CONSCIOUSNESS AND VOLITION 13 



and manner of life of different kinds of living 

 creatures manifests a corresponding diversity of 

 instinctive promptings. The workings of directive 

 instinct exhibit extreme variety, although they 

 are generally uniform throughout the individuals 

 of a species. The similarity of blackbirds', or of 

 chaffinches', nests is a familiar illustration. But 

 each of the principal impulsive instincts of man- 

 kind can be followed down the animal kingdom 

 by traces which, coming to the surface here and 

 there, appear to witness to an underlying uni- 

 formity a continuity in germ if not in develop- 

 ment which acknowledges the fundamental 

 relationship of all living creatures. 



Consciousness and Volition. In the strongest 

 contrast to instinct stand the faculties of con- 

 sciousness and volition. To an organism whose 

 behaviour is directed by instinct, it means nothing 

 that an experience is new, or is familiar : it 

 learns nothing, and has no need of learning. 

 Consciousness and volition, on the contrary, are 

 essentially means of drawing profit from experi- 

 ence : they may mislead us, whereas instinct is 

 infallible within its own province ; but error is an 

 incident of liberty, and these faculties, in their 

 fullest development, open to man possibilities of 

 freedom which the directing force of instinct 

 would have kept closed against him. 



In the uniformity of instinct we may see a reflec- 

 tion of the continuity ol Life. Consciousness and 

 volition emphasize, on the other hand, Life's indi- 

 viduality : they could scarcely have been developed 

 had not Life been broken up into separate parcels 

 had it not been divided, that is to say, between 

 a number of different individual beings. The 

 forces of gravity, of electricity, are ubiquitous : 

 there is no spot on the earth but is subject to 



