"From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



finality that enables us to understand the reasons for 

 errors, gropings, and regressions. 



In this lengthy phase of evolution, pure unconscious- 

 ness is represented by the automatism of the main vital 

 functions, and (more especially) by its infinite poten- 

 tialities. 



Subconsciousness predominates in the invertebrates 

 in which it plays an almost exclusive part. They act 

 practically without any thought and are guided almost 

 entirely by instinct. 



Among vertebrates there appear large * fringes * of 

 intelligence, but these fringes are not, as Bergson would 

 have them, a ' relic ' abandoned in the transitipn from 

 the animal to the man ; there are no cast-off relics in 

 this evolution. These fringes of intelligence are con- 

 sciousness in rough draft. 



Consciousness develops little by little as vital and 

 psychological experiences accumulate and revert into 

 the unconscious which they illuminate. 



In the superior animals the horse, the dog, the 

 monkey, the elephant, etc. . . . realisation of con- 

 sciousness has made immense progress; the logical and 

 reasoning faculties already play an important part. 

 Simultaneously the function of instinct seems to diminish, 

 its manifestations are no longer continuous and dominant, 

 they have become limited and intermittent. Conscious- 

 ness, in fact, tends by its gradual realisation, to break 

 the bonds wherein the tyranny of instinct confines the 

 activity of the being, and to become the substitute for 

 instinct. The predominance of the logical and reasoning 

 faculties over instinct is indispensable to the evolution 

 of consciousness, for the exclusive use of instinct, or 

 even its predominance, implies stagnation in intellectual 

 progress. 



The testimony of the insect which we have already 

 had occasion to invoke from another point of view, again 

 illustrates our position; it proves that organic progress 



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