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some restraint, has proved to be a liberating one for criticism. But in its
pure form the idea may well be oppressive, being the product, as a rule,
of a covert arrogance.
It
is, in a sense, an argument beyond argument,
based on the doctrine that belief must precede understanding. The
doctrine is attractive at first, for we are all sometimes tired of conten–
tion and dispute, but is likely soon to become coercive and authoritar–
ian. This is an old story in intellectual and of course political history–
the promise of greater freedom than we have known lUrning into
something quite different. A critical view of such stories is always
worthwhile, not only to furnish a rational basis for resistance but also
to
prevent us in turn from saying complacently what we have long
known, that freedom works best in the complex middle ranges.
