98 PRODUCTION OF NATIONALITY 



legends of Greece, and see conscious and capricious 

 personality in the sun and moon, in stars and comets, 

 in clouds and storms, in rivers and springs ? Why 

 not ? I do not see any logical break in such an 

 extension of consciousness and purpose. But it is 

 the synthesis of poetry and not the calm observation 

 of science. 



The Bergsonian interpretation does nothing to 

 make consciousness and freedom more intelligible, 

 and by extending them from man, in whom we know 

 them to exist, to animals, in which their presence is 

 at best an inference, it not only robs them of defi nite- 

 ness and reality, but it blurs the real distinction 

 between men and animals, and evades the most 

 difficult problem of science and philosophy. The 

 facts are more truly represented by such phraseology 

 as that animals are instinctive, man is intelligent, 

 animals are irresponsible, man is responsible, animals 

 are automata, man is free, or if you like, that God 

 gave animals a beautiful body, man a rational soul. 

 The distinction is put most subtly in Mr. Maurice 

 Hewlett's Lore of Proserpine, in which deep insight 

 and wise psychology are presented as fair flowers of 

 parable. Mr. Hewlett is comparing the human mind 

 with the mind of a non-human being, mentally akin 

 with the animals : 



" We humankind, with our wits for ever turned 

 inward to ourselves, grieve or exult as we bid our- 

 selves ; she, like all other creatures else, was not 

 in that self- relation ; her parts were closer-knit and 

 could not separate to envisage each other. So, at 

 least, I read her . . . that she lived as she could and 

 as she must, neither looked back with regret nor 



