PERFECTION NOT SELF-CONSCIOUS. 439 



It Is true, however, that though perfect Being 

 would be consciotts, it would not be self -conscious, if 

 b}^ self-consciousness is meant the power of con- 

 sciously distinguishing oneself from one's state, of 

 contrasting what one was with what one is, of 

 proving one's happiness to the satisfaction of others 

 or of oneself. In short, of arguing about It. For all 

 such operations and states of consciousness are In- 

 delibly stamped with the mark of change and im- 

 perfection. 



But why should any one wish to be self-conscious 

 in this way ? For though argument and philosophic 

 self-consciousness maybe a salutary and even a neces- 

 sary discipline for imperfect spirits, Milton Is surely 

 right in regarding them as permanent occupation^ 

 appropriate only to devils.^ For while they might 

 assuage the lot of lost spirits, whose anguish they 

 might charm for a while with a pleasing sorcery, 

 they would only fruitlessly disturb the blessed 

 denizens of Heaven. Even now self-consciousness 

 Is a necessary evil rather than a positive good and 

 a fatal alloy to unreflecting enjoyment. It Is 

 possible to feel without consciousness of a contrast, 

 and It Is only to self-conscious thought that every- 

 thing suggests its logical contrary. But pure feeling, 

 too entirely absorbed in its present reality to point 

 to anything beyond Itself, Is far from being less real 

 and vivid than feeling which is accompanied by the 

 uneasy reflections of self-consciousness. On the 

 contrary, we can see even now that the happiness 

 that reflects Is lost, that comparisons are odious, 

 and creep Into the soul upon the wings of the 

 Harpy Doubt when It has sullied the unsuspecting 

 transparency of Its virgin feelings. 



1 Paradise Lost, II. 566. 



