APPENDIX 357 



consciousness are, is one of the problems of the 

 future, and for us a very interesting one. One thing 

 is certain, the organization of the mechanism of 

 habits is its enemy. It is clear that in animals, ener- 

 gy, on the loss of consciousness, undergoes a retrogade 

 metamorphosis. 



" To regard consciousness as the primitive condi- 

 tion of energy, contemplates an order of evolution in 

 a large degree the reverse of the one which is ordi- 

 narily entertained. The usual view is that life is de- 

 rived from inorganic energies as a result of high or 

 complex molecular organization, and that conscious- 

 ness ( = sensibility) is the ultimate outcome of the 

 nervous or equivalent energy possessed by living 

 bodies. The failure of the attempts to demonstrate 

 spontaneous generation will prove, if continued, fatal 

 to this theory. With our present evidence it may be 

 affirmed that not only has life preceded organiza- 

 tion, but that consciousness was coincident with the 

 dawn of life." 



Again he says: " I think it possible to show that 

 the true definition of life is, energy directed by sensi- 

 bility or by a mechanism which has originated under 

 the direction of sensibility ." * 



The above quotations with regard to final causes, 

 life and its origin, indicate that the author is not a 

 materialist. As to the object of the volume, he says: 



"My aim will be to show, in the first place, that 

 variations of character are the effect of physical 

 causes; and second, that such variations are in- 

 herited." f 



In this view he follows Lamarck. Darwin thought 

 that, for the most part, the causes of variation were 

 unknown. 



The first chapter in the book treats of variation. 



* Page 507. t Page 14. 



