250 THE SCIENCE OF POWER 



mental mistake made by the leaders of the in- 

 tellectual movement which has pursued its course 

 in the Western world since the Reformation has 

 consisted in this. In identifying the progress of 

 the world with the development in history of the 

 rationalizing process of mind they have miscon- 

 ceived the basis of Power in civilization. Power 

 in civilization rests ultimately on knowledge which 

 is conveyed through emotion and not through 

 the reasoning processes of mind. 



There is a remarkable passage in the literature 

 of the West, in which the blinding light of this 

 conclusion and its bearing is seen as it first flashes 

 on the mind of one of the leading rationalists of 

 our time. In an essay on the influence of the 

 ethic of renunciation as it has been the inspiration 

 of conduct in the great religions, Karl Pearson 

 finds himself towards the conclusion of his argument 

 facing this position. " A predisposition or a pre- 

 judice having absolutely no rational basis may," 

 so he puts it, " have a social value and tend to 

 preserve an individual or a group of individuals 

 in the struggle for existence. Do we not here/' 

 so he ponders, " catch a glimpse of how a nearly 

 universal predisposition may exist without our 

 being able to give it a rational basis ? " l The en- 



1 Ethic of Free Thought. 



