THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
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larvae of insects and the annelids, and so on upwards till reason 
appears in the higher Crustaceans. Others make out that psychical 
life begins even with living Protoplasm. So that the general 
proposition of these various enquirers would be that in the lowest 
organisms, in which there is no sign of an elementary ganglion, 
there are evidences of some degree of sensibility. 3 Be that as it 
may, the general truth is, that distinct unquestionable sensation 
implies some nervous arrangement \ and the manifoldness of the 
sensational experience will be determined chiefly by the degree to 
which the nerve processes are developed. Any supposed sensibility 
in organisms destitute of distinct nervous structure is to be 
explained on the same principle ; i.e., there is, in such cases, an 
incipient nerve — a condition of organic matter tending to definite 
structure as nerve cell. 
Now, what is important for us to notice is this, that feeling, 
sentiency, psychical Life, or whatever word is used to indicate the 
thing so well known, denotes something sui generis. The most 
elementary feeling in an organism is not a motion, not a molecule, 
not a mechanical or chemical relation between molecules, not 
anything that constitutes the organism a physical thing. In its 
essential nature it is as different as is our sense of Free Personality. 
Mr. Spencer admits that the difference between this subjective 
thing and the objective material transcends all differences known 
to us. The more we look into the question the more we shall 
perceive that between the material organism as such, its motions 
and molecular modifications, on the one side, and the most 
elementary feeling, on the other, there is an impassible gulf. No 
tests applied to the one will avail for the other. No terms to 
express the one will serve to express the other. That, I say, is 
the great fact which has to be accounted for, if possible. Whence 
came this strange visitor in a physical universe 1 And yet there is 
one other fact connected with it almost as remarkable. It is this, 
that this strange elementary consciousness appeared for the first 
time in the history of the world millions and millions of years 
after the physical system had been in existence and in process of 
development. After ages of molecular interaction, and, according 
to some authorities, after Life as an organic form of matter had 
3 Cf. Psychic Life of Micro-organisms, by A. Binet ; and Psycho- 
physiologische Protistin Studien, by Max Verworn. There is a good English 
r endering of Binet's work published in Chicago. 
VOL. X. U 
