Mental Evolution. 



479 



bodies some morphological resemblance to the structure of 

 a human brain, we are precluded from rationally entertain- 

 ing any probability that self-conscious volition belongs to 

 the universe." 



I conceive that both parties, opposed as they seem, are 

 logically right ; and I venture to think that the terms I 

 have suggested will help us here. Mr. Symonds used the 

 word "consciousness" to signify metakinesis in general; 

 Clifford used it to signify that particular kind of meta- 

 kinesis which in the human brain rises to the level of con- 

 sciousness. Not only is it not inconceivable, but it is a 

 logical necessity on the hypothesis of monism, that answer- 

 ing to the kinetic rhythm of the universe there is a meta- 

 kinetic rhythm ; but unless the gyrations of the spheres 

 have some kinetic resemblance to the dance of molecules 

 in the human brain, the metakinesis cannot be inferred to 

 be similar to the consciousness of man. 



Similarly, with regard to the supposed self-consciousness 

 of the so-called social organism. Mr. Eomanes, in his article 

 on " The World as an Eject," * leads up to his conception 

 of a world-eject through the conception of a society- eject 

 an eject, he tells us, that, for aught that any one of its 

 constituent personalities can prove to the contrary, may 

 possess self-conscious personality of the most vivid character. 

 Its constituent human minds may be born into it, and die 

 out of it, as do the constituent cells of the human body ; it 

 may feel the throes of war and famine, rejoice in the com- 

 forts of peace and plenty ; it may appreciate the growth of 

 civilization in its passage from childhood to maturity. 



This, of course, may be so ; or it may not. Who can 

 tell ? But Clifford was on firm monistic ground when he 

 maintained that, unless the kinesis be similar, we have no 

 grounds for inferring similarity of metakinesis. 



The study of kinesis leads us to recognize different 

 kinds or modes of its manifestation. There is one mode 

 of kinesis in the circling of the planets around the sun, 

 another mode of kinesis in the orderly evolutions of a great 



* Conhmitorary Review, July, 1886. 



