Monday, February 9, 2009

The Curator of Thoughts

If a man with no scientific training were appointed as curator of specimens in the natural history museum, we can be sure that in his ignorance he would leave them in utter neglect and disarray. Imagine, then, how the man with no aesthetic training, the tasteless, uncultivated man, will fare when he is faced with the inevitable task of organizing the contents of his own mind. The display cases will be full of ugly and common passions, while rare, beautiful passions languish in an obscure back room. Commonplace gossip and thoughts about commerce will be carefully preserved in the specimen safe, while the genuinely significant thoughts that might have led to a deeper understanding of life and the world will end up among the refuse, discarded and forgotten.