ed. Moments of crisis drive a man deeper than
will and thought and even feeling, and make him conscious of himself as
a psychic unity, permanent and of infinite value. Personality normally
remains in the recesses of the subconscious. It is the hidden basis of
life. It is active, though its activities are for the most part
underground. It does not, however, lie altogether outside the ken of
consciousness. It may be experienced; it is experienced when great
emotion rends the surface fabric of the man and discloses the true self.

HUMAN PERSONALITY AND HUMAN NATURE

What is human personality? It is a psychic entity whose most important
function is to unify the parts of a man's nature. It is the principle
of unity and the instrument of unity. A man's thought, will and
feeling are distinct and real entities. His intelligence takes various
forms from perception to abstract thought; it may be directed to
outward things, to thoughts of things, or to pure idea. He wills many
things, and wills them in different modes and with varying degrees of
intensity. A wide range of feeling is found in him, from physical to
mental, from organic to ideal feeling. His nature is tripartite. Each
part admits of variation in itself and in its interaction with the
other parts. Each of the three expresses the man at the moment. No
one of the three gives the whole account of his being. Nor do the
three taken together. Though his nature is tripartite the man himself
cannot be resolved into component parts. He has his faculties and
states, but he is more than their sum. He may lose himself in thought
or activity, or abandon himself to feeling, but when he is fulfilling
his true function, when he is most himself, all parts of his nature are
concentrated to a point. Partial activity of thought, will, or feeling
is then replaced by activity of the personality. Personality is the
synthetic unity of all parts of a man's nature. It has the wonderful
power of compressing to a point a medley of psychic elements. Moods
and memories, perceptions and ideas, wishes and purposes, it tensions
them all up, merges them and expresses them in characteristic acts
representative of the man.

Personality differs from nature also in respect of relation to
environment. It is relatively independent of circumstances. Habit and
education mould the nature, but if they touch the person they do so
only indirectly. The nature must be deeply affecte