VIII 



THE PRIMAL MIND 



I 



ONE of my problems is how to reconcile the 

 unity of creation with the fact, or apparent 

 fact, that while the vast mass of the visible universe 

 is governed by purely physical laws, a compara- 

 tively small part of it is dominated by laws of an- 

 other order, and is the abode of life and intelligence. 

 How these two parts or phases of the cosmos are 

 related, how we can ascribe purpose and intelli- 

 gence to living matter, and deny them to the non- 

 living, without doing violence to our sense of the 

 oneness of universal nature, is the problem. Are we 

 to believe that the universe is part rational and part 

 irrational? — that mind is operative in the grass, the 

 trees, the animals, and not in the stars and sidereal 

 systems? 



Emerson celebrates 



" the primal mind 

 That flows in streams, that breathes in wind." 



But unless we identify mind with cosmic or solar 

 energy, Emerson's lines do not seem especially 

 happy. Is it possible to think of mind, or anything 

 like intelligence, as we know it in this world, as 



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