THE RELIGION OF NATURE 



ment of what is contained in one sensation with 

 what is contained in another." 



Now Kant died in 1804; and, magnificent as 

 his intellect was, it was not possible for him to 

 anticipate the triumphant theory of evolution pro- 

 pounded by Darwin half a century later. Had it 

 been otherwise I think that there is little doubt 

 that he would have recognized that this power of 

 self-conscious thought " the power of making 

 our own ideas the object of our thoughts " which 

 Darwin freely admits that animals other than man 

 do not possess, has been evolved in man by the pre- 

 ordained process of his natural evolution ; and that 

 the power of thinking about our own thoughts, 

 and feeling happy or unhappy in consequence, has 

 been gradually acquired, beginning with that sim- 

 ple difference which I have pointed out that man 

 thinks about things and other animals only think 

 of them. 



Thus, man's thoughts do not end with their first 

 objective the satisfaction of the instinctive im- 

 pulse of the moment but travel from one con- 

 nection of ideas to another, returning always to 

 " himself " as the central factor of his existence : 

 " himself " not being his body only but a con- 

 scious person residing in it and judging its sensa- 

 tions in terms of happiness and unhappiness. 



All this, I am sure, would have been visible at a 

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