Page:Occult Japan - Lovell.djvu/320

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298
OCCULT JAPAN.

quantitative one. Self would appear to be a something capable of more or less; inasmuch as a man who is not much himself at most finds it more facile to become some one else on occasion; an instance of the general principle that it is easier to introduce a substance into a comparative void than into space already occupied; and this in fact is what I conceive happens; not materially, but kinematically. For though we do not here introduce matter, we do, as I shall hope to show, introduce motion.

IV.

To do this we must again have recourse to ourselves, and diagnose, if we may, our own spirit.

Now on looking into ourselves to see what ourselves may be, of what are we made aware? For my part I am conscious of a kaleidoscopic series of thoughts. These successive dissolving views of mine seem to me to have about as much inter-connection as kaleidoscopic combinations generally, and I seem to have about as much influence over their appearance as I should have over those of that delightful but unpredicable instru-