,,the ,,nature ,,of ,,goodness ,,by ,,george ,,herbert ,,palmer ,alford ,professor of ,philosophy ,in ,harvard ,university ,illustration3 ,tout bien ou rien #aijc ,a4 ,f4 ,p4 ,,bonitate ,,singulari ,,multis ,,dilectae ,,venustate ,,litteris ,,consiliis ,,praestanti ,,nuper ,e ,,domo ,,et ,,gaudio ,,meo ,,ereptae ,,preface ,the substance of these chapters was delivered as a course of lectures at ,harvard ,university1 ,dartmouth and ,wellesley ,colleges1 ,western ,reserve ,university1 the ,university of ,california1 and the ,twentieth ,century ,club of ,boston4 ,a part of the sixth chapter was used as an address before the ,phi ,beta ,kappa ,society of ,harvard1 and another part before the ,philosophical ,union of ,berkeley1 ,california4 ,several of these audiences have materially aided my work by their searching criticisms1 and all have helped to clear my thought and simplify its expression4 ,since discussions necessarily so severe have been felt as vital by companies so diverse1 ,i venture to offer them here to a wider audience4 ,previously1 in ,the ,field of ,ethics1 ,i marked out the place which ethics occupies among the sciences4 ,in this book the first problem of ethics is examined4 ,the two volumes will form1 ,i hope1 an easy yet serious introduction to this gravest and most perpetual of studies4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,double ,,aspect ,,of ,,goodness ,i4 ,difficulties of the investigation ,,ii4 ,gains to be expected ,,iii4 ,extrinsic goodness ,,iv4 ,imperfections of extrinsic goodness ,v4 ,intrinsic goodness ,,vi4 ,relations of the two kinds ,,vii4 ,diagram ,,chapter ,,ii ,,misconceptions ,,of ,,goodness ,i4 ,enlargement of the diagram ,,ii4 ,greater and lesser good ,,iii4 ,higher and lower good ,,iv4 ,order and wealth ,v4 ,satisfaction of desire ,,vi4 ,adaptation to environment ,,vii4 ,definitions ,,chapter ,,iii ,,self-,,consciousness ,i4 ,the four factors of personal goodness ,,ii4 ,unconsciousness ,,iii4 ,reflex action ,,iv4 ,conscious experience ,v4 ,self-consciousness ,,vi4 ,its degrees ,,vii4 ,its acquisition ,,viii4 ,its instability ,,chapter ,,iv ,,self-,,direction ,i4 ,consciousness a factor ,,ii4 7,a7 ,the intention ,,iii4 7#a7 ,the end1 aim1 or ideal ,,iv4 7#b7 ,desire ,v4 7#c7 ,decision ,,vi4 7,b7 ,the volition ,,vii4 7#a7 ,deliberation ,,viii4 7#b7 ,effort ,,ix4 7#c7 ,satisfaction ,,chapter ,v ,,self-,,development ,i4 ,reflex influence of self-direction ,,ii4 ,varieties of change ,,iii4 ,accidental change ,,iv4 ,destructive change ,v4 ,transforming change ,,vi4 ,development ,,vii4 ,self-development ,,viii4 ,method of self-development ,,ix4 ,test of self-development ,x4 ,actual extent of personality ,,xi4 ,possible extent of personality ,,xii4 ,practical consequences ,,chapter ,,vi ,,self-,,sacrifice ,i4 ,difficulties of the conception ,,ii4 ,it is impossible ,,iii4 ,it is a sign of degradation ,,iv4 ,it is needless ,v4 ,it is irrational ,,vi4 ,its frequency ,,vii4 ,definition ,,viii4 ,its rationality ,,ix4 ,distinguished from culture ,x4 ,its self-assertion ,,xi4 ,its incalculability ,,xii4 ,its positive character ,,xiii4 ,conclusion ,,chapter ,,vii ,,nature ,,and ,,spirit ,i4 ,summary of the preceding argument ,,ii4 ,spirit superior to nature ,,iii4 ,naturalistic tendency of the fine arts ,,iv4 ,naturalistic tendency of science and philosophy ,v4 ,naturalism in social estimates ,,vi4 ,self-consciousness burdensome ,,vii4 ,impossibility of full conscious guidance ,,viii4 ,advantages of unconscious action ,,chapter ,,viii ,,the ,,three ,,stages ,,of ,,goodness ,i4 ,advantage of conscious guidance ,,ii4 ,example of piano-playing ,,iii4 ,the mechanization of conduct ,,iv4 ,contrast of the first and third stages ,v4 ,the cure for self-consciousness ,,vi4 ,the revision of habits ,,vii4 ,the doctrine of praise ,,viii4 ,the propriety of praise ,i ,,the ,,double ,,aspect ,,of ,,goodness ,in undertaking the following discussion ,i foresee two grave difficulties4 ,my reader may well feel that goodness is already the most familiar of all the thoughts we employ1 and yet he may at the same time suspect that there is something about it perplexingly abstruse and remote4 ,familiar it certainly is4 ,it attends all our wishes1 acts1 and projects as nothing else does1 so that no estimate of its influence can be excessive4 ,when we take a walk1 read a book1 make a dress1 hire a servant1 visit a friend1 attend a concert1 choose a wife1 cast a vote1 enter into business1 we always do it in the hope of attaining something good4 ,the clue of goodness is accordingly a veritable guide of life4 ,on it depend actions far more minute than those just mentioned4 ,we never raise a hand1 for example1 unless with a view to improve in some respect our condition4 ,motionless we should remain forever1 did we not believe that by placing the hand elsewhere we might obtain something which we do not now possess4 ,consequently we employ the word or some synonym of it during pretty much every waking hour of our lives4 ,wishing some test of this frequency ,i turned to ,shakespeare1 and found that he uses the word good fifteen hundred times1 and it's derivatives goodness1 better1 and best1 about as many more4 ,he could not make men and women talk right without incessant reference to this directive conception4 ,but while thus familiar and influential when mixed with action1 and just because of that very fact1 the notion of goodness is bewilderingly abstruse and remote4 ,people in general do not observe this curious circumstance4 ,since they are so frequently encountering goodness1 both laymen and scholars are apt to assume that it is altogether clear and requires no explanation4 ,but the very reverse is the truth4 ,familiarity obscures4 ,it breeds instincts and not understanding4 ,so inwoven has goodness become with the very web of life that it is hard to disentangle4 ,we cannot easily detach it from encompassing circumstance1 look at it nakedly1 and say what in itself it really is4 ,never appearing in practical affairs except as an element1 and always intimately associated with something else1 we are puzzled how to break up that intimacy and give to goodness independent meaning4 ,it is as if oxygen were never found alone1 but only in connection with hydrogen1 carbon1 or some other of the eighty elements which compose our globe4 ,we might feel its wide influence1 but we should have difficulty in describing what the thing itself was4 ,just so if any chance dozen persons should be called on to say what they mean by goodness1 probably not one could offer a definition which he would be willing to hold to for fifteen minutes4 ,it is true1 this strange state of things is not peculiar to goodness4 ,other familiar conceptions show a similar tendency1 and just about in proportion1 too1 to their importance4 ,those which count for most in our lives are least easy to understand4 ,what1 for example1 do we mean by love8 ,everybody has experienced it since the world began4 ,for a century or more1 novelists have been fixing our attention on it as our chief concern4 ,yet nobody has yet succeeded in making the matter quite plain4 ,what is the state8 ,socialists are trying to tell us1 and we are trying to tell them2 but each1 it must be owned1 has about as much difficulty in understanding himself as in understanding his opponent1 though the two sets of vague ideas still contain reality enough for vigorous strife4 ,or take the very simplest of conceptions1 the conception of force--that which is presupposed in every species of physical science2 ages are likely to pass before it is satisfactorily defined4 ,now the conception of goodness is something of this sort1 something so wrought into the total framework of existence that it is hidden from view and not separately observable4 ,we know so much about it that we do not understand it4 ,for ordinary purposes probably it is well not to seek to understand it4 ,acquaintance with the structure of the eye does not help seeing4 ,to determine beforehand just how polite we should be would not facilitate human intercourse4 ,and possibly a completed scheme of goodness would rather confuse than ease our daily actions4 ,science does not readily connect with life4 ,for most of us all the time1 and for all of us most of the time1 instinct is the better prompter4 ,but if we mean to be ethical students and to examine conduct scientifically1 we must evidently at the outset come face to face with the meaning of goodness4 ,i am consequently often surprised on looking into a treatise on ethics to find no definition of goodness proposed4 ,the author assumes that everybody knows what goodness is1 and that his own business is merely to point out under what conditions it may be had4 ,but few readers do know what goodness is4 ,one suspects that frequently the authors of these treatises themselves do not1 and that a hazy condition of mind on this central subject is the cause of much loose talk afterwards4 ,at any rate1 ,i feel sure that nothing can more justly be demanded of a writer on ethics at the beginning of his undertaking than that he should attempt to unravel the subtleties of this all-important conception4 ,having already in a previous volume marked out the ,field of ,ethics1 ,i believe ,i cannot wisely go on discussing the science that ,i love1 until ,i have made clear what meaning ,i everywhere attach to the obscure and familiar word good4 ,this word being the ethical writer's chief tool1 both he and his readers must learn its construction before they proceed to use it4 ,to the study of that curious nature ,i dedicate this volume4 ,,ii ,to those who join in the investigation ,i cannot promise hours of ease4 ,the task is an arduous one1 calling for critical discernment and a kind of disinterested delight in studying the high intricacies of our personal structure4 ,my readers must follow me with care1 and indeed do much of the work themselves1 ,i being but a guide4 ,for my purpose is not so much to impart as to reveal4 ,wishing merely to make people aware of what has always been in their minds1 ,i think at the end of my book ,i shall be able to say1 ,these readers of mine know now no more than they did at1 the beginning4 ,yet if ,i say that1 ,i hope to be able to add1 but they see vastly more significance in it than they once did1 and henceforth will find the world interesting in a degree they never knew before4 ,in attaining this new interest they will have experienced too that highest of human pleasures1--the joy of clear1 continuous1 and energetic thinking4 ,few human beings are so inert that they are not ready to look into the dark places of their minds if1 by doing so1 they can throw light on obscurities there4 ,i ought1 however1 to say that ,i cannot promise one gain which some of my readers may be seeking4 ,in no large degree can ,i induce in them that goodness of which we talk4 ,some may come to me in conscious weakness1 desiring to be made better4 ,but this ,i do not undertake4 ,my aim is a scientific one4 ,i am an ethical teacher4 ,i want to lead men to understand what goodness is1 and ,i must leave the more important work of attracting them to pursue it to preacher and moralist4 ,still1 indirectly there is moral gain to be had here4 ,one cannot contemplate long such exalted themes without receiving an impulse1 and being lifted into a region where doing wrong becomes a little strange4 ,when1 too1 we reflect how many human ills spring from misunderstanding and intellectual obscurity1 we see that whatever tends to illuminate mental problems is of large consequence in the practical issues of life4 ,in considering what we mean by goodness1 we are apt to imagine that the term applies especially1 possibly entirely1 to persons4 ,it seems as if persons alone are entitled to be called good4 ,but a little reflection shows that this is by no means the case4 ,there are about as many good things in the world as good persons1 and we are obliged to speak of them about as often4 ,the goodness which we see in things is1 however1 far simpler and more easily analyzed than that which appears in persons4 ,it may accordingly be well in these first two chapters to say nothing whatever about such goodness as is peculiar to persons1 but to confine our attention to those phases of it which are shared alike by persons and things4 ,,iii ,how then do we employ the word good8 ,i do not ask how we ought to employ it1 but how we do4 ,for the present we shall be engaged in a psychological inquiry1 not an ethical one4 ,we need to get at the plain facts of usage4 ,i will therefore ask each reader to look into his own mind1 see on what occasions he uses the word1 and decide what meaning he attaches to it4 ,taking up a few of the simplest possible examples1 we will through them inquire when and why we call things good4 ,here is a knife4 ,when is it a good knife8 ,why1 a knife is made for something1 for cutting4 ,whenever the knife slides evenly through a piece of wood1 unimpeded by anything in its own structure1 and with a minimum of effort on the part of him who steers it1 when there is no disposition of its edge to bend or break1 but only to do its appointed work effectively1 then we know that a good knife is at work4 ,or1 looking at the matter from another point of view1 whenever the handle of the knife neatly fits the hand1 following its lines and presenting no obstruction1 so that it is a pleasure to use it1 we may say that in these respects also the knife is a good knife4 ,that is1 the knife becomes good through adaptation to its work1 an adaptation realized in its cleavage of the wood and in its conformity to the hand4 ,its goodness always has reference to something outside itself1 and is measured by its performance of an external task4 ,a similar goodness is also found in persons4 ,when we call the ,president of the ,united ,states good1 we mean that he adapts himself easily and efficiently to the needs of his people4 ,he detects those needs before others fully feel them1 is sagacious in devices for meeting them1 and powerful in carrying out his patriotic purposes through whatever selfish opposition4 ,the ,president's goodness1 like the knife's1 refers to qualities within him only so far as these are adjusted to that which lies beyond4 ,or take something not so palpable4 ,what glorious weather6 ,when we woke this morning1 drew aside our curtains and looked out1 we said ,it is a good day6 ,and of what qualities of the day were we thinking8 ,we meant1 ,i suppose1 that the day was well fitted to its various purposes4 ,intending to go to our office1 we saw there was nothing to hinder our doing so4 ,we knew that the streets would be clear1 people in amiable mood1 business and social duties would move forward easily4 ,health itself is promoted by such sunshine4 ,in fact1 whatever our plans1 in calling the day a good day we meant to speak of it as excellently adapted to something outside itself4 ,this signification of goodness is lucidly put in the remark of ,shakespeare's ,portia1 ,nothing ,i see is good without respect4 ,we must have some respect or end in mind in reference to which the goodness is reckoned4 ,good always means good for4 ,that little preposition cannot be absent from our minds1 though it need not audibly be uttered4 ,the knife is good for cutting1 the day for business1 the ,president for the blind needs of his country4 ,omit the for1 and goodness ceases4 ,to be bad or good implies external reference4 ,to be good means to further something1 to be an efficient means2 and the end to be furthered must be already in mind before the word good is spoken4 ,the respects or ends in reference to which goodness is calculated are often1 it is true1 obscure and difficult to seize if one is unfamiliar with the currents of men's thoughts4 ,i sometimes hear the question asked about a merchant1 ,is he good8--a question natural enough in churches and ,sunday-schools1 but one which sounds rather queer on 'change4 ,but those who ask it have a special respect in mind4 ,i believe they mean1 ,will the man meet his notes8 ,in their mode of thinking a merchant is of consequence only in financial life4 ,when they have learned whether he is capable of performing his functions there1 they go no farther4 ,he may be the most vicious of men or a veritable saint4 ,it will make no difference in inducing commercial associates to call him good4 ,for them the word indicates solely responsibility for business paper4 ,a usage more curious still occurs in the nursery4 ,there when the question is asked1 ,has the baby been good8 one discovers by degrees that the anxious mother wishes to know if it has been crying or quiet4 ,this elementary life has as yet not acquired positive standards of measurement4 ,it must be reckoned in negative terms1 failure to disturb4 ,heaven knows it does not always attain to this4 ,but it is its utmost virtue1 quietude4 ,in short1 whenever we inspect the usage of the word good1 we always find behind it an implication of some end to be reached4 ,good is a relative term1 signifying promotive of1 conducive to4 ,the good is the useful1 and it must be useful for something4 ,silent or spoken1 it is the mental reference to something else which puts all meaning into it4 ,so ,hamlet says1 ,there's nothing either good or bad1 but thinking makes it so4 ,if ,i have in mind ,a as an end sought1 then ,x is good4 ,but if ,b is the end1 ,x is bad4 ,x has no goodness or badness of its own4 ,no new quality is added to an object or act when it becomes good4 ,,iv ,but this result is disappointing1 not to say paradoxical4 ,to call a thing good only with reference to what lies outside itself would be almost equivalent to saying that nothing is good4 ,for if the moment anything becomes good it refers all its goodness to something beyond its own walls1 should we ever be able to discover an object endowed with goodness at all8 ,the knife is good in reference to the stick of wood2 the wood1 in reference to the table2 the table1 in reference to the writing2 the writing1 in reference to a reader's eyes2 his eyes1 in reference to supporting his family--where shall we ever stop8 ,we can never catch up with goodness4 ,it is always promising to disclose itself a little way beyond1 and then evading us1 slipping from under our fingers just when we are about to touch it4 ,this meaning of goodness is self-contradictory4 ,and it is also too large4 ,it includes more to goodness than properly belongs there4 ,if we call everything good which is good for1 everything which shows adaptation to an end1 then we shall be obliged to count a multitude of matters good which we are accustomed to think of as evil4 ,filth will be good1 for it promotes fevers as nothing else does4 ,earthquakes are good1 for shaking down houses4 ,it is inapposite to urge that we do not want fevers or shaken houses4 ,wishes are provided no place in our meaning of good4 ,goodness merely assists1 promotes1 is conducive to any result whatever4 ,it marks the functional character1 without regard to the desirability of that which the function effects4 ,but this is unsatisfactory and may well set us on a search for supplementary meanings4 ,v ,when we ask if the ,venus of ,milo is a good statue1 we have to confess that it is good beyond almost any object on which our eyes have ever rested4 ,and yet it is not good for anything2 it is no means for an outside end4 ,rather1 it is good in itself4 ,this possibility that things may be good in themselves was once brought forcibly to my attention by a trivial incident4 ,wandering over my fields with my farmer in autumn1 we were surveying the wrecks of summer4 ,there on the ploughed ground lay a great golden object4 ,he pointed to it1 saying1 ,that is a good big pumpkin4 ,i said1 ,yes1 but ,i don't care about pumpkins4 ,no1 he said1 nor do ,i4 ,i said1 ,you care for them1 though1 as they grow large4 ,you called this a good big one4 ,no6 ,on the contrary1 a pumpkin that is large is worth less4 ,growing makes it coarser4 ,but that is a good big pumpkin4 ,i saw there was some meaning in his mind1 but ,i could not make out what it was4 ,soon after ,i heard a schoolboy telling about having had a good big thrashing4 ,i knew that he did not like such things4 ,his phrase could not indicate approval1 and what did it signify8 ,he coupled the two words good and big2 and ,i asked myself if there was between them any natural connection8 ,on reflection ,i thought there was4 ,if you wish to find the full pumpkin nature1 here you have it4 ,all that a pumpkin can be is set forth here as nowhere else4 ,and for that matter1 anybody who might foolishly wish to explore a thrashing would find all he sought in this one4 ,in short1 what seemed to be intended was that all the functions constituting the things talked about were present in these instances and hard at work1 mutually assisting one another1 and joining to make up such a rounded whole that from it nothing was omitted which possibly might render its organic wholeness complete4 ,here then is a notion of goodness widely unlike the one previously developed4 ,goodness now appears shut up within verifiable bounds where it is not continually referred to something which lies beyond4 ,an object is here reckoned not as good for1 but as good in itself4 ,the ,venus of ,milo is a good statue not through what it does1 but through what it is4 ,and perhaps it may conduce to clearness if we now give technical names to our two contrasted conceptions and call the former extrinsic goodness and the latter intrinsic4 ,extrinsic goodness will then signify the adjustment of an object to something which lies outside itself2 intrinsic will say that the many powers of an object are so adjusted to one another that they cooperate to render the object a firm totality4 ,both will indicate relationship2 but in the one case the relations considered are extra se1 in the other inter se4 ,goodness1 however1 will everywhere point to organic adjustment4 ,if this double aspect of goodness is as clear and important as ,i believe it to be1 it must have left its record in language4 ,and in fact we find that popular speech distinguishes worth and value in much the same way as ,i have distinguished intrinsic and extrinsic goodness4 ,to say that an object has value is to declare it of consequence in reference to something other than itself4 ,to speak of its worth is to call attention to what its own nature involves4 ,in a somewhat similar fashion ,mr4 ,bradley distinguishes the extension and harmony of goodness1 and ,mr4 ,alexander the right and the perfect4 ,,vi ,when1 however1 we have got the two sorts of goodness distinctly parted1 our next business is to get them together again4 ,are they in fact altogether separate8 ,is the extrinsic goodness of an object entirely detachable from its intrinsic8 ,i think not4 ,they are invariably found together4 ,indeed1 extrinsic goodness would be impossible in an object which did not possess a fair degree of intrinsic4 ,how could a table1 for example1 be useful for holding a glass of water if the table were not well made1 if powers appropriate to tables were not present and mutually cooperating8 ,unless equipped with intrinsic goodness1 the table can exhibit no extrinsic goodness whatever4 ,and1 on the other hand1 intrinsic goodness1 coherence of inner constitution1 is always found attended by some degree of extrinsic goodness1 or influence over other things4 ,nothing exists entirely by itself4 ,each object has its relationships1 and through these is knitted into the frame of the universe4 ,still1 though the two forms of goodness are thus regularly united1 we may fix our attention on the one or the other4 ,according as we do so1 we speak of an object as intrinsically or extrinsically good4 ,for that matter1 one of the two may sometimes seem to be present in a preponderating degree1 and to determine by its presence the character of the object4 ,in judging ordinary physical things1 ,i believe we usually test them by their serviceability to us--by their extrinsic goodness1 that is--rather than bother our heads with asking what is their inner structure1 and how full of organization they may be4 ,whereas1 when we come to estimate human beings1 we ordinarily regard it as a kind of indignity to assess primarily their extrinsic goodness1 i4 e41 to ask chiefly how serviceable they may be and to ignore their inner worth4 ,to sum up a man in terms of his labor value is the moral error of the slaveholder4 ,if1 however1 we seek the highest point to which either kind of excellence may be carried1 it will be found where each most fully assists the other4 ,but this is not easy to imagine4 ,when ,i set a glass of water on the table1 the table is undoubtedly slightly shaken by the strain4 ,if ,i put a large book upon it1 the strain of the table becomes apparent4 ,putting a hundred pound weight upon it is an experiment that is perilous4 ,for the extrinsic goodness of the table is at war with the intrinsic2 that is1 the employment of the table wears it out4 ,in doing its work and fitting into the large relationships for which tables exist1 its inner organization becomes disjointed4 ,in time it will go to pieces4 ,we can1 however1 imagine a magic table1 which might be consolidated by all it does4 ,at first it was a little weak1 but by upholding the glass of water it grew stronger4 ,as ,i laid the book on it1 its joints acquired a tenacity which they lacked before2 and only after receiving the hundred pound weight did it acquire the full strength of which it was capable4 ,that would indeed be a marvelous table1 where use and inner construction continually helped each other4 ,something like it we may hereafter find possible in certain regions of personal goodness1 but no such perpetual motion is possible to things4 ,for them employment is costly4 ,,vii ,i have already strained my readers' attention sufficiently by these abstract statements of matters technical and minute4 ,let us stop thinking for a while and observe4 ,i will draw a picture of goodness and teach the eye what sort of thing it is4 ,we have only to follow in our drawing the conditions already laid down4 ,we agreed that when an object was good it was good for something2 so that if ,a is good1 it must be good for ,b4 ,this instrumental relation1 of means to end1 may well be indicated by an arrow pointing out the direction in which the influence moves4 ,but if ,b is also to be good1 it too must be connected by an arrow with another object1 ,c1 and this in the same way with ,d4 ,the process might evidently be continued forever1 but will be sufficiently shown in the three stages of ,figure #a4 ,here the arrow always expresses the extrinsic goodness of the letter which lies behind it1 in reference to the letter which lies before4 ,fig4 #a ,but drawing our diagram in this fashion and finding a little gap between ,d and ,a1 the completing mind of man longs to fill up that gap4 ,we have no warrant for doing anything of the sort2 but let us try the experiment and see what effect will follow4 ,under the new arrangement we find that not only is ,d good for ,a1 but that ,a1 being good for ,b and for ,c1 is also good for ,d4 ,to express these facts in full it would be necessary to put a point on each end of the arrow connecting ,a and ,d4 ,fig4 #b ,but the same would be true of the relation between ,a and ,b2 that is1 ,b1 being good for ,c and for ,d1 is also good for ,a4 ,or1 as similar reasoning would hold throughout the figure1 all the arrows appearing there should be supplied with heads at both ends4 ,and there is one further correction4 ,a is good for ,b and for ,c2 that is1 ,a is good for ,c4 ,the same relation should also be indicated between ,b and ,d4 ,so that to render our diagram complete it would be necessary to supply it with two diagonal arrows having double heads4 ,it would then assume the following form4 ,fig4 #c ,here is a picture of intrinsic goodness4 ,in this figure we have a whole represented in which every part is good for every other part4 ,but this is merely a pictorial statement of the definition which ,kant once gave of an organism4 ,by an organism he says1 we mean that assemblage of active and differing parts in which each part is both means and end4 ,extrinsic goodness1 the relation of means to end1 we have expressed in our diagram by the pointed arrow4 ,but as soon as we filled in the gap between ,d and ,a each arrow was obliged to point in two directions4 ,we had an organic whole instead of a lot of external adjustments4 ,in such a whole each part has its own function to perform1 is active2 and all must differ from one another1 or there would be mere repetition and aggregation instead of organic supplementation of end by means4 ,an organism has been more briefly defined1 and the curious mutuality of its support expressed1 by saying that it is a unit made up of cooperant parts4 ,and each of these definitions expresses the notion of intrinsic goodness which we have already reached4 ,intrinsic goodness is the expression of the fullness of function in the construction of an organism4 ,i have elsewhere 7,the ,field of ,ethics7 explained the epoch-making character in any life of this conception of an organism4 ,until one has come in sight of it1 he is a child4 ,when once he begins to view things organically1 he is--at least in outline--a scientific1 an artistic1 a moral man4 ,experience then becomes coherent and rational1 and the disjointed modes of immaturity1 ugliness1 and sin no longer attract4 ,at no period of the world's history has this truly formative conception exercised a wider influence than today4 ,it is accordingly worth while to depict it with distinctness1 and to show how fully it is wrought into the very nature of goodness4 ,,references ,,on ,,the ,,double ,,aspect ,,of ,,goodness ,alexander's ,moral ,order and ,progress1 bk4 ii4 ch4 ii4 ,bradley's ,appearance and ,reality1 ch4 xxv4 ,sidgwick's ,methods1 bk4 i4 ch4 ix4 ,spencer's ,principles of ,ethics1 pt4 i4 ch4 iii4 ,muirhead's ,elements of ,ethics1 bk4 iv4 ch4 ii4 ,ladd's ,philosophy of ,conduct1 ch4 iii4 ,kant's ,practical ,reason1 bk4 i4 ch4 ii4 ,the ,meaning of ,good1 by ,g4,l4 ,dickinson4 ,,ii ,,misconceptions ,,of ,,goodness ,i ,our diagram of goodness1 as drawn in the last chapter1 has its special imperfections1 and through these cannot fail to suggest certain erroneous notions of goodness4 ,to these ,i now turn4 ,the first of them is connected with its own method of construction4 ,it will be remembered that we arbitrarily threw an arrow from ,d to ,a1 thus making what was hitherto an end become a means to its own means4 ,was this legitimate8 ,does any such closed circle exist8 ,it certainly does not4 ,our universe contains nothing that can be represented by that figure4 ,indeed if anywhere such a self-sufficing organism did exist1 we could never know it4 ,for1 by the hypothesis1 it would be altogether adequate to itself and without relations beyond its own bounds4 ,and if it were thus cut off from connection with everything except itself1 it could not even affect our knowledge4 ,it would be a closed universe within our universe1 and be for us as good as zero4 ,we must own1 then1 that we have no acquaintance with any such perfect organism1 while the facts of life reveal conditions widely unlike those here represented4 ,what these conditions are becomes