The world experienced (otherwise called the 'field of consciousness')
comes at all times with our body at its centre, centre of vision, centre
of action, centre of interest. Where the body is is 'here': when the
body acts is 'now'; what the body touches is 'this'; all other things
are 'there' and 'then' and 'that.' These words of emphasized position
imply a systematization of things with reference to a focus of action
and interest which lies in the body; and the systematization is now so
instinctive (was it ever not so?) that no developed or active experience
exists for us at all except in that ordered form. So far as 'thoughts'
and 'feelings' can be active, there activity terminates in the activity
of the body, and only through first arousing its activities can they
begin to change those of the rest of the world. [Cf. also
_A_Pluralistic_Universe_, p. 344, note 8. ED.] The body is the storm
centre, the origin of co-ordinates, the constant place of stress in all
that experience-train. Everything circles round it, and is felt from
its point of view. The word 'I,' then, is primarily a noun of position,
just like 'this' and 'here.' Activities attached to 'this' position
have prerogative emphasis, and, if activities have feelings, must be
felt in a particular way.
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