802 Causes and Course of Organic Evolution 



enable him to build up religious conceptions, that enable him 

 to realize the existence of a supreme Energy, Power, or Being, 

 form a combined expression of energy and matter activity 

 that seem only explicable — but yet seem truly explicable — 

 if we accept these as due to a remarkably perfect and subtle 

 form of energy that traverses and energizes some equally com- 

 plex material substance, located probably in some layer or 

 area along the frontal sinuses of the cerebral substance. 



We may attempt to represent the above views in diagram- 

 matic fashion as on the page opposite. 



iVccording to this view man is heir to four successively evolved 

 and increasingly complex substances, the simplest of which — 

 protoplasmatin — he inherits in common with all organisms and 

 the energy for the upbuilding of which — the biotic — gives 

 to him certain vegetative impulses that — humanly speaking — 

 we may call the carnal. Chemical perception of and response 

 to environal food substances as well as digestion, absorption, 

 and assimilation of these form the main functions, though 

 respiration is an accessory activity connected therewith, while 

 growth results from the healthy interaction of both. 



Built upon and nourished by this protoplasmatin as a basis 

 is the highly important chromatin substance that he inherits 

 in common with most plants and animals, and the energy 

 for the upbuilding of which — the cognitic — brings him actively 

 and continuously into contact with varied environal stimuli, 

 which, as they affect him, are responded to correspondingly. 

 This gives to him what — humanly speaking — we may call 

 the sensuous or sense-perceptive capacity. Perception of and 

 response to energizing stimuli, either by direct reflex action, 

 or by linking together of several of these stimuli into a result- 

 ant response of more complex character, form its main func- 

 tion; but by being itself slowly altered in its molecular rela- 

 tions, and by similarly stimulating the protoplasm to effect 

 changed responses, it assumes prime importance as the bearer 

 of heredity. 



Built upon, nourished, and receiving external sensuous im- 

 pressions from one or other of the two last is the ganglionic or 



