114 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



a little that has been dependent on her mental life. 

 If in reference to organic life, we say, what the parents 

 are, that the offspring shall be in the order of animal 

 species, it would seem that by analogy, we may say, 

 what the parents are as intelligent beings, that their 

 child shall be in like manner. This seems a legiti 

 mate reading of continuity in Nature, and if it be, then 

 it seems to follow that the mother s experience within 

 the period of vital unity assigned to parent and off 

 spring, must be to some extent an influence, a very 

 variable influence certainly, in the history of the 

 young life. To suppose that the mind-life of the 

 mother is completely severed from the child-life 

 nourished in the womb, were contrary to all the 

 lessons of analogy. Confirmatory evidence is abun 

 dant, including the wide range of pathological illus 

 tration. 1 On account of the higher characteristics of 

 the parent life, inheritance in human life must have 

 some special phases. If, in the natural history of 

 physical life, the germ-cell is separated and localised 

 so as to provide for reproductive action: if germ- 

 plasm may have a certain continuity, in whatever 

 way, through a series of generations ; and if fixedness 

 of species is thus perpetuated ; mind-life apparently 

 must have a distinct origin. Hence heritage here 

 must have in some respects a wider significance. All 

 this seems reasonably to follow, even while it remains 

 impossible to reach definite conclusions as to the 

 origin of mind. Further, when the relations of parent 

 and child are considered, evidence of heredity in mind 

 appears to imply much more direct action of mind 



1 The case of Alan M Aulay, in Sir Walter Scott s Legend of 

 Montrose, may illustrate extreme cases of this kind. 



