THE COURSE ©F BIOLOGIC EVOLUTION. 53 



THE PSYCHIC ELEMENT. 



In all the cases considered of what I have denominated 

 extra-normal or illegitimate influences affecting the course of 

 biologic evolution, there is revealed to the careful student a 

 common principle to which their peculiar character is due ; a 

 certain element of power and independence which gives to 

 them both their anomalous and eratic character among organic 

 laws, and also their remarkable efficacy and success in accom- 

 plishing the ends of evolution itself. What is this common 

 principle, this element of power ? It is expressed in the single 

 word psychic — I had almost said, in the one word mind. 

 Philosophers correctly identify these conceptions, and any- 

 thing that transcends the purely vital partakes of the attributes of 

 mind. This new force, manifesting itself in at least three 

 prominent ways at almost the same time in the earth's history, 

 and producing such astonishing revolutions, was the psychic 

 force beginning to respond to a long process of cephalization. 

 or brain-enlargement, in the animal world. It represents the 

 birth of the soul in nature ; it was the response to a demand 

 for the satisfaction of wants, of instincts, of tastes ; it was the 

 first expression of purpose and of will. For these are the at- 

 tributes which led the bee to seek the nectar from the flower, 

 the bird to visit the brilliant cluster of fruit, or the female of 

 the higher creatures to choose the most beautiful male for its 

 mate. And these are psychic qualities and represent the sub- 

 jective half of the world of mind — the great heart of nature. 



The strictly biologic record properly closes here. To show 

 that this same force continues to produce its unlooked-for effects 

 at a higher stage of development, operating from the objective 

 side, through the intellect, or head of nature, and that the re- 

 sults have here been as much more surprising and far-reaching 

 as the organisms through which they were accomplished were 



