LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS 105 



our immediate future. What we feel ourselves 

 to be at any given moment is what we were just 

 before and what we are just about to be : we re- 

 cline on our past and incline towards our future, 

 and that reclining and inclining seem to be the 

 very essence of our consciousness. So that con- 

 sciousness is, above all, a hyphen, a tie between 

 past and future. Now what is the use of such a 

 tie, and what is consciousness called upon to do? 

 To reply to this question, we must first ask what 

 are, in the whole of Nature, the creatures which, 

 to all appearances, are conscious beings. To 

 tell the truth, in order to be absolutely sure that a 

 being is conscious like ourselves, we ought to 

 penetrate it, to be it. Here, again, if we seek for 

 mathematical certainty, we shall obtain nothing, 

 for you cannot even be mathematically sure that 

 I, who am speaking to you at this moment, possess 

 a consciousness. I might be a well-constructed 

 automaton going, coming, speaking without 

 internal consciousness, and the very words by 

 which I declare at this moment that I am a con- 

 scious being might be words pronounced without 

 consciousness. However, though this is mathe- 

 matically possible, and consequently the existence 

 of my consciousness cannot be for you a matter 

 of mathematical certainty, I think that it is suffi- 

 ciently probable for you. The truth is, that 

 whenever you assume consciousness in a being 

 other than yourself, you infer this consciousness 

 from certain outward analogies that you find 



