Majichester Memoirs, Vol. xlvi. (1902), No. 10. 



THE WILDE LECTURE. 



X. On the Evolution of the Mental Faculties in 

 relation to some Fundamental Principles of 

 Motion. 



By Henry Wilde, D.Sc, F.R.S. 



{Delivered February 2^th, igo2,) 



The doctrine of the gradual evolution of the mental 

 faculties from small origins of trial and error finds so many- 

 illustrations in the history of the natural sciences, that it 

 is absolutely essential to further progress to review, from 

 time to time, some of the foundations upon which the vast 

 superstructure of modern knowledge now rests. 



It will be universally allowed that if one of the 

 Simiidae could be taught to enunciate a false proposition, 

 e.g., that space is four dimensional, or that the twentieth 

 century commenced on January ist, 1900, such a creature 

 would be much more interesting to naturalists, and be more 

 highly valued by collectors, than any of its inarticulate 

 companions of the forest. 



History abundantly shows that every department ot 

 knowledge has passed, in a greater or less degree, through 

 the evolutionary stage here illustrated, until more extended 

 observation and experience have brought ideas into exact 

 agreement with the things represented. This conformity of 

 ideas to their archetypes constitutes the essence of truth, 

 the ultimate object of all scientific enquiry. So unequal, 

 however, is the correlation of growth of different kinds of 

 knowledge in individuals, that men of the highest attain- 



March 26th, igo2. 



