petuous movement which unites
two atoms of hydrogen to one atom of oxygen for the formation of a
molecule of water."

But with the advent of intellectual man, there is no longer need for
obeying blind and irresistible compulsion. Intellectual man, changing
the face of life with his inventions and artifices, performing telic
actions, adjusting himself and his concerns to remote ends and ultimate
compensations, will grapple with the problem of perpetuation as he has
grappled with that of gravitation. As he controls and directs the great
natural forces so that, instead of menacing, they are made to labour for
his safety and comfort, so will he control and direct the operation of
the reproductive force so that life will not only be perpetuated but
developed and made higher and finer. This is not more impossible than is
the steam-engine impossible or democracy impossible.

HERBERT.

XXII

FROM DANE KEMPTON TO HERBERT WACE

LONDON,
3A, QUEEN'S ROAD, CHELSEA, S.W.
June 12, 19--.

Please remember that these letters are written to you alone. I do not
think that there is less love in the world than ever before. I make you
representative of a class, which, in turn, is characteristic of the
modern scientific type, but I do not make you representative of all that
to-day's world has lived up to and lived down. So I do not join my
Ruskin in lamenting the past. To be sure, you are contemporary and you
are parvenu. What then? You are few, nevertheless, and like the parvenu
rich, you must pass into something quite unlike yourself. It is the law
of growth. I ask you to account for yourself as an individual. The thing
is fiercely personal. But you choose the roundabout method of answering
me. For a view of what in your eyes is pertinent to this matter, you
stretch a canvas wide as the world. You are resolved that your course
should dramatise the whole play and interplay of force and matter. It is
ideally ambitious of you and I am glad. It puts you in the ranks with
the students of the ideal tendencies. It shows that you are not always
impatient for short cuts, and that you begin to be of those who harness
"horses of the sun to plough in earth's rough furrows."

Your letter sounds conclusive. Romance is waste, love is unreasoning;
compatibility alone is worth while. You think this, and are ready to
encrust yourself with what is conventional and practical. Ah, no, it is
not even decently conventional! The formal world prete