464 The Doctrine of Evolution. 



We must learn, however, to courageously translate the old entical 

 and illusory into the new and scientific conceptions of the soul. 

 " There is no wisdom save in Truth." 



DR. LEWIS G. JANES : 



In listening to remarks like those of Mr. Wakeman, and especially 

 in reading the letter of Prof. Haeckel, it is strongly impressed upon 

 me that one may be admirably qualified to discuss the physical and 

 biological processes involved in the doctrine of evolution, and yet, by 

 reason of want of training in the science of psychology, may wholly 

 fail to grasp the logic of its higher problems. The question of the 

 nature of knowledge is fundamentally one of psychology. Is the 

 human mind unlimited in its scope and powers, or are its functions 

 conditioned by inherent limitations I Is thought identical with things, 

 or are mental and physical processes essentially disparate? Mental 

 science re-enforces the teachings of common sense by assuring us that 

 our human faculties are finite and limited ; that the external reality is 

 not directly presented in the mind, but symbolically represented. 

 Such is the necessary inference from the facts involved in the process of 

 mental evolution such the only logical and scientific conclusion from 

 the study of the nature of sense-perception and knowledge. It follows, 

 therefore, by an inexorable logic, that we know the universe only as 

 it is related to our finite faculties. Our knowledge of the world is 

 conditioned by our psychical nature and its limitations. Both matter 

 and mind are thus known to us as symbols as phenomena of an un- 

 knowable reality of the existence of which we are assured by a funda- 

 mental necessity of thought. The conception of this reality constitutes 

 the only logical basis of philosophical Monism, consistent with the con- 

 cepts and facts of psychological science. The symbols are knowable, 

 whether they be mental or physical. Mr. Wakeman erroneously assumes 

 that the agnostic regards mind as unknowable. There is no " mystery " 

 in regard to the nature of mind which is not equally affirmable of the 

 nature of matter. The reality underlying both is unknowable in its 

 essential nature ; as phenomenal processes both are equally knowable. 

 This is the Spencerian doctrine of the unknowable, so often and need- 

 lessly befogged and misunderstood. This is what is meant by the 

 relativity of our knowledge. Another necessity of thought compels 

 the belief that this supreme reality, the nature of which transcends 

 our finite capacity of comprehension, must be infinitely greater and 

 not less than our human personality. It can not be material in its 

 nature, since matter is subordinate to our finite mental faculties. It 

 must be not only supermaterial but superpersonal a mode of being 

 which, as Mr. Spencer declares, "transcends human personality as 



