EXPERIENCE AND IDEALISM 223 



the value projected as end, remains inert, helpless, 

 sentimental, without means of realization. Re 

 sembling cases and anticipation, memory and ideal 

 ization, are the corresponding terms in which a 

 present experience has its transitive force analyzed 

 into reciprocally pertinent means and ends. 



That an experience will change in content and 

 value is the one thing certain. How it will change 

 is the one thing naturally uncertain. Hence the 

 import of the art of reflection and invention. Con 

 trol of the character of the change in the direcfion 

 of the worthful is the common business of theory 

 and practice. Here is the province of the episodic 

 recollection of past history and of the idealized 

 foresight of possibilities. The irrelevancy of an 

 objective idealism lies in the fact that it totally 

 ignores the position and function of ideality in 

 sustained and serious endeavor. Were values auto 

 matically injected and kept in the world of ex 

 perience by any force not reflected in human mem 

 ories and projects, it would make no difference 

 whether this force were a Spencerian environment 

 or an Absolute Reason. Did purpose ride in a 

 cosmic automobile toward a predestined goal, it 

 would not cease to be physical and mechanical in 

 quality because labeled Divine Idea, or Perfect 

 Reason. The moral would be &quot; let us eat, drink, 

 and be merry,&quot; for to-morrow or if not this to 

 morrow, then upon some to-morrow, unaffected by 



