A Hymn to Intelligence

The Last Hope for Every Despair: the Only Reality in the Solitude of the Spinning Worlds

GIOVANNI PAPINI

FIRST of all things stands genius. But second only to it, is intelligence. On the whole face of the earth, nothing counts but intelligence. I admit only intelligence.

For me nothing exists but intelligence. Where there is no intelligence there is no place for me. Above all created things soars intelligence. In the beginning was intelligence. Bound and yoked to intelligence I accept every load, I bear all things. Intelligence is the motive power of every nation, the safe-conduct of every army, the artillery of every war. Now that Heaven has come down too near the earth, intelligence is the only divine force that is left unto us.

Without intelligence, stupidity itself would have no significance. Without intelligence the tongues of men would lose their cunning.

It is only the intelligent man who induces me to respect him. Respecting him, I respect myself. I can even come to love him. Loving him, I love myself.

Even if his body is deformed, if his face is repulsive or devilish, what matters it to me?

Even if his heart is icy and perfidious and there is no safety in his shadow, I do not reject him.

Even if he has committed the worst crimes, if he has killed his father and mother, his children and his brothers, still I will give him my hand.

Intelligence heals all, washes all, clears all, illumines all. I. willingly abandon goodness to the Buddhists and the heart to all the paralytic romancers and the sentimental "feuilletonistes." I will leave science to the Herrn Professoren, strength to the prize-fighters, sanctity to the yogi, riches to the profiteers, health to the athletes, lust to the "vieux marcheurs" and chastity to the chaste: intelligence suffices me.

I accept intelligence in exchange for all, but I will not give it for anything on earth. I live only through intelligence. I enjoy only through intelligence. I suffer only through intelligence. If you take intelligence from me, you remove the very reason for living.

First of all, genius. But immediately after it, intelligence—the only humanity of the new God.

The New Magnificat

INTELLIGENCE magnificent and miraculous, creator of heaven and earth.

Intelligence stupendous and tremendous, redeemer of humanity.

Intelligence omnipotent and invisible, sole giver of wings to us grovelling bipeds.

Intelligence satanic and malign—only red fire on the frozen white paradises of the myths.

Intelligence human and terrestrial—there is no power apart from thee.

Oh the rare happiness, so seldom known, of understanding, of comprehending all. Oh the joy inexpressible of conceiving, of knowing, of realizing, of seeing distinctly. Oh the perpetual delight of beholding things in a clear light, from above and below, from without and within, on all sides. Oh the intoxication of discovering resemblances and contacts between far-separated things and contrasts between very close ones.

Supreme ecstasy of invention and discovery. Oh acute pleasure of perceiving facts beneath words, contradictions in logic, bestiality in solemnity, pretense in the axiom, hidden meaning between the lines, wisdom in folly, shades in the tone of a discourse, and a thousand years to come in the beat of a second. Oh bitter and dangerous pride of knowing one's self intelligent among millions of fools!

Thou destroyest all, intelligence. Thy fang is venomous. Thou scorchest and levelest like the simoon. Thou takest us bodily and earnest us to the edge of the abyss, to the border of nothing, face to face with the void. Tinlight blindeth and bringeth darkness with it. Thou art a noontide that drowns us in the night. Thou removest the earth from under our feet, the air from our lungs, the blood from our veins. All things by thee are condemned, annihilated, dissolved. Before thee can endure neither the incantations of sentimentality ncr the dignity of science nor the fictions of religions nor the tales of philosophy nor the laws of society nor the most time-honored opinions. Thou wilt bury what thou broughtest forth; thou wilt unmake what thou hast made.

Destroyer and Preserver

AND yet, O terrible one, thou art the only strength of him who has no weaknesses, the only light of him who does not fear the darkness; the only substance to him who accepts no substances.

Thou showest the emptiness within, but gives! worth to all which lies without—destroyest the past but preparest the future, killest the comfortable serenity of the fools, but creates! the divine light-heartedness of the ultimate heroes.

With all thy venom thou art a medicine. With all thine hunger thou canst satisfy the millions of mankind. With all thy fierceness no other thing except thee smiles upon us.

Leave me not, intelligence. So long as I possess thee, so long as I am thee, I shall know that I live.

I want nothing but intelligence. I seek nothing but intelligence. I pity him who is not intelligent, I hate him who is not intelligent, I am in terror of him who is not intelligent.

Above all things stands genius—but second only to it, intelligence—last hope for every despair, only reality in the infinite solitude of the spinning worlds!