THE LIVING MACHINE BUILDING FACTORS. 199 



influence upon the development of an animal 

 means that the animal has made conscious efforts 

 to develop in certain directions. For example, 

 it has been suggested that the tiger, conscious 

 of the advantage of being striped, had a desire 

 to possess stripes, and the desire caused their 

 appearance. This is absurd. Consciousness has 

 been a factor in the development of the machine, 

 but an indirect one. Consciousness leads to effort, 

 and effort has a direct influence in development. 

 For example, an animal is conscious of hunger, 

 and this leads to efforts on his part to obtain 

 food. His efforts to obtain food may lead to 

 migration or to the adoption of new kinds of 

 food or to conflicts with various kinds of rivals, 

 and all of these efforts are potent factors in deter- 

 mining the direction of development. Conscious- 

 ness, again, may lead certain animals to take 

 pleasure in each other's society, or to recognize 

 that in mutual association they have projection 

 against common enemies. Such a consciousness 

 will give rise to social habits, and social habits 

 are a very potent factor in determining the 

 direction in which the inherited variations will 

 tend; not, perhaps, because it affects the varia- 

 tions themselves, but rather because it determines 

 which variations among the many shall be pre- 

 served and which rejected by natural selection. 

 Consciousness may lead the antelope to recognize 

 that he has no chance in a combat with a lion, 

 and this will induce him to flee. The habit of 

 flight would then develop the power of flight, not 

 because the antelope desired such power, but 

 because the animals with variations which gave 



