THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN LIFE 69 



parts of the body. l Thus, adherence to physiological 

 language illustrates its insufficiency. It is impossible 

 to comprehend all the multifarious and complicated 

 activities of man under these three categories, 

 maintenance of the body, bodily movements, and 

 propagation of the species. If the manifestation of 

 the higher faculties is not excluded, still the faculties 

 are unexplained. The main characteristics of mental 

 activity are even excluded from view. Mental actions 

 are known in consciousness. But for this knowledge 

 of them, we could not regard bodily movements 

 as their manifestations. Besides, only a small 

 proportion of these exercises manifest themselves 

 in transitory changes in the relative positions of 

 parts of the body. On the other hand, mental 

 exercises are known as distinct from our physical 

 movements, even when the physical are mani 

 festations of the mental. In human activity, dualism 

 of function is complete ; unity of life is sure. The 

 difference in nature of the body and of the soul is 

 apparent in the characteristics of their activity. 

 The modes in which these actions are known are dis 

 tinct. In external observation, the bodily activities 

 are known, the mental are unknown, as Professor 

 Huxley says. In consciousness the mental activities 

 are known, the bodily are unknown. Conscious intel 

 ligence provides for the unification of activity. While 

 human life, in common with all organic life, is subject 

 to physical conditions, it has this distinctive char 

 acteristic, that its regulation as a whole is that of a 

 conscious rational agent. Organism only belongs to 

 it, does not include the centre of vital activity. // 



1 Lay Sermons, p. 135. 



