36 EMILE BOUTROUX 



towards its ideal form, we must exercise and 

 develop harmoniously all the faculties of man. 



But, if that is the case, is not the task which 

 a true culture implies really chimerical, and 

 is it not more practical, instead of aiming to 

 reach something sublime but inaccessible, to 

 restrict ourselves to specialization and the 

 division of labor which is the method approved 

 by human industry and by nature herself. 



Certainly the task is just now more difficult 

 than it ever was. But it has not lost its glory 

 and it is worth while not to give up the ideal 

 without having done all in our power to come 

 nearer to its realization. 



The universality whose reconciliation with 

 specialization concerns us, can be understood 

 in several ways. 



It can be defined as the possession of all the 

 knowledge and of all the talents which human 

 nature is capable of possessing. 



Now it is only too clear that, in this sense, 

 universality is an Utopia, not to say an ab- 

 surdity. A very small number of men, in 

 the past, are reputed to have united in them- 

 selves all knowledge then possessed by the na- 



