THE DA \VN OF MIND. 1 37 



come as at least a partial relief to the human mind. 

 These are possibly cases of actual reversion, cases 

 where all the beautiful later buildings of humanity 

 had been swept away and only the elemental brute 

 foundations left. Devolution is thus assumed to be 

 a co-relative of Evolution. And as the morbid states 

 of the Mind are more and more studied in this rela 

 tion, it may yet be possible from the phenomena 

 of insanity to lay bare to some extent the outline 

 of intellectual ascent. In the present state both of 

 psychology, and especially of our knowledge of the 

 brain, nothing probably could be more precarious than 

 this as an argument. The very statement involves 

 modes of expression which exact science would rule 

 out of court. The best that can be said is that it 

 is a suggestion awaiting further light before it can 

 even rank as a theory. Complex as the source of 

 knowledge is, the Mind itself must ever be the final 

 authority on its own biography. Analogy from lower 

 nature may do much to confirm the reading ; the 

 mental history of the human race, from the rudi 

 ments of intellect in the savage to its development 

 in civilized life, may contribute some closing chap 

 ters; but unless the Mind tell its own story it will 

 never be fully told. Yet should it ever thus be 

 told, the mystery of Mind itself would remain the 

 same. For the most this could do would be to replace 

 one mystery by a greater. For what greater mystery 

 could there be than that within the mystery of the 

 Mind itself there should lie concealed the very key to 

 unlock its mystery ? 



To pass from this fascinating region to the material 

 contributions of Anthropology is a somewhat abrupt 



