And we do,
in fact, find such conditions. The earliest movements of animal life
involve, in the rejection of stimulations vitally bad, an attitude
which is the analogue of prejudice. On the principle of chemiotaxis,
the micro-organism will approach a particle of food placed in the
water and shun a particle of poison; and its movements are similarly
controlled by heat, light, electricity, and other tropic forces.[159]
The development of animal life from this point upward consists in
the growth of structure and organs of sense adapted to discriminate
between different stimulations, to choose between the beneficial and
prejudicial, and to obtain in this way a more complete control of the
environment. Passing over the lower forms of animal life, we find in
the human type the power of attention, memory, and comparison highly
developed, so that an estimate is put on stimulations and situations
correspondent with the bearing of stimulations or situations of this
type on welfare in the past. The choice and rejection involved in this
process are accompanied by organic changes (felt as emotions) designed
to assist in the action which follows a decision.
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