CHAPTER XII--FLUX AND CONSTANCY IN HUMAN NATURE Pages 269-291
Respectable tradition that human nature is fixed.--Contrary
currents of opinion.--Pantheism.--Instability in existences does
not dethrone their ideals.--Absolutist philosophy human and
halting.--All science a deliverance of momentary thought.--All
criticism likewise.--Origins inessential.--Ideals functional.--They
are transferable to similar beings.--Authority internal.--Reason
autonomous.--Its distribution.--Natural selection of minds.--Living
stability.--Continuity necessary to progress.--Limits of variation.
Spirit a heritage.--Perfectibility.--Nature and human
nature.--Human nature formulated.--Its concrete description
reserved for the sequel




Introduction to "The Life of Reason"


[Sidenote: Progress is relative to an ideal which reflection creates.]

Whatever forces may govern human life, if they are to be recognised by
man, must betray themselves in human experience. Progress in science or
religion, no less than in morals and art, is a dramatic episode in man's
career, a welcome variation in his habit and state of mind; although
this variation may often regard or propitiate things external,
adjustment to which may be important for his welfare. The importance of
these external things, as well as their existence, he can establish only
by the function and utility which a recognition of them may have in his
life. The entire history of progress is a moral drama, a tale man might