38 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



Prof. Win. James: "The pursuance of future ends and 

 choice of means for their attainment are thus the mark 

 and criterion of the presence of mentality in a phenomena. 

 We will use this test to discriminate between an intelli- 

 gent act and a mechanical performance. We impute no 

 mentality to sticks or stones because they never seem to 

 move for the sake of anything, but always when pushed 

 and then indifferently with no sign of choice, so we call 

 them senseless." 



Then Mr. James gives this illustration : "If some iron 

 filings be sprinkled on a table and a magnet be brought 

 near them, they will fly through the air for a certain dis- 

 tance and stick to its surface. Let a card cover the poles 

 of the magnet and the filings will press forever against its 

 surface without its ever occurring to them to pass around 

 its sides and thus come in contact with the object of their 

 love. Blow bubbles through a tube into the bottom of a 

 pail of water; they will rise to the surface and mingle 

 with the air. Their actions may be poetically interpreted 

 as due to a longing to recombine with the mother atmos- 

 phere above the surface, but if you invert a jar over the 

 pail they will rise and remain lodged beneath its bottom 

 shut in from the outer air, although a slight deflection 

 from their course at the outset or a redescent towards the 

 rim of the jar when they found their upward course im- 

 peded would easily have set them free. If we now pass 

 from such action as these to those of living things, we 

 notice a striking difference. Romeo wants Juliet as the 

 filings want the magnet but Romeo and Juliet, if a wall 

 be built between them, do not remain idiotically pressing 

 their faces against its opposite sides like the magnet and 

 the filings with the card. Romeo goes over the wall or 

 otherwise and touches Juliet's lips directly. With the 

 filings the path is fixed. Whether it reaches the end de- 



