298 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



^formed and incomplete personality; the strong character 

 from the weak; the master of his fate from him who is blown 

 about by every wave of impulse or opinion. In the latter 

 case — the case of the weak, or flabby, or irresolute person — 

 you have usually the same elements of character as in that of 

 the strong man. But the difference is that while in the case 

 of the strong man or personality all these elements are uni- 

 fied into one central whole which shapes and directs their 

 separate activities, in the case of the weak man these ele- 

 ments of thought, emotion, will and passion have never been 

 harmonised or fused into one whole; the sovereign legisla- 

 tive and executive authority in the personality has never 

 been properly constituted or exerted, or is so weak as to be 

 regularly disobeyed and defied; the unorganised and unco- 

 ordinated factions in the character fight for their own hand 

 and keep up a constant state of inner warfare in the person- 

 ality, with the result that the stronger passions or impulses 

 carry the day and ruin the character, which depends on a 

 harmonious subordination of all the various elements of 

 character under one supreme ethical authority. The inner 

 discord may even proceed the length of apparent dissocia- 

 tion of the personality and lead to the singular phenomenon 

 of multiple personality in the same individual. 



In proportion as a personality really becomes such, it 

 acquires more of the character of wholeness; body and mind, 

 intellect and heart, will and emotions, while not separately 

 repressed but on the contrary fostered and developed, are 

 yet all collectively harmonised and blended into one in- 

 tegral whole; the character becomes more massive, the 

 entire man becomes more of a piece; and the will or con- 

 scious rational direction, which is not a separate agency 

 hostile to these individual factors, but the very root and 

 expression of their joint and harmonious action, becomes 

 more silently and smoothly powerful; the wear and tear 

 of internal struggle disappears; the friction and waste which 

 accompany the warfare in the soul are replaced by peace and 

 unity and strength; till at last the Personality stands forth 

 in its ideal purity, integrity and wholeness. And through 



