178 Life and Matter [chap. ix. 



are free for all practical purposes, and can choose 

 between alternatives as they present themselves. 

 We are controlled, as being intrinsic parts of an 

 entire cosmos suffused with law and order. 



No scheme of science based on knowledge of 

 our environment can confidently predict our 

 actions, nor the actions of any sufficiently 

 intelligent live creature. For "mind" and "will" 

 have their roots on the other side of the partition, 

 and that which we perceive of them is but a 

 fraction of the whole. Nevertheless, the more 

 developed and consistent and harmonious our 

 character becomes, the less liable is it to random 

 outbreaks, and the more certainly can we be 

 depended on. We thus, even now, can exhibit 

 some approximation to the highest state that 

 conscious unison with the entire scheme of 

 existence which is identical with perfect freedom. 



If we could grasp the totality of things we 

 should realise that everything was ordered and 

 definite, linked up with everything else in a chain 

 of causation, and that nothing was capricious and 

 uncertain and uncontrolled. The totality of 

 things is, however, and must remain, beyond our 

 grasp ; hence the actual working of the process, 

 the nature of the links, the causes which create 

 our determinations, are frequently unknown. 

 And since it is necessary for practical purposes to 

 treat what is utterly beyond our ken as if it were 

 non-existent, it becomes easily possible to fall into 

 the erroneous habit of conceiving the transcen- 

 dental region to be completely inoperative. 



