FACTS AND FACTORS OF DEVELOPMENT 43 



rarely think of Plato and Aristotle, of Shake- 

 speare and Newton, of Pasteur and Darwin, 

 except in their full epiphany, and yet we know 

 that when each of these was a child he "thought 

 as a child and spake as a child," and when 

 he was a germ cell he behaved as a germ cell. 



The development of the mind from the ac- 

 tivities of the germ cells is certainly most won- 

 derful and mysterious, but probably no more 

 so than the development of the complicated 

 body of the adult animal from the structures 

 of the germ. Both belong to the same order 

 of phenomena and there is no more reason for 

 supposing that the mind is supernaturally 

 created than that the body is. Indeed, we 

 know that the mind is formed by a process of 

 development, and the stages of this develop- 

 ment are fairly well known. There is nowhere 

 in the entire course of mental development a 

 sudden appearance of psychical processes, but 

 rather a gradual development of these from 

 simpler and simpler beginnings. No detailed 

 study has been made of the reactions of human 

 germ cells and embryos, but there is every 

 reason to believe that these reactions are 



