Responsiveness 63 



source of growth and change is internal, not 

 external. Growth is caused by nutrition re- 

 sulting in surplus energy, and not by the exter- 

 nal objects with which contact is necessary 

 and through which survival is finally secured. 

 It forces organisms into natural environments 

 where harmony with their surroundings is pos- 

 sible and helpful. Internal changes are felt 

 and appreciated before the modified being finds 

 a place where they are useful and effective. 

 Consciousness thus precedes use and is neither 

 an effect nor a consequence of it. The vol- 

 untary act antedates the involuntary ; instincts 

 and habits follow rather than go before the 

 less definite impulses which do not depend on 

 structure and specialization. Movement pre- 

 cedes growth, and structure arises before it 

 finds a useful function. Were men guided 

 by their current observations, discarding both 

 theories and complex analyses, they would find 

 plenty of proof for these assertions. A micro- 

 scope or a bold deduction might prove much 

 of it to be defective, but in some way the more 

 fundamental laws would be the expression of 

 current observations. The facts of everyday 



