50 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



has fallen, from long before historical time, upon the 

 community and its traditions far more than upon the 

 individual, and since the conditions under which the 

 possibilities of the individual can be even qualitatively 

 realized have been rarely forthcoming, it is not sur- 

 prising that the level of possibility itself has not been 

 raised. Indeed, only too often there has been re- 

 versed selection, and the exceptional man has suffered 

 from his exceptional endowments. 



There is no theoretical objection whatever to the 

 idea that new types of mind, new modes of thought, 

 new levels of attainment, could be reached by life : 

 the mental difference between low types of men and 

 men of genius is almost as great as that between man 

 and ape. The difference in practical intelligence 

 between a hen, a dog, a chimpanzee, and a man is 

 largely a difference in the complexity of the situations 

 which can be grasped as a whole so that the right way 

 out is adopted as the result of this unitary compre- 

 hension.^ There is no reason to doubt that other types 

 of mental mechanism are possible which would make 

 our grasp of complex situations appear pitiful and hen- 

 like in its limitations, which would enable their 

 possessors to see and solve in a flash where we can 

 only grope and guess or at best calculate laboriously 

 and step by step. But this will not take place, first 

 until the community-environment is made as favour- 

 able as possible for such development, and secondly 

 1 See Kohler, 'z\. 



