CONSCIOUSNESS IN EVOLUTION. 393 



are they to be true of animals ? If man be unconscious of the 

 process during the performance of some of his most complex acts, 

 how much more probable is it that animals are so while pursuing 

 the narrower circle of their simpler ones ? Yet animals are not 

 devoid of consciousness ; indeed, it is scarcely credible that any 

 one should deny to them consciousness, after exjoerience in their 

 education. 



But let these automatic acts be ever so simple or complex, it is 

 here claimed that they could not have origmated out of conscious- 

 ness. Whatever we call voluntary acts in ourselves undoubtedly 

 have to be learned. The acquisition of the primary act of walking 

 is accomplished by a slow and painful education ; while knitting 

 and other manual exercises necessarily require preliminary train- 

 ing, some of shorter, others of longer, duration. This is true of 

 such voluntary acts as we perform most readily automaticall}^, and 

 such as might be supposed to be most probably acquired by heredi- 

 tary transmission, as for instance speaking. The case is the same 

 with animals. All those services which are useful to us, or tricks 

 which amuse us, are acquired at the expense of training, which 

 involves a system of stimuli, consisting of rewards and punish- 

 ments, as in our own species. Is there any reason to suppose that 

 those habits which we observe them to possess in a state of nature 

 have had a different origin ? 



It is incontrovertible that a regular succession of muscular 

 movements may be committed to memory as certainly as a color 

 or a shape, and that a change of brain substance, such as causes 

 the retention of the simple impression, is also involved in the 

 retention of the complex. When this machinery is completed, 

 through the repetition of conscious stimulus, it works thenceforth 

 without necessary intervention of consciousness. The conscious- 

 ness may then be engaged in fresh acquisitions, accomplishing new 

 organizations, thus accumulating a store of powers. Once organ- 

 ized, these powers are at the disposal of their possessor, yet the 

 organized machine will at some time undergo change, if not more 

 or less frequently used. Without use it may indeed finally disap- 

 pear, showing that the caj)acity for organization is identical with 

 a facility of disorganization. 



III. THE ORIGII^ OF AUTOMATIC MOYEMEJ^TS. 



Is any habit originated in unconsciousness ? Those who affirm 

 this proposition point to the movements of plants in the extension 



