84:6 Dynamic Theory. 



possesses, but these associated memories may as truly represent the 

 particular association of the external objects for which they stand, as do 

 the associated memories of man. The lower animal may perceive that 

 A is related to B, C is related to D, and E to F. The man may per- 

 ceive these relationships, and may observe further that A is related to 

 C, and D to E. Thus any simple perception is truly an act of reason, 

 and it may be simply reinforced and not set aside when new perceptions 

 are added to it. Consequently the acts of animal reasoning may be 

 true, as far as they go, just as man's may be true as far as they go. 

 Those of the animal are few, compared with those of man, while man's 

 actual perceptions are few compared with those which are possible ; and 

 those of one man may be few compared with those of another. 



It is true that man knows but little compared to what is knowable, but 

 knowledge is a mere delusion if the fundamental principles, we sup- 

 pose ourselves to have discovered and verified, are to be subverted as 

 soon as we learn a little more. These immutable principles which we 

 have discovered are not numerous, but it is not unreasonable in us to 

 stand by them, carefully discriminating between what are really princi- 

 ples and what may turn out to be merely details and particulars. 



Maudsley says that ' 'it is absurd to suppose that there is nothing out- 

 side of human experience different from human experience, nothing be- 

 yond the actual or possible reach of human faculties," and equally so to 

 dogmatize and affirm positively what that outside something is. True, and 

 yet it is perfectly legitimate to judge all departments of nature by the 

 general principles which we find in that department of it accessible to us. 

 Thus we may confidently assert, that there is no part of the universe in 

 which two and two make five, or in which the inscribed angles of a trian- 

 gle are not exactly equal to two right angles, or in which dimensions of 

 bodies are more or less than three. 



Every human idea is founded upon elements derived from human en- 

 vironment. The elementary stimuli are but partial and distorted repre- 

 sentations in many particulars, and the ideas founded by them may be 

 more or less incomplete or incorrect ; but whatever they are, they never 

 rise above their source. Our ideas are all ideas of natural things, no 

 matter how distorted and false, and when we imagine they bring us into 

 the presence of the supernatural, we may know that we are being de- 

 ceived, and every idea of the supernatural we can possibly have is cer- 

 tain to be false; that is to say, it is in reality an idea derived from na- 

 ture and represents only relationships of things in nature. 



The idea of Cause and Effect is involved in the greater number of 

 animal perceptions. The timidity of animals has arisen from the ob- 

 servation of effects unfavorable to themselves, resulting from certain 

 phenomena. Wild horses, deer, and other animals run before a prairie 



