The Destiny of Man. 43 



most consonant with the present state of 

 our knowledge. Yet while we know not 

 the primal origin of the soul, we have 

 learned something with regard to the con- 

 ditions under which it has become incar- 

 nated in material forms. Modern psychol- 

 ogy has something to say about the dawn* 

 ing of conscious life in the animal world. 

 Reflex action is unaccompanied by con- 

 sciousness. The nervous actions which 

 regulate the movements of the viscera go 

 on without our knowledge ; we learn of 

 their existence only by study, as we learn 

 of facts in outward nature. If you tickle 

 the foot of a person asleep, and the foot 

 is withdrawn by simple reflex action, the 

 sleeper is unconscious alike of the irrita- 

 tion and of the movement, even as the 

 decapitated frog is unconscious when a 

 drop of nitric acid falls on his back and he 

 lifts up a leg and rubs the place. In like 

 manner the reflex movements which make 

 up the life of the lowest animals are doubt- 

 less quite unconscious, even when in their 



