154 THE NEW PHYSIOLOGY. 



directly perceive physical or biological phenomena, we 

 cannot perceive psychological phenomena directly, since 

 they have no " objective " existence, and are only 

 subjective accompaniments hidden behind, and possibly 

 determining, objective physical and physiological 

 changes. This assumption is baseless. The objective 

 behaviour of a conscious organism or person is quite 

 distinct from that of an unconscious organism, although 

 at the lowest stages of consciousness the distinction 

 may be so faintly marked that we are left in doubt, 

 just as at the lowest stages of life we can hardly dis- 

 tinguish the living from the non-living. When we 

 perceive a person it is most certainly a person, and 

 not a mere organism, that we perceive. It is only by a 

 process of abstraction from the full objective reality that 

 we can regard him as a mere organism. The doctor or 

 physiologist is constantly performing with great pains 

 this act of abstraction, and the engineer or economist 

 performs a still more violent act of abstraction when 

 he regards the man as a motor or working unit, or as a 

 weight to be carried. By a similar effort we can abstract 

 from the objective reality of what is beautiful. 



It is, of course, only by interpretation of our experi- 

 ence that we perceive psychological .phenomena. But 

 exactly the same is true of biological and physical 

 phenomena. The physical realities which seem to lie 

 o clear and solid in front of us are only bundles of 

 interpretations in the light of previous and co-existing 

 and anticipated experiences, all determining the existing 

 experience. Even if, following Hume, we seek to dis- 

 entangle the sensations forming the crude basis of these 

 interpretations, we are no better off. The simplest sen- 



