Consciousness. 971 



the former stimulations which made us what we are, or not. If they 

 do, the sensations which arise as the sequel are pleasurable, while if 

 they do not harmonize, the sensations are those of uneasiness or pain. 

 In all cases the intensity of the sensation is in proportion to the num- 

 ber of our standard organs with which the new stimulation is compared, 

 and the extent to which they disagree. 



Self- Consciousness. From the foregoing it will appear that there can- 

 not be self -consciousness in any single organ, because consciousness 

 arises only as the sequel of stimulations, and no organ can stimulate it- 

 self. To really do this would be to originate energy from nothing. If 

 it be supposed that energy communicated to an organ might pass from 

 one part of such organ to another part of the same organ, then the 

 second part would become a seat of consciousness of the first part, 

 which would still not be se?/-consciousness, and would be equivalent to 

 making two organs out of one. A sensory organ is the seat of sensa- 

 tion aroused by impact upon it of stimulation, coming from without it- 

 self, either from an external or an internal sense organ. The environ- 

 ment of every sensory organ is composed in large part of other such 

 organs, and the stimulation which one of these transmits to another, 

 arouses in that other a sensation of a condition in the sending organ. 

 The function of some of the organs is analytical; that is, receiving a 

 compound stimulation, they split it up, sending its components in differ- 

 ent directions. Other organs are synthetical, that is, receiving stimuli 

 from different quarters of a similar or comparable nature, they allow 

 them to come together in the formation of new combinations. The in- 

 teractions of these stimuli constantly discharged from organs to organs, 

 arouse alternately in every locality of the brain, sensations of the con- 

 ditions in other parts. It is this mutual, rapid interchange of sensa- 

 tions referring to other parts, that gives rise to the sense of self-con- 

 sciousness. We are conscious of action in first one part, then another ; 

 that is, one part is conscious of action in another alternately, and, 

 doubtless to a certain degree, mutually ; but no part is ever conscious 

 of its own action. The stimulus which enters, differentiates or else re- 

 erects the organ if it had been differentiated before, and as the differen- 

 tiation or re-erection constitutes the sensation, the amount of the energy 

 consumed in the process is its measure of intensity. The sensation is the 

 modified continuation of the stimulus, and is the vibration of the ethereal 

 substance belonging to the cells of the organ. During the continuance 

 of this vibration, which endures for a moment after each wave of stimu- 

 lation ends, the sensation endures. Thus, this motion of the cell which, 

 considered as an object by a second person is a vibration, is to the person 

 experiencing it a sensation. A sensation ends when the vibration dies 

 out by the friction of its movement which is thus reduced to heat. It 



