

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN LIFE 55 



way a history of conflict, of which no trace has 

 appeared at any earlier point in natural history. The 

 struggle between individuals has not disappeared, but 

 a struggle within the individual life occurs, which has 

 never been visible in the history of any inferior order 

 of life. 



A new problem noiv arises, an urgent practical 

 problem for the individual, destined by and by to give 

 complexity to the scientific problem. The duality 

 remarked, sets the physical in some degree over 

 against the rational. This is the key to the struggle 

 in the life of the individual. Physical movement has 

 its own origin, and its distinct measurable force. 

 The rational movement has its origin quite indepen 

 dently of the physical. Contact with external objects, 

 sensory experience, muscular power, opportunity for 

 action, remain in all respects as with the animal. 

 But thought has a growing power in the history ot 

 human activity which has now become complex, by 

 intermixture of physical and rational exercise. There 

 is one life, but a duality of power within it; one 

 continuous course of activity, but a duality within that 

 also. The physical precedes the mental; and again, 

 the mental precedes the physical. The conditions 

 of activity are thus greatly enlarged in human life, 

 and that by appearance of a new and higher power ; 

 not a mere adjunct expanding to greater amplitude 

 the power already working, but power which takes 

 control of that already acting, and this to such a 

 degree as in many cases to check, and greatly to 

 restrain, appetite and passion. Human experience 

 cannot be described in terms of less complexity, such 

 as expansion of sensibility, or increased variety in the 



