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intellectual and physical equipment." Mr. Wilson only foresees objec–
tions to his plan from dewy-eyed defenders of "romantic love"
i
and
he presents his own idea with a jaunty iconoclasm that reveals his satis–
faction at rising superior to such sentimental nonsense. So far as "ro–
mantic love" represents a respect for the dignity of the individual,
however (his or her right to decide for himself one of the most im–
portant questions of life) it is by no means as ridiculous as Mr. Wilson
would have us believe. Of course it has degenerated into a Hollywood
cliche, and is susceptible, like all freedoms, of considerable abuse
i
but
here we may turn one of Mr. Wilson's arguments against himself. That
his own idea has led to the biological perversions of Hitlerism he does
not consider a decisive objection: a good idea can always be misused.
The same applies to "romantic love," with the addendum that it has
far less dangerous possibilities than Mr. Wilson's pseudo-scientific
"selection."
This, to be sure, is the most horrendous example of the scientist
riding roughshod over the iguana. But, though nothing so extreme oc–
curs again, there are other evidences scattered here and there of the
same tendency-for example when Mr. Wilson discusses the cause of
war. It is no longer the prize bulls that fascinate him here but the
birds, the bees, the butterflies and the ants; for he thinks (quite
wrongly) that modern philosophy tends to make man far too much
of a reasonable creature, and that, if we turn to entomology for en–
lightenment, we might be better able to understand our own actions.
As
a sample of such enlightenment, he paints this picture of the Ameri–
can state of mind in the early years of the second WorId War: "The
middle-aged newspaper reader sat at home with a certain complacency,
looking on while the Germans and the Russians were buzzing out at
one another, unaware that our high-flying American insects were itching
to buzz out, too; that the Japanese insects were itching, and that these
would soon give us a pretext
[?]
for taking part in the general field
day." So much for the tangle of passions and prejudices, interests and
ideals that lead human beings to go to war! To do Mr. Wilson justice,
one should add that this passage probably owes more to his incorrigible
isolationism than to any seriously held convictions about history. Cer–
tainly, as we know from his splendid essay on Lincoln, he has not
.written this way in the past about wars with whose issues he could
humanly identify himself.
Now that we have exhibited so much of Mr. Wilson the scientist,
it is only fair that we indicate those aspects of the present book where
his iguana side manages to hold its own. One of the iguana's most
impressive affirmations occurs in the shrewd and amusing sketch, "The
