MATURE TRUANTS 



unless the subject is passively obedient. There 

 is a profound mystery of benignity in the drugs 

 that kill, when handled by the practitioner, for in 

 his hands they kill the volition without killing 

 the patient.&quot; 



&quot; Doctor, if I had a tail I would wag it. The 

 ideal man is obviously an automaton.&quot; 



&quot; He ought to be, not statically, like a codfish, 

 but alternately, like a prophet, who bows his head 

 at times and is content to be played upon. 



&quot;It has always been the religious way of acknowl 

 edging the Not Me. It might also be the vital 

 way. Did it ever occur to you that all the mas 

 ter volitions of the world that history has made 

 us acquainted with utterly failed to accomplish 

 what they set out to do ? Take Charlemagne, 

 Bonaparte, Luther, Wesley, as examples. They 

 had one purpose. Events had another, and they 

 were swept along to a goal they never saw. On 

 the other hand, those other geniuses, Phidias, 

 Shakspere, St. Paul, who lost themselves in their 

 work, lived forever in it. Themselves from God 

 they could not free. Fancy Shakspere giving 

 such an exposition of The Tempest as Poe did 

 of c The Bells, or explaining how he formed his 

 style, as our amiable friend Stevenson has done. 

 When Shakspere, or Dante, or Isaiah executed 

 a chef d auvre, he did not explain it intellectually 

 and call himself c big Injun. Those old fellows 

 rubbed their eyes with a glad surprise and sang 

 psalms : I will show forth all Thy marvellous 

 works. I will be glad and rejoice in Thee. So 



155 



