126 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



We care for praise in the exact measure in which 

 we feel not sure of having succeeded ; it is because 

 we want to be reassured as to our own value and 

 as to the value of what we have done that we seek 

 praise and prize glory. But he who is certain, 

 absolutely certain, that he has brought a living 

 work to the birth, cares no more for praise and 

 feels himself beyond glory, because there is no 

 greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creator. 

 If, then, in every province, the triumph of life is 

 expressed by creation, ought we not to think that 

 the ultimate reason of human life is a creation 

 which, in distinction from that of the artist or man 

 of science, can be pursued at every moment and 

 by all men alike ; I mean the creation of self by 

 self, the continual enrichment of personality by 

 elements which it does not draw from outside, but 

 causes to spring forth from itself? 



May we not therefore suppose that the passage 

 of consciousness through matter is destined to 

 bring to precision, in the form of distinct per- 

 sonalities, tendencies or potentialities which at 

 first were mingled, and also to permit these per- 

 sonalities to test their force whilst at the same 

 time increasing it by an effort of self-creation? 

 On the other hand, when we see that conscious- 

 ness, whilst being at once creation and choice, is 

 also memory, that one of its essential functions is 

 to accumulate and preserve the past, that very 

 probably (I lack time to attempt the demonstra- 

 tion of this point) the brain is an instrument of 



