CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS KNOWERS. 35 



Beaconsfield finely said, never read. These are the 

 people who know best those things which are best 

 worth knowing — that is to say, they are the most truly 

 scientific. Unfortunately, the apparatus necessary for 

 this kind of science is so costly as to be within the 

 reach of few, involving, as it does, an experience in the 

 use of it for some preceding generations. Even those 

 who are born with the means within their reach must 

 take no less pains, and exercise no less self-control, 

 before they can attain the perfect unconscious use of 

 them, than would go to the making of a James Watt 

 or a Stephenson ; it is vain, therefore, to hope that this 

 best kind of science can ever be put within the reach 

 of the many ; nevertheless it may be safely said that 

 all the other and more generally recognised kinds of 

 science are valueless except in so far as they tend to 

 minister to this the highest kind. They have no 

 raison d'etre except so far as they tend to do away 

 with the necessity for work, and to diffuse good health, 

 and that good sense which is above self-consciousness. 

 They are to be encouraged because they have rendered 

 the most fortunate kind of modern European possible, 

 and because they tend to make possible a still more 

 fortunate kind than any now existing. But the man 

 who devotes himself to science cannot — with the rarest, 

 if any, exceptions — belong to this most fortunate class 

 himself. He occupies a lower place, both scientifically 

 and morally, for it is not possible but that his drudgery 

 should somewhat soil him both in mind and health of 

 body, or, if this be denied, surely it must let him and 

 hinder him in running the race for unconsciousness. 