apparent when we put significance into the letters hitherto employed4 ,let our diagram become a picture of the organic life of ,john4 ,then ,a might represent his physical life1 ,b his business life1 ,c his civil1 ,d his domestic2 and we should have asserted that each of these several functions in the life of ,john assists all the rest4 ,his physical health favors his commercial and political success1 while at the same time making him more valuable in the domestic circle4 ,but home life1 civic eminence1 and business prosperity also tend to confirm his health4 ,in short1 every one of these factors in the life of ,john mutually affects and is affected by all the others4 ,but when thus supplied with meaning1 ,figure #c evidently fails to express all it should say4 ,b is intended to exhibit the business life of ,john4 ,but this is surely not lived alone4 ,though called a function of ,john1 it is rather a function of the community1 and he merely shares it4 ,i had no right to confine to ,john himself that which plainly stretches beyond him4 ,let us correct the figure1 then1 by laying off another beside it to represent ,peter1 one of those who shares in the business experience of ,john4 ,this common business life ,fig4 #d of theirs1 ,b1 we may say1 enables ,peter to gratify his own adventurous disposition1 ,e2 and this again stimulates his scientific tastes1 ,f4 ,but ,peter's eminence in science commends him so to his townsmen that he comes to share again ,c1 the civic life of ,john4 ,yet as before in the case of ,john1 each of ,peter's powers works forward1 backward1 and across1 constructing in ,peter an organic whole which still is interlocked with the life of ,john4 ,each1 while having functions of his own1 has also functions which are shared with his neighbor4 ,nor would this involvement of functions pause with ,peter4 ,to make our diagram really representative1 each of the two individuals thus far drawn would need to be surrounded by a multitude of others1 all sharing in some degree the functions of their neighbors4 ,or rather each individual1 once connected with his neighbors1 would find all his functions affected by all those possessed by his entire group4 ,for fear of making my figure unintelligible ,fig #e4 through its fullness of relations1 ,i have sent out arrows in all directions from the letter ,a only2 but in reality they would run from all to all4 ,and ,i have also thought that we persons affect one another quite as decidedly through the wholeness of our characters as we do through any interlocking of single traits4 ,such totality of relationship ,i have tried to suggest by connecting the centres of each little square with the centres of adjacent ones4 ,john as a whole is thus shown to be good for ,peter as a whole4 ,we have successively found ourselves obliged to broaden our conception until the goodness of a single object has come to imply that of a group4 ,the two phases of goodness are thus seen to be mutually dependent4 ,extrinsic goodness or serviceability1 that where an object employs an already constituted wholeness to further the wholeness of another1 cannot proceed except through intrinsic goodness1 or that where fullness and adjustment of functions are expressed in the construction of an organism4 ,nor can intrinsic goodness be supposed to exist shut up to itself and parted from extrinsic influence4 ,the two are merely different modes or points of view for assessing goodness everywhere4 ,goodness in its most elementary form appears where one object is connected with another as means to end4 ,but the more elaborately complicated the relation becomes1 and the richer the entanglement of means and ends--internal and external--in the adjustment of object or person1 so much ampler is the goodness4 ,each object1 in order to possess any good1 must share in that of the universe4 ,,ii ,but the diagram suggests a second question4 ,are all the functions here represented equally influential in forming the organism8 ,our figure implies that they are1 and ,i see no way of drawing it so as to avoid the implication4 ,but it is an error4 ,in nature our powers have different degrees of influence4 ,we cannot suppose that ,john's physical1 commercial1 domestic1 and political life will have precisely equal weight in the formation of his being4 ,one or the other of them will play a larger part4 ,accordingly we very properly speak of greater goods and lesser goods1 meaning by the former those which are more largely contributory to the organism4 ,in our physical being1 for example1 we may inquire whether sight or digestion is the greater good2 and our only means of arriving at an answer would be to stop each function and then note the comparative consequence to the organism4 ,without digestion1 life ceases2 without sight1 it is rendered uncomfortable4 ,if we are considering merely the relative amounts of bodily gain from the two functions1 we must call digestion the greater good4 ,in a table1 excellence of make is apt to be a greater good than excellence of material1 the character of the carpentry having more effect on its durability than does the special kind of wood employed4 ,the very doubts about such results which arise in certain cases confirm the truth of the definition here proposed2 for when we hesitate1 it is on account of the difficulty we find in determining how far maintenance of the organism depends on the one or the other of the qualities compared4 ,the meaning of the terms greater and lesser is clearer than their application4 ,a function or quality is counted a greater good in proportion as it is believed to be more completely of the nature of a means4 ,,iii ,another question unsettled by the diagram is so closely connected with the one just examined as often to be confused with it4 ,it is this3 ,are all functions of the same kind1 rank1 or grade8 ,they are not2 and this qualitative difference is indicated by the terms higher and lower1 as the quantitative difference was by greater and less4 ,but differences of rank are more slippery matters than difference of amount1 and easily lend themselves to arbitrary and capricious treatment4 ,in ordinary speech we are apt to employ the words high and low as mere signs of approval or disapproval4 ,we talk of one occupation1 enjoyment1 work of art1 as superior to another1 and mean hardly more than that we like it better4 ,probably there is not another pair of terms current in ethics where the laudatory usage is so liable to slip into the place of the descriptive4 ,our opponent's ethics always seem to embody low ideals1 our own to be of a higher type4 ,accordingly the terms should not be used in controversy unless we have in mind for them a precise meaning other than eulogy or disparagement4 ,and such a meaning they certainly may possess4 ,as the term greater good is employed to indicate the degree in which a quality serves as a means1 so may the higher good show the degree in which it is an end4 ,digestion1 which was just now counted a greater good than sight1 might still be rightly reckoned a lower2 for while it contributes more largely to the constitution of the human organism1 it on that very account expresses less the purposes to which that organism will be put4 ,it is true we have seen how in any organism every power is both means and end4 ,it would be impossible1 then1 to part out its powers1 and call some altogether great and others altogether high4 ,but though there is purpose in all1 and construction in all1 certain are more markedly the one than the other4 ,some express the superintending functions2 others1 the subservient4 ,some condition1 others are conditioned by4 ,in man1 for example1 the intellectual powers certainly serve our bodily needs4 ,but that is not their principal office2 rather1 in them the aims of the entire human being receive expression4 ,to abolish the distinction of high and low would be to try to obliterate from our understanding of the world all estimates of the comparative worth of its parts2 and with these estimates its rational order would also disappear4 ,such attempts have often been made4 ,in extreme polytheism there are no superiors among the gods and no inferiors1 and chaos consequently reigns4 ,a similar chaos is projected into life when1 as in the poetry of ,walt ,whitman1 all grades of importance are stripped from the powers of man and each is ranked as of equal dignity with every other4 ,that there is difficulty in applying the distinction1 and determining which function is high and which low1 is evident4 ,to fix the purposes of an object would often be presumptuous4 ,with such perplexities ,i am not concerned4 ,i merely wish to point out a perfectly legitimate and even important signification of the terms high and low1 quite apart from their popular employment as laudatory or depreciative epithets4 ,it surely is not amiss to call the legibility of a book a higher good than its shape1 size1 or weight1 though in each of these some quality of the book is expressed4 ,,iv ,a further point of possible misconception in our diagram is the number of factors represented4 ,as here shown1 these are but four4 ,they might better be forty4 ,the more richly functional a thing or person is1 the greater its goodness4 ,poverty of powers is everywhere a form of evil4 ,for how can there be largeness of organization where there is little to organize8 ,or what is the use of organization except as a mode of furnishing the smoothest and most compact expression to powers8 ,wealth and order are accordingly everywhere the double traits of goodness1 and a chief test of the worth of any organism will be the diversity of the powers it includes4 ,throughout my discussion ,i have tried to help the reader to keep this twofold goodness in mind by the use of such phrases as fullness of organization4 ,yet it must be confessed that between the two elements of goodness there is a kind of opposition1 needful though both are for each other4 ,order has in it much that is repressive2 and wealth--in the sense of fecundity of powers--is1 especially at its beginning1 apt to be disorderly4 ,when a new power springs into being1 it is usually chaotic or rebellious4 ,it has something else to attend to besides bringing itself into accord with what already exists4 ,there is violence in it1 a lack of sobriety1 and only by degrees does it find its place in the scheme of things4 ,this is most observable in living beings1 because it is chiefly they who acquire new powers4 ,but there are traces of it even among things4 ,a chemical acid and base meeting1 are pretty careless of everything except the attainment of their own action4 ,human beings are born1 and for some time remain1 clamorous1 obliging the world around to attend more to them than they to it4 ,there is ever a confusion in exuberant life which bewilders the onlooker1 even while he admits that life had better be4 ,the deep opposition between these contrasted sides of goodness is mirrored in the conflicting moral ideals of conservatism and radicalism1 of socialism and individualism1 which have never been absent from the societies of men1 nor even1 ,i believe1 from those of animals4 ,conservatism insists on unity and order2 radicalism on wealthy life1 diversified powers1 particular independence4 ,either1 left to itself1 would crush society1 one by emptying it of initiative1 the other by splitting it into a company of warring atoms4 ,ordinarily each is dimly aware of its need of an opponent1 yet does not on that account denounce him the less1 or less eagerly struggle to expel him from provinces asserted to be its own4 ,by temperament certain classes of the community are naturally disposed to become champions of the one or the other of these supplemental ideals4 ,artists1 for the most part1 incline to the ideal of abounding life1 exult in each novel manifestation which it can be made to assume1 and scoff at order as ,philistinism4 ,moralists1 on the other hand1 lay grievous stress on order1 as if it had any value apart from its promotion of life4 ,assuming that sufficient exuberance will come1 unfostered by morality1 they shut it out from their charge1 make duty to consist in checking instinct1 and devote themselves to pruning the sprouting man4 ,but this is absurdly to narrow ethics1 whose true aim is to trace the laws involved in the construction of a good person4 ,in such construction the supply of moral material1 and the fostering of a wide diversity of vigorous powers1 is as necessary as bringing these powers into proper working form4 ,richness of character is as important as correctness4 ,the world's benefactors have often been one-sided and faulty men4 ,none of us can be complete2 and we had better not be much disturbed over the fact1 but rather set ourselves to grow strong enough to carry off our defects4 ,because ethics has not always kept its eyes open to this obvious duality of goodness it has often incurred the contempt of practical men4 ,the ethical writers of our time have done better4 ,they have come to see that the goodness of a person or thing consists in its being as richly diversified as is possible up to the limit of harmonious1 working1 and also in being orderly up to the limit of repression of powers4 ,beyond either of these limits evil begins4 ,what ,i have expressed in my diagram as the fullest organization is intended to lie within them4 ,v ,it remains to compare the view of goodness here presented with two others which have met with wide approval4 ,the competence of my own will be tested by seeing whether it can explain these1 or they it4 ,goodness is sometimes defined as that which satisfies desire4 ,things are not good in themselves1 but only as they respond to human wishes4 ,a certain combination of colors or sounds is good1 because ,i like it4 ,a republic we ,americans consider the best form of government because we believe that this more completely than any other meets the legitimate desires of its people4 ,i know a little boy who after tasting with gusto his morning's oatmeal would turn for sympathy to each other person at table with the assertive inquiry1 ,good8 ,good8 ,good8 ,he knew no good but enjoyment1 and this was so keen that he expected to find it repeated in each of his friends4 ,it is true we often call actions good which are not immediately pleasing2 for example1 the cutting off of a leg which is crushed past the possibility of cure4 ,but the leg1 if left1 will cause still more distress or even death4 ,in the last analysis the word good will be found everywhere to refer to some satisfaction of human desire4 ,if we count afflictions good1 it is because we believe that through them permanent peace may best be reached4 ,and rightly do those name the ,bible the ,good ,book who think that it more than any other has helped to alleviate the woes of man4 ,with this definition ,i shall not quarrel4 ,so far as it goes1 it seems to me not incorrect4 ,in all good ,i too find satisfaction of desire4 ,only1 though true1 the definition is in my judgment vague and inadequate4 ,for we shall still need some standard to test the goodness of desires4 ,they themselves may be good1 and some of them are better than others4 ,it is good to eat candy1 to love a friend1 to hate a foe1 to hear the sound of running water1 to practice medicine1 to gather wealth1 learning1 or postage stamps4 ,but though each of these represents a natural desire1 they cannot all be counted equally good4 ,they must be tried by some standard other than themselves4 ,for desires are not detachable facts4 ,each is significant only as a piece of a life4 ,in connection with that life it must be judged4 ,and when we ask if any desire is good or bad1 we really inquire how far it may play a part in company with other desires in making up a harmonious existence4 ,by its organic quality1 accordingly1 we must ultimately determine the goodness of whatever we desire4 ,if it is organic1 it certainly will satisfy desire4 ,but we cannot reverse this statement and assert that whatever satisfies desire will be organically good4 ,my own mode of statement is1 therefore1 clearer and more adequate than the one here examined1 because it brings out fully important considerations which in this are only implied4 ,whatever contributes to the solidity and wealth of an organism is1 from the point of view of that organism1 good4 ,,vi ,a second inadequate definition of goodness is that it is adaptation to environment4 ,this is a far more important conception than the preceding2 but again1 while not untrue1 is still1 in my judgment1 partial and ambiguous4 ,when its meaning is made clear and exact1 it seems to coincide with my own2 for it points out that nothing can be separately good1 but becomes so through fulfillment of relations4 ,each thing or person is surrounded by many others4 ,to them it must fit itself4 ,being but a part1 its goodness is found in serving that whole with which it is connected4 ,that is a good oar which suits well the hands of the rower1 the row-lock of the boat1 and the resisting water4 ,the white fur of the polar bear1 the tawny hide of the lion1 the camel's hump1 giraffe's neck1 and the light feet of the antelope1 are all alike good because they adapt these creatures to their special conditions of existence and thus favor their survival4 ,nor is there a different standard for moral man4 ,his actions which are accounted good are called so because they are those through which he is adapted to his surroundings1 fitted for the society of his fellows1 and adjusted with the best chance of survival to his encompassing physical world4 ,while ,i have warm approval for much that appears in such a doctrine1 ,i think those who accept it may easily overlook certain important elements of goodness4 ,at best it is a description of extrinsic goodness1 for it separates the object from its environment and makes the response of the former to an external call the measure of its worth4 ,of that inner worth1 or intrinsic goodness1 where fullness and adjustment of relations go on within and not without1 it says nothing4 ,yet ,i have shown how impossible it is to conceive one of these kinds of goodness without the other4 ,but a graver objection still--or rather the same objection pressed more closely--is this4 ,the present definition naturally brings up the picture of certain constant and stable surroundings enclosing an environed object which is to be changed at their demand4 ,no such state of things exists4 ,there is no fixed environment4 ,it is always fixable4 ,every environment is plastic and derives its character1 at least partially1 from the environed object4 ,each stone sends out its little gravitative and chemical influence upon surrounding stones1 and they are different through being in its neighborhood4 ,the two become mutually affected1 and it is no more suitable to say that the object must adapt itself to its environment than that the environment must be adapted to its object4 ,indeed1 in persons this second form of statement is the more important2 for the forcing of circumstances into accordance with human needs may be said to be the chief business of human life4 ,the man who adapts himself to his ignorant1 licentious1 or malarial surroundings1 is not a type of the good man4 ,of course disregard of environment is not good either4 ,circumstances have their honorable powers1 and these require to be studied1 respected1 and employed4 ,sometimes they are so strong as to leave a person no other course than to adapt himself to them4 ,he cannot adapt them to himself4 ,plato has a good story of how a native of the little village of ,seriphus tried to explain ,themistocles by means of environment4 ,you would not1 he said to the great man1 have been eminent if you had been born in ,seriphus4 ,probably not1 answered ,themistocles1 nor you1 if you had been born in ,athens4 ,the definition we are discussing1 then1 is not true--indeed it is hardly intelligible--if we take it in the one-sided way in which it is usually announced4 ,the demand for adaptation does not proceed exclusively from environment1 surroundings1 circumstance4 ,the stone1 the tree1 the man1 conforms these to itself as truly as it is conformed to them4 ,there is mutual adaptation4 ,undoubtedly this is implied in the definition1 and the petty employment of it which ,i have been attacking would be rejected also by its wiser defenders4 ,but when its meaning is thus filled out1 its vagueness rendered clear1 and the mutual influence which is implied becomes clearly announced1 the definition turns into the one which ,i have offered4 ,goodness is the expression of the largest organization4 ,its aim is everywhere to bring object and environment into fullest cooperation4 ,we have seen how in any organic relationship every part is both means and end4 ,goodness tends toward organism2 and so far as it obtains1 each member of the universe receives its own appropriate expansion and dignity4 ,the present definition merely states the great truth of organization with too objective an emphasis2 as that which found the satisfaction of desire to be the ground of goodness over-emphasized the subjective side4 ,the one is too legal1 the other too aesthetic4 ,yet each calls attention to an important and supplementary factor in the formation of goodness4 ,,vii ,in closing these dull defining chapters1 in which ,i have tried to sum up the notion of goodness in general--a conception so thin and empty that it is equally applicable to things and persons--it may be well to gather together in a single group the several definitions we have reached4 ,intrinsic goodness expresses the fulfillment of function in the construction of an organism4 ,by an organism is meant such an assemblage of active and differing parts that in it each part both aids and is aided by all the others4 ,extrinsic goodness is found when an object employs an already constituted wholeness to further the wholeness of others4 ,a part is good when it furnishes that and that only which may add value to other parts4 ,a greater good is one more largely contributory to the organism as its end4 ,a higher good is one more fully expressive of that end4 ,probably1 too1 it will be found convenient to set down here a couple of other definitions which will hereafter be explained and employed4 ,a good act is the expression of selfhood as service4 ,by an ideal we mean a mental picture of a better state of existence than we feel has actually been reached4 ,,references ,,on ,,misconceptions ,,of ,,goodness ,alexander's ,moral ,order and ,progress1 bk4 iii4 ch4 i4 ,section #aj4 ,martineau's ,types of ,ethical ,theory1 vol4 ii4 bk4 i4 ch4 i4 ,section #b4 ,mackenzie's ,manual of ,ethics1 ch4 v4 ,section #ac ch4 vii4 ,section #b4 ,janet's ,theory of ,morals1 ch4 iii4 ,dewey's ,outlines of ,ethics1 ,section lxvii4 ,spencer's ,principles of ,ethics1 pt4 i4 ch4 #c4 ,,iii ,,self-,,consciousness ,i ,in the preceding chapters ,i have examined only those features of goodness which are common alike to persons and to things4 ,goodness was there seen to be the expression of function in the construction of an organism4 ,that is1 when we ask if any being1 object1 or quality is good1 we are really inquiring how organic it is1 how much it contributes of riches or solidity to some whole or other4 ,there must1 then1 be as many varieties of goodness as there are modes of constructing organisms4 ,a special set of functions will produce one kind of organism1 a different set another2 and each of these will express a peculiar variety of goodness4 ,if1 then1 into the construction of a person conditions enter which are not found in the making of things1 these conditions will render personal goodness to some extent unlike the goodness of everything else4 ,now ,i suppose that in the contacts of life we all feel a marked difference between persons and things4 ,we know a person when we see him1 and are quite sure he is not a thing4 ,yet if we were called on to say precisely what it is we know1 and how we know it1 we should find ourselves in some difficulty4 ,no doubt we usually recognize a human being by his form and motions1 but we assume that certain inner traits regularly attend these outward matters1 and that in these traits the real ground of difference between person and thing is to be found4 ,how many such distinguishing differences exist8 ,obviously a multitude2 but these are1 ,i believe1 merely various manifestations of a few fundamental characteristics4 ,probably all can be reduced to four1-- they are self-consciousness1 self-direction1 self-development1 and self-sacrifice4 ,wherever these four traits are found1 we feel at once that the being who has them is a person4 ,whatever creature lacks them is but a thing1 and requires no personal attention4 ,i might say more4 ,these four are so likely to go together that the appearance of one gives confidence of the rest4 ,if1 for example1 we discover a being sacrificing itself for another1 even though we have not previously thought of it as a person1 it will so stir sympathy that we shall see in it a likeness to our own kind4 ,or1 finding a creature capable of steering itself1 of deciding what its ends shall be1 and adjusting its many powers to reach them1 we cannot help feeling that there is much in such a being like ourselves1 and we are consequently indisposed to refer its movements to mechanic adjustment4 ,if1 then1 these are the four conditions of personality1 the distinctive functions by which it becomes organically good1 they will evidently need to be examined somewhat minutely before we can rightly comprehend the nature of personal goodness1 and detect its separation from goodness in general4 ,such an examination will occupy this and the three succeeding chapters4 ,but ,i shall devote myself exclusively to such features of the four functions as connect them with ethics4 ,many interesting metaphysical and psychological questions connected with them ,i pass by4 ,,ii ,there is no need of elaborating the assertion that a person is a conscious being4 ,to this all will at once agree4 ,more important is it to inspect the stages through which we rise to consciousness1 for these are often overlooked4 ,people imagine that they are self- conscious through and through1 and that they always have been4 ,they assume that the entire life of a person is the expression of consciousness alone4 ,but this is erroneous4 ,to a large degree we are allied with things4 ,while self-consciousness is our distinctive prerogative1 it is far from being our only possession4 ,rather we might say that all which belongs to the under world is ours too1 while self- consciousness appears in us as a kind of surplusage4 ,no doubt it is by the distinctive traits1 those which are not shared with other creatures1 that we define our special character2 but these are not our sole endowment4 ,our life is grounded in unconsciousness1 and with this1 as students of personal goodness1 we must first make acquaintance4 ,yet how can we become acquainted with it8 ,how grow conscious of the unconscious8 ,we can but mark it in a negative way and call it the absence of consciousness4 ,that is all4 ,we cannot be directly aware of ourselves as unconscious4 ,indeed1 we cannot be quite sure that the physical things about us1 even organic objects1 are unconscious4 ,if somebody should declare that the covers of this book are conscious1 and respond to everything wise or foolish which the writer puts between them1 there would be no way of confuting him4 ,all ,i could say would be1 ,i see no signs of it4 ,my readers occasionally give a response and show that they do or do not agree with what ,i say4 ,but the volume itself lies in stolid passivity1 offering no resistance to whatever ,i record in it4 ,since1 then1 there is no evidence in behalf of consciousness1 ,i do not unwarrantably assume its presence4 ,i save my belief for objects where it is indicated1 and indicate its absence elsewhere by calling such objects unconscious4 ,but if in human beings consciousness appears1 what are its marks1 and how is it known8 ,ought we not to define it at starting8 ,i believe it cannot be defined4 ,definition is taking an idea to pieces4 ,but there are no pieces in the idea of consciousness4 ,it is elementary1 something in which all other pieces begin4 ,that is1 in attempting to define consciousness1 ,i must in every definition employed really assume that my hearer is acquainted with it already4 ,i cannot then define it without covert reference to experience4 ,i might vary the term and call it awaredness1 internal observation1 psychic response4 ,i might say it is that which accompanies all experience and makes it to be experience4 ,but these are not definitions4 ,a simple way to fix attention on it is to say that it is what we feel less and less as we sink into a swoon4 ,what this is1 ,i cannot more precisely state4 ,but in swoon or sleep we are all familiar with its diminution or increase1 and we recognize in it the very color of our being4 ,after my friend's remark ,i am in a different state from that in which ,i was before4 ,something has affected me which may abide4 ,this is not the case with a stone post1 or at least there are no signs of it there4 ,the post1 then1 is unconscious4 ,we call ourselves conscious4 ,in unconsciousness our lives began1 and from it they have not altogether emerged4 ,yet unconsciousness is a matter of degree4 ,we may be very much aware1 aware but slightly1 vanishingly1 not at all4 ,even though we never existed unconsciously1 we may fairly assume such a blank terminus in order the better to figure the present condition of our minds4 ,they show sinking degrees moving off in that direction2 when we think out the series1 we come logically to a point where there is no consciousness at all4 ,such a point analogy also inclines us to concede4 ,in our body we come upon unconscious sections4 ,this body seems to have some connection with myself2 yet of its large results only1 and not of its minuter operations1 can ,i be distinctly aware4 ,in like manner it is held that within the mind processes cumulate and rise to a certain height before they cross the threshold of consciousness4 ,below that threshold1 though actual processes1 they are unknown to us4 ,the teaching of modern psychology is that all mental action is at the start unconscious1 requiring a certain bulk of stimulus in order to emerge into conditions where we become aware of it4 ,the cumulated result we know2 the minute factors which must be gathered together to form that result1 we do not know4 ,i do not pronounce judgment on this psychological question4 ,i state the belief merely in order to show how probable it is that our conscious life is superposed upon unconscious conditions4 ,in conduct itself ,i believe every one will acknowledge that his moments of consciousness are like vivid peaks1 while the great mass of his acts--even those with which he is most familiar--occur unconsciously4 ,when we read a word on the printed page1 how much of it do we consciously observe8 ,modern teachers of reading often declare that detailed consciousness is here unnecessary or even injurious4 ,better1 they say1 take the word1 not the letter1 as the unit of consciousness4 ,but taking merely the letter1 how minutely are we conscious of its curvatures8 ,somewhere consciousness must stop1 resting on the support