32 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



there are others which do not proceed without it, and are 

 (at lowest) correlated with specific stages of its develop- 

 ment. 



(2) The measure of this development is the area which 

 the conscious life controls. Not only is conscious activity 

 the only ground which we have at the outset for imputing 

 mental activity, but further we may regard conscious- 

 ness as being the organ by which the mind effects cor- 

 relation. Indeed we may go further and say that, what- 

 ever the ultimate truth as to causation, at the level of 

 development which it has reached in human beings, the 

 psycho-physical whole, which we have called the self, does 

 not ordinarily effect new correlation without some con- 

 sciousness of what it is doing. I say not ordinarily. In 

 the body functions best performed and normally performed 

 by one organ may be indirectly and cumbrously brought 

 about by means of others. The skin performs in a rougher 

 way some of the functions which are specifically those of the 

 lung and the kidney, and the organism that has lost the 

 services of any organ makes shift to do without it by 

 bringing up reserves of energy. Yet there is no doubt in 

 this case as to the nature and function of the specific organ. 

 Similarly we shall see in the case of mind that correlation is 

 slowly, indirectly and inefficiently performed outside or 

 partly outside of consciousness, while it becomes swift, 

 direct and efficient in proportion as it enters the conscious 

 area. Thus if a painful experience attends a response of a 

 certain kind at a low grade of consciousness, a fitful, uncer- 

 tain and gradual modification of the response will ensue. 

 At a higher grade the relation of the response to its conse- 

 quence is definitely grasped, and there is an immediate and 

 decisive alteration of behaviour. It is in this sense that 

 consciousness is the organ of correlation. Perhaps the 

 simplest evidence of its specific function is to be seen in 

 methods of correlation which consciousness itself estab- 

 lishes, but which, when rendered thoroughly familiar, need 

 no further consciousness for their execution. This is the 

 familiar experience of our daily habits. We can walk, run, 

 ride a bicycle and so forth without thinking about what 

 we are doing. We all know how that which is learnt with 



