152 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



tal organization; but when satisfaction is attained, 

 its very rarity brings with it a certain glow, an 

 irradiation of peculiarly pleasurable nature. Fur- 

 thermore, dissociation in most cases is not complete; 

 now and again, and especially when there is suc- 

 cessful sublimation — in some people when in love, 

 in others with religious ecstasy, in others again with 

 some form of art — now and again re-association of 

 the parts occurs, and there is an extraordinary sense 

 of the irruption of some vast beneficent force, some 

 great extra-personal flood of soul, into the meagre 

 stream of everyday life. The lives of a certain num- 

 ber of saints and ascetics, mystics and poets, abound 

 with phenomena of this sort; and apparently the 

 sense of value attaching to the occasional complete 

 attainment of such satisfactory states of the soul, 

 combined with the conscious daily quest for subli- 

 mation which is inevitable when the most important 

 part of the primitive emotions are repressed, is such 

 a vivid experience that it satisfies the mind and en- 

 ables such persons to carry on, and to do work some- 

 times of the highest value. 



On the other hand, men and women with this type 

 of mental development naturally tend to be un- 

 stable; they cannot be sure of their capacity, whether 

 for routine work or creative thought or spiritual ex- 

 perience, from day to day. Their mental life has a 

 tendency to wear thin, their sense of effort and strug- 

 gle to increase and lead to breakdown. It is in the 

 long run an unsatisfactory way of organizing the 



