8 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



stimulus into motor activity. We think of perception in 

 this- way :. a stimulus falling upon a receptor organ is 

 transmitted along an afferent nerve tract to the brain, 

 and there are alternative paths for it. There is 

 hesitation, deliberation, and finally choice, and the 

 stimulus is transmitted along the efferent, motor path 

 chosen and sets up some movements. The deliberation 

 and choice of a path during the intermediate members 

 of this series constitute our perception, with of course all 

 other mental operations, comparison with the results of 

 experience for instance. Perception then arises from 

 our power of acting deliberately on our environment, 

 that is to say, it accompanies the efforts made by the 

 organism to acquire mastery over inert matter. All our 

 science then, that is to say all our knowledge of the 

 universe arises, not from speculative thought but as the 

 preception that attends our action on the universe. We 

 think intellectually in order that we may act ; and when 

 we speak of a material universe consisting of molecules 

 and atoms and energy and radiation, we are speaking of 

 a continuum which has been cut up along the lines which 

 indicate our actual or potential powers of action. The 

 intellect has thus evolved space and materiality, or rathei 

 space and materiality are the same thing as the evolution 

 of intelligent acting, and are relative to the manner of 

 working of the intellect. But intelligence is not all, for 

 we find by psychological analysis that we act and think 

 intuitively, that is we know things and do things 

 otherwise than by a process of pure reasoning; and 

 though our knowledge is mainly intellectual, it is, 

 nevertheless, surrounded by a fringe of intuition. 

 Mechanism and materiality and space are then only 

 what our intelligent acting have isolated from the 

 absolute of which we are parts, and these concepts are 



