“Then you see disintegrating force as the scientist sees germs?” Cass inquired. “As disease?”
“No, we see them as foes. I speak here only of the way we judge purpose. There is no diseased purpose. There may be struggle between more or less intelligent forces, but in using the simile of physical health, I did it in a limited sense.”
“Is there an inherent reason for the different types of philosophies?” Mr. Kendal now questioned. “That is, the Nirvana-oblivion type in the Orient, as contrasted with the hell-fire-and-brimstone type in the Occident. If inherent, is its cause geographical, intellectual, biological, or what?”
“A little of all of them. Philosophies are the outgrowth of conditions, physical, moral and geographical—and therefore to some extent biological—to a much greater degree than is generally recognized. It has been said that food makes the man. To a greater degree, environment makes the philosopher.”
“May we publish this as coming from you?”
“Certainly. I am here for that purpose.... Light and Progress are my purposes, and teaching still my work.”
After a few lines of purely personal significance, this was signed: “William James.”