Animal Psychology, the Old and the New 25 



internal relations to external relations, his derivation 

 of instinct from reflex action, his filiation of the 

 process of reasoning with perception, his attempt 

 to show that no sharp distinction can be drawn 

 between instinct and reason, his efforts to give 

 an account of the origin of the intuitions of space 

 and time and the fundamental forms of thinking in 

 terms of experience gradually accumulated through 

 inheritance, and his theories of the genesis of 

 moral impulses and aesthetic sentiments, are among 

 the many notable features of this very original and 

 closely reasoned book. 



Spencer was a believer in the transmission of ac- 

 quired characters, and much of his psychological 

 speculation is based upon this doctrine. Many of 

 his cherished deductions, however ably wrought out, 

 will have to be discarded if the effects of experi- 

 ence, as so many biologists now believe, are not 

 transmitted to the following generation. But if 

 the foundation of many of Spencer's doctrines were 

 to be removed, much of permanent value would 

 nevertheless remain unshaken. The genetic method 

 in the study of psychology, as well as in many other 

 fields of thought, owes much to Spencer's illuminat- 

 ing thought and stimulating influence. 



Only four years elapsed between the publication 

 of Spencer's Psychology and the appearance of 

 Darwin's Origin of Species. The latter work 

 marked an epoch in the history of psychology as well 

 as of biology. Darwin's theory of natural selection 



