In this connection it is interesting to note the function of the ideal in the evolution and expansion of consciousness. The ideal has no perceptual value; it has no status in the world of the senses. It is unapproachable either in thought or action, and therefore, lies beyond the grasp of both the intellectuality and the vitality. It is indescribable, inconceptible and searchless; for the moment that we describe, define, or approach the ideal, either intellectually or vitally, in that moment it ceases to be ideal, but actual. It flees from even the slightest approach; it never remains the same; it cannot be attained, at least its attainment causes it to lose its idealty. It is then no longer the ideal. It is like an _ignis fatuus_; the closer we come to it the farther away it recedes. It hangs suspended before the mind like the luscious grapes which hung before the mouth of the hungry Tantalus. As the grapes and the water receded from his reach at every effort he made to seize them so the ideal remains eternally unseizable and unattainable. Whatever, therefore, is in our thought processes, or in our knowledge, that may be said to be _ideal_, does not really exist. The ideal is a phantom growing out of the nature and essence of the intellectuality. Its purpose is to lead merely the mind on; to allure it, to tantalize, and compel it to grow by exertion, by the struggle to attain, by the desire to overcome. In this respect, it serves well its function in the economy of intellectual evolution. It is a mysterious aspect of the original and eternal desire to live which is the kosmic _urge_ present in all organized being and has its roots hidden in the divine purpose of creation. Idealized constructions, then, are like Arabian feasts conjured up by a famishing mentality. They are like the dreams of a starving man in which he actualizes in phantom-stuff the choicest viands in abundant supply for his imaginary delectation. The mind that is satisfied never idealizes, never makes an idealized construction. It is only when an "aching void" is felt, when a longing for the realization of that which it has not arises within itself, when a feeling of distinct lack, a want, a hankering after something not in its reach, takes possession of the mind that it begins to idealize. That is why some minds are without ideals. It is because they are satisfied with what they have and can understand. They feel no hungering for better and grander things; they have no desire to understand the unknown and the mysterious; hence they do not idealize; they make no attempt to represent unto themselves a picture of that which is beyond them. Such minds are dormant, hibernant, asleep, unfeeling and unresponsive to the divine urge.