But these are especially adapted to being set in opposition to a list of mechanical inventors that might be called realists by contrast: the Wright brothers, and H.Pierpont Langley, Thomas A.Edison, Charles Steinmetz, John Hays Hammond, Hudson Maxim, Graham Bell.
The prophet-wizards are of various schools.

But they have a common tendency and character in bringing forth a type of art peculiarly at war with the realistic civilization science has evolved.

It is one object of this chapter to show that, when it comes to a clash between the two forces, the wizards should rule, and the realists should serve them.
The two functions go back through history, sometimes at war, other days in alliance.

The poet and the scientist were brethren in the centuries of alchemy.

Tennyson, bearing in mind such a period, took the title of Merlin in his veiled autobiography, Merlin and the Gleam.
Wizards and astronomers were one when the angels sang in Bethlehem, "Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men." There came magicians, saying, "Where is he that is born king of the Jews, for we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him ?" The modern world in its gentler moments seems to take a peculiar thrill of delight from these travellers, perhaps realizing what has been lost from parting with such gentle seers and secular diviners.