ii LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS 



go and play as he chooses, and that, from this point of 

 view, the difference between the two machines is radical, 

 the first holding the attention captive, the second setting 

 it at liberty. A difference of the same kind, we think, 

 would be found between the brain of an animal and the 

 human brain. 



If, now, we should wish to express this in terms of 

 finality, we should have to say that consciousness, after 

 having been obliged, in order to set itself free, to divide 

 organization into two complementary parts, vegetables 

 on one hand and animals on the other, has sought 

 an issue in the double direction of instinct and of 

 intelligence. It has not found it with instinct, and it has 

 not obtained it on the side of intelligence except by a 

 sudden leap from the animal to man. So that, in the 

 last analysis, man might be considered the reason for the 

 existence of the entire organization of life on our planet. 

 But this would be only a manner of speaking. There 

 is, in reality, only a current of existence and the opposing 

 current ; thence proceeds the whole evolution of life. 

 We must now grasp more closely the opposition of 

 these two currents. Perhaps we shall thus discover for 

 them a common source. By this we shall also, no 

 doubt, penetrate the most obscure regions of meta 

 physics. However, as the two directions we have to 

 follow are clearly marked, in intelligence on the 

 one hand, in instinct and intuition on the other, 

 we are not afraid of straying. A survey of the 

 evolution of life suggests to us a certain conception of 

 knowledge, and also a certain metaphysics, which imply 

 each other. Once made clear, this metaphysics and 

 this critique may throw some light, in their turn, on 

 evolution as a whole. 



