Form: a quarterly of the arts (1.1916/1917)

TRIVIA

By L. PEARSALL SMITH

i. 3Jttfectton*

OW on earth is one
to keep free of those
mental microbes that
worm-eat people’s
brains,those theories,
enthusiasms and in-
fectious doctrines that
one is always liable
to catch from what seem the most innocuous
contacts ? People go about simply laden with
germs; they breathe creeds and convictions on you
whenever they open their mouths. Wherewithal
then shall a young man cleanse his way—how
shall he keep his mind immune from theosophical

speculations and novel schemes of salvation? How
can he be sure that he won’t be suddenly struck
down by the fever of funerals or of Spelling Re-
form, or take to his bed with a new Sex Theory?

But is this struggle for mental immunity, for
a healthy mind in a maggoty universe, after all
really worth while ? Are there not soporific dreams
and sweet deliriums more soothing than Reason?
If transmigation can make clear the dark problem
of Evil; if Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy can free us from
the dominion of Death; if the belief that Bacon
wrote Shakespeare gives a peace that the world
cannot give, why pedantically reject their kindly
solace? Why not be led with the others by still
waters, and be made to lie down in green pastures?

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