of unconscious experiences4 ,matthew ,arnold has declared conduct to be three fourths of life4 ,if we mean by conduct consciously directed action1 it is not one fourth4 ,yet however fragmentary1 it is that which renders all the rest significant4 ,,iii ,just above our unconscious mental modifications appear the reflex actions1 or instincts4 ,here experience is translated into action before it reaches consciousness2 that is1 though the actions accomplish intelligent ends1 there is no previous knowledge of the ends to be accomplished4 ,a flash of light falls on my eye1 and the lid closes4 ,it seems a wise act4 ,the brilliant light is too fierce4 ,it might damage the delicate organ4 ,prudently1 therefore1 ,i draw the small curtain until the light has gone1 then raise it and resume communication with the outer world4 ,my action seems planned for protection4 ,in reality there was no plan4 ,probably enough ,i did not perceive the flash2 the lid1 at any rate1 would close equally well if ,i did not4 ,in falling from a height ,i do not decide to sacrifice my arms rather than my body1 and accordingly stretch them out4 ,they stretch themselves1 without intention on my part4 ,how anything so blind yet so sagacious can occur will become clearer if we take an illustration from a widely different field4 ,to-day we are all a good deal dependent on the telephone2 though1 not being a patient man1 ,i can seldom bring myself to use it4 ,it has one irritating feature1 the central office1 or perhaps ,i might more accurately say1 the central office girl4 ,whenever ,i try to communicate with my friend1 ,i must first call up the central office1 as it is briefly called and longly executed4 ,not until attention there has been with difficulty obtained can ,i come into connection with my friend2 for through a human consciousness at that mediating point every message must pass4 ,in that central office are accordingly three necessary things2 viz41 an incoming wire1 a consciousness1 and an outgoing wire2 and ,i am helpless till all these three have been brought into cooperation4 ,really ,i have often thought life too short for the performance of such tasks4 ,and apparently our ,creator thought so at the beginning1 when in contriving machinery for us he dispensed with the hindering factor of a central office operator4 ,for applied to our previous example of a flash of light1 the incoming message corresponds to the sensuous report of the flash1 the outgoing message to the closure of the eye1 and the unfortunate central office girl has disappeared4 ,the afferent nerve reports directly to the efferent1 without passing the message through consciousness4 ,a fortune awaits him who will contrive a similar improvement for the telephone4 ,a special sound sent into the switch-box must automatically1 and without human intervention1 oblige an indicated wire to take up the uttered words4 ,the continuous arc thus established1 without employment of the at present necessary girl1 will exactly represent the exquisite machinery of reflex action which each of us bears about in his own brain4 ,here1 as in our improved telephone1 the announcement itself establishes the connections needful for farther transmission1 without employing the judgment of any operating official4 ,by such means power is economized and action becomes extremely swift and sure4 ,promptness1 too1 being of the utmost importance for protective purposes1 creatures which are rich in such instincts have a large practical advantage over those who lack them4 ,it is often assumed that brutes alone are instinctive1 and that man must deliberate over each occasion4 ,but this is far from the fact4 ,probably at birth man has as many instincts as any other animal4 ,and though as consciousness awakes and takes control1 some of these become unnecessary and fall away1 new ones--as will hereafter be shown--are continually established1 and by them the heavy work of life is for the most part performed4 ,personal goodness cannot be rightly understood till we perceive how it is superposed on a broad reflex mechanism4 ,,iv ,but higher in the personal life than unconsciousness1 higher than the reflex instincts1 are the conscious experiences4 ,by these1 we for the first time became aware of what is going on within us and without4 ,messages sent from the outer world are stopped at a central office established in consciousness1 looked over1 and deciphered4 ,we judge whether they require to be sent in one direction or another1 or whether we may not rest in their simple cognizance4 ,every moment we receive a multitude of such messages4 ,they are not always called for1 but they come of themselves4 ,my hand carelessly falling on the table reports in terms of touch4 ,a person near me laughs1 and ,i must hear4 ,i see the flowers on the table2 smell reports them too2 while taste declares their leaves to be bitter and pungent4 ,all this time the inner organs1 with the processes of breathing1 blood circulation1 and nervous action1 are announcing their acute or massive experiences4 ,continually1 and not by our own choice1 our minds are affected by the transactions around4 ,sensations occur-- ,the eye1 it cannot choose but see2 ,we cannot bid the ear be still2 ,our bodies feel1 where'er they be1 ,against or with our will4 ,these itemized experiences thus pouring in upon our passive selves are found to vary endlessly also in degree1 time1 and locality4 ,through such variations indeed they become itemized4 ,therefore is space and therefore time1 says ,emerson1 that men may know that things are not huddled and lumped1 but sundered and divisible4 ,v ,have we not1 then1 here reached the highest point of personal life1 self-consciousness8 ,no1 that is a peak higher still1 for this is but consciousness4 ,undoubtedly from consciousness self-consciousness grows1 often appearing by degrees and being extremely difficult to discriminate4 ,yet the two are not the same4 ,possibly in marking the contrast between them ,i may be able to gain the collateral advantage of ridding myself of those disturbers of ethical discussion1 the brutes4 ,whenever ,i am nearing an explanation of some moral intricacy one of my students is sure to come forward with a dog and to ask whether what ,i have said shows that dog to be a moral and responsible being4 ,so ,i like to watch afar and banish the brutes betimes4 ,perhaps if ,i bestow a little attention on them at present1 ,i may keep the creatures out of my pages for the future4 ,many writers maintain that brutes differ from us precisely in this particular1 that while they possess consciousness they have not self- consciousness4 ,a brute1 they say1 has just such experiences as ,i have been describing3 he tastes1 smells1 hears1 sees1 touches4 ,all this he may do with greater intensity and precision than we4 ,but he is entirely wrapped up in these separate sensations4 ,the single experience holds his attention4 ,he knows no other self than that2 or1 strictly speaking1 he knows no self at all4 ,it is the experience he knows1 and not himself the experiencer4 ,we say1 ,the cat feels herself warm2 but is it quite so8 ,does she feel herself1 or does she feel warm8 ,which8 ,if we may trust the writers to whom ,i have referred1 we ought rather to say1 ,the cat feels warm than that she feels herself warm2 for this latter statement implies a distinction of which she is in no way aware4 ,she does not set off her passing moods in contrast to a self who might be warm or cold1 active or idle1 hungry or satiated4 ,the experience of the instant occupies her so entirely that in reality the cat ceases to be a cat and becomes for the moment just warm4 ,so it is in all her seeming activities4 ,when she chases a mouse we rightly say1 ,she is chasing a mouse1 for then she is nothing else4 ,such a state of things is at least conceivable4 ,we can imagine momentary experiences to be so engrossing that the animal is exclusively occupied with them1 unable to note connections with past and future1 or even with herself1 their perceiver4 ,through very fullness of ,consciousness brutes may be lacking in self-consciousness4 ,whether this is the case with the brutes or not1 something quite different occurs in us4 ,no particular experience can satisfy us2 we accordingly say1 not ,i am an experience1 but ,i have an experience4 ,to be able to throw off the bondage of the moment is the distinctive characteristic of a person4 ,when ,shelley watches the skylark1 he envies him his power of whole-heartedly seizing a momentary joy4 ,then turning to himself1 and feeling that his own condition1 if broader1 is on that very account more liable to sorrow1 he cries1-- ,we look before and after1 ,and pine for what is not4 ,that is the mark of man4 ,he looks before and after4 ,the outlook of the brute1 if the questionable account which ,i have given of him is correct1 is different4 ,he looks to the present exclusively4 ,the momentary experience takes all his attention4 ,if it does not1 he too in his little degree is a person4 ,could we determine this simple point in the brute's psychology1 he would at once become available for ethical material4 ,at present we cannot use him for such purposes1 nor say whether he is selfish or self-sacrificing1 possessed of moral standards and accountable1 or driven by subtle yet automatic reflexes4 ,the obvious facts of him may be interpreted plausibly in either way1 and he cannot speak4 ,till he can give us a clearer account of this central fact of his being1 we shall not know whether he is a poor relation of ours or is rather akin to rocks1 and clouds1 and trees4 ,i incline to the former guess1 and am ready to believe that between him and us there is only a difference of degree4 ,but since in any case he stands at an extreme distance from ourselves1 we may for purposes of explanation assume that distance to be absolute1 and talk of him as having no share in the prerogative announced by ,shelley4 ,so regarded1 we shall say of him that he does not compare or adjust4 ,he does not organize experiences and know a single self running through them all4 ,whenever an experience takes him1 it swallows his self--a self1 it is true1 which he never had4 ,it is sometimes assumed that ,shelley was the first to announce this weighty distinction4 ,philosophers of course were familiar with it long ago1 but the poets too had noticed it before the skylark told ,shelley4 ,burns says to the mouse3-- ,still thou art blest1 compared wi' me6 ,the present only toucheth thee3 ,but1 ooh6 ,i backward cast my e'e ,on prospects drear6 ,an' forward tho' ,i canna see1 ,i guess an' fear4 ,this looking backward and forward which is the ground of man's grandeur1 is also1 ,burns thinks1 the ground of his misery2 for in it is rooted his self-consciousness1 something widely unlike the itemized consciousness of the brute4 ,shakespeare1 too1 found in us the same distinctive trait4 ,hamlet reflects how ,god has made us with such discourse1 looking before and after4 ,we possess discourse1 can move about intellectually1 and are not shut up to the moment4 ,but ages before ,shakespeare the fact had been observed4 ,homer knew all about it1 and in the last book of the ,odyssey extols ,halitherses1 the son of ,mastor1 as one able to look before and after4 ,greek text omitted4 ,this is the mark of the wise man1 not merely marking off person from brute1 but person from person according to the degree of personality attained4 ,it is characteristic of the child to show little foresight1 little hindsight4 ,he takes the present as it comes1 and lives in it4 ,we who are more mature and rational contemplate him with the same envy we feel for the skylark and the mouse1 and often say1 ,would ,i too could so suck the joys of the present1 without reflecting that something else is coming and something else is gone4 ,,vi ,yet after becoming possessed of self-consciousness1 we do not steadily retain it4 ,states of mind occur where the self slips out1 though vivid consciousness remains4 ,as ,i sit in my chair and fix my eye on the distance1 a daydream or reverie comes over me4 ,i see a picture1 another1 another4 ,somebody speaks and ,i am recalled4 ,why1 here ,i am6 ,this is ,i4 ,i find myself once more4 ,i had lost myself--paradoxical yet accurate expression4 ,we have many such to indicate the disappearance of self-consciousness at moments of elation4 ,i was absorbed in thought1 we say2 the ,i was sucked out by strenuous attention elsewhere4 ,i was swept away with grief1 i4e41 ,i vanished1 while grief held sway4 ,i was transported with delight1 ,i was overwhelmed with shame1 and--perhaps most beautiful of all these fragments of poetic psychology1--,i was beside myself with terror1 ,i felt myself1 to be near1 but was still parted2 through the fear ,i could merely catch glimpses of the one who was terrified4 ,these and similar phrases suggest the instability of self- consciousness4 ,it is not fixed1 once and forever1 but varies continually and within a wide range of degree4 ,we like to think that man possesses full self-consciousness1 while other creatures have none4 ,our minds are disposed to part off things with sharpness1 but nature cares less about sharp divisions and seems on the whole to prefer subtle gradations and unstable varieties4 ,so the self has all degrees of vividness4 ,of it we never have an experience barely4 ,it is always in some condition1 colored by what it is mixed with4 ,i know myself speaking or angry or hearing2 ,i know myself1 that is1 in some special mood4 ,but never am ,i able to sunder this self from the special mass of consciousness in which it is immersed and to gaze upon it pure and simple4 ,at times that mass of consciousness is so engrossing that hardly a trace of the self remains4 ,at times the sense of being shut up to one's self is positively oppressive4 ,between the two extremes there is endless variation4 ,when we call self-consciousness the prerogative of man we do not mean that he fully possesses it1 but only that he may possess it1 may possess it more and more2 and that in it1 rather than in the merely conscious life1 the significance of his being is found4 ,,vii ,probably we are born without it4 ,we know how gradually the infant acquires a mastery of its sensuous experience2 and it is likely that for a long time after it has obtained command of its single experiences it remains unaware of its selfhood4 ,in a classic passage of ,in ,memoriam ,tennyson has stated the case with that blending of witchery and scientific precision of which he alone among the poets seems capable3-- ,the baby1 new to earth and sky1 ,what time his tender palm is prest ,against the circle of the breast1 ,has never thought that 'this is ,i4' ,but as he grows he gathers much1 ,and learns the use of ',i' and 'me1' ,and finds ',i am not what ,i see1 ,and other than the things ,i touch4' ,so rounds he to a separate mind1 ,from whence clear memory may begin1 ,as thro' the frame that binds him in ,his isolation grows defined4 ,until he has separated his mind from the objects around1 and even from his own conscious states1 he cannot perceive himself and obtain clear memory4 ,no child recalls his first year1 for the simple reason that during that year he was not there4 ,of course there was experience during that year1 there was consciousness2 but the child could not discriminate himself from the crowding experiences and so reach self- consciousness4 ,at what precise time this momentous possibility occurs cannot be told4 ,probably the time varies widely in different children4 ,in any single child it announces itself by degrees1 and usually so subtly that its early manifestations are hardly perceptible4 ,occasionally1 especially when long deferred1 it breaks with the suddenness of an epoch1 and the child is aware of a new existence4 ,a little girl of my acquaintance turned from play to her mother with the cry1 ,why1 mamma1 little girls don't know that they are4 ,she had just discovered it4 ,in a famous passage of his autobiography1 ,jean ,paul ,richter has recorded the great change in himself3 ,never shall ,i forget the inward experience of the birth of self-consciousness4 ,i well remember the time and place4 ,i stood one afternoon1 a very young child1 at the house-door1 and looked at the logs of wood piled on the left4 ,suddenly an inward consciousness1 ',i am a ,me1' came like a flash of lightning from heaven1 and has remained ever since4 ,at that moment my existence became conscious of itself1 and forever4 ,the knowledge that ,i am an ,i cannot be conveyed to me by another human being1 nor can ,i perceive anything similar in him4 ,each must ascertain it for himself4 ,accordingly there is only one word in every language which is absolutely unique1 bearing a different meaning for every one who employs it4 ,that is the word ,i4 ,for me to use it in the sense that you do would prove that ,i had lost my wits4 ,whatever enters into my usage is out of it in yours4 ,obviously1 then1 the meaning of this word cannot be taught4 ,everything else may be4 ,what the table is1 what is a triangle1 what virtue1 heaven1 or a spherodactyl1 you can teach me4 ,what ,i am1 you cannot2 for no one has ever had an experience corresponding to this except myself4 ,people in speaking to me call me ,john1 ,baby1 or ,ned1 an externally descriptive name which has substantially a common meaning for all who see me4 ,when ,i begin to talk ,i repeat this name imitatively1 and thinking of myself as others do4 ,i speak of myself in the third person4 ,yet how early that reference to a third person begins to be saturated with self- consciousness1 who can say8 ,before the word ,i is employed1 ,johnny or ,baby may have been diverted into an egoistic significance4 ,all we can say is that ,i cannot be rightly employed until consciousness has risen to self-consciousness4 ,,viii ,and when it has so risen1 its unity and coherence are by no means secure4 ,i have already pointed out how often it is lost in moments when the conscious element becomes particularly intense4 ,but in morbid conditions too it sometimes undergoes a disruption still more peculiar4 ,just as disintegration may attack any other organic unit1 so may it appear in the personal life4 ,the records of hypnotism and other related phenomena show cases where self-consciousness appears to be distributed among several selves4 ,these curious experiences have received more attention in recent years than ever before4 ,they do not1 however1 belong to my field1 and to consider them at any length would only divert attention from my proper topic4 ,but they deserve mention in passing in order to make plain how wayward is self-consciousness1-- how far from an assured possession of its unity4 ,this unity seems temporarily suspended on occasion of swoon or nervous shock4 ,an interesting case of its loss occurred in my own experience4 ,many years ago ,i was fond of horseback riding2 and having a horse that was unusually easy in the saddle1 ,i persisted in riding him long after my groom had warned me of danger4 ,he had grown weak in the knees and was inclined to stumble4 ,riding one evening1 ,i came to a little bridge4 ,i remember watching the rays of the sunset as ,i approached it4 ,something too of my college work was in my mind1 associated with the evening colors4 ,and then--well1 there was no then4 ,the next ,i knew a voice was calling1 ,is that you8 ,and ,i was surprised to find that it was4 ,i was entering my own gateway1 leading my horse4 ,i answered blindly1 ,something has happened4 ,i must have been riding4 ,perhaps ,i have fallen4 ,i put my hand to my face and found it bloody4 ,i led my horse to his post1 entered the house1 and relapsed again into unconsciousness4 ,when ,i came to myself1 and was questioned about my last remembrance1 ,i recalled the little bridge4 ,we went to it the next day4 ,there lay my riding whip4 ,there in the sand were the marks of a body which had been dragged4 ,plainly it was there that the accident had occurred1 yet it was three quarters of a mile from my house4 ,when thrown1 ,i had struck on my forehead1 making an ugly hole in it4 ,two or three gashes were on other parts of the head4 ,but ,i had apparently still held the rein1 had risen with the horse1 had walked by his side till ,i came to four corners in the road1 had there taken the proper turn1 passed three houses1 and entering my own gate then for the first time became aware of what was happening4 ,what had been happening8 ,about twenty minutes would be required to perform this elaborate series of actions1 and they had been performed exactly as if ,i had been guiding them1 while in reality ,i knew nothing about them4 ,shall we call my conduct unconscious cerebration8 ,yes1 if we like large words which cover ignorance4 ,i do not see how we can certainly say what was going on4 ,perhaps during all this time ,i had neither consciousness nor self-consciousness4 ,i may have been a mere automaton1 under the control of a series of reflex actions4 ,the feeling of the reins in my hands may have set me erect4 ,the feeling of the ground beneath my feet may have projected these along their way2 and all this with no more consciousness than the falling man has in stretching out his hands4 ,or1 on the contrary1 ,i may have been separately conscious in each little instant2 but in the shaken condition of the brain may not have had power to spare for gluing together these instants and knitting them into a whole4 ,it may be it was only memory which failed4 ,i cite the case to show the precarious character of self-consciousness4 ,it appears and disappears4 ,our life is glorified by its presence1 and from it obtains its whole significance4 ,whatever we are convinced possesses it we certainly declare to be a person4 ,yet it is a gradual acquisition1 and must be counted rather a goal than a possession4 ,under it1 as the height of our being1 are ranged the three other stages1--consciousness1 reflex action1 and unconsciousness4 ,,references ,,on ,,self-,,consciousness ,james's ,psychology1 ch4 x4 ,royce's ,studies of ,good and ,evil1 ch4 vi4-ix4 ,ferrier's ,philosophy of ,consciousness1 in his ,philosophical ,remains4 ,calkins's ,introduction to ,psychology1 bk4 ii4 ,wundt's ,human and ,animal ,psychology1 lect4 xxvii4 ,,iv ,,self-,,direction ,i ,in the last chapter ,i began to discuss the nature of goodness distinctively personal4 ,this has its origin in the differing constitutions of persons and things4 ,into the making of a person four characteristics enter which are not needed in the formation of a thing4 ,the most fundamental of these ,i examined4 ,persons and things are unlike in this1 that each force which stirs within a self- conscious person is correlated with all his other forces4 ,so great and central is this correlation that a person can say1 ,i have an experience1 not--as1 possibly1 the brutes--,i am an experience4 ,yet although a person tends thus to be an organic whole1 he did not begin his existence in conscious unity4 ,probably the early stages of our life are to be sought rather in the regions of unconsciousness4 ,rising out of unconscious conditions into reflex actions--those ingenious provisions for our security at times when we have no directing powers of our own--we gradually pass into conditions of consciousness1 where we are able to seize the single experience and to be absorbed in it4 ,out of this emerges by degrees an apprehension of ourselves contrasted with our experiences4 ,even1 however1 when this self-consciousness is once established1 it may on vivacious or morbid occasions be overthrown4 ,it by no means attends all the events of our lives4 ,yet it marks all conduct that can be called good4 ,goodness which is distinctively personal must in some way express the formation and maintenance of a self-conscious life4 ,but more is needed4 ,a person fashioned in the way described would be aware of himself1 aware of his mental changes1 perhaps aware of an objective order of things producing these changes1 and still might have no real share himself in what was going on4 ,we can at least imagine a being merely contemplative4 ,he sits as a spectator at his own drama4 ,trains of associated ideas pass before his interested gaze2 a multitude of transactions occur in his contemplated surroundings2 but he is powerless to intervene4 ,he passively beholds1 and does nothing4 ,if such a state of things can be imagined1 and if something like it occasionally occurs in our experience1 it does not represent our normal condition4 ,our life is no mere affair of vision4 ,self- consciousness counts as a factor4 ,through it changes arise both without and within4 ,i accordingly entitle this fourth chapter ,self- direction4 ,in it ,i propose to consider how our life goes forth in action2 for in fact wherever self-consciousness appears1 there is developed also a centre of activity1 and an activity of an altogether peculiar kind4 ,it is well known that in interpreting these facts of action the judgment of ethical writers is divided4 ,libertarians and determinists are here at issue4 ,into their controversy ,i do not desire to enter4 ,i mean to attempt a brief summary of those facts relating to human action which are tolerably well agreed upon by writers of both schools4 ,in these there are intricacies enough4 ,to raise the hand1 to wave it in the air1 to lay it on the table again1 would ordinarily be reckoned simple matters4 ,yet operations so simple as these ,i shall show pass through half a dozen steps1 though they are ordinarily performed so swiftly that we do not notice their several parts4 ,in life much is knitted together which cannot be understood without dissection4 ,in such dissection ,i must now engage4 ,as a good pedagogue ,i must discuss operations separately which in reality get all their meaning through being found together4 ,against the necessary distortions of such a method the reader must be on his guard4 ,,ii ,in the total process of self-direction there are evidently two main divisions1--a mental purpose must be formed1 and then this purpose must be sent forth into the outer world4 ,it is there accepted by those agencies of a physical sort which wait to do our bidding4 ,the formation of the mental purpose ,i will1 for the sake of brevity1 call the intention1 and to the sending of it forth ,i will give the name volition4 ,that these terms are not always confined within these limits is plain4 ,but ,i shall not force their meaning unduly by employing them so1 and ,i need a pair of terms to mark the great contrasted sides of self-direction4 ,the intention 7,a7 shall designate the subjective side4 ,but those objective adjustments which fit it to emerge and seek in an outer world its full expression ,i shall call the volition 7,b74 ,for the present1 then1 regarding entirely the former1 let us see how an intention arises1--how self-consciousness sets to work in stirring up activity4 ,to gain clearness ,i shall distinguish three subordinate stages1 designating them by special names and numerals4 ,,iii ,at the start we are guided by an end or ideal of what we would bring about4 ,to a being destitute of self-consciousness only a single sort of action is at any moment possible4 ,when a certain force falls upon it1 it meets with a fixed response4 ,or1 if the causative forces are many1 what happens is but the well-established resultant of these forces operating upon a being as definite in nature as they4 ,such a being contemplates no future to be reached through motions set up within it4 ,its motions do not occur for the sake of realizing in coming time powers as yet but half-existent4 ,it is not guided by ideals4 ,its actions set forth merely what it steadily is1 not what it might be4 ,something like the opposite of all this shapes personal acts4 ,a person has imagination4 ,he contemplates future events as possible before they occur1 and this contemplation is one of the very factors which bring them about4 ,for example3 while writing here1 ,i can emancipate my thought from this present act and set myself to imagining my situation an hour hence4 ,at that time ,i perceive ,i may be still at my writing-desk1 ,i may be walking the streets1 ,i may be at the theatre1 or calling on my friend4 ,a dozen1 a hundred1 future possibilities are depicted as open to me4 ,on one or another of these ,i fix my attention1 thereby giving it a causal force over other present ideas1 and rendering its future realization likely4 ,so enormously important is imagination4 ,by it we effect our emancipation from the present4 ,without this power to summon pictures of situations which at present are not1 we should be exactly like the things or brutes already described4 ,for in the thing a determined sequence follows every impulse4 ,there is no ambiguous future disclosed1 no variety of possibilities1 no alternatives4 ,present things under definite causes have but a single issue2 and if the account given of the brute is correct1 his condition is unlike that of things only in this respect1 that in him curious automatic springs are provided which set him in appropriate motion whenever he is exposed to harm1 so enabling him suitably to face a future of which1 however1 he forms no image4 ,in both brutes and things there is entire limitation to the present4 ,this is not the case with a person4 ,he takes the future into his reckoning1 and over him it is at least as influential as the past4 ,a person1 through imagination laying hold of future possibilities1 has innumerable auxiliary forces at his command4 ,choice appears4 ,a depicted future thus held by attention for causal purposes is no longer a mere idea2 it becomes an ideal4 ,but in order to transform the depicted future from an idea to an ideal1 ,i must conceive it as rooted in my nature1 and in some degree dependent on my power4 ,attracted by the brilliancy of the crescent moon1 ,i think what sport it would be to hang on one of its horns and kick my heels in the air4 ,but no1 that remains a mere picture4 ,it will not become an ideal1 for it has no relation to my structure and powers4 ,but there are other imaginable futures1--going to ,europe1 becoming a physician1 writing a book1 buying a house1 which1 though not fully compatible with one another1 still represent1 each one of them1 some capacity of mine4 ,attention to one or the other of these will make it a reality in my life4 ,they are competing ideals1 and because of such competition my future is uncertain4 ,the ambiguous future is accordingly a central characteristic of a person4 ,he can imagine all sorts of states of himself which as yet have no existence1 and one of these selected as an ideal may become efficient4 ,this first stage1 then1 in the formation of the purpose1 where various depicted future possibilities are summoned for assessment1 may be called our fashioning of an ideal4 ,,iv ,but a second stage succeeds1 the stage of desire4 ,indeed1 though ,i call it a second1 it is really but a special aspect of the first2 for the ideal which ,i form always represents some improvement in myself4 ,an ideal which did not promise to better me in some way would be no ideal at all4 ,it would be quite inoperative4 ,i never rise from my chair except with the hope of being better off4 ,without this1 ,i should sit forever4 ,but ,i feel uneasiness in my present position1 and conceive the possibility of not