If that is ever the attitude of the best minds, it is only a momentary one of which they are quickly ashamed.  Achilles sulked in his tent when he was pondering not a big problem, but a small grievance.  The kings of modern thought who are described seem like kings out of a job.  We are inclined to turn from them to the intellectual monarchs de facto.  They are the ones who take up the hard job which the representatives of the old regime give up as hopeless.  For when the king has abdicated and contends no more—­Long live the King!

The real thinkers of any age do not remain long in a blue funk.  They always find something important to think about.  They always point out something worth doing.  They cannot passively wait to see the future come.  They are too busy making it.

Matthew Arnold struck a truer note in Rugby Chapel.  The true leaders of mankind can never be mere intellectualists.  There must be a union of intellectual and moral energy like that which he recognized in his father.  To the fainting, dispirited race,—­

  “Ye like angels appear,
  Radiant with ardour divine,
  Beacons of hope, ye appear! 
  Languor is not in your heart,
  Weakness is not in your word,
  Weariness not on your brow;
  Ye alight in our van:  at your voice
  Panic, despair, flee away.”

When those whom we have looked upon as our intellectual leaders grow disheartened, we must remember that a lost leader does not necessarily mean a lost cause.  When those whom we had called the kings of modern thought are dumb, we can find new leadership.  “Change kings with us,” replied an Irish officer after the panic of the Boyne; “change kings with us, and we will fight you again.”

ON REALISM AS AN INVESTMENT

From a Real-Estate Dealer to a Realistic Novelist

Dear Sir:—­

I have been for some time interested in your projects for the improvement of literature.  When I saw your name in the newspapers, I looked you up in “Who’s Who,” and found that your rating is excellent What pleased me was the bold way you attacked the old firms which have been living on their reputations.  The way you showed up Dickens, Thackeray & Co. showed that you know a thing or two.  As for W. Scott and the other speculators who have been preying on the credulity of the public, you gave them something to think about.  You showed conclusively that instead of dealing in hard facts, they have been handing out fiction under the guise of novels.

Our minds run in the same channel:  you deal in reality and I deal in realty, but the principle is the same.  I inclose some of the literature which I am sending out.  You see, I warn people against investing in stocks and bonds.  These are mere paper securities, which take to themselves wings and fly away.  But if you can get hold of a few acres of dirt, there you are.  When a panic comes along, and Wall Street goes to smash, you can sit on your front porch in South Canaan without a care.  You have your little all in something real.