i.j DURATION 7 



an absurd hypothesis which is its own refutation. Even 

 so with regard to the moments of our life, of which we are 

 the artisans. Each of them is a kind of creation. And 

 just as the talent of the painter is formed or deformed — 

 in any case, is modified — under the very influence of the 

 works he produces, so each of our states, at the moment 

 of its issue, modifies our personality, being indeed the new 

 form that we are just assuming. It is then right to say 

 that what we do depends on what we are; but it is necessary 

 to add also that we are, to a certain extent, what we do, 

 and that we are creating ourselves continually. This 

 creation of self by self is the more complete, the more one 

 reasons on what one does. For reason does not proceed 

 in such matters as in geometry, where impersonal premisses 

 are given once for all, and an impersonal conclusion must 

 perforce be drawn. Here, on the contrary, the same 

 reasons may dictate to different persons, or to the same 

 person at different moments, acts profoundly different, 

 although equally reasonable. The truth is that they 

 are not quite the same reasons, since they are not those 

 of the same person, nor of the same moment. That is 

 why we cannot deal with them in the abstract, from out- 

 side, as in geometry, nor solve for another the problems 

 by which he is faced in life. Each must solve them from 

 within, on his own account. But we need not go more 

 deeply into this. We are seeking only the precise meaning 

 that our consciousness gives to this word "exist," and we 

 find that, for a conscious being, to exist is to change, to 

 change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself 

 endlessly. Should the same be said of existence in general? 



A material object, of whatever kind, presents opposite 

 characters to those which we have just been describing. 

 Either it remains as it is, or else, if it changes under the 



