ON THE PSYCHO-PHYSICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 533 



the highest physical phenomenon of matter, was to be 

 the starting-point of this psychology. In an early 

 essay on understanding and sensation (1778) he wrote: 

 " According to my thinking there is no psychology 

 possible which is not at every step definite physiology. 

 Haller's physiological work once raised to psychology, 

 and, like Pygmalion's statue, enlivened with mind, we 

 shall be able to say something about Thought and 

 Sensation." l 



But this psycho-physiological view was not limited to 

 the study of the individual : it widened out and em- 

 braced the whole of mankind ; nature on a large scale 

 had to be observed ; historical records had to be collected 

 on all sides ; origins had to be studied and the elementary 

 forces followed up in the beginnings of poetry, art, and 

 religion. Materials were gathered everywhere from his- 

 torians, chroniclers, travellers, primitive records, and the 

 " voices of the peoples." All this was to furnish the 

 materials for a " History of Mankind." " In many 



1 "Vom Erkennen und Emp- 

 fimlen der menschlichen Seele " 

 (1778), in the 9th vol. of the 

 Works of Herder ( ' Abtheilung 

 zur Philosophic und Geschichte.' 

 1828). To give an idea of Herder's 

 anticipation of modern views, see 

 p. 10: "We cannot penetrate 

 deeper into the genesis of sensa- 

 tion than to the remarkable phen- 

 omenon called by Haller 'Reiz.' 

 The irritated fibre contracts and 

 expands again ; perhaps a ' stamen,' 

 the first growing sparklet of sensa- 

 tion, towards which dead matter 

 has purified itself by many steps 

 and stages of mechanism and or- 

 ganisation." Many passages could 

 be quoted from Herder's 'Ideen,' 

 Ac., and other writings, anticipating 



modern Darwinian ideas, such as 

 those of the struggle for existence, 

 and even of automatic selection. See 

 Prof. J. Sully's appreciative article 

 on Herder in the ' Ency. Brit. ' 

 (9th ed.), and notably Fr. von 

 Biirenbach, ' Herder als Vorganger 

 Darwin's ' (Berlin, 1877). Haym 

 ( 'Herder,' vol. ii. p. 209) objects to 

 this extreme view of Herder as a 

 forerunner of Darwin on the ground 

 that, according to the former, no 

 animal in its development ever for- 

 sook that adjustment of organic 

 forces peculiar to it, nature having 

 kept each being within the limits 

 of its type. Accordingly, Herder's 

 evolutionism would be more akin to 

 that of K. E. von Baer than to 

 that of Darwin and Haeckel. 



