170 RECAPITULATION 



There is an antithesis of good and evil an appar- 

 ent duality of control that has been frankly 

 recognised in many religions. Christians, indeed, 

 are taught to believe that " the devil, as a roaring 

 lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour." 

 To many men the idea of duality is unsatisfactory: 

 it is out of accord with the desire to simplify to 

 discover an ultimate unifying principle which 

 influences modern thought. But there is nothing 

 to show that this desire is well-founded : it may 

 be as misleading as the notions which led to 

 magic and witchcraft. We do not reject the 

 distinction between positive and negative elec- 

 tricity because we are unable to explain it. 



From this mysterious confusion one fact emerges 

 clearly that in the animal world the course of 

 evolution has promoted the growth of individual 

 liberty. Instinct at first wields almost despotic 

 authority over both the aims and the methods of 

 existence : its impulses drive living organisms 

 along certain lines of conduct ; its directions 

 minutely prescribe their itinerary. It is gradually 

 displaced, so far as external behaviour is con- 

 cerned, by reason, consciousness, and will ; self- 

 government is, so to speak, substituted for a 

 tyranny. But it is left to us to discover how best 

 to use this new constitution in shaping our 

 behaviour to our instinctive impulses. An im- 

 mense variety of choice is opened to us, and we 

 should be distracted with this liberty did we 

 retain the whole of it. The generality of mankind 

 resign their privileges and are content to be ruled, 

 for the most part, by imitation (stimulated by 

 suggestion) or by habit. But others are less 

 apathetic, and their influence may be traced in 

 the gradual extension of ideas of freedom. During 



