In Henri Bergson's View, The World Includes Two Opposing Tendencies--life And Matter. Life Is Dynamic, Has Force And Will, And Struggles For Richness And Complexity Through And Beyond Matter. Matter Is The Congealed Residue Of Creation That Has Already Taken Place And, According To The Laws Of Nature, Is In A Gradual State Of Erosion. Morality And Religion, Bergson Shows In The Present Book, May Be Regarded In Similar Terms. They Partake, On The One Hand, Of A Static Principle, Combining Nature's Heritage And The Accrual Of Past Forms, And A Dynamic Principle Through Which Morality And Religion Remain Always In Crisis, Always Alive To Contingency And Growth. In The Course Of This Study Bergson Inquires Into The Nature Of Moral Obligation, Into The Place Of Religion And The Purpose It Has Served Since Primitive Times, Into Static Religion And Its Value In Preserving Man From The Dangers Of His Own Intelligence; Into Dynamic Religion Or Mysticism As A Manifestation Of The Life Force And A Means Of Producing Man's Forward Leap Beyond The Limits Of The Closed Society For Which Nature Intended Him And Into The Open Society Which Is The Brotherhood Of Man. --from Publisher's Description. Moral Obligation -- Static Religion -- Dynamic Religion -- Final Remarks : Mechanics And Mysticism. By Henri Bergson ; Translated By R. Ashley Audra And Cloudesley Brereton ;with The Assistance Of W. Horsfall Carter. Reprint Of The 1954 Ed. Published By Doubleday, Garden City, N.y.--cip. Translation Of Les Deux Sources De La Morale Et De La Religion. Includes Index.