CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE WILL 73 



nerve cells mainly in the cerebral cortex. Indeed, 

 I am disposed to regard the mechanism which sub- 

 serves consciousness as the most elaborate of which 

 we have any knowledge or can form any conception. 

 Each nerve cell involved is a center of force connected 

 by physical pathways with numberless other engines 

 of similar type. The number and variety of these 

 engines and the extent of their connections with 

 each other is so large as to make possible a machine 

 of amazing intricacy and almost unlimited dynamic 

 possibilities. To define the limits of the mechanism 

 on which consciousness depends is, of course, impos- 

 sible. One may suspect that the energy of the 

 dynamic discharge from the cellular elements is a 

 factor in determining the grade of consciousness. 

 For we have to recognize every gradation between 

 the psychical states in which a powerful intelligence 

 is most keenly aware of certain events transpiring 

 within the cranium, and that state of dulled con- 

 sciousness in which it is impossible to feel certain 

 that an individual is aware of the distinction between 

 what is self and not-self. That these variations in the 

 distinctness of consciousness depend on the varying 

 individuality and complexity of the cerebral elements 

 that are temporarily associated together and on the 

 variation in the intensity of the discharge from these 

 elements, seems to me the most reasonable explana- 

 tion of these fluctuations in the same person. 



And just here we may pause a moment to ask 

 what we really mean by the word "consciousness." 



