92 The Concept of MetJiod 



definitely made and freed from much of that uncertainty which 

 the personal equation always introduces. Still, from the indi- 

 vidual's point of view, as long as there is external or objective 

 control, there can be no true freedom. This comes only when we 

 have passed from the stage of self-consciousness and criticism 

 to that of guidance by principle, in which each act of ours is the 

 manifestation or realisation of the spirit that is within us. Prac- 

 tice and theory are in organic interaction, and this interaction is 

 synonymous with the method of individual experience. Activity 

 that is thus directed by the control of inner principle is truly 

 free, for now the antithesis between individual and the law, be- 

 tween the actual and the ideal is reconciled in a unity which is 

 nothing else than the spiritual life of man. The individual is 

 now a self-controlled personality — an organism in which there is 

 the possibility of perfect harmony, and in which at the same 

 time there is going on in miniature that reconciliation of the many 

 changing manifestations with the unity of principles which we 

 see going on in all the phases of the life of the world. This 

 freedom of personality is then one of the characteristics of the 

 method of individual experience at the highest stage of its de- 

 velopment. Control that was external has now become self- 

 control. The standard once external, mechanical, and objective, 

 has now become internal, organic, subjective, and exercises its 

 control only in being the form in which individual activity realises 

 itself. In the ideal of method, the ideal and the real of individual 

 experience form a unity ; the method and the standard become 

 one, or are at least but terminal aspects of a unified activity, the 

 content and the form giving reality to one another in the actual 

 process of interaction. The standard then is the method, and 

 the method is the standard ; in the activity of a self-controlled 

 spiritual personality the distinction between the two terms loses 

 its meaning. That is the reason why it is difficult, if not impos- 

 sible, to give an adequate definition of control. The relativity of 

 the terms of the definition corresponds to the degree of our per- 

 sonal realisation of the factor of control in the method of our 

 own experience. 



In the control of our activities by standards or criteria, there 

 are three stages which may be distinguished : 



(i) Instinctive or unconscious control by physical instincts and 

 needs. The control in this case is inherent in the nature of the 



