MENTAL FUNCTION 401 



which all these experiences could be summarized, systematized, and 

 recalled at any future time for the benefit of the organism. Minot's 

 formula for this fact is that consciousness dischronates the products of 

 experience. It does more than this, however, for it combines them, 

 allows or causes them to interact and so produce results often entirely 

 new and of the utmost use in the evolution of humanity. 



Without consciousness human life were well-nigh inconceivable. It 

 could have no interest either to God or to man, would be nothing more 

 than a self-repairing and self-reproducing material process, part of the 

 inert universe of matter which is dead and meaningless. There would 

 be no persisting unity in this automatic mechanism without conscious- 

 ness in its sensory aspects our very feet would be foreign bodies to us. 

 In fact, we could not speak of "our" or "us" at all, for there would be no 

 unity, or if a material unity could be maintained, there would be nothing 

 to lend it value, no self-consciousness, no significant human life. It is 

 only from such points of view as these that we can mention certain 

 "functions" of consciousness. 



Certain General Characteristics of the Mental Process. When we closely 

 observe for a time the stream of consciousness as it passes in our expe- 

 rience we find at least three conspicuous characteristics which are 

 universal (James). 



We shall be most strongly impressed perhaps with the continual 

 changefulness of the content of this passing "stream." Indeed, if we 

 examine closely or think over the nature of that which "passes through 

 our minds" for say one minute, we are apt to be struck with the fact 

 that although similar experiences may recur meanwhile, the same 

 thought for example, twice, these are never twice exactly alike. There 

 is perpetual change here as elsewhere in Nature and especially in organic 

 life. We never actually experience anything more than this process, 

 this ever-changing yet persistent conscious tide, now narrow and swift, 

 now broader and gentle and slow. This changefulness seems to be 

 dependent all the while on the changing bodily life although perhaps 

 we never can discover exactly how. If the mental process has one con- 

 stant characteristic it is this of constant change, and "nought is constant 

 in the world but change." 



Because the bodily life is similarly in "perpetual flux," in continual 

 molecular and molar movement, it is natural to say that the former 

 changefulness is in some way related to the latter changefulness just as 

 a sensation involves movements in a sense-organ and in certain nerves 

 and centers. One need only look backward and review the functions 

 of the organism to appreciate that material movement and activity are 

 universal in them. Protoplasm itself is largely water in order that its 

 essential function, adapted and varied activity, may be carried out. 

 Anabolism and katabolism everywhere go hand in hand and both have 

 as their essence none other than molecular change. Into all the sense- 

 organs is continually pouring a stream of stimuli, which are themselves 

 activity and which produce activity in every portion of the nervous 

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