238 CULTURE 



the age." But if we carefully observe the origin 

 and spread of modern inventions, we shall discover 

 no trace of the general development of an in- 

 ventive spirit. Novelties owe their birth to the 

 original talents of comparatively few individuals, 

 whose ideas are adopted or may be neglected 

 by the crowd. It is as though a crop grew by 

 imitating the size of a few precocious plants. An 

 impulse to change is inherent in all mankind ; 

 but generally it is strictly shackled by the chains 

 of habit, and only becomes effective in those 

 original, or eccentric, men who are endowed with 

 a special measure of spontaneity. Some of these 

 innovators are recollected and honoured ; others 

 have been forgotten in the mist of the past, 

 amidst the distraction of wars and migrations. 

 Whether as mystics, philosophers, artists, poets 

 or mechanics, they have brought messages to 

 mankind.- Their ideas have generally been dis- 

 regarded, and they themselves have been despised 

 often indeed, like the prophets of Israel, they 

 have been cast out and stoned. They have had 

 opposed to them the prejudice of consolidated 

 habit, and, when they have moved their fellows, 

 it has been rather by the assistance of a chieftain, 

 a priest, or an advertising agency, than by the 

 intrinsic value of their ideas. But we must not 

 forget that their notions have commonly been 

 erroneous, and that society would have perished 

 had it adopted them all. We owe to inventors 

 not merely the arts and industries that adorn 

 modern life, but the wild, degrading and cruel 

 superstitions which have distorted the path of our 

 progress into labyrinthine complexity, and still 

 misguide vast numbers of mankind.- How extra- 

 vagant are the cults which within recent times 

 have been accepted by the disciples of eccentric 

 enthusiasts ! 



