PROFESSOR VIRCHOW AND EVOLUTION. 639 
faculties we assume, the state of the brain and the associ- 
ated mental affections, both might be so tabulated side by 
side that, if one were given, a mere reference to the table 
would declare the other. Our present powers, it is true, 
shrivel into nothingness when brought to bear on such a 
problem, but it is because of its complexity and our limits 
that this is the case. The quality of the problem and of 
our powers are, we believe, so related, that a mere expan- 
sion of the latter would enable them to cope with the 
former. Why, then, in scientific speculation should we 
turn our eyes exclusively to the past? Mav it not be that 
a time is coming ages no doubt distant, but still advanc- 
ing when the dwellers upon this fair earth, starting from 
the gross human brain of to-day as a rudiment, may be 
able to apply to these mighty questions faculties of com- 
mensurate extent? Given the requisite expansibility to 
the present senses and intelligence of man given also the 
time necessary for their expansion and this high goal may 
be attained. Development is all that is required, and not 
a change of quality. There need be no absolute breach of 
continuity between us and our loftier brothers yet to 
come. 
" We have guarded ourselves against saying that the 
inferring of thought from material combinations and 
arrangements would be an inference a priori. The infer- 
ence meant would be the same in kind as that which the 
observation of the effects of food and drink upon the mind 
would enable us to make, differing only from the latter in 
the degree of analytical insight which we suppose attained. 
Given the masses and distances of the planets, we can infer 
the perturbations consequent on their mutual attractions. 
Given the nature of a disturbance in water, air, or ether 
knowing the physical qualities of the medium we can infer 
how its particles will be affected. In all this we deal with 
physical laws. The mind runs with certainty along the 
line of thought which connects the phenomena, and from 
beginning to end there is no break in the chain. But when 
we endeavor to pass by a similar process from the phe- 
nomena of physics to those of thought, we meet a problem 
which transcends any conceivable 'expansion of the powers 
which we now possess. We may think over the subject 
again and again, but it eludes all intellectual presentation. 
We stand at length face to face with the Incomprehensible. 
