Evolution of Mind. 259 



always by haphazard and through the chance working 

 of their inherent affinities and antipathies, eventually 

 evolve what we call a mind ; of which there are 

 hundreds of thousands of forms or designs, ranging 

 from the simple mind of the protozoon to that of a 

 President of the British Association. The highest 

 mind therefore invented by nature is but the clash 

 of millions of minute intelligences — the intelligent 

 atoms ; and what the highest mind even on earth 

 may eventually be no present prophet can foresee. 



As the whole chain of sensation and action in the 

 human organism is necessary to complete conscious- 

 ness, the final definition of human consciousness is, 

 the intelligent physical motions performed by millions 

 of agents in our body, no one of which can be said to be 

 our consciousness to the absolute exclusion of the others. 

 The chief office, concentrator, or exchange of these 

 motions is, however, the brain. 



Section 3. The Will or Reflex Action : 



Our definition of consciousness may be said to be 

 disproved by the alleged fact of our having another 

 immaterial factor or agent called a Will. The 

 definition of this " will " or intellectual " will o' 

 wisp" is, that which causes the initiative in all our 

 actions. 



The solution to this problem is, however, virtually 

 determined by the extent to which we can reduce the 

 human machine to a mere automaton. If all our 

 actions are reflex, the result of stimuli, then we have 



