PART IV. 



METAPHYSICAL EYOLUTIOJN^. 



XVII. 



THE EVOLUTIONARY SIGNIFICANCE OF HUMAN 



CHARACTER.* 



The complicated constitution of the human mind is well im- 

 pressed on the investigator as he seeks to understand the origin 

 of any one of the many different types of character which come 

 before him. The number of possible combinations of its numer- 

 ous elements, each of which present developmental phases, is 

 necessarily very great. The species of human minds, as one may 

 properly term them, are probably as numerous as the species of 

 animals, as defined by their physical structure. As in the case 

 of anatomical species, however, analysis of the mind reduces its 

 many details to a few leading departments. Although the classi- 

 fication of the elements of the mind is a classification of func- 

 tions, it is, if correct, a sure index of the classification of struct- 

 ure also ; of the grosser and more minute structure of the brain, 

 principally of the gray matter. 



The division of mental activities into three primary divisions 

 is generally admitted. These are : the emotions, the intellect, and 

 the will. The emotions include tlie likes and dislikes, or the 

 tastes, and their strongest forms, the emotions and the passions. 

 The intellect includes those powers which rearrange the experi- 

 ences in an order different from that in which they enter the 

 mind. This new order may have sole reference to questions of 

 liking and disliking, and is then a product of the imagination ; 



* The present article is in continuation of the previous one on the Evolutionary 

 Significance of Human Physiognomy, published in the "Naturalist" of Jimc, 18S3. 



