CHAPTER IX 

 A POSSIBILITY 



IN the foregoing explanation only a few 

 simple elements have been used. Facts about 

 cell life have been correlated with the external 

 conditions upon which life depends, and an 

 endeavor has been made to show how things 

 discovered in one field express themselves in 

 the other. An adverse objective condition, 

 an emotion, and a reduction affecting the 

 cell are the same elements viewed in differ- 

 ent ways. Several such parallels have been 

 worked out to furnish an explanation of the 

 simple facts of life and nutrition, without 

 the introduction of unknown quantities or 

 qualities. But even admitting that simple life 

 is fully accounted for in this way, we are still 

 far from a ready explanation of human beings. 

 Either new elements must be admitted or the 

 simple elements are capable of more com- 

 plex relations than those already pointed out. 

 As most writers think that consciousness is 



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