UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 
different from what he had hoped or vaguely 
planned. He does not know what thought or inci- 
dent or character he is looking for till he has found 
it, till he has risen above his mental horizon. So far 
as he is inspired, so far as he is spontaneous, just so 
far is the world with which he deals plastic and fluid 
and indeterminate and ready to take any form his 
medium of expression — words, colors, tones — 
affords him. He may surprise himself, excel himself; 
he has surrendered himself to a power beyond the 
control of his will or knowledge. 
We must remember that man is a part of the 
universe — a part of the stream of life that flows 
through organic nature, and not something sepa- 
rated from it. But he alone among living beings has 
come to self-consciousness and is capable of the cre- 
ative act. Is it not, therefore, entirely reasonable 
that the method of nature should he reflected in his 
mind — that he should be a god, too, though a 
puny one? So far as he knows his own powers, so 
far as he knows those of the Infinite, so far ag he is 
a creator, his method mirrors that of his Creator. 
The vital impulse is finite, it cannot overcome all 
obstacles. The movement it starts is sometimes 
turned aside, sometimes divided, always opposed, 
and the evolution of the organized world is the un- 
rolling of this conflict. Contingency enters into the 
course of evolution at every point. “Contingent the 
arrests and set-hacks; contingent, in large measure, 
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