And when, in countless years, At last comes the moment When this little system, The sun and the moon and the stars that are seven, Shall crash to its doom 'Gainst some on-coming sphere-world, And with infinite roaring And hideous combustion, Burst all into atoms And seething abysses Of nebulae, fiery and whirling, Then, with it shall perish The last fading traces Of life and of love And of human endeavour That are left on this cold, lifeless earth-star; And so shall go on For ever and ever Through infinite spaces, World making and breaking, And Man's little moment, His life on this planet, A drop in the ages, Shall pass unlamented, Shall pass unrecurring, A strange inexplicable chance In the meaningless Whole. BRAINS AND INTELLECT _A fugitive production--occasion unknown_ Accepting the well-known dictum of Appius Claudius that the government is the belly of the body-politic, and the general mob of citizens "the limbs and outward flourishes," what section of the community, shall we say, constitutes the brains? We might, at first, be inclined to assign the role of "brains" to those members of the community who are particularly occupied with the pursuit of learning, such as, for example (to take a large and representative class), University professors. A little reflection, however, suffices to show that we should be mistaken. The men who are usually spoken of as the "brains of the community" are of a very different type from University professors. They are men who maintain fair round bellies and expansive watch chains, who ride in automobiles and smoke imposing cigars. Clearly, University professors are not in this class. Where, then, shall we place those members of the community who make the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake their chief occupation? It may help us towards the solution of this weighty problem if we make a distinction between brains and intellect, and call such people as professors, philosophers, and poets the "intellect" of the community. We shall then have to define clearly what we mean by "brains," and what we mean by "intellect." "Brains" are what a man uses when he has some practical end in view, such as more money in his pocket, better food to eat, better clothes to wear; "intellect" deals with problems (usually classed as "academic") which have no immediate commercial value--such as whether the sun goes round the earth or the earth round the sun, or why an apple falls to the ground. "Brains" are generally admired, because everybody can see the results which they achieve; "intellect" is usually treated with neglect or indifference because it works in a sphere which is far out of range of the common vision.