APPENDIX I 289 



has arisen, sufficiently important to come under the 

 action of natural selection. It is incredible that 

 unintelligent protoplasm could have originated 

 chlorophyll. Yet not only has it done so on several 

 different occasions, but in the red and brown sea- 

 weeds it has invented two other compounds, which 

 have the same function as chlorophyll. No doubt 

 protoplasm makes many mistakes; but these are 

 eliminated automatically by natural selection. Thus 

 it appears that intelligence is necessary for organic 

 development ; indeed, the only alternative is to sup- 

 pose guidance from without. And it also follows that 

 the two great characteristics of living matter, by 

 which we distinguish it from dead matter, imply the 

 presence of both will and intelligence that is, of 

 mind. Not only is it true that, wherever we see the 

 action of mind, we also see life associated with it, 

 but it is also true that, wherever we see life, we 

 recognise the presence of mind. The two terms 

 are, in fact, identical. A living organism is a mental 

 organism ; and the origin of life consisted in the 

 introduction of mind into protoplasm, however that 

 may have been accomplished. 



In the absence of a nervous system, we find a 

 difficulty in supposing that the movements in the 

 lower animals and plants are conscious ; and so the 

 word " subconscious " has been used. In speaking 

 about them both the terms may be useful ; they are 

 analogous to the " somatic life " and " tissue life " 

 of the physiologist. I therefore maintain that Sir 

 Oliver Lodge was perfectly justified in saying that 

 life is " something immaterial, and itself fundamen- 



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