oincides singularly with the famous maxim of Spinoza:
_Unaquaeque res, quantum in se est, in suo esse perseverare conatur._

The consciousness which accompanies volitional action is derived from
the common feeling which an organism has, as the result of all its parts
deriving their nutrition from the same centre. Rising into the sphere of
emotions, this at first muscular sensation becomes "self-feeling." The
Individual is another name for the boundaries of reflex action.

Through memory and consciousness we reach that function of the mind
called the intellect or reason, the product of which is _thought_. Its
physical accompaniments are chemical action, and an increase of
temperature in the brain. But the sum of the physical forces thus
evolved is not the measure of the results of intellectual action. These
differ from other forms of force in being incommensurate with extension.
They cannot be appraised in units of quantity, but in quality only. The
chemico-vital forces by which a thought rises into consciousness bear
not the slightest relation to the value of the thought itself. It is
here as in those ancient myths where an earthly maiden brings forth a
god. The power of the thought is dependent on another test than physical
force, to wit, its _truth_. This is measured by its conformity to the
laws of right reasoning, laws clearly ascertained, which are the common
basis of all science, and to which it is the special province of the
science of logic to give formal expression.

Physical force itself, in whatever form it appears, is only known to us
as feeling or as thought; these alone we know to be real; all else is at
least less real.[18-1] Not only is this true of the external world, but
also of that assumed something, the reason, the soul, the ego, or the
intellect. For the sake of convenience these words may be used; but it
is well to know that this introduction of something that thinks, back
of thought itself, is a mere figure of speech. We say, "_I_ think," as
if the "I" was something else than the thinking. At most, it is but the
relation of the thoughts. Pushed further, it becomes the limitation of
thought by sensation, the higher by the lower. The Cartesian maxim,
_cogito ergo sum_, has perpetuated this error, and the modern philosophy
of the _ego_ and _non-ego_ has prevented its detection. A false reading
of self-consciousness led to this assumption of "a thinking mind." Our
personality is but the perception o