244 The Bible of Nature 



out, if we are not to give a false simplicity to the 

 facts. We do not in any way understand how the 

 bodily life comes to have this inner aspect which 

 we call conscious experience. Nor do we under- 

 stand radio-activity. We know that our mind, 

 as far as we know it, is bound up with matter; 

 we know that it cannot give rise to matter; we 

 cannot think of any way in which matter — say, 

 units of negative electricity — could give rise to it. 

 Mind comes into potency under certain conditions. 

 This is true in individual development as well as 

 in racial history. We cannot think of its being 

 interpolated from without into instruments pre- 

 pared for its reception. This invests the common 

 denominator with even more significance than be- 

 fore. In fact, it merges into the greatest common 

 measure. 



We observe the every-day life of, let us say, a 

 clever bird, such as a parrot or a rook. It seems 

 impossible to give an intelligible account of it 

 without crediting the bird with an intelligence as 

 real as our own. Its power of intelligent behaviour 

 is wrapped up with its highly evolved nervous 

 system. We cannot separate the objective and 

 the subjective aspects, or interpret the one in 

 terms of the other. But this mental life of the 

 bird was implicit in the egg just as the nerve ele- 

 ments were. The power of intelligent behaviour 

 becomes patent at a certain stage in development 



