THE STABILITY OF TRUTH. 359 



at large that fools find it safe to defy them. Those who 

 take dreams for realities ; those whose memory impres- 

 sions and motor dreams are uncontrolled through de- 

 fective will; those who mistake subjective sensations 

 produced by disease or disorder for ob- 

 The recrudes- jective conditions — all these sooner or 



cence o later drop out of existence, taking with 



superstition. *^ , , • -iT 



them the whole line of their possible suc- 

 cessors. The condition of mind which is favourable to 

 mysticism, superstition, and reverie, is unfavorable to 

 life, and the continuance of such condition leads to 

 death. On the billboard across the street (in Oakland, 

 California) I see the advertisement of a lecture on 

 "The Ethical Value of Living in Two Worlds at Once." 

 Whoever thus lives in two worlds is certain soon to 

 prove inadequate for either. 



If all men sought healing from the blessed handker- 

 chief of the lunatic, or from contact with old bones or 

 old clothes; if all physicians used " re- 

 Life based on ^q^Iq^ remedies," or the remedies " Na- 



.,, ture finds " for each disease ; if all busi- 



ulusions. ' 



ness were conducted by faith ; if all 

 supposed " natural rights " of man were recognised in 

 legislation, the insecurity of these beliefs would speedily 

 appear. Not only civilization but civilized man himself 

 would vanish from the earth. The safe shelter of the 

 cave and hollow tree would be the cradle of the " new 

 man" and the "new woman." The long and bloody 

 road of progress through fool-killing would for centu- 

 ries be traversed again. That is strong which endures. 

 Might does not make right, but that which is right will 

 justify itself by becoming might. What we call social 

 virtues are the elements of race stability. 



So closely is knowledge linked to action, that in gen- 

 eral among animals and men sensation is absent or not 



