222 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



making it an object, and thus whatever comes into con- 

 sciousness, in doing this, exists. Now what is it one 

 perceives thus? It is only the body, and its functions. 

 This does not occur, when the attention is directed to 

 another object e. g. admiring a beautiful landscape. 

 Then the only image on the brain is the object land- 

 scape. There is no possibility while the landscape is 

 the consciousness, that "oneself being conscious" can 

 be any part of the object. But if, for a moment, the 

 attention is diverted from the landscape to the fact of 

 the connection of the individual,' or body, with the con- 

 sciousness of the landscape, then, for that moment, con- 

 sciousness of the landscape ceases and another object 

 viz. : the connexion spoken of above takes its place. The 

 two objects may alternate, but do not exist simultane- 

 ously. When the attention is directed to the introspection, 

 with the object of perceiving the "one's self -being-con- 

 scious ' ' what does he perceive ? Not the process going on 

 in the brain, but the external form of the body only, and 

 that this is connected in some way with the object that 

 was just a moment before imaged on the brain. There 

 is nothing else, that one can perceive, except what is 

 already known as psychology viz. : the relation of the 

 physiology of organism with certain relations in the 

 environment between objects; and this is consciousness. 

 The process of consciousness is never an object, and 

 therefore cannot be perceived. If the body is the self, 

 we are, of course, conscious of it, when the senses are 

 directed to it, but what does not come through the 

 senses, and that is the process of thought, is never a 

 part of consciousness. A self is conscious of itself only 

 to this extent. If a self is anything else than the body, 

 and its functions, of what is it composed and is it pal- 

 pable? 



