From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



past acquisitions, though these are for the most part 

 cryptoid. 



This has been demonstrated and there is no need 

 to go back to that demonstration. 



From the point of view treated of in this chapter, 

 which is the contrast between an optimist or a pessimist 

 concept of the universe, we have only to ask ourselves 

 whether the limitation of being, in and by reason of 

 material representation, is for the better or the worse. 

 We do not doubt that it is for the better. It is so if 

 we consider the whole being in his past, his present, 

 and his future. 



For the present, ignorance is an advantage. It is 

 necessary that a man should think his field of action 

 limited to the period between birth and death, 

 and that he should be ignorant in the main both 

 of his anterior acquisitions and of his latent 

 capacities. 



To begin with, the fear of death concurrently with 

 ignorance of the real position, is indispensable. Without 

 this salutary fear a man would not exert his best efforts 

 tn actual life. He would only too readily look for change. 

 Any check, or disease would be unendurable; suicide 

 would be of daily occurrence. 



Ignorance of anterior acquisitions is not less indis- 

 pensable. In its absence the man would have an 

 irresistible inclination to work always in the same 

 direction, to follow the line of least resistance. He 

 would hardly bend his mind to new tasks involving an 

 increase of labour, and would almost inevitably be led 

 into a one-sided evolution which would end in an 

 abnormal and hypertrophied specialisation. 



Ignorance of the faculties which are called trans- 

 cendental is a yet more imperative necessity; for the 

 regular, normal, and daily use of these faculties would 

 virtually eliminate effort. The workings of instinct are 

 exceedingly instructive on this point. Instinct is only 



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