Intellectualism, Though By No Means

The Nation Seems To Slouch Onward Into Its Uncertain Future Like Some Huge Inarticulate Beast, Too Much Attainted By Wounds And Ailments To Be Robust, But Too Strong And Resourceful To Succumb.

Intellect Is Resented As A Form Of Power Or Privilege.

To The Zealot Overcome By His Piety And To The Journeyman Of Ideas Concerned Only With His Marketable Mental Skills, The Beginning And End Of Ideas Lies In Their Efficacy With Respect To Some Goal External To Intellectual Processes.

The Intellectual's ... Playfulness, In Its Various Manifestations, Is Likely To Seem To Most Men A Perverse Luxury; In The United States The Play Of The Mind Is Perhaps The Only Form Of Play That Is Not Looked Upon With The Most Tender Indulgence. His Piety Is Likely To Seem Nettlesome, If Not Actually Dangerous. And Neither Quality Is Considered To Contribute Very Much To The Practical Business Of Life.

It Is A Part Of The Intellectual's Tragedy That The Things He Most Values About Himself And His Work Are Quite Unlike Those Society Values In Him.