The Banned Lecture

splendidly described as horse sense—which comes from intimate wordless unintellectual communing with Nature (please do not take that word “ com- muning ” in any bad sense ; if it were not for Baldwin, I would be a Conservative myself)—the instinct of some people, who at the bottom of their hearts, did not so much believe in these phantasms. It was not so easy to get them to go out and murder a lot of inoffensive people at the word jump. They had to be supplied with something a little more tangible. You will notice how all this sort of argument is invariably of the ad captandum variety. It is pro- duced out of nowhere for a definite purpose ; and, as the French say, does not rime with anything. If it did, of course, it would immediately be exposed as nonsense. It is satisfied that nobody can disprove it any more than they can prove it. Take a concrete example. A nice young gentle- man the other day wanted (very properly) to earn his living, and not being peculiarly endowed by Nature in the matter of original invention, he thought he might make a story out of the idea of a Suicide Club. In this he was evidently correct. Robert Louis Stevenson had in fact proved the point. So he took Stevenson’s story and transferred it to Germany, and drivelled on about the ace of spades, and quoted statistics of suicides, and said that I was the president of the Club and that the Berlin police were after me. Now, I am afraid it would be a little bit difficult for anyone to prove that I am responsible for any suicides that may take place in Germany. But, on the other hand, it is quite impossible for me to dis- prove it. So now, if you want to attack anybody without the slightest fear of contradiction, you know how to set to work.