From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



it invented. From the springboard whence Life 

 took its leap, all the others failed to reach the bar; 

 Man alone has leaped high enough.' 



Is the human consciousness, thus formed and freed, 

 indestructible or does it cease at death ? 



To this grave question, which dominates all religions 

 and philosophies, M. Bergson merely replies: 



4 All Humanity is an immense army which 

 presses forward in Space and Time, before, behind, 

 and by the side of us all, in an impulsive charge that 

 can overcome every resistance and clear many an 

 obstacle, perhaps even death.' 



Such is the summary of M. Bergson's chief teaching. 

 We have now to discuss the method on which this 

 teaching is founded. 



M. Bergson's method for the solution of philoso- 

 phical problems is to appeal to the intuition and not to 

 the understanding. 



He allots to intelligence the task of finding solutions 

 of all problems which have to do with the relations of 

 the Self to the universe, and with the knowledge of 

 material and inorganic existence, nothing more. This 

 is the domain of science. 



As for the world of Life and the soul, it is amenable 

 neither to thought nor to scientific knowledge, but to 

 intuition. 



What, then, is intuition, according to M. Bergson ? 



The intuition is nothing else than instinct conscious 

 of itself, able to consider its purpose and enlarge that 

 purpose indefinitely. 



* If the consciousness which sleeps in instinct 

 were to awake; if it were to interiorise itself in 

 knowledge instead of exteriorising itself in action; if 



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