being constrained2 or ,i think of some needful work which remains unexecuted as long as ,i sit here1 and that work undone ,i perceive will leave my life less satisfactory than it might be4 ,and this imagined betterment must always be in some sense my own4 ,if it is a picture of the gains of some one else quite unconnected with myself1 it will not start my action4 ,but it will be objected that we do often act unselfishly and in behalf of other persons4 ,indeed we do4 ,perhaps our impulses are more largely derived from others than from ourselves1 yet from desire our own share is never quite eliminated4 ,i give to the poor4 ,but it is because ,i hate poverty2 or because ,i am attracted by the face1 the story1 or the supposed character of him who receives2 or because ,i am unable to separate my interests from those of humanity everywhere4 ,in some subtle form the ,i-element enters4 ,leave it out1 and the action would lose its value and become mechanical4 ,what ,i did would be no expression of self-conscious me4 ,and such undoubtedly is the case with much of our conduct4 ,the reflex actions1 described in the last chapter1 and many of our habits too1 contain no precise reference to our self4 ,intelligent1 purposeful1 moral conduct1 however1 is everywhere shaped by the hope of improving the condition of him who acts4 ,we do not act till we find something within or about us unsatisfactory4 ,if contemplating myself in my actual conditions ,i could pronounce them all good1 creation would for me be at an end4 ,to start it1 some sense of need is required4 ,accordingly ,i have named desire as the second state in the formation of a purpose1 for desire is precisely this sense of disparity between our actual self and that possible bettered self depicted in the ideal4 ,popular speech1 however1 does not here state the matter quite fully4 ,we often talk as if our desires were for other things than ourselves4 ,we say1 for example1 ,i want a glass of water4 ,in reality it is not the water ,i want4 ,that is but a fragment of my desire4 ,it is water plus self4 ,only so is the desire fully uttered4 ,beholding my present self1 my thirsty and defective self1 ,i perceive a side of myself requiring to be bettered4 ,accordingly1 among imagined pictures of possible futures ,i identify myself with that one which represents me supplied with water4 ,but it is not water that is the object of my desire1 it is myself as bettered by water4 ,since1 however1 this betterment of self is a constant factor of all desire1 we do not ordinarily name it4 ,we say1 ,i desire wealth1 ,i desire the success of my friend1 or the freedom of my country1 omitting the important and never absent portion of the desire1 the betterment of self4 ,of course a stage in the formation of the purpose so important as desire receives a multitude of names4 ,perhaps the simplest is appetite4 ,in appetite ,i do not know what ,i want4 ,i am blindly impelled in a certain direction4 ,i do not perceive that ,i have a suffering self1 nor know that this particular suffering would be bettered by that particular supply4 ,appetite is a mere instinct4 ,in the mechanic structure of my being it is planned that without comprehension of the want ,i shall be impelled to the source of supply4 ,but when appetite is permeated with a consciousness of what is lacking1 ,i apprehend it as a need4 ,through needs we become persons4 ,the capacity for dissatisfaction is the sublime thing in man4 ,we can know our poor estate4 ,we can say1 ,that which ,i am ,i would not be4 ,passing the blind point of appetite1 we come into the region of want or need2 if we then can discern what is requisite to supply this need1 we may be said to have a desire4 ,that desire1 if specific and urgent1 we call a wish4 ,all these varieties of desire include the same two factors3 on the one hand a recognition of present defect in ourselves1 on the other imagination of possible bettered conditions4 ,diminish either1 and personal power is narrowed4 ,the richer a man's imagination1 and the more abundant his pictures of possible futures1 the more resourceful he becomes4 ,pondering on desire as rooted in the sense of defect1 we may feel less regret that our age is one not easily satisfied4 ,never were there so many discontents1 because there were never so many aspirations4 ,it is true there may be a devilish discontent or a divine one4 ,there is a discontent without definite aims1 one which merely rejects what is now possessed2 and there is one which seeks what is wisely attainable4 ,yet after all1 it is a small price to pay for aspiration that it is often attended by vagueness and unwisdom4 ,v ,but before the formation of the purpose is complete it must pass through a third stage1 the stage of decision4 ,ideals and desires are not enough1 or rather they are too many2 for there may be a multitude of them4 ,certain ideals are desired for supplying certain of my wants1 others for supplying others4 ,but on examination these many desirable ideals will often prove conflicting2 all cannot be attained1 or at least not all at once4 ,among them ,i must pick and choose1 reducing and ordering their number4 ,this process is decision4 ,starting with my ambiguous future1 imagination brings multifold possibilities of good before me4 ,but before these can be allowed to issue miscellaneously into action1 comparison and selection reduce them to a single best4 ,i accordingly assess the many desirable but competing ideals and see which of them will on the whole most harmoniously supplement my imperfections4 ,on that ,i fasten1 and the intention is complete4 ,all this is obvious4 ,but one part of the process1 and perhaps the most important part1 is apt to receive less attention than it deserves4 ,in decision we easily become engrossed with the single selected ideal1 and do not so fully perceive that our choice implies a rejection of all else4 ,yet this it is--this cutting off--which rightly gives a name to the whole operation4 ,the best is arrived at only by a process of exclusion in which we successively cut off such ideals as do not tend to the largest supply of our contemplated defects4 ,walking by the candy-shop1 and seeing the tempting chocolates1 ,i feel a strong desire for them4 ,my mouth waters4 ,i hurry into the shop and deposit my five- cent piece4 ,in the evening ,i find that by spending five cents for the chocolates ,i am cut off from obtaining my newspaper1 a loss unconsidered at the time4 ,but to decide for anything is to decide against a multitude of other things4 ,taking is still more largely leaving4 ,the full extent of this negative decision often escapes our notice1 and through the very fact of choosing a good we blindly neglect a best4 ,,vi ,here1 then1 are the three steps in the formation of the purpose1--the ideal1 the desire1 and the decision1--each earlier one preparing the way for that which is to follow4 ,but an intention is altogether useless if it pauses here4 ,it was formed to be sent forth1 to he entrusted to forces stretching beyond the intending mind4 ,the laws of nature are to take it in charge4 ,the ,germans have a good proverb3 ,a stone once thrown belongs to the devil4 ,when once it parts from our hands1 it is no longer ours4 ,it is taken up1 for evil or for good1 by agencies other than our own4 ,if we mistake the agency to which we intrust it1 enormous mischief may ensue1 and we shall he helpless4 ,these agencies1 accordingly1 need careful scrutiny before being called on to work their will4 ,the business of scrutinizing them and of turning over the purpose to their keeping1 forms the second half 7,b7 of self-direction4 ,in contrast with 7,a71 the formation of the purpose or the intention1 this may be called the realization of the purpose1 or volition4 ,volition1 it is true1 is often employed more comprehensively1 but we shall do the term no violence if we confine its meaning to the discharge of our subjective purpose into the objective world4 ,volition then will also1 under our scheme1 have three subordinate stages4 ,,vii ,the first of them ,i will call deliberation1 in order to approximate it as closely as possible to the preceding decision4 ,having now my purpose decisively formed1 ,i have to ask myself what physical means will best carry it out4 ,i summon before my mind as complete a list as possible of nature's conveyances1 and judge which of them will with the greatest efficiency and economy execute my intention4 ,here ,i am at a friend's house1 but ,i have decided to go to my own4 ,i must compare1 then1 the different modes of getting there1 so as to pick out just that one which involves the least expenditure and the most certain result4 ,one way occurs to me which ,i have never tried before1 a swift and interesting way4 ,i might go by balloon4 ,in that balloon ,i could sail at my ease over the tops of the houses and across the beautiful river4 ,when the tower of ,memorial ,hall comes in sight1 ,i could pull a cord and drop gently down at my own door1 having meanwhile had the seclusion and exaltation of an unusual ride4 ,what a delightful experience6 ,but there is one disadvantage4 ,balloons are not always at hand4 ,i might be obliged to wait here for hours1 for days1 before getting one4 ,i dismiss the thought of a balloon4 ,it does not altogether suit my purpose4 ,or1 ,i might call a carriage4 ,so ,i should secure solitude and a certain speed1 but should pay for these with noise1 jolting1 and more money than ,i can well spare4 ,there would be waiting1 too1 before the carriage comes4 ,perhaps ,i had better ask my friend to lend me his arm and to escort me home4 ,in this there would be dignity and a saving of my strength4 ,we could talk by the way1 and ,i always find him interesting4 ,but should ,i be willing to be so much beholden to him1 and would not the wind to-day make our walk and talk difficult8 ,better postpone till summer weather4 ,and after all there is ,boston's most common mode of locomotion right at hand1 the electric car4 ,strange it was not thought of before6 ,the five-cent piece saved from the chocolates will carry me1 swiftly1 safely1 and with independence4 ,it is in this way that we go through the process of deliberation4 ,all the possible means of effecting our purpose are summoned for judgment4 ,the feasibility of each is examined1 and the cost involved in its employment4 ,comparison is made between the advantages offered by different agencies2 and oftentimes at the close we are in a sad puzzle1 finding these advantages and disadvantages so nearly balanced4 ,one1 however1 is finally judged superior in fitness4 ,to this we tie ourselves1 making it the channel for our out-go4 ,the whole process1 then1 in its detailed comparison and final fixation1 is identical with that to which ,i have given the name of decision1 except that the comparisons of decision refer to inner facts1 those of deliberation to outer4 ,,viii ,we now reach the climax of the whole process1 effort1 the actual sending forth through the deliberately chosen channel of the ideal desired and decided on4 ,to it all the rest is merely preliminary1 and in it the final move is made which commits us to the deed4 ,about it1 therefore1 we may well desire the completest information4 ,to tell the truth1 ,i have none to give1 and nobody else has4 ,the nature of the operation is substantially unknown4 ,though something which we have been performing all day long1 we and all our ancestors1 no one of us has succeeded in getting a good sight of what actually takes place4 ,our purposes are prepared as ,i have described1 and then those purposes--something altogether mental--change on a sudden to material motions4 ,how is the transmutation accomplished8 ,how do we pass from a mental picture to a set of motions in the physical world8 ,what is the bridge connecting the two8 ,the bridge is always down when we direct our gaze upon it1 though firm when any act would cross4 ,nor can we trace our passage any more easily in the opposite direction4 ,when my eyes are turned on my watch1 for example1 the vibrations of light striking its face are reflected on the pupil of my eye4 ,there the little motions1 previously existing only in the surrounding ether1 are communicated to my optic nerve4 ,this vibrates too1 and by its motion excites the matter of my brain1 and then--well1 ,i have a sensation of the white face of my watch4 ,but what was contained in that then is precisely what we do not understand4 ,incoming motions may be transmuted into thought2 or1 as in effort1 outgoing thought may be transmuted into motion4 ,but alike in both cases1 on the nature of that transmutation1 the very thing we most desire to know1 we get no light4 ,in regard to this crucial point no one1 materialist or idealist1 can offer a suggestion4 ,we may of course1 in fault of explanation1 restate the facts in clumsy circumlocution4 ,calling thought a kind of motion1 we may say that in action it propagates itself from the mind through the brain into the outer world2 while in the apprehension of an idea motions of the outer world pass into the brain1 and there set up those motions which we know as thought4 ,but after such explanations the mystery remains exactly where it was before4 ,how does a mental motion come out of a bodily motion1 or a bodily from a mental8 ,it is wiser to acknowledge a mystery and to mark the spot where it occurs4 ,this marking of the spot may1 however1 illuminate the surrounding territory4 ,if we cannot explain the nature of the crucial act1 it may still be well to study its range4 ,how widely is effort exercised8 ,we should naturally answer1 as widely as the habitable globe4 ,i can sit in my office in ,boston and carry on business in ,china4 ,when ,i touch a button1 great ships are loaded on the opposite side of the earth and cross the intervening oceans to work the bidding of a person they have never seen4 ,perhaps some day we may send our volition beyond the globe and enter into communication with the inhabitants of ,mars4 ,it would seem idle1 then1 to talk about the limitations of volition and a restricted range of will4 ,but in fact that will is restricted1 and its range is much narrower than the globe4 ,for when we consider the matter1 with precision1 it is not exactly ,i who have operated in ,china4 ,i operate only where ,i am4 ,in touching the button my direct agency ceases4 ,it is true that connected with that button are wires conducting to a wide variety of consequences4 ,but about the details of that conduction ,i need know nothing4 ,the wire will work equally well whether ,i understand or do not understand electricity4 ,its working is not mine1 but its own4 ,the pressure of my finger ends my act1 which is then taken up and carried forward by automatic and mechanical adjustments requiring neither supervision nor consciousness on my part4 ,we might then more accurately say that my direct volition is circumscribed by my own body4 ,my finger tips1 my lips1 my nodding head are the points where ,i part with full control1 though indefinitely beyond these ,i can forecast changes which the automatic agencies1 once set astir1 will induce4 ,am ,i niggardly in thus confining the action of each of us within his own body8 ,is the range of volition thus marked out too narrow8 ,on the contrary1 it is probably still too wide4 ,we are as powerless to direct our bodies as we are to manage affairs in ,china4 ,this1 at least1 is the modern psychological doctrine of effort4 ,it is now believed that volition is entirely a mental affair1 and is confined to the single act of attention4 ,it is alleged that when ,i attend to an ideal1 fixing my mind fully upon it1 the results are altogether similar to what occurred on my touching the button4 ,every idea tends to pass automatically into action through agencies about which ,i know as little as ,i do about ocean telegraphs4 ,this physical frame of mine is a curious organic mechanism1 in which reflex actions and instincts do their blind work at a hint from me4 ,i am said to raise my arm4 ,but never having been a student of anatomy and physiology1 ,i have not the least idea how the rise was effected2 and if ,i am told that nerves excite muscles1 and these in turn contract like cords and pull the arm this way or that1 the rise will not be accomplished a bit better for the information4 ,for1 as in electric transmission1 it is not ,i who do the work4 ,my part is attention4 ,the rest is adapted automatism4 ,when ,i have driven everything else out of my mind except the picture of the rising arm1 it rises of itself1 the after-effects on nerves and muscles being apprehended by me as the sense of effort4 ,we cannot1 then1 exercise our will with a wandering mind4 ,so long as several ideas are conflictingly attended to1 they hinder each other4 ,this we verify in regrettable experiences every day4 ,on waking this morning1 for example1 ,i saw it was time to get up4 ,but the bed was comfortable1 and there were interesting matters to think of4 ,i meant to get up1 for breakfast was waiting1 and there was that new book to be examined1 and that letter to be written4 ,how long would this require1 and how should the letter be planned8 ,but ,i must get up4 ,possibly those callers may come4 ,and shall ,i want to see them8 ,it is really time to get up4 ,what a curious figure the pattern of the paper makes1 viewed in this light6 ,the breakfast bell6 ,out of my head go all vagrant reflections1 and suddenly1 before ,i can notice the process1 ,i find myself in the middle of the floor4 ,that is the way4 ,from wavering thoughts nothing comes4 ,but suddenly some sound1 some sight1 some significant interest1 raises the depicted act into exclusive vividness of attention1 and our part is done4 ,the spring has been touched1 and the physical machinery1 of which we may know little or nothing1 does its work4 ,there it stands ready1 the automatic machinery of this exquisite frame of ours1 waiting for the unconfused signal1--our only part in the performance1--then automatically it springs to action and pushes our purpose into the outer world4 ,such at least is the fashionable teaching of psychologists to-day4 ,volition is full attention4 ,it has no wider scope4 ,with bodily adjustments it does not meddle4 ,these move by their own mechanic law4 ,of real connection between body and mind we know nothing4 ,we can only say that such parallelism exists that physical action occurs on occasion of complete mental vision4 ,no doubt this theory leaves much to be desired in the way of clearness4 ,what is meant by fixing the attention exclusively8 ,is unrelated singleness possible among our mental pictures8 ,or how narrowly must the field of attention be occupied before these strange springs are set in motion8 ,at the end of the explanation do not most of the puzzling problems of scope1 freedom1 and selection remain1 existing now as problems about the nature and working of attention instead of1 as formerly1 problems about the emergence of the intention into outward nature8 ,no doubt these classical problems puzzle us still4 ,but a genuine advance toward clarity is made when we confine them within a small area by identifying volition with mental attention4 ,nor will it be anything to the point to say1 ,but ,i know myself as a physical creature to be involved in effort4 ,the strain of volition is felt in my head1 in my arm1 throughout my entire body4 ,nobody denies it4 ,after we have attended1 and the machinery is set in motion1 we feel its results4 ,the physical changes involved in action are as apprehensible in our experience as are any other natural facts1 and are remembered and anticipated in each new act4 ,,ix ,only one stage more remains1 and that is an invariable one1 the stage of satisfaction4 ,it is fortunately provided that pleasure shall attend every act4 ,pleasure probably is nothing else but the sense that some one of our functions has been appropriately exercised4 ,every time1 then1 that an intention has been taken1 up in the way just described1 carried forth into the complex world1 and there conducted to its mark1 a gratified feeling arises4 ,yes1 ,i have accomplished it4 ,that is good4 ,i felt a defect1 ,i desired to remove it1 and betterment is here4 ,we cannot speak a word1 or raise a hand1 perhaps even draw a breath1 without something of this glad sense of life4 ,it may be intense1 it may be slight or middling2 but in some degree it is always there4 ,for through action we realize our powers4 ,this seemingly fixed world is found to be plastic in our hands4 ,we modify it4 ,we direct something1 mean something4 ,no longer idle drifters on the tide1 through our desires we bring that tide our way4 ,and in the sense of self-directed power we find a satisfaction1 great or small according to the magnitude of our undertaking4 ,in such a catalogue of the elements of action as has just been given there is something uncanny4 ,can we not pick up a pin without going through all six stages8 ,should we ever do anything1 if to do even the simplest we were obliged to do six things8 ,have ,i not made matters needlessly elaborate8 ,no1 ,i have not unduly elaborated4 ,we are made just so complex4 ,yet as a good teacher ,i have falsified4 ,for the sake of clearness ,i have been treating separately matters which go together4 ,there are not six operations1 there is but one4 ,in this one there are six stages2 that is1 there are six points of view from which the single operation may advantageously be surveyed4 ,but these do not exist apart4 ,they are all intimately blended1 each affecting all the rest4 ,because of our dull faculties we cannot understand1 though we can work1 them en bloc4 ,he who would render them comprehensible must commit the violence of plucking them asunder1 holding them up detachedly1 and saying1 ,of such diverse stuff is our active life composed4 ,but in reality each gets its meaning through connection with all the others4 ,life need not terrify because for purposes of verification it must be represented as so intricate an affair4 ,it is ,i who have broken up its simplicity1 and it belongs to my reader to put it together again4 ,,reference ,,on ,,self-,,direction ,james's ,psychology1 ch4 xxvi4 ,sigwart's ,der ,begriff des ,wollen's1 in his ,kleine ,schriften4 ,a4 ,alexander's ,theories of the ,will4 ,munsterberg's ,die ,willenshandlung4 ,hoffding's ,psychology1 ch4 vii4 ,v ,,self-,,development ,i ,conceivably a being such1 as has been described might advance no farther4 ,conscious he might be1 observant of everything going on within him and without2 occupied too with inducing the very changes he observes1 and yet with no aim to enlarge himself or improve the world through any of the changes so induced4 ,complete within himself at the beginning1 he might be equally so at the close1 his activity being undertaken for the mere sake of action1 and not for any beneficial results following in its train4 ,still1 even such a being would be better off while acting than if quiet1 and by his readiness to act would show that he felt the need of at least temporary betterment4 ,in actual cases the need goes deeper4 ,a being capable of self-direction ordinarily has capacities imperfectly realized4 ,changing other things1 he also changes himself2 and it becomes a part of his aim in action to make these changes advantageous1 and each act helpfully reactive4 ,accordingly the aim at self-development regularly attends self-direction4 ,i could not1 therefore1 properly discuss my last topic without in some measure anticipating this4 ,every ideal of action1 ,i was obliged to say1 includes within it an aim at some sort of betterment of the actor4 ,our business1 then1 in the present chapter is not to announce a new theme1 but simply to render explicit what before was implied4 ,we must detach from action the influence which it throws back upon us1 the actors4 ,we must make this influence plain1 exhibit its method1 and show wherein it differs from other processes in some respects similar4 ,,ii ,the most obvious fact about self-development is that it is a species of change1 and that change is associated with sadness4 ,heraclitus1 the weeping philosopher of the ,greeks1 discovered this fact five hundred years before ,christ4 ,nothing abides1 he said1 all is fleeting4 ,we stand in a moving tide1 unable to bathe twice in the same stream2 before we can stoop a second time the flood is gone4 ,in every age this is the common theme of lamentation for poet1 moralist1 common man and woman4 ,all other causes of sadness are secondary to it4 ,as soon as we have comprehended anything1 have fitted it to our lives and learned to love it1 it is gone4 ,such is the aspect which change ordinarily presents4 ,it is tied up with grief4 ,we regard what is precious as stable2 and yet we are obliged to confess that nothing on earth is stable--nothing among physical things1 and just as little among mental and spiritual things4 ,but there are many kinds of change4 ,we are apt to confuse them with one another1 and in so doing to carry over to the nobler sorts thoughts applicable only to the lower4 ,in beginning1 then1 the discussion of self-development1 ,i think it will conduce to clearness if ,i offer a conspectus of all imaginable changes4 ,i will set them in groups and show their different kinds1 exhibiting first those which are most elementary1 then those more complex1 and finally those so dark and important that they pass over into a region of mystery and paradox4 ,,iii ,probably all will agree that the simplest possible change is the accidental sort1 that where only relations of space are altered4 ,my watch1 now lying in the middle of the desk1 is shifted to the right side1 is laid in its case1 or is lost in the street4 ,i call these changes accidental1 because they in no way affect the nature of the watch4 ,they are not really changes in it1 but in its surroundings4 ,the watch still remains what it was before4 ,to the same group we might refer a large number of other changes where no inner alteration is wrought4 ,the watch is now in a brilliant light2 ,i lay my hand on it1 and it is in darkness4 ,its place has not been changed1 but that of the light has been4 ,many of the commonest changes in life are of this sort4 ,they are accidental or extraneous changes4 ,in them1 through all its change1 the thing abides4 ,there is no necessary alteration of its nature4 ,,iv ,but unhappily this is not the only species of change4 ,it is not that which has brought a wail from the ages1 when men have seen what they prize slip away4 ,the common root of sorrow has been destructive change4 ,holding the watch in my hand1 ,i may drop it on the floor2 and at once the crystal1 which has been so transparently protective1 is gone4 ,if the floor is of stone1 the back of the watch may be wrenched away1 the wheels of its delicate machinery jarred asunder4 ,destruction has come upon it1 and not merely an extraneous accident4 ,in consequence of altered surroundings1 dissolution is wrought within4 ,change of a lamentable sort has come4 ,what before was a beautiful whole1 organically constituted in the way described in my first two chapters1 has been torn asunder4 ,what we formerly beheld with delight has disappeared4 ,and let us not accept false comfort4 ,we often hear it said that1 after all1 destruction is an illusion4 ,there is no such thing4 ,what is once in the world is here forever4 ,no particle of the watch can by any possibility be lost4 ,and what is true of the watch is true of things far higher1 of persons even4 ,when persons decay and die1 may not their destruction be only in outward seeming8 ,we cannot imagine absolute cessation4 ,as well imagine an absolute beginning4 ,there is no loss4 ,everything abides4 ,only to our apprehension do destructive changes occur4 ,we are all familiar with consolation of this sort1 and how inwardly unsatisfactory it is6 ,for while it is true that no particle of the watch is destroyed1 it is precisely those particles which were in our minds of little consequence4 ,almost equally well they might have been of gold1 silver1 or steel4 ,the precious part of the1 watch was the organization of its particles1 and that is gone4 ,the face and form of my friend can indeed be blotted out in no single item4 ,but ,i care nothing for its material items1 ,the totality may be wrecked1 and it is that totality to which my affections cling4 ,and so it is in the world around--material remains1 organic wholeness goes4 ,it is almost a sarcasm of nature that she counts our precious things so cheap1 while the bricks and mortar of which these are made--matters on which no human affection can fasten--she holds for everlasting4 ,the lamentations of the ages1 then1 have not erred4 ,something tragic is involved in the framework of the universe4 ,in order to abide1 divulsion must occur4 ,destruction of organism is going on all around us1 and ever will go on4 ,things must unceasingly be torn apart4 ,one might call this destructive and lamentable change the only steadfast feature of the world4 ,v ,yet after all1 and often in this very process of divulsion1 we catch glimpses of a nobler sort of change1 ,for there is a third species to which ,i might perhaps give the name of transforming3 change4 ,when1 for example1 a certain portion of oxygen and a certain portion of hydrogen1 each having its own distinctive qualities1 are brought into contact with one another1 they utterly change4 ,the qualities of both disappear1 and a new set of qualities takes their place4 ,the old ones are gone1--gone1 but not lost2 for they have been transformed into new ones of a predetermined and constant kind4 ,only a single sort of change is open to these elements when in each other's presence1 and in precisely that way they will always change4 ,in so changing they do not1 it is true1 fully keep their past2 but a fixed relation to it they do keep1 and under certain conditions may return to it again4 ,the transforming changes of chemistry1 then1 are of a different nature from those of the mechanic destruction just described4 ,in those the ruined organism leaves not a wrack behind4 ,in chemic change something definite is held1 something that originally was planned and can he prophesied4 ,an end is attained3 the fixed combination of just so much oxygen with just so much hydrogen for the making of the new substance1 water4 ,here change is productive1 and is not mere waste1 as in organic destruction4 ,something1 however1 is lost--the old qualities2 for these cannot be restored except through the disruption of the new substance1 the water in which they are combined4 ,,vi ,but there is a more peculiar change of a higher order still1 that which we speak of as development1 evolution1 growth4 ,this sort of change might be described as movement toward a mark4 ,when the seed begins to be transformed in the earth1 it is adapted not merely to the next stage2 but that stage has reference to one farther on1 and that to still others4 ,it would hardly be a metaphor to declare that the whole elm is already prophesied when its seed is laid in the earth4 ,for though the entire tree is not there1 though in order that the seed may become an elm it must have a helpful environment1 still a certain plan of movement elmwards is1 we may say1 already schemed in the seed4 ,here accordingly1 change--far from being a loss--is a continual increment and