CHAPTER XIX. 



THE WIDER V I E \V. 



The brain the organ of the mind Civilisation and brain-weight 

 Stability of the central nervous system Variations in mental 

 power during historic times The education of ancestors 

 Civilisation and the subdivision of labour Efficiency of 

 modern effort Native mental power Legitimate aims in 

 education Direction of training The background of 

 growth. 



IT is a familiar idea that mental performance is 

 accompanied by nervous change. Could the relation 

 between these two sets of events be adequately 

 explained, at least one fundamental question would be 

 answered. Yet to this fatuous task students of science 

 are no longer attracted, and the method of the day is to 

 attack such problems in detail and indirectly. Thus 

 have grown up provisional hypotheses, and present 

 controversy centres about the degree of support which 

 can be given to these competing explanations. 



Let the explanation, however, be as it may, the prime 

 fact remains that the phenomena of consciousness are 

 exalted or depressed by purely physical conditions ; 

 that they unfold, flourish, and fade within a single 

 lifetime, and may be blighted or become monstrous by 

 misuse or by disease. This dependence of the mind 

 upon the brain is certainly most striking, and it has 

 naturally suggested that, by the study of the body 



3=3 



