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Lecture VIII







THE DIVIDED SELF; AND THE PROCESS OF ITS UNIFICATION







The last lecture was a painful one; dealing as it did with evil



as a pervasive element of the world we live in。  At the close of



it we were brought into full view of the contrast between the two



ways of looking at life which are characteristic respectively of



what we called the healthy…minded; who need to be born only once;



and of the sick souls; who must be twice…born in order to be



happy。  The result is two different conceptions of the universe



of our experience。  In the religion of the once…born the world is



a sort of rectilinear or one…storied affair; whose accounts are



kept in one denomination; whose parts have just the values which



naturally they appear to have; and of which a simple algebraic



sum of pluses and minuses will give the total worth。  Happiness



and religious peace consist in living on the plus side of the



account。 In the religion of the twice…born; on the other hand;



the world is a double…storied mystery。  Peace cannot be reached



by the simple addition of pluses and elimination of minuses from



life。  Natural good is not simply insufficient in amount and



transient; there lurks a falsity in its very being。 Cancelled as



it all is by death if not by earlier enemies; it gives no final



balance; and can never be the thing intended for our lasting



worship。 It keeps us from our real good; rather; and renunciation



and despair of it are our first step in the direction of the



truth。  There are two lives; the natural and the spiritual; and



we must lose the one before we can participate in the other。



 



In their extreme forms; of pure naturalism and pure salvationism;



the two types are violently contrasted; though here as in most



other current classifications; the radical extremes are somewhat



ideal abstractions; and the concrete human beings whom we



oftenest meet are intermediate varieties and mixtures。 



Practically; however; you all recognize the difference:  you



understand; for example; the disdain of the methodist convert for



the mere sky…blue healthy…minded moralist; and you likewise enter



into the aversion of the latter to what seems to him the diseased



subjectivism of the Methodist; dying to live; as he calls it; and



making of paradox and the inversion of natural appearances the



essence of God's truth。'86'







'86' E。g。; 〃Our young people are diseased with the theological



problems of original sin; origin of evil; predestination; and the



like。 These never presented a practical difficulty to any



mannever darkened across any man's road; who did not go out of



his way to seek them。  These are the soul's mumps; and measles;



and whooping…coughs; etc。  Emerson:  Spiritual Laws。















The psychological basis of the twice…born character seems to be a



certain discordancy or heterogeneity in the native temperament of



the subject; an incompletely unified moral and intellectual



constitution。







〃Homo duplex; homo duplex!〃 writes Alphonse Daudet。 〃The first



time that I perceived that I was two was at the death of my



brother Henri; when my father cried out so dramatically; 'He is



dead; he is dead!'  While my first self wept; my second self



thought; 'How truly given was that cry; how fine it would be at



the theatre。'  I was then fourteen years old。







〃This horrible duality has often given me matter for reflection。



Oh; this terrible second me; always seated whilst the other is on



foot; acting; living; suffering; bestirring itself。  This second



me that I have never been able to intoxicate; to make shed tears;



or put to sleep。 And how it sees into things; and how it



mocks!〃'87'







'87' Notes sur la Vie; p。 1。















Recent works on the psychology of character have had much to say



upon this point。'88' Some persons are born with an inner



constitution which is harmonious and well balanced from the



outset。  Their impulses are consistent with one another; their



will follows without trouble the guidance of their intellect;



their passions are not excessive; and their lives are little



haunted by regrets。  Others are oppositely constituted; and are



so in degrees which may vary from something so slight as to



result in a merely odd or whimsical inconsistency; to a



discordancy of which the consequences may be inconvenient in the



extreme。  Of the more innocent kinds of heterogeneity I find a



good example in Mrs。 Annie Besant's autobiography。







'88' See; for example; F。 Paulhan; in his book Les Caracteres;



1894; who contrasts les Equilibres; les Unifies; with les



Inquiets; les Contrariants; les Incoherents; les Emiettes; as so



many diverse psychic types。















〃I have ever been the queerest mixture of weakness and strength;



and have paid heavily for the weakness。  As a child I used to



suffer tortures of shyness; and if my shoe…lace was untied would



feel shamefacedly that every eye was fixed on the unlucky string;



as a girl I would shrink away from strangers and think myself



unwanted and unliked; so that I was full of eager gratitude to



any one who noticed me kindly; as the young mistress of a house I



was afraid of my servants; and would let careless work pass



rather than bear the pain of reproving the ill…doer; when I have



been lecturing and debating with no lack of spirit on the



platform; I have preferred to go without what I wanted at the



hotel rather than to ring and make the waiter fetch it。 



Combative on the platform in defense of any cause I cared for; I



shrink from quarrel or disapproval in the house; and am a coward



at heart in private while a good fighter in public。  How often



have I passed unhappy quarters of an hour screwing up my courage



to find fault with some subordinate whom my duty compelled me to



reprove; and how often have I jeered myself for a fraud as the



doughty platform combatant; when shrinking from blaming some lad



or lass for doing their work badly。  An unkind look or word has



availed to make me shrink into myself as a snail into its shell;



while; on the platform; opposition makes me speak my best。〃'89'







'89' Annie Besant:  an Autobiography; p。 82。















This amount of inconsistency will only count as amiable weakness;



but a stronger degree of heterogeneity may make havoc of the



subject's life。  There are persons whose existence is little more



than a series of zig…zags; as now one tendency and now another



gets the upper hand。  Their spirit wars with their flesh; they



wish for incompatibles; wayward impulses interrupt their most



deliberate plans; and their lives are one long drama of



repentance and of effort to repair misdemeanors and mistakes。







Heterogeneous personality has been explained as the result of



inheritancethe traits of character of incompatible and



antagonistic ancestors are supposed to be preserved alongside of



each other。'90' This explanation may pass for what it is



worthit certainly needs corroboration。  But whatever the cause



of heterogeneous personality may be; we find the extreme examples



of it in the psychopathic temperament; of which I spoke in my



first lecture。  All writers about that temperament make the inner



heterogeneity prominent in their descriptions。  Frequently;



indeed; it is only this trait that leads us to ascribe that



temperament to a man at all。  A 〃degenere superieur〃 is simply a



man of sensibility in many directions; who finds more difficulty



than is common in keeping  his spiritual house in order and



running his furrow straight; because his feelings and impulses



are too keen and too discrepant mutually。  In the haunting and



insistent ideas; in the irrational impulses; the morbid scruples;



dreads; and inhibitions which beset the psychopathic temperament



when it is thoroughly pronounced; we have exquisite examples of



heterogeneous personality。  Bunyan had an obsession of the words;



〃Sell Christ for this; sell him for that; sell him; sell him!〃



which would run through his mind a hundred times together; until



one day out of breath with retorting; 〃I will not; I will not;〃



he impulsively said; 〃Let him go if he will;〃 and this loss of



the battle kept him in despair for over a year。  The lives of the



saints are full of such blasphemous obsessions; ascribed



invariably to the direct agency of Satan。  The phenomenon



connects itself with the life of the subconscious self;


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