Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1888-05-24
Double Consciousness

From the London Queen.
What is that strange sense that
most OF us have of a double conscious
of a kind of twin self-lke and
vet unlike the person as we are held
by the world and known to be by
ourselves-of foregone experience
identical with this we are now under
going-of previous circumstances. Of
which tbs is only a repetition Few
OF US are so unconscious, SO unobser-
want, as not to have known both thess
phases of feeling-both that which
redoubIes and differentiates the self
and that which makes this place, this
person, this conversation but a repe
tition OF what has already been. Per.
haps the former of these two states
may be referred TO the infinite com.
plexity of the human mind, but with
this complexity that elemental
homogeneity which makes sill the,
world akin. and which Terence erys.
talized in his famous aphorism:
Homo sum: humani nihil a me alien
umputo." This being true, theneyery
JeRyil has MS potential Hyde, and
every Hyde his possible Jekyll; and
there are no heights nor depths 10
which we may not rise or descend, At
least in imagination. Here conscience
and Observation-Disclosures and po.s
tentiality-make that confusion
which creates double CONSCIOUSNESS
through a single line of action. Say
We have to deal with n man whom
we have no right to offend overly,
and whom secretly We despise with
a very vehemence of contempt.
What a strong strain of double con-
seriousness is here! Our manners,
our speech, must of necessity be
smooth and without olfense. In our
heart We are conscious OF a scorn
that loathes and repudiates the
creatures of mean vices and we'll
yelled infamy, from whom. how
ever, it is not our business
to tear the mask. We are two
people when we are in his company-
one the moralist, who shakes spirit
uai fist at the other, the man OF tns
world; while the man of the wcfd
shrugs his shoulders at the morsiiss
| and says In unheard tones: "Dont
make a fool of yourself" Again tins
kind of double consciousness CONES
into play when we are in q difficulty
from which a little unworthy chlcaney
would extricate us, and where perieS
honesty will only draw the coils tigbl.
eT and deepen the hole where we wec
already fallen. The two egos talk ~
side one head, and argue the case WIN i
more or less distinctness. Jekyl m
Hyde? which shall it be? Being NJ
man, with that nihil alienum as tn7
basis of our being, we are organicalE
capable of any rascality to be corr
passed by the universal man W
repudiate while we picture but W
ability to picture proves the aoiil'S
to practice but for that Other sea
that res training self, born of the coz
seriousness of higher things. SIN.
there 1t is; and the double momens
goes on, though it may be SO ialnllf
as not to constitute a real Temps
ton. 1t may only be a copsciousnee
OF possible escape il We would Dflk
ourselves to fraud and dishoness
without the confessed query: shss
do ity' When, indeed, it comes NV
such distinctness and vitality as tass
when Hyde Is as solid as Jekyis
then we have a tougher time OF
and harder battle, and the splrItus
tussle is sitter than we would p
maps care to acknowledge. no.
many of us GO through these temp
tons Is known to each mans or
soul only. whats done We paruJ
may compute, but not what is reslss
ed, " and the double conseiousne
which Is made by principle and pa
sion, restraint and desire, is nese
revealed to others and scarcely CO..
iessed to ourselves. But we all nas
1t, even those who conquer the es
tendency with most apparent facii''s
and most thoroughness.