52 LIFE AND HABIT. 



course is so clear as to be open to no further doubt, to 

 admit of no alternative, till the very power of question- 

 ing is gone, and even the consciousness of volition ? 

 And this too upon matters which, in earlier stages of a 

 man's existence, admitted of passionate argument and 

 anxious deliberation whether to resolve them thus or 

 thus, with heroic hazard and experiment, which on 

 the losing side proved to be vice, and on the winning 

 virtue. For there was passionate argument once what 

 shape a man's teeth should be, nor can the colour 

 of his hair be considered as even yet settled, or likely 

 to be settled for a very long time. 



It is one against legion when a creature tries to 

 differ from his own past selves. He must yield or 

 die if he wants to differ widely, so as to lack natural 

 instincts, such as hunger or thirst, or not to gratify 

 them. It is more righteous in a man that he should 

 " eat strange food," and that his cheek should " so 

 much as lank not," than that he should starve if 

 the strange food be at his command. His past selves 

 are living in him at this moment with the accumu- 

 lated life of centuries. "Do this, this, this, which 

 we too have done, and found our profit in it," cry the 

 souls of his forefathers within him. Faint are the far 

 ones, coming and going as the sound of bells wafted 

 on to a high mountain ; loud and clear are the near 

 ones, urgent as an alarm of fire. " Withhold," cry some. 

 " Go on boldly," cry others. " Me, me, me, revert hither- 

 ward, my descendant," shouts one as it were from some 

 high vantage-ground over the heads of the clamorous 

 multitude. " Nay, but me, me, me," echoes another ; 



