"A PROPHET OF THE SOUL" 



in the idea of creation if we think of things that are 

 created, and a. thing that creates." Such views are 

 the work of our practical intellect. When we see a 

 house we think of the builder, when we see a watch 

 we infer the maker, and this attribute of mind is 

 necessary to our successful dealing with concrete 

 things; but in organic nature the house and the 

 watch are always being made, and every day is a 

 day of creation; the forms of life are like the clouds 

 in the summer sky, ever and never the same; the 

 vital currents flow forever, and we rise to the surface 

 like changing, iridescent bubbles that dance and 

 play for a moment, and are succeeded by others, and 

 ever others. The vital impulse absorbs Bergson's 

 attention, "not things made, but things ia the mak- 

 ing; not self -maintaining states, but only changing 

 states. Rest is never more than apparent, or, rather, 

 relative." This is the way Bergson gets rid of the 

 old conception of design and finalism in nature. He 

 thinks of the creative impulse or tendency in terms 

 of the mobile, the incalculable, the ever-changing. 



Life hovers forever between the stable and the 

 imstable. We cannot describe it in terms of the 

 fixed, the geometric. Motion is not in place, it is 

 in transition — neither here nor there, but forever 

 between the two. Our bodies are like the clouds, 

 ever and never the same. Hence our conception of 

 life seems a contradiction, or two contraries imited, 

 which seems one absurdity; an ascending and a 

 215 



