Page:Edward Prime-Stevenson - The Intersexes.djvu/578

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The Accent of
Aesthetics
Rather Than
of Ethics in
Uranians.

Moreover the student remarks that, admitting all more solidly valuable traits and of Ethics in gifts of the Uranian, he tends to shine brightest most frequently in merely what is æsthetic, ornamental, superficially intellectual; rather than in the deepest mental or highest ethical life. Certainly now and then we find the example that counts for much in ethics. Some Uranians are ethically on a supreme human plane. But intellectually great, superbly gifted, the Uranian tends to be not morally well-poised, not morally aggressive, not altruistic. The Uranian susceptibility in fact seems a part of the unsolveable riddle of the moral value of the Beautiful in our human life; of the eternal duel between our merely human ideals of Beauty and of Good.

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The question of the Uraniad as tending—at her best—to present an advance toward a superior and idealized development of humanity has naturally largely the same aspects, pro and contra, as in the case of. the Uranian. The transference of the problem to the feminine Intersex has however many considerations that cannot find place in the present study.

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The Uranian
Himself, as
Arbiter?

To put our query to some experienced, thoughtful, dispassionate and philosophic Uranian is not to be much enlightened. Such a type is most conservative—often. He too is likely to be gravely asking "—What is my place in the plan of Humanity?" He too reflects; and more than he asserts. Many Uranians of course never think about the matter at all; and those who do think the most are in disaccord. An extravagant confidence of being close in touch with the much-talked of "Overman," "Over-Soul" of human superiority, will be met from one enthusiast; and the humility of doubt, if not sharp deprecation, from some other intersexual equally reflective.

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