Constitution of the Elite & the Part to be Played by It

We have already referred several times in the foregoing chapters to what we call the intellectual elite. Our readers will no doubt have easily understood that what we mean by this has nothing in common with what, in the West of today, sometimes goes under the same name. Those scholars and philosophers who are held to be the greatest 'authorities' in their own special domains may be absolutely unqualified to belong to this elite; indeed, they very likely are so, owing to acquired mental habits and to the many prejudices that always go with them, and above all to that 'intellectual short-sightedness' which these habits most usually lead to. There may always be honorable exceptions, of course, but it would not do to count too much on them. Generally speaking, there is more good to be got out of an ignorant man than out of one who has specialized in an essentially limited branch of studies, and who has undergone the deformation which a certain kind of education brings with it. The ignorant man may have within him possibilities of understanding which he has merely not developed for want of an opportunity, and the more futile the method of administering education in the West, the more common such cases may be. The qualifications we have in mind when we speak of the elite cannot be gauged by any outward criterion, since they are purely intellectual, and the qualities that go to make them up have nothing to do with 'profane' teaching. There are people in some countries of the East who do not know how to read or write, yet attain to a very high rank among the intellectual elite. On the other hand it would be just as wrong to exaggerate one way as the other: because two things are independent, it does not follow that they are incompatible; and if, especially in the conditions of the modern Western world, 'profane' or outward teaching can provide one or two additional aids to action, it would assuredly be wrong to despise it unduly. But there are things which it is only safe to study after having already got that unerring inward guidance which we alluded to, and which ensures immunity against all mental deformation. Once this point has been reached, there is no longer any danger to fear, for the road always lies open ahead; any domain, no matter what, may be entered into without risk of losing the way or even of staying there overlong, for its exact importance is known in advance; it is no longer possible to be led astray by error in any shape or form, or to take it for truth, or to confuse the contingent with the absolute. To use the language of symbolism, we might say that one has both an infallible compass and an impenetrable suit of armor. But before getting so far, there is often a long period of striving to be gone through (we do not say always, as time is not an essential factor in this respect) and it is then that the very greatest precautions are necessary if all confusion is to be avoided, at least under present conditions, for clearly the same dangers cannot exist in a traditional civilization, where, moreover, those who are truly gifted in an intellectual way find everything made as easy as possible for them to develop their natural abilities: in the West, on the contrary, they cannot meet anything at the moment but obstacles, often insuperable ones, and it is only thanks to rather exceptional circumstances that it is possible to get out of the ruts of mental and social convention. At present, then, the intellectual elite, according to our idea of it, simply does not exist in the West: the exceptions are too rare and too isolated to be looked on as constituting anything that might be so called, and, besides, they are on the whole really quite un-Western, since they consist of individuals who intellectually owe everything to the East, and who are thus almost in the same situation as the Easterners in Europe, knowing only too well what abyss separates them mentally from the men who surround them. Under these conditions one is certainly tempted to take refuge in silence rather rather than run the risk of being bruised against the wall of general indifference in an attempt to express certain ideas, or even of provoking hostile reactions; however, the conviction that certain changes are necessary brings with it the obligation to begin doing something toward them, and at least to give those who are capable of developing their latent faculties (for, after all, there must be some who are) the opportunity of doing so. The primary difficulty is to reach those who are so qualified and who may not have the least suspicion of their own possibilities; a subsequent difficulty would be to bring about a selection and to turn away those who might think themselves qualified without really being so, but it must be admitted that very likely this elimination would take place almost of itself. None of these questions arise where there is organized traditional teaching, which everyone may partake of according to his capacity and up to the very point that it is within his powers to reach; there are, in fact, means of deciding exactly the full extent of a given individual's intellectual possibilities; but that is a subject which is above all 'practical', if this word may be used in such a case, or, if it be thought better, 'technical', and there would be no point in treating of it with the Western world in its present state. Besides, we only want at the moment to make people aware in advance, rather remotely, of some of the difficulties that would have to be overcome for there to be the beginnings of organization, and for there to be the constitution, even in embryo, of an elite; it would be far too premature to try here and now to define the means of this constitution, as the means-assuming that it becomes one day possible to consider them-will necessarily depend to a great extent on circumstances, like everything which is properly speaking a question of adaptation. The only thing that can be accomplished for the moment is to give the possible elements of the future elite the consciousness, as it were, of themselves, and that can only be done by putting forward certain conceptions which, when