THE COMPOSITION OF MIND 



and unlikeness between primary states of con- 

 sciousness. Given the power of recognizing two 

 feelings or conscious states as like each other, 

 and two other feelings or conscious states as 

 unlike each other, and we have the primordial 

 process in the manifold compounding of which 

 all operations of intelligence consist. Let us now 

 take into the account the universally admitted 

 fact that consciousness is rendered possible only 

 by ceaseless change of state — that a uniform 

 state of consciousness is in no respect different 

 from complete unconsciousness. If our minds 

 were to become spellbound, like the palace of 

 the Sleeping Beauty, all our thoughts and feel- 

 ings remaining fixed in statu quo, our conscious 

 existence would be practically at an end. For 

 consciousness to exist at all, it is necessary that 

 a given state should be followed by a different 

 state. But this is not all that is required. A 

 succession of feelings, of which no two were 

 alike, would not give rise to consciousness, since 

 the recognition of any feeling implies its classi- 

 fication with some antecedent like feeling. Con- 

 sciousness, therefore, " is not simply a succession 

 of changes, but an orderly succession of changes 

 — a succession of changes combined and arranged 

 in special ways." Thus we reach the law of the 

 Composition of Mind. Since intelligence can- 

 not arise or continue unless consciousness is 

 continually passing from one state into a differ- 



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