iv.) FORM AND BECOMING 307 



character of knowledge form itself on that of action, 

 while expecting that the detail of each act should depend 

 in its turn on that of knowledge. In order that action 

 may always be enlightened, intelligence must always be 

 present in it; but intelligence, in order thus to accompany 

 the progress of activity and ensure its direction, must 

 begin by adopting its rhythm. Action is discontinuous, 

 like every pulsation of life; discontinuous, therefore, is 

 knowledge. The mechanism of the faculty of knowing 

 has been constructed on this plan. Essentially practical, 

 can it be of use, such as it is, for speculation? Let us try 

 with it to follow reality in its windings, and see what will 

 happen. 



I take of the continuity of a particular becoming a 

 series of views, which I connect together by "becoming 

 in general." But of course I cannot stop there. What 

 is not determinable is not representable: of "becoming 

 in general" I have only a verbal knowledge. As the 

 letter x designates a certain unknown quantity, what- 

 ever it may be, so my "becoming in general," always 

 the same, symbolizes here a certain transition of which 

 I have taken some snapshots; of the transition itself 

 it teaches me nothing. Let me then concentrate myself 

 wholly on the transition, and, between any two snap- 

 shots, endeavor to realize what is going on. As I apply 

 the same method, I obtain the same result; a third view 

 merely slips in between the two others. I may begin 

 again as often as I will, I may set views alongside of views 

 for ever, I shall obtain nothing else. The application of 

 the cinematographical method therefore leads to a perpet- 

 ual recommencement, during which the mind, never able to 

 satisfy itself and never finding where to rest, persuades 

 itself, no doubt, that it imitates by its instability the very 

 movement of the real. But though, by straining itself 



