ii2 HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURES 



and become automatic, consciousness is with- 

 drawn from them; when we learn a new physical 

 exercise, for example, and have to decide on each 

 of our motions and choose that which is 

 appropriate, we have distinct consciousness of 

 each. As we get used to the exercise and it be- 

 comes automatic, consciousness fades away. 

 Again, when is our consciousness most acute, 

 most intensely alive? Is it not, above all, at 

 those times of internal crisis when we are hesi- 

 tating between several possible actions, several 

 lines of conduct that are equally possible ? Con- 

 sciousness in each of us, then, seems to express 

 the amount of choice, or, if you will, of creation, 

 at our disposal for movements and activity. 

 Analogy authorises us to infer that it is the same 

 in the whole of the organised world. 



Let us consider living matter, then, under its 

 simplest form, as it may have been in the begin- 

 ning : a simple mass of protoplasmic jelly like 

 that of an amoeba. This mass can change its 

 shape at will it is therefore vaguely conscious. 

 Now, in order to develop and evolve, two courses 

 are open to it. Either it may follow the path 

 leading towards movement, action action grow- 

 ing more and more complex, more and more 

 deliberate and free as time goes on : this means 

 adventure and risk, but means also a conscious- 

 ness more and more wide awake and luminous. 

 Or, on the contrary, giving up the faculty of 

 movement and choice that it possesses, even 



