USEFUL AND USELESS FAILURE 341 



there are errors, on the other hand, which, though Book iv 

 it may be necessary to refute them because they 

 have imposed themselves on a number of ignorant 

 people, do nothing to advance the discovery of truth 

 whatever, and the activity of those who originate 

 them is altogether mischievous. Thus whilst the 

 reasonings of heretical thinkers like Arius, by the 

 controversy they provoked, were very largely in- 

 strumental in advancing orthodox theology to really 

 logical completeness, the philosophy of religion owes 

 absolutely nothing to Joanna Southcott or the 

 American prophet Harris. Accordingly, whilst it is But there are 



.. , . , .. i . ,. . abortive talents 



impossible to say with precision where the line is which produce 

 to be drawn between the exceptional talents which, |JSj?So 

 if developed, would be of use in the progressive rela c " on to 

 struggle and those which are so defective that These talents 



i n 111 i i are purely 



their influences would be merely mischievous, it is mischievous ; 

 obvious that talent of this latter kind is sufficiently 

 plentiful to render its development dangerous. 



History teems with examples of this fact, and so for example 



,, . i r i i r i ^e failures of 



do the unwritten annals ot the social hie around us. thewouid-be 

 Henri Murger in his studies of Bohemian Paris ar 

 bears eloquent witness to the tragic absurdity of the 

 results caused by the development of imperfect 

 artistic talent, and the miserable endings of men 

 who, if they had not tried to be artists, might have 

 lived and thriven as honest and healthy ouvriers ; 

 whilst, according as we hold vaccination to be a 

 blessing to the world or a curse, we must necessarily 

 hold that it would have been far better for everybody or that of the 



* man who 



if the talents of the men who invented it, or else popularises 



