Mental Evolution. 475 



will only, before passing on to consider mental or meta- 

 kinetic evolution, draw passing attention to two matters. 

 We have seen that Professor Hering and Mr. Samuel 

 Butler have suggested "organic memory " as a conception 

 useful for the comprehencion of embryonic reconstruction 

 in development and other such matters (see p. 62). On the 

 hypothesis of monism, this may be regarded as a kinetic 

 manifestation of that which in memory rises to the meta- 

 kinetic level of consciousness. 



The other matter is of far wider import. Monism 

 affords a consistent and comprehensible theory of the ego, 

 or conscious self that which endures amid the flux and 

 reflux of our conscious states. The ego, or self, is that 

 matakinetic unity which answers to, or is the inner aspect 

 of, the kinetic unity of the organism.* Only here and 

 there, in fleeting and changing series, does the metakinesis 

 rise to the level of consciousness. But the metakinetic 

 unity is as completely one, indivisible, and enduring, as is 

 the physical organism which is its kinetic counterpart. 

 No one questions that there is an enduring organism of 

 which certain visible activities are occasional manifesta- 

 tions ; no one who has adequately grasped the teachings of 

 monism can question that the enduring ego, of which 

 certain states of consciousness are occasional manifestations, 

 is the metakinetic equivalent of the organic kinesis. This 

 solution of a problem which baffles alike materialists and 

 idealists is, as it seems to me, as satisfactory as it is 

 simple. 



And now let us pass on to consider the question of 

 mental or metakinetic evolution. What, on the principles 

 above laid down, can we be said to know or have learnt 

 about it ? 



The inevitable isolation of the individual mind has long 

 been recognized. " Such is the nature of spirit, or that 

 which acts," says Bishop Berkeley, " that it cannot be 



* Strictly speaking, of the brain; but since the brain has no organic 

 independence of the body, it is best here to focus attention on the unity of the 

 organism. 



