288 DEVELOPMENT AND PURPOSE CHAP. 



as the sphere of consciousness extends, it establishes a 

 harmony in which feeling is the pivotal point. . 



ii. The conditions (whether in the constitution of the 

 individual or in the environment) under which conscious- 

 ness at any stage subsists prescribe the general direction of 

 its activity, except in so far as these conditions have them- 

 selves come within the grasp of consciousness. As between 

 any distinct centres of consciousness (whether in different 

 individuals or in the same individual at different times and 

 in different relations) there is no necessary organic connec- 

 tion, and the aims of conscious activity are correspondingly 

 discordant. 



iii. The development of consciousness in its principal 

 phases has as its basis an enlargement and a redirection of 

 activity depending on the absorption into the body of 

 consciousness of some of the conditions which have previ- 

 ously operated upon consciousness from without. The 

 effect of this change is in each case an extension of 

 harmony. 



iv. Conditions which, under the selective action of con- 

 sciousness, become conducive to harmony limit its action 

 and thwart its development as long as they remain outside 

 its grasp. Among them the most important is the exist- 

 ence of distinct centres of consciousness, which, until they 

 are brought into relation, have discordant aims and cancel 

 each other's efforts. 



v. In the highest stage the redirection which occurs lies 

 in the systematic effort to absorb the entire conditions of 

 development itself. If this were successful there would 

 be no c external ' conditions left to operate. The sources 

 of disorganisation would be removed, and orderly progress 

 would be assured by the complete harmony of interacting 

 parts. 



vi. Thus at any stage there exist conditions of further 

 growth which need a further condition to complete them, 

 viz. that they should be understood. If it be admitted 

 that Mind has arrived at the point at. which the conception 

 of development becomes the basis of its operation, we have 

 the pre-existing (hitherto external) conditions completed by 

 the new condition that they are recognised, and we are, 



