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The Tenth Lesson: Spiritual Evolution.863
the race, and to fasten its “I” conscious upon itself, rather than upon the
underlying race-soul, along instinctive lines. Do you know just what this Self-
Consciousness is, and how it differs from the Physical Consciousness of the
lower animals? Perhaps we had better pause a moment to consider it at this
place.
The lower animals are of course conscious of the bodies, and their wants,
feelings, emotions, desires, etc., and their actions are in response to the
animating impulses coming from this plane of consciousness. But it stops
there. They “know,” but they do not “know that they know”; that is, they
have not yet arrived at a state in which they can think of themselves as “I,”
and to reason upon their thoughts and mental operations. It is like the
consciousness of a very young child, which feels and knows its sensations
and wants, but is unable to think of itself as “I,” and to turn the mental gaze
inward. In another book of these series we have used the illustration of the
horse which has been left standing out in the cold sleet and rain, and which
undoubtedly feels and knows the unpleasant sensations arising therefrom,
and longs to get away from the unpleasant environment. But, still, he is
unable to analyze his mental states and wonder whether his master will
come out to him soon, or think how cruel it is to keep him out of his warm
comfortable stable; or wonder whether he will be taken out in the cold
rain again tomorrow; or feel envious of other horses who are indoors; or
wonder why he is kept out cold nights, etc., etc. In short, the horse is unable
to think as would a reasoning man under just the same circumstances. He
is aware of the discomfort, just as would be the man; and he would run
away home, if he were able, just as would the man. But he is not able to pity
himself, nor to think about his personality, as would a man—he is not able
to wonder whether life is worth the living, etc., as would a man. He “knows”
but is not able to reflect upon the “knowing.”
In the above illustration, the principal point is that the horse does not
“know himself” as an entity, while even the most primitive man is able to so
recognize himself as an “I.” If the horse were able to think in words, he would