642 THE WONDER OF LIFE 



Entelechy ; we venture to refer it must be very inade- 

 quately again to Bergson's conception of the origin and 

 nature of life. Bergson's metaphysical theory is that a 

 broad current of consciousness penetrated matter, carrying 

 matter along to organization. He does not keep us in 

 doubt as to what he means by life. Life is conscious- 

 ness launched into matter ' availing itself of a slight 

 elasticity in matter ', ' using matter for its own purposes '. 

 Consciousness, or rather supra-consciousness, is at the 

 origin of life, and consciousness appears as the motive 

 power in evolution. ' Consciousness, or supra-conscious- 

 ness, is the name for the rocket whose extinguished frag- 

 ments fall back as matter ; consciousness, again, is the 

 name for that which subsists of the rocket itself, passing 

 through the fragments and lighting them up into organisms. 

 But this consciousness, which is a need of creation, is made 

 manifest to itself only where creation is possible. It lies 

 dormant when life is condemned to automatism ; it wakens 

 as soon as the possibility of choice is restored '. In fact 

 an organism is conscious in proportion to its power to move 

 freely a quaint metaphysical apology for athletics. In 

 the course of evolution it becomes more and more free as 

 the sensori-motor system becomes more perfect. c But, 

 everywhere except in man, consciousness has let itself be 

 caught in the net whose meshes it tried to pass through : 

 it has remained the captive of the mechanisms it has set 

 up '. With man, however, a new freedom began. Con- 

 sciousness is breaking its chains. How free it may become, 

 who shall say ? 



A Suggestion. Under the sway of his evolution-idea, 

 the biologist finds it difficult to entertain the hypothesis of 

 consciousness being launched into matter as a bolt from 



