EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



tical in each case? On the tabula rasa theory, all 

 minds, adult or infantine, human or subhuman, 

 should yield the same mental products when ex- 

 posed each to the same environment. The only 

 conceivable difference between one mind and an- 

 other, if each be a tabula rasa, is that one is bigger 

 than another, and the products should differ only 

 in as far as more can be written on a large sheet of 

 paper than on a small one. 



Thus we can neither accept the theory of innate 

 ideas, which is not only disproved by argument, 

 but which an elementary knowledge of embryology 

 makes more than incredible; nor the theory that 

 all minds start alike, having inherited nothing 

 and being without any innate predispositions. 



This dilemma has been abolished by Herbert 

 Spencer ; but ere we consider how, one may perhaps 

 be forgiven for a small digression on the subject 

 of such dilemmas in general. There are many 

 instances of them, such as the "unanswerable" 

 evidence against the freedom of the will, and the 

 "unanswerable" testimony of self -consciousness 

 that the will is free. Similarly "science" and 

 "religion" are supposed to have reached various 

 conclusions, mutually exclusive, yet not to be 

 overthrown by the efforts of the other party. 

 In philosophical language, these are called antin- 

 omies, or laws against laws. We owe the doc- 

 trine of antinomies to Kant. The "pure reason" 

 comes to one conclusion, the "practical reason" to 

 the opposite conclusion. We must, therefore, it 

 214 



