ON THE ORIGIN OF THE WILL. 457 



into the right interspinal motor nerves rather than into those of the left side ? " 

 The conclusion was that this phenomenon can not be explained on purely mechani- 

 cal principles ; but that it required the assumption of the thesis that " energy can 

 be conscious." {Supra, p. 427.) 



Further thought on this subject shows clearly that this conscious state of energy 

 is self-directive in accordance with the lessons of experience, but without being 

 necessarily free in the sense referred to in the preceding essay. In Mammalia the 

 current of energy derived from stimulus, after reaching the cortical cells of the an- 

 terior cerebral lobes, issues from them in a direction appropriate to the needs of 

 the animal, having undergone a deflection or determination within them. This 

 capacity for " design " is peculiar to beings which can be conscious, and constitutes 

 the most important proof in evidence of a degree of control of mind over matter. 

 The evidence strongly suggests that this control is greatest when the environment 

 is simple or generalized, since motives are then relatively simple. 



Note to Catagenesis by the Author, 1886. On p. 434 reference is made to 

 the fact that " in chemical reaction the preference of energy is to create solid pre- 

 cipitates." This fact is but one illustration of the law of thermo-chemistry that 

 *' in any reaction, those bodies, the formation of which gives rise to the greatest de- 

 velopment of heat, are formed in preference to others." This is a retrograde meta- 

 morphosis of energy, or catagenesis. 



