"From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



of the former. " Consciousness " or " Supercon- 

 sciousness " is the rocket whose extinguished remains 

 fall to earth as Matter. 



' Under what metaphor is the course of the 

 evolution of the universe presented to us ? Not 

 that of a deductive flow, nor of a series of stationary 

 pulsations, but as a fountain, which, expanding as 

 it rises, partially arrests or delays the drops which 

 fall back. The jet itself the reality disclosed is 

 the vital activity of which spiritual activity is the 

 highest form; and the drops that fall back 

 are the creative movement which descends with 

 its reality dissipated they represent Matter and 

 Inertia.' 



According to M. Bergson, * Matter is defined as a 

 species of descent; this descent is defined as the inter- 

 ruption of an ascent, the ascent itself as a growth, and 

 thus a creative principle is inherent in all things.' 1 

 We are then faced with the question of origin. How 

 can the universe have come from nothing ? How can 

 that which is have sprung from the void, from that 

 which is not ? 



According to M. Bergson that question should not 

 be asked. 



* The idea of nothingness in the sense of being 

 an opposite to existence, is a pseudo-idea.' In 

 fact, * nothingness is unthinkable, for to think of 

 " nothing " is necessarily to think in some way; 

 the representation of the void is always the repre- 

 sentation of a -plenum, which can be analysed into 

 two positive elements the idea, more or less distinct, 

 of a substitution ; and the sensation, real or imagined, 

 of a desire or a regret.' 



Hence ' the idea of absolute nothingness (under- 

 stood in the sense of the abolition of everything) is 



M. le Roy : Ibid. 



166 



