218 HUMANISM xn 



whether they are pessimistic enough to renounce all ideals 

 altogether, it is tJieir notion and not that of evepyeta which 

 involves a fundamental paradox. 



But, as before, let us test the rival interpretations 

 by examining consciousness in the moment immediately 

 preceding its hypothetical fixation. It would have to 

 be reached, of course, by a progressive development of 

 consciousness in fulness and intensity and power of atten 

 tion, and by the gradual suppression of all interruptions and 

 discords. There can be no doubt, therefore, that it would 

 be consciousness of a very high order, i.e., a contemplation, 

 most pleasant and unimpeded, of whatsoever most delights 

 the soul. If now we eliminate the last faint source of 

 trouble and unrest and disturbance, the last distraction 

 which prevented us from concentrating our attention 

 wholly upon what most it loves to dwell upon, why should 

 consciousness go out rather than go on ? Will it not 

 become rather absolutely constant and continuous, and 

 remain conscious sensu eminentiori ? 



VI 



An Activity void of Motion then is conceivable, if 

 only we will make an effort to see through the confusions 

 of our vulgar view. Nay, in the end it would seem that it 

 alone was conceivable as the ideal of Being. 



For of the alternatives none are ultimately thinkable. 

 The conception of Becoming, as philosophers have been 

 driven to recognise from Parmenides to Hegel, is infected 

 with insoluble contradictions, which disappear only if we 

 follow Aristotle in conceiving it as essentially imperfect, as 

 evepyeia areXrjS. To do this renders it intelligible, for we 

 can then regard all the processes we actually observe as 

 pointing forward to an ideal of a perfectly and equably 

 self-sustaining activity, to attain which would relieve them 

 of their contradictions. 



The ideal of Rest, on the other hand, is wholly illusory: 

 there is no rest anywhere attainable for the virtuous any 

 more than for the wicked. It is non-existent as a fact, 



