xvii STAGES OF CORRELATION 399 



mechanism. In its earliest forms this appears in the 

 relation established between the act and the present con- 

 ditions of the organism. The crudest instance is the 

 maintenance of action, with repeated reversals and varia- 

 tions under the influence of some persistent stimulus. 

 This behaviour tends at last to bring relief, and may be 

 regarded as determined, in an indefinite or negative 

 fashion, by its tendency, since it is the discomfort of the 

 present that excites action and maintains it at high 

 tension while the failure to give relief causes its reversal 

 and modification. In the sensori-motor action we found 

 a more definite direction given to effort. Various circum- 

 stances and movements are uniquely correlated in the act 

 of attention and (if we exclude ideas) we must regard 

 the sense of approximation to the result as the factor main- 

 taining the appropriate action and inhibiting deviations. 



The result thus indirectly determining action (as the 

 point to which the conation tends) is the performance of 

 some function in the life of the organism. In our con- 

 sciousness it is that which at the moment satisfies. Where 

 one object is attained, others come into view, and in 

 certain cases a train of objects may be formed leading up 

 to some total result. Such a line of behaviour may be 

 laid down by the hereditary structure of the organism, 

 and the enduring interest which governs it is called an 

 Instinct. In Instinct then successive conations are corre- 

 lated so as to secure some ultimate result, i.e., to subserve 

 some organic function, but this correlation, so far as it is 

 purely instinctive, is not effected by consciousness. The 

 instinct at any given stage arouses interest in the object 

 appropriate at that stage and conative consciousness is 

 limited to the achievement of that object. In so far as 

 remoter aims come into view and intermediate stages 

 losing their independent interest are treated merely as 

 means, a higher factor of correlation comes into play and 

 we pass from the sphere of pure Instinct into the stage 

 in which Instinct is merged with Intelligence. 



So far, then, consciousness as such effects a correlation 

 of present conditions. Acting under correlations deter- 

 mined by heredity, it serves to make these more plastic 



