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106 <strong>The</strong> Human CycleTo some this godhead is Life itself or a secret Will in life; theyclaim that this must rule and that the intelligence is only usefulin so far as it serves that and that Life must not be repressed,minimised and mechanised by the arbitrary control of reason.Life has greater powers in it which must be given a freer play;for it is they alone that evolve and create. On the other hand, itis felt that reason is too analytical, too arbitrary, that it falsifieslife by its distinctions and set classifications and the fixed rulesbased upon them and that there is some profounder and largerpower of knowledge, intuition or another, which is more deeplyin the secrets of existence. This larger intimate power is moreone with the depths and sources of existence and more able togive us the indivisible truths of life, its root realities and to workthem out, not in an artificial and mechanical spirit but with adivination of the secret Will in existence and in a free harmonywith its large, subtle and infinite methods. In fact, what thegrowing subjectivism of the human mind is beginning obscurelyto see is that the one sovereign godhead is the soul itself whichmay use reason for one of its ministers, but cannot subject itselfto its own intellectuality without limiting its potentialities andartificialising its conduct of existence.<strong>The</strong> highest power of reason, because its pure and characteristicpower, is the disinterested seeking after true knowledge.When knowledge is pursued for its own sake, then alone are welikely to arrive at true knowledge. Afterwards we may utilise thatknowledge for various ends; but if from the beginning we haveonly particular ends in view, then we limit our intellectual gain,limit our view of things, distort the truth because we cast it intothe mould of some particular idea or utility and ignore or denyall that conflicts with that utility or that set idea. By so doingwe may indeed make the reason act with great immediate powerwithin the limits of the idea or the utility we have in view, justas instinct in the animal acts with great power within certainlimits, for a certain end, yet finds itself helpless outside thoselimits. It is so indeed that the ordinary man uses his reason —as the animal uses his hereditary, transmitted instinct — with anabsorbed devotion of it to the securing of some particular utility

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