290 MAN AND THE WORLD. 



the fact that growth of complexity seems to be the 

 law of Evolution in all things, and might parallel 

 the greater complexity and delicacy of the individual 

 organism by the growing complexity and delicacy 

 of the higher social organism {cp. ch. viii. § 7). For 

 if growth of complexity is a universal law of Evol- 

 ution, there need be no inter-dependence between 

 the manifestations of that law, i.e., no causal relation 

 between the greater complexity of material organ- 

 ization and the development of consciousness. 



Secondly, we may say quite generally, that if the 

 world-process represents a gradual harmonizing of 

 the Deity and the Ego, it must bring with it an 

 increase in the intercourse and interaction between 

 them. Hence the reflex of that interaction in the 

 consciousness of the Ego, viz., the world, would 

 show a parallel development. The greater intensity 

 and the greater number of relations between the 

 Ego and the Deity would generate an intenser 

 consciousness on the one side and a more complex 

 organization on the other. Thus the materialist 

 explanation of the fact would in both these cases be 

 a fallacy of cum hoc ergo propter hoc, and confuse a 

 parallelism due to a common origin with causal 

 dependence. 



These considerations, however, are perhaps insuf- 

 ficient to explain the whole function of Matter in 

 the Evolution of the world, and we must examine 

 rather the part material organization plays in the 

 different organisms. 



In the lowest and simplest forms of life, e.g., proto- 

 plasm, consciousness is reduced to a minimum, and 

 it has no organization to speak of. The protoplasm 

 has to do all its work itself ; the amoeba catches its 

 food consciously and digests it consciously. When 



