From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



and even a primary part in man. They are the very 

 foundation of his being they make its essential charac- 

 teristics. Their manifestations are sufficiently latent 

 not to impede effort while sufficiently active to aid and 

 guide it. 



This marvellous equilibrium is rarely perfect. Most 

 men ignore these faculties too much, and leave them 

 lethargic. Others know them too well; they suffer 

 from the conscious inability to realise their highest 

 aspirations. 



This suffering is the price paid for genius. 



Ignorance of the past is as great a blessing as 

 ignorance of the present. Only the ideally evolved being 

 will find no drawback in knowing all the vast accumula- 

 tion of experiences sensations and emotions, efforts and 

 struggles, joys and pains, loves and hates, high and 

 low impulses, self-sacrificing or selfish acts all, in 

 fact, which has gone to build him up through the multiple 

 personalities which have each specialised in some 

 particular way. 



If the commonplace man had but a flash of this 

 knowledge he would be dumbfounded by it. His present 

 errors and anxieties are as much as he can bear. How 

 could he endure the weight of past troubles, of his follies 

 and meannesses, of the animal passions which have 

 swayed him, of the endless monotony of commonplace 

 lives, the regrets for privileged existences, and the 

 remorse for criminal ones. 



Oblivion, fortunately, allows hatreds and barren 

 passions to die down and equably loosens the links 

 which bind men too closely together and limit their 

 freedom of action. 



Remembrance of the past could but impede present 

 effort. 



Ignorance of the future is yet more indispensable 

 and salutary in the lower stages of the evolution of 

 consciousness. For the many, this ignorance is a great 



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