Life need not terrify because for purposes of
verification it must be represented as so intricate an affair. It is I
who have broken up its simplicity, and it belongs to my reader to put
it together again.
REFERENCE ON SELF-DIRECTION
James's Psychology, ch. xxvi.
Sigwart's Der Begriff des Wollen's, in his Kleine Schriften.
A. Alexander's Theories of the Will.
Munsterberg's Die Willenshandlung.
Hoffding's Psychology, ch. vii.
V
SELF-DEVELOPMENT
I
Conceivably a being such, as has been described might advance no
farther. Conscious he might be, observant of everything going on
within him and without; occupied too with inducing the very changes he
observes, and yet with no aim to enlarge himself or improve the world
through any of the changes so induced. Complete within himself at the
beginning, he might be equally so at the close, his activity being
undertaken for the mere sake of action, and not for any beneficial
results following in its train. Still, even such a being would be
better off while acting than if quiet, and by his readiness to act
would show that he felt the need of at least temporary betterment. In
actual cases the need goes deeper.
A being capable of self-direction ordinarily has capacities
imperfectly realized. Changing other things, he also changes himself;
and it becomes a part of his aim in action to make these changes
advantageous, and each act helpfully reactive.
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