The Evolution of Mind. 2 1 3 



science formulates in physical law. In this condition- 

 ing the persistence of force is found everywhere ex- 

 emplified : dynamic law everywhere prevails. But 

 the unknowable is conditioned otherwise. This other 

 conditioning is contrasted with the former and cannot 

 be brought within it. The law of the conditioning in 

 physical action is not applicable in the new order. 

 The present is, therefore, not the outcome of the pre- 

 cedent cosmic state : the series of continuous mani- 

 festations is broken, science cannot connect the one 

 -conditioning with the other. 



In having recourse to the unknowable cause, the 

 -evolutionist confesses that the origin of consciousness 

 is not discoverable by his methods ; he acknowledges 

 the presence of another form of being in the elucida- 

 tion of which the work of the laboratory is of no 

 .avail. To refer the inquirer to the inscrutable reality 

 is, from the standpoint of scientific knowledge, mean- 

 ingless : it is to admit philosophic impotence. To 

 say with the intellectualist that consciousness had its 

 origin from the Supreme Intelligence, is to give an 

 answer consistent with itself, and having on the face 

 of it the semblance of truth, but to account for 

 consciousness by carrying it back into the incom- ' 

 prehensible, is simply to take refuge in the outer 

 darkness. No doubt, if there be an intelligent power 

 behind all we know, that infinite Mind will be com- 

 petent to furnish not onl}' the " raw material of con- 

 sciousness," but consciousness itself. The theist holds 



