Page:Logic Taught by Love.djvu/103

Rh consists in abandoning those processes of recuperation by which scientific men of old taught the masses to store up latent energy for future use. Thus he who sees ahead is a sceptic always; always a wet blanket on the enthusiasms of those who only see to-morrow or next year.

This gives a tone of sadness to the utterances of Prophets. But the sadness is accidental, and due to the fact of the subject not having been understood. For in reality Prophecy is the most joyous and least pessimistic of all Sciences. The Logos visits the follies of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation; but preserves what is good, for thousands of generations; and all who know Him learn to realise that such is the Law of His working.

Even this perception adds to the loneliness of the Prophet; for as he irritates others by not being able to share in their sanguine expectations of immediate success, so he seems to them hard-hearted because when they are most gloomy he cannot despair. He sees in any misfortune that may occur, only the temporary penalty (long foreseen by him) of man's over-confidence. Through all depression the Prophet knows that the Logos punishes for a small moment, but His mercies endure for ever.

Another cause that adds to the loneliness of the Far-Seer is that, sooner or later, he is almost sure to discover a law which the young people about him desire not to believe, viz. the wastefulness of original work published before the complete maturity of the author. The best work is that which combines Genius with Experience; therefore the way to do the best work is to live to be