Consequent upon the belief in a finite beginning is the belief in a finite end. That which supposedly begins goes through a period of development and progress until it reaches maturity, the height of its growth. Then begins a seeming process of decay, a steady breaking down of that which was built up. This dissolution results in an end, or death of that which was born. So mortal man's experience seems to be made up of a series of actions and reactions. Indeed there is nothing in the world of matter that is not subject to change and dissolution. Now, though the world has spent much time and effort searching for a more imperishable substance out of which to make its works, it is not considered to build so well to-day as when the Romans built their roads.
As mortal man's possessions wax old and decay, so also his resolutions for good waver and slide back into former viewpoints less desirable. He often forgets or fails to carry out his intentions, to substantiate his decisions. In other words, the thinking of the Adam-man, born of dust, shares the relapse characteristic of all mortality. Moreover, mankind has accepted the concept of relapse as normal,—for instance, the lapse of memory on lines of poetry once learned, forgotten points of history, yesterday's detail of experience, all are accepted as common lapses of activity into inactivity. At the same time mortal mind, with characteristic inconsistency, always testifies to certain experiences indelibly stamped on its memory, on which points it expects no relapse—perhaps a Mother Goose rhyme, a street scene, or certain dates and names.
On analysis, one sees that this relapse is a falling back, a return to an old condition, or an old belief. It is premised on the supposition that man and his works are made of that which is capable of decay. When one forgets, then, there would be a lapse from knowledge to ignorance. This backsliding is a species of indecision, of uncertainty. It carries with it the suggestion that the improved condition was after all itself only a belief, and that no real progress was made because of the tenacious hold of the earlier state. Of course a mortal man believing in a law of relapse makes about as much progress as Sisyphus and his rock. He takes a step forward only to sooner or later slide back to the dust of his starting point.
