Towards democracy

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516 Towards Democracy

To this question I must also frankly own that I can give noanswer. I do not know. That the word is not used in the” dramatic sense is all I can say. The “I” is myself—as well = as I could find words to express myself: but what that Self is, and what its limits may be ; and therefore what the self of any other person is and what 7/s limits may be—I cannot tell. I have sometimes thought that perhaps the best work one’ could do—if one felt at any time enlargements and extensions of one’s ego—was to simply record these, as faithfully as might © be; leaving others, the science-man and the philosopher, to explain—and feeling confident that what really existed in oneself would be found to exist either consciously or in a latent form in other people. And I will say that I have in these records above all endeavored to be genuine. If I have said “I, Nature” it was because at the time, at any rate, I felt “I, Nature”; if I have said “I am equal with the lowest,” it was because I could not express what I felt more directly than by those words. The value of such statements can only appear by time; if they are corroborated by others then they help to form a body of record which may well be worth investigation, analysis and explanation. If they are not so corroborated, then they naturally and properly fall away as mere vagaries of self-deception. I have not the’ least doubt that anything which is really genuine will be_ corroborated. ;

It seems to me more and more clear that the word “I” has | a practically infinite range of meaning—that the ego covers far » more ground than we usually suppose. At some points we are ; intensely individual, at others intensely sympathetic ; some of |’ our impressions (as the tickling of a hair) are of the most local and momentary character, others (as the sense of identity) | involve long periods of time. Sometimes we are aware of |