All these solutions may give him temporary peace of mind, and perhaps indeed form efficient stumbling-blocks to any further spiritual progress.
But the spiritual beginnings within us often show remarkable vitality.
They may under certain conditions lead us to appreciate the existence of a distinct opposition in the world--the opposition between the lower world and the higher self.

Man finds that the natural is often low, evil, and sordid, and at this stage the higher spiritual world makes a strong appeal to him.

By degrees he comes to feel the demands of the lower world to be a personal insult to him.

What is the lower material world that it should govern him, and he a _man_?
The claims of pleasure and utility to be standards of conduct strike him as arrogant, and he revolts against the assumption that higher aims can have no charm for him.

His previous acceptance without consideration of the moral standard of the community he now looks upon as a sign of weakness on his part--for is he not himself, a person with the power of independent judgment and evaluation?
It is the first great awakening of the spiritual life in man, when his whole soul is in revolt against the low, sordid, and conventional.