revelation4 ,and since the later stages successively disclose the meaning of those which went before1 these later stages might with accuracy he styled the truth of their predecessors1 and those be accounted in comparison trivial and meaningless until thus changed4 ,this sort of change carries its past along with it4 ,in the destructive changes which we were lamenting a moment ago1 the past was lost and the new began as an independent affair4 ,even in chemic change this was true to a certain extent4 ,yet there1 though the past was lost1 a future was prophesied4 ,in the case of development the future1 so far from annihilating the past1 is its exhibition on a larger scale4 ,the full significance of any single stage is not manifest until the final one is reached4 ,i suppose when we arrive at this thought of change as expressing development1 our lamentation may well turn to rejoicing4 ,possibly this may be the reason why the gloom which is a noticeable feature of the thought of many preceding centuries has in our time somewhat disappeared4 ,while our ambitions are generally wider1 and we might seem1 therefore1 more exposed to disappointment1 ,i think the last half of the century which has closed has been a time of large hopefulness4 ,perhaps it has not yet gone so far as rejoicing1 for failure and sorrow are still by no means extirpated4 ,but at least the thoughts of our day have become turned rather to the future than the past1 a result which has attended the wider comprehension of development4 ,to call development the discovery of our century would1 however1 be absurd4 ,aristotle bases his whole philosophy upon it1 and it was already venerable in his time4 ,yet the many writers who have expounded the doctrine during the last fifty years have brought the thought of it home to the common man4 ,it has entered into daily life as never before1 and has done much to protect us against the sadness of destructive change4 ,perceiving that changes1 apparently destructive1 repeatedly bring to light meaning previously undisclosed1 we more willingly than our ancestors part with the imperfect that a path to the perfect may be opened4 ,is not this1 then1 the great conception of change which we now need to study as self-development8 ,i believe not4 ,one essential feature is omitted4 ,in the typical example which ,i have just reviewed1 the growth of an elm from its seed1 we cannot say that the seed expands itself with a view to becoming a tree4 ,that would be to carry over into the tree's existence notions borrowed from an alien sphere4 ,indeed1 to assert that there has been any genuine development from the seed up to the finished tree is to use terms in an accommodated1 metaphoric1 and hypothetical way4 ,development there certainly has been as estimated by an outsider1 an onlooker1 but not as perceived by the tree itself4 ,it has not known where it was going4 ,out of the unknown earth the seed pushes its way into the still less known air4 ,but in doing so it is devoid of purpose4 ,nor1 if we endow it with consciousness1 can we suppose it would behold its end and seek it4 ,the forces driving it toward that end are not conscious forces2 they are mechanic forces4 ,through every stage it is pushed from behind1 not drawn from before4 ,there is no causative goal set up1 alluring the seed onward4 ,in speaking as if there were1 we employ language which can have significance only for rational beings4 ,we may hold that there is a rational plan of the universe which that seed is fulfilling4 ,but if so1 the plan does not belong to the seed4 ,it is imposed from without1 and the seed does its bidding unawares4 ,,vii ,but we may imagine a different state of affairs4 ,let us assume that when the seed sprouted it foreknew the elm that was to be4 ,every time it sucked in its slight moisture it was gently adapting this nourishment to the fulfillment of its ultimate end1 asking itself whether the small material had better be bestowed on the left bough or the right1 whether certain leaves should curve more obliquely toward the sun1 and whether it had better wave its branches and catch the passing breeze or leave them quiet4 ,if we could rightly imagine such a state of things1 our tree would be much unlike its brothers of the forest2 for1 superintending its own development1 it would be not a thing at all but a person4 ,we persons are in this very way entrusted with our growth4 ,a plan there is1 a normal mode of growth1 a significance to which we may attain4 ,but that significance is not imposed on us from without1 as an inevitable event1 already settled through our past4 ,on the contrary1 we detect it afar as a possibility1 are thus put in charge of it1 and so become in large degree our own upbuilders4 ,development is movement toward a mark4 ,in self-development the mark to be reached is in the conscious keeping of him who is to reach it4 ,toward it he may more or less fully direct his course4 ,and what an astonishing state of things then appears6 ,self-development involves a kind of contradiction in terms4 ,how can ,i build if at present there is no ,i8 ,why should ,i build if at present there is an ,i8 ,whichever alternative we take1 we fall into what looks like absurdity4 ,yet on that absurdity personal life is based4 ,there is no avoiding it4 ,wordsworth has daringly stated the paradox3 ,so build we up the being that we are4 ,on coming into the world we are only sketched out4 ,of each of us there is a ground plan of which we progressively become aware4 ,hidden from us in our early years1 it resides in the minds of our parents1 just as the plan of the tree's structure is in the keeping of nature4 ,gradually through our advancing years and the care of those around us we catch sight of what we might be4 ,detecting in ourselves possibilities1 we make out their relation to a plan not yet realized4 ,we accordingly take ourselves in hand and say1 ,if any personal good is to come to me1 it must be of my making4 ,i cannot own myself till ,i am largely the author of myself4 ,from day to day ,i must construct1 and whenever ,i act study how the action will affect my betterment1--whether by performing it ,i am likely to degrade or to consolidate myself4 ,and to this process there must be no end4 ,obviously1 nothing like this could occur if our actual condition were our ideal condition4 ,self-development is open only to a being in whom there are possibilities as yet unfulfilled4 ,the things around us have their definite constitution4 ,they can do exactly thus and no more4 ,what shall be the effect of any impulse falling on them is already assured4 ,if the condition of the brutes is anything like that which we disrespectfully attributed to them1 then they are in the same case2 they too are shut up to fixed responses1 and have in them no unfulfilled capacities4 ,it is the possession of such empty capacities which makes us personal4 ,well has it been said that he who can declare1 ,i am that ,i am1 is either ,god or a brute4 ,no human being can say it4 ,to describe myself as if ,i were a settled fact is to make myself a thing4 ,my life is in that which may be4 ,the ideals of existence are my realities1 and ought is my peculiar verb4 ,is has no other application to a person than to mark how far he has advanced along his ideal line4 ,were he to pause at any point as if complete1 he would cease to be a person4 ,,viii ,but it is necessary to trace somewhat carefully the method of such self-development4 ,how do we proceed8 ,before the architect built the ,state ,house1 he drew up a plan of the finished building1 and there was no moving of stone1 mortar1 or tool1 till everything was complete on paper4 ,each workman who did anything subsequently did it in deference to that perfected design4 ,each stone brought for the great structure was numbered for its place and had its jointing cut in adaptation to the remaining stones4 ,if1 then1 each one of us is to become an architect of himself1 it might seem necessary to lay out a plan of our complete existence before setting out in life1 or at whatever moment we become aware that henceforth our construction is to be in our own charge4 ,only with such a plan in hand would orderly building seem possible4 ,this is a common belief1 but in my judgment an erroneous one4 ,indeed the whole analogy of the architect and his mechanisms is misleading4 ,we rarely have in mind the total plan of our unrealized being and rarely ought we to have4 ,our work begins at a different point4 ,we do not1 like the architect1 usually begin with a thought of completion4 ,bather we are first stirred by a sense of weakness4 ,in my own education ,i find this to be true4 ,after some years as a boy in a ,boston public school1 ,i went to ,phillips ,academy in ,andover1 then to ,harvard ,college1 and subsequently to a ,german university1 and why did ,i do all this8 ,did ,i have in mind the picture of myself as a learned man8 ,i will not deny that such a fancy drifted through my brain4 ,but it was indistinct and occasional4 ,i did not even know what it was to be a learned man4 ,i do not know now4 ,the driving force that was on me was something quite different4 ,i found myself disagreeably ignorant4 ,reading books and newspapers1 ,i continually found matters referred to of which ,i knew nothing4 ,looking out on the universe1 ,i did not understand it2 and looking into the yet more marvelous universe within1 ,i was still more grievously perplexed4 ,i thought life not worth living on such terms4 ,i determined to get rid of my ignorance and to endure such limitations of knowledge no longer4 ,is there1 ,i asked1 any place where at least a portion of my stupidity may be set aside8 ,i removed a little fraction at school1 but revealed also enormous expanses which ,i had not suspected before4 ,i therefore pressed on farther1 and to-day am still engaged in the almost hopeless attempt to extirpate my ignorance4 ,what incites me continually is the sense of how small ,i am1 not that which a few moments ago seemed my best incentive--the picture of myself as large4 ,that on the whole has had comparatively little influence4 ,of course ,i do not assert that we are altogether without visions of a larger life4 ,that is far from being the case4 ,were it so1 desire would cease4 ,we must contrast the poverty of the present with the fullness of a possible future1 or we should not incline to turn from that present4 ,yet our grand driving force is that sense of limitation1 of want or need1 which was discussed in the last chapter4 ,and our aim is rather at a better than at a best1 at the removal of some small distinct hindrance than at arrival at a completed goal4 ,we come upon excellence piecemeal1 and do not1 like the architect1 look upon it in its entirety at the outset4 ,yet in the pursuit of this better1 the more vividly we can figure the coming stages1 the more easily will they be attained4 ,for this purpose the careers of those who have gone before us are helpful1-- reports about the great ones of the past1 and the revelations of themselves which they have left us in literature and institutions4 ,example is a powerful agent in making our footsteps quick and true4 ,but it has its dangers1 and may be a means of terrifying unless we feel that even in our low estate there are capacities allying us with our exemplar4 ,the first vision of excellence is overwhelming4 ,we draw back1 knowing that we do not look like that1 and we cannot bear to behold what is so superior4 ,but by degrees1 feeling our kinship with excellence1 we are befriended4 ,i would not1 then1 make rigid statements in regard to this point of method4 ,grateful as ,i believe we should be for every sense of need1 this is obviously not enough4 ,to some extent we must have in mind the betterment which we may obtain through supplying that need4 ,yet ,i do not think a full plan of our ultimate goal is usually desirable4 ,in small matters it is often possible and convenient4 ,i plan my stay in ,europe before going there4 ,i figure my business prospects before forming a partnership4 ,but in profounder affairs1 ,i more wisely set out from the thought of the present1 and the patent need of improving it1 than from the future with its ideal perfection4 ,goethe's rule is a good one3-- ,willst du ins ,unendliebe schreiten8 ,so sucht das ,endliche1 nach allen ,seiten4 ,would you reach the infinite8 ,then enter into finite things1 working out all that they contain4 ,,ix ,if in working them out a test is wanted to enable us to decide whether we are working wisely or to our harm1 ,i believe such a test may be found in the congruity of the new with the old4 ,shall ,i by adding a fresh power to myself strengthen those ,i already possess8 ,by taking this path1 rich in a certain sort of good as it undoubtedly is1 shall ,i be diverted from paths where my special goods lie8 ,here ,i am1 a student of ethics4 ,a friend calls and tells me of the charms of astronomy1 a study undoubtedly majestic and delightful4 ,since ,i desire to take all knowledge for my province1 why not hurry off at once to study astronomy8 ,no indeed4 ,no astronomy for me4 ,i draw a ring about that subject and say1 ,precious subject1 fundamentally valuable for all men4 ,but ,i will remain ignorant of it1 because it is not quite congruous with the studies ,i already have on hand4 ,that must be my test3 not how important is the study itself1 but how important is it for me8 ,how far will it help me to accept and develop those limitations to which ,i am now pledged8 ,in this acceptance of limitation1 therefore1 which seems at first so humiliating1 ,i believe we have the starting point of all self- development4 ,our very imperfections1 once accepted1 prove our best means of discerning more4 ,that is a profound remark of ,hegel's that knowledge of a limit is a knowledge beyond that limit4 ,let us consider for a moment what it means4 ,suppose ,i should come upon ,kaspar ,hauser1 shut in his little room4 ,and how long have you been here1 ,i ask4 ,ever since ,i was born1 he answers4 ,indeed6 ,how much1 then1 do you know8 ,nothing beyond the walls of this room4 ,might ,i not fairly reply1 ,you contradict yourself4 ,how can you know anything about walls of a room unless you also know of much beyond them8 ,we cannot conceive a limit except as a limit from something4 ,accordingly1 when we detect our ignorance we become by that very fact not ignorant4 ,we have gone beyond ourselves and have seen that we are not what we should be4 ,and this is the way of self-development4 ,becoming aware of our imperfections1 we by that very fact continually lay hold on whatever perfect is within our reach4 ,x ,when then we ask whether at any moment we are fully persons1 we must answer1 ,no4 ,the actual extent of personality is at any time small4 ,it is rather a goal than something ever attained4 ,we have seen that it is not to be described in terms of the verb to be4 ,we cannot say ,i am a person1 but1 only ,i ought to be a person4 ,i am seeking to be4 ,the great body of our life is1 we know1 a purely natural affair4 ,our instincts1 our wayward impulses1 our unconnected disorderly purposes-- these1 which fill the larger portion of our existence1 do not express our personal nature4 ,each of them goes on its own way1 neglectful of the whole4 ,therefore we must confess that at no time can we account ourselves completed persons4 ,justly we use such strange expressions as ,he is much of a person1 ,he is very little of a person4 ,personality is an affair of degree4 ,we are moving toward it1 but have not yet arrived4 ,man partly is and wholly hopes to be4 ,and can we ever arrive8 ,i do not see how4 ,we are chasing a flying goal4 ,the nearer we approach1 the farther it removes4 ,shall we call this fact discouraging1 then1 or even say that self-development is a useless process1 since it never can be fulfilled8 ,i think not4 ,i should rather specify this feature of it as our chief source of encouragement2 for ,i hold that only those aims which do thus contain an infinite element and are1 strictly speaking1 unattainable1 move mankind to passionate pursuit4 ,probably all will agree that riches1 fame1 and wisdom are ideals which predominantly move us1 and they are all unattainable4 ,suppose1 some morning1 when ,i see a merchant setting off for his office quite too early1 ,i ask him why he is hastening so4 ,he answers1 ,why1 there is money to be made4 ,and as ,i intend to be a rich man some day1 ,i must leave home comforts and be prompt at my desk4 ,but ,i persist1 ,you have forgotten something4 ,it occurs to me that you never can be rich4 ,no rich man was ever seen4 ,whoever has obtained a million dollars can get a million more1 and the man of two millions can become one of three4 ,obviously1 then1 neither you nor any one can become a completely rich man4 ,should ,i stay that merchant from his exit by remarks of this kind8 ,if he answered at all1 he would merely say1 ,don't read too much4 ,you had better mix more with men4 ,and ,i should get no better treatment from the scholar1 the man who is seeking wisdom4 ,it is true no really wise man ever was on earth1 or ever will be4 ,but that is the very reason why we are all so impassioned for wisdom1 because every bit we seize only opens the door to more4 ,if we could get it in full1 if some time or other1 knowing that we are now wise1 we could sit down in our armchairs with nothing further to do1 it would be a death blow to our colleges4 ,nobody would attend them or care for wisdom longer4 ,an aim which one can reach1 and discover to be finally ended1 moves only children4 ,they will make collections of birds' eggs1 though conceivably they might obtain every species in the neighborhood4 ,but these are not the things which excite earnest men4 ,they run after fame1 because they can never be quite famous4 ,they may become known to every person on their street1 but there is the street beyond4 ,or to every one in their town1 but there are other towns4 ,or if to every person on earth1 there are still the after ages4 ,entire fame cannot be had2 and exactly on that account it stirs every impulse of our nature in pursuit4 ,now the aim at personal perfection is precisely of this sort4 ,as servants of righteousness we cannot accept any other precept than ,be ye perfect as your ,father which is in heaven is perfect4 ,but we know such perfection to be unattainable1 ,yet ,i sometimes doubt whether we state the matter truly so4 ,would it not be juster to say that perfection can always be attained1 and that it is about the only thing which can be8 ,we might well say of all the infinite ideals that they differ from the finite ones simply in this1 that the finite can be attained but once1 and then are ended1 while the infinite are continually attained4 ,at no moment of his life shall the merchant be cut off from becoming richer1 or the scholar from growing wiser1 or the public benefactor from acquiring further fame4 ,these aims1 then1 are always attainable2 for in them what we think of as the goal is not1 as in other cases1 a single point which1 once reached1 renders the rest of life useless and listless4 ,the goal here is the line of increase4 ,to be moving along that line should be our daily endeavor4 ,our proper utterance should be1 ,i was never so good as to-day1 and ,i hope never to be so bad again4 ,,xi ,but when we have seen how slender is our actual perfection1 how slight must be reckoned the attainment of personality at any moment1 we are brought face to face with the profound problem of its possible extent4 ,how far can the self be developed8 ,infinitely8 ,is each one of us an infinite being8 ,i will not say so4 ,i do not like to make a statement which runs beyond my own experience4 ,but confining myself to this1 let us see what it will show4 ,when at any time ,i seek to perfect myself1 does my attainment of any grade of improvement prevent or further another step8 ,all will agree that it simply opens a new door4 ,perhaps ,i am seeking to withdraw from habits of mendacity1 and beginning to tell the truth4 ,then every time ,i tell the truth ,i shall discover more truth to tell4 ,and will this process ever come to an end8 ,i have nothing to do with evers4 ,i can only say that each time ,i try it1 advance is more possible1 not less possible4 ,in the personal life there is1 if ,i may say so1 no provision for checkage4 ,as ,i understand it1 in the animal life there is such provision4 ,in my first chapter ,i was pointing out the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic goodness2 and ,i said that the table's entering into use and holding objects on its top tended to destroy it1 though we might imagine a magic table in which every exercise of function would be preservative4 ,now in the personal nature we find just such a magical provision4 ,each time a person normally exerts himself he makes further exertion in those normal ways more possible4 ,and if this is true of all personal action within our experience1 what right have we to set a limit to it anywhere8 ,it may not be suitable to say that ,i know myself infinite1 but it is certainly true that ,i cannot conceive myself as finite4 ,i can readily see that this body of mine has in it what ,i have called a provision for checkage4 ,every time the blood moves in my veins it leaves its little deposit4 ,further motion of that blood is slightly impeded4 ,but every time a moral purpose moves my life1 it makes the next move surer4 ,it is impossible to draw lines of limitation in moral development4 ,,xii ,such1 then1 is the vast conception with which we have been dealing4 ,goodness1 to be personal1 must express perpetual self-development4 ,all the moral aims of life may be summed up in the single word1 self- realization4 ,could ,i fully realize myself1 ,i should have fulfilled all righteousness1 and this view is sanctioned by the ,great ,teacher when he asks1 ,what shall a man give in exchange for his life8--his life1 his soul1 his self4 ,if any one fully believed this1 and lived as if all his desires were fulfilled so long as he had opportunities of self-development1 he might be said to have insured himself against every catastrophe4 ,little could harm him4 ,whatever occurred1 instead of exclaiming1 ,how calamitous6 he would simply ask1 ,what fresh opportunities do these strange circumstances present for enlarged living8 ,let me add this new discipline to what ,i had before4 ,seeking as ,i am to become expanded into the infinite1 this experience discloses a new avenue thither4 ,all things work together for good to them that love the ,lord4 ,,references ,,on ,,self-,,development ,bradley's ,ethical ,studies1 essay vi4 ,green's ,prolegomena of ,ethics1 bk4 iii4 ch4 ii4 ,alexander's ,moral ,order and ,progress1 bk4 iii4 ch4 iv4 ,muirhead's ,elements of ,ethics1 bk4 iii4 ch4 iii4 ,mackenzie's ,manual of ,ethics1 pt4 i4 ch4 vii4 ,dewey in ,philos4 ,journal1 ,dec41 #ahic4 ,,vi ,,self-,,sacrifice ,i ,the view of human goodness presented in the preceding chapter is one which is at present finding remarkably wide acceptance4 ,philosophers are often reproached with an indisposition to agree1 and naturally where inquiry is active diversity will obtain4 ,but to-day there appears a strange unanimity as regards the ultimate formula of ethics4 ,the empirical schools state this as the highest form of the struggle for existence2 the idealistic1 as self-realization4 ,the two are the same so far as they both regard morality as having to do with the development of life in persons4 ,these curious beings1 both also acknowledge1 can never rest till they attain a completeness now incalculable4 ,of course there is abundant diversity in the application of such formulae4 ,in interpreting them we come upon problems no less urgent and tangled than those which vexed our fathers4 ,who and what is a person8 ,how far is he detachable from nature8 ,how far from his fellow men8 ,is his individuality an illusion1 and each of us only an imperfect phase of a single universal being1 so that in strictness we must own that there is none good but one1 that is ,god8 ,these and kindred questions naturally oppress the thought of our time4 ,yet all are but so many attempts to push the formula of self-realization into entire clearness4 ,the considerable agreement in ethical formulae everywhere noticeable shows that at least so much advance has been made3 morality has ceased to be primarily repressive1 and is now regarded as the amplest exhibit of human nature1 free from every external precept1 however sacred4 ,man is the measure of the moral universe1 and the development of himself his single duty4 ,but when we thus accept self-realization as our supreme aim1 we bring ourselves into seeming conflict with one of our profoundest moral instincts4 ,it is self-sacrifice that calls forth from all mankind1 as nothing else does1 the distinctively moral response of reverence4 ,intelligence1 skill1 beauty1 learning--we admire them all2 but when we see an act of self-sacrifice1 however small1 an awe falls on us2 we bow our heads1 fearful that we might not have been capable of anything so glorious4 ,we thus acknowledge self-sacrifice to be the very culmination of the moral life4 ,he who understand it has comprehended all righteousness1 human and divine4 ,but how does self-sacrifice accord with self-development8 ,will he who is busy cultivating himself sacrifice himself8 ,is there not a kind of conflict between the two8 ,yet can we abandon either8 ,and if not1 must not the formula of self- realization accept modification8 ,this1 then1 is the problem to which ,i must now turn3 the possible adjustment of these two imperative claims1--the claim to realize one's self and the claim to sacrifice one's self4 ,and ,i shall most easily set my theme before my readers if ,i state at once the four historic objections to the reality of self-sacrifice4 ,i call them historic1 for they have appeared and reappeared in the history of ethics1 and have been worked out there on a great scale4 ,while not altogether consistent with one another1 no one of them is unimportant4 ,together they compactly present those conflicting considerations which must be borne in mind when we attempt to comprehend the subtleties of self- sacrifice4 ,i will endeavor to state them briefly and sympathetically4 ,first1 self-sacrifice is psychologically impossible4 ,no man ever performs a strictly disinterested act1 as has been shown in my chapter on self-direction4 ,before desire will start1 his own interest must be engaged4 ,in action we seek to accomplish something1 and between that something and ourselves some sort of valued connection must be felt4 ,every wish indicates that the wisher experiences a need which he thinks might be supplied by the object wished for4 ,it is true that wishes and wills are often directed upon external objects1 but only because we believe that our own well-being is involved in their union with us4 ,i devote myself to my friend as my friend1 counting his happiness and my own inseparable4 ,were he so entirely a foreigner that ,i had no interest in him1 my sacrifices for him--even if conceivable--would be meaningless4 ,they acquire meaning only through my sense of a tie between him and me4 ,my service of him may be regarded as my escape from petty selfishness into broad selfishness1 from immediate gain to remote gain4 ,but the prospect of gain in some form1 proximate or ultimate1 gain often of an impalpable and spiritual sort1 always attends my wish and will4 ,the aim at self-realization1 however hidden1 is everywhere the root of action4 ,no belittlement of ourselves can appear desirable except as a step toward ultimate enlargement4 ,self-sacrifice in any true and thorough-going sense never occurs4 ,so cogent is this objection1 and so frequently does it appear1 not only in ethical discussion but in the minds of the struggling multitude1 that he who has not faced it1 and taken its truth well to heart1 can have little comprehension of self-sacrifice4 ,but it is a blessed fact that thousands who comprehend self-sacrifice little practise it largely4 ,,iii ,a second objection strips off the glory of self-sacrifice and regards it as a sad necessity4 ,while there is nothing in it to attract or be approved1 the lamentable fact is that we are so crowded together and disposed to trample on one another that1 partially to escape1 we must each agree to abate something of our own in behalf of a neighbor's gain4 ,we cannot each be all we would4 ,it is a sign of our mean estate that again and again we need to cut off sections of what we count valuable in order to save any portion4 ,only by such compromises are we able to get along with one another4 ,he who refuses them finds himself exposed to still greater loss4 ,the hard conditions under which we live appear in the fact that such restraint is inevitable4 ,i call self- sacrifice1 therefore1 a sad necessity4 ,this theory of sacrifice is urged by ,hobbes and by the later moralists who follow his daring lead4 ,it should be counted among the objections because1 while it admits the fact of self-sacrifice1 it denies its dignity4 ,,iv ,a third objection declares sacrifice to be needless4 ,its very appearance rests on a misconception4 ,we mistakenly suppose that in abating our own for the sake of our neighbor's good1 we lose4 ,in reality this is our true mode of enlargement4 ,the interests of the individual and society are not hostile or alien1 but supplemental4 ,society is nothing but the larger individual2 so that he alone realizes himself who enters most fully into social relations1 making the well-being of society his own4 ,this is plain enough when we study the working of a small and comprehensible portion of society4 ,the child does not lose through identification with family life4 ,that is his great means of realizing himself4 ,to assume contrast and antagonism between family interest and the interest of the child is palpably unwarranted and untrue4 ,equally unwarranted is a similar assumption in the broader ranges of society4 ,when we talk of sacrifice1 we refer merely to the first stage and outer aspect of the act4 ,underneath1 self-interest is guarded1 the individual giving up his individuality only through obtaining a larger individuality still4 ,such identity of interest between society and the individual the moralists of the eighteenth century are never tired of pointing out4 ,if they are right1 and the identity is complete1 then sacrifice is abolished or is only a generous illusion4 ,but these men never quite succeeded in persuading the ,english people of their doctrine1 at least they never carried their thought fully over into the common mind4 ,v ,that common mind has always thought of sacrifice in a widely different way1 but in one which renders it still more incomprehensible4 ,self- sacrifice it regards as a glorious madness4 ,though the only act which ever forces us to bow in reverent awe1 it is insolubly mysterious1 irrational1 crazy perhaps1 but superb4 ,for in it we do not deliberate4 ,we hear a call1 we shut our ears to prudence1 and with courageous blindness as regards damage of our own1 we hasten headlong to meet the needs of others4 ,to reckon heroism1 to count1 up opposing gains and losses1 balancing them one against another in order clear-sightedly to act1 is to render heroism impossible4 ,into it there enters an element