314 THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR 
consciousness of insects, birds, and mammals. Their bright, 
scented, nectar-bearing flowers, and their sweet, coloured fruits 
are means of effecting the biological ends of fertilization and 
the dissemination of seeds, but only on condition that their 
colours stimulate the sense of sight, and their scent and sweet- 
ness the senses of smell and taste. It is, perhaps, going too 
far to claim that, wherever sense-organs exist they imply at 
least some dim and rudimentary form of conscious situation of 
guiding value so far as it goes; for it is possible that in some 
cases the coalescence of elementary items of sentience has not 
been carried far enough to justify us in speaking of experience 
by which the animal can profit. But it is surely not going too 
far to claim that, wherever two or three such sense-organs are 
gathered together in any living being, there is consciousness in 
the midst of them, beginning to exercise that guidance which 
serves so markedly to differentiate the typical animal from the 
typical plant. 
But throughout the animal kingdom, until we reach its 
highest development in man, the guidance of consciousness, 
important as it is, seems to be almost wholly subservient to a 
biological end, that of the preservation of the race, and for the 
race of the individual. Practical utility is the touchstone of 
animal intelligence, and of the whole range of feeling and 
emotion in beings still under examination in the stern school 
of natural selection. By this we mean that practical utility has 
determined what degree and complexity of intelligence, feeling, 
and emotion shall be attained. If the requisite level be not 
attained—elimination. Higher levels no doubt bring advan- 
tage—-so long as they are practically useful. But in the school 
of natural selection useless accomplishments are not much 
taught. Although its examinations are in a sense compe- 
titive, all are allowed to pass who qualify for survival. But 
the competitors become more numerous and the standard for a 
pass rises. As the school increases in size higher classes with 
harder problems to solve are established. Progress is an inci- 
dent of the constant survival of the fittest when there are 
variations in fitness, 
