CONSCIOUSNESS AND REASON 139 



of a rat hunt : an idol, to a savage, is the deity 

 itself. With the discovery that words could 

 be employed as transferable signs it became 

 possible to form a language. But men took 

 time to appreciate the usefulness of words as 

 representing objects. At a time when Rome had 

 long been founded, land could only be transferred 

 by handing over a clod from its surface. Without 

 the use of words the processes of reason could 

 never have outgrown their primitive stage, for 

 it is only by words that properties are distin- 

 guished are, so to speak, mounted for examina- 

 tion. How could we consider the intricacies of 

 logic if our ideas of them were only to be ex- 

 pressed by gestures ? 



Not less momentous have been the conse- 

 quences of the discernment of properties upon the 

 material practical life of man. It has enabled 

 him to invent tools and machines. A stone, with 

 which he has killed an adversary, is perceived to 

 be of value not as a stone but as a missile, and 

 the way is open for discovering other missiles. 

 So have been invented the appliances which man 

 has turned against Nature to limit her tyranny, 

 converting her wildernesses into fields, and her 

 fibres and timber into clothing and houses : so 

 also the weapons which man has fashioned for the 

 destruction of his fellow-men. 



In the light of consciousness our instincts also 

 become amenable to analysis. We can dissect 

 our emotions, and compare them, estimating, for 

 instance, how far our conduct is actuated by sel- 

 fish and how far by social motives. Our vague 

 aesthetic and ethical impulses are dissolved, 

 refined, and crystallized into systems of art and 

 morals. We can also observe and appraise our 

 habits. Consciousness, then, provides the will 

 with the material that it requires for the exercise 



