direction and value to
the resulting mental activity. Acting under the demands of this problem,
or need, the mind displays an intelligent initiative in the selecting of
ideas--stick, adhesion, tar, etc., felt to be of value for securing the
required new adjustment. The mind finally combines these selected ideas
into an organized system, or a new experience, which is accepted
mentally as an adequate solution of the problem. The following factors
are found, therefore, to enter into such an ideal, or conscious,
reaction:

1. _The Problem._--The conscious reaction is the result of a definite
problem, or difficulty, presented in consciousness and grasped by the
mind as such--How to recover the coin.

2. _A Selecting Process._--To meet the solution of this problem use is
made of ideas which already form a part of the lad's present experience,
or knowledge, and which are felt by him to have a bearing on the
presented problem.

3. _A Relating Process._--These elements of former experience are
organized by the child into a mental plan which he believes adequate to
solve the problem before him.

4. _Application._--This resulting mental plan serves to guide a further
physical reaction, which constitutes the actual removal of the
difficulty--the recovery of the coin.

=Significance of Conscious Reactions.=--In a conscious reaction upon any
situation, or problem, therefore, the mind first uses its present ideas,
or experience, in weighing the difficulties of the situation, and it is
only after it satisfies itself in theory that a solution has been
reached that the physical response, or application of the plan, is made.
Hence the individual not only directs his actions by his higher
intelligent nature, but is also able to react effectively upon varied
and unusual situations. This, evidently, is not so largely the case with
instinctive or habitual reactions. For efficient action, therefore,
there must often be an adequate mental adjustment prior to the
expression of the physical action. For this reason the value of
consciousness consists in the guidance it affords us in meeting the
demands laid upon us by our surroundings, or environment. This will
become more evident, however, by a brief examination into the nature of
experience itself.

EXPERIENCE

=Its Value.=--In the above example of conscious adjustment it was found
that a new experience arises naturally from an effort to meet some need,
or problem, with which the mi