X PERSONALITY AS A WHOLE 287 



external duties and activities. They may be able, com- 

 petent, conscientious men, they may even be brilliant men 

 of affairs, with great gifts of leadership. They may be 

 striking and impressive personalities and seem to be specially 

 endowed with that indefinable attribute of Personality for 

 which we are searching. And yet they are lacking in that 

 inwardness, that inner spiritual life which is the most favour- 

 able medium for the study of Personality. Their lives are 

 generally an affair of externals, of incidents and achieve- 

 ments, sometimes of pomp and glory, but largely devoid of 

 real deep personal interest. Their biographies are usually 

 dull and uninspiring, and the record and recital of activities, 

 successes and failures soon palls on the reader. The fact is 

 that the real indefinable quality of true Personality is inward 

 and is not reflected in the life of unrelieved externality which 

 such people live. They usually carry on the affairs of the 

 world with great competence; but they are too much of 

 the world. What is worse, they often consciously suppress 

 the life of the spirit; the still small voice is no asset to them 

 in the prosecution of their worldly affairs. And they are 

 far too cautious and reserved to give their inner selves away 

 and to afford the outside world glimpses into the world of 

 real motives influencing and guiding them. For them any 

 self-revelation would be something to be shy of, would 

 be like wearing their hearts on their sleeves. The result is 

 that the inner fires are securely banked, and the flame of the 

 spirit can only fitfully smoulder under the ashes. Even if 

 there is a strong personal life in such cases there is usually 

 no record of it, it remains entirely private and personal, 

 and often unknown even to the inner family circle, let alone 

 the scientific student who is dependent on written records, 

 constituting a continuous revelation of the spirit, for the 

 reliability of his conclusions. They may be and often are 

 people of outstanding personality, but the absence of the 

 inner life and of records of personal development make them 

 unsuitable material for the study of the problems of Person- 

 ality in its more significant aspects. 

 These remarks will serve to explain what sort of lives could 



