CONCLUSION 275 



appears to be intelligent, but we call it instinctive, 

 because it is performed unconsciously. But when 

 we examine the unconscious actions we find that they 

 were always performed consciously at first , and only 

 became unconscious after many repetitions. Con- 

 sequently we are obliged to believe that the instinc- 

 tive development of the egg originated in a number 

 of intelligent actions. In other words, mind resides 

 in the blastoderm of the egg , and gradually organises 

 the whole of the contents, until a chicken is formed 

 from unorganised dead material. For this reason, 

 it is impossible to believe that the environment, by 

 itself, could have been the cause of the development 

 of protoplasm. 



By Professor Bering's theory a structural varia- 

 tion is a new experience which requires repetition to 

 impress it on the memory. Heredity is a kind of 

 p.cting, in which each cell or organ goes over again 

 former experiences, sometimes forgetting its part. 

 Or we may compare biological evolution to the for- 

 mation of a library of books, in which all experiences 

 are recorded and a set supplied to each new indi- 

 vidual. Death is the obliteration of the library. 

 Mind then no longer knows how to prevent the 

 attacks of outside enemies. For the physical forces 

 are detrimental to protoplasm ; they kill it and de- 

 compose it. It is only by the intervention of mind 

 that these actions are averted and the protoplasm is 

 adapted to resist environment. Mind takes these 

 enemies in hand and converts them into friends. If 

 this is not due to intelligence, I do not know any 

 other word in the English language to apply to it. 



