2 1 2 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



absurdity. " The raw material of consciousness .... 

 everywhere exists potentially in that unknowable 

 Power which otherwise conditioned is manifested in 

 physical action." This is a striking instance of the 

 method of evolutionism when it faces a question that 

 goes deep into the nature of things. " The raw 

 material of consciousness is present even in un- 

 differentiated protoplasm : " " the raw material of 

 consciousness everywhere exists potentially in that 

 unknowable Power." Choose either answer, you are 

 left equally unenlightened. If the raw material of 

 consciousness " everywhere exists potentially " in the 

 unknowable power, it exists potentially in that power 

 wherever and however manifested : it exists poten- 

 tially in the inscrutable actuality that manifests itself 

 in the sands of the Sahara, or in the red granite of 

 Aberdeen. We learn nothing from being told that 

 the raw material of consciousness exists in the un- 

 knowable reality. Everything that has come to be 

 has existed potentially in the great First Cause. But 

 there may be a gleam of light in the statement that 

 this raw material exists in that power "which other- 

 wise conditioned is manifested in physical action." 

 We have here two contrasted modes of conditioning 

 of the unknowable energy, "variously conditioned 

 modes of the universal immanent force."* One is the 

 physical universe, with uniformities of action which 



* Biology, Vol. I., Appendix, p. 491. 



