The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent and Other Essays

The volume consists of five essays unified by the author’s concern with “the moral use” of intelligence. The opening essay, “The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent,” develops the central argument that intelligence is a virtue and that ethical conduct requires inquiry, discrimination, and responsibility for consequences. “The Call to Service” applies this moral framework to public duty and the relation between individual ideals and social responsibility. “The Mind of Shakspere” considers literary intelligence through the case of Shakespeare, arguing that the poet’s proper intelligence may operate through artistic faculty rather than explicit philosophy. “Magic and Wonder in Literature” examines the value of imaginative wonder, showing how literature enlarges experience beyond ordinary rational limits without abandoning meaning. “Immortal Things,” printed in this edition for the first time, extends the book’s thesis toward remembrance, permanence, and the values that survive through cultural and moral continuity. The author’s note states that the essays, in different ways, set forth one theme: the use of intelligence to make admiration and loyalty “more sensible and more noble.”