II PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC REALISM 61 



display nothing better than the qualities of 

 energetic idiots, when they devoted their faculties 

 to the elucidation of problems which were to 

 them, and indeed are to us, the most serious 

 which life has to offer. Speaking for myself, 

 the longer I live the more I am disposed to 

 think that there is much less either of pure 

 folly, or of pure wickedness, in the world than is 

 commonly supposed. It may be doubted if any 

 sane man ever said to himself, " Evil, be thou my 

 good," and I have never yet had the good fortune 

 to meet with a perfect fool. When I have brought 

 to the inquiry the patience and long-suffering 

 which become a scientific investigator, the most 

 promising specimens have turned out to have a 

 good deal to say for themselves from their own 

 point of view. And, sometimes, calm reflection 

 has taught the humiliating lesson, that their 

 point of view was not so different from my own 

 as I had fondly imagined. Comprehension is 

 more than half-way to sympathy, here as else- I 

 where. 



If we turn our attention to scholastic philosophy 

 in the frame of mind suggested by these prefatory 

 remarks, it assumes a very different character from 

 that which it bears in general estimation. No 

 doubt it is surrounded by a dense thicket of 

 thorny logomachies and obscured by the dust- 

 clouds of a barbarous an d perplexing terminology. 

 But suppose that, undeterred by much grime and 



