ON THE PSYCHO-PHYSICAL VIEW OF NATURE. 533 



the highest physical phenomenon of matter, was to be 

 the starting-point of this psychology. In an early 

 essay on understanding and sensation (1778) he wrote: 

 " According to my thinking there is no psychology 

 possible which is not at every step definite physiology. 

 Haller's physiological work once raised to psychology, 

 and, like Pygmalion's statue, enlivened with mind, we 

 shall be able to say something about Thought and 

 Sensation." l 



But this psycho-physiological view was not limited to 

 the study of the individual : it widened out and em- 

 braced the whole of mankind; nature on a large scale 

 had to be observed ; historical records had to be collected 

 on all sides ; origins had to be studied and the elementary 

 forces followed up in the beginnings of poetry, art, and 

 religion. Materials were gathered everywhere from his- 

 torians, chroniclers, travellers, primitive records, and the 

 " voices of the peoples." All this was to furnish the 

 materials for a " History of Mankind." " In many 



1 "Vom Erkennen und Emp- modern Darwinian ideas, such as 



finden der menschlichen Seele " those of the struggle for existence, 



(1778), in the 9th vol. of the andeven of automatic selection. See 



Works of Herder (' Abtheilung Prof. J. Sully's appreciative article 



zur Philosophic und Geschichte,' ' on Herder in the 'Encyc. Brit.' 



1828). To give an idea of Herder's (9th ed.), and notably Fr. von 



anticipation of modern views, see Biirenbach, ' Herder als Vorganger 



p. 10: "We cannot penetrate Darwin's' (Berlin, 1877). Haym 



deeper into the genesis of sensa- (' Herder,' vol. ii. p. 209) objects to 



tion than to the remarkable phen- this extreme view of Herder as a 



omenon called by Haller 'Rein.' forerunner of Darwin on the ground 



The irritated fibre contracts and that, according to the former, no 



expands again ; perhaps a 'stamen,' ' animal in its development ever for- 



the first glowing sparklet of sensa- sook that adjustment of organic 



tion, towards which dead matter forces peculiar to it, nature having 



has purified itself by many steps ; kept each being within the limits 



and stages of mechanism and or- | of its type. Accordingly, Herder's 



j-.iiii-.tiii MI." Many passages could evolutionism would be more akin to 



be quoted from Herder's ' Ideen,' that of K. E. von Baer than to 



&c., and other writings, anticipating that of Darwin and Haeckel. 



