230 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



being, is like wealth in one respect : it is not character 

 and can be used for good or evil. If my neighbor 

 uses his greater knowledge as a means of overreach- 

 ing us all, it injures us and ruins him. 



Our emotions, and this is but another word for our 

 motives, stand far nearer to the centre of life ; for 

 they control our conduct and directly determine what 

 we are. Knowledge of environment is good, but 

 of what real and permanent use is such knowledge 

 without conformity ? Our real weakness is not our 

 ignorance ; we know the good, but lack the will and 

 purpose to live it out. And this is because the thought 

 of truth and goodness excites no such strength of feel- 

 ing as that of some lower gratification. We cannot 

 perhaps overrate the value of intellect; we certainly 

 underrate the value of emotion and feeling. " Knowl- 

 edge puffeth up, love buildeth." It does not require 

 great intellect, it does require intense feeling to be a 

 hero. We slander the emotions by calling people 

 emotional because they are always talking about their 

 feelings ; but deep feeling is always silent. It is not 

 fashionable to feel deeply, and we are dwarfed by this 

 conventionality. We have almost ceased to wonder, 

 and hence we have almost ceased to learn ; for the 

 wise old Greeks knew that wonder is the mother of 

 wisdom. 



The man of the future will probably be a man of 

 strong appetites, for he will be healthy ; he will be 

 prudent, because wise ; but he will hold his appetites 

 well in leash. He will trample upon mere prudential 

 considerations at the call of truth or right. For in 

 him these highest motives will be absolute monarchs, 

 and they are the only motives which can enable a man 



