Space-ships And Time Machines Are No Escape

I Profoundly Admire Aldous Huxley, Both For His Philosophy And Uncompromising Sincerity. But I Disagree With His Advocacy Of 'the Chemical Opening Of Doors Into The Other World', And With His Belief That Drugs Can Procure 'what Catholic Theologians Call A Gratuitous Grace'. Chemically Induced Hallucinations, Delusions And Raptures May Be Frightening Or Wonderfully Gratifying; In Either Case They Are In The Nature Of Confidence Tricks Played On One's Own Nervous System.

As Modern Physics Started With The Newtonian Revolution, So Modern Philosophy Starts With What One Might Call The Cartesian Catastrophe. The Catastrophe Consisted In The Splitting Up Of The World Into The Realms Of Matter And Mind, And The Identification Of 'mind' With Conscious Thinking. The Result Of This Identification Was The Shallow Rationalism Of L' Esprit Cartesien, And An Impoverishment Of Psychology Which It Took Three Centuries To Remedy Even In Part.

The Moment Of Truth, The Sudden Emergence Of A New Insight, Is An Act Of Intuition.

To Sell Oneself For Thirty Pieces Of Silver Is An Honest Transaction; But To Sell Oneself To One S Own Conscience Is To Abandon Mankind.

The Creativity And Pathology Of The Human Mind Are, After All, Two Sides Of The Same Medal Coined In The Evolutionary Mint. The First Is Responsible For The Splendour Of Our Cathedrals, The Second For The Gargoyles That Decorate Them To Remind Us That The World Is Full Of Monsters, Devils, And Succubi.