II

CONSCIOUS DETERMINATION

Conscious determination, or, effort induced by conscious volition, is
the basic mental operation upon which is reared that complex psychical
structure which is to be found in the higher animals, and especially in
man--the highest product of evolutionary development.

By conscious volition is not meant that consciousness which appertains
to the child of two or three years, who, at that age, recognizes the
_ego_. Ego-knowledge, while undoubtedly present in some of the higher
animals, such as the dog, monkey, horse, cat, etc., is not a factor in
the psychical make-up of any of the lower animals (insects, crustaceans,
mollusks, etc.). But consciousness, so far as volition or choice is
concerned, enters into the _psychos_ of animals exceedingly low in the
scale of animal life.

We have seen in the chapter on the senses in the lower animals, that
animals possess one or all of the five senses--touch, taste, smell,
sight, and hearing; we will see in a later chapter that some of them
likewise possess certain other senses which man has lost in the process
of evolution.

Now, let us very briefly discuss the _modus operandi_ through which and
by which conscious determination and other psychical manifestations
arise from the physical basis--the senses.[23] I have asserted, and, as
I believe, I have demonstrated elsewhere, the interdependence and
correlation of physiology and psychology. Furthermore, I wish to be
plainly understood as also asserting the physical basis and origin of
all psychical operations whatever they may be.

[23] "Sensorial impression is at the bottom of all our ideas, all our
conceptions, though it may at first conceal itself in the form of a
binary, ternary, quaternary compound; and, on our methodically
pursuing the inquiry, it is easily recognizable--just as a simple
substance in organic chemistry may be always summoned to appear, if we
sit down with the resolution to disengage it from all the artificial
combinations which hold it imprisoned."--LUYS, _The Brain and its
Functions_, p. 252.

Mind is always associated, according to our experience and knowledge
(and this question must be studied objectively) with a peculiar tissue
which is only to be found in animal organisms. This tissue is called
nerve, and is made up of cells and, broadly speaking, prolongations of
cells which are called nerve-fibres.

Certain accumulations of nerve-cells called ganglion