they reach those who are capable of understanding them, will show them the existence of what they knew nothing about, and will at the same time make them see the possibility of going further. Everything related to the order of metaphysics has, in itself, the power of opening up boundless horizons to anyone who has a true conception of it. This is not a hyperbole or a figure of speech, but it must be understood quite literally, as an immediate outcome of the very universality of the principles. Those who simply hear talk of metaphysical studies, and of things that keep exclusively to the domain of pure intellectuality, can scarcely have any suspicion, at their first encounter, of all that this implies: the things in question are the most tremendous that exist, and compared with them everything else is mere child's play. Moreover, that is why those who seek to set foot in this domain without having the qualifications required for reaching at least the first stages of true understanding, withdraw of their own accord as soon as they find that they have incurred the liability of undertaking serious and real work; true mysteries defend themselves unaided against all profane curiosity, and their very nature protects them against all assaults of human folly, no less than against the powers of illusion that may be described as 'diabolical' (everyone being free to read into this word all the meanings that he pleases, literal, or figurative). For this reason it would be utterly childish to have recourse to interdictions which, applied in such an order of things, would be meaningless; such bans may be legitimate in other cases, which we do not intend to discuss, but they cannot concern pure intellectuality; and as to what goes beyond mere theory and calls for a certain reticence, those who have the right attitude need not be constrained in any way to ensure their always being as careful and discreet as is necessary; all this is far beyond the range of any outward formulas whatever, and has nothing to do with the more or less fantastic 'secrets' which are above all the plea of those who have nothing to say. Since we have been led into speaking of the organization of the elite, we must go on to point out a mistake that we have often had occasion to notice: many people no sooner hear the word 'organization' than they imagine that there is something afoot which may be compared with the formation of a group or an association. That is utterly wrong, and those who conceive such ideas prove by so doing that they understand neither the sense nor the import of the question; the reasons for this should be already clear from what we have just been saying. True metaphysics cannot be enclosed in the formulas of a particular system or theory, and no more can the intellectual elite possibly put up with the forms of a 'society' founded with statutes, regulations, reunions, and all the other outward manifestations that this word necessarily implies-these things have nothing to do with true metaphysics. Even to begin with, so as to form as it were a first nucleus, such an organization could not help; it would be an extremely bad starting-point, and one that could scarcely lead to anything but a setback. In fact, not only is this form of 'society' useless in such a case, but it would be most dangerous, by reason of the deviations that could not fail to take place: however strict the selection was, it would be very difficult to prevent, especially at the beginning and among so ill-prepared a portion of mankind, the introduction of one or two individuals whose lack of understanding would be enough to compromise everything; and it is more than likely that such groups would run a very severe risk of letting themselves be led astray by the prospect of some immediate social action, perhaps even political in the narrowest sense of the word, which would be the most disastrous thing that could happen, and the one which would tell most against the end in view. There are only too many examples of such deviations: how many associations, which might have fulfilled a very high function (if not a purely intellectual one, at least bordering on intellectuality) by continuing along the lines that had been laid down for them at the outset, began almost at once to degenerate in this way! Some of them even went not only astray, but changed their course completely, though they still bear the marks of their original objective, and these remain very clear to the eye of anyone with knowledge to understand them. That is how there came about a total loss, after the sixteenth century, of what might have been saved of the heritage left by the Middle Ages; and we say nothing of the accompanying drawbacks, such as petty ambitions, personal rivalries, and other causes of dissensions which inevitably arise in groups that are so constituted, especially if account be taken, as it certainly must be, of Western individualism. All this shows clearly enough what should not be done; what should be done is perhaps less clear, and that is natural, since, at the point where we now are, no one can say exactly how the elite will be constituted, supposing that it ever should be; that is probably something that belongs to a distant future, and one should have no illusions in this respect. However that may be, we will say that in the East the most powerful organizations, those whose work is the most far-reaching, have absolutely nothing in common with 'societies' in the European sense of the word; sometimes, under their influence, more or less external societies are formed in view of some definite end, but these societies, being always temporary, disappear as soon as they have fulfilled the function allotted to them. The outer society, then, is in this case no more than an accidental manifestation of the already existing inner organization, and the latter, in all its essence, is always absolutely independent of the former; the elite does not have to take part in struggles which, whatever their importance, are necessarily outside its own domain; only indirectly can it play a social part, but this makes that part all the more effective, because, to be the true director of what is in motion, one must not be involved oneself in the movement.