Is not the education of the people regarded in many cases as a danger to society? Is not the creation of new laws, designed for ensuring the rights of all, considered monstrous? Now that human consciousness has developed, now that the will is being trained to righteousness, now that personal responsibility has entered our life conditions, and moral education has become rational, it is really strange to see people who claim intelligence, and who pass for well informed, accept the absurd prejudices in vogue. Women, it must be said, are for the most part hostile to progress. Through heredity, through habit, they take up prejudices with a fervour that deludes their superficial minds. Two pernicious elements, jealousy and envy, conduce to this. Prejudiced men are no less dangerous, for, being incapable of thinking for themselves, and not willing to think through others, they are unable to correct their own errors. My conclusion is that all slaves of prejudice should be compelled to live together, separated from the living and thinking world, until the day comes when, being no longer satisfied with themselves, they will begin to be endurable to others. JUDGMENT Judgment is the faculty of discrimination in ideas, of establishing a connection between the state of our conscience and reality. But as conscience varies according to the nature of social situations, it does not seem possible to apply a fixed rule to judgment, though it always requires affirmation. Whatever be the degree of judgment one possesses, one cannot exercise it in the case of others without first applying the precept, “Know thyself”--an ancient utterance which has lost a little in value since it has been handed down, without sincerity, from generation to generation. This precept is, nevertheless, held in honour by the finer spirits, for it is obvious that the appeal to our conscience should be placed above all others. Without this, as Nicati says, “the man who forgets to examine himself, and whose personality is effaced thereby, counts for less than the inert matter whose very resistance constitutes personality.” He who lives according to his conscience, and after his own moral laws, may be satisfied. When he comes to judge himself, he knows that his life has been passed in the observance of his own personal principles. We must, then, seek in ourselves a standard of judgment, remembering the beautiful words of Thomas à Kempis: “Turn thine eyes unto thyself, and beware thou judge not the deeds of other men. In judging of others, a man laboureth in vain, often erreth, and easily sinneth; but in judging and discussing of himself, he always laboureth fruitfully.”