world, it may be, intellectual, idealistic, spiritual; but
not the world of every day--the world in which the vast majority of men
have to spend fifty-two weeks of every year. Very delightful, too, is
the type of man thus produced--charmingly learned, sweetly innocent,
guileless, impracticable; walking the path of life with head in air,
with eyes unseeing and ears unhearing the things that fill the thoughts
of common men. Holding fellowship with the immortals, eating the bread
of philosophy, doctrinaire, drinking the wine of poetry--how good would
it be to live with such men if only there were nothing else to do in
this old world of ours. Dreamers of dreams; watchers of the stars;
spinners of speculative webs, in which they love to find themselves
gloriously entangled; Rip Van Winkles asleep to the actual, so wise
among books; so deliciously foolish among men and affairs--we know the
type, and we do confess we love it!

But, delightful as is this kind of scholar or preacher, he is often
far, very far, "out of it" in dealing with the needs and perils of
those around him. That was a significant passage in the will of the
South African Colossus in which, in forming a trust to administer the
scholarships he desired to found at the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge, he provided that a number of men of business should find
places upon the board, in addition to the men of learning already
nominated, as the latter were often unlearned in the ways of business.
There is a statesman in this land who has lost the headship of a great
party largely because of a confession that he does "not read the
newspapers" and is "a child in these matters." Even political parties
require something more in their chiefs than an appreciation of the
subtleties of philosophic doubt. Of course there is a place in the
scheme of things for this type of man; there is no doubt a use for him
in certain fields of thought, and it is our good fortune that plants
amongst us men who are with us, but not of us, for to our ultimate
advantage may be their sublime detachment of mind. It is here simply
pointed out that their place is not in the pulpit of a busy, perplexed
and burdened age. Their use does not lie in inspiring men to deal with
urgent practical issues. True enough, the truth they discern may be of
the highest value in the matter of leading men out to the light of day;
but it will be found that the lamp will generally have to be kindled
and