The moral issue! Just look at it! Cultivation included. If it's a mere choice of Kultur or cultivation, I give it up. Which brings us right back to our question, what's wrong with Benjamin, that we can't stand him? Or else, what's wrong with us, that we find fault with such a paragon? Man is a moral animal. All right. I am a moral animal. And I'm going to remain such. I'm not going to be turned into a virtuous little automaton as Benjamin would have me. "This is good, that is bad. Turn the little handle and let the good tap flow," saith Benjamin and all America with him. "But first of all extirpate those savages who are always turning on the bad tap." I am a moral animal. But I am not a moral machine. I don't work with a little set of handles or levers. The Temperance-silence-order- resolution-frugality-industry-sincerity-justice-moderation-cleanliness- tranquillity-chastity-humility keyboard is not going to get me going. I'm really not just an automatic piano with a moral Benjamin getting tunes out of me. Here's my creed, against Benjamin's. This is what I believe: "_That I am I._" "_That my soul is a dark forest._" "_That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest._" "_That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into the clearing of my known self, and then go back._" "_That I must have the courage to let them come and go._" "_That I will never let mankind put anything over me, but that I will try always to recognize and submit to the gods in me and the gods in other men and women._" There is my creed. He who runs may read. He who prefers to crawl, or to go by gasoline, can call it rot. Then for a "list." It is rather fun to play at Benjamin. 1 TEMPERANCE Eat and carouse with Bacchus, or munch dry bread with Jesus, but don't sit down without one of the gods. 2 SILENCE Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot. 3 ORDER Know that you are responsible to the gods inside you and to the men in whom the gods are manifest. Recognize your superiors and your inferiors, according to the gods. This is the root of all order. 4 RESOLUTION Resolve to abide by your own deepest promptings, and to sacrifice the smaller thing to the greater. Kill when you must, and be killed the same: the must coming from the gods inside you, or from the men in whom you recognize the Holy Ghost. 5 FRUGALITY Demand nothing; accept what you see fit. Don't waste your pride or squander your emotion. 6 INDUSTRY Lose no time with ideals; serve the Holy Ghost; never serve mankind. 7 SINCERITY To be sincere is to remember that I am I, and that the other man is not me. 8 JUSTICE The only justice is to follow the sincere intuition of the soul, angry or gentle. Anger is just, and pity is just, but judgment is never just. 9 MODERATION Beware of absolutes. There are many gods. 10 CLEANLINESS Don't be too clean. It impoverishes the blood.