The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James, Ed. with an Intr. by W. James (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII. A CONSCIENCE OF SIN. I AM sincerely sorry that my habit is so inveterate to wander from the point I am discussing. I think, however, that I am not entirely without excuse just now, inasmuch as my very subject by its fundamental breadth, or depth and comprehensiveness, invites and even necessitates more or less indulgence of the habit. At the opening of my last chapter I asseverated, for the hundredth time I doubt not, that nature is a middle term between man and God, or finite and infinite, addressed to making us conscious of all the evil embraced in the lower nature, and all the good embraced in the higher. I say distinctly, all the evil embraced in the lower nature, and all the good embraced in the higher nature. For in himself, or personally, man is just as little evil as God is. And God in himself, or personally, is just as little good as man is. For spiritually, or really, both God and man are alike destitute of selfhood or personality, God having absolutely no subjective existence but in man his creature, simply because man has absolutely no objective being but in God his creator. They find their life, in other words, not at all in themselves, but wholly in their spiritual relation to each other; this relation being infinitely good in the one case, because it is purely creative or cosmical; and indefinitely evil in the other, because it is simply and obdurately personal or selfish, leading to internecine discord, strife, and violence. Remember, then, as stoutly as you please, that the only evil under the sun is undefined or universal evil. That is to say, it pertains to no person and no thing in particular, but only to the nature or essential quality of persons and things, because persons and things alone have the presumption to be the...