REAL PERSONALITY OR TRANSCENDENTAL EGO. 



135 



Real Personality, we are able by examining these emanations and 

 marking their affinity to the Good, the Beautiful, and the True, 

 to attain at times to more than transient glimpses of the 

 loveliness of that which is behind the veil. As in a river flowing 

 down to the Sea, a small eddy, however small, once started with 

 power to increase, may, if it continues in mid-stream, instead of 

 getting entangled with the weeds and pebbles near the bank, 

 gather to itself so large a volun^e of water that, when it reaches 

 the sea, it has become a great independent force ; so is each of 

 us endowed, as we come into this life, with a spark of the Great 

 Eeality, with potential to draw from the Infinite in proportion 

 to our conscientious endeavours to keep ourselves free from the 

 deadening effects of mundane frivolities and enticements, turning 

 our faces ever towards the light rather than to the shadow, until 

 our personality becomes a permanent entity, commanding an 

 individual existence when the physical clothing of this life is 

 worn out and, for us, all shadows disappear. 



If man became a conscious being on some such analogous 

 lines as indicated, it is clear that he is, as it were, the offspring 

 of two distinct natures and subject to two widely separated 

 influences ; the Spiritual ever urging him towards improvement 

 in the direction of the Real or Perfect, and the Physical or 

 Animal instincts inviting him in the opposite direction ; these 

 latter instincts are not wrong in themselves, in a purely animal 

 nature, but are made manifest as urging in the direction of the 

 shadow or Imperfect when they come in contact, and therefore 

 in competition, with the Spiritual. Neither the Spiritual nor 

 the Physical can be said to possess Free-will, they must work in 

 opposite directions, but this competition for influence over our 

 actions provides the basis for the exercise of man's Free-will : 

 the choice between progression and stagnation. The Spiritual 

 influence must conquer in the long run as every step under that 

 influence is a step towards the Real and can never be lost, the 

 apparent steps in the other direction are only negative or 

 retarding and can have no real existence except as a drag on the 

 wheel which is ever moving in the direction of Perfection, thus 

 hindering the process of growth of the Personality. 



The stages in development of the Physical Ego and its 

 final absorption in the Transcendental may perhaps be stated 

 as follows : — 



The Physical Ego loquitur : — 



" I become aware of being surrounded by phenomena, — I 

 will to see, — I perceive and wonder what is the meaning of 



