l from weakness, it may be corrupted. It is discouraging to
think how few have grown into strong life through all the perils of
existence.

Under these circumstances it is but natural that even the small
proportion of mankind endowed with the divine possibilities conferred
by two ounces of brain, should be contaminated with many of the
corruptions from below. Of those who seem to be concerned with
spiritual perceptions there is a vast number mere charlatans and
pretenders who, like the ingenious Japanese, are content to make
cunning imitations of the real things adapted to sell to the best
advantage. They patter the formulas of religion, of science, of art
and morals, and ostentatiously display themselves in the costume of
intellectuality to flatter, cajole and mystify the gloomy ignorance of
their fellows.

This is the select officialism of the secret human nature, its
recognized and authorized police--the constituted authorities of
Public Opinion. It is among these that we should find the
possibilities of development much increased. What do we find? That the
solitary microbe merely begins its struggle here. It dare not destroy
its swarming enemies since upon their continued existence its own life
depends. It must regulate, control and direct them if it would live
and develop, or with cowardly cunning compromise the struggle at the
outset and become a servant where it seems to command. This is the
first terrace-step of superiority peopled by those who can understand
others above them and interpret to the mass below.

The microbe that might have become glorious ounces of brain has been
content to become merely a little wart of pulp which finds expression
in skill and quickness and more of coveted leisure. There is the next
higher terrace and another and another, until finally it becomes a
pyramid, ever more fragile and symmetrical, the apex of which is a
delicate spire, where the purest intellects are elevated to an ever
increasing height in ever decreasing numbers, until in the dizzy
altitude above the groveling base below they are wrapped little by
little in the cold solitude of incarnate genius burning like suns with
their own essence. It is so far up that the eyes deceive and men
dispute who it is that stands at the top, but, whoever he may be, he
has carried by the force of strength, determination and patient will
the whole swarm of his evil bacteria with him. They swarm through
every terrace below, increasing