Page:Path of Vision; pocket essays of East and West.djvu/49

 of the German—Carlyle's fanfaronades of idolatry to the contrary—and the astute Jesuitism of the Frenchman, while betraying the human frailty in genius, have often saved their intellects from spreading into nothingness or settling down to a point. That they refused to specialize, however, was their supreme virtue. But with the development of the sciences, intellectual circumambulating became a thing of the past. Hugo wrote its epitaph. Now specializing is the vogue, the dominating purpose of life, the supreme virtue. It is indeed the chief characteristic of our civilization. It has its conveniences, to be sure, and its rewards. A specialist gets somwheresomewhere [sic], though it be no further than his kitchen or his cellar. And we do not have to tarry and toil to understand the one-sided man. We waste no time in trying to get a side or a back view, much less an inner view of our master Monomind. About face! for our benefit, and we either go our way or stay. No, we no longer have time for