In the War, Bergson saw the conflict of Mind and Matter, or rather of Life and Mechanism; and thus he shows us in action the central idea of his own philosophy.  To no other philosopher has it fallen, during his lifetime, to have his philosophical principles so vividly and so terribly tested.  We are too close to the smoking crucible of war to be aware of all that has been involved in it.  Even those who have helped in the making of history are too near to it to regard it historically, much less philosophically.  Yet one cannot help feeling that the defeat of German militarism has been the proof in action of the validity of much of Bergson’s thought.

As many of Bergson’s contributions to French periodicals are not readily accessible, he agreed to the request of his friends that these should be collected and published in two volumes.  The first of these was being planned when war broke out.  The conclusion of strife has been marked by the appearance of this delayed volume in 1919.  It bears the title L’Energie spirituelle:  Essais et Conferences.  The noted expounder of Bergson’s philosophy in England, Dr. Wildon Carr, has prepared an English Translation under the title Mind-Energy.  The volume opens with the Huxley Memorial Lecture of 1911, Life and Consciousness, in a revised and developed form under the title Consciousness and Life.  Signs of Bergson’s growing interest in social ethics and in the idea of a future life of personal survival are manifested.  The lecture before the Society for Psychical Research is included, as is also the one given in France, L’Ame et le Corps, which contains the substance of the four London lectures on the Soul.  The seventh and last article is a reprint of Bergson’s famous lecture to the Congress of Philosophy at Geneva in 1904, Le paralogisme psycho-physiologique, which now appears as Le Cerveau et la Pensee:  une illusion philosophique.  Other articles are on the False Recognition, on Dreams, and Intellectual Effort.  The volume is a most welcome production and serves to bring together what Bergson has written on the concept of mental force, and on his view of “tension” and “detension” as applied to the relation of matter and mind.

It is Bergson’s intention to follow up this collection shortly by another on the Method of Philosophy, dealing with the problems of Intuition.  For this he is preparing an important introduction, dealing with recent developments in philosophy.  This second volume will include the Lectures on The Perception of Change given at Oxford, The Introduction to Metaphysics, and the brilliant paper Philosophical Intuition.  In June, 1920, Cambridge honoured him with the degree of Doctor of Letters.  In order that he may be able to devote his full time to the great new work he is preparing on ethics, religion, and sociology, Bergson has been relieved of the duties attached to the Chair of Modern Philosophy at the College de France.  He still holds this chair, but no longer delivers lectures, his place being taken by his brilliant pupil Edouard Le Roy.  Living with his wife and daughter in a modest house in a quiet street near the Porte d’Auteuil in Paris, Bergson is now working as keenly and vigorously as ever.