go Life and Matter [chap. v. 



become prominent at a certain stage in the 

 evolutionary process. 



How it all arose is a legitimate problem 

 for genetic psychology, but to the plain man 

 it is a puzzle ; our ancestors invented legends 

 to account for it legends of apples and 

 serpents and the like ; but the fact is there, 

 however it be accounted for. The truth 

 embedded in that old Genesis legend is deep ; 

 it is the legend of man's awakening from a 

 merely animal life to consciousness of good 

 and evil, no longer obeying his primal 

 instincts in a state of thoughtlessness and 

 innocency a state in which deliberate vice 

 was impossible and therefore higher and 

 purposed goodness also impossible, it was 

 the introduction of a new sense into the 

 world, the sense of conscience, the power of 

 deliberate choice ; the power also of con- 

 scious guidance, the management of things 

 and people external to himself, for pre- 

 conceived ends. Man was beginning to 

 cease to be merely a passenger on the planet, 

 controlled by outside forces ; it is as if the 



