Could we look altogether naively at the question of a seat of the mind within the body we might suppose the mind diffused, not confined to any one part. An individual, one's dog, one's self, is a mass of microscopic lives, each one self-centred. It might then perhaps be that our mind, at least so far as sentience, would extend through all our parts. That is not found to be so.

The fact is that the mind—the finite mind of the individual— as to ‘place’ is related with one only of the systems in the body. That system itself is the opposite of diffused. There are indeed what are called, and justifiably, diffuse nervous systems. They too are built of cells, unpolarized nerve-cells, called ‘protoneurones’ (Parker). They are however the very simplest of nervous systems, nor have they correlated with them any plainly demonstrable or recognizable mind. The nervous system, though mind ultimately is correlated with it, shows no such correlation primarily.