The Metaphysics of a Naturalist 
31 
interaction up to a certain point call out a sort of response in 
our senses having a likeness imposed by the fact (let us say) 
that they appeal to one organ. Another segment may find no 
access to our sensorium^ and so on. 
Now if these extrinsic reactions are capable of awakening 
various kinds of consciousness in the observer, may it not well 
be that the intrinsic element in each coordinated energic system 
may have a similar power and that it should have a like analytic 
form so that there should be varying forms of genetic modes 
corresponding to the several segments of intrinsic reaction as 
well as in the case of extrinsic reactions? But it must be observed 
that the extrinsic reactions imply intrinsic for their realization. 
In fact it seems that only in the form of intrinsic reactions within 
an equilibrated unit of energy can these genetic modes be formed. 
Among such, consciousness may rank — not simply human con- 
sciousness, but whatever may be possible in the way of intrinsic 
reaction in thing-in-itself. 
The resistance which Professor Herrick postulates as equally 
fundamental with spontaneous energy, is the parent of individ- 
uality.^^ Individuality consists of a particular form of expression of 
the spontaneity through the interfering resistance constituting the 
record of individual evolution. The individual is a segment only 
of a larger arc, the illumined portion of an endless trajectory. 
The basis of unity is found in the vector character of reactions. 
The cyclical processes constituting the individual life are not 
inconsistent with the idea that the individual existence is a 
condition of equilibrium. Just as a gyrating storm may move 
over a given path, its trajectory obeying the general laws of 
cyclones, while the inner motions of the vortex are unaltered 
or attain an independent maximum and minimum; so the life- 
history has its own laws, while the inner life preserves its integrity. 
On the open plains in the western desert a slender column of 
dust rising perhaps 150 feet in the apparently still air may be 
seen slowly moving at the rate at which a man might walk, 
sometimes pursuing a uniform path, at others suddenly turning. 
Sometimes this spectre hastens as though urged by a sudden 
impulse; again it loiters as though unable to make up its mind. 
‘‘The Dynamic Concept of the Individual,” Journal of Philosophy, Psy- 
chology and Scientific Methods, vol. 1,, p. 374, 1904. 
