COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



to ensure a permanent supply of first-rate in- 

 dividual excellence, whether in intellect or in 

 character, there must be perpetual variation, 

 — the members of the community must not 

 all conform to precisely the same standard of 

 belief or action. It is not simply that out of 

 the conflict of opinions there comes an increase 

 of mental power, but it is that where absolute 

 uniformity of opinion is enforced, the very in- 

 dividuals most capable of serving the commu- 

 nity by reason of superior mental power are 

 neglected, thwarted, or killed off. The truth is 

 not yet wholly trite that the most valuable men 

 of every age are its heretics. For this truth is 

 obscured by the kindred truth that the heresy 

 of one age is the orthodoxy of the next, — so 

 that complacent orthodoxy, ignoring the histor- 

 ical point of view, is wont to claim as its allies to- 

 day the very men whom it burnt or crucified in 

 days gone by. Obviously it is in the nature of 

 things that this should be so. If old-established 

 ideas were never to be unsettled, new truths 

 would cease to find recognition, and progress 

 would be at an end. But in any age the dis- 

 coverers and promulgators of new truths are 

 to be found only among those who possess the 

 superior mental flexibility requisite for shaking 

 themselves loose from the network of old- 

 established ideas. And wherever there is such 

 mental flexibility, there is sure to be heresy. 

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