The Cell Door Slammed Behind

In My Youth I Regarded The Universe As An Open Book, Printed In The Language Of Equations, Whereas Now It Appears To Me As A Text Written In Invisible Ink, Of Which In Our Rare Moments Of Grace We Are Able To Decipher A Small Segment.

The Principle Mark Of Genius Is Not Perfection But Originality, The Opening Of New Frontiers.

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.

If Conquerors Be Regarded As The Engine-drivers Of History, Then The Conquerors Of Thought Are Perhaps The Pointsmen Who, Less Conspicuous To The Traveler's Eye, Determine The Direction Of The Journey.

Modern Man Lives Isolated In His Artificial Environment, Not Because The Artificial Is Evil As Such, But Because Of His Lack Of Comprehension Of The Forces Which Make It Work- Of The Principles Which Relate His Gadgets To The Forces Of Nature, To The Universal Order. It Is Not Central Heating Which Makes His Existence 'unnatural,' But His Refusal To Take An Interest In The Principles Behind It. By Being Entirely Dependent On Science, Yet Closing His Mind To It, He Leads The Life Of An Urban Barbarian.