of insanity4 ,the sacrificer must feel that he cares nothing for what is rational1 but only for what is holy1 for his duty4 ,the rational and the holy1--in the mind of him who has not been disturbed by theoretic controversy these two stand in harsh antithesis1 and the antithesis has been approved by important ethical writers of our time4 ,the rational man is1 of course1 needed in the humdrum work of life4 ,his assertive and sagacious spirit clears many a tangled pathway4 ,but he gets no reverence1 the characteristic response of self-sacrifice4 ,this is reserved for him who says1 ,no prudence for me6 ,i will he admirably crazy4 ,let me fling myself away1 so only there come salvation to others4 ,such1 then1 are the four massive objections3 self-sacrifice is unreal psychologically1 aesthetically1 morally1 or rationally3 ,but negative considerations are not enough4 ,no amount of demonstration of what a thing is not will ever reveal what it is4 ,objections are merely of value for clearing a field and marking the spots on which a structure cannot be reared4 ,the serious task of erecting that structure somewhere still remains4 ,to it ,i now address myself4 ,,vi ,what we need to consider first is the reality and wide range of self- sacrifice4 ,the moment the term is mentioned there spring up before our minds certain typical examples of it4 ,we see the soldier advancing toward the battlefield1 to stake his life for a country in whose prosperity he may never share4 ,we see the infant falling into the water1 and the full-grown man flinging in after it his own assured and valued life in hopes of rescuing that incipient and uncertain thing1 a little child4 ,yes1 ,i myself came on a case of heroism hardly less striking4 ,i was riding my bicycle along the public street when there dashed past me a runaway horse with a carriage at his heels1 both moving so madly that ,i thought all the city was in danger4 ,i pursued as rapidly as ,i could1 and as ,i neared my home1 saw horse and carriage standing by the sidewalk4 ,by the horse's head stood a negro4 ,i went up to him and said1 ,did you catch that horse8 ,yes1 sir1 he answered4 ,but1 ,i said1 he was going at a furious pace4 ,yes1 sir4 ,and he might have run you down4 ,yes1 sir1 but ,i know horses1 and ,i was afraid he would hurt some of these children4 ,there he stood1 the big brown hero1 unexalted1 soothing the still restive horse and unaware of having done anything out of the ordinary4 ,i entered my house ashamed4 ,had ,i possessed such skill1 would ,i have ventured my life in such a fashion8 ,such are some of the shining examples of self-sacrifice which occur to us at the first mention of the word4 ,but we shall mislead ourselves if we confine our thoughts to cases so climactic1 triumphant1 and spectacular4 ,deeds like these dazzle and do not invite to full analysis of their nature4 ,let us turn to affairs more usual4 ,i have happened to know intimately members of three professions-- ministers1 nurses1 teachers-and ,i find self-sacrifice a matter of daily practice with them all4 ,to it the minister is dedicated4 ,he must not look for gain4 ,he has a salary1 of course2 but it is much in the nature of a fee1 a means of insuring him a certain kind of living4 ,and while it is common enough to find a minister studying how he may make money in his parish1 it is commoner far to find one bent on seeing how he can make righteousness prevail there1 though it overwhelm him4 ,the other professions do not so manifestly aim at self-sacrifice4 ,they are distinctly money-making4 ,they exact a given sum for a given service4 ,still1 in them too how constantly do we see that that which is given far outruns that which is paid for4 ,i have watched pretty closely the work of a dozen or more trained nurses1 and ,i believe it ,would be hard to find any class in the community showing a higher average of estimable character4 ,how quiet they are under the most irritating circumstances6 ,how fully they pour themselves into the lives of their patients6 ,how prompt is the deft hand6 ,how considerate the swift intelligence6 ,their hearts are aglow over what can be given1 not over what can be got4 ,a similar temper is widely observable among teachers1 especially among those of the lower grades4 ,paid though they are for a certain task1 how indisposed they are to limit themselves to that task or to confine their care of their children to the schoolroom6 ,the hard-worked creatures acquire an intimate interest in the little lives and1 heedless of themselves1 are continually ready to spend and be spent for those who cannot know what they receive4 ,among such teachers ,i find self-sacrifice as broad1 as deep1 as genuine1 if not so striking1 as that of the soldier in the field4 ,evidently1 then1 self-sacrifice may be wide-spread and may permeate the institutions of ordinary life2 being found even in occupations primarily ordered by principles of give and take1 where it expresses itself in a kind of surplusage of giving above what is prescribed in the contract4 ,in this form it enters into trade4 ,the high-minded merchant is not concerned merely with getting his money back from an article sold4 ,he interests himself in the thoroughly excellent quality of that article1 in the accommodation of his customers1 the soundness of his business methods1 and the honorable standing of his firm4 ,and when we turn to our public officials1 how frequent it is--how frequent in spite of what the newspapers say--to find men eager for the public good1 men ready to take labor on themselves if only the state may be saved from cost and damage6 ,but ,i still underestimate the prevalence of the principle4 ,our instances must be homelier yet4 ,each day come petty citations to self- sacrifice which are accepted as a matter of course4 ,as ,i walk to my lecture-room somebody stops me and says1 ,what is the way to ,berkeley ,street8 ,do ,i reprovingly answer1 ,you must have made a mistake4 ,i have no interest in ,berkeley ,street4 ,i think it is you who are going there1 and why are you putting me to inconvenience merely that you may the more easily find your way8 ,should ,i answer so1 he would think and possibly say1 ,there are strange people in ,cambridge1 remoter from human kind than any known elsewhere4 ,every one would feel astonishment at the man who declined to bear his little portion of a neighbor's burden4 ,our commonest acceptance of society involves self- sacrifice1 and in all our trivial intercourse we expect to put ourselves to unrewarded inconvenience for the sake of others4 ,,vii ,what ,i have set myself to make plain in this series of graded examples is simply this3 self-sacrifice is not something exceptional1 something occurring at crises of our lives1 something for which we need perpetually to be preparing ourselves1 so that when the great occasion comes we may be ready to lay ourselves upon its altar4 ,such romanticism distorts and obscures4 ,self-sacrifice is an everyday affair4 ,by it we live4 ,it is the very air of our moral lungs4 ,without it society could not go on for an hour4 ,and that is precisely why we reverence it so--not for its rarity1 but for its importance4 ,nothing else1 ,i suppose1 so instantly calls on the beholder for a bowing of the head4 ,even a slight exhibit of it sends through the sensitive observer a thrill of reverent abasement4 ,other acts we may admire2 others we may envy2 this we adore4 ,perhaps we are now prepared to sum up our descriptive account and throw what we have observed into a sort of definition4 ,i mean by self- sacrifice any diminution of my own possessions1 pleasures1 or powers1 in order to increase those of others4 ,naturally what we first think of is the parting with possessions4 ,that is what the word charity most readily suggests1 the giving up of some physical object owned by us which1 even at the moment of giving1 we ourselves desire4 ,but the gift may be other than a physical object4 ,when ,i would gladly sit1 ,i may stand in the car for the sake of giving another ease4 ,but the greatest conceivable self-sacrifice is when ,i give myself3 when1 that is1 ,i in some way allow my own powers to be narrowed in order that those of some one else may be enlarged4 ,parents are familiar with such exquisite charity1 parents who put themselves to daily hardship because they want education for their boys4 ,but they have no monopoly in this kind4 ,i who stand in the guardianship of youth have frequent occasion to miss a favorite pupil1 boy or girl1 who throws up a college training and goes home--often1 in my judgment1 mistakenly--to support1 or merely to cheer1 the family there4 ,of course such gifts are incomparable4 ,no parting with one's goods1 no abandonment of one's pleasures1 can be measured against them4 ,yet this is what is going on all over the country where devoted mother1 gallant son1 loyal husband1 are limiting their own range of existence for the sake of broadening that of certain whom they hold dear4 ,,viii ,but when we have thus assembled our omnipresent facts and set them in order for cool assessment1 the enigma of self-sacrifice only appears the more clearly4 ,why should a man sacrifice himself8 ,why voluntarily accept loss8 ,each of us has but a single life4 ,each feels the pressure of his own needs and desires4 ,these point the way to enlargement4 ,how1 then1 can ,i disinterestedly prefer another's gain8 ,each of us is penned within the range of his solitary consciousness1 which may be broadened or narrowed but cannot be passed4 ,it is incumbent on us1 therefore1 to study our own enrichment4 ,anticipating whatever might confirm or crumble our being1 we should strenuously seize the one and reject the other4 ,deliberately to turn toward loss would seem to be crazy4 ,what should a man accept in exchange for his life8 ,here is the difficulty1 a difficulty of the profoundest and most instructive sort4 ,if we could see our way clearly through it1 little in ethics would remain obscure4 ,the common mode of meeting it is to leave it thus paradoxical4 ,self-sacrifice banishes rationality and is a glorious madness4 ,but such a conclusion is a repellent one4 ,how can it be8 ,reason is man's distinctive characteristic4 ,while brutes act blindly1 while the punctual physical universe minutely obeys laws of which it knows nothing1 usually it is open to man to judge the path he will pursue4 ,shall we then say that1 though reason is a convenience in all the lower stretches of life1 when we reach self-sacrifice1 our single awesome height1 it ceases8 ,i cannot think so4 ,on the contrary1 ,i hold that in self-sacrifice we have a case not of glorious madness1 but of somewhat extreme rationality4 ,how1 then1 is rational contrasted with irrational guidance8 ,as we here approach the central and most difficult part of our discussion1 clearness will oblige me to enter into some detail4 ,when a child looks at a watch1 he sees a single object4 ,it is something there1 a something altogether detached from his consciousness1 from the table1 from other objects around4 ,it is a brute fact1 one single thing1 complete in itself4 ,such is the child's perception4 ,but a man of understanding looks at it differently4 ,its detached singleness is not to him the most important truth in regard to it4 ,its meaning must rather be found in the relations in which it stands1 relations which1 seeming at first to lie outside it1 really enter into it and make it what it is4 ,the rational man would accordingly see it all alive with the qualities of gold1 brass1 steel1 the metals of which it is composed4 ,he would find it incomprehensible apart from the mind of its maker1 and would not regard that mind and watch as two things1 but as matters essentially related4 ,indeed1 these relations would run wider still1 and reason would not rest satisfied until the watch was united to time itself1 to the very framework of the universe4 ,apart from this it would be meaningless4 ,in short1 if a man comprehends the watch in a rational way he must comprehend it in what may he called a conjunct way4 ,the child might picture it as abstract and single1 but it could really be known only in connection with all that exists4 ,of course we pause far short of such full knowledge4 ,our reason cannot stretch to the infinity of things4 ,but just so far as relations can be traced between this object and all other objects1 so much the more rational does the knowledge of the watch become4 ,rationality is the comprehending of anything in its relations4 ,the perceptive1 isolated view is irrational4 ,but if this is true of so simple a matter as a watch1 it is doubly true of a complex human being4 ,the child imagines he can comprehend a person too in isolation1 but rational proverb-makers long ago told us1 ,one person1 no person4 ,each person must be conceived as tied in with all his fellows4 ,we have seen how in the case of the watch we were almost obliged to abandon the thought of a single object and to speak of it as a kind of centre of constitutive relations4 ,a plexus of ties runs in every direction1 and where these cross there is the watch4 ,so it is among human beings4 ,if we try for a moment to conceive a person as single and detached1 we shall find he would have no powers to exercise4 ,no emotions would be his1 whether of love or hate1 for they imply objects to arouse them1 no occupations of civilized life1 for these involve mutual dependency4 ,from speech he would be cut off1 if there were nobody to speak to2 nor would any such instrument as language be ready for his use1 if ancestors had not cooperated in its construction4 ,his very thoughts would become a meaningless series of impressions if they indicated no reality beside themselves4 ,so empty would be that fiction1 the single and isolated individual4 ,the real creature1 rational and conjunct man1 is he who stands in living relationship with his fellows1 they being a veritable part of him and he of them4 ,man is essentially a social being1 not a being who happens to be living in society4 ,society enters into his inmost fibre1 and apart from society he is not4 ,yet this does not mean that society1 any more than the individual1 has an independent existence1 prior1 complete1 and authoritative4 ,what would society be1 parted from the individuals who compose it8 ,no more than an individual who does not embody social relationships4 ,the two are mutual conceptions1 different aspects of the same thing4 ,we may view a person abstractly1 fixing attention on his single centre of consciousness2 or we may view him conjunctly1 attending to his multifarious ties4 ,now what is distinctive of self-sacrifice is that it insists in a somewhat extreme way on this second and rational mode of regard4 ,it is a frank confession of interlocking lives4 ,it says1 ,i have nothing to do with the abstract1 isolated1 and finite self4 ,that is a matter of no consequence4 ,what ,i care about is the conjunct1 social1 and infinite self--that self which is inseparable from others4 ,where that calls1 ,i serve4 ,the self-sacrificing person knows no interest of his own separate from those of his father and mother1 his wife and children4 ,he cannot ask what is good for himself and set it in contrast with what is good for them4 ,for his own broader existence is presented in these dear members of his family4 ,and such a man1 so far from being mad1 is wise as few of us are4 ,glorious indeed is the self- sacrificer1 because he is so sane1 because in him all pettiness and detachment are swept away4 ,he appears mad only to those who stand at the opposite point of view1 but in his eyes it is they who are ridiculous4 ,in fact1 each must be counted crazy or wise according to the view we take of what constitutes the real person4 ,i remember a story current in our newspapers during the ,civil ,war4 ,just before a battle1 an officer of our army1 knowing of what consequence it was that his regiment should hold its ground1 hastened to the rear to see that none of his men were straggling4 ,he met a cowardly fellow trying to regain the camp4 ,turning upon him in a passion of disgust1 he said1 ,what6 ,do you count your miserable little life worth more than that of this great army8 ,worth more to me1 sir1 the man replied4 ,how sensible6 ,how entirely just from his own point of view1 that of the isolated self6 ,taking only this into account1 he was but a moral child1 incapable of comprehending anything so difficult as a conjunct self4 ,he imagined that could he but save this eating1 breathing1 feeling self1 no matter if the country were lost1 he would be a gainer4 ,what folly6 ,what would existence be worth outside the total inter-relationship of human beings called his land8 ,but this fact he could not perceive4 ,to risk his separate self in such a cause seemed absurd4 ,turn for a moment and see how absurd the separate self appears from the point of view of the conjunct4 ,when our ,lord hung upon the cross1 the jeering soldiers shouted1 ,he saved others1 himself he cannot save4 ,no1 he could not2 and his inability seemed to them ridiculous1 while it was in reality his glory4 ,his true self he was saving--himself and all mankind--the only self he valued4 ,,ix ,now it is this strange complexity of our being1 compelling us to view ourselves in both a separate and a conjunct way1 which creates all the difficulty in the problem of self-sacrifice4 ,but ,i dare say that when ,i have thus shown the reality and worth of the conjunct self1 it will be felt that self-sacrifice is altogether illusory2 for while it seems to produce loss1 it is in fact the avoidance of what entails littleness4 ,so says ,emerson3-- ,let love repine and reason chafe1 ,there came a voice without reply3 ',t is man's perdition to be safe ,when for the truth he ought to die4 ,have we not1 then1 by explaining the rationality of self-sacrifice1 explained away the whole matter and practically identified it with self-culture8 ,there is plausibility in this view--and it has often been maintained--but not complete truth4 ,for evidently the emotions excited by culture and sacrifice are directly antagonistic4 ,toward a man pursuing the aim of culture we experience a feeling of approval1 not unmixed with suspicion1 but we give him none of that reverent adoration which is the proper response to sacrifice4 ,and if the feelings of the beholder are contrasted1 so also are the psychological processes of the performer4 ,the man of culture starts with a sense of defect which he seeks to supplement2 the sacrificer1 with a sense of fullness which he seeks to empty4 ,he who turns to self-culture says1 ,i have progressed thus far4 ,i have gained thus much of what ,i would acquire4 ,but still ,i am poor4 ,i need more4 ,let me gather as abundantly as possible on every side4 ,but the thought of him who turns to self- sacrifice is1 ,i have been gaining1 but ,i only gained to give4 ,here is my opportunity4 ,let me pour out as largely as ,i may4 ,he contemplates final impoverishment4 ,accordingly ,i was obliged to say in my definition that the self-sacrificer seeks to heighten another's possessions1 pleasures1 or powers at the cost of his own4 ,undoubtedly at the end of the process he often finds himself richer than at the beginning4 ,perhaps this is the normal result2 but it is not contemplated4 ,psychologically the sacrificer is facing in a different direction4 ,x ,yet1 though the motive agencies of the two are thus contrasted1 ,i think we must acknowledge that sacrifice no less than culture is a powerful form of self-assertion4 ,to miss this is to miss its essential character1 and at the same time to miss the safeguards which should protect it against waste4 ,for to say1 ,i will sacrifice myself is to leave the important part of the business unexpressed4 ,the weighty matter is in the covert preposition for4--,i will sacrifice myself for1 ,an approved object is aimed at4 ,we are not primarily interested in negating ourselves4 ,only our estimate of the importance of the object justifies our intended loss4 ,this object should accordingly be scrutinized4 ,self-sacrifice is noble if its end is noble1 but become reprehensible when its object is petty or undeserving4 ,omit or overlook that word for1 and self-sacrifice loses its exalted character4 ,it sinks into asceticism1 one often most degrading of moral aberrations4 ,in asceticism we prize self-sacrifice for its own sake4 ,we hunt out what we value most2 we judge what would most completely fulfill our needs2 and then we abolish it4 ,abolish it for what8 ,for nothing but the mere sake of abolishing4 ,this is to turn morality upside down2 and in place of the ,christian ideal of abounding life1 to set up the pessimistic aim of impoverishment4 ,there is nothing of this kind in self-sacrifice4 ,here we assert ourselves1 our conjunct selves4 ,we estimate what will be best for the community of man and seek to further this at whatever cost to our isolated individuality4 ,by this dedication to a deserving object sacrifice is purified1 ennobled1 and made strong4 ,we speak of the glorious deed of him who plunges into the water to save a child4 ,but it is a foolish and immoral thing to risk one's life for a stone1 a coin1 or nothing at all4 ,is the object deserving8 we must ask1 or shall ,i reserve myself for greater need8 ,too easily does our sympathetic and sentimental age1 recklessly eulogistic of altruism1 hurry into self-sacrifice4 ,altruism in itself is worthless4 ,that an act is unselfish can never justify its performance4 ,he who would be a great giver must first be a great person4 ,our men1 and still more our women1 need as urgently the gospel of self-development as that of self-sacrifice2 though the two are naturally supplemental4 ,our only means of estimating the propriety and dignity of sacrifice is to inquire how closely connected with ourselves is its object4 ,until we can justify this connection1 we have no right to incur it1 for genuine sacrifice is always an act of self- assertion4 ,in saving his regiment and contributing his share toward saving his country1 the soldier asserts his own interests4 ,he is a good soldier in proportion as he feels these interests to be his2 while the deserter is condemned1 not for refusing to give his life to an alien country and regiment1 but because he was small enough to imagine that these great constituents of himself were alien4 ,i tell the man on the street the way home because ,i cannot part his bewilderment from my own4 ,the problem always is1 ,what may ,i suitably regard as mine8 ,and in solving it1 we should study as carefully that for which we propose to sacrifice ourselves as anything which we might seek to obtain4 ,triviality or lack of permanent consequence is as objectionable in the one case as in the other4 ,the only safe rule is that self-sacrifice is self-assertion1 is a judgment as regards what we would welcome to be a portion of our conjunct self4 ,perhaps an extreme case will show this most clearly4 ,jesus prayed1 ,not my will1 but thine1 be done4 ,he did not then lose his will4 ,he asserted and obtained it4 ,for his will was that the divine will should be fulfilled1 and fulfilled it was4 ,he set aside one form of his will1 his private and isolated will1 knowing it to be delusive4 ,but his true or conjunct will--and he knew it to be his true one--he abundantly obtained4 ,it is no wonder1 then1 that in explaining these things to his disciples he says1 ,my meat it is to do the will of my ,father4 ,that is always the language of genuine self-sacrifice4 ,the act is not complete until the sense of loss has disappeared4 ,,xi ,yet while ,i hold that self-sacrifice is thus the very extreme of rationality1 grounding as it does all worth in the relational or conjunct selfhood1 ,i cannot disguise from myself that it contains an element of tragedy too4 ,this my readers will already have felt and will have begun to rebel against my insistence that self-sacrifice is the fulfillment of our being4 ,for though it is true that when opposition arises between the conjunct and separate selves our largest safety is with the former1 the very fact that such opposition is possible involves tragedy4 ,one part of the nature becomes arrayed against another4 ,we must die to live4 ,our lower goods are found incompatible with our higher4 ,pleasure1 comfort1 property1 friends1 possibly life itself1 have become hostile to our more inclusive aims and must be cast aside4 ,it is true that when the tragic antithesis is presented and we can reach our higher goods only by loss of the lower1 hesitation is ruin4 ,it is true too that on account of that element of self-assertion to which ,i have drawn1 attention1 the genuine sacrificer is ordinarily unaware of any such tragedy4 ,but none the less tragedy is there4 ,to suppose it absent would strip sacrifice of what we regard as most characteristic4 ,nor can we pause here4 ,those who would call self-sacrifice a glorious madness have still further justification4 ,a leap into the dark we must at least admit it to be1 ,for trace it rationally as far as we may1 there always remains uncertainty at the close4 ,there is1 for example1 uncertainty about ultimate results4 ,the mother toiling for her child1 and neglecting for its sake most of what would render her own life rich1 can never know that this child will grow up to power4 ,the day may come when she will wish it had died in childhood4 ,the glory of her action is bound up with this darkness4 ,were the soldier1 marching to the field1 sure that his side would be victorious1 he would be only half a hero4 ,the consequences of self-sacrifice can never be certain1 foreseen1 calculable4 ,there must be risk4 ,omit it1 and the sacrifice disappears4 ,indeed nothing in life which calls forth high admiration is free from this touch of faith and courage1 this movement into the unknown4 ,it is at the very heart of self-sacrifice4 ,but besides the unknown character of the result there is usually uncertainty as regards the cost4 ,the sacrificer does not give according to measure4 ,i do not say ,i will attend to this sick person up to such and such a point1 but when that point is reached ,i shall have done enough4 ,this would hardly be self-sacrifice4 ,i rather say1 ,here ,i am4 ,take me1 use me to the full1 spend of me whatever you need4 ,how much that will be1 ,i do not know4 ,so there is an element of darkness in ourselves4 ,and possibly ,i ought to mention a third variety of these incalculabilities of sacrifice4 ,we do not plan the case4 ,a while ago1 meeting a literary man whose product is of much consequence to the community and himself1 ,i asked him how his book was coming on4 ,badly1 he answered4 ,just now an aged relative has fallen ill4 ,there is no other place where she can be properly disposed1 and so she has been brought to my house4 ,i must care for her1 my home will be much broken up1 and my work must be set aside4 ,i said1 ,is that your duty8 ,have you not a more important obligation to your book8 ,but he answered1 ,one cannot choose a duty4 ,i did not fully agree4 ,i think we should carefully weigh duties1 even if we do not choose them4 ,morality would otherwise become the sport of accident4 ,but ,i perceive that in the last analysis no duty is made by ourselves4 ,it is given us by something more authoritative than we1 something which we cannot alter1 fully estimate1 or without damage evade4 ,necessity is laid upon us1 sometimes an invading necessity4 ,we are walking our well-ordered path1 pursuing some dear aims1 when harsh before us stands a waiting duty1 bidding us lay aside that in which we are engaged and take it4 ,i have said ,i believe a degree of scrutiny is needful here4 ,we should ask1 what for8 ,we should correlate the new duty with those already pledged4 ,and probably an interrupting duty is less often the one it is well to follow than one which has had something of our time and care4 ,few fresh calls can have the weighty claim of loyalty to obligation already incurred4 ,but1 after all1 that on which we finally decide has not sprung from our own wishes4 ,it subjects those wishes to itself4 ,standing over against us1 it summons us to do its bidding1 and allows us no more to be our own self-directed masters4 ,,xii ,summing up1 then1 the jarring characteristics of self-sacrifice1--its frequency1 rationality1 assertiveness1 nearness to self--culture2 yes1 and its darker traits of risk1 immeasurability1 and authoritativeness1 --does it not begin to appear that ,i have been calling it by a wrong name8 ,self-sacrifice is a negative term4 ,it lays stress on the thought that ,i set myself aside1 become in some way less than ,i was before4 ,and no doubt through all this intricate discussion certain belittlements have been acknowledged1 though these have also been shown to lie along the path of largeness4 ,there are1 therefore1 in self-sacrifice both negative and positive elements4 ,but why select its name from the subordinate part8 ,why turn to the front its incidental negations8 ,this is topsy-turvy nomenclature4 ,better blot the word self-sacrifice from our dictionaries4 ,devotion1 service1 love1 dedication to a cause1 --these words mark its real nature and are the only descriptions of it which its practicers will recognize4 ,that damage to the abstract self which chiefly impresses the outsider is something of which the sacrificer is hardly aware4 ,how exquisitely astonished are the men in the parable when called to receive reward for their generous gifts6 ,lord1 when saw we thee an hungered and fed thee1 or thirsty and gave thee drink8 ,when saw we thee sick or in prison and came unto thee8 ,they thought they had only been following their own desires4 ,perhaps the most admirable case of self-sacrifice is that in which no single person appears who is profited by our loss4 ,the scholar1 the artist1 the scientific man dedicate themselves to the interests of undifferentiated humanity4 ,they serve their undecipherable race1 not knowing who will obtain gains through their toils4 ,in their sublime benefactions they study the wants of no individual person1 not even of themselves4 ,yet1 turn to a man of this type and try to call his attention to the privations he endures1 and what will be his answer8 ,i have no coat8 ,i have no dinner8 ,i have little money8 ,people do not honor me as they honor others8 ,yes1 ,i believe ,i lack these trifles4 ,but think what ,i possess6 ,this great subject2 or rather1 it possesses me4 ,and it shall have of me whatever it requires4 ,in such service of the absolute is found the highest expression of self-sacrifice1 of social service1 of self-realization4 ,the doctrine that though union with a reason and righteousness not exclusively our own each of us may hourly be renewed is the very heart of ethics4 ,,xiii ,i have attempted to cut out a clear path through an ethical jungle overgrown with the exuberance of human life4 ,i have not succeeded1 and it is probably impossible to succeed4 ,in the subject itself there is paradox4 ,conflicting elements enter into the very constitution of a person4 ,to trace them even imperfectly one must be patient of refinements1 accessible to qualifications1 and ever ready to admit the opposite of what has been laboriously established4 ,we all desire through study to win a swift simplicity4 ,but nature abhors simplicity3 she complicates2 she forces those