Now in times of intellectual unsettlement, like the present, the ideal may become disorganized and scattered, the face of God blurred to the view, like the reflection of the sun in troubled waters. And at the same time the creeds become incredible, so that, until new ones can be worked out and diffused, each man must either make one for himself—a task to which few are equal—or undergo distraction, or cease to think about such matters, if he can. This state of things involves some measure of demoralization, although it may be part of a movement generally beneficent. Mankind needs the highest vision of personality, and needs it clear and vivid, and in the lack of it will suffer a lack in the clearness and cogency of moral thought. It is the natural apex to the pyramid of personal imagination, and when it is wanting there will be an unremitting and eventually more or less successful striving to replace it. When it reappears it will, of course, express in all its lineaments a new era of thought; but the opinion that it is gone to stay, which is entertained by some, seems very ill grounded. CHAPTER XI PERSONAL DEGENERACY IS A PHASE OF THE QUESTION OF RIGHT AND WRONG—RELATION TO THE IDEA OF DEVELOPMENT—JUSTIFICATION AND MEANING OF THE PHRASE “PERSONAL DEGENERACY”—HEREDITARY AND SOCIAL FACTORS IN PERSONAL DEGENERACY—DEGENERACY AS A MENTAL TRAIT—CONSCIENCE IN DEGENERACY—CRIME, INSANITY, AND RESPONSIBILITY—GENERAL AIMS IN THE TREATMENT OF DEGENERACY. I wish to touch upon this subject only in so far as to suggest a general way of conceiving it in accord with the views set forth in the preceding chapters.