From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



but the first manifestation, which has in human mental 

 life a much larger field than that of the consciousness by 

 which it is concealed from view. 



Subconscious psychology dominates human and 

 animal life alike, and consciousness appears only as an 

 acquisition growing with evolution and proportional to 

 the level of that evolution. There is therefore no differ- 

 ence in the essential nature of animals and man; from 

 the psychic point of view both are governed by the 

 subconscious. There is between them only a difference 

 of degree, which is marked by the amount of conscious 

 realisation. 



The demonstration of this truth is of capital import, 

 for it involves the failure of one of the chief doctrines 

 of the Bergsonian system, and therefore invalidates its 

 whole method. 



This demonstration falls into three parts. 

 (a) Animal instinct is but the first manifestation of 

 unconscious psychism, and is of an inferior 

 kind. 



() Human subconsciousness is the animal instinct 

 developed, expanded, and enriched by pro- 

 gressive evolution. 



(c) The degree of conscious realisation in the animal 

 and in man, and from the animal to man, is 

 purely and simply a function J of the evolutionary 

 level attained. 



(a) THE ANIMAL INSTINCT IS BUT THE FIRST 

 MANIFESTATION OF SUBCONSCIOUS PSYCHISM OF 

 AN INFERIOR KIND 



Instinct, for the most part, obeys neither logic nor 

 conscious reasoning, nor will. Its characteristics are 

 those of human subconsciousness. It attains marvellous 



1 ' Function ' : here used in the mathematical sense a quantity 

 whose changes of value depend on those of other quantities called its 

 variables. [Translator's note.] 



182 



