"Here is your point of hesitation,"--he said--"and here the usual limit
of human comprehension. Both forces are good,--but as a rule we can
only side with one. We name that one Life,--the other Death. We think
Life alone stands for what is living, and that Death is a kind of
cessation of Life instead of being one of Life's most active forms. The
Universe is entirely composed of these two fighting forces--we call
them good and evil--but there is no evil-there is only a destruction of
what MIGHT be harmful if allowed to exist. To put it clearly, the
million millions of atoms and electrons which compose the everlasting
elements of Spirit and Matter are dual--that is to say, of two
kinds--those which preserve their state of equilibrium, and those whose
work is to disintegrate, in order to build up again. As with the
Universe, so with the composition of a human being. In you, as in
myself, there exist these two forces--and our souls are, so to speak,
placed on guard between them. The one set of atoms is prepared to
maintain the equilibrium of health and life, but if through the neglect
and unwatchfulness of the sentinel Soul any of them are allowed to
become disused and effete, the other set, whose business it is to
disintegrate whatever is faulty and useless for the purpose of renewing
it in better form, begins to work--and this disintegrating process is
our conception of decay and death. Yet, as a matter of fact, such
process cannot even BEGIN without our consent and collusion. Life can
be retained in our possession for an indefinite period on this
earth,--but it can only be done through our own actions--our own wish
and will."