542 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



conception of life, of the arts, philosophy, and literature at once 

 set in. The authority of tradition was shaken, scientific truths 

 began gradually to take the place of revealed truths, and civiliza- 

 tion entered upon a new phase. To-day the old religious ideas 

 have lost the greater part of their empire, and for that reason 

 alone all the social institutions that rested upon them are threat- 

 ened with dissolution. 



Regarding ideas according to the importance of their working 

 rather than to their worth, we may divide them into two classes. 

 First are the great general directing and permanent ideas on 

 which an entire civilization rests the feudal and religious ideas 

 of the middle ages, for example, and certain political conceptions 

 of modern times ; and, secondly, transient and changing ideas de- 

 rived, to a certain extent perhaps, from the general ideas which 

 arise and pass away in every age. Among these are the theories 

 which guide art and literature at certain periods, such as those 

 which have produced romanticism, naturalism, mysticism, etc. 

 They are usually as superficial as the fashion, and change like it. 

 They may be compared to the minor waves that are continually 

 rising and vanishing on the surface of a river, while the funda- 

 mental ideas may be compared to the deep current that bears 

 away the waters of the same river. Of the various transient 

 ideas that arise in the course of ages, a few become in time funda- 

 mental directing ideas, but this is the result of rare combinations 

 of special conditions. 



It is as impossible to name the real creator of a great idea as 

 to point out the author of a great invention. When an idea 

 reaches the light and becomes capable of exercising influence, it 

 is, like one of the great inventions, the sum of numerous anterior 

 minor ideas. It has been subjected to long elaboration and nu- 

 merous transformations. The originators of the idea are there- 

 fore far anterior to its propagators. The brains which conceived 

 it live in regions inaccessible to the multitude. The results of 

 their thought may exercise a considerable influence in the world, 

 but they will not see it. If they were privileged to witness its 

 development, they would not be likely to recognize the fruit of 

 their meditations. From the intellectual heights whence the idea 

 usually is derived, it comes down step by step, undergoing con- 

 tinual changes and modifications, till it takes on a shape accessi- 

 ble to the popular mind, when its triumph is assured. It then 

 presents itself concentrated into a very small number of words, 

 perhaps into only one, but that word evokes striking images, and 

 consequently always impressive, whether they be seductive or 

 terrible. Such were paradise and hell in the middle ages, short 

 words that have the power of answering for everything, and to 

 simple minds explaining everything. The word socialism repre- 



