LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS in 



We have not yet the answer to this question, it 

 is true; but we are getting near it. For if con- 

 sciousness implies choice, and choice amongst 

 various possible actions, consciousness will not 

 be found presumably in organisms that do not 

 possess the power of free action the power, con- 

 sequently, to choose between several actions. In 

 very truth, I believe no living organism is abso- 

 lutely without the faculty of performing actions 

 and moving spontaneously; for we see that even 

 in the vegetable world, where the organism is for 

 the most part fixed to the ground, the faculty of 

 motion is asleep rather than absent altogether. 

 Sometimes it wakes up, just when it is likely to 

 be useful. Therefore, in principle, this faculty 

 of spontaneous motion probably exists in every 

 living thing; but, in actual fact, many organisms 

 have given it up, as, for example, the numerous 

 animals living as parasites on other organisms, 

 and thus able to get their food on the spot, and 

 again, almost the entire vegetable kingdom. It 

 seems probable, therefore, and this is my last 

 word on the point, that consciousness is in prin- 

 ciple present in all living matter, but that it is 

 dormant or atrophied wherever such matter re- 

 nounces spontaneous activity, and on the contrary 

 that it becomes more intense, more complex, more 

 complete, just where living matter trends most in 

 the direction of activity and movement. Observe 

 that this is a point we can experience in ourselves. 

 Precisely as our actions cease to be spontaneous 



