EXFOLIATION 



" Creation's incessant unrest, exfoliation." 



Whitman. 



I THINK it may perhaps be agreed, once for 

 all, that the human mind is incapable of 

 really defining even the smallest fact of 

 nature. The simplest thing, or event, baffles 

 us at the last. It is like trying to look at the 

 front and back of a mirror at the same time. The 

 utmost squinting avails not. The ego and the 

 non-ego dance eluding through creation. To 

 catch them both in any mortal object and pin them 

 there, surpasses our powers. And yet they are 

 there. Montaigne quotes somewhere the words 

 of S. Augustine : Modus quo corporibus adhaerent 

 spiritus . . . omnino mirus est^ nee comprehendi 

 ab homine potest; et hoc ipse homo est. "The 

 manner whereby spirits adhere to bodies is alto- 

 gether wonderful, and cannot be conceived of by 

 men ; and yet this is man." Man himself 

 contains, or rather is, the reconcilement of 

 this and numberless other contradictions. We 

 actually every day perform and exhibit miracles 

 which the mental part of us is utterly powerless 



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