And this leads us directly to the examination of the practical or ethical aspect of our sole problem.

FOOTNOTES: 

[47] De natura deorum, lib. i., cap. 41.

[48] Op. cit.

[49] Guia Espiritual que desembaraza al alma y la conduce por el interior camino para alcanzar la perfecta contemplacion y el rico tesoro de la paz interior, book iii., chap. xviii., Sec. 185.

[50]

    O land of Alvargonzalez,
    In the heart of Spain,
    Sad land, poor land,
    So sad that it has a soul!

[51]

    To living a life of blessed quiet here on earth,
    Either matter or soul is a hindrance.

[52] Eso que llaman derecho penal, y que es todo menos derecho.

[53] The Autocrat of the Breakfast-table.

XI

THE PRACTICAL PROBLEM

     L’homme est perissable.  II se peut; mais perissons en resistant,
     et, si le neant nous est reserve, ne faisons pas que ce soit une
     justice.—­SENANCOUR:  Obermann, lettre xc.

Several times in the devious course of these essays I have defined, in spite of my horror of definitions, my own position with regard to the problem that I have been examining; but I know there will always be some dissatisfied reader, educated in some dogmatism or other, who will say:  “This man comes to no conclusion, he vacillates—­now he seems to affirm one thing and then its contrary—­he is full of contradictions—­I can’t label him.  What is he?” Just this—­one who affirms contraries, a man of contradiction and strife, as Jeremiah said of himself; one who says one thing with his heart and the contrary with his head, and for whom this conflict is the very stuff of life.  And that is as clear as the water that flows from the melted snow upon the mountain tops.

I shall be told that this is an untenable position, that a foundation must be laid upon which to build our action and our works, that it is impossible to live by contradictions, that unity and clarity are essential conditions of life and thought, and that it is necessary to unify thought.  And this leaves us as we were before.  For it is precisely this inner contradiction that unifies my life and gives it its practical purpose.

Or rather it is the conflict itself, it is this self-same passionate uncertainty, that unifies my action and makes me live and work.

We think in order that we may live, I have said; but perhaps it were more correct to say that we think because we live, and the form of our thought corresponds with that of our life.  Once more I must repeat that our ethical and philosophical doctrines in general are usually merely the justification a posteriori of our conduct, of our actions.  Our doctrines are usually the means we seek in order to explain and