258 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



himself, and has an absolute delight in despising the thoughts 

 of others." We can all admit the truth of that, even those 

 of us who are mainly " autodidacts." But the clinching plea 

 follows : " It is among these self-taught men that we find 

 those vigorous spirits who venture boldly beyond the domain 

 of human science, and extend its frontier." 



One might suppose that this fact, not difficult to prove 

 from history, would decide. But no : the mediocre mass 

 lifts up its idol of numbers : " Ten times more numerous, I 

 am told, are the pretenders to originality whom we save from 

 themselves by discipline, than the true geniuses whose wings 

 we clip." The murder is out : precisely there is the root- 

 fallacy on which the Cult of Incompetence is reared : and 

 should the edifice show sign of buckling, it is patched up with 

 sentimental philanthropy. The mass declares that quantity 

 is everything, and quality little or nothing. Yet, as a matter 

 of fact, it is, all down the ages, the quality, the fine spiritual, 

 moral, intellectual, imaginative quality of the few which has 

 pioneered, created, imagined for that vast unoriginal herd 

 who, whatever their diurnal utilit}', are not constructive, and 

 who, without such leaders, could hardly have emerged even 

 yet from primitive precariousness and discomfort. M. Faguet's 

 conclusion is lit and edged with wit. Will those on whom lies 

 the burden of conceiving political and social arrangements on 

 which Europe's future depends consider his verdict ? It 

 may have some savour of pungent wit, it may even show a 

 trace of that disdain which thwarted ability sometimes feels 

 towards massive dulness : but beyond and above these venial 

 errors, it proclaims a truth vital to Europe's future efficiency : 

 " Je reponds qu'en choses intellectuelles les questions de 

 chiffres ne comptent pas. Un esprit original etouffe est une 

 perte qui n'est pas compensee par dix sots preserves d'etre 

 ultra-sots. Un esprit original laisse libre de l'etre vaut mieux 

 que dix sots a moitie contenus et reprimes." 



Though M. Faguet adds one more chapter, " The Dream " 

 — his hope for the future — yet the real gravamen of his book 

 is here : here is the final condemnation of the Cult of Incom- 

 petence, here the irrefragable charter of Efficiency : " en choses 

 intellectuelles les questions de chiffres ne comptent pas." 

 How true it is that in everything, everywhere, quality, not 

 quantity,lis the summum bonum. The critics may chafe as 



