III.]

INDIVIDUAL PERSONALITY

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external conditions; to some extent we shape them, and the more will-power or "character' we have, the more self-sufficing we are, and the more we create our own conditions.

This word "character demands serious attention. We shall find on reflection that it is the chief expression of human individuality. Superficial acquaintanceship is, perforce, obliged to distinguish one man from another by differences in physiognomy and general appearance, tricks of manner, voice, gesture, etc. A very little more familiarity, however, stopping far short of intimacy, is needed in order to shift our sense of recognition away from traits of person to traits of mind and disposition; and real intimacy, whether it engender love or hatred, makes us increasingly feel that it is the traits of disposition, the character, which above all distinguish to us this particular man from his fellows. Physical peculiarities and intellectual attainments seem by comparison accidents; it is the character which is for us the man. And it is needless to observe that no two characters are identical. A man may be of the same age, social standing, culture, in

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THE SOURCE OF BEING

[CHAP.

tellectual attainment, physical strength as another; he may have had the same education, social environment, opportunities; he may belong to the same family; he may follow the same profession; and yet the character of each is clear-cut and distinguishable, and the work of each bears in consequence its own peculiar impress which differentiates it from that of the other.

The stamp of character upon work is a familiar but a very remarkable fact. Other things being equal, the more of it there is, the better we recognise the work to be; and the hall-mark of a work of genius is not excellence merely, but the supremely unique, or as we say "original," impress which distinguishes it. It is an. individual product.

Now this as we have seen is a characteristic of the Cosmos; it, too, is an individual product, unique, original. If Science can do no more than state the fact in her own language and manner, as she does by insisting on the uniformity of Nature and the irrevocableness of natural law, it is open to Philosophy to go a step further, and to draw the simple but supremely significant inference, that what bears the impress of individuality

III.]

INFINITELY INDIVIDUAL

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is indeed of individual origin, that the Ground and Source of the universe is not only Infinitely Personal, but Infinitely Individual. Here then we perceive the true place of individuality in the cosmic scale of Values. It reaches to the foundation of things. It enters into the ground of being. Its universal presence and its extraordinary enhancement when united with self-conscious mind receive thus their interpretation; and our enquiry into its significance as regards man receives this first answer: that if the Infinite Life from which all finite life is derived be Personal and Individual, infinitely Personal and infinitely Individual, then man, the most personal and the most individual of known beings, is marked out as in close and special touch with the Ground and Source of all existence. We have to examine the bearing of this fact on our immediate subject, Individual Immortality.

And first perhaps it will be wise to dwell a little more at length on that which gives to finite individuality all its worth and meaning, viz., the Infinite Individuality. In fixing our thoughts on the latter we must dissociate from it all idea of limitation. Even in the

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FINITE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

[CHAP. case of our fellow-men we feel that their individuality is an assertive thing. It has force and power, it declares to us what they are; it makes us know them. The loss of individuality, either in ourselves or in others, means the loss of all which makes recognition possible. And though in us and in them alike it involves limitation, that is only because of our finitude. It is not as individuals but as finite individuals that we are limited, even as it is not as knowers or as lovers but as finite knowers and lovers that our knowledge and love have bounds. Infinite Individuality is not limited, but is possessed of all the resources of Infinitude whereby to assert and make itself known. It is, if we may venture to try and express what is by the nature of the case beyond expression, that whereby Infinite Personality is revealed, even as finite individuality is that by which finite personality is revealed. The two, so far as we know, are inseparable. Our own experience teaches us that they are inseparable in ourselves. Reflection upon the universe of being, as Science shows it to us, teaches us that they are inseparable in the Source and Ground of that universe,

III.]

IS IN TOUCH WITH

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known to us in the language of religion as God.

What we have to claim for individuality then is, that it enters into the meaning of the universe, that it is in fact part of that meaning, and as such eternal, indestructible, even as God, for and to Whom it exists, is eternal and indestructible. For when we speak of the meaning of the Universe, we. intend not what man from his limited point of view can see of its meaning, but its true and real significance, apprehended with clear and all-including vision. No finite understanding is capable of such a grasp. Infinite meaning is for the Infinite alone. Yet when in a finite being self-consciousness attains such development as in man, there arises a capability of appreciating some part of the Infinite meaning, the part which concerns and is involved in that special type of beinghuman being. This capability increases with the growth of intellect and spiritual insight, the former slowly delineating and interpreting the body, and the latter, with the aid of the former, the soul of human knowledge and experience. Thus hesitatingly, but with continually increasing approximation to truth,