ontrary,"
the pure outside air, to make known the state of the atmosphere
inside. The contrast produced sensation--that nauseous, suffocating
impression of foul, mephitic air; suffering[20] generated knowledge of
the vitiated air; as the result of this influence, the "centre of
consciousness" felt itself an "I" distinct from its surroundings, and
its "self-consciousness" received a slight increase.

What might be called passional sensibility--desire, emotion,
impulse--is, like physical sensation, another indispensable factor in
evolution; it is the special element in the development of the animal
kingdom as well as of the less evolved portion of the human kingdom.

The young souls of mankind must receive the comparatively simple lessons
of sensation, desire, and passion, before beginning the far more
complicated study of mentality. But for desire, a host of needs could
not be manifested, numberless functions would remain inactive; the body
would not feed itself, and would die, were it not for hunger; danger
would not be fled from, but for the instinct of self-preservation; nor
without this would there be any propagation of the species. None the
less is this life of sensation the source of many evils; desire and
passion amongst human beings create terrible misery, fill prisons and
hospitals, and are at the root of all kinds of moral suffering. In its
turn, intelligence--that sensation so characteristic of the human
state--is both an indispensable necessity and the most fertile source of
evil, so long as it has not experienced a yearning for that inner
"divinity," deep in the heart of man, which calls to it. A powerful
lever of progress, it might convert this earth into a paradise, whereas
it is the weapon which the strong, in their egoism, use to crush the
feeble, a terrible weapon which either creates or intensifies all the
evils under which the people writhe in despair. Once it becomes the
instrument of a regenerate humanity, that is to say, when men have
become compassionate, loving, and devoted, then the social question will
cease to exist, and the old instrument of torture will become a pledge
of general happiness.

Even spiritual sensibility is a cause of suffering to some noble souls
who have developed it, for however deep the joy of loving and giving
oneself, intense too is the pain of witnessing the cruel drama of
life, that fratricidal struggle in which passion strikes without
mercy, whilst illusion and igno