A Mixture of Genius
Page 5
intelligence, andadaptability. And most rigidly adhered to of all had been theprovision that the applicant be over the age of twenty-five. For,above all, it was assumed, a colonist must be mature.
And in that assumption, Duran concluded, had been hidden the fallacywhich had made a fiasco of the project. For was not maturity largely amatter of finding an acceptable place for oneself in the scheme ofthings? Was not maturity essentially a realistic, but whollyirrevocable, resignation? If so, it had been inevitable that those whocame to volunteer would, for the most part, be the misfits and themalcontents, men who hoped to escape the imagined or to find theimaginary.
The mature, the resigned, had assuredly inherited the earth. Only theyoung could seek the stars.
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