138 TWO NEW WORLDS 



to the degree of consciousness with which that 

 life is endowed. 



It is not for us, who spend a third of our lives 

 in a state of unconscious, or at most, subconscious, 

 activity, to determine the limit of consciousness in 

 other beings. We do not know, and cannot say, 

 from our standpoint outside, how far the life of an 

 amoeba or a protococcus may be governed by judg- 

 ment and choice, or how far it may differ from 

 ours in our rare moments of full self-consciousness. 

 The area and scope of our own consciousness is 

 constantly shifting. Our consciousness is merged in 

 a sea of conscious existence, just as our body is im- 

 mersed in a material universe. Every man with a 

 philosophic, as distinguished from a mechanically 

 scientific, training knows that the two parallel uni- 

 verses those of consciousness and of matter are 

 coextensive and interpenetrating ; are, in fact, two 

 aspects of the same reality. No portion of matter is 

 entirely independent of other matter. No so-called 

 "individual" consciousness is entirely independent 

 of other mental existences. In ourselves, but in 

 nothing else, we are in touch with both aspects, both 

 universes. When we perceive other material exist- 

 ences, we ascribe consciousness to them to the extent 

 to which their material structure and activity re- 

 sembles ours, but no further. That is our prejudice. 

 It is a very natural prejudice, and only becomes mis- 

 chievous when elevated into a dogma, and used in 



