Evening star., 1939-01-28
BY H. G. WELLS.
CHAPTER XIX.
Mystical StOicism.

Carstall tilted his chair back and
with his hand behind his head
gazed serenely at the sky.
Eyes. You frighten me-" said
krause, after a pause.
you don't agree with my point
OF view, you mean?"
II agree with you, Carstall. That's
why I am afraid. I am afraid of
this clear, unsentimental life in
you. And in so many of our young
people. A life consciously as small
as an ants, maybe, but as proud and
self-reliant as Gods. Where will it
take us?"
Beyond my particular limits.
don't know and 1 don't care
Now. I did once. That,
krause, is what I mean by that eX-
cellent phrase, living faith. Live
by faith in the unknown pattern
What else can a reasonable man
do? There is a pattern. That Is
all I know. That Is all you
know. Krause. -"
II have to be myself to the ut
most, and none of my questions
will ever be answered. That is my
creed. Why do we go on living
Krause? You don't know Neither
do I. But we have to go on living.
Could We know? 1 doubt it. MySti
cism and Stoicism. We live in the
dawn of a mystical and stoical age.
Hard, perhaps, by the old standards.
Free Of lots of the old scruples. but
with new scruples. very exacting
scruples some of them, of its own
/ like this new life around us, and
wish my old father could have lived
to see it. I like what is happening
It's a clear, fresh morning with the
promise this time of really bright
day. -"
Continually Thinking.
"It's a great relief to talk to you
like this. Krause. I've had to keep
this Rud business to myself for 10
full years. Absolutely to myself.
I've continually been think
of him. You'd be surprised.
He had to be killed, you
know. He had to be killed. -
Carstall paused, but Krause said
nothing.
"I didn't like doing it. Why
should II"
Silence from Krause.
"I killed him because knew that
no one else among you had the quits
to do it. There was something
nrestiee about him, But he had to
be killed. -.
AFTER killed him he became more
important. That T have always
found rather queer, KrauSe. I began
to ask myself what exactly 1t was
I had killed. Was he exceptional or
was he a perfect sample of what we
all are? Stink and insight? Rats
with unexploited brains? Toads with
Jewels in their heads?
THAT peculiar intelligence that he
showed at times! Iii the early days
particularly. 1t seemed to be some
thing almost entirely independent OF
his personal self. AS though his
brain lit up. Every one who knew
him says that. I suppose it's some
thing of the sort you get in real
poets-or in cardinal men of sci
ence. Like something hidden in
the dark suddenly lit by search
light. As though higher mind is
imprisoned somewhere behind the
human brain. Getting free now and
then-partially.
presently, now that so much has
been cleared up in the world, 1t may
get free more and more frequently
What do you think. Krause? Sup
pose man is only just beginning tc
realize what he can do with his
brain? Or suppose our brains are
only beginning to realize what they
can do with us? Or that some sort
OF brain behind all brains. -.
Something New ana Better.
"The world state in which we live
isn't a magnified militant sovereign
state of the old-type; its something
essentially different, something new
and better. Maybe this Man ir
Common is something different, toe
mot a man magnified, but men ag-
gregated, superman with larger
thoughts and aims, something not
so much collective as quintessential
The real Leviathan-not the state
as Hobbies had it, but mans entire
achievement"
The mind of Krause moved in 9
narrower orbit than Carstalls. "It
was a pity you had to do away with
Rud. I see your case. But 1t was a
NC nj n11 1C
After he had done so much"
1T was a pity the world couldn't
DO its business without Rud-from
the beginning" said Carstall. 81
suppose Rud was necessary, but !
cannot see why he was necessary
I suppose these new biological
philosophers now can tell sort OF
story about individuality being q
necessary step for realization and
all that sort of jargon. 80"
Individual as Tentative" said
Krause, quoting the title of a cur
rent popular book.
"The way he used to call himself
the Common Man." said Carstall
-. What did he mean by that
really? What was he getting at?
I've never quite got to the bottom
Of that. A sort of return from indi-
vidualism at large, wild individual
Ism. to-one might call it-co-opera-
tive identification Z. :. individual as
Tentative" haven't read that book
But that's the idea. Perhaps we are
all drifting to that. In his own
Y,ac,11ior calf. .cortoroS foc,;o,, 7
suppose he was doing just what you
and are doing in our work, what
religion and morality have always
been doing. That's the line OF
thought. He was certainly conscious
Of being impelled to develop-not
himself exactly, but how can I say
it?-his particular aspect of that
common man who is hidden in all OF
VI, that unknown common man, that
undying, unhurryinr. incesSant man