292 CREATIVE EVOLUTION 



non-existence and itself posit itself. It is for this 

 reason especially that it is inclined to endow true being 

 with a logical, and not a psychological nor a physical 

 existence. For the nature of a purely logical existence 

 is such that it seems to be self-sufficient and to posit 

 itself by the effect alone of the force immanent in 

 truth. If I ask myself why bodies or minds exist 

 rather than nothing, I find no answer ; but that a 

 logical principle, such as A = A, should have the power 

 of creating itself, triumphing over the nought through 

 out eternity, seems to me natural. A circle drawn 

 with chalk on a blackboard is a thing which needs 

 explanation : this entirely physical existence has not by 

 itself wherewith to vanquish non-existence. But the 

 &quot; logical essence &quot; of the circle, that is to say, the 

 possibility of drawing it according to a certain law 

 in short, its definition is a thing which appears to me 

 eternal : it has neither place nor date ; for nowhere, at 

 no moment, has the drawing of a circle begun to be 

 possible. Suppose, then, that the principle on which 

 all things rest, and which all things manifest possesses 

 an existence of the same nature as that of the definition 

 of the circle, or as that of the axiom A = A : the mystery 

 of existence vanishes, for the being that is at the 

 base of everything posits itself then in eternity, as 

 logic itself does. True, it will cost us rather a heavy 

 sacrifice : if the principle of all things exists after the 

 manner of a logical axiom or of a mathematical defini 

 tion, the things themselves must go forth from this 

 principle like the applications of an axiom or the con 

 sequences of a definition, and there will no longer be 

 place, either in the things or in their principle, for 

 efficient causality understood in the sense of a free 

 choice. Such are precisely the conclusions of a doctrine 



