§ 50

Action and reaction are inevitable. Extended activities lead to complications and concentrated action to simplicity. Thus men, inclined towards quiet more than to jostle in the crowd, find it necessary to retire to find peace to work out their destinies, and in groups—in groups because continued solitude is paralysing, as much to mental as physical activity. There be men who are born in scholarship whose intuition is to research, they are the vessels that hold learning, but not seldom they pour it out with difficulty. They give it out drop by drop; they are to a nation what foundations are to a building. In a sense they are passive. History, Archæology, indeed, all the ologies, Art in its various branches, and Science in hers, cannot get along without silent strenuous workers who are as disinterested a race as our social system provides. Mostly poor, they live in solitude, receiving little encouragement. If they happened to have a small steady income it was heavily taxed. What with income, super-taxes and rates, what remained of small income, at the best, was reduced to less than that of an unskilled labourer. The New Communes seek these valuable men, who, when found, are presented with a “living wage.” Thus, some of the most valuable servants of the State are, at least, placed upon a financial basis with unskilled labour.