356 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



With regard to the function of consciousness, he 

 says: "The relation of consciousness to the phys- 

 ical basis is as yet a profound mystery, but that they 

 exercise over each other a definite mutual control is 

 unquestionable. The processes which produce 

 thought, as conception, judgment, etc., are however, 

 not qualitatively related to the amount of nutritious 

 proteids consumed in the central nervous system, but 

 only quantitatively; yet it is the outcome of these 

 processes that directs animal movements, when they 

 are not automatic. 



"In other words, the forms of thought, which have 

 no weight, direct the movements of muscles which 

 have weight. This is not in accord with the doctrine 

 of the correlation of energy. But what has the 

 formation of a concept or the development of a 

 judgment to do, per se, with the correlation of en- 

 ergy? 



" While, therefore, every mental process is expen- 

 sive as a whole, the mental content is obedient to 

 the forms of thought rather than to the correlation of 

 energy. This is what mind is." * 



Again, "The formal statement of this phenome- 

 non may be found in the thesis, that energy can be 

 conscious. If true, this is an ultimate fact, neither 

 more nor less difficult to comprehend than the nature 

 of energy or matter in their ultimate analyses. But 

 how is such a hypothesis to be reconciled with the 

 facts of nature, where consciousness plays a part so 

 infinitesimally small? The explanation lies close at 

 hand, and has already been referred to. Energy be- 

 come automatic is no longer conscious, or is about to 

 become unconscious. That this is the case is a mat- 

 ter of every-day observation on ourselves and on 

 other animals. What the molecular conditions of 

 * Page 506. 



