"
There is a pernicious ambiguity in the use of the term
_subjective_. We say, in accordance with the general view I have
stated, that the single soul feels its right to be no longer
confounded with numbers, but itself to sit in judgment on history and
literature, and to summon all facts and parties before its tribunal.
And in this sense the age is subjective.
But, in all ages, and now more, the narrow-minded have no
interest in anything but its relation to their personality. What
will help them to be delivered from some burden, eased in some
circumstance, flattered, or pardoned, or enriched, what will help to
marry or to divorce them, to prolong or to sweeten life, is sure of
their interest, and nothing else. Every form under the whole heaven
they behold in this most partial light or darkness of intense
selfishness, until we hate their being. And this habit of
intellectual selfishness has acquired in our day the fine name of
subjectiveness.
Nor is the distinction between these two habits to be found in
the circumstance of using the first person singular, or reciting
facts and feelings of personal history.
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