Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/354

318 —We find in active and thoughtful people a certain amount of impatience, which, in cases of failure, eggs them on at once to go over to the opposite province, to take a passionate interest in it, and enter upon new ventures—until wavering success drives them even thence: so they rove about, like unto reckless adventurers, through the experiences of many provinces and natures, and in the end, owing to the omniscience of men and things acquired by their travels and practice, and with a certain modification of their craving,—they will turn into powerful experts. Hence a weakness of character may prove the school of genius. —Who would be able already now to describe that which, some day, will substitute moral feelings and judgments !—convinced though we may feel that these are detective in all their foundations, and that their structure does not admit of repair: their liability must diminish from day to day, provided only the liability of reason does not diminish. Our physiological and medical sciences, the social and anachoretic theories are not yet sufficiently self-reliant for the task of re-establishing the laws of life aid action: and yet it is only from them that we may take the foundation stones of new ideals (though not the new ideals themselves). Thus we live a preliminary or an after-exist