RELIGION AND SCIENCE 269 



the same way as before birth our body grew not only 

 in size, but also in complexity of organization. 



Parts of experience or of inherited tendencies may 

 fail to become organically connected with the main 

 parts of our minds, simply because attention has never 

 been focussed on them, or has not attempted to bring 

 them into relation with the rest. They are, shall 

 we say, like bricks which might have been used in 

 a building, but have been left lying on the ground 

 by the workmen. 



Still more remarkable are the methods by which 

 harmony is achieved in the personal mind. It is 

 obvious that a conflict of any sort between parts of 

 the mind will waste energy, will prevent a clear-cut 

 reaction being given in either direction, and so con- 

 stitute a grave biological disadvantage by making us 

 fall between two stools. If a child gets a serious 

 fright in the dark, darkness will tend to arouse fear. 

 But darkness also comes with evening and with the 

 time for sleep. Two modes of reaction to darkness 

 are therefore given, and they are self-contradictory. 

 One part of the mind comes down its pathway to- 

 wards action, and finds itself met by another which 

 is coming along the same path in the opposite direc- 

 tion. If neither moves, there is a conflict ; in our 

 hypothetical case sleep is delayed ; and if it comes, 

 is disturbed by nightmares — the echoes of the fright 

 — and the childish organism suffers. 



Exactly similar conflicts in which fear plays a part 



