The Evolution of Mind. 2 T 7 



through a nerve centre : consciousness comes into 

 being out of the inscrutable. Does the inscrutable 

 power, in response to each pulsation that runs along 

 -a nerve, reveal itself in consciousness for an instant, 

 .and when the nerve-thrill ceases, fall back again into 

 a condition of incomprehensibility ? It would appear 

 so. The conception is a most curious one, and deserv- 

 ing the closest scrutiny. It may be represented in 

 this way. The laws of dynamics regulate the eternal 

 whirl of atomic motion. In the process of change 

 certain molecular orbs, in these vast atomic systems, 

 come into conjunction. At that instant the molecular 

 movement is answered by the inscrutable power 

 flashing forth into consciousness, vanishing and re- 

 turning in response to the rhythmic pulse of physical 

 force. Now note the consequence: if it be that the 

 dynamic law of matter and motion is that which, 

 without interference and without cessation of its 

 continuous operation, directs all motion throughout 

 the universe; if throughout all processes the know- 

 able causes and effects are calculable with rigid mathe- 

 matical certainty ; if every throb of physical force is 

 determined in a fixed physical succession, then every 

 occasion of the manifestation of the unknowable in 

 consciousness is an effect determined not by intelli- 

 gence, but by inflexible physical necessity, is due not to 

 the infinite power revealing itself in consciousness, but 

 as " otherwise conditioned " in the physical law of its 

 manifestation through *matter. The evolution philo- 



