56 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



unconscious. We see, we watch closely, and then we strike 

 and hit the mark. What is correlated in consciousness is 

 a mass of percepts, the ball coming towards us, its successive 

 movements, the ground, the position of men in the field, 

 and some elements perhaps of our own motions in raising 

 the bat. The result is a boundary hit, of the mechanism 

 of which at the moment we can give no account, while if 

 we try to attend to it, it only distracts us. It goes off in 

 accordance with the structure furnished by heredity or by 

 experience or by both combined, stable enough to give 

 results of the right type, plastic enough to respond to the 

 particular combination of impressions which consciousness 

 effects. The function of consciousness in sensori-motor 

 action is not to correlate the present with the past or the 

 future, but to correlate the data of the present with one 

 another in a way which effects a corresponding correlation 

 of the functions of pre-existing structure, whether that 

 structure were formed entirely by heredity or in part by 

 experience. What is effected in consciousness is a union of 

 sense data governing a conation. What is effected by this 

 union is the adjustment of general tendencies to given 

 variations in individual cases. Conversely, where we find 

 such adjustment as a regular incident of life, we are justified 

 in attributing it to consciousness, since consciousness is for 

 us essentially the organ for effecting novel and unique 

 combinations. Sensori-motor action then is probably the 

 earliest verifiable function of consciousness, as it is certainly 

 one of the most widespread. 1 



(3) Instinct. 



We have conceived sensori-motor response as governed 

 by the needs of the moment rather than the future. It 



1 What sort of awareness an amoeba may have of its prey we cannot 

 tell, but no one can read Mr. Jennings' account of an amoeba hunt 

 without receiving the strong impression that the behaviour is of sensori- 

 motor type. It is of course possible that analysis may ultimately resolve 

 it into a series of type actions, in which the peculiar combination is due 

 to the successive actions of the prey, but as it stands the evidence is all 

 the other way. So far as our information goes then consciousness must 

 be carried down to the lowest animal types. 



