Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

88 Crabbed Age and Yottth
It is not possible to keep the mind in a state
of accurate balance and blank ; and even if
you could do so, instead of coming ultimately
to the right conclusion, you would be very
apt to remain in a state of balance and blank
to perpetuity. Even in quite intermediate
stages, a dash of enthusiasm is not a thing
to be ashamed of in the retrospect : if St.
Paul had not been a very zealous Pharisee,
he would have been a colder Christian. For
my part, I look back to the time when I was
a Socialist with something like regret. I have
convinced myself (for the moment) that we
had better leave these great changes to what
we call great blind forces : their blindness
being so much more perspicacious than the
little, peering, partial eyesight of men. I
seem to see that my own scheme would not
answer ; and all the other schemes I ever
heard propounded would depress some ele-
ments of goodness just as much as they
encouraged others. Now I know that in
thus turning Conservative with years, I am
going through the normal cycle of change