154 



OF MIND. 



course can never be formed. Of all the changes originating 

 in this way, those affecting the germinal matter taking part 

 in the development of the higher parts of the nervous 

 system of man lead to the most disastrous results. That 

 gradual development of the mental powers after the indi- 

 vidual has ceased to grow, which is one of the most re- 

 markable of the characters by which man is marked off 

 from the lower animals, is rendered impossible, and the 

 mental powers of the child or of the infant remain asso- 

 ciated with the organism of the adult. 



The new powers which germinal matter acquires as 

 development advances arise in some way as the new 

 centres (nuclei, nucleoli) originate in pre-existing centres, 

 when, it may be said, matter comes under the influence of 

 the vital immaterial agency, and sets out upon a new 

 course which has been appointed. How the new powers 

 which it has acquired are communicated to it, it is as im- 

 possible to suggest as it is to explain how these new centres 

 originate. And it may be asked what is to be understood 

 by " centre," for it is obvious that the centre demonstrated 

 by low powers has within it numerous centres, as may be 

 proved by examination under glasses magnifying very 

 highly, and there is reason to believe that if our powers 

 were increased ten, twenty, or a hundred-fold, we should 

 approach but a little nearer to the unrealisable actual 

 centre; and I can conceive that in the highest forms of 

 germinal matter new centres of living matter are constantly 

 welling up, as it were, in already existing centres, having 

 within themselves infinite and inexhaustible power for the 

 endowment of new centres. 



