there must often be an adequate mental adjustment prior to the
expression of the physical action. For this reason the value of
consciousness consists in the guidance it affords us in meeting the
demands laid upon us by our surroundings, or environment. This will
become more evident, however, by a brief examination into the nature of
experience itself.


EXPERIENCE

=Its Value.=--In the above example of conscious adjustment it was found
that a new experience arises naturally from an effort to meet some need,
or problem, with which the mind is at the time confronted. Our ideas,
therefore, naturally organize themselves into new experiences, or
knowledge, to enable us to gain some desired end. It was in order to
effect the recovery of the lost coin, for example, that conscious effort
was put forth by the lad to create a mental plan which should solve the
problem. Primarily, therefore, man is a doer and his ideas, or
knowledge, is meant to be practical, or to be applied in directing
action. It is this fact, indeed, which gives meaning and purpose to the
conscious states of man. Hour by hour new problems arise demanding
adjustment; the mind grasps the import of the situation, selects ways
and means, organizes these into an intelligent plan, and directs their
execution, thus enabling us:

Not without aim to go round
In an eddy of purposeless dust.

=Its Theoretic or Intellectual Value.=--But owing to the value which
thus attaches to any experience, a new experience may be viewed as