4O The Destiny of Man. 



of intelligence involves an increasing vari- 

 ety and complication of experiences. The 

 acts which the animal performs in the 

 course of its life become far more numer- 

 ous, far more various, and far more com- 

 plex. They are therefore severally re- 

 peated with less frequency in the lifetime 

 of each individual. Consequently the ten- 

 dency to perform them is not completely 

 organized in the nervous system of the 

 offspring before birth. The short period 

 of ante-natal existence does not afford 

 time enough for the organization of so 

 many and such complex habitudes and 

 capacities. The process which in the 

 lower animals is completed before birth is 

 in the higher animals left to be completed 

 after birth. When the creature begins its 

 life it is not completely organized. In- 

 stead of the power of doing all the things 

 which its parents did, it starts with the 

 power of doing only some few of them ; 

 for the rest it has only latent capacities 

 which need to be brought out by its in- 



