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know, the word "conscious" coming from the Latin "conscius," from "con" and "scire," to know. The amoeba was conscious because it knew of the presence of its prey, and it knew enough to grasp that prey. It also had will, for it willed to grasp its prey.

But, as its desires grew apace, it dropped the conscious control of the first established activities, because it could do so by virtue of mechanical law which converts conscious activity into a habit, that becomes automatic, and practically conducts itself without conscious direction or supervision. If you set a ball rolling it is carried forward by the momentum given by your hand, which is the agent of your conscious volition, and the ball rolls on until the force transmitted to it is spent. By the same law the mechanical action set up at first in the body by conscious volition continues until the force imparted to it is exhausted.

In this way our bodies are running on the motive power given to them by conscious volition in the long ago. As we pass from childhood to old age we get farther and farther away from the original impelling force and we finally run down, as in death, just as a clock would that needed winding. But, just so surely as the clock can renew its action when a new impulse is given it, just so surely can the human body do the same, and in so doing conquer old age and death.

In winding the clock that its action may be renewed you are dealing with a merely mechanical object. In renewing the bodily mechanism you