Only that he was self-consecrated, and
anointed only in his heart. At last he was, so to speak, Haroun al
Raschid again, going unsuspected about the world, because the palace
of his security would not tell him the secrets of men's disorders.
He was no longer a creature of circumstances, he was kingly,
unknown, Alfred in the Camp of the Danes. In the great later
accumulations of his Research the personal matter, the
introspection, the intimate discussion of motive, becomes less and
less. He forgets himself in the exaltation of kingliness. He
worries less and less over the particular rightness of his definite
acts. In these later papers White found Benham abstracted, self-
forgetful, trying to find out with an ever increased self-
detachment, with an ever deepening regal solicitude, why there are
massacres, wars, tyrannies and persecutions, why we let famine,
disease and beasts assail us, and want dwarf and cripple vast
multitudes in the midst of possible plenty. And when he found out
and as far as he found out, he meant quite simply and earnestly to
apply his knowledge.
Pages:
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487