46 



process repeating itself." 1 And so on. The same standpoint 

 is very explicitly stated in another quotation taken from a 

 later section of the work: "For, as shown in earlier parts of 

 this work, an idea is the psychical side of what on its physical 

 side is an involved set of molecular changes propagated through 

 an involved set of nervous plexuses. That which makes 

 possible this idea is the pre-existence of these plexuses, so 

 organized that a wave of molecular motion diffused through 

 them will produce, as its psychical correlative, the components 

 of the conception in due order and degree. This idea lasts 

 while the waves of molecular motion last, ceasing when they 

 cease; but that which remains is the set of plexuses." 2 



Thus it is abundantly evident that Spencer also is an 

 advocate of the physiological theory of Association. As in 

 the case of J. S. Mill, so in Spencer, "the most abstruse phe- 

 nomena of consciousness" are explainable on the basis of 

 association, by means of physiological processes. It is by 

 means of the process of association as physiologically con- 

 ditioned, and thus conjoined with the factor of heredity, 

 that we get the ideas of space and time. The following indi- 

 cates the origin of the idea of space: "On bearing in mind this 

 inheritance of latent experiences * * * it will become possible 

 to conceive how we acquire that consolidated idea of space in 

 its totality, which at first seems so inexplicable." 3 Also in 

 his 'First Principles' Spencer speaks of the origin of "the 

 experience from which consciousness of space arises" as being 

 "experiences of force". 4 Similarly as regards time. 5 In his 

 'Principles of Psychology' Spencer further states: "The 

 doctrine that time is knowable only by the succession of 

 our mental states calls for little exposition: it is so well 

 established a doctrine." 6 The principles of mathematics are 

 likewise shown to be capable of explanation by means of the 

 formula of association, an association which has, in addition 

 to the data of the old school, all the time at the disposal of the 

 evolutionist. For, in dealing with such an axiom as that "two 

 straight lines cannot enclose a space" Spencer states in his 

 'Principles of Ethics': "Unquestionably, on the Evolution- 

 hypothesis, this fixed intuition must have been established by 

 that intercourse with things which throughout an enormous 

 past, has, directly or indirectly, determined the organization 



K).C. 74. 



2 O.C. 469. 



3 O.C. 331. 



4 " First Principles" 62. 



'Ibid. 



"Principles of Psychology" 337. 



