430 METAPHYSICAL EVOLUTION. 



production of mechanism outof no mechanism, of different kinds 

 of energy out of one kind of energy. The material basis of con- 

 sciousness must then be a generalized substance which does not 

 display the more automatic and the polar forms of energy. From 

 a physical standpoint j^rotoplasm is such a substance. Its insta- 

 bility indicates weakness of chemical energy also, which suggests 

 that the complexity of its molecule may be due to some form of 

 energy not properly chemical. The readiness with which it un- 

 dergoes retrograde metamorphosis shows that it is not self-sustain- 

 ing, and furnishes a good illustration of creation of specialized 

 substances by a running down in the scale of being. Loew and 

 Bokorny * suggest that 'Hhe cause of the living movements in 

 protoplasm is to be sought for in the intense atomic movements, 

 and therefore easy metamorphosis of its aldehyde groups of com- 

 ponents " ; the molecular movements becoming molar, to use the 

 language of Lester Ward. The position which I now present re- 

 quires the reversal of the relations of these phenomena. General- 

 ized matter must be supposed to be capable of more varied molecu- 

 lar movements than specialized matter, and it is believed that the 

 most intense of all such movements are those of brain tissue in 

 mental action, which are furthest removed of all from molar move- 

 ments. From this point of view, when molar movements are 

 derived from molecular movements, it is by a process of running 

 down of energy, not of elevation ; by an increase of the distance 

 from mental energy, not an approximation to it. 



The fact that the physical basis of consciousness is composed 

 of four substances, which are respectively a monad, a dyad, a 

 triad, and a tetrad, doubtless has something to do, as I have sug- 

 gested,! with its exhibition of this remarkable attribute. It might 

 be supposed that the presence of carbon had the effect of restrain- 

 ing the chemical and physical molecular tendencies of the three 

 other substances. From this standing-ground we may imagine 

 that other substances besides protoplasm might support conscious- 

 ness and life. In other parts of the universe, other substances 

 they would have to be, if consciousness exist there. 



The manner m which protoplasm is made at the present tinie 

 is highly suggestive. It is manufactured by living plants out of 



* " Die chcmische Kraftquelle in Icbenden Protoplasma." von 0. Loew u. T. Bo- 

 korny, Munich, 1882, L 



t "Penn Monthly," 1875, p. 574. 



