"A PROPHET OF THE SOUL" 



a physical phenomenon as the lamp of the glow- 

 worm, or the sound of a clock when it strikes; and 

 the tremendous psychic effort which Bergson sees 

 in organic evolution would probably have appeared 

 to him and to others of the mechanistic school as 

 only a poetic dream. 



It is a philosophy that goes well with living things. 

 It is a living philosophy. In my own case it joins on 

 to my interest in outdoor life, in bird, in flower, in 

 tree. It is an interpretation of biology and natural 

 history in terms of the ideal. In reading it I am in 

 the concrete world of life, bathed in the light of the 

 highest heaven of thought. It exhilarates me like a 

 bath in the stream, or a walk on the hills. 



Those who go to Bergson for strictly scientific 

 conclusions will find bread where they were looking 

 for a stone; but those w^ho go to him in the spirit of 

 life will find life — will see him work a change in 

 scientific facts like that which life works in inorganic 

 matter. His method is always that of the literary 

 artist; and looking at the processes of organic evo- 

 lution through his eyes is like looking into the men- 

 tal and spiritual processes of a great creative artist. 

 Mr. Balfour mildly objects that the vital impulse as 

 Bergson reveals it has "no goal more definite than 

 that of acquiring an ever fuller volume of free crea- 

 tive activity." Sir Oliver Lodge replies that that is a 

 good enough goal. " Is it not the goal of every great 



artist?" 



203 



