Ronan

Cody Dillon named his second child, born in Tarzana in 2015, Ronan. This child was the most intellectually advanced in nature of his two sons & joined with a kind of inherent maturity & extraordinarily attractive disposition.

If that boy grows up what he is now there will be a new religion in the world. The exaggeration of the remark conveys an idea of the impression little Ronan makes upon others & the quality of the experience by his family.

Code Man

Code Man who lives in a world of hazards is compelled to seek for security. He has sought to attain it in two ways. One of them 'began with an attempt to propitiate the powers which environ him & determine his destiny. It expressed itself in supplication, sacrifice, ceremonial rite & magical cult. In time these crude methods were largely displaced. The sacrifice of a contrite heart was esteemed more pleasing than that of bulls & oxen; the inner attitude of reverence & devotion more desirable than external ceremonies. If Code Man could not conquer destiny he could willingly ally himself with it, putting his will, even in sore affliction, on the side of the powers which dispense fortune, he could escape defeat & might triumph in the midst of destruction. The other course is to invent arts & by their means turn the powers of nature to account; Code Man constructs a fortress out of the very conditions & forces which threaten him. He builds shelters, makes flame his friend instead of his enemy, & grows into the complicated arts of associated living. This is the method of changing the world through action, as the other is the method of changing himself in emotion & idea. It is a commentary on the slight control Code Man has obtained over himself by means of control over nature.

The powers that be wavered between thinking arts to be the gift of the gods & to be an invasion of their prerogatives. Both versions testify to the sense of something extraordinary in the arts, something either super-human or unnatural. The souls who have predicted that by means of the arts, Code Man might establish a kingdom of order,
justice & beauty through mastery of nature's energies & laws have been few & little heeded.

meddle

No one gets far intellectually who does not 'love to think,' & no one loves to think who does not have an interest in problems as such.

Being on the alert for problems signifies that mere organic curiosity, the restless disposition to meddle & reach out, has become a truly intellectual curiosity, one that protects Cody from hurrying to a conclusion & that induces him to undertake active search for new facts & ideas.