society, and the sequence of events
which so often issues in tragedy and
from which history derives its im-
mense interest and meaning. A
world which stopped short of reali-
sation in action would not only lose
the fathomless dramatic interest
which inheres in human life, but it
would part with all those moral im-
plications of the integrity and per-
sistence of the individual soul, its
moral quality and its moral respon-
sibility, which make man something
different from the dust which whirls
about him on the highway, or the
stone over which he stumbles.
This is precisely the character of
those speculative systems which
deny the reality of action and sub-
stitute the idea for the deed; such a
world does more than suffocate the
individual soul; it destroys the very

[[245]]

p244 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p245w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p246

v?