MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN. A 7 



" breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and 

 man became a living soul," it is also said of the 

 beasts and fishes, " When Thou lettest Thy breath 

 go forth they shall be made ; and Thou shalt 

 renew the face of the earth." 



On the a priori question, then, Christianity has 

 no particular view. The creation of the soul by 

 God is neither more nor less true than the creation 

 of the body by Him, and therefore, if science can 

 by a patient application of its own methods tell us 

 something here too of the modus creandi, we may 

 hope that Christians have learned enough from the 

 past to be ready to meet the attempt with some- 

 thing more than glum disapproval. Even those 

 who look upon the attempt with most suspicion 

 may comfort themselves with the wise remark of 

 the learned Gamaliel, " If this work be of men it 

 will come to naught ; but if it be of God ye cannot 

 overthrow it." 



When, however, we approach Mr. Romanes' 

 volume, with every readiness to avail ourselves 

 of any new light which experience, scientifically 

 organized, can give us, we find ourselves at once 

 in opposition, not indeed because we object to the 

 application of the comparative method to psycho- 

 logy, for, difficult as this is, it is the only way in 

 which the subject can be scientifically dealt with, 

 but because we find Mr. Romanes assuming, as if it 

 were generally accepted, the empirical psychology 



