Finding Oneself Was A Misnomer; A Self

The Professionals Resemble And Recognize Each Other By Virtue Of The Stigmata That Their Trade Has Left Upon Them. They Are Like The Dog In The Fable, Whose Collar Has Made An Indelible Mark Around His Neck. The Amateur Is The Shaggy Wolf Whom No Dog Had Better Trust Too Far.

Of True Knowledge At Any Time, A Good Part Is Merely Convenient, Necessary Indeed To The Worker, But Not To An Understanding Of His Subject: One Can Judge A Building Without Knowing Where To Buy The Bricks; One Can Understand A Violin Sonata Without Knowing How To Score For The Instrument. The Work May In Fact Be Better Understood Without A Knowledge Of The Details Of Its Manufacture, Of Attention To These Tends To Distract From Meaning And Effect.

A Person Is Not A Democrat Thanks To His Ignorance Of Literature And The Arts, Nor An Elitist Because He Or She Has Cultivated Them. The Possession Of Knowledge Makes For Unjust Power Over Others Only If Used For That Very Purpose: A Physician Or Lawyer Or Clergyman Can Exploit Or Humiliate Others, Or He Can Be A Humanitarian And A Benefactor. In Any Case, It Is Absurd To Conjure Up Behind Anybody Who Exploits His Educated Status The Existence Of An "elite" Scheming To Oppress The Rest Of Us.

It Is Not Clear To Anyone, Least Of All The Practitioners, How Science And Technology In Their Headlong Course Do Or Should Influence Ethics And Law, Education And Government, Art And Social Philosophy, Religion And The Life Of The Affections. Yet Science Is An All-pervasive Energy, For It Is At Once A Mode Of Thought, A Source Of Strong Emotion, And A Faith As Fanatical As Any In History.

The Eager Or Dutiful Persons Who Subject Themselves To These Tidal Waves Of The Classics And The Moderns Find Everything Wonderful In An Absent-minded Way. The Wonder Washes Over Them Rather Than Into Them, And One Of Its Effects Is To Make Anything Shocking Or Odd Suddenly Interesting Enough To Gain A Month's Celebrity. And So Another By-product Of Our Come-one, Come-all Policy Is The Tendency To Reward Cleverness, Not Art, And To Put One More Hurdle In The Path Of The Truly Original Artist.