It will be a useful exercise to make a long list of such words as express the difference of _degrees_ of the various qualities or functions of Reason, Passion and Action (= Knowledge, Feeling and Will.) But it will _not_ always be possible to find three contrasted words, like those in the table, for every quality or action; because no language is so perfect as to have separate and single words to express the immense number and manifold shades of ideas which our mind is capable of entertaining. Still the fact is duly recognized by modern Science that there are differences not only of kind but also of degree in everything--ideas, feelings, desires, actions, objects and attributes of objects--with which we are concerned. Although you may not have a word expressive of degree in every case, yet you can _practically_ ascertain the extremes and the mean in all cases without exception, and can so order your conduct as to avoid the one and adopt the other in all cases. I may point out here that "_the Mean_" is not the "arithmetical mean" (like 6½ which is the arithmetical mean of 5 and 8) but only _an approximately medium or middle course of conduct--via media_.[77] [Arabic: khair ul umūr ausatuha] You may object that, since the ascertainment of the mean in each case requires calm thought with reference to yourself and your environment, the rule is too difficult to follow in these days of quick communication, speedy locomotion, and urgent action. I answer that it is but an _ideal_ rule of conduct. Like all rules of Logic (Thought), Æsthetics (Beauty), or Ethics (Conduct), it sets before you an ideal which you should ever strive to attain though you may not attain it fully at any time. No thinker may have been absolutely logical, no Artist may have wrought a perfect work of beauty, and no man may have ever been quite moral. But that is no reason why thinkers, artists, and men generally, should not endeavour to attain perfection in their respective spheres of thought and action. There is a further and greater objection to the rule of the middle course, _viz._, that, if followed strictly, it will reduce all men to a dead level of mediocrity, and will not foster the development of men of genius. I have to admit regretfully that such will be the case, and, as my next Note will show, it will be in accordance with a Law of Nature recently discovered. Some writers have even attempted to prove that _genius_ or excessive intelligence is a form of madness as bad as its opposite form, _imbecility_ or defective intelligence. They seem to believe that only the men of average intelligence are quite sane. Great wits are sure to madness near allied And thin partitions do their bounds divide.--_Dryden_. The late Sir John Gorst created a sensation when he declared in the House of Commons that great countries were governed by mediocrities only. The world knows nothing of its greatest men.--_Sir H. Taylor._ +Note 11.+ _Evolution and Survival._