who would know to take pains1 to proceed cautiously1 and to feel their way along from point to point4 ,this ,i have tried to do2 and ,i believe that the inquiry1 though intricate1 primarily scientific1 and only partially successful1 need not altogether lack practical consequence4 ,our age is bewildered between heroism and greed4 ,to each it is drawn more powerfully than any age preceding4 ,neither of the two does it quite comprehend4 ,if we can render the nobler somewhat more intelligible1 we may increase the confidence of those who now1 half-ashamed1 follow its glorious but blindly compulsive call4 ,,references ,,on ,,self-,,sacrifice ,spencer's ,principles of ,ethics1 pt4 i4 ch4 xi41 xii4 ,bradley's ,appearance and ,reality1 p4 #dad-dbi4 ,paulsen's ,ethics1 bk4 ii4 ch4 #f4 ,wundt's ,facts of the ,moral ,life1 ch4 iii41 ,section #d 7g74 ,sidgwick's ,methods1 concluding chapter4 ,kidd's ,social ,evolution1 ch4 #e4 ,s4 ,bryant in ,journal of ,ethics1 ,apr4 #ahic4 ,bradley in ,journal of ,ethics1 ,oct4 #ahid4 ,mackenzie1 in ,journal of ,ethics1 ,apr4 #ahie4 ,,vii ,,nature ,,and ,,spirit ,i ,at this culmination of our long discussion1 a discussion much confused by its necessary mass of details1 it may be well to pause a moment1 to fix attention on the great lines along which we have been moving1 and to mark the points on which they appear to converge4 ,we have regarded goodness as divided into two very unequal parts4 ,the first two chapters treated of goodness in general1 a species which being shared alike by persons and things is in no sense distinctive of persons4 ,the last four chapters have been given to the more complex task of exploring the goodness of persons4 ,in things we found that goodness consists in having their manifold parts drawn into integral wholeness4 ,and this is true also of persons4 ,but the modes of organization in the two cases were so unlike as to require long elucidation4 ,our conclusion would seem to be that while goodness is everywhere expressive of organization1 personal conduct is good only when consciously organized1 guided1 and aimed at the development of a social self4 ,we have seen how self-consciousness lies at the foundation of personality1 sharply discriminating persons from things4 ,we have seen too that wherever it is present1 the person curiously directs himself1 passing through all the varieties of purposive activity which were catalogued in the chapter on self- direction4 ,but such activity implies a being of variable1 not of fixed powers1 a being accordingly capable of enlargement1 and with possibilities in him which every moment renders real4 ,this progressive realization of himself1 this development1 he--so far as he is good-- consciously conducts4 ,and finally we found in the person the strange fact that he conceives of his good self as essentially in conjunction with his fellow man1 and recognizes that parted off and in separate abstractness he is no person at all4 ,accordingly personal organization1 direction1 enlargement1 conjunction4 ,under our analysis two antithetic worlds emerge1 a world of nature and of spirit1 the former guided by blind forces1 the latter self-managed4 ,unlike spiritual beings1 natural objects are under alien control2 have not the power of development1 and when brought into close conjunction with others are liable to disruption4 ,,ii ,accepting this vital distinction1 we see that the work of spiritual man will consist in progressively subjugating whatever natural powers he finds within him and without1 rendering them all expressive of self-conscious purpose4 for we men are not altogether spiritual2 in us two elements meet4 ,our spirituality is superposed on a natural basis4 ,like things1 we have our natural aptitudes1 blind tendencies1 established functions of body and mind4 ,these are all serviceable and organic2 but to become spiritual all need to be redeemed1 or drawn over into the field of consciousness1 where our special stamp may be set upon them4 ,when we speak of a good act1 we mean an act which shows the results of such redemption1 one whose every part has been studied in relation to every other part1 and has thus been made to bear our own image and superscription4 ,and this is essentially the ,christian ideal1 that spirit shall be lord of nature4 ,i ought to reject my natural life1 accounting it not my life at all4 ,until shaped by myself1 it is merely my opportunity for life1 material furnished1 out of which my true and conscious life may be constructed4 ,widely is this contrasted with the pagan conceptions1 where man appears with powers as fixed as the things around him4 ,indeed1 in many forms of paganism there is no distinction between persons and things4 ,they are blended4 ,and such blending usually operates to the disparagement of the person2 for things being more numerous1 and their laws more urgent1 the powers of man become lost in those of nature4 ,or if distinction is made1 and men in some dim fashion become aware that they are different from things1 still it is the tendency of paganism to subordinate person to nature4 ,the child is sacrificed to the sun4 ,the sun is not thought of as existing for the child4 ,from the ,christian point of view everything seems turned upside down4 ,man is absorbed in natural forces1 natural forces are reverenced as divine1 and self-consciousness--if noticed at all--is regarded as an impertinent accident4 ,in the ,christian ideal all this is reversed4 ,man is called to be master of himself1 and therefore of all else4 ,the many beautiful adjustments of the natural world are thought to possess dignity only so far as they accept the conscious purposes put by us in their keeping4 ,and in man himself goodness is held to exist only in proportion as his conduct expresses fullness of self-consciousness1 fullness of direction1 and fullness of conscious conjunction with other persons4 ,i do not see how we can escape this conclusion4 ,the careful argumentation through which the previous chapters have brought us obliges us to count conduct valuable in proportion as it bears the impress of self-conscious mind4 ,,iii ,yet it must be owned that during the last few centuries doubts have arisen about the justice of this ,christian ideal4 ,the simple conception of a world of spirit and a world of nature arrayed against each other1 the one of them exactly what the other is not1 the world of spirit the superior1 the world of nature to be frowned on1 used possibly1 but always in subordination to spiritual purposes1--this view1 dominant as it was in the ,middle ,ages1 and still largely influential1 has been steadily falling into disrepute4 ,there is even a tendency in present estimates to reverse the ancient valuation and allow superiority to nature4 ,such a transformation is strikingly evident in those sensitive recorders of human ideals1 the ,fine ,arts4 ,let us see what at different times they have judged best worthy of record4 ,early painting dealt with man alone1 or rather with persons2 for personality in its transcendent forms--saints1 angels1 ,god himself-- was usually preferred above little man4 ,except the spiritual1 nothing was regarded as of consequence4 ,the principle of early painting might be summed in the proud saying1 ,on earth there is nothing great but man2 in man there is nothing great but mind4 ,it is true when man is thus detached from nature he hardly appears to advantage or in his appropriate setting4 ,but the early painters would tolerate nothing natural near their splendid persons4 ,they covered their backgrounds with gilding1 so that a glory surrounded the entire figure1 throwing out the personality sharp and strong4 ,nothing broke its effect4 ,but after all1 one comes to see that we inhabit a world2 nature is continually about us1 and man really shows his eminence most fully when standing dominant over nature4 ,early painting1 accordingly1 began to set in a little landscape around the human figures1 contrasting the person with that which was not himself4 ,but an independent interest could not fail to spring up in these accessories4 ,by degrees the landscape is elaborated and the figure subordinated4 ,the figure is there by prescription1 the landscape because people enjoy it4 ,nature begins to assert her claims2 and man1 the eminent and worthy representative of old ideals1 retires from his ancient prominence4 ,when the ,renaissance revolted against the teachings of the mediaeval church1 the disposition to return to nature was insolently strong4 ,natural impulses were glorified1 the physical world attracted attention1 and even began to be studied4 ,hitherto it had been thought deserving of study only because in a few respects it was able to minister to man4 ,but in the ,renaissance men studied it for its own sake4 ,gradually the distinction between man and nature grew faint1 so that a kind of pantheism arose in which a general power1 at once natural and spiritual1 appeared as the ruler of all4 ,we individual men emerge for a moment from this great central power1 ultimately relapsing into it4 ,nature had acquired coordinate1 if not superior1 rights4 ,yet the full expression of this independent interest in nature is more recent than is usually observed4 ,landscape painting goes back but little beyond the year sixteen hundred4 ,it is only two or three centuries ago that painters discovered the physical world to be worthy of representation for its own sake4 ,as the worth of nature thus became vindicated in painting1 parallel changes were wrought in the other arts4 ,arts less distinctly rational began to assert themselves1 and even to take the lead4 ,the art most characteristic of modern times1 the one which most widely and poignantly appeals to us1 is music4 ,but in music we are not distinctly conscious of a meaning4 ,most of us in listening to music forget ourselves under its lulling charms1 abandon ourselves to its spell1 and by it are swept away1 perhaps to the infinite1 perhaps to an obliteration of all clear thought4 ,is it not largely because we are so hard pressed under the anxious conditions of modern life that music becomes such an enormous solace and strength8 ,i do not say that no other factors have contributed to the vogue of music1 but certainly it is widely prized as an effective means of escape from ourselves4 ,music too1 though early known in calm and elementary forms1 has within the last two centuries been developed into almost a new art4 ,of all the arts poetry is the most strikingly rational and articulate4 ,its material is plain thought1 plain words4 ,we employ in it the apparatus of conscious life4 ,poetry was therefore concerned in early times entirely with things of the spirit4 ,it dealt with persons1 and with them alone4 ,it celebrated epic actions1 recorded sagacious judgments1 or uttered in lyric song emotions primarily felt by an individual1 yet interpreting the common lot of man4 ,but there has occurred a great change in poetry too1 a change notable during the last century but initiated long before4 ,poetry has been growing naturalistic1 and is to-day disposed to reject all severance of body and spirit4 ,the great nature movement which we associate with the names of ,cowper1 ,burns1 and ,wordsworth1 has withdrawn man's attention from conscious responsibility1 and has taught him to adore blind and vast forces which he cannot fully comprehend4 ,we all know the refreshment and the deepening of life which this mystic new poetry has brought4 ,but it is hard to say whether poetry is nowadays a spiritual or a natural art4 ,many of us would incline to the latter view1 and would hold that even in dealing with persons it treats them as embodiments of natural forces4 ,our instincts and unguided passions1 the features which most identify us with the physical world1 are coming more and more to be the subjects of modern poetry4 ,,iv ,nature1 meanwhile1 that part of the universe which is not consciously guided1 has become within a century our favorite field of scientific study4 ,the very word science is popularly appropriated to naturalistic investigation4 ,of course this is a perversion4 ,originally it was believed that the proper study of mankind was man4 ,and probably we should all still acknowledge that the study of personal structure is as truly science as study of the structure of physical objects4 ,yet so powerfully is the tide setting toward reverence for the unconscious and the sub-conscious that science1 our word for knowledge1 has lost its universality and has taken on an almost exclusively physical character4 ,perhaps there was only one farther step possible4 ,philosophy itself1 the study of mind1 might be regarded as a study of the unconscious4 ,and this step has been taken4 ,books now bear the paradoxical title ,philosophy of the ,unconscious1 and investigation of the sub- conscious processes is perhaps the most distinctive trait of philosophy to-day4 ,more and more it is believed that we cannot adequately explore a person without probing beneath consciousness4 ,the blind processes can no longer be ruled out4 ,nature and spirit cannot be parted as our fathers supposed they might4 ,probably ,kant is the last great scholar who will ever try to hold that distinction firm1 and he is hardly successful4 ,in spite of his vigorous antitheses1 hints of covert connection between the opposed forces are not absent4 ,indeed1 if the two are so widely parted as his usual language asserts1 it is hard to see how his ethics can have mundane worth4 ,curiously enough too1 at the very time when ,kant was reviving this ancient distinction1 and offering it as the solid basis of personal and social life1 the opposite belief received its most clamorous announcement1 resounding through the civilized world in the teachings of ,rousseau4 ,rousseau warns us that the conscious constructions of man are full of artifice and deceit1 and lead to corruption and pain4 ,conscious guidance should1 consequently1 be banished1 and man should return to the peace1 the ease1 and the certainty of nature4 ,v ,now ,i do not think it is worth while to blame or praise a movement so vast as this4 ,if it is folly to draw an indictment against a nation1 it is greater folly to indict all modern civilization4 ,we must not say that philosophy and the fine arts took a wrong turn at the ,renaissance1--at least it is useless to call on them now to turn back4 ,the world seldom turns back4 ,it absorbs1 it re-creates1 it brings new significance into the older thought4 ,all progress1 ,goethe tells us1 is spiral1--coming out at the place where it was before1 but higher up4 ,no1 we cannot wisely blame or praise1 but we may patiently study and understand4 ,that is what ,i am attempting to do here4 ,the movement described is no negligible accident of our time4 ,it is world-wide1 and shows progress steadily in a single direction4 ,in order1 however1 to prove that such a change in moral estimates has occurred1 it was hardly necessary to survey the course of history4 ,the evidence lies close around us1 and is found in the standards of the society in which we move4 ,who are the people most prized8 ,are they the most self-conscious8 ,that should be the case if our long argument is sound4 ,our preceding chapters would urge us to fill life with consciousness4 ,in proportion as consciousness droops1 human goodness becomes meagre2 as our acts are filled with it1 they grow excellent4 ,these are our theoretic conclusions1 but the experience of daily life does not bear them out4 ,if1 for example1 ,i find the person who is talking to me watches each word he utters1 pauses again and again for correction1 choosing the determined word and rejecting the one which instinctively comes to his lips1 ,i do not trust what he says1 or even listen to it2 while he is shaping his exact sentences ,i attend to something else4 ,in general1 if a man's small actions impress us as minutely planned1 we turn from him4 ,it is not the self-reflecting persons1 cautious of all they do1 say1 or think1 who are popular4 ,it is rather those instinctively spontaneous creatures characterized by abandon--men and women who let themselves go1 and with all the wealth of the world in them1 allow it to come out of itself--that we take to our hearts4 ,we prize them for their want of deliberation4 ,in short1 we give our unbiased endorsement not to the spiritual or consciously guided person1 but to him1 on the contrary1 who shows the closest adjustment to nature4 ,,vi ,yet even so1 we have gone too far afield for evidence4 ,first we surveyed the ages1 then we surveyed one another4 ,but there is one proof-spot nearer still4 ,let us survey ourselves4 ,i am much mistaken if there are not among my readers persons who have all their lives suffered from self-consciousness4 ,they have longed to be rid of it1 to be free to think of the other person1 of the matter in hand4 ,instead of this1 their thoughts are forever reverting to their own share in any affair4 ,too contemptible to be avowed1 and more distressing than almost any other species of suffering1 excessive self-consciousness shames us with our selfishness1 yet will not allow us to turn from it4 ,when ,i go into company where everybody is spontaneous and free1 easily uttering what the occasion calls for1 ,i can utter only what ,i call for and not at all what the occasion asks4 ,between the two demands there is always an awkward jar4 ,when tortured by such experiences it does not soothe to have others carelessly remark1 ,oh1 just be natural6 ,that is precisely what we should like to be1 but how8 ,that little point is continually left unexplained4 ,yet obviously self- consciousness involves something like a deadlock4 ,for how can one consciously exert himself to be unconscious and try not to try8 ,we cannot arrange our lives so as to have no arrangement in them1 and when shaking hands with a friend1 for example1 be on our guard against noticing4 ,once locked up in this vicious circle1 we seem destined to be prisoners forever4 ,that is what constitutes the anguish of the situation4 ,the most tyrannical of jailers--one's self--is over us1 and from his bondage we are powerless to escape4 ,the trouble is by no means peculiar to our time1 though probably commoner forty years ago than at any other period of the world's history4 ,but it had already attracted the attention of ,shakespeare1 who bases on it one of his greatest plays4 ,when ,hamlet would act1 self-consciousness stands in his way4 ,the hindering process is described in the famous soliloquy with astonishing precision and vividness1 if only we substitute our modern term self-consciousness for that which was its ancient equivalent3-- ,thus conscience does make cowards of us all2 ,and thus the native hue of resolution ,is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought2 ,and enterprises of great pith and moment ,with this regard their currents turn awry1 ,and lose the name of action4 ,and such is our experience4 ,we1 too1 have purposed all manner of important and serviceable acts2 but just as we were setting them in execution1 consideration fell upon us4 ,we asked whether it was the proper moment1 whether he to whom it was to be done was really needy1 or were we the fit doer1 or should it be done in this way or that4 ,we hesitated1 and the moment was gone4 ,self-consciousness had again demonstrated its incompetence for superintending a task4 ,many of us1 far from regarding self-consciousness as a ground of goodness1 are disposed to look upon it as a curse4 ,,vii ,before1 however1 attempting to discover whether our theoretic conclusions may he drawn into some sort of living accord with these results of experience1 let us probe a little more minutely into these latter1 and try to learn what reasons there may be for this very general distrust of self-consciousness as a guide4 ,hitherto ,i have exhibited that distrust as a fact4 ,we always find it so2 our neighbors find it so1 the ages have found it so4 ,but why8 ,i have not pointed out precisely the reasons for the continual fact4 ,let me devote a page or two to rational diagnosis4 ,to begin with1 ,i suppose it will be conceded that we really cannot guide ourselves through and through4 ,there are certain large tracts of life totally unamenable to consciousness4 ,of our two most important acts1 and those by which the remaining ones are principally affected1 birth and death1 the one is necessarily removed from conscious guidance1 and the other is universally condemned if so guided4 ,we do not--as we have previously seen--happen to be present at our birth1 and so are quite cut off from controlling that4 ,yet the conditions of birth very considerably shape everything else in life4 ,we cannot1 then1 be purely spiritual2 it is impossible4 ,we must be natural beings at our beginning2 and at the other end the state of things is largely similar1 for we are not allowed to fix the time of our departure4 ,the ,stoics were4 ,if the house smokes1 they said1 leave it4 ,when life is no longer worth while1 depart4 ,but ,christianity will not allow this4 ,death must be a natural affair1 not a spiritual4 ,i am to wait till a wandering bacillus alights in my lung4 ,he will provide a suitable exit for me4 ,but neither ,i nor my neighbors must decide my departure4 ,let laws of nature reign4 ,and if these two tremendous events are altogether removed from conscious guidance1 many others are but slightly amenable to it4 ,the great organic processes both of mind and body are only indirectly1 or to a partial extent1 under the control of consciousness4 ,a few persons1 ,i believe1 can voluntarily suspend the beating of their hearts4 ,they are hardly to be envied4 ,the majority of us let our hearts alone1 and they work better than if we tried to work them4 ,though it is true that we can control our breathing1 and that we occasionally do so1 this also in general we wisely leave to natural processes4 ,a similar state of affairs we find when we turn to the mind itself4 ,the association of ideas1 that curious process by which one thought sticks to another and through being thus linked draws after it material for use in all our intellectual constructions1 goes on for the most part unguided4 ,it would be plainly useless1 therefore1 to treat our great distinction as something hard and fast4 ,nature and spirit may be contrasted2 they cannot be sundered4 ,spirit removed from nature would become impotent1 while nature would then proceed on a meaningless career4 ,then too there are all sorts of degrees in consciousness4 ,no man was ever so conscious of himself and his acts that he could not be more so4 ,when introspection is causing us our sharpest distress1 it may still be rendered more minute4 ,that is one cause of its peculiar anguish4 ,we are always uncertain whether our troubles have not arisen from too little self-consciousness1 and we whip ourselves into greater nicety and elaborateness of personal observation4 ,varying through a multitude of degrees1 the fullness of consciousness is never reached4 ,a more thorough exercise of it is always possible4 ,at the last1 nature must be admitted as a partner in the control of our lives1 and her share in that partnership the present age believes to be a large one4 ,,viii ,for could we always consciously steer our conduct1 we should be unwise to do so4 ,consciousness hinders action4 ,acts are excellent in proportion as they are sure1 swift1 and easy4 ,when we undertake anything1 we seek to do exactly that thing1 reach precisely that end1 and not merely to hit something in the neighborhood4 ,occasions1 too1 run fast1 and should be seized on the minute4 ,action is excellent only when it meets the urgent and evasive demands of life4 ,faltering and hesitation are fatal4 ,nor must action unduly weary4 ,good conduct effects its results with the least necessary expenditure of effort4 ,when there are so many demands pressing upon us1 we should not allow ourselves to become exhausted by a single act1 but should keep ourselves fresh for further needs4 ,efficient action1 then1 is sure1 swift1 and easy4 ,now the peculiarity of self-consciousness is that it hinders all this and makes action inaccurate1 slow1 and fatiguing4 ,inaccuracy is almost certain4 ,when we study how something is to be done1 we are apt to lay stress on certain features of the situation1 and not to bring others into due prominence4 ,it is difficult separately to correlate the many elements which go to make up a desired result4 ,sometimes we become altogether puzzled and for the moment the action ceases4 ,when ,i have had occasion to drive a screw in some unusual and inconvenient place1 after setting the blade of the screw-driver into the slot ,i have asked myself1 ,in which direction does this screw turn8 ,but the longer ,i ask1 the more uncertain ,i am4 ,my only solution lies in trusting my hand1 which knows a great deal more about the matter than ,i4 ,when we once begin to meditate how a word is spelled1 how helpless we are6 ,it is better to drop the question1 and pick up the dictionary4 ,in all such cases consideration tends to confuse4 ,it tends to delay1 too1 as everybody knows4 ,to survey all the relations in which a given act may stand1 to balance their relative gains and losses1 and with full sight to decide on the course which offers the greatest profit1 would require the years of ,methuselah4 ,but at what point shall we cut the process short8 ,to obtain full knowledge1 we should pass in review all that relates to the act we propose2 should inquire what its remoter consequences will be1 and how it will affect not merely myself1 my cousin1 my great-grandchild1 but the man in the next street1 city1 or state4 ,there is no stopping4 ,to carry conscious verification over a moderate range is slow business4 ,if on the impulse of occasion we dash off an action unreflectingly1 life will be swift and simple4 ,if we try to anticipate all consequences of our task it will be slow and endless4 ,nor need ,i dwell on the fatigue such conscious work involves4 ,in writing a letter1 we usually sit down before our paper1 our minds occupied with what we would say4 ,we allow our fingers to stroll of themselves across the page1 and we hardly notice whether they move or not4 ,if anybody should ask1 ,how did you write the letter s8 we should be obliged to look on the paper to see4 ,but suppose1 instead of writing in this way1 ,i come to the task to-morrow determined to superintend all the work consciously4 ,how shall ,i hold my pen in the best possible manner8 ,how shape this letter so that each of its curves gets its exact bulge8 ,how give the correct slant to what is above or below the line8 ,i will not ask how long a time a letter prepared in this fashion would require1 or whether when written it would be fit to read1 for ,i wish to fix attention on the exhaustion of the writer4 ,he certainly could endure such fatigue for no more than a single epistle4 ,the schoolboy1 when forced to it1 seldom holds out for more than half a page1 though he employs every contortion of shoulder1 tongue1 and leg to ease and diversify the struggle4 ,a dozen years ago some nonsense verses were running through the papers1--verses pointing out with humorous precision the very infelicities of conscious control to which ,i am now directing attention4 ,they put the case thus3-- ,the centipede was happy1 quite1 ,until the toad for fun ,said1 ',pray which leg comes after which8' ,this worked her mind to such a pitch ,she lay distracted in a ditch1 ,considering how to run4 ,and no wonder6 ,problems so complex as this should be left to the disposal of nature1 and not be drawn over into the region of spiritual guidance4 ,but the complexities of the centipede are simple matters when compared with the elaborate machinery of man4 ,the human mind offers more alternatives in a minute than does the centipede in a lifetime4 ,if spiritual guidance is inadequate to the latter1 and is found merely to hinder action1 why is not the blind control of nature necessary for the former also8 ,our age believes it is and1 ever disparaging the conscious world1 attaches steadily greater consequence to the unconscious4 ,it is the unintelligent me1 writes ,dr4 ,o4 ,w4 ,holmes1 stupid as an idiot1 that has to try a thing a thousand times before he can do it and then never knows how he does it1 that at last does it well4 ,we have to educate ourselves through the pretentious claims of intellect into the humble accuracy of instinct2 and we end at last by acquiring the dexterity1 the perfection1 the certainty which those masters of arts1 the bee and the spider1 inherit from nature4 ,,references ,,on ,,nature ,,and ,,spirit ,green's ,prolegomena1 ,section #big4 ,dewey's ,study of ,ethics1 ,section xli4 ,seth's ,study of ,ethical ,principles1 pt4 i4 ch4 #c1 ,section #f4 ,alexander's ,moral ,order and ,progress1 bk4 i4 ch4 i4 ,section iii4 ,earle's ,english ,prose1 p4 #dij-ejj4 ,palmer in ,the ,forum1 ,jan4 #ahic4 ,,vii ,,the ,,three ,,stages ,,of ,,goodness ,i ,such is the mighty argument conducted through several centuries in behalf of nature against spirit as a director of conduct4 ,i have stated it at length both because of its own importance and because it is in seeming conflict with the results of my early chapters4 ,but those results stand fast4 ,they were reached with care4 ,to reject them would be to obliterate all distinction between persons and things4 ,self-consciousness is the indisputable prerogative of persons4 ,only so far as we possess it and apply it in action do we rise above the impersonal world around4 ,and even if we admit the contention in behalf of nature as substantially sound1 we are not obliged to accept it as complete4 ,it may be that neither nature nor spirit can be dispensed with in the supply of human needs4 ,each may have its characteristic office2 for though in the last chapter ,i have been setting forth the superiorities of natural guidance1 in spiritual guidance there are advantages too1 advantages of an even more fundamental kind4 ,let us see what they are4 ,they may be summarily stated in a single sentence3 consciousness alone gives fresh initiative4 ,disturbing as the influence of consciousness confessedly is1 on its employment depends every possibility of progress4 ,natural action is regular1 constant1 conformed to a pattern4 ,in the natural world event follows event in a fixed order1 ,under the same conditions the same result appears an indefinite number of times4 ,the most objectionable form of this rigidity is found in mechanism4 ,i sometimes hear ladies talking about real lace and am on such occasions inclined to speak of my real boots4 ,they mean1 ,i find1 not lace that is the reverse of ghostly1 but simply that which bears the impress of personality4 ,it is lace which is made by hand and shows the marks of hand work4 ,little irregularities are in it1 contrasting it with the machine sort1 where every piece is identical with every other piece4 ,it might be more accurately called personal lace4 ,the machine kind is no less real--unfortunately--but mechanism is hopelessly dull1 says the same thing day after day1 and never can say anything else4 ,now though this coarse form of monotonous process nowhere appears in what we call the world of nature1 a restriction substantially similar does2 for natural objects vary slowly and within the narrowest limits4 ,outside such orderly variations1 they are subjected to external and distorting agencies effecting changes in them regardless of their gains4 ,branches of trees have their wayward and subtle curvatures1 and are anything but mechanical in outline4 ,but none the less are they helpless1 unprogressive1 and incapable of learning4 ,the forces which play upon them1 being various1 leave a truly varied record4 ,but each of these forces was an invariable one1 and their several influences cannot be sorted1 judged1 and selected by the tree with reference to its future growth4 ,criticism and choice have no place here1 and accordingly anything like improvement from year to year is impossible4 ,the case of us human beings would be the same if we were altogether managed by the sure1 swift1 and easy forces of nature4 ,progress would cease4 ,we should move on our humdrum round as fixedly constituted1 as submissive to external influence1 and with as little exertion of intelligence as the dumb objects we behold4 ,every power within us would be actual1 displayed in its full extent1 and involving no variety of future possibility4 ,we should live altogether in the present1 and no changes would be imagined or sought4 ,from this dull routine we are saved by the admixture of consciousness4 ,for a gain so great we may well be ready to encounter those difficulties of conscious guidance which my last chapter detailed4 ,let the process of advance be inaccurate1 slow1 and severe1 so only there be advance4 ,for progress no cost is too great4 ,i am sometimes inclined to congratulate those who are acute sufferers through self-consciousness1 because to them the door of the future is open4 ,the instinctive1 uncritical person1 who takes life about as it comes1 and with ready acceptance responds promptly to every suggestion that calls1 may be as popular as the sunshine1 but he is as incapable of further advance4 ,except in attractiveness1 such a one is usually in later life about what he was in youth2 for progress is a product of forecasting intelligence4 ,when any new creation is to be introduced1 only consciousness can prepare its path4 ,evidently1 then1 there are strong advantages in guidance through the spirit4 ,but natural guidance has advantages no less genuine4 ,human life is a complex and demanding affair1 requiring for its ever- enlarging good whatever strength can be summoned from every side4 ,probably we must abandon that magnificent conception of our ancestors1 that spirit is all in all and nature unimportant4 ,but must we1 in deference to the temper of our time1 eliminate conscious guidance altogether8 ,may not the disparagement of recent ages have arisen in reaction against attempts to push conscious guidance into regions where it is unsuitable8 ,conceivably the two agencies may be supplementary4 ,possibly we may call on our fellow of the natural world for aid in spiritual work4 ,the complete ideal1 at any rate1 of good conduct unites the swiftness1 certainty1 and ease of natural action with the selective progressiveness of spiritual4 ,till such a combination is found1 either conduct will be insignificant or great distress of self-consciousness will be incurred4 ,both of these evils will be avoided if nature can be persuaded to do the work which we clearly intend4 ,that is what goodness calls on us to effect4 ,to showing the steps through which it may be reached the remainder of this chapter will be given4 ,,ii ,let us1 then1 take a case of action where we are trying to create a new power1 to develop ourselves in some direction in which we have not hitherto gone4 ,for such an undertaking consciousness is needed1 but let us see how far we are able to hand over its work to unconsciousness4 ,suppose1 when entirely ignorant of music1 ,i decide to learn to play the piano4 ,evidently it will require the minutest watchfulness4 ,approaching the strange instrument with some uneasiness1 ,i try to secure exactly that position on the stool which will allow my arms their proper range along the keyboard4 ,there is difficulty in getting my sheet of music to stand as it should4 ,when it is adjusted1 ,i examine it anxiously4 ,what is that little mark8 ,probably the note ,c4 ,among these curious keys there must also be a ,c4 ,i look up and down4 ,there it is6 ,but can ,i bring my finger down upon it at just the right angle8 ,that is accomplished1 and gradually note after note is captured1 until ,i have conquered the entire score4 ,if now during my laborious performance a friend enters the room1 he might well say1 ,i do not like spiritual music4 ,give me the natural kind which is not consciously directed4 ,but let him return three years later4 ,he will find me sitting at the piano quite at my ease1 tossing off notes by the unregarded handful4 ,he approaches and enters into conversation with me4 ,i do not cease my playing2 but as ,i talk1 ,i still keep my mind free enough to observe the swaying boughs outside the window and to enjoy the fragrance of the flowers which my friend has brought4 ,the musical phrases which drop from my fingers appear to regulate themselves and to call for little conscious regard4 ,yet if my friend should try to show me how mistaken ,i had been in the past1 attempting to manage consciously what should have been left to nature1 if he should eulogize my natural action now and contrast it with my former awkwardness1 he would plainly be in error4 ,my present naturalness is the result of long spiritual endeavor1 and cannot be had on cheaper terms2 and the unconsciousness which is now noticeable in me is not the same thing as that which was with me when ,i began to play4 ,it is true the incidental hardships connected with my first attack on the piano have ceased4 ,i find myself in possession of a new and seemingly unconscious power4 ,an automatic train of movements has been constructed which ,i now direct as a whole1 its parts no longer requiring special volitional prompting4 ,but ,i still direct it1 only that a larger unit has been constituted for consciousness to act upon4 ,the naturalness which thus becomes possible is accordingly of an altogether new sort2 and since the result is a completer expression of conscious intention1 it may as truly be called spiritual as natural4 ,,iii ,it has now become plain that our early reckoning of actions as either natural or spiritual was too simple and incomplete4 ,conduct has three stages1 not two4 ,let us get them clearly in mind4 ,at the beginning of life we are at the beck and call of every impulse1 not having yet attained reflective command of ourselves4 ,this first stage we may rightly call that of nature or of unconsciousness1 and manifestly most of us continue in it to some extent and as regards certain tracts of action throughout life4 ,then reflection is aroused2 we become aware of what we are doing4 ,the many details of each act and the relations which surround it come separately into conscious attention for assessment1 approval1 or rejection4 ,this is the stage of spirit1 or consciousness4 ,but it is not the final stage4 ,as we have seen in our example1 a stage is possible when action runs swiftly to its intended end1 but with little need of conscious supervision4 ,this mechanized1 purposeful action presents conduct in its third stage1 that of second nature or negative consciousness4 ,as this third is least understood1 is often confused with the first1 and yet is in reality the complete expression of the moral ideal and of that reconciliation of nature and spirit of which we are in search1 ,i will devote a few pages to its explanation4 ,the phrase negative consciousness describes its character most exactly1 though the meaning is not at once apparent4 ,positive consciousness marks the second stage4 ,there we are obliged to think of each point involved1 in order to bring it into action4 ,in piano- playing1 for example1 ,i had to study my seat at the piano1 the music on the rack1 the letters of the keyboard1 the position of my fingers1 and the coordination of all these with one another4 ,to each such matter a separate and positive attention is given4 ,but even at the last1 when ,i am playing at my ease1 we cannot say that consciousness is altogether absent4 ,i am conscious of the harmony1 and if ,i do not direct1 ,i still verify results4 ,as an entire phrase of music rolls off my rapid fingers1 ,i judge it to be good4 ,but if one of the notes sticks1 or ,i perceive that the phrase might be improved by a slightly changed stress1 ,i can check my spontaneous movements and correct the error4 ,there is therefore a watchful1 if not a prompting1 consciousness at work4 ,it is true that1 the first note started1 all the others follow of themselves in natural sequence4 ,though ,i withdraw attention from my fingers1 they run their round as a part of the associated train4 ,but if they go awry1 consciousness is ready with its inhibition4 ,i accordingly call this the stage of negative consciousness4 ,in it consciousness is not employed as a positive guiding force1 but the moment inhibition or check is required for reaching the intended result1 consciousness is ready and asserts itself in the way of forbiddal4 ,this third stage1 therefore1 differs from the first through having its results embody a conscious purpose2 from the second1 through having consciousness superintend the process in a negative and hindering1 rather than in a positive and prompting way4 ,it is the stage of habit4 ,i call it second nature because it is worked1 not by original instincts1 but by a new kind of associative mechanism which must first be laboriously constructed4 ,years ago when ,i began to teach at ,harvard ,college1 we used to regard our students as roaring animals1 likely to destroy whatever came in their way4 ,we instructors were warned to keep the doors of our lecture rooms barred4 ,as we came out1 we must never fail to lock them4 ,so always in going to a lecture1 as ,i passed through the stone entry and approached the door my hand sought my pocket1 the key came out1 was inserted in the keyhole1 turned1 was withdrawn1 fell back into my pocket1 and ,i entered the room4 ,this series of acts repeated day after day had become so mechanized that if on entering the room ,i had been asked whether on that particular day ,i had really unlocked the door1 ,i could not have told4 ,the train took care of itself and ,i was not concerned in it sufficiently for remembrance4 ,yet it remained my act4 ,on one or two occasions1 after shoving in the key in my usual unconscious fashion1 ,i heard voices in the room and knew that it would be inappropriate to enter4 ,instantly ,i stopped and checked the remainder of the train4 ,habitual though the series of actions was1 and ordinarily executed without conscious guidance1 it as a whole was aimed at a definite end4 ,if this were unattainable1 the train stopped4 ,all are aware how large a part is played by such mechanization of conduct4 ,without it1 life could not go on4 ,when a man walks to the door1 he does not decide where to set his foot1 what shall be the length of his step1 how he shall maintain his balance on the foot that is down while the other is raised4 ,these matters were decided when he was a child4 ,in those infant years which seem to us intellectually so stationary1 a human being is probably making as large acquisitions as at any period of his later life4 ,he is testing alternatives and organizing experience into ordered trains4 ,but in the rest of us a consolidation substantially similar should be going on in some section of our experience as long as we live4 ,for this is the way we develop3 not the total man at once1 but this year one tract of conduct is surveyed1 judged1 mechanized2 and next year another goes through the same maturing process4 ,not until such mechanization has been accomplished is the conduct truly ours4 ,when1 for example1 ,i am winning the power of speech1 ,i gradually cease to study exactly the word ,i utter1 the tone in which it is enunciated1 how my tongue1 lips1 and teeth shall be adjusted in reference to one another4 ,while occupied with these things1 ,i am no speaker4 ,i become such only when1 the moment ,i think of a word1 the actions needed for its utterance set themselves in motion4 ,with them ,i have only a negative concern4 ,indeed1 as we grow maturer of speech1 collocations of words stick naturally together and offer themselves to our service4 ,when we require a certain range of words from which to draw our means of communication1 there they stand ready4 ,we have no need to rummage the dimness of the past for them4 ,mechanically they are prepared for our service4 ,of course this does not imply that at one period we foolishly believed consciousness to be an important guide1 but subsequently becoming wiser1 discarded its aid4 ,on the contrary1 the mechanization of second nature is simply a mode of extending the influence of consciousness more widely4 ,the conclusions of our early lectures were sound4 ,the more fully expressive conduct can be of a self-conscious personality1 so much the more will it deserve to be called good4 ,but in order that it may in any wide extent receive this impress of personal life1 we must summon to our aid agencies other than spiritual4 ,the more we mechanize conduct the better4 ,that is what maturing ourselves means4 ,when we say that a man has acquired character1 we mean that he has consciously surveyed certain large tracts of life1 and has decided what in those regions it is best to do4 ,there1 at least1 he will no longer need to deliberate about action4 ,as soon as a case from this region presents itself1 some electric button in his moral organism is touched1 and the whole mechanism runs off in the surest1 swiftest1 easiest possible way4 ,thus his consciousness is set free to busy itself with other affairs4 ,for in this third stage we do not so much abandon consciousness as direct it upon larger units2 and this not because smaller units do not deserve attention1 but because they have been already attended to4 ,once having decided what is our best mode of action in regard to them1 we wisely turn them over to mechanical control4 ,,iv ,such is the nature of moral habit4 ,before goodness can reach excellence1 it must be rendered habitual4 ,consideration1 the mark of the second stage1 disappears in the third4 ,we cannot count a person honest so long as he has to decide on each occasion whether to take advantage of his neighbor4 ,long ago he should have disciplined himself into machine-like action as regards these matters1 so that the dishonest opportunity would be instinctively and instantly dismissed1 the honest deed appearing spontaneously4 ,that man has not an amiable character who is obliged to restrain his irritation1 and through all excitement and inner rage curbs himself courageously4 ,not until conduct is spontaneous1 rooted in a second nature1 does it indicate the character of him from whom it proceeds4 ,that unconsciousness is necessary for the highest goodness is a cardinal principle in the teaching of ,jesus4 ,other teachers of his nation undertook clearly to survey the entirety of human life1 to classify its situations and coolly to decide the amount of good and evil contained in each4 ,righteousness according to the ,pharisees was found in conscious conformity to these decisions4 ,theirs was the method of casuistry1 the method of minute1 critical1 and instructed judgment4 ,the fields of morality and the law were practically identified1 goodness becoming externalized and regarded as everywhere substantially the same for one man as for another4 ,pharisaism1 in short1 stuck in the second stage4 ,jesus emphasized the unconscious and subjective factor4 ,he denounced the considerate conduct of the ,pharisees as not righteousness at all4 ,it was mere will-worship4 ,jesus preached a religion of the heart1 and taught that righteousness must become an individual passion1 similar to the passions of hunger and thirst1 if it would attain to any worth4 ,so long as evil is easy and natural for us1 and good difficult1 we are evil4 ,we must be born again4 ,we must attain a new nature4 ,our right hand must not know what our left hand does4 ,we must become as little children1 if we would enter into the kingdom of heaven4 ,the chief difficulty in comprehending this doctrine of the three stages lies in the easy confusion of the first and the third4 ,jesus guards against this1 not bidding us to be or to remain children1 but to become such4 ,the unconsciousness and simplicity of childhood is the goal1 not the starting-point4 ,the unconsciousness aimed at is not of the same kind as that with which we set out4 ,in early life we catch the habits of our home or even derive our conduct from hereditary bias4 ,we begin1 therefore1 as purely natural creatures1 not asking whether the ways we use are the best4 ,those ways are already fixed in the usages of speech1 the etiquettes of society1 the laws of our country4 ,these things make up the uncriticised warp and woof of our lives1 often admirably beautiful lives4 ,when speaking in my last chapter of the way in which our age has come to eulogize guidance by natural conditions1 ,i might have cited as a striking illustration the prevalent worship of childhood4 ,only within the last century has the child cut much of a figure in literature4 ,he is an important enough figure to-day1 both in and out of books4 ,in him nature is displayed within the spiritual field1 nature with the possibilities of spirit1 but those possibilities not yet realized4 ,we accordingly reverence the child and delight to watch him4 ,how charming he is1 graceful in movement1 swift of speech1 picturesque in action6 ,enviable little being6 ,the more so because he is able to retain his perfection for so brief a time4 ,but we all know the unhappy period from seven to fourteen when he who formerly was all grace and spontaneity discovers that he has too many arms and legs4 ,how disagreeable the boy then becomes6 ,before1 we liked to see him playing about the room4 ,now we ask why he is allowed to remain4 ,for he is a ceaseless disturber2 constantly noisy and constantly aware of making a noise1 his excuses are as bad as his indiscretions4 ,he cannot speak without making some awkward blunder4 ,he is forever asking questions without knowing what to do with the answers4 ,a confused and confusing creature6 ,we say he has grown backward4 ,where before he was all that is estimable1 he has become all that we do not wish him to be4 ,all that we do not wish him to be1 but certainly much more what ,god wishes him to be4 ,for if we could get rid of our sense of annoyance1 we should see that he is here reaching a higher stage1 coming into his heritage and obtaining a life of his own4 ,formerly he lived merely the life of those about him4 ,he laid a self-conscious grasp on nothing of his own4 ,when now at length he does lay that grasp1 we must permit him to be awkward1 and to us disagreeable4 ,we should aid him through the inaccurate1 slow1 and fatiguing period of his existence until1 having tested many tracts of life and learned in them how to mechanize desirable conduct1 he comes back on their farther side to a childhood more beautiful than the original4 ,many a man and woman possesses this disciplined childhood through life4 ,goodness seems the very atmosphere they breathe1 and everything they do to be exactly fitting4 ,their acts are performed with full self-expression1 yet without strut or intrusion of consciousness4 ,whatever comes from them is happily blended and organized into the entirety of life4 ,such should be our aim4 ,we should seek to be born again1 and not to remain where we were originally born4 ,v ,in what has now been said there is a good deal of comfort for those who suffer the pains of self-consciousness1 previously described4 ,they need not seek a lower degree of self-consciousness1 but only to distribute more wisely what they now possess4 ,in fullness of consciousness they may well rejoice1 recognizing its possession as a power4 ,but they should take a larger unit for its exercise4 ,in meeting a friend1 for example1 we are prone to think of ourselves1 how we are speaking or poising our body4 ,but suppose we transfer our consciousness to the subject of our talk1 and allow ourselves a hearty interest in that4 ,leaving the details of speech and posture to mechanized past habits1 we may turn all the force of our conscious attention on the fresh issues of the discussion4 ,with these we may identify ourselves1 and so experience the enlargement which new materials bring4 ,when we were studying the intricacies of self- sacrifice1 we found that the generous man is not so much the self- denier or even the self-forgetter1 but rather he who is mindful of his larger self4 ,he turns consciousness from his abstract and isolated self and fixes it upon his related and conjunct self4 ,but that is a process which may go on everywhere4 ,our rule should be to withdraw attention from isolated minutiae1 for which a glance is sufficient4 ,giving merely that glance1 we may then leave them to themselves4 ,encouraging them to become mechanized1 we should use these mechanized trains in the higher ranges of living4 ,the cure for self-consciousness is not suppression1 but the turning of it upon something more significant4 ,,vi ,every habit1 however1 requires perpetual adjustment1 or it may rule us instead of allowing us instead to rule through it4 ,we do well to let alone our mechanized trains while they do not lead us into evil4 ,so long as they run in the right direction1 instincts are better than intentions4 ,but repeatedly we need to study results1--and see if we are arriving at the goal where we would be4 ,if not1 then habit requires readjustment4 ,from such negative control a habit should never be allowed to escape4 ,this great world of ours does not stand still4 ,every moment its conditions are altering4 ,whatever action fits it now will be pretty sure to be a slight misfit next year4 ,no one can be thoroughly good who is not a flexible person1 capable of drawing back his trains1 reexamining them1 and bringing them into better adjustment to his purposes4 ,it is meaningless1 then1 to ask whether we should be intuitive and spontaneous1 or considerate and deliberate4 ,there is no such alternative4 ,we need both dispositions4 ,we should seek to attain a condition of swift spontaneity1 of abounding freedom1 of the absence of all restraint1 and should not rest satisfied with the conditions in which we were born4 ,but we must not suffer that even the new nature should be allowed to become altogether natural4 ,it should be but the natural engine for spiritual ends1 itself repeatedly scrutinized with a view to their better fulfillment4 ,,vii ,the doctrine of the three stages of conduct1 elaborated in this chapter1 explains some curious anomalies in the bestowal of praise1 and at the same time receives from that doctrine farther elucidation4 ,when is conduct praiseworthy8 ,when may we fairly claim honor from our fellows and ourselves8 ,there is a ready answer4 ,nothing is praiseworthy which is not the result of effort4 ,i do not praise a lady for her beauty1 ,i admire her4 ,the athlete's splendid body ,i envy1 wishing that mine were like it4 ,but ,i do not praise him4 ,or does the reader hesitate2 and while acknowledging that admiration and envy may be our leading feelings here1 think that a certain measure of praise is also due8 ,it may be4 ,perhaps the lady has been kind enough by care to heighten her beauty4 ,perhaps those powerful muscles are partly the result of daily discipline4 ,these persons1 then1 are not undeserving of praise1 at least to the extent that they have used effort4 ,seeing a collection of china1 ,i admire the china1 but praise the collector4 ,it is hard to obtain such pieces4 ,large expense is required1 long training too1 and constant watchfulness4 ,accordingly ,i am interested in more than the collection4 ,i give praise to the owner4 ,a learned man we admire1 honor1 envy1 but also praise4 ,his wisdom is the result of effort4 ,plainly1 then1 praise and blame are attributable exclusively to spiritual beings4 ,nature is unfit for honor4 ,we may admire her1 may wish that our ways were like hers1 and envy her great law-abiding calm4 ,but it would be foolish to praise her1 or even to blame when her volcanoes overwhelm our friends4 ,we praise spirit only1 conscious deeds4 ,where self-directed action forces its path to a worthy goal1 we rightly praise the director4 ,now1 if all this is true1 there seems often-times a strange unsuitableness in praise4 ,we may well decline to receive it4 ,to praise some of our good qualities1 pretty fundamental ones too1 often strikes us as insulting4 ,you are asked a sudden question and put in a difficult strait for an answer4 ,yes1 ,i say1 but you actually did tell the truth4 ,i wish to congratulate you4 ,you were successful and deserve much praise4 ,but who would feel comfortable under such eulogy8 ,and why not8 ,if telling the truth is a spiritual excellence and the result of effort1 why should it not be praised8 ,but there lies the trouble4 ,i assumed that to be a truth-teller required strain on your part4 ,in reality it would have required greater strain for falsehood4 ,it might then seem that ,i should praise those who are not easily excellent1 since ,i am forbidden to praise those who are4 ,and something like this seems actually approved4 ,if a boy on the street1 who has been trained hardly to distinguish truth from lies1 some day stumbles into a bit of truth1 ,i may justly praise him4 ,splendid fellow6 ,no word of falsehood there6 ,but when ,i see the father of his country bearing his little hatchet1 praise is unfit2 for ,george ,washington cannot tell a lie4 ,absurd as this conclusion appears1 ,i believe it states our soundest moral judgment2 for praise never escapes an element of disparagement4 ,it implies that the unexpected has happened4 ,if ,i praise a man for learning1 it is because ,i had supposed him ignorant2 if for helping the unfortunate1 ,i hint that ,i did not anticipate that he would regard any but himself4 ,wherever praise appears1 we cannot evade the suggestion that excellence is a matter of surprise4 ,and as nobody likes to be thought ill-adapted to excellence1 praise may rightly be resented4 ,it is true1 there is a group of cases where praise seems differently employed4 ,we can praise those whom we recognize as high and lifted up4 ,sing praises unto the ,lord1 sing praises1 the ,psalmist says4 ,and our hearts respond4 ,we feel it altogether appropriate4 ,we do not disparage ,god by daily praise4 ,no1 but the element of disparagement is still present1 for we are really disparaging ourselves4 ,that is the true significance of praise offered to the confessedly great4 ,for them1 the praise is inappropriate4 ,but it is1 nevertheless1 appropriate that it should be offered by us little people who stand below and look up4 ,praising the wise man1 ,i really declare my ignorance to be so great that ,i have difficulty in conceiving myself in his place4 ,for me1 it would require long years of forbidding work before ,i could attain to his wisdom4 ,and even in the extreme form of this praise of superiors1 substantially the same meaning holds4 ,we praise ,god in order to abase ourselves4 ,him we cannot really praise4 ,that we understand at the start4 ,he is beyond commendation4 ,excellence covers him like a garment1 and is not attained1 like ours1 by struggle through obstacles4 ,yet this difference between him and us we can only express by trying to imagine ourselves like him1 and saying how difficult such excellence would then be4 ,we have here1 therefore1 a sort of reversed praise1 where the disparagement which praise always carries falls exclusively on the praiser4 ,and such cases are by no means uncommon1 cases in which there is at least a pretense on the praiser's part of setting himself below the one praised4 ,but praise usually proceeds down from above1 and then1 implicitly1 we disparage him whom we profess to exalt4 ,nor do ,i see how this is to be avoided2 for praise belongs to goodness gained by effort1 while excellence is not reached till effort ceases in second nature4 ,to assert through praise that goodness is still a struggle is to set the good man back from our third stage to our second4 ,in fact by the time he really reaches excellence praise has lost its fitness1 goodness now being easier than badness1 and no longer something difficult1 unexpected1 and demanding reward4 ,for this reason those persons are usually most greedy of praise who have a rather low opinion of themselves4 ,being afraid that they are not remarkable1 they are peculiarly delighted when people assure them that they are4 ,accordingly the greatest protection against vanity is pride4 ,the proud man1 assured of his powers1 hears the little praisers and is amused4 ,how much more he knows about it than they6 ,inner worth stops the greedy ear4 ,when we have something to be vain about1 we are seldom vain4 ,,viii ,but if all this is true1 why should praise be sweet8 ,in candor most of us will own that there is little else so desired4 ,when almost every other form of dependence is laid by1 to our secret hearts the good words of neighbors are dear4 ,and well they may be6 ,our pleasure testifies how closely we are knitted together4 ,we cannot be satisfied with a separated consciousness1 but demand that the consciousness of all shall respond to our own4 ,a glorious infirmity then6 ,and the peculiar sweetness which praise brings is grounded in the consciousness of our weakness4 ,in certain regions of my life1 it is true1 goodness has become fairly natural2 and there of course praise strikes me as ill-adjusted and distasteful4 ,i do not like to have my manners praised1 my honesty1 or my diligence4 ,but there are other tracts where ,i know ,i am still in the stage of conscious effort4 ,in this extensive region1 aware of my feebleness and hearing an inward call to greater heights1 it will always be cheering to hear those about me say1 ,well done6 ,of course in saying this they will inevitably hint that ,i have not yet reached an end1 and their praises will displease unless ,i too am ready to acknowledge my incompleteness4 ,but when this is acknowledged1 praise is welcome and invigorating4 ,i suspect we deal in it too little4 ,if imagination were more active1 and we were more willing to enter sympathetically the inner life of our struggling and imperfect comrades1 we should bestow it more liberally4 ,occasion is always at hand4 ,none of us ever quite passes beyond the deliberate1 conscious1 and praise-deserving line4 ,in some parts of our being we are farther advanced1 and may there be experiencing the peace and assurance of a considerable second nature4 ,but there too perpetual verification is necessary4 ,and so many tracts remain unsubdued or capable of higher cultivation that throughout our lives1 perhaps on into eternity1 effort will still find room for work1 and suitable praises may attend it4 ,,references ,,on ,,the ,,three ,,stages ,,of ,,goodness ,james's ,psychology1 ch4 iv4 ,bain's ,emotions and the ,will1 ch4 ix4 ,wundt's ,facts of the ,moral ,life1 ch4 iii4 ,stephen's ,science of ,ethics1 ch4 vii4 ,section iii4 ,martineau's ,types of ,ethical ,theory1 pt4 ii4 bk4 i4 ch4 iii4