44 The Destiny of Man. 



general character they simulate conscious 

 actions, as they often do. In the case of 

 such creatures, the famous hypothesis of 

 Descartes, that animals are automata, is 

 doubtless mainly correct. In the case of 

 instincts also, where the instinctive ac- 

 tions are completely organized before birth, 

 and are repeated without variation during 

 the whole lifetime of the individual, there 

 is probably little if any consciousness. It 

 is an essential prerequisite of conscious- 

 ness that there should be a period of delay 

 or tension between the receipt of an im- 

 pression and the determination of the con- 

 sequent movement. Diminish this period 

 of delay and you diminish the vividness of 

 consciousness. A familiar example will 

 make this clear. When you are learning 

 to play a new piece of music on the piano, 

 especially if you do not read music rapidly, 

 you are intensely conscious of each group 

 of notes on the page, and of each group of 

 keys that you strike, and of the relations 

 of the one to the other. But when you 



