414: METAPHYSICAL EVOLUTION, 



of conscious origin more than this one, as consciousness is still 

 one of the conditions of its performance. While less completely 

 'voluntary ' than muscular action, it is more dependent on stim- 

 ulus for its initial movements, and does not in these display the 

 unconscious automatism characteristic of the muscular acts of 

 many other functions." 



It was not proposed in the preceding paragraph that the con- 

 tractility of living protoplasm should be regarded as due to con- 

 sciousness, but that the location in a particular place of a contrac- 

 tility already existing might be due to that cause. 



The preceding hypotheses bring us to a general theory of the 

 evolution of organic structures or species. It is that they are the 

 result of movements long continued and inherited, and that the 

 character of these movements was originally determined by con- 

 sciousness or sensibility. It remains then to consider the nature 

 of consciousness. 



It may be mentioned that it is here left open whether there be 

 any form of force which may be especially designated as "vital." 

 Many of the animal functions are known to be physical and 

 chemical, and if there be any one which appears to be less expli- 

 cable by reference to these forces than the others, it is that of 

 nutrition. Probably in this instance force has been so metamor- 

 phosed, through the influence of the originative or conscious force 

 in evolution, that it is a distinct species in the category of forces. 

 Assuming it to be such, I have given it the name of Bathmism 

 ("Method of Creation," 1871, p. 26). Perhaps the contractility 

 generally regarded as an attribute of living protoplasm may be a 

 mechanical phenomenon dependent of course on nutrition ; or it 

 may be the exhibition of a force peculiar to living beings ; and 

 hence one of the ' vital ' group. 



III. AKCHiESTHETISM. 



The doctrine of evolution derives the organs of special sense 

 from those of simple sensibihty or touch. In other words, their 

 history has been that of other organs ; the complex have been 

 derived from the general and simple. There are then generalized 

 consciousness and specialized consciousness. A number of forms 

 of consciousness multiplies its vividness, the one kind reenforcing 

 the other by a slightly different appreciation of the same thing. 

 In the case of persons deprived of the sense of touch, the sense 

 of sight is not sufficient to convince them of their own existence. 



