THE RESEARCH MAGNIFICENT


THE PRELUDE

ON FEAR AND ARISTOCRACY


1

The story of William Porphyry Benham is the story of a man who was
led into adventure by an idea. It was an idea that took possession
of his imagination quite early in life, it grew with him and changed
with him, it interwove at last completely with his being. His story
is its story. It was traceably germinating in the schoolboy; it was
manifestly present in his mind at the very last moment of his
adventurous life. He belonged to that fortunate minority who are
independent of daily necessities, so that he was free to go about
the world under its direction. It led him far. It led him into
situations that bordered upon the fantastic, it made him ridiculous,
it came near to making him sublime. And this idea of his was of
such a nature that in several aspects he could document it. Its
logic forced him to introspection and to the making of a record.

An idea that can play so large a part in a life must necessarily
have something of the complication and protean quality of life
itself. It is not to be stated justly in any formula, it is not to
be rendered by an epigram. As well one might show a man's skeleton
for his portrait. Yet, essentially, Benham's idea was simple. He
had an incurable, an almost innate persuasion that he had to live