Those Of Us Who Have Come To

For Myself It Would Be Most Irksome To Be Ruled By A Bevy Of Platonic Guardians, Even If I Knew How To Choose Them, Which I Assuredly Do Not.

You Cannot Raise The Standard Against Oppression, Or Leap Into The Breach To Relieve Injustice, And Still Keep An Open Mind To Every Disconcerting Fact, Or An Open Ear To The Cold Voice Of Doubt. I Am Satisfied That A Scholar Who Tries To Combine These Parts Sells His Birthright For A Mess Of Pottage; That, When The Final Count Is Made, It Will Be Found That The Impairment Of His Powers Far Outweighs Any Possible Contribution To The Causes He Has Espoused.

Here I Am An Old Man In A Long Nightgown Making Muffled Noises At People Who May Be No Worse Than I Am.

That Community Is Already In The Process Of Dissolution Where Each Man Begins To Eye His Neighbor As A Possible Enemy, Where Non-conformity With The Accepted Creed, Political As Well As Religious, Is A Mark Of Disaffection; Where Denunciation, Without Specification Or Backing, Takes The Place Of Evidence; Where Orthodoxy Chokes Freedom Of Dissent; Where Faith In The Eventual Supremacy Of Reason Has Become So Timid That We Dare Not Enter Our Convictions In The Open Lists, To Win Or Lose.

I Had Rather Take My Chance That Some Traitors Will Escape Detection Than Spread Abroad A Spirit Of General Suspicion And Distrust, Which Accepts Rumor And Gossip In Place Of Undismayed And Unintimidated Inquiry.