SIGNIFICANCE OF INVOLUTION 153 



Regarded as a means to growth in consciousness, 

 the intuition therefore clearly transcends the intel- 

 lect; hence the emphasis which Bergson has placed 

 on it. But as clear-cut perception is found essential 

 to advance of intellect, so a comprehensive grasp is 

 necessary to intuitive insight. The knowledge thus 

 obtained is a metaphysic in the true meaning of the 

 word, for it requires a substratum of physics. 



In our quest for the involutionary way, we shall 

 have to distinguish between the unity that comes 

 through instinct and the unity that comes through 

 insight ; the one results from an expansion of the feel- 

 ings and is a sinking back to the previous involution- 

 ary period ; the other can result only from a concen- 

 tration of the will that reaches to something beyond 

 itself. The naturalistic tendency of the day is to look 

 to the unconscious part of our being as the source of 

 all good. But since no distinction is made between 

 the sub-conscious and the supra-conscious, a lower 

 rather than a higher psychic level of our nature is 

 apt to be thus invoked. The will becomes weakened, 

 the subsidiary centres of nerve force regain control, 

 and the disintegration of personality follows. The 

 medium's is a case in point. The only gain that can 

 come from such atavistic relapse is the recovery of 

 rudimentary powers, powers which in the long proc- 

 ess of the individual's involution have become elim- 

 inated, and doubtless for some good reason. It were 

 well to unravel the work of nature if by so doing 



