stretching out his hands. Or, on the contrary, I may have been
separately conscious in each little instant; but in the shaken
condition of the brain may not have had power to spare for gluing
together these instants and knitting them into a whole. It may be it
was only memory which failed. I cite the case to show the precarious
character of self-consciousness. It appears and disappears. Our life
is glorified by its presence, and from it obtains its whole
significance. Whatever we are convinced possesses it we certainly
declare to be a person. Yet it is a gradual acquisition, and must be
counted rather a goal than a possession. Under it, as the height of
our being, are ranged the three other stages,--consciousness, reflex
action, and unconsciousness.



REFERENCES ON SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS

James's Psychology, ch. x.

Royce's Studies of Good and Evil, ch. vi.-ix.

Ferrier's Philosophy of Consciousness, in his Philosophical Remains.

Calkins's Introduction to Psychology, bk. ii.

Wundt's Human and Animal Psychology, lect. xxvii.