When, again, it came to the time when the Property question became
acute, and we attempted to solve it by a Civil War, although Dr.
Linister adhered to his determination not to leave his laboratory, his
sympathies were always with individualism. Nay, he never disguised his
opinion, but was accustomed regularly to set it forth at our Council
meetings in the House of Life--that the abolition of property and
the establishment of the perfect Socialism were the greatest blows
ever inflicted upon civilization. It is not, however, civilization
which the College advances, but Science--which is a very different
thing--and the Scientific End of Humanity. The gradual extinction of
all the emotions--love, jealousy, ambition, rivalry--Dr. Linister
maintained, made life so poor a thing that painless extinction would be
the very best thing possible for the whole race. It is useless to point
out, to one so prejudiced, the enormous advantage gained in securing
constant tranquillity of mind. He was even, sometimes, an advocate for
the revival of fighting--fighting, the old barbarous way of settling
disputes, in which lives were thrown away by thousands on a single
field. Nor would he ever agree with the majority of the House that the
only End of Humanity is mere existence, at which Science should always
aim, prolonged without exertion, thought, care, or emotion of any kind.
In fact, according to the contention of my followers and myself, the
Triumph of Science is as follows: The Philosopher finds a creature,
extremely short-lived at the best, liable to every kind of disease
and suffering from external causes, torn to pieces from within by all
kinds of conflicting emotions; a creature most eager and insatiate
of appetite, fiery and impetuous, quarrelsome and murderous, most
difficult to drive or lead, guided only by its own selfish desires,
tormented by intellectual doubts and questions which can never be
answered. The Philosopher works upon this creature until he has moulded
it into another so different that no one would perceive any likeness to
the original creature. The new creature is immortal; it is free from
disease or the possibility of disease; it has no emotions, no desires,
and no intellectual restlessness. It breathes, eats, sleeps.
Such is my idea of Science Triumphant. It was never Dr. Linister's.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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