he magnet, vibrate ever to the north, never so tense,
never so aware of the stress and strain of force as when most
irremovably fixed upon that goal. The intensity of life is not to be
measured by the degree of oscillation. It is at the stillest point
that the most tremendous energies meet; and such a point is the
intelligence open to infinity. For such stillness I feel myself to be
destined, if ever I could attain it. But others, I suppose, like
MacCarthy, have a different fate. In the celestial world of souls, the
hierarchy of spirits, there is need of the planet no less than of its
sun. The station and gravity of the one determines the orbit of the
other, and the antagonism that keeps them apart also knits them
together. There is no motion of MacCarthy's but I vibrate to it; and
about my immobility he revolves. But both of us, as I am inclined to
think, are included in a larger system and move together on a remoter
centre. And the very law of our contention, as perhaps one day we may
come to see, is that of a love that by discord achieves harmony."

THE conclusion of Martin's speech left me somewhat in doubt how to
proceed. All of the company who were primarily interested in politics
had now spoken; and I was afraid there might be a complete break in the
subject of our discourse. Casting about, I could think of nothing
better than to call upon Wilson, the biologist. For though he was a
specialist, he regarded everything as a branch of his specialty; and
would, I knew, be as ready to discourse on society as on anything else.
Although, therefore, I disliked a certain arrogance he was wont to
display, I felt that, since he was to speak, this was the proper place
to introduce him. I asked him accordingly to take up the thread of the
debate; and without pause his aggressive voice began to assail our ears.

"I don't quite know," he began, "why a mere man of science should be
invited to intervene in a debate on these high subjects. Politics, I
have always understood, is a kind of mystery, only to be grasped by a
favoured few, and then not by any processes of thought, but by some
kind of intuition. But of late years something seems to have happened.
The intuition theory was all very well when the intuitions did not
conflict, or when, at least, those who were possessed by one, never
came into real intellectual contact with those who were possessed by
another. But here, to-night, have we met together upon this