i6o THE ASCENT OF MAN 



believe that his mind differs generically from my 

 own." ^ 



Should anyone feel it necessary either to his 

 view of Man or of the Universe to hold that a 

 great gulf lies here, it is open to him to cling to 

 his belief. The present thesis is simply that Man 

 has ascended. After all, little depends on whether 

 the slope is abrupt or gentle, whether Man reaches 

 the top by a uniform flight or has here and there 

 by invisible hands to be carried across a bridgeless 

 space. In any event it is Nature's staircase. To 

 say that self-consciousness has arisen from sensa- 

 tion, and sensation from the function of nutrition, 

 let us say, in the Mimosa pudica or Sensitive Plant, 

 may be right or wrong; but the error can only 

 be serious when it is held that that accounts either 

 for self-consciousness or for the transition. Mimosa 

 can be defined in terms of Man ; but Man cannot 

 be defined in terms of Mimosa. The first is pos- 

 sible because there is the least fraction in that 

 which is least in Man of that which is greatest in 

 Mimosa; the last is impossible because there is 

 nothing in Mimosa of that which is greatest in 

 Man. What the two possess in common, or seem 

 to possess, may be a basis for comparison, for 

 what it is worth ; but to include in the compari- 

 * C. Lloyd Morgan, Animal Life and Intelligence , p. 350, 



