438 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN, 



constitute the human mind a great exception to the otherwise 

 uniform principle of genetic continuity, has an even more 

 hopeless case than he would have were he to argue that a 

 similar exception ought to be made with regard to the 

 structure of the worm-like creature Balanoglossus. 



If this comparison should appear to betray any extra- 

 vagant estimate on my part of the cogency of the evidence 

 which has thus far been presented, I will now in conclusion 

 ask it to be remembered that my case is not yet concluded. 

 For hitherto I have almost entirely abstained from consider- 

 ing the mental condition of savages. The reason why this 

 important branch of my subject has not been touched is 

 because I reserve it for the next instalment of my work. 

 But when we leave the groundwork of psychological principles 

 on which up to this point we have been engaged, and advance 

 to the wider field of anthropological research in general, we 

 shall find much additional evidence of a more concrete kind, 

 which almost uniformly tends to substantiate the conclusions 

 already gained. The corroboration thus afforded is indeed, to 

 my thinking, superfluous ; and, therefore, will not be adduced 

 in this connection. Nevertheless, while tracing the principles ■ 

 of mental evolution from the lowest levels which are actually 

 occupied by existing man, we shall find that no small light is 

 incidentally thrown upon the demonstrably still more primitive 

 intelligence of pre-historic man. Thus shall we find that we 

 are led back by continuous stages to a state of still human 

 ideation, which brings us into contact almost painfully close 

 with that of the higher apes. This, indeed, is a slue of the 

 general question which my opponents are prone to ignore — 

 just as they ignore the parallel side which has to do with the 

 psychogenesis of a child. And, of course, when they thus 

 ignore both the child and the savage, so as directly to con- 

 trast the adult psychology of civilized man with that of the 

 lower animals, it is easy to show an enormous difference. 

 But where the question is as to whether this is a difference of 

 degree or of kind, the absurdity of disregarding the inter- 

 mediate phases which present themselves to actual observation 



