Not without reason does the philosopher tell us that the supreme secret of life begins to be revealed in the plant which surrenders its own life for its seed. But if we ignore the far plainer voice of man, how can we hear what has been whispered by the plant? If we are made mechanical by slavery to our own tools how can we discern either? And unless we listen with the ears of our intuitive soul we shall never hear what it is that they are saying. Unless we immerse ourselves in the current of the spirit, unless we confide ourselves to the life that would bear us on, we shall miss the fulfilment of our promise. The whole long weary road of life has been travelled on our behalf in vain, unless through the adventure of self-giving we become unceasing spiritual creators of greater selves than those we are now. ------- CHAPTER X If thou hast union now, thou shalt have it hereafter. _Kabir._ Without social life no one of the peculiarly human powers of a man comes to fruition. He may chatter, for example; he cannot speak. He has all the necessary organs and all the necessary power, but man-language is part of an inheritance stored up for him in community life. It is stored up there, just as clinging with his hands and sucking with his lips are stored up ready for him at birth, in his body. Society is for him an immense extension of his body, and therefore a further means of extension for his spirit. It is also an immense extension of the bodies and spirits of other men with whom he may enter upon relations. You may look on it as supplying a brain common to all men which all may use together, and in which their activities should find not only a recording medium but an unfailing stimulus and contributory aid. But the social brain is in a peculiar sense men's own making, as free and capable creators. They have come to be owners of life and directors of its course in a degree they certainly had not attained when their bodily brains were slowly growing to be what they are. This brain of theirs, used in community, is as truly built by their own efforts as are the houses in which they live. The evolution of man has to all intents of spirit ceased to advance by changes in his body, but it goes on by incessant change and enormous amplification in his community life.