﻿CONSCIOUSNESS AND PAIN 79 



ism which has originated under the direction 

 of sensibility'' (1. c. 513). With this view of 

 the role of consciousness the writer fully 

 agrees. 



Let us now stop and see where we are. I 

 have tried to show that all organisms, even 

 to the very simplest, whether plant or animal, 

 from the very nature of life and the struggle 

 for its maintenance, must be endowed with 

 conscious feeling, pleasure and pain being its 

 simplest expression. I have attempted to 

 show that consciousness is not a function 

 superimposed upon, or evolved from an ad- 

 vanced state of organic development, but is 

 co-extensive with life. 



The hypothesis would likely meet with con- 

 siderable adherence were it not for plants, 

 which all writers seem to think present an 

 insurmountable difficulty. Paul Carus, the p , r , 

 learned editor of the Monist and author of in evolution 

 many important philosophical treatises, as- 

 serts that "pleasure and pain are undoubtedly 

 important factors in the evolution of the ani- 

 mal world, but the kingdom of plants demon- 

 strates that theexistence of plastic organisms 

 with complex systems of nutrition and repro- 

 duction and also devices for safety is possible 

 without pleasure and pain" (Monist, iv. 624). 

 Cope has tried to get around the difficulty in 

 his work on the primary factors of organic 



