i EXPERIENCE AND REALITY 247 



not articulately so as to correlate relevant point with point. 

 The whole history of the growth of mind as traced by Com- 

 parative Psychology, turns on the relation of the conscious 

 life to these underlying forces, and from one point of view 

 the course of development may be said to consist in the 

 steps by which they are brought into consciousness, and 

 that again means in the end the steps by which they are 

 distinguished, analysed and so articulately compared and 

 brought into relation. We have, in fact, seen in the course 

 of our brief sketch how each new stage may be regarded 

 as the coming to light of some factor which was before 

 working in the dark, the rendering explicit of that which 

 was logically implied. The shrinking feeling that is not 

 yet a distinct anticipation of pain, is yet, for the onlooker, 

 a testimony to the pain that has actually been felt and has 

 left its mark. The inference, the practical adaptation of an 

 act to a purpose, for which no logical justification could be 

 given, implies the operation of that which, if it were con- 

 scious, would be recognised as a general conception, and 

 the operation of general conceptions rests on rational pre- 

 suppositions which only the highest stage of reflection 

 brings to the surface. Thus in every stage of conscious 

 development there are at work forces of which an explicit 

 account is given only at the next stage, and as the stage 

 advances these forces become dimly conscious. Darkly 

 and obscurely they rise on the fringe of the lighted area, 

 and their development into explicit ideas is capable of 

 being traced. So in the history of human thought reasons 

 can be found ex post facto for customs and beliefs for which 

 those who held them would give no reason or a wrong one. 

 Magical beliefs incorporate sound social ideas, and the 

 religions teach duties and inspire ideals which are often 

 justified by the reason which rejects the dogmas that first 

 taught them. The working of the unconscious does not 

 cease as the sphere of the rational advances. If the area 

 of our knowledge extends, its line of contact with the 

 unknown is also widened, and we cross the frontier not less 

 often, though with greater caution and perhaps with more 

 fruitful result. The more thought becomes conscious of 

 itself the more clearly it must realise the limited extent of 



