The conditions of mental life--what are they?
1. In man and the higher animals the central nervous system, which,
anatomy teaches us, consists of the brain and spinal cord. (In the
lowest forms of animal life, a diffused nervous system located
throughout the protoplasm.)
2. An external world.
3. A peripheral nervous system connecting the central nervous system
with the outside world.
4. The sympathetic nervous system, provided to assure automatic workings
of the vital functions of the body. These organs of the mind will be
discussed in a later chapter.
CHAPTER II
CONSCIOUSNESS
We took a glimpse at random into the mental life of an adult
consciousness, and found it very complicated, constantly changing. We
found it packed with shifting material, which, on the surface, seemed to
bear very little relation. We found reason, feeling, and will all
interacting. We found nothing to indicate that a consciousness as simple
as mere _awareness_ might exist. We believe there might be such in the
newborn babe, perhaps even in the baby a month old; but can we prove it?
Let us look within again and see if there are not times of mere, bare
consciousness in our own experience that give us the proof we need.
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