the chair of modern philosophy at the Collège de France--one
of the highest academic posts in the nation. Here he remained
until ill-health obliged him to retire in 1921. After the appear-
ance of Creative Evolution, Bergson became a figure of inter-
national repute. People from all over the world came to Paris
to hear him lecture, which he did with the same grace, felicity
of phrase and originality of thought exhibited in his books.
Yet neither the widespread adulation nor the many honors
he received had any effect on his modest, unassuming personal-
ity. Like all genuinely great men he possessed true humility of
soul. His death took place on January 5, 1941, amid the dark
days which followed the Nazi occupation of France.

It is peculiarly appropriate that Bergson should have been
born in the year which saw the publication of the Origin of
Species. ¹ For his philosophy can only be understood against
the background provided by the theory of biological evolu-
tion. One of the central ideas put forward by Darwin was that
the living beings who survived in the struggle for existence
were able to do so because they had developed organs and
ways of acting which adapted them to their environment. The
presence of such characteristics was due to their efficacy in
promoting survival. Now it was natural that this view should
be extended to the mind as one of the functions possessed by
living beings. Hence it was urged by some of Darwin's fol-
lowers that the human intellect and the process of thinking
are designed for wholly practical purposes. Their aim is to
help the individual adjust himself to his world and to facili-
tate action.

This conception forms an essential part of Bergson's doc-
trine. The intellect is regarded by him as a kind of instru-
ment or tool employed in the service of life. Just because of
this, it has certain inherent limitations in its way of function-
ing. (1) The intellect apprehends the world externally as a col-
lection of things in space. The very language we use to de-
scribe the world is saturated with spatial terms and metaphors.

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