304 LIFE AND HABIT. 



taken all possible pains as regards anything which I 

 thought could materially affect the argument one way 

 or another. 



It may be said that I have fallen between two stools, 

 and that the subject is one which, in my hands, has 

 shown neither artistic nor scientific value. This would 

 be serious. To fall between two stools, and to be 

 hanged for a lamb, are the two crimes which 



" Nor gods, nor men, nor any schools allow." 



Of the latter, I go in but little danger ; about the 

 former, I shall know better when the public have 

 enlightened me. 



The practical value of the views here advanced (if 

 they be admitted as true at all) would appear to be not 

 inconsiderable, alike as regards politics or the well- 

 being of the community, and medicine which deals with 

 that of the individual. In the first case we see the 

 rationale of compromise, and the equal folly of making 

 experiments upon too large a scale, and of not making 

 them at all. We see that new ideas cannot be fused 

 with old, save gradually and by patiently leading up to 

 them in such a way as to admit of a sense of continued 

 identity between the old and the new. This should 

 teach us moderation. For even though nature wishes 

 to travel in a certain direction, she insists on being 

 allowed to take her own time ; she will not be hurried, 

 and will cull a creature out even more surely for fore- 

 stalling her wishes too readily, than for lagging a little 

 behind them. So the greatest musicians, painters, and 

 poets owe their greatness rather to their fusion and as- 



