In which of these ways shall we "realize" ourselves?
[Footnote: Cf. William James, Psychology, vol. I, p. 309: "I am often
confronted by the necessity of standing by one of my empirical selves
and relinquishing the rest. Not that I would not, if I could, be both
handsome and fat and well dressed, and a great athlete, and make a
million a year, be a wit, a bon-vivant, and a lady-killer, as well
as a philosopher; a philanthropist, statesman, warrior, and African
explorer, as well as a 'tone-poet' and saint. But the thing is simply
impossible. The millionaire's work would run counter to the saint's;
the bon vivant and the philanthropist would trip each other up; the
philosopher and the lady-killer could not well keep house in the same
tenement of clay. Such different characters may conceivably at the
outset of life be alike possible to a man. But to make any one of them
actual, the rest must more or less be suppressed."] It is evident that
we need some deeper ground of choice. May it not even be better
drastically to choke our natures, better to get a new nature than to
realize the old? Surely there are perverted natures, which ought not
to be developed. In the name of happiness we can decide on
development or non-development, as the need may be. But the
ideal of "self development" gives us no criterion. It is too sweeping,
too indiscriminate.
(2) Again, we may ask WHY we should develop ourselves.
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