1 68 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



suppose, of a series of instantaneous positions, fill an actual duration, 

 such as we get in intuition — which will you cleave to in this unan- 

 swerable dilemma, the infinite instants which make motion impossible, 

 or the actual movements without which life is unthinkable ? 



It results that: 



Concrete movement, capable like consciousness of prolonging its 

 past into its present, capable by repeating itself of engendering sen- 

 sible qualities, already possesses something akin to consciousness, 

 something akin to sensation. // is the difference of internal tensions 

 which gives the rhythm that fixes the synthesis of the images as we know 

 them; and this tension is itself determined by our need of action. 



And finally our freedom consists in modifying the images of the 

 whole, which is real, by selecting for action the part which concerns 

 us — that which affects us, and which we in turn can affect. We do 

 not accept the monotonous duration of nature, but we impose upon 

 this even background the rhythm of our own time-span: we thicken the 

 waves; we paint our own picture on this great background, and our life 

 and personality are just what we take up and act upon of all that is 

 actually there. 



" Spirit borrows from matter the perceptions on which it feeds, and 

 restores them to matter in the form of movements which it has stamped 

 with its own freedom." 



According to this work the brain is no more the seat of memory, 

 than a copper wire is the seat of an ancient telephone conversation. 

 Everybody knows thousands of facts which are not in the momentary 

 field of attention; for example, the general outline of the Career of 

 Napoleon. These facts exist in a psychic world, and are called back 

 when action needs them. 



Just as our enduring psychic life makes will and personality in the 

 world of conduct, so this same growth and change may be seen as 

 memory in the world of thought: and matter signifies just in propor- 

 tion as it is given meaning and intensity by what the soul has endured. 

 Is not the evolution of all creation just precisely analogous ? Only those 

 who master his first works can hope to understand his conception 

 of evolution. 



