in vital centrality.
I am I, the vital center of all things. I am I, the clew to the whole.
All is one with me. It is the one identity.

But at the lumbar ganglion, which is the center of separate identity,
the knowledge is of a different mode, though the term is the same. At
the lumbar ganglion I know that I am I, in distinction from a whole
universe, which is not as I am. This is the first tremendous flash of
knowledge of singleness and separate identity. I am I, not because I
am at one with all the universe, but because I am other than all the
universe. It is my distinction from all the rest of things which makes
me myself. Because I am set utterly apart and distinguished from all
that is the rest of the universe, therefore _I am I._ And this root of
our knowledge in separateness lies rooted all the time in the lumbar
ganglion. It is the second term of our dynamic psychic existence.

It is from the great sympathetic center of the solar plexus that the
child rejoices in the mother and in its own blissful centrality, its
unison with the as yet unknown universe. Look at the pictures of
Madonna and Child, and you will even _see_ it. It is from this center
that it draws all things unto itself, winningly, drawing love for the
soul, and actively drawing in milk. The same center controls the great
intake of love and of milk, of psychic and of physical nourishment.

And it is from the great voluntary center of the lumbar ganglion that
the child asserts its distinction from the mother, the single identity
of its own existence, and its power over its surroundings. From this
center issues the violent little pride and lustiness which kicks with
glee, or crows with tiny exultance in its own being, or which claws
the breast with a savage little rapacity, and an incipient
masterfulness of which every mother is aware. This incipient mastery,
this sheer joy of a young thing in its own single existence, the
marvelous playfulness of early youth, and the roguish mockery of the
mother's love, as well as the bursts of temper and rage, all belong to
infancy. And all this flashes spontaneously, _must_ flash
spontaneously from the first great center of independence, the
powerful lumbar ganglion, great dynamic center of all the voluntary
system, of all the spirit of pride and joy in independent existence.
And it is from this center too that the milk is urged away down the
infant bowels, urged away towards excretion. The motion is the same,