At present the mind-consciousness and the so-called spirit triumphs. In America supremely. In America, nobody does anything from the blood. Always from the nerves, if not from the mind. The blood is chemically reduced by the nerves, in American activity. When an Italian labourer labours, his mind and nerves sleep, his blood acts ponderously. Americans, when they are _doing_ things, never seem really to be doing them. They are "busy about" it. They are always busy "about" something. But truly _immersed_ in _doing_ something, with the deep blood-consciousness active, that they never are. They _admire_ the blood-conscious spontaneity. And they want to get it in their heads. "Live from the body," they shriek. It is their last mental shriek. _Co-ordinate._ It is a further attempt still to rationalize the body and blood. "Think about such and such a muscle," they say, "and relax there." And every time you "conquer" the body with the mind (you can say "heal" it, if you like) you cause a deeper, more dangerous complex or tension somewhere else. Ghastly Americans, with their blood no longer blood. A yellow spiritual fluid. The Fall. There have been lots of Falls. We fell into _knowledge_ when Eve bit the apple. Self-conscious knowledge. For the first time the mind put up a fight against the blood. Wanting to UNDERSTAND. That is to intellectualize the blood. The blood must be _shed_, says Jesus. Shed on the cross of our own divided psyche. Shed the blood, and you become mind-conscious. Eat the body and drink the blood, self-cannibalizing, and you become extremely conscious, like Americans and some Hindus. Devour yourself, and God knows what a lot you'll know, what a lot you'll be conscious of. Mind you don't choke yourself. For a long time men believed that they could be perfected through the mind, through the spirit. They believed, passionately. They had their ecstasy in pure consciousness. They _believed_ in purity, chastity, and the wings of the spirit. America soon plucked the bird of the spirit. America soon killed the _belief_ in the spirit. But not the practice. The practice continued with a sarcastic vehemence. America, with a perfect inner contempt for the spirit and the consciousness of man, practises the same spirituality and universal love and KNOWING all the time, incessantly, like a drug habit. And inwardly gives not a fig for it. Only for the sensation. The pretty-pretty _sensation_ of love, loving all the world. And the nice fluttering aeroplane _sensation_ of knowing, knowing, knowing. Then the prettiest of all sensations, the sensation of UNDERSTANDING. Oh, what a lot they understand, the darlings! _So_ good at the trick, they are. Just a trick of self-conceit. _The Scarlet Letter_ gives the show away. You have your pure-pure young parson Dimmesdale. You have the beautiful Puritan Hester at his feet. And the first thing she does is to seduce him. And the first thing he does is to be seduced.