Chapter 15

Conclusion

728. So we have arrived at the end of the first part of Psychology. Despite the difficulty of our undertaking, we need have no regret, I am sure, about the effort necessary to attain self-knowledge in the light of our joyful, certain conclusion about the unending existence of our soul, our most noble part, through which we live and understand. This truth raises us above those enormous masses which, although they make up the universe, are destined to disintegrate. It shows that an immortal destiny awaits us as we survive the dissolution of matter. At this point, we can ask ourselves why our soul has been made, what is the end of its existence, what good is proportionate to its nature. We are now in a position to reply to these sublime, necessary questions (they are necessary because human beings are not satisfied to live in ignorance and uncertainty about them) as a result of our study of self which has brought us to indubitable certainty about the immortality of our own souls. It is indeed clear that only immortal, divine good is proportionate and fitting to an immortal being. Psychology has prepared and led us to the search for this good.

729. Some people, although they possess a great deal of self-opinionated knowledge, are enemies of wisdom, and hurl abuse at others who raise their minds above the senses to investigate more noble matters. Their restless, quite brilliant intellects are not content with complaining about the industry and diligence of high-minded people who, they think, are attempting the impossible and wasting their time in empty speculation. These intellectual back-biters imagine that considerations leading human beings to knowledge and possession of eternal things are all useless because they are not confined to increasing his temporal welfare. Their lassitude in shown in certain maxims and opinions which they enunciate as indubitable, and which all begin: 'It is impossible to know' and 'It is impossible to understand'. One very solemn maxim, repeated a thousand times, is this: 'The essence of things cannot be known' and in particular: 'It is impossible to know the essence of the soul.' But when Zeno argued against the existence of movement, Diogenes moved - and proved him wrong.

For our part, we have dealt in these five books with the essence of the soul rather than argue about the knowability of its essence. Diogenes' argument was not truly effective because he contrasted a physical fact with metaphysical speculation, but his principle, 'That which is cannot be called impossible', was totally true. I think, therefore, that the first part of Psychology, in which I demonstrated the nature of the essence of the soul, has given us a great advantage. The only people who from now on will be able to say that the essence of the soul cannot be known in any way whatsoever are those who have first proved that this essence, which we have indicated by repeating the teaching handed down from generation to generation, is not in fact the essence of the soul. I trust that such people, jealous of the good possessed by the human race, will not be able to rob it of such a precious and extremely necessary truth on which rests the demonstrative certainty of our immortal life. Certainly, anyone who totally ignores the essence of the soul could never know through reason if the soul is immortal or mortal. The first part of Psychology has, therefore, provided us with a delightful and important harvest in which the essence and nature of the soul furnish indubitable proofs of its immortality, on which hangs our eternal destiny.

730. The destiny of the soul will in all cases be eternal, but it does not follow that it will be happy. Necessary justice, evident to all, promises eternal joy only to the virtuous soul, and a terrible threat to the vicious soul. Virtue, which perfects the soul, is the work of the soul itself; the same must be said of vice which corrupts and ruins the soul at its depths. It is obvious that the soul which has ruined and disordered itself cannot attain as happy a condition as the soul which has perfected, enlarged and ennobled itself as a result of its own noble, worthy activities. Ethics deals with these activities through reference to moral laws by distinguishing some acts as good and some as bad. But we have to consider them in themselves and in the activities resulting from them before we can look at them from the moral point of view. This is what I intend to do in the second part of Psychology, which treats of the natural development of the human soul and shows how various, multiple activities originate from its essence. The second part of Psychology, which still remains to be tackled, will therefore provide as noble a service to man as the first. It will bring us to understand ourselves in those interior aptitudes and faculties whose appropriate use makes the possession of an immortal soul highly desirable and precious and which, by enriching us with virtue, assures for our souls a blessed, eternal destiny. Let us move on, therefore, swiftly and confidently to the new investigation we have proposed.