. Either psychological liberty is
an illusive appearance, or, if it is real, we can only grasp it by
intuition, not by analysis, in the light of an immediate feeling. For a
reality is verified, not constructed; and we are now or never in one
of those situations where the philosopher's task is to create some new
concept, instead of abiding by a combination of previous elements.

Man is free, says common-sense, in so far as his action depends only on
himself. "We are free," says Mr Bergson, ("Essay on the Immediate Data
of Consciousness", page 131.) "when our acts proceed from our entire
personality, when they express it, when they exhibit that indefinable
resemblance to it which we find occasionally between the artist and his
work." That is all we need seek; two conceptions which are equivalent
to each other, two concordant formulae. It is true that this amounts to
determining the free act by its very originality, in the etymological
sense of the word: which is at bottom only another way of declaring it
incommensurable with every concept, and reluctant to be confined by any
definition. But, after all, is not that the only true immediate fact?

That our spiritual life is genuine action, capable of independence,
initiative, and irreducible novelty, not mere result produced from
outside, not simple extension of external mechanism, that it is so much
ours as to constitute every moment, for him who can see, an essentially
incomparable and new invention, is exactly what represents for us the
name of liberty. Understood thus, and decidedly it is like this that
we must understand it, liberty is a profound thing: we seek it only in
those moments of high and solemn choice which come into our life, not
in the petty familiar actions which their very insignificance submits to
all surrounding influences, to every wandering breeze. Liberty is rare;
many live and die and have never known it. Liberty is a thing which
contains an infinite number of degrees and shades; it is measured by
our capacity for the inner life. Liberty is a thing which goes on in us
unceasingly: our liberty is potential rather than actual. And lastly, it
is a thing of duration, not of space and number, not the work of moments
or decrees. The free act is the act which has been long in preparing,
the act which is heavy with our whole history, and falls like a ripe
fruit from our past life.

But how are we to establish positive verification of these views? How
are w