ENTROPY AND BECOMING 89 



competent to pull the trigger of a (symbolic) nerve. The 

 physiologist can trace the nerve mechanism up to the 

 brain; but ultimately there is a hiatus which no one 

 professes to fill up. Symbolically we may follow the 

 influences of the physical world up to the door of the 

 mind; they ring the door-bell and depart. 



But the association of "becoming" with entropy- 

 change is not to be understood in the same way. It 

 is clearly not sufficient that the change in the random 

 element of the world should deliver an impulse at the 

 end of a nerve, leaving the mind to create in response 

 to this stimulus the fancy that it is turning the reel of 

 a cinematograph. Unless we have been altogether 

 misreading the significance of the world outside us — 

 by interpreting it in terms of evolution and progress, 

 instead of a static extension — we must regard the 

 feeling of "becoming" as (in some respects at least) a 

 true mental insight into the physical condition which 

 determines it. It is true enough that whether we are 

 dealing with the experience of "becoming" or with the 

 more typical sense-experiences of light, sound, smell, 

 etc., there must always be some point at which we lose 

 sight of the physical entities ere they arise in new dress 

 above our mental horizon. But if there is any experience 

 in which this mystery of mental recognition can be 

 interpreted as insight rather than image-building, it 

 should be the experience of "becoming"; because in this 

 case the elaborate nerve mechanism does not intervene. 

 That which consciousness is reading off when it feels the 

 passing moments lies just outside its door. Whereas, 

 even if we had reason to regard our vivid impression 

 of colour as insight, it could not be insight into the 

 electric waves, for these terminate at the retina far from 

 the seat of consciousness. 



