THE NATURAL 



affect the march of the mechanism. In sum, con- 

 sciousness also is a fact, and no fact dies without con- 

 sequences; there are neither first causes nor last causes. 

 In any case one will, since it is evident, cling to one state- 

 ment that even if consciousness is a possible reactive, 

 intelligence can act without it: the most conscious of 

 men have phases of unconscious intellectuality; long 

 series of reasonable acts may be committed without their 

 reflection being visible in the mirror, without the candle 

 being lit before the clock. In brief, it does not seem as 

 if nervous matter could exist without intelligence or 

 sensibility; but consciousness is an extra. There is no 

 need to take count of the old scholastic objection to the 

 identification of the intelligence and the instinct. 



What is there serious in the other objection: that man, 

 if he once had instincts, has lost them? 



The animal having the richest instincts ought also to 

 have, or to have had, the richest intelligence. And 

 reciprocally: intellectual activity supposes a greatly 

 varied instinctive activity, either in the present or in 

 the future. If man have not instincts, he ought to be 

 in the way of making them. He has numerous instincts, 

 and makes more every day: a part of his consciousness 

 is constantly crystallizing itself into instinctive acts. 



But if one consider the different instincts of animal 

 species one will scarcely find any which are not also 

 human. The great human activities are instinctive. 

 Doubtless man may refrain from building a palace, but he 

 can not dispense with a cabin, a nest in a cave, or in the 

 fork of a tree, like the great apes, many mammals, birds, 

 and most insects. His food depends very little on 

 188. 



