Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 12.djvu/524

 THE PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 511 and most complete mental development of mankind, its perfect consummation and bliss, is that in which even consciousness lapses. V. The traditional opinion entertained of the leading part played by consciousness in mental function has been an insuperable bar to true observation and appreciation of that which the nervous system can and does accomplish of itself without any help of consciousness. Viewing matters from the central standpoint of consciousness it has been impossible to see what, and hard to conceive that anything, takes place outside its light ; wherefore it has been thought actually to do the work which it only makes known the doing of : reason is not deemed to be reason at all, although the work of reason be done, unless it is illuminated : what is done without consciousness is denied anything in common with that which is done with consciousness, although the effect, so far as appears, be actually the same. Now what is the fundamental quality of reason? It is essentially the just feeling of a fact or object and the fit reaction to it the right apprehension or grasping of it ; which means in further result the classification of such apprehensions or cognitions where several are possible and the consequent foresight of effect from cause, of means to end, of purposive action. There is not a single living creature which, whether it knows it or not, does not, in so far as it lives and moves and keeps up its being, evince the fundamental quality of reason. Its nervous system, if it possess one, is the mechanism con- structed to minister to that function, embodying implicitly in structure that which it displays explicitly in action. As nervous organisations multiply and vary in form with the multiplication and varieties of animals, each form embodies the special sensibilities and motor reactions which subserve the life-interests of the creature possessing it ; it is the incorporation of certain limited tracks of implicit reason, which cannot, because of the absence of other nervous tracks, be attended with any reflective consciousness are necessary, self-sufficing. Instinct means organised experi- ence and is virtually unilluminated reason, unconscious intelligence ; while reason is instinct in the making, adapta- tion in course of accomplishment, a process of informing or information. Reason might in fact be defined as desire or impulse seeking the means of its accomplishment ; instinct as the accomplishment of desire or impulse by means that are preformed. An instinctive creature is a creature in-