From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



even revolts against it; it breaks the links that would 

 otherwise keep him within the associations of this, the 

 single life he has last quitted and within the limitations 

 of which he has last received impressions. 



Doubtless this rupture is painful; it cuts him off 

 roughly from his customary habits and affections; but 

 this relative and reparable sacrifice is indispensable to 

 progress. 



The rupture, moreover, is far from being always 

 an evil, for while it deprives him of his power of action 

 for good, it also removes him from occasions of jealousy, 

 hatred, disease, and impotence, or even from an environ- 

 ment in which his development is impeded. It obliges 

 him to relinquish along with the worn-out body, the 

 habits which have become a sterile routine. 



Another seeming evil of the same kind as death is 

 the ignorance by incarnate man of his real position and 

 his oblivion of past lives. Like death this ignorance 

 and oblivion are essential conditions of evolutionary 

 progress. 



What is true of death and ignorance is true of all evils. 



It cannot be too strongly emphasised that under the 

 palingenetic scheme, evil loses the absolute and irreparable 

 character which makes it so unbearable. By the light 

 of this idea the earth that vale of pain and tears takes 

 on quite another aspect. 



Doubtless pain is still present everywhere, but 

 permanent pain has vanished. There are no more 

 hopeless disasters. As there is no annihilation so also 

 there is no final evil in palingenetic evolution. There 

 are evil lives as there are bad days in a single life; but 

 in the total, good and evil fortune fairly balance and 

 are more or less equal for all. 



Henceforward the cause and the function of evil 

 is perfectly understandable. Evil does not arise from 

 the will, nor the impotence, nor the want of foresight 

 of a responsible Creator. 



320 



