662 NATURAL SCIENCE. ^^v.. 



sents m}' consciousness in relation, directly or indirectly, with the 

 great world of objective phenomena. But if you could get at my 

 brain — my black or objective side — you would find that while I was 

 experiencing sentience and thought, you were observing modes of 

 nervous energy ; and if we then compared notes we should find that 

 the consciousness and the neural energy varied, not independently, 

 but in strict correlation. This may be due either (i) to an invariable 

 association of states of consciousness with neural tremors (dualism) ; 

 or (2) to the fact that neural tremors and states of consciousness are, 

 so to speak, the different ways in which the same occurrences 

 present themselves to you and to me at the supposed moment of 

 observation (monism). For my present purpose it matters not which 

 view is adopted. 



Let us first consider the modes of energy — my black side. I 

 assume that they have been evolved. But evolved from what ? 

 They certainly were not present as such in the fertilised egg-cell from 

 which I have been developed. From what then have they been 

 evolved ? The answer given by evolutionists is : From the simpler 

 modes of energy of that fertilised egg-cell. And from what has this, 

 in common with all that is organic, been evolved ? Well this takes us 

 a long way back, and the answer is little more than either a guess 

 or a pious (perhaps some would say impious) belief; but from the 

 standpoint of thorough-paced evolution organic modes of energy have 

 been evolved, somehow and somewhere, from inorganic modes of 

 energy. That is the only suggestion natural science, as such, has to 

 make in the matter. From the objective aspect of the evolutionary 

 process, therefore, neural modes of energy have been evolved from 

 infya-neitral modes of energy of decreasing order of complexity till we 

 reach the simpler modes of energy of inorganic^nature. 



Now let us turn to the states of consciousness— my white side. I 

 assume that they too have been evolved. But evolved from what ? 

 They presumably were not present as such in the fertilised egg-cell 

 from which I have been developed. Well, then, from what have they 

 been evolved ? I do not pretend to do more than make a guess, but I 

 try to guess on scientific lines. I suggest that, just as the neural modes 

 of energy have been evolved from infra-neural modes of energy, so 

 have states of consciousness been evolved from infra-conscious states ; 

 and just as the infra-neural modes of energy stretch back (on the 

 evolution hypothesis) through decreasing orders of complexity till we 

 reach the simple modes of energy of inorganic nature, so, I suggest, 

 do the infra-conscious states, which are associated with the infra- 

 neural modes of energy, stretch back through decreasing orders of 

 complexity till we reach the simple infra-consciousness of inorganic 

 nature; and further, in reference to the rough diagram of p. 661, 

 I suggest that just as the nervous energy of you and me, which lias 

 been evolved from the black or objective side of the world, are 

 associated with states of consciousness or a white side, so, too, does 



