awn upon."--_Human Motives_. p.
87.]

=Higher Levels.= Freud has called this spiritualization of natural
forces by a term borrowed from chemistry. As a solid is "sublimated"
when transformed into a gas, so a primal impulse is said to be
"sublimated" when it is diverted from its original object and made to
serve other ends. By this power of sublimation the little
exhibitionist, who loved to show himself, may become an actor; the
"cruel" boy who loved to dissect animals may become a surgeon; the
sexually curious child may turn his curiosity to other things and
become a scholar; the "born mother," if denied children of her own or
having finished with their upbringing, may take to herself the
children of the city, working for better laws and better care for
needy little ones; the man or woman whose sex-instinct is too strong
to find expression in legitimate, direct ways, may find it a valuable
resource, an increment of energy for creative work, along whatever
line his talent may lie.

There is no more marvelous provision in all life than this power of
sublimation of one form of energy into another, a provision shadowing
forth almost limitless possibilities for higher adaptations and for
growth in character. As we think of the distance we have already
traveled and the endless possibilities of ever higher excursions of
the life-force, we feel like echoing Paul's words: "He who began a
good work in you will perfect it unto the end." The history of the
past holds great promise for the future.

=When Sublimation Fails.= But in the meantime we cannot congratulate
ourselves too heartily. Sublimation too often fails. There are too
many nervous wrecks by the way, too many weak indulgers of original
desires, too many repressed, starved lives with no outlet for their
misunderstood yearnings; and, as we shall see, too many people who, in
spite of a big lifework, fail to find satisfaction because of
unnecessary handicaps carried over from their childhood days.
"Society's great task is, therefore, the understanding of the
life-force, its manifold efforts at expression and the way of
attaining this, and to provide as free and expansive ways as possible
for the creative energy which is to work marvelous things for the
future."

If "the understanding of the life force" is to be available for use,
it must be the property of the average man and woman, the fathers and
mothers of our children, the teachers and physicians who act as thei