174 RECAPITULATION 



that are hidden from our consciousness, but our 

 external behaviour can be influenced by the 

 conscious exercise of reason and will. Freedom 

 is the ideal of our will : slavery the result of our 

 habitudes. Through these series of opposites there 

 appears to run, like a double strand, two distinct 

 strains or tendencies, one which approximates in 

 some fashion to what we know of the working of 

 the physical lifeless world, the other in strong 

 contrast to it. Thus repetitive habit is closer to 

 the rhythmical vibrations of inorganic matter 

 than is changefulness : to be self-centred, to have 

 no object but the reproduction of the species, and 

 to be cruel may appear, not altogether fancifully, 

 to be more material, more accordant with the 

 unfeeling action of physical laws, than to be 

 sympathetic, provident, and kind-hearted. So 

 also with the impulses that have been classed as 

 aesthetic and ethical : the one trembles with the 

 thrills of light and sound with which Nature is 

 beautified, the other severely rejects her attrac- 

 tions. The influence of directive instinct closely 

 resembles the regular, unhesitating action of 

 physical laws : conscious reason and will appear 

 to be poles apart from it. 



We appear, then, to be influenced by two an- 

 tagonistic tendencies, the one representing the 

 cramping mechanical energies of Matter, the other 

 proceeding from activities of a more spiritual 

 character which we may venture to identify 

 with Life itself. Life, as we know it, cannot 

 be manifested except in combination with Matter, 

 and the development of the living world has 

 proceeded from the clashing energies of these 

 linked antagonists. The impulses of Life may 

 appear to be supernatural when contrasted with 

 the mechanical activity of Matter. From them 

 we have kindled the beacons which we term our 



