moments of the French Revolution the fate of the people was in
the hands of philosophers of none too mean an order. It cannot be
denied, however, that in our time the habits of the thinker have
undergone a great change. He has ceased to be speculative or Utopian;
he is no longer exclusively intuitive. In politics as in literature,
in philosophy as in all the sciences, he displays less imagination, but
his powers as an observer have grown. He inclines rather to
concentrate his attention on the thing that is, to study it and strive
at its organisation, than to precede it, or to endeavour to create what
is not yet, or never shall be. And therefore he may possibly have some
claim to more authoritative utterance; nor would so much danger attend
his more direct intervention. It must be admitted, however, that there
is no greater likelihood now than in former times of such intervention
being permitted him. Nay, there is less, perhaps; for having become
more circumspect and less blinded by narrow convictions, he will be
less audacious, less imperious, and less impatient. And yet it is
possible that, finding himself in natural sympathy with the species
which he is content merely to observe, he will by slow degrees acquire
more and more influence; so that here again, in ultimate analysis, it
is the species that will be right, the species that will decide: for it
will have guided him who observes it, and therefore, in following him
whom it has guided, it will truly only be following its own
unconscious, formless desires, which shall have been expressed by him,
and by him brought into light.

34

Until such time as the species shall discover the new and needful
experiment--and this it will quickly do when the danger becomes more
acute; nay, for all we know, the expedient may have already been found,
and, entirely unsuspected of us, be already transforming part of our
destinies--until such time, while bound to act in external matters as
though our brothers' salvation depended entirely on our exertions, it
is open to us, no less than to the sages of old, to retire occasionally
within ourselves. We in our turn shall perhaps find there "one of
those things" of which the contemplation shall suffice to bring us
instantaneous enjoyment, if not of the perfect calm, at least of an
indestructible hope. Though nature appear unjust, though nothing
authorise us to declare that a superior power, or the intellect of the
universe, r