ioo With Feet to the Earth 



are apt to be, not potentially, but tempera- 

 mentally divisible as positive and negative, 

 although our classing here is arbitrary, 

 since John, negative to James, is positive 

 to Samuel. 



The positive is a daylight quality ; the 

 negative is nightly, quiet. Positive people 

 are everywhere praised and hated : they 

 work for their own good. The negative 

 work for the world's good, and may be 

 tricked. The lad of generous sentiments 

 but retiring way, unbaffled as yet by scorn, 

 not yet unstrung by the refusal of the 

 universe to answer his questions, thinks of 

 the good of all, even as incident to his 

 own happiness. He never lacks masters. 

 Napoleon is a positive type ; Christ a nega- 

 tive. We require a certain selfishness for 

 preservative purposes, but egoism is a nar- 

 row measure of a man. It is the altruistic 

 range he has that describes his largeness : 

 his loves, likes, works, and benefits. Few 

 suffice to themselves : a divine frenzy for 

 interference projects art, socialism, law, and 

 manners on the whole body of mankind ; 

 howbeit this altruism of the later centuries 



