412 METAPHYSICAL EYOLUTIOI^. 



II. THE OFFICE OF COKSCIOUSi^ESS. 



If the law of modification of structure by use and effort be 

 true, it is evident that consciousness or sensibility must play an 

 important part in evolution. This is because movements of ani- 

 mals are plainly in part controlled by their conscious states. The 

 question as to how many of the actions of animals are due to con- 

 scious states at once arises. It is well known that most of the 

 more strictly vital functions are unconsciously performed. Not 

 only these, but many acts which have to be learned come to be 

 performed in unconsciousness. Further, movements appropriate 

 to needs which arise at the moment, and which are ordinarily 

 termed voluntary, because they require the introduction of more 

 or less of the rational faculty, are readily performed by verte- 

 brated animals deprived of a brain, through the agency of the 

 spinal cord alone.* The history of the origin of these movements 

 must then be traced. 



The movements of living beings generally possess the pecul- 

 iarity of design, in which they differ from the movements of non- 

 living bodies. That is, their actions have some definite reference 

 to their well-being or pleasure, or their preservation from injury 

 or pain, and are varied with circumstances as they arise. This is 

 not the case with non-living bodies, which move regardless of 

 their integrity or of that of objects near them. This characteris- 

 tic at once suggests that some element enters into them which is 

 wanting to the movements of non-living masses. It has been 

 suggested that the attraction of animals for their food and their 

 repulsion from pain are derivatives from the attractions and repul- 

 sions of inorganic bodies, supposed to be the exhibitions of the 

 force called chemism. But this supposition does not explain the 

 wide difference between the two classes of acts. The adaptation 

 to the environment seen in organic acts is unknown to the inor- 

 ganic world, while the invariable character of the motions of in- 

 organic force is greatly modified in beings possessed of life. 

 Whether consciously performed or not, the acts of organic beings 

 resemble those of conscious beings actuated by instincts of hunger, 

 reproduction, and defense. 



An explanation of these facts seems to be offered by a well- 



* Such expressions as " unconscious sensibility " and " unconscious will " are not 

 used here, as being self -contradictory in terms and without meaning. 



