"From the Unconscious to the Conscious 



by a subconscious elaboration which passes unperceived. 

 It ripens in the directing idea before being abruptly 

 transferred to matter. 



This fact is not extraordinary. If nature does not 

 actually proceed per saltum, it is not the less certain 

 that in nature all manifestations of activity seem inter- 

 mittent, being preceded and followed by seeming repose, 

 during which a renewal of activity is obscurely prepared. 



The work of nature may be compared to that of 

 an artist; and the comparison is not idle or illusory, 

 but really instructive because the works of nature, 

 like those of the artist, are founded in the subconscious. 

 Both put on modalities of the same order. 



Case i. The artist welcomes all his varied sub- 

 conscious inspirations without seeking, controlling, or 

 judging any. His productions will be characterised 

 by a luxuriant, unco-ordinated, and disordered exuber- 

 ance. It will be the task of the critic to select among 

 them; only a few will go to posterity; the greater part 

 will be forgotten or will remain imperfect or abortive. 



This is what comes to pass in nature in the primary 

 phase of evolution; the creative impulse is at first 

 anarchic and disordered; there is an exuberant appear- 

 ance of primary forms both in the plants and among the 

 lower animals. Then the natural forces, represented 

 by the classical evolutionary factors, do their work of 

 selection, and permit only a part of the primitive forms 

 to survive. 



Case 2. The artist does not always consciously direct 

 most of his inspirations, he is subject to them. But 

 these inspirations are no longer anarchic, they obey in 

 great measure the many unperceived suggestions of the 

 environment in which the artist lives, his considered or 

 unconsidered intimate desires, his ambitions and his 

 needs. They are subject to a thousand contingencies 

 of time, place, and racial proclivities by which he is 

 governed unawares. The subconscious work of the 



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