LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS 107 



with less precision. Now, without doubt, in our- 

 selves consciousness is bound up with a brain in 

 some way, but as we descend in the animal scale 

 we see the brain become more and more simpli- 

 fied (as also does the whole nervous system), and 

 then the nervous centres separate from each other, 

 until finally the nervous elements are merged in 

 the mass of undifferentiated living tissue. Now, 

 is it not probable that if, at the top of the organic 

 scale, clear and distinct consciousness is bound 

 up with a brain and a highly differentiated 

 nervous system, consciousness accompanies this 

 system the whole length of the descent, and that 

 ultimately, when the nervous substance is merged 

 in the rest of living matter, consciousness itself is 

 diffused in the whole of this mass : diffused, con- 

 fused, weakened, but not reduced to nothing? 

 So that, in the end, consciousness might exist in 

 Nature wherever there is living matter. At least, 

 it is not impossible. But is it actually the case? 

 I believe it would be going too far, and here is a 

 fresh line of considerations which will, I think, 

 lead us to limit this conclusion to a certain degree. 

 We have just said that in the conscious being 

 that we know best namely, man consciousness 

 appears in some way to be bound up with a brain. 

 Since in this case it is through a brain that the 

 consciousness works, and since the work is thus 

 performed with the greatest precision, let us 

 glance at the brain, and ask ourselves what are its 

 most obvious functions. The brain, as you 



