THE EVOLUTION OF MIND 



tion of the individual mind, we need not fear to 

 let go the doctrine that the human mind is a special 

 creation, lest we should be asked to believe the 

 incredible. And we soon find that the new doc 

 trine consorts with a whole host of apparently 

 unrelated facts: the phenomena of insanity be 

 come intelligible ; the cruelty of the boy ; the baby s 

 fear of a gruff voice or a forbidding face; even 

 the astonishing facts of multiple personality are 

 seen to be capable of rational explanation on the 

 evolutionary hypothesis. But to this subject, and 

 that of unconscious mind each of which is as 

 unfamiliar to many as it is full of significance I 

 must devote a few paragraphs. 



It is now known, by observation of very many 

 quite unquestionable cases in all parts of the 

 world, that one human body may appear to be 

 tenanted, at different times, by two, three, four 

 even eleven different personalities. The believer 

 in spirits has an easy explanation of these cases, 

 and Mr. W. T. Stead has triumphantly hailed a 

 recent American treatise on the subject as affording 

 conclusive proof of the theory of spirit possession. 

 One personality may be a linguist, another illiter 

 ate; one, savage, sulky, homicidal; another, gentle, 

 cheerful, timid. Instances could be multiplied 

 without limit. With the current theory of human 

 personality the facts are entirely unintelligible. 

 But if we regard the human mind as a complex 

 structure, containing elements derived from mill 

 ions of ancestral minds, they are susceptible of 



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