The struggle in man’s nature between the better and the worse elements,—sometimes spoken of as a struggle between dual personalities, and otherwise depicted as a conflict between the flesh and the spirit,—is a natural consequence of our double ancestry (spoken of in Clause XII.), our ascent from animal fellow-creatures, and our relationship with a higher order of being. No man in his sober senses really wills to do evil: he does it with some motive which he tries to think justifies it; or else he does it against his real will because mastered by something lower. So Plato teaches in the _Gorgias_. And St. Paul says the same thing: “The good which I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.” The conflict is often a period of torment and misery. “O, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Whenever the better nature prevails in the struggle, there is a mystic sense of strength and comfort universally testified to by humanity, even though the victory results in temporal loss or persecution; “in all these things we are more than conquerors.” And this fact corresponds with part of the answer to Question 6 below. We can recognise that our evil impulses are the natural remnant of bestial ancestry, and need not be due to diabolical promptings. An animal, though perhaps innocent from lack of knowledge, is bound and enslaved by its instincts; for instance, the apparently intelligent and social bee is driven by racial instincts into a prescribed course of action; a cat can no more refrain from trying to catch a bird than a man of high nature can allow himself to commit a crime. The weak man often allows his brute nature to get the upper hand and enslave his higher self, and he hates himself afterwards for the degradation so caused; but the strong and free man takes control, and dominates his animal nature. “If my body come from brutes, tho’ somewhat finer than their own, I am heir, and this my kingdom. Shall the royal voice be mute? No, but if the rebel subject seek to drag me from the throne, Hold the Sceptre, Human Soul, and rule thy Province of the brute.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ IV DUTY AND SERVICE _Q. 4.  What is the duty of man?_ _A._ To assist his fellows, to develop his own higher self, to strive towards good in every way open to his powers, and generally to seek to know the laws of Nature and to obey the will of God; in whose service alone can be found that harmonious exercise of the faculties which is identical with perfect freedom. * * * * * CLAUSE IV