to changing conditions in its intellectual or material environment, is contemptuously dubbed as “changeable” by the moralists of rigidity.  We must, however, learn that consistency of character does not mean lack of change.  Stanchness of character is too often mere obstinate resistance to change.  We must therefore be on our guard against those who would run ethics into rigid moulds, and so raise up static concepts and infallible dogmas for beliefs or action.  Change must be accepted as a principle which it is both futile and immoral to ignore, even in the moral life.  This does not mean setting up caprice or impulsiveness, for in so far as our change of character expresses the development of the single movement of our own inner life it will be quite other than capricious, but it will be change, and a change which is quite consistent, a creative evolution of our personality.

No merely materialistic ethic can breathe in the atmosphere of Bergson’s thought, which sets human consciousness in a high place and insists upon the fact of Freedom.  He maintains a point of view far removed from the old naturalistic ethic; he does take some account of “values,” freedom, creativeness, and joy (as distinct from pleasure).  He points out that Matter, although to a degree the tool of Spirit, is nevertheless the enemy who threatens us with a lapse into mere automatism which is only the parody of true life.  The eternal conflict of Matter and Spirit in Evolution demands that we place ourselves on the side of spiritual rather than merely material values.  We must not be like “the man with the muck rake.”  Our conceptions of goodness must be not merely static but dynamic, for the moral life is essentially an evolution—­“a growth in grace.”  It means a constant “putting on of the new man,” never “counting oneself to have attained,” for spirituality is a progress to ever new creations, the spiritual life is an unending adventure, and is, moreover, one which is hampered and crushed by all refusals to recognize that Change is the fundamental feature of the universe.  Nothing can be more mischievous, more detrimental to moral progress—­which is ultimately the only progress of value and significance to humanity—­than the deification of the status quo either in the individual or in society as a whole.

CHAPTER XI

RELATION TO RELIGION AND THEOLOGY

Avoidance of theological terms—­Intuition and faith—­God and Change—­ Deity not omnipotent but creative and immanent—­God as “Creator of creators”—­Problem of teleology—­Stimulus to theology—­The need for restatements of the nature of God—­Men as products and instruments of divine activity—­Immortality.