66 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



It is clear that the intellectual presentation of 

 the ideas requires three classes of workers. We 

 need a class of prophets who shall be susceptible 

 to the ideas as they slowly emerge from the 

 ground of the unconscious. We need phil- 

 osophers and men of letters to connect them with 

 the principles generally accepted by society. 

 And we need men of science and observation, to 

 trace the results of their working in history and 

 in the human world around. 



After all the great task is to persuade the 

 people. In our days, whether for good or for 

 evil, whether we like it or not, democracy has be- 

 come more and more the ruling power. Even a 

 Caesar cannot move in any direction against the 

 grain of his people's will. Nor can an aristocracy 

 retain the direction of affairs, unless it can per- 

 suade the many that it rules for the general good. 

 The counting of heads to save, as Bentham said, 

 the trouble of breaking them, is the final test in 

 all practical matters. This being a fixed point, 

 let us consider how the working of ideas, which is 

 to the community what the circulation of the 

 blood is to an individual body, finds course or 

 hindrance among us. 



We need not greatly concern ourselves about 

 the prophets. They are, so to speak, the super- 

 natural element. Their advent cannot be pro- 

 cured or foretold any more than can the weather 

 of a week hence. There will always be prophets, 

 some true and some false, claiming to be heard : 



