Page:TheNewEuropeV2.djvu/423

 he recognises two other sources of activity—the mind and the spirit. He acknowledges that mind, and in a higher degree spirit, checks, dominates, and informs the life of instinct.

This psychology of Mr. Russell’s is a difficult chapter of his book, and a rather obscure part of his “Principles”; it is obscure in itself, and it is further obscured by his confounding psychological with ethical valuations. The hierarchy of instinct-mind-spint is ethical rather than psychological, and the psychological relation of the various psychic forces is left unexplained. For instance, what is meant psychologically if the desires and impulses are “derived” from the instinct of self-preservation and reproduction? And what is the psychological relation of impulse and thought (mind)? We are told that a subconscious selectiveness of attention “persuades” most (not all!) men that agreeable consequences will follow from the indulgence of their impulses. We are told that whole philosophies, whole systems of ethics, spring up in this way, being the embodiment of a “kind of thought” which is “subservient” to impulse, and “aims” at providing a “quasi-rational” ground for the indulgence of impulse. We read, further, that “most of what passes for thought” is inspired by some “non-intellectual” impulse. The whole of this terminology is very vague, and directly anthropomorphic; there is no analysis of the real nature of thinking and of mental activity in general. The value of thought or knowledge, according to this definition (p. 15), is rather small; but there are passages in the “Principles” where we read that the power of thought “in the long run” is greater than any other human power (p. 226); of course, the qualification “in the long run” refers rather to history than to psychology. We also learn that thoughts, in relation to instinct, are “merely critical” (p. 209), and reason is declared to be too negative, too little alive to make a good life! Therefore the spirit is necessary to dominate the instincts. But the life of the spirit, we are told, “centres round impersonal feeling” (whereas the life of the mind centres round impersonal thought). How, then, can the spirit become this commanding and creative force which Mr. Russell would like to see in it? We must ask this question all the more in that we also read that only passion can control passion, that only a contrary impulse or desire can check impulse (p. 12). If we read in addition of “passive” and “active” thoughts (p. 242), of “genuine” thoughts springing out of “intellectual impulses”