It would be possible to argue (and, Ithink, with much justice) that failure to make action central in the search for such security as is humanly possible is asurvival of the impotency of men in those stages of civilization when he had few means of regulating and utilizing the conditions upon which the occurrence of consequences depend. As long as man was unable by means of the arts of practice to direct the course of events, it was natural for him to seek an emotional substi- tute jin the absence of actual certainty in the midst of apre- carious and hazardous world, men cultivated all sorts of things that would give them the feeling of certainty. And it is pos- sible that, when not carried to an illusory point, the cultivation of the feeling gave man courage and confidence and enabled him to carry the burdens of life more successfully.