1 2 Heredity, Variation and Genius 



random, really an illusive joy and knowledge 

 which is seen to be of no value, perhaps to be 

 absurd nonsense, on being brought to the test 

 of waking reason ? Or may the dream-illumina- 

 tion itself perchance be, as once reckoned, the 

 divinely vouchsafed vision of a superior spiritual 

 insight ?* 



A notable fact is that the transport of being 

 is a condition of things which can be more or less 

 actively excited in a suitable temperament by 

 such material means as alcohol, opium, and in an 

 infinitely expansive manner sometimes by the 

 inhalation of nitrous oxide gas. One reason in- 

 deed why mankind show themselves inveterately 

 prone to the use of alcohol or opium or like- 

 acting drugs all the world over is that these 

 substances exalt the self to a sense of power and 

 feeling of beatitude, delivering it from the bonds 

 and pains of the actual environment, and thus 

 translate the finite real of adaptation into the 

 unlimited ideal of desire. Pathological the ex- 

 travagant exaltation certainly sometimes is : no- 

 where is exultant optimism and inflamed sense 

 of happiness more marked than in the extra- 

 ordinary elation of feeling and self - confident 

 audacity of sanguine thought and enterprize— 



* "And yet, as angels in some brighter dreams 



Call to the soul when man doth sleep, 

 So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes, 

 And into glory peep." 



Henry Vaughan. 



