330 BRAINS OF RATS AND MEN 



symbolic process, where the evidence is direct experi- 

 ence, though the experiencing process is so unique and 

 so refractory to analysis that we have great difficulty 

 in articulating it with other natural processes. 



The second characteristic of human consciousness 

 to which reference was made above, namely, the fore- 

 cast of future events and shaping of present conduct 

 in reference to future contingencies, uses symbolism 

 as its necessary tool. It comes to fruition as con- 

 scious purpose. And here again it is easier and more 

 satisfying (in the present state of our knowledge of 

 the nervous system) to experience purpose than to un- 

 fold its bodily mechanism. 



Symbolism and purpose as natural functions of the 

 human body doubtless have natural origins. There is 

 no evidence that they have always existed in the 

 forms experienced by us or that they exist at all in the 

 newborn child or the lower mammals. But, of course, 

 they are not made out of nothing. 



The origin of symbolism may well be conceived 

 along the lines suggested by Hunter. Or, to express it 

 neurologically, the associational fields of the cerebral 

 cortex seem to provide the anatomical mechanism of 

 the process, a mechanism that more than doubles in 

 mass and in internal complexity as we pass from the 

 highest anthropoids to man. The biological origins of 

 purpose can be sought with fair prospect of success in 

 certain very general features of all animal behavior, 

 and to these we will next direct attention. 



