44 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



these data. So far as we discover exact correspondence 

 with any human function, e.g. consciousness, we shall not 

 hesitate to ascribe the same mechanism to an animal. But 

 this is a secondary inference always dependent on the 

 establishment of a definite mode of correlation, always 

 open to an element of doubt, at any rate as to details, and 

 fortunately of quite subordinate importance to our general 

 purpose. The reader must understand generally that 

 where we use terms involving consciousness of an animal 

 we mean to allege a function corresponding in its causes 

 and effects to the function in man described by those terms. 

 Though we may reasonably presume such a function to be 

 in itself similar to a conscious process of our own, this 

 presumption will not form a premise in our reasoning. 



Lastly, it must be remarked that correlation in order to 

 be fully understood has often to be viewed under more 

 than one aspect. Here is a series of acts directed to a 

 particular end. We may describe the way in which they 

 are correlated for that purpose without looking beyond the 

 acts themselves. But if we ask how the adaptation came 

 about we may have to look to the past experience of the 

 individual and even to that of the race. This is another 

 aspect of correlation. It is through the peculiar character 

 of the organism which preserves the effect of the past that 

 the adaptation in question has come about. The past may 

 be conceived as acting on the present in the sense that it is 

 represented by certain internal forces which co-operate with 

 present conditions to produce the given adaptation. We 

 may speak of this within the terms of our definition as a 

 correlation of the present and past, and the exact way in 

 which past and present are correlated is one of the distinc- 

 tive marks of a given stage or form of activity. Again > 

 while all correlation is directed to the future in the sense 

 that it is such as to produce a result of interest to the 

 organism, what that future is, how far it extends, and 

 generally how the present activity is correlated with it, 

 are questions on which a great deal turns. Thus at each 

 stage, whether we are examining what passes in conscious- 

 ness or what is effected by consciousness, we shall have 

 always to ask what precisely is the nature of the correlation 



