Prejudices, fourth seriesMencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
History
Prejudices, fourth series
Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis)
American essays -- 20th century; American literature -- History and criticism; Literature -- History and criticism
I contend that my theory is the only one ever put forward that
completely accounts for the clinical picture. Every other theory,
facing such facts as sin, disease and disaster, is forced to admit the
supposition that Omnipotence, after all, may not be omnipotent--a
plain absurdity. I need toy with no such nonsense. I may assume
that every god belonging to the council which rules the universe is
infinitely wise and infinitely powerful, and yet not evade the plain
fact that most of the acts of that council are ignorant and foolish.
In truth, my assumption that a council exists is tantamount to an _a
priori_ assumption that its acts are ignorant and foolish, for no
act of any conceivable council can be otherwise. Is the human hand
perfect, or, at all events, practical and praiseworthy? Then I account
for it on the ground that it was designed by some single member of
the council--that the business was handed over to him by inadvertence
or as a result of an irreconcilable difference of opinion among the
others. Had more than one member participated actively in its design it
would have been measurably less meritorious than it is, for the sketch
offered by the original designer would have been forced to run the
gauntlet of criticisms and suggestions from all the other councillors,
and human experience teaches us that most of these criticisms and
suggestions would have been inferior to the original idea--that many of
them, in fact, would have had nothing in them save a petty desire to
maul and spoil the original idea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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