398 RESPIRATION 



spiritual world for which separation, not merely in space, but 

 also in time, has none of the meaning which it possesses for the 

 world interpreted physically or biologically. Along the years 

 and across the oceans action and reaction are direct in this spirit- 

 ual world. 



It is evident that in conscious activity we are face to face with 

 facts that neither physical nor biological hypotheses are capable 

 of interpreting. Yet conscious activity manifests itself in connec- 

 tion with the same beings that seem also to live and breathe as 

 mere organisms, or to consist of nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, 

 carbon, and other atoms leading a wild and undefinable dance. 

 In presence of the evidence of life we cannot rest satisfied with the 

 physical and chemical interpretation of these beings; but simi- 

 larly in the presence of conscious activity we cannot rest satisfied 

 with the biological interpretation. Biological phenomena show 

 us that the physical interpretation of the universe is only an im- 

 perfect preliminary interpretation for which all that can be said 

 is that it is of essential practical use in the absence of fuller 

 knowledge. But the facts relating to perception and volition show 

 us that the biological interpretation is also no more than a prac- 

 tical makeshift. As mathematicians, physicists, chemists, biolo- 

 gists, we are only "practical" men, though we often take our 

 practical working hypotheses for representations of actual re- 

 ality. We do so by unconsciously neglecting for the time a great 

 part of the facts to be explained — in particular the facts that our 

 world not only includes living organisms, but is a known world 

 and a world of spiritual values. In reality our sciences are only 

 making use of abstractions of a limited practical value. ^ 



In conscious activity the self-conserving and species-conserving 

 organic activities of living organisms take on a new and far wider 

 interpretation. Mere organic self-conservation appears now as 

 conservation of a system of consciously realized interests; and 

 social interests assume a commanding position as compared with 

 individual interests. In so far as bodily interests are carried out 

 consciously, therefore, the physiological interpretation of them 

 recedes into the background; and this is still more true of the 

 physical and chemical interpretation. 



In the preceding chapters, I have attempted to justify the 

 physiological interpretation of unconscious bodily activities by 

 pointing out how breathing, circulation, etc., are manifestations 



' A fuller discussion of this point of view will be found in my book "Mech- 

 anism, Life and Personality," New Edition, 1921. 



