The essence, then, of repentance and purification of character consists first in the identification, and next in the sublimation of our instinctive powers and tendencies; their detachment from egoistic desires and dedication to new purposes. We should not starve or repress the abounding life within us; but, relieving it of its concentration on the here-and-now, give its attention and its passion a wider circle of interest over which to range, a greater love to which it can consecrate its growing powers. We do not yet know what the limit of such sublimation may be. But we do know that it is the true path of life's advancement, that already we owe to it our purest loves, our loveliest visions, and our noblest deeds. When such feeling, such vision and such act are united and transfigured in God, and find in contact with His living Spirit the veritable sources of their power; then, man will have resolved his inner conflict, developed his true potentialities, and live a harmonious because a spiritual life. We end, therefore, upon this conception of the psyche as the living force within us; a storehouse of ancient memories and animal tendencies, yet plastic, adaptable, ever pressing on and ever craving for more life and more love. Only the life of reality, the life rooted in communion with God, will ever satisfy that hungry spirit, or provide an adequate objective for its persistent onward push. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 62: Ennead IV. 8. 5.] [Footnote 63: De Imit. Christi, Bk. III, Cap. 53.] [Footnote 64: Boehme, "The Way to Christ," Pt. IV.] [Footnote 65: Unamuno has not hesitated to base the whole of religion on the instinct of self-preservation: but this must I think be regarded as an exaggerated view. See "The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and in Peoples," Caps. 3 and 4.] [Footnote 66: Boehme: "Six Theosophic Points," p. 98.] [Footnote 67: "The Cloud of Unknowing," Cap. 36.] [Footnote 68: E. Gardner: "St. Catherine of Siena," p. 20.] [Footnote 69: "Life of St. Teresa," by Herself, Cap. 30.] [Footnote 70: "Liberal and Mystical Writings of William Law" p. 59.] [Footnote 71: Jacopone da Todi, Lauda 90.] [Footnote 72: "Liberal and Mystical Writings of William Law," p. 123.] [Footnote 73: "Amor tu se'quel ama donde lo cor te ama." --Jacopone da Todi: Lauda 81.] [Footnote 74: Cf. Watts: "Echo Personalities," for several illustrations of this law.] [Footnote 75: Livingstone: "Mary Slessor of Calabar," p. 131.] [Footnote 76: "The Cloud of Unknowing," Cap, 40.] [Footnote 77: "And very often did He say unto me, 'Bride and daughter, sweet art thou unto Me, I love thee better than any other who is in the valley of Spoleto.'" ("The Divine Consolations of Blessed Angela of Foligno," p. 160.)] [Footnote 78: "The Spirit," edited by B.H. Streeter, p. 93.] [Footnote 79: Cf. B. Russell: "The Analysis of Mind," Cap. 2.] [Footnote 80: Op. cit., Cap. 6.] [Footnote 81: "Cloud of Unknowing," Cap. 37.]