not aware of any mental process which goes
on, but sooner or later she finds that the theme is ripe for treatment;
she knows what she thinks about it, and the work of stating it can
profitably begin. Poets, preachers, and musicians can bear testimony
of a somewhat similar kind. The thoughts which are most valuable are
those which come unbidden, rising to the surface of consciousness from
unknown depths. The best scientific discoveries are made in much the
same way; the investigator has an intuition and forthwith sets to work
to justify it. Reason, by which we ordinarily mean the conscious
exercise of the mental faculties, plods along as if on four feet;
intuition soars on wings. Truly astonishing things are frequently done
by the subconscious mind superseding and controlling the conscious mind
in exceptional states of emotion, especially in the case of people who
are not quite normal; but there is no one, however stolid and
commonplace, who does not owe far more to his subliminal consciousness
than he does to what he calls his reason; indeed reason has
comparatively little to do with the way in which people ordinarily
conduct themselves, although we may like to think otherwise.

Now what is this subconscious mind whose importance is so great and of
whose nature we know so little? That is a question upon which
psychology has not yet pronounced, but there are not a few who regard
it as the real personality. Evidently it is not only deeper but larger
than the surface mind which we call reason. Our discovery of its
existence has taught us that our ordinary consciousness is but a tiny
corner of our personality. It has been well described as an
illuminated disc on a vast ocean of being; it is like an island in the
Pacific which is really the summit of a mountain whose base is miles
below the surface. Summit and base are one, and yet no one realises
when standing on the little island that he is perched at the very top
of a mountain peak. So it is with our everyday consciousness of
ourselves; we find it rather difficult to realise that this
consciousness is not all there is of us. And yet, when we come to
examine into the facts, the conclusion seems irresistible, that of our
truer, deeper being we are quite unconscious.

+The higher self.+--Several important inferences follow from this
position. The first is that our surface consciousness is somewhat
illusory and does not possess the sharpness and definiteness of