DEVELOPMENT 219 



not, at first, actually exist, but the thought of it, or the mental 

 plan exists, not in space but involved in the mind of the worker : 

 it is a potential that is realized spatially in the machine, building, 

 original musical theme, or arrangement of cards. The assembling 

 of the things may be carried out in various ways and there may 

 be limited interferences with the process of assembling that can 

 be " circumvented " — as a developmental process can be regulated 

 should there be interference. The constructive, assembling power 

 of the human mind is not an energy- form but rather the direction 

 and couplings of energies. The mental potential or constructive- 

 ness is not in space, for we cannot, without confusion, say that a 

 thought occupies space. This analogy of the developmental 

 agency with the mental operators is the only one that can be 

 clearly made. 



It is the obvious and natural analogy to the agency of organic 

 development. It is probably a very old idea : certainly Oken, 

 in 1805, had essentially the conception suggested above. To 

 him development was synthetic and epigenetic. He regarded 

 the ovum as an entire animal in idea and design but not in 

 structure. In it was the future body, not as a corporeal miniature 

 but as " an impalpable spectre." That which was in the ovum 

 was to that which the developed ovum became as the thought 

 is to the word. 



Essentially the same conception is included in the mnemic 

 hypotheses of Hering, Butler, Semon and others. The develop- 

 mental organization is of the nature of memory. The developing 

 embryo displays those activities which it would display if it knew 

 what it was doing. " Knowing " here is not consciously knowing, 

 or cognizing, and it is not a misuse of terms to speak of " uncon- 

 scious knowledge " : obviously an artisan who has learned to 

 perform some highly skilled operations " knows what he is 

 doing," to the degree that he may even regulate his activities 

 should there be interference, but, just as obviously, he may 

 perform these actions automatically, without thinking about them, 

 but perhaps thinking and speaking of something quite different. 

 Obviously the infant that is newly born " knows " how to perform 

 the complex actions of suckHng its mother's breast, but these 

 neuro-muscular actions are not performed with that conscious 

 knowledge with which a man '' draws " at a pipe that is partially 

 choked up. Knowledge on the part of the developing embryo 



