100 PRODUCTION OF NATIONALITY 



qualities of oxygen and hydrogen ? What strange 

 and complex alchemy may we not expect, when the 

 various animal instincts, faculties and qualities have 

 surged up into the field of the human mind, there to 

 be irradiated by human consciousness and set dancing 

 in new and harmonious concert ? 



The second phenomenon that appears to help is 

 the occurrence of what are called critical phases in 

 continuous processes, points at which the character 

 and qualities change quite suddenly. If a mixture of 

 starch and water be stirred in a saucepan over the 

 fire, nothing seems to happen for a long time, and 

 then quite suddenly the mixture becomes thick and 

 you have much ado to keep it from burning. Under 

 a continuous rise of temperature, a solid suddenly 

 passes into a liquid and a liquid into a gas. The 

 properties of the solid, liquid and gas are very different, 

 but the intermediate phases, if they exist at all, are 

 so fleeting that it is almost impossible to assign them 

 characters. The much more complex embryological 

 history of animals teems with such critical phases, 

 as for instance when the tadpole becomes an air- 

 breathing frog, or when the young of a mammal, at 

 the time of birth, changes from a parasite with empty 

 lungs to an air-breathing, independent creature. 

 After birth a human child is still a senseless auto- 

 maton, but gradually the branches grow out from 

 the nerve-cells, linking cell to cell and cell to tissue, 

 and quite suddenly you see the light of intelligence 

 dawning in the eyes and become aware that a new 

 soul has taken possession of a new body. 



Take the power of memory, a quality that is an 

 inseparable part of human intelligence and freedom. 



