LIFE AS MECHANISM 



sciousness, which, in the hardness of my heart or head, 

 I cannot see to be matter, or force, or any conceivable 

 modification of either, however intimately the mani- 

 festations of the phaenomena of consciousness may be 

 connected with the phaenomena known as matter and 

 force." ^"^ All through my study for this Essay I have 

 been seeking for an expression of the methods of the 

 evolutionary or materialistic monist, and now I can 

 thank Huxley for supplying me with just the sen- 

 tence I need. They employ the materialistic termin- 

 ology, but they do not honestly believe in material- 

 istic philosophy, and, as I am simple minded, I can 

 take this only to mean that they use words which say 

 that life and matter are one but they do not really be- 

 lieve that they are one, because they can find no real 

 connection between them ; they are talking in a Pick- 

 wickian sense and laughing in their sleeves at our gul- 

 libility. 



It is probably better to select a restricted function 

 of the mind rather than such general ideas as con- 

 sciousness or feeling when we try to find a physical 

 explanation of life. For this purpose memory seems 

 to be one of the most promising. The faculty of 

 memory is aroused by an external stimulus; some- 

 thing seems to be stored up and then given out again 

 at a subsequent time. We use practically the same 

 words in connection with physical energy. We say a 

 body is given potential energy if it is raised from the 



"^^ Evolution and Ethics, p. 130. 



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