universe remains. To make of the brain the condition on which the whole
image depends is a contradiction in terms, since the brain is, by
hypothesis, a part of this image."[Footnote: Matter and Memory, p. 4
(Fr. pp. 3-4).] The data of perception are external images, then my
body, and changes brought about by my body in the surrounding images.
The external images transmit movement to my body, it gives back movement
to them. My body or part of my body, i.e., my brain, could not beget a
whole or part of my representation of the external world. "You may say
that my body is matter or that it is an image--the word is of no
importance. If it is matter, it is a part of the material world, and the
material world consequently exists around it and without it. If it is an
image--that image can give but what has been put into it, and since it
is, by hypothesis, the image of my body only, it would be absurd to
expect to get from it that of the whole universe. My body, an object
destined to move other objects, is then a centre of action; it cannot
give birth to a representation."[Footnote: Matter and Memory, p. 5 (Fr.
p. 4).] The body, however, is privileged, since it appears to choose
within certain limits certain reactions from possible ones. It exercises
a real influence on other images, deciding which step to take among
several which may be possible. It judges which course is advantageous or
dangerous to itself, by the nature of the images which reach it. The
objects which surround my body reflect its possible action upon them.
All our perception has reference, primarily, to action, not to
speculation.[Footnote: Cf. Creative Evolution, p. 313 (Fr. p. 321).] The
brain centres are concerned with motor reaction rather than with
conscious perception, "the brain is an instrument of action and not of
representation."[Footnote: Matter and Memory, p. 83 (Fr. p. 69).]
Therefore, in the study of the problems of perception, the starting-
point should be action and not sensation. All the confusions,
inconsistencies and absurdities of statement, made in regard to our