Page:The Science of Religion (1925).djvu/89

Rh self-conscious. In the grades and processes of evolution we see that this consciousness gradually becomes self-consciousness—from animal consciousness self-consciousness arises. The consciousness gradually tries to free itself and tries to know itself by itself, and it is thus changed into self-consciousness. This change is due to an evolutional necessity, and the universal urge toward intellectual pursuits is due to this evolutional tendency. The Spiritual self, identified with various degrees and sorts of bodily and mental states, tries gradually and naturally to return to itself through itself. The development of the conscious thought-process is one of the methods which the Spiritual self adopts to rise above the trammels of body and mind. The effort of the Spiritual self to return to itself—its lost condition—through the development of thought-process is natural. This is the process of the world. The Universal Spirit expresses itself in different grades of develop-