Conventional and Critical Minds 26 



o 



philosopln- has practically no relation to what may be 

 considered good or bad moral conduct ; those charac- 

 terised by it live above or below or round about their 

 own moral standards in a fashion as variable as that of 

 moral philosophers. Many of the saints, ancient and 

 modern, have been notorious instances ; question them 

 as to their faith or as to the logical foundation of their 

 renunciations and they will tell you in simple honesty 

 or make it plain by their answers that they have no 

 head for logic, that they cannot argue, but onl}^ know 

 and feel their position to be true. In addition to the 

 saints, many of the best and most of the pleasant peo- 

 ple in the world are of this type. 



The type strongly in contrast with the foregoing is 

 found in persons of a more strenuous, perhaps more 

 admirable but less agreeable character. The savour of 

 acerbity may be a natural attribute of the critical char- 

 acter, and it is certainly not lessened where moral 

 philosophy is the subject-matter of the criticism. The 

 continual search after solutions of problems that may 

 be insoluble at least makes the seekers excellent judges 

 of wrong solutions. Like Luther and Loyola and 

 Kant, the}' may be able to satisfy themselves, or, like 

 Huxley, thej^ may remain in doubt, but in either case 

 they are excellent critics of the solutions of others. 

 The}' are the firebrands of faith or of negation ; thc}- 

 are possessed by an intellectual fury that will not let 

 them cease from propagandising. They must go 

 through the world as mis.sionaries ; and the missionary 

 spirit is dual, one side zealous to proclaim the new, the 

 other equally zealous to denounce the old. But theirs 

 is the great work, " to burn old falsehood bare," to tear 

 away the incrustations of time which people have come 

 to accept as the thing itself, and in their track new and 



