CHAPTER XVI. 



The Evolution of Mind. 



In the light of previous observations on mineral, 

 vegetal, and animal intelligence, it should now be 

 obvious that the vanity of philosophers in the past 

 has led them to study mental phenomena on wrong 

 lines, to formulate interpretations based on foregone 

 conclusions, and to assume that they, the philosophers 

 themselves, were the divinely-inspired interpreters of 

 the human intellect. 



The plan adopted and still thoughtlessly pursued is 

 that of asking mind to explain itself, without either 

 learning what mind is, or ascertaining whether it could 

 explain itself. In asking their mind through itself to 

 explain itself, philosophers virtually ask their eye to 

 see itself, their nose to smell itself, and their mouth to 

 swallow itself, without being aware of their foolishness. 

 That any kind of mind could explain itself indepen- 

 dently of other things or other minds, is a nonsensi- 

 cality, and the endless jargon of metaphysics in 



