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Page 17
CHAPTER VI
THE ASCENT TO FREEDOM AND PERSONALITY
In the previous chapter we found that man in his primitive stage is
largely a creature of the lower world. His desires are those of the
animal kingdom, his ideal is utility, and social approbation his God. At
this stage he is a mere nothing, no better than a slave to his passions
and to the opinions of his fellow-beings. He possesses neither freedom
nor personality--for he is but a tool in the hands of other impulses and
forces. There is no controlling self--he is not a lord in his own
kingdom. Some men do not get beyond this very low level, but for ever
remain mere shuttlecocks driven hither and thither by more or less
contradictory impulses.
The germ of the higher world that resides within him may sometimes make
itself felt, but "so long as there is a confused welter of higher and
lower impulses, ... so long is there an absence of anything essentially
new and lofty."
Man's aspirations for things that are higher, are at the outset very
sluggish and vague, for a being that is so much dominated by the natural
world is apt to concentrate its attention upon it and to remain
contented with it.
But there comes a time in the lives of perhaps most men when a distinct
feeling of dissatisfaction is felt with the life of natural impulse and
of convention. The man feels--perhaps in a vague way at first--that
there is something too merely animal in the sense world, or that there
is an intolerable emptiness and hypocrisy in a life of slavish devotion
to the opinions of society. Perhaps he feels that his passions govern
him, and not he his passions. The higher life stirs within him, and he
begins to question the rightness of things. He learns to appreciate for
the first time that the natural impulses may not be the noblest, and
that custom may not be an ideal guide. His soul is astir with the
problem of life--the result very largely depends upon the solutions that
are presented to him. Perhaps the naturalistic solution is made to
appeal to him, and he is taught to trust nature and it will lead him
aright. Or maybe the pantheistic theory is accepted by him, and he is
led to believe that the world as it is is entirely good, and that he has
but to live his life from day to day, and not worry himself about the
ultimate end and purpose of things. Or other optimistic theories of life
that deny the existence of evil may influence him. All these solutions
may give him temporary peace of mind, and perhaps indeed form efficient
stumbling-blocks to any further spiritual progress.
But the spiritual beginnings within us often show remarkable vitality.
They may under certain conditions lead us to appreciate the existence of
a distinct opposition in the world--the opposition between the lower
world and the higher self. Man finds that the natural is often low,
evil, and sordid, and at this stage the higher spiritual world makes a
strong appeal to him. By degrees he comes to feel the demands of the
lower world to be a personal insult to him. What is the lower material
world that it should govern him, and he a _man_? The claims of pleasure
and utility to be standards of conduct strike him as arrogant, and he
revolts against the assumption that higher aims can have no charm for
him. His previous acceptance without consideration of the moral
standard of the community he now looks upon as a sign of weakness on his
part--for is he not himself, a person with the power of independent
judgment and evaluation? It is the first great awakening of the
spiritual life in man, when his whole soul is in revolt against the low,
sordid, and conventional. What shall he do? There is only one course
that is worthy of his asserting personality--he must break with the
world. Henceforth he sees two worlds in opposition--the world of the
flesh on the one hand, the world of the spirit on the other, and he
arrays himself on the side of the higher in opposition to the lower.
When he does this the spiritual life in him makes the first substantial
movement in its onward progress--this movement Eucken calls the
_negative movement_. It does not mean that the man must leave the world
of work and retire into the seclusion of a monastery--that means
shirking the fight, and is a policy of cowardice. Neither does it mean a
wild impatience with the present condition of the world--it means rather
that man is appreciating in a profound way the oppositions that exist,
and is casting his lot on the side of right. He renounces everything
that hinders him from fighting successfully, then goes forth into the
thick of the battle. The break must be a definite one and made in a
determined manner. "Without earnestness of renunciation the new life
sinks back to the old ... and loses its power to stimulate to new
endeavour. As human beings are, this negation must always be a sharp
one."
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