[1] Here, then, is just the inverse of the plan that would be followed by those who would want to begin by forming outward societies; these societies must merely be the effect, and not the cause; they could only be of use and there could only be a real point in them if the elite had already been brought into existence (in accordance with the saying of the Scholastics: 'to act, one must be'), and if it was strongly enough organized to be sure of preventing any deviation. It is only in the East that examples can now be found which would be suitable for drawing inspiration from: we have many reasons for thinking that the West also had, in the Middle Ages, some organizations of the same type, but it is at least doubtful whether sufficient traces have been left to make it possible to form an exact idea of them in any other way than by analogy with what exists in the East, this analogy being moreover founded, not on idle suppositions, but on signs which do not deceive if one already has a knowledge of certain things; furthermore, to know these things, search must be made where they are still to be found as part of a living present, for we are speaking, not of archaeological curiosities, but of knowledge that cannot be anything but direct if it is to be of any use. This idea of organizations which do not take the form of 'societies' in any respect, which have none of the outward features that characterize such groups, and which for that reason are all the more sound because they are really based on what is immutable without allowing themselves to be adulterated with anything transitory, is an idea which is quite strange to the modern mentality, and we have had various opportunities of appreciating the difficulties that are to be met with by anyone who tries to make people understand it. Perhaps we shall find the means of coming back to it some day, as lengthy explanations on this subject would not come within the scope of the present work, where we merely allude to it incidentally so as to cut short any misunderstanding. However, we do not mean to shut out any possibility, in this sphere any more than in any other, or to discourage any initiative, provided that it is capable of producing valid results without culminating in a mere waste of energy; we simply want to put people on their guard against false opinions and over-hasty conclusions. It goes without saying that if one or two individuals, instead of working by themselves, would rather meet together and form what one might call 'working groups', we should not see any danger in that by itself, nor even any inconvenience, provided that those who take part are fully aware that they have not the slightest need to resort to this outward formalism which looms so large in the eyes of most of our contemporaries, for the very reason that outward things are everything for them. Moreover, great care would have to be taken even in forming these groups, if any serious work was to be done in them and followed out to any lengths, and many precautions would be necessary, since everything accomplished in this domain brings into play powers that the ordinary man has no inkling of, and those who are indiscreet may find themselves at the mercy of strange reactions, at least so long as a certain level of understanding has not been reached. Besides, the questions of method, in this connection, are closely dependent on the principles themselves; it follows that they are much more important than in any other domain, and that they have consequences much more serious here than in the field of science, though even there they are far from being negligible. This, however, is not the place to dwell on all these considerations; we exaggerate nothing, but, as we have said right from the beginning, we do not want to cloak the difficulties either; adaptation to certain definite conditions is always extremely delicate, and without unshakable and very extensive theoretic information there can be no question of trying to realize effectively the least thing. Even to acquire this information is not such a light task for Westerners; in any case, and we can never be too insistent on it, this task is the necessary starting-point, and the one indispensable preparation, without which nothing can be done, and which all the ultimate realizations in any order of things essentially depend on. There is still another point that calls for our explanation: we have said elsewhere that the Easterners would not fail to help the intellectual elite in the fulfilment of its task, as, actually, they will always be well disposed toward a re-establishment of relations which ought normally to exist: but that presupposes an already constituted Western elite, and for its actual constitution it is the West that must take the initiative. As things are now, the authorized representatives of the Eastern traditions cannot have any intellectual interest in the West: at least, they can only be interested in the rare individuals who approach them, directly or indirectly, and who are simply too much of an exception for there to be any possibility of considering general action. We can state the following definitely: never, so long as the conditions are not altogether changed, will any Eastern organization be able to have relations with any Western organization whatsoever, since it could only do so with an elite constituted in accordance with the true principles. Until that day, then, the Easterners can be asked for nothing more than inspiration, which is already a great deal, and this inspiration can only be transmitted by individual influences acting as intermediaries, not by any direct action on the part of organizations which, except in case of unforeseen upheavals, will never do anything to incur responsibility in the affairs of the Western world, and that is understandable, for these affairs, after all, do not concern them; Westerners are alone in being over-ready to meddle with other peoples' business. If no one in the West gives proof of both the will and the capacity to understand all that is necessary for entering into relations with the East, the Easterners will take good care not to