Granted that it is a great evil to mistake a cloud for a cape;
still, the cloud, which can be most easily mistaken for a cape,
is the cloud that is nearest the earth. Similarly, we may grant
that it may be dangerous to mistake an ideal for something practical.
But we shall still point out that, in this respect, the most
dangerous ideal of all is the ideal which looks a little practical.
It is difficult to attain a high ideal; consequently, it is almost
impossible to persuade ourselves that we have attained it.
But it is easy to attain a low ideal; consequently, it is easier
still to persuade ourselves that we have attained it when we
have done nothing of the kind. To take a random example.
It might be called a high ambition to wish to be an archangel;
the man who entertained such an ideal would very possibly
exhibit asceticism, or even frenzy, but not, I think, delusion.
He would not think he was an archangel, and go about flapping
his hands under the impression that they were wings.
But suppose that a sane man had a low ideal; suppose he wished
to be a gentleman. Any one who knows the world knows that in nine
weeks he would have persuaded himself that he was a gentleman;
and this being manifestly not the case, the result will be very
real and practical dislocations and calamities in social life.
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