Part 17 (1/2)

[Each undertaking, great or s alternative, and no more To illustrate this from the play of Hamlet: You will notice that, up to a certain point of tioverns his own destiny--at least, as far as the Ghost's commission is concerned, and this covers the whole drama He is master and umpire of his circumstances, so that when two or more lines of action, or a line of action and a line of inaction, appear equally efficacious, he can select the one which appears to be of least resistance But subsequent to that point of tier the arbiter of his own situation, but rather the puppet of circuent roads; if he desires to leave the one he has chosen, he onisms His alternatives have become so lopsided that practically there is only one course open The initial exercise of judgment was not merely an antecedent to later develop, which has coencies; and the tendency of this system bears him away, half-conscious of his own i-point is where Hao

A major-alternative may create and enclose all the secondary alternatives of after life A minor-alternativeits indelible, though ih him, on the world in which he lives The major-alternative is the Shakespearian ”tide in the affairs of h not fors into immediate play a flash of Free-will, pure and siives place-- as far as that particular section of life is concerned--to the dominion of e call Destiny The two should never be confounded ”Who can control his fate?” asks the ruined Othello No one, indeed But every one controls his option, chooses his alternative Othello himself had independently evolved the decision which fixed his fate, recognising it as such an alternative Thus:--

Put out the light, and then--Put out the light?

If I quench thee, thou flaht restore, Should I repent 'st pattern of excelling nature, I know not where is the Proht relurowth again; It needs must wither

Also he perceives that it is a major-alternative which confronts him; and he contrasts this with the supposititiousthe lamp But how often do we accept a ravity!

In Macbeth, the alternatives are very obvious The interest of the play centres on the poise of incentive between action and non-action, and the absolute free-will of election But that election once es--a practical inevitableness in all succeeding atrocities which

Suchof our own ends Whether there's a Divinity that afterwards shapes them, is a question which each inquirer may decide for himself Say, however, that this postulated Divinity consists of the Universal Mind, and that the Universal Mind co with some Moral Centre beyond And that the spontaneous sway of this Influence is toward har of wounds In the axionition of this restorative tendency; and the religious aspect of the same truth is expressed in the proverb that ”God is Love”

For the grass will grohere Attila's horse has trod, while that objectionable Hun himself is represented by a barrow-load of useful fertiliser

But say that this always comes about by law of Cause (which is Human Free-will) and Effect (which is Destiny)--never by sporadic intervention

Yet a certain scar, tracing its origin to an antecedent alternative, will renet of that limitation under which the Divinity works-- the limitation, namely, of Destiny, or the fixed issue of present effect fro been perpetually directed and re-directed by recurring operation of individual Free-will, exercised, independently, by those emanations from the Moral Centre which, by courtesy, we call reasonable beings

Vague? Yes Well, put it in parable for man has reached an absolute poise of incentive He tosses a shekel ”Head--I go and see life; tail--I stay at home Head it is” The alternative is accepted; whereupon Destiny puts in her spoke, bringing such vicissitudes as are inevitable on the initial option In due time, another alternative presents itself, and the poise of incentive recurs The Prodigal spits on a chip, and tosses it ”Wet--I crawl back hooes, to , and the robe, and the fatted calf His latter alternative has taken hiiven hi hione! The old one choice

Or put it in allegorical forent lines of rigid steel; and along one of these lines, with di exhaust, you travel at schedule speed

At each junction, you switch right or left, and on you go still, up or down the way of your own choosing But there is no stopping or turning back; and until you have passed the current section there is no divergence, except by voluntary catastrophe Another junction flashes into sight, and again your choice is h, perhaps, but still with a viehat you consider the greatest good, present or prospective

One line h of Despond, and the other across the Delectable Mountains, but you don't knohether the section will prove rough or smooth, or whether it ends in a junction or a terminus, till the cloven mists of the Future melt into a manifest Present

We knoe are, but we know not e shall be

Often the shunting seems a mere trifle; but, in reality, the switch is that wizard-hich brings into evidence such corollaries of life as felicity or nominy, found on the permanent way For others, remember, as well as for ourselves No one except the anchorite lives to himself; and he is merely a person who evades his responsibilities

Here and there you find a curious complication of lines From a junction in front, there stretches out into thea track converging toward your own, there spins a bright little loco, in holiday tri your adle line to the next junction, or double line to the terminus? A major-alternative, ht so Now you'll soon have a long train of eradients; and while you snort and bark under a heavy draught, your disgusted consort will occasionally sti-kick”; and when this coe thea self-sufficient lord of creation, whose house is thatched when his hat is on, you have become one of a Committee of Ways and Means--a committee of tith power to add to your nuotiated this alternative, and, in the opinion of the barracks, had made his election in a remiss and casual way

And as with the individual, so with the co to the acceptedof the phrase) follow the line of least resistance The myriad-headed monster adopts the alternative which appears to pro than right; and, in such cases, the irresistible hted choice drives It helplessly along a line of the greatest conceivable resistance Is n't history aoption, followed by iron servitude to the irre alternative, the ”least resistance”

theory is gratuitously sound; beyond that, it isback to nificant decision not to disturb the a Mere afterthoughts, introduced here by reason of their bearing on this simple chronicle]

As a matter of fact, I approached Rory's neat, two-roo as to why he had purposely left uess A neatly-dressed child, in a vast, white sun-bonnet, ran toward ht, but presently paused, and returned at the sa woman of thirty-odd, to whom I introduced myself as an old friend of Mr O'Halloran's

”Deed he hes plenty o' frien's,” replied the woht?”

”Well, Mr O'Halloran was kind enough to proffer his hospitality,”