276 CREATIVE EVOLUTION CHAP. 



paths called motor intersect that is, of the brain. How 

 must this solidarity between the organism and con 

 sciousness be understood ? 



We will not dwell here on a point that we have 

 dealt with in former works. Let us merely recall that 

 a theory such as that according to which consciousness 

 is attached to certain neurons, and is thrown off from 

 their work like a phosphorescence, may be accepted 

 by the scientist for the detail of analysis ; it is a con 

 venient mode of expression. But it is nothing else. 

 In reality, a living being is a centre of action. It 

 represents a certain sum of contingency entering into 

 the world, that is to say, a certain quantity of 

 possible action a quantity variable with individuals 

 and especially with species. The nervous system of 

 an animal marks out the flexible lines on which its 

 action will run (although the potential energy is 

 accumulated in the muscles rather than in the nervous 

 system itself) ; its nervous centres indicate, by their 

 development and their configuration, the more or 

 less extended choice it will have among more or less 

 numerous and complicated actions. Now, since the 

 awakening of consciousness in a living creature is the 

 more complete, the greater the latitude of choice allowed 

 to it and the larger the amount of action bestowed upon 

 it, it is clear that the development of consciousness will 

 appear to be dependent on that of the nervous centres. 

 On the other hand, every state of consciousness being, 

 in one aspect of it, a question put to the motor activity 

 and even the beginning of a reply, there is no psychical 

 event that does not imply the entry into play of the 

 cortical mechanisms. Everything seems, therefore, to 

 happen as if consciousness sprang from the brain, and 

 as if the detail of conscious activity were modelled on 



