288 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



be studied to best advantage in the exploration of the secret 

 of Personality. We should, at any rate to begin with, select 

 the biographies of people who had real inner histories, lives 

 of the spirit, as well as a fair capacity of continuous develop- 

 ment during their lifetime. And among these the most help- 

 ful cases would be those where the written record is fairly 

 full in the form of writings and diaries, and where there was 

 no undue restraint in the process of self-revelation and faith- 

 ful portrayal of the inner life and history. On the whole, the 

 lives of poets, artists, writers, thinkers, religious and social 

 innovators will be found the most suitable for purposes of 

 holistic study. They are often people with inner lives and 

 interesting personalities, with an inner history of continuous 

 development; and wherever their experiences have been more 

 or less faithfully recorded, the materials for fruitful study are 

 present. Sometimes the personal record is missing, and in 

 such cases the study of the Personality through the works of 

 the author becomes too much a matter of inference to be 

 really useful, at any rate in the earlier stage of the inquiry 

 into Personality. Such a case, for instance, is that of 

 Shakespeare. His plays reveal behind them a wonderful 

 Personality endowed with the highest genius, and moving 

 forward in a continuous grand crescendo of self-development 

 as an artist from beginning to end. But while the develop- 

 ment is there, the Personality itself is too much hidden 

 behind the dramatic mask, and therefore too much a matter 

 of inference in the absence of proper personal records. In 

 other cases, again, the personal record is well and fully 

 known, but the written works are not sufficiently illuminating 

 as a true index of the growing Personality. For a man often 

 reveals himself more profoundly in his master products than 

 in his diaries or correspondence or other incidental com- 

 munications. Milton's great dictum holds for all time: *'A 

 good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, 

 embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond 

 life." There is nothing trivial in Personality, and the great- 

 est, most serious work is usually the most faithful index to 

 the Personality behind. Both are, in fact, required — the 



