The Relation of Organic to Mental Evolution. 267 



animals. What may be the limiting conditions of this 

 portion of the ascending curve of evolution ; how control 

 had its early genesis ; how the mental evolution of animals 

 passed into the mental evolution distinctive of man, cannot 

 now be discussed.* We must devote our attention to the 

 relation which organic evolution bears to that mental 

 evolution which is its accompaniment throughout the 

 stages of animal development above indicated. 



No one is likely to question the importance of conscious 

 adjustment to environment in the evolution of the higher 

 grades of animal life. It matters not whether the selec- 

 tionists are right in contending that those individuals who 

 vary in the direction of more adequate conscious develop- 

 ment are selected and transmit their innate powers, or the 

 transmissionists are right in contending that acquired 

 powers of conscious adjustment are transmitted from parent 

 to offspring; in either case conscious adjustment as a 

 factor in organic evolution is of the utmost importance. 

 The intelligent animal, the animal that can avoid danger, 

 can secure prey, can win or enforce himself upon a> 

 mate ; that is quick to see and hear, quick to select, quick 

 to act; that hesitates not, blunders not, and does not 

 flinch ; this is the animal that survives and becomes the 

 parent of a good stock. But in the animal world this 

 conscious adjustment is wholly subservient to the needs of 

 animal life. At this stage of evolution, mind or conscious- 

 ness is an adjunct to organic development. Just in so far 

 as it ministers to the progress of animal development will 

 natural selection favour it, or will it in some way be 

 rendered an effective factor in organic evolution. In the 

 stress of the struggle for existence among animals con- 

 sciousness has enough to do in fulfilling this its primary 



* I have attempted to discuss the latter point in my " Introduction to 

 Comparative Psychology." 



