XII 



"A PROPHET OF THE SOUL" 

 I 



IN taking this line from Emerson for the title of 

 an essay on Henri Bergson, I would indicate at 

 once the aspect of his philosophy that most appeals 

 to me. The overarching conception in his writings 

 is the immanence and the potency of spirit or con- 

 sciousness in matter, and his "Creative Evolution" 

 is the unfolding of the drama, as he conceives it, of 

 the struggles of this spirit with the opposition which 

 it encounters in the material world, and its triumphs 

 over it. Arnold said that Emerson was the friend 

 and aider of those who would live in the spirit; we 

 may say of Bergson that he is the friend and aider 

 of those who would see with the spirit and enter into 

 the mystery of creation through intellectual sympa- 

 thy or intuition, instead of making the vain attempt 

 to do so through the logical and scientific under- 

 standing. The true inwardness of living things, or of 

 the creative movement, cannot be reached through 

 the practical intellect, available as it is only for our 

 action upon concrete bodies and forces. 



I am not familiar with all of Professor Bergson's 

 published works. I have read the essay on the 

 197 



