ne is more wonderful than the birth of
wonder, none more curious than the nascence of curiosity itself,
nothing to compare with the dawning of consciousness in the
ancient dark and the gradual extension of psychic life and
illumination throughout a cosmos that before had only _been_. An
eternity of blindly acting, transforming, unconscious existence,
assuming at length, through the birth of sense and intellect,
without loss or break of continuity, the abiding form of fleeting
time." (C. J. Keyser, loc. cit.)

It must be emphasized that the development of higher ideals is due to the
_natural_ capacity of humanity; the impulse is simply time-binding
impulse. As we have seen, by analysing the functions of the different
classes of life, every class of life has an impulse to exercise its
peculiar capacity or function. Nitrogen resists compound combinations and
if found in such combinations it breaks away as quickly as ever it can.
Birds have wings--they fly. Animals have feet--they run. Man has the
capacity of time-binding--he binds time. It does not matter whether we
understand the very "essence" of the phenomenon or not, any more than we
understand the "essence" of electricity or any other "essence." Life shows
that man has time-binding capacity as a natural gift and is naturally
impelled to use it. One of the best examples is procreation. Conception is
a completely incomprehensible phenomenon in its "essence," nevertheless,
having the capacity to procreate we use it without bothering about its
"essence." Indeed neither life nor science bothers about "essences"--they
leave "essences" to metaphysics, which is neither life nor science. It is
sufficient for our purpose that idealization is in fact a natural process
of time-binding human energy. And however imperfect ethics has been owing
to the prevalence of animal standards, such merits as our ethics has had
witness to the natural presence of "idealization" in time-binding human
life.

"It is thus evident that ideals are not things to gush over or to
sigh and sentimentalize about; they are not what would be left if
that which is hard in reality were taken away; ideals are
themselves the very flint of reality, beautiful no doubt and
precious, without which there would be neither dignity nor hope
nor light; but their aspect is not sentimental and soft; it is
hard, cold, intellectual, logical, austere. Idealizatio