For the self which takes
charge of the instincts when we are thinking about lemons or distant
acres is very different from the self which appears when we are
thinking even potentially as the outraged head of a family. In one
case the private feeling which enters into the opinion is tepid, in
the other, red hot. And so while it is so true as to be mere tautology
that "self-interest" determines opinion, the statement is not
illuminating, until we know which self out of many selects and directs
the interest so conceived.
Religious teaching and popular wisdom have always distinguished
several personalities in each human being. They have been called the
Higher and Lower, the Spiritual and the Material, the Divine and the
Carnal; and although we may not wholly accept this classification, we
cannot fail to observe that distinctions exist. Instead of two
antithetic selves, a modern man would probably note a good many not so
sharply separated. He would say that the distinction drawn by
theologians was arbitrary and external, because many different selves
were grouped together as higher provided they fitted into the
theologian's categories, but he would recognize nevertheless that here
was an authentic clue to the variety of human nature.
We have learned to note many selves, and to be a little less ready to
issue judgment upon them. We understand that we see the same body, but
often a different man, depending on whether he is dealing with a
social equal, a social inferior, or a social superior; on whether he
is making love to a woman he is eligible to marry, or to one whom he
is not; on whether he is courting a woman, or whether he considers
himself her proprietor; on whether he is dealing with his children,
his partners, his most trusted subordinates, the boss who can make him
or break him; on whether he is struggling for the necessities of life,
or successful; on whether he is dealing with a friendly alien, or a
despised one; on whether he is in great danger, or in perfect
security; on whether he is alone in Paris or among his family in
Peoria.
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