Each partial process, to him who lives
through it, defines itself by its origin and its
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goal; but to an observer with a wider mind-
span who should live outside of it, that goal
would appear but as a provisional halting-
place, and the subjectively felt activity would
be seen to continue into objective activities
that led far beyond. We thus acquire a habit,
in discussing activity-experiences, of defining
them by their relation to something more. If
an experience be one of narrow span, it will be
mistaken as to what activity it is and whose.
You think that _you_ are acting while you are
only obeying someone's push. You think you
are doing _this_, but you are doing something of
which you do not dream. For instance, you
think you are but drinking this glass; but you
are really creating the liver-cirrhosis that will
end your days. You think you are just driving
this bargain, but, as Stevenson says somewhere,
you are laying down a link in the policy
of mankind.
Generally speaking, the onlooker, with his
wider field of vision, regards the _ultimate_outcome_
of an activity as what it is more really
doing; and _the_most_previous_agent_ ascertainable,
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being the first source of action, he regards
as the most real agent in the field.
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