intervene, knowing moreover that it would be useless; and, even if the West should be heading straight for a cataclysm, they can do no more than leave it to fend for itself. Indeed, how could anyone exert an influence on the West, even supposing that they wanted to, without finding there the slightest foothold? In any case, as we repeat once again, it is for the Westerners to take the first steps; naturally, the Western masses do not enter into the question, and there cannot even be any question of a large number of individuals, which might in many ways do more harm than good; to begin with, only a few are needed, on condition that they are capable of understanding truly and deeply everything concerned. There is also another point to remember: those who have assimilated, by direct contact, the intellectuality of the East must needs confine themselves to playing the part of intermediaries that we mentioned just now; they are, owing to this assimilation, too near the East to do more; they can suggest ideas, put forward conceptions, point out what ought to be done, but not form on their own initiative an organization, which, coming from them, would not be truly Western. If there were still some individuals in the West, even isolated ones, who had kept intact the legacy of the purely intellectual tradition that must have existed in the Middle Ages, everything would be greatly simplified; but it is for these individuals to make known their existence and to put forward their claims, and so long as they have not done so it is not for us to settle that question. Failing this, which is unfortunately rather improbable, it is only what we might call an indirect assimilation of the Eastern doctrines that could bring to birth the first elements of the future elite; we mean that the initiative would have to come from individuals who had developed themselves through their understanding of these doctrines, but without being too directly connected with the East, and on the contrary keeping in touch with everything valid that may still exist in the Western civilization, and especially with the traces of the traditional outlook that have managed to survive there despite the modern outlook, chiefly under the form of religion. This does not mean that those who, intellectually, have become altogether Eastern must necessarily lose touch with these things, the less so for the simple reason that they are essentially representatives of the traditional outlook; but their situation is too unusual not to impose a very great reserve on them, especially so long as they are not expressly appealed to for collaboration. They must hold themselves in wait, like the Easterners by birth, and all that they can do more than these Easterners is to expound their doctrines in a form more suited to the West, and to bring out the possibilities of agreement which their understanding of these doctrines will have revealed to them; once again, they must rest content with being intermediaries whose presence shows that all hope of mutual understanding is not irremediably lost. We trust that these reflections will not be taken for anything other than what they are, and that conclusions will not be drawn from them which might well be most out of keeping with our thoughts; if too many points remain indefinite, it is because it is unavoidable, and because future circumstances alone will make it possible for light to be thrown on them little by little. In all that is not purely and strictly doctrinal, contingencies come necessarily to play a part, and from them may be drawn the secondary means of realizing all plans of adaptation; we say the secondary means, for the sole essential means, as must not be forgotten, belongs to the order of pure knowledge (that is, knowledge so far as it is simply theoretical, leading up to fully effective knowledge, for this last is not a means, but an end in itself, with regard to which any application is merely like an 'accident' which cannot possibly affect it or be a determining factor of it). If we take care, in such questions as these, to say neither too much nor too little, it is because, on the one hand, our intention is to make ourselves understood as clearly as possible, and because, on the other hand, we must nonetheless leave room for the possibilities, now unforeseen, which circumstances may bring to light later; the elements that might come into play are exceedingly complex, and, with things as unstable as they are in the Western world, it would be impossible to overestimate the importance of the part thus to be played by the unforeseen, which we do not say is absolutely unforeseeable, but which we do not admit the right to anticipate. That is why all that can be said with precision is mostly negative, in the sense that it is in answer to objections, some being actually formulated while others are only considered as possible, or in the sense that it clears away mistakes and misunderstandings and different forms of incomprehension, so far as they happen to meet the eye; but by such a process of elimination the question comes to be set in a much clearer light, which, all told, is already an appreciable result and, however things may seem, a truly positive one. We are well aware that Western impatience does not take at all easily to such methods, and that it would be more inclined to sacrifice certainty in the interests of speed; but it is not for us to make any concession to the demands of this impatience, which allow nothing firm to be set up, and which are altogether opposed to the end that we have in view. Those who are not even capable of restraining their impatience would be still less able to carry out the least work of a metaphysical order: let them simply try, as a preliminary exercise that does not commit them to anything, to concentrate their attention on one single idea, no matter what, for half a minute (it does not seem too much to ask), and they will see whether we are wrong to question their capabilities.