perhaps begin to appear. Certainly I am the first to feel how powerless a
slender resume really is to translate all its wealth and all its strength.

At least I wish I could have contributed to making its movement, and what I
may call its rhythm, clearer to perception. It is from the books of the
master himself that a more complete revelation must be sought. And the few
words which I am still going to add as conclusion are only intended to
sketch the principal consequences of the doctrine, and allow its distant
reach to be seen.

The evolution of life would be a very simple and easy thing to understand
if it were fulfilled along one single trajectory and followed a straight
path. "But we are here dealing with a shell which has immediately burst
into fragments, which, being themselves species of shells, have again burst
into fragments destined to burst again, and so on for a very long time."
("Creative Evolution", page 107.) It is, in fact, the property of a
tendency to develop itself in the expansion which analyses it. As for the
causes of this dispersion into kingdoms, then into species, and finally
into individuals, we can distinguish two series: the resistance which
matter opposes to the current of life sent through it, and the explosive
force--due to an unstable equilibrium of tendencies--carried by the vital
impulse within itself. Both unite in making the thrust of life divide in
more and more diverging but complementary directions, each emphasising some
distinct aspect of its original wealth. Mr Bergson confines himself to the
branches of the first order--plant, animal, and man. And in the course of
a minute and searching discussion he shows us the characteristics of these
lines in the moods or qualities signified by the three words--torpor,
instinct, and intelligence: the vegetable kingdom constructing and storing
explosives which the animal expends, and man creating a nervous system for
himself which permits him to convert the expense into analysis. Let us