, 

 but it taught man some grand lessons. 



