Page:The sanity of William Blake.djvu/18

 Rh The Fit alone shall survive and Devil take the hindermost. Considering which, they behave on the whole rather decently among themselves. But they are certain of only one thing—and a most important—that the particular minority to which they are opposed are so stark mad that the wonder is that they are not stark naked also.

And one remarkable point of distinction between these two classes is this: that the sane majority find the language provided for them by their country's traditions vastly in excess of their needs, while the insane minority are for ever discontent with their native tongue because of its total insufficiency to express what they feel and know, the visions they see and believe in. These, though they have the whole wealth of culture at command, are nevertheless for ever seeking and finding new forms of expression, but often only to discard them because they fail to express the truth. It is these who paint uplifting pictures the wealthy can never possess, whatever they pay for them; who sing divine songs, as did William Blake, for fashion to laugh at; who make wooden fiddles wail passionately, as did Joachim, whom even the quite sane applaud.