2 1 2 The Awakening of Personality [CH. 



little relation with fishes. None the less we can see that 

 there is some relation; some of the tenuous threads do 

 link their destinies. Neither, for instance, could exist 

 if the radiant energy of the sun were withdrawn. Bees 

 are connected with other arthropods, and arthropods do 

 impinge upon the perimeter of fish-experience. The 

 universe does, in fact, evince a certain unity. 



Nevertheless for practical reasons we treat systems as 

 closed or isolable. There is a harmony or adjustment 

 between the systems, but for many purposes we can 

 neglect it. In dealing with ultimate issues we cannot. 

 Each system is nearly closed, but there is a way of 

 escape. A process of evolution is actually going on in 

 the whole as well as in each part. 



Now the isolation of a system represents the deter- 

 mination necessary for stability ; its openness, the possi- 

 bility of progress. As we have so often said, freedom can 

 only emerge from a basis of determination. We human 

 beings, with our self-determined actions, could not get 

 on at all if we could not rely on the nature of the effect 

 which some given action would produce. In the long 

 run, self-determination becomes the predominant factor 

 in life. We choose to do a thing, and do it. But our self- 

 determination is rational and proceeds orderly. We get 

 into tune with a larger harmony. As we have seen, this 

 harmony depends on the personal nature of God and of 

 ourselves, and represents the self-limitation which is 

 expressed in interpenetration. You cannot win to 

 fellowship without finding your self in self-loss. You 

 can only gain your life in losing it. Personality is a 

 system at once open and closed closed, in that it is 

 established in perfect reciprocity and completely satis- 

 fying experience; open, in that it perpetually craves 

 that others should share that experience, and, acting on 

 this, perpetually expands. 



Let us take an analogy to illustrate further the parts 