[2] And so we will add nothing further about the means by which an intellectual elite may come to be constituted in the West; even assuming that all goes in its favor, it does not look as if this constitution were anything like immediately possible, which does not mean that now is not the time to begin thinking about how things may be made ready for it. As for the part that will devolve on this elite, it follows clearly enough from all that has so far been said: it is essentially the return of the West to a traditional civilization, in its principles and in the whole mass of its institutions. This return will have to be brought about in the proper order, going from the principles to the consequences, and descending by degrees down to the most contingent applications; and it can only be done by using both what the East has to offer and also whatever traditional elements remain in the West herself, the former completing the latter and being superposed on them-not modifying them in themselves but giving them, by revealing their deepest meaning, their own original point and purpose in all its fullness. As we have said, a firm stand must first of all be taken at the intellectual point of view, and by a perfectly natural repercussion the consequences will then spread in due course, more or less quickly, to all the other domains, including that of social applications. If some useful work should have already been accomplished by other means in these other domains, there will obviously be no cause to be anything but thankful, but it is not to this end that efforts should be directed at first, for that would mean putting the accessory above the essential. Until the right moment comes, the considerations that have to do with secondary points of view ought scarcely to enter in except as examples, or rather as 'illustrations'; as such, if presented relevantly and under a suitable form, they can have the advantage of making the most essential truths more easily understood by supplying a kind of foothold, and also of arousing the attention of people who, through a faulty appreciation of their own faculties, might believe themselves incapable of reaching pure intellectuality without moreover knowing what it is; let everyone remember what we said above about the unexpected means which may on occasion be the deciding factor at the outset of an intellectual development. It is necessary to mark out an absolute distinction between the essential and the accidental; but once this distinction has been made we have no wish to set any restrictive bounds to the part played by the elite, in which each one will always be able to find means of using his own special talents as it were in addition and without any detriment whatsoever to the essential. In short, the elite will work first for itself, since its members will naturally reap from their own development an immediate and altogether unfailing benefit, one moreover that amounts to a permanent and inalienable acquisition; but at the same time, and by that very development, it will necessarily be working, though less immediately, for the West in general as well, since it is impossible that work such as this should be brought to fruit in any surroundings without producing there sooner or later considerable modifications. Besides, mental currents are subject to perfectly definite laws, and the knowledge of these laws makes for action that is incomparably more effective than the use of means simply derived from experience; but here, to succeed in making the application and in giving it its full realization, there must be a strongly constituted organization to rely on, which does not mean to say that partial results, already appreciable, may not be obtained before this point be reached. However defective and incomplete the means at one's disposal may be, the first thing to be done is to bring them into action as they are, for otherwise there will be no possibility of ever acquiring more perfect ones. We will add that the least thing accomplished according to the principles carries virtually in itself possibilities whose expansion may serve to bring about the most tremendous consequences; and this affects not merely one particular realm but all, insofar as the repercussions spread themselves throughout the full hierarchy in indefinite progression.[3] Naturally, in speaking of the part to be played by the elite, we are supposing that there will be no sharp and sudden event to interrupt its action; in other words, we are considering the most favorable possibility. It is also possible-for there are discontinuities in history-that the Western civilization might be blotted out in some cataclysm before this action had been carried out. If such a thing were to happen before the elite had been fully constituted, the results of the previous work would evidently be limited to the intellectual benefits reaped by those who had taken part in it; but these benefits are, by themselves, something inestimable, and so, even if there were nothing else forthcoming, this work would still be worthwhile; the fruits would then be withheld from all save a few, but these few, as far as they themselves were concerned, would have got the essential. If the elite were already constituted, even though it had not time to act generally enough upon the West so as to bring about a deep alteration in her whole mentality, there would be something more: during the period of trouble and upheaval this elite would be the symbolic ark floating on the waters of the flood, and, afterward, it could serve as a point of support for an action by which the West, though probably losing her autonomous existence, would nonetheless receive, from the other remaining civilizations, the principles of a new development, this time regular and normal. But in the second case there would still be, at least for a time, lamentable prospects to consider: the ethnic revolutions that we have already alluded to would certainly be very serious; besides, it would be far better for the West, instead of being absorbed purely and simply, to be able to transform herself so as to acquire a civilization comparable to those of the East, but adapted to her own conditions, and absolving her, as far as the bulk of the people was concerned, from having to assimilate, more or less painfully, traditional forms which were not made for her. This transformation, taking place smoothly and spontaneously, in