SHAKESPEARE AND PSYCHOGNOSIS 235 



Rachel weeping for her children, the king crying "My son, my son," 

 who urge on the New Atlantis, reahze Utopia, found universities. 



6. The Motij of Genius in Service. — The relation of Ariel to Prosper© 

 is a symbol of the relation of geniuses, of the advanced and enlightened, 

 to the general welfare of society. For example, is a great artist to be 

 regarded as quite above the ordinary laws and standards of his environ- 

 ment — a law unto himself, a superman or Uebermensch, free to work or 

 play, free to paint any and everything that pleases his imagination, free 

 to disregard the humdrum virtues and aspirations of the dreary com- 

 monplace hordes of the PhiHstines ? Is art its own end, and truest to 

 itself when it bloweth where it listeth ? Certainly, to oppose this view 

 is to incur the disdain of many a fiery imagination which sees in this 

 heresy nothing but defective vision, utterly prosaic, incompetent to 

 judge what is not really comprehended. Read the claims of Zarathus- 

 tra, or of Max Stimer, and of their many disciples; some, sincere and 

 able ; most, frothy and weakly. Of course, the artist is only an example. 

 Imagination and power, as Ribot has so brilliantly shown, are not 

 confined to art, but are foimd equally, or even in greater intensity, in 

 war and statesmanship, in science and philosophy, in invention and 

 engineering. There is a fountain of growth and playfulness in men and 

 women of genius which keeps them exposed to the caprices of adoles- 

 cence, and prevents them from settling in stable habits, often during the 

 whole period of hfe. Are we to regard this as a justification of lawless- 

 ness, or merely, in the old-fashioned way, as a palHation or excuse. 



On closer reflection the problem seems well-nigh insoluble. It must 

 never be forgotten by the moralist that the poet — that is, the man or 

 woman of imagination, the maker — was bom "in a golden chme." 



The poet has proven a thousand times that he knows more than the 

 common-sense of the race believes. Poetry is closely analogous to faith. 

 It is the nature of poetry to make dreams which time turns to common- 

 place reahties. By poetry Copernicus recreated the heavens for us; 

 by poetry Columbus failed to reach India and landed at San Salvador; 

 by poetry Rontgen saw through opaque coverings ; by poetry Hampden 

 and Mirabeau and Jefferson brought liberty and democracy back to 

 earth. How dare we then put habit, even good habit, even the best 



