CHAPTER I 



THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE MECHANISM AND TELEOLOGY 



THE existence of which we are most assured and which 

 we know best is unquestionably our own, for of 

 every other object we have notions which may be con 

 sidered external and superficial, whereas, of ourselves, 

 our perception is internal and profound. What, then, 

 do we find ? In this privileged case, what is the precise 

 meaning of the word &quot; exist &quot; ? Let us recall here 

 briefly the conclusions of an earlier work. 



I find, first of all, that I pass from state to state. 1 

 am warm or cold, I am merry or sad, I work or I dc 

 nothing, I look at what is around me or I think of 

 something else. Sensations, feelings, volitions, ideas 

 such are the changes into which my existence is 

 divided and which colour it in turns. I change, then, 

 without ceasing. But this is not saying enough. 

 Change is far more radical than we are at first inclined 

 to suppose. 



For I speak of each of my states as if it formed a 

 block and were a separate whole. I say indeed that I 

 change, but the change seems to me to reside in the 

 passage from one state to the next : of each state, taken 

 separately, I am apt to think that it remains the same 

 during all the time that it prevails. Nevertheless, a 

 slight effort of attention would reveal to me that there 

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