“FATED TO BE FREE” 
other directions while, at the same time, we are 
moving with these currents. By an effort of will we 
can deny ourselves this or that, inhibit for a time 
this or that tendency, but no effort of will can make 
us wise, or happy, or angry, or in love, or hungry, 
or sad, nor can it make one temperament as calm, 
as patient, as sanguine as another. 
We are more conscious of the pull of gravity be- 
cause that is in one direction only; but we do not 
know that the force which our body exerts through 
its various complex movements is the force of grav- 
ity which the earth gives us. We overcome gravity 
with every step we take, only by using gravity. If 
our bodies were devoid of weight, how could we 
exert force? We are strong by that which opposes 
us, and which will crush us if we give it achance. We 
are fitted into the complex of forces which runs this 
universe in such a subtle way that we are run by 
it without being aware of the fact. We do not 
know that the air is forced into our lungs when we 
breathe, the water into our mouths when we drink, 
and the force of gravity into our limbs when we 
walk. Life is that mysterious something which 
alone uses and rises above the material forces in 
this manner. Life makes servants of the energy of 
the non-living. It is a part of the fate which it tri- 
umphs over. It turns the material forces against 
themselves; it defeats gravity by the aid of gravity; 
it fights fire with fire; it outwits the wind by the aid 
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