CHAPTER III 



ON THE MEANING OF LIFE — THE ORDER OF NATURE 

 AND THE FORM OF INTELLIGENCE ' 



In the course of our first chapter we traced a line of de- 

 marcation between the inorganic and the organized, 

 but we pointed out that the division of unorganized matter 

 into separate bodies is relative to our senses and to our 

 intellect, and that matter, looked at as an undivided 

 whole, must be a flux rather than a thing. In this we 

 were preparing the way for a reconciliation between the 

 inert and the living. 



On the other side, we have shown in our second chapter 

 that the same opposition is found again between instinct 

 and intelligence, the one turned to certain determinations 

 of life, the other molded on the configuration of matter. 

 But instinct and intelligence, we have also said, stand 

 out from the same background, which, for want of a better 

 name, we may call consciousness in general, and which 

 must be coextensive with universal life. In this way, we 

 have disclosed the possibility of showing the genesis of 

 intelligence in setting out from general consciousness, 

 which embraces it. 



We are now, then, to attempt a genesis of intellect 



at the same time as a genesis of material bodies — two 



enterprises that are evidently correlative, if it be true 



that the main lines of our intellect mark out the general 



form of our action on matter, and that the detail of matter 



is ruled by the requirements of our action. Intellectuality 



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