order to give the West once more an appropriate traditional civilization, is what we have just called the most favorable possibility. Such would be the work of the elite, with the aid no doubt of those who are in charge of the Eastern traditions, but with a Western initiative as starting point; and it should be understood now that this last condition, even if it were not as rigorously indispensable as it actually is, would make nonetheless for a considerable advantage, since this initiative would be the means of the West's preserving her autonomy and even keeping, for her future development, those not worthless elements which she may after all have acquired in her present civilization. In short, if there were time for this possibility to be realized, the catastrophe that we began by considering would be avoided, since the Western civilization, normal once more, would have its legitimate place among the others and would no longer be, as it is today, a menace to the rest of humanity, a factor of disequilibrium, and oppression in the world. In any case, action should be taken as if the said goal must inevitably be reached, because, even if circumstances make it impossible, nothing of what has been achieved toward it will be lost; and to have this goal in view may supply those who are capable of belonging to the elite with a motive for striving to understand pure intellectuality, this motive being by no means negligible while they are still not fully conscious of something less contingent, that is, of what intellectuality is worth in itself, apart from the results that it may produce additionally in the more or less outward orders. The prospect of these results then, however secondary, may be at least a help, and it cannot moreover be an obstacle so long as care is taken to put it exactly in its place and to observe in everything the necessary hierarchies, so as never to lose sight of the essential or sacrifice it to the accidental. We have already given enough explanation on this score to justify, in the eyes of those who understand these things, the standpoint which we adopt here, and which, if it does not correspond to our whole thought (and it could not, seeing that purely doctrinal and speculative considerations rank for us above all others), represents nonetheless a very real part of it. We make no claim to consider here anything more than possibilities that are in all likelihood very remote, but that are nonetheless possibilities, and that, for this alone, deserve to be taken into account; moreover the very fact of considering them may perhaps be already a step, in some measure, toward bringing their realization closer. Besides, in an essentially restless atmosphere such as that of the modern West, events may take place under the action of certain circumstances, with a speed far surpassing all expectations; it cannot therefore be too soon to set about getting ready to face them, and it is better to look too far ahead than to let oneself be taken unawares by an irremediable calamity. Certainly, we have no illusions as to the chances that such warnings have of being listened to by most of our contemporaries; but, as we have said, the intellectual elite would not need to be very large, especially at the beginning, to enable its influence to have a very effective action, even upon those who had not the slightest idea of its existence or who did not in the very least suspect the range of its work. Here comes to light the uselessness of those 'secrets' that we alluded to earlier: there are actions which, by their very nature, remain totally unknown to the ordinary man, not because they are concealed from him, but because he is incapable of understanding them. There would be no question of the elite making public the means of its action, chiefly because it would be pointless, and because, even if it wanted to, it would not be able to explain them in language that could be understood by the vast majority; it would know in advance that it would be a waste of time, and that the efforts so spent might be put to a better use. We do not contest, moreover, the danger and untimeliness of certain things being divulged: many people might be tempted, if the means were shown them, to set certain forces in motion for the sake of results that they were in no way ready for, simply and solely out of curiosity, without understanding the true point of them, and without knowing where they might lead. This would only be a supplementary cause of disequilibrium, a most deplorable addition to all those that are making for turmoil in the Western mind today and that will no doubt go on doing so for some time yet, and one that would be all the more to be dreaded owing to the deeper nature of the things brought into play: but all who have certain kinds of knowledge are, by virtue of that alone, fully qualified to appreciate such dangers, and they will always know how to behave in consequence without being bound by other obligations than those which are quite naturally implied in the degree of intellectual development that they have reached. Besides, the first step to be taken is necessarily that of theoretic preparation, which is the one essential and truly indispensable preparation, and theory can always be put forward without reserve, or at least with the sole reserve of what is strictly inexpressible and incommunicable. It is for each one to understand insofar as he is capable, and, as for those who do not understand, if they reap no advantage from it, they suffer no harm from it either, remaining simply as they were before. Perhaps some will be surprised that we should lay so much stress on things that are on the whole extremely simple and ought not to raise the least difficulty; but experience has shown us that too many precautions cannot be taken in this respect, and we would rather over-explain certain points than risk seeing our thought wrongly interpreted. The remarks we have still to make are prompted largely by the same anxiety, and as they come in answer to a lack of understanding that we have actually met with face to face on several occasions, they will prove well enough that there is nothing exaggerated in our fear of being misunderstood.