312 THE REIGN OF LAW 



the proposition so stated were evidently absurd. 

 But it is, on the contrary, a proposition which 

 may well be true. Bystanders very often see the 

 forces telling upon our Will much more clearly 

 than we see them ourselves. It is possible, in- 

 deed, by a vigorous effort of self-analysis to see 

 all that others see, and a great deal more. 

 Those who are able really to look in upon them- 

 selves, can often detect the influences which have, 

 been acting on their minds, colouring their 

 opinions, and determining their conduct in a 

 degree which the higher faculties would be glad 

 to disown and disavow. There is nothing more 

 wonderful in the constitution of our minds than 

 the power w T e have of standing aside, as it were, 

 for a time from the ordinary channel of our own 

 thoughts, and of looking back upon their currents 

 coming down from the hills of Memory and 

 Association to join their issues in our present 

 life. But this sort of looking in upon ourselves, 

 and treating ourselves as a subject of natural 

 history, is to all men a difficult, and to most men 

 an impossible, operation. They have neither time 

 for it nor thought for it. The conscious energies 



