s point of
view mind and matter appear not as two things opposed to each other, as
static terms in fixed antithesis, but rather as two inverse directions
of movement; and, in certain respects, we must therefore speak not so
much of matter or mind as of spiritualisation and materialisation, the
latter resulting automatically from a simple interruption of the former.
"Consciousness or superconsciousness is the rocket, the extinguished
remains of which fall into matter." ("Creative Evolution", page 283.)

What image of universal evolution is then suggested? Not a cascade of
deduction, nor a system of stationary pulsations, but a fountain which
spreads like a sheaf of corn and is partially arrested, or at least
hindered and delayed, by the falling spray. The fountain itself, the
reality which is created, is vital activity, of which spiritual activity
represents the highest form; and the spray which falls is the creative
act which falls, it is reality which is undone, it is matter and
inertia. In a word, the supreme law of genesis and fall, the double play
of which constitutes the universe, comprises a psychological formula.

Everything begins in the manner of an invention, as the fruit of
duration and creative genius, by liberty, by pure mind; then comes
habit, a kind of body, as the body is already a group of habits; and
habit, taking root, being a work of consciousness which escapes it and
turns against it, is little by little degraded into mechanism in which
the soul is buried.

III.

The main lines and general perspective of Mr Bergson's philosophy now
perhaps begin to appear. Certainly I am the first to feel how powerless
a slender resume really is to translate all its wealth and all its
strength.

At least I wish I could have contributed to making its movement, and
what I may call its rhythm, clearer to perception. It is from the books
of the master himself that a more complete revelation must be sought.
And the few words which I am still going to add as conclusion are only
intended to sketch the principal consequences of the doctrine, and allow
its distant reach to be seen.

The evolution of life would be a very simple and easy thing to
understand if it were fulfilled along one single trajectory and followed
a straight path. "But we are here dealing with a shell which has
immediately burst into fragments, which, being themselves species of
shells, have again burst into fragments destined to burst again, and