14 INTRODUCTORY 



them, or, so to speak, contains them. But Life 

 is distributed amongst plants and animals that 

 are separated from one another by lifeless space. 

 Each individual experiences an environment of 

 its own : lives its own life, which differs, if by 

 ever so little, from that of other individuals of 

 the same species. Connected with other indivi- 

 duals by descent, it shares their instincts ; but it is 

 itself a separate focus of life which is capable of 

 evolving new developments. Its isolation enables 

 it to concentrate the vague feeling of awareness 

 which arises in sensitive cells that are touched 

 by an impression. Consciousness springs from the 

 convergence of these microscopic rootlets of 

 sensation, and flowers in the marvel of self-con- 

 scious personality. The independence which 

 comes from separation fosters the development of 

 a power of willing primarily an indefinite capri- 

 ciousness of choice; in man, however fettered by con- 

 vention and habit, a faculty of judgment by which 

 he may follow the good and eschew the evil. 



It may be hard to believe that the lowliest of 

 living organisms possess the germs, however 

 rudimentary, of consciousness, personality, and 

 will. We can judge of the mind, so to speak, 

 of these organisms only by observing their con- 

 duct, and any conclusions must be in great 

 degree speculative. But there is good reason to 

 hold that sensation, in however humble a form, 

 involves a feeling, as well as a recording, and 

 differs in this respect from such chemical reactions 

 as result, for instance, from the influence of light. 

 And the directions of instinct, closely though they 

 may govern, cannot provide for every possible 

 contingency of experience ; they must leave some 

 scope, however small, for choice that is to say, 

 for the exercise of judgment or of volition. The 

 microscopic amoeba displays an activity which is 



