Mental Evolution. 485 



say that it is only by misunderstanding the range of 

 natural selection as an eliminator that any one could suppose 

 that these faculties could be explained by that theory. 



We must admit, then, that there are certain neural 

 kineses which, from the fact that they are unassociated 

 with life-preserving and life- continuing activities, are not 

 subject to the law of elimination ; and in the development 

 of which natural selection cannot have been an essential 

 factor. These, in their metakinetic aspect, are conceptual 

 thoughts, emotions, and ideas. Eemembering the distinc- 

 tion' drawn in the chapter on " Organic Evolution " 

 between origin and guidance, let us proceed to inquire, first, 

 how these ideas have been guided to their present develop- 

 ment ; and, secondly, how we may suppose these special 

 variations to have originated. 



To understand their development, we must understand 

 their environment. The environment of metakineses is, as 

 we have already seen, constituted by other metakineses. 

 What we have now to note is that the environment of con- 

 ceptual ideas, as such, is constituted by other ideas. The im- 

 mediate environment of an hypothesis is other hypotheses ; 

 of a moral ideal, other moral ideals ; of an aesthetic thought, 

 other aesthetic thoughts ; of a religious conception, other 

 religious conceptions. But not only are ideas environed 

 by ideas of their own order ; they are environed by ideas 

 of other orders. Thus a scientific hypothesis or a moral 

 ideal may be in harmony or conflict with religious concep- 

 tions, and its fate may be thereby determined ; or a 

 religious conception may be in harmony or conflict with 

 psychological principles, and its acceptance or rejection 

 thereby determined. So that we may say, in general, that 

 the environment of an idea is the system of ideas among which 

 it is introduced. 



Of course, it must be clearly understood that it is with 

 the individual mind that we are dealing. The scientific 

 ideas, moral ideals, aesthetic standards, religious concep- 

 tions, of a tribe, nation, or other community, are simply 

 representative, either of the general views of the majority 



