From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



generis of the consciousness and the organism. 

 Because, he says, a certain bolt is necessary to a 

 given machine, which works when the bolt is in 

 place and stops if it be removed, no one will main- 

 tain that the bolt is the equivalent of the machine. 

 But the relation of the brain to consciousness may 

 well be that of the bolt to the engine. Again, M. 

 Bergson says, the consciousness of a living being 

 is in solidarity with his brain in the sense that a 

 pointed knife is in solidarity with its point. The 

 brain is the sharp point by which consciousness 

 penetrates the dense fabric of events, but it is no 

 more co-extensive with consciousness than the point 

 is co-extensive with the knife.' 



Therefore the consciousness that resides in us is 

 not bound to the organism, but enjoys liberty. But this 

 word 'liberty' must be taken in a very wide sense: 

 that which is free, is the interior, complete self, rather 

 than the individualised person. 



'We are free,' says M. Bergson, 'when our acts 

 emanate from our whole personality. Liberty is 

 therefore a function of our power of introspection. 

 . . . Liberty is something which continuously arises 

 in us; we are liberable rather than liberated; and 

 in the last analysis, it is a matter of duration, not 

 of space and number, nor of our improvisation or 

 decree; the free act has been long prepared, it is 

 weighted with our whole past, and falls like a ripe 

 fruit from our previous life. 1 



' What are we, in fact, 2 what is our character, 

 if it is not the condensation of our history since birth, 

 or even before birth, since we bring pre-natal 

 dispositions with us ? No doubt it is but a small 

 part of that past that enters into our thoughts, but 



1 Le Roy : Ibid. a L'Evoluiion Criatrice. 



168 



