ii] The Triunity of Man 65 



by the environment created by others. Thus he is, in a 

 sense, both father and son. 



He also inspires and indwells matter, both in his own 

 body, in which he gives matter a sacramental meaning, 

 and in the external matter of which he makes a tool, 

 whether it be hammer or arrow, or a rock-chimney or 

 tree up which he climbs in pursuit of some aim. What- 

 ever he does, he for the moment makes external 

 matter part of his body, subserving his desires. He 

 makes it, too, sacramental. This he does of the motion 

 of his own will acting with some degree of freedom. He 

 is creative, he is begotten; and with his whole nature, 

 begotten and creative, he indwells determinate matter 

 making it subserve his free ends. 



Let us next analyse these three conceptions more in 

 detail, as the fatherhood, sonship and freedom of man. 



The idea of fatherhood is creative, but is not merely 

 creative. Will and direction and love come in. Mere 

 parentage, of course, is not fatherhood at all. One 

 could not speak of a father-snail in anything but a 

 metaphorical sense. Unintelligent cooperation in the 

 production of a small jelly in which a number of fertile 

 cells are embedded is not fatherhood 1 . Even higher up, 

 among birds for example, where parenthood includes an 

 element of direction or care, and apparent affection 

 (the reality of which is however open to considerable 

 doubt) , there is no true fatherhood. Not mere creation, 

 whether of environment or new individual, is required, 

 but purposive creation. Fatherhood is the expanding 

 of the self into wider circles of influence. It recognises 

 others and seeks to share its experience with them. 

 Itself becoming, it influences the becoming of others. 



1 As a matter of fact the production of the jelly is not strictly 

 and directly the father's doing at all, and it is anyhow a secondary 

 adaptation; but one must include motherhood as an essential 

 component of the creative act we call fatherhood. 



MCD. 5 



