At times the sense of being shut
up to one's self is positively oppressive. Between the two extremes
there is endless variation. When we call self-consciousness the
prerogative of man we do not mean that he fully possesses it, but only
that he may possess it, may possess it more and more; and that in it,
rather than in the merely conscious life, the significance of his
being is found.
VII
Probably we are born without it. We know how gradually the infant
acquires a mastery of its sensuous experience; and it is likely that
for a long time after it has obtained command of its single
experiences it remains unaware of its selfhood. 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 capable:--
"The baby, new to earth and sky,
What time his tender palm is prest
Against the circle of the breast,
Has never thought that 'this is I.'
"But as he grows he gathers much,
And learns the use of 'I' and 'me,'
And finds 'I am not what I see,
And other than the things I touch.'
"So rounds he to a separate mind,
From whence clear memory may begin,
As thro' the frame that binds him in
His isolation grows defined.
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