48 



absolute external relations there are established in the struc- 

 ture of the nervous system absolute internal relations re- 

 lations that are potentially present before birth in the shape of 

 definite nervous connections; that are antecedent to and inde- 

 pendent of individual experiences, and that are automatically 

 disclosed along with the first cognitions. * * * The human 

 brain is an organized register of infinitely numerous experi- 

 ences received during the evolution of life, or during the evolu- 

 tion of that series of organisms through which the human 

 organism has been reached." 1 



From the foregoing excerpts one is prepared to understand 

 what Spencer means by the Ego, for he says: "That the ego 

 is something more than the passing groups of feelings and 

 ideas, is true or untrue, according to the degree of compre- 

 hension we give to the word. It is true if we include the body, 

 and its functions; but it is untrue if we include only what is 

 given in consciousness." 



"Physically considered the ego is the entire organism, 

 including its nervous system; and the nature of this ego is pre- 

 determined; the infant had no more to do with the structure 

 of its brain than with the colour of its eyes. Further, the ego, 

 considered physically, includes all the functions carried on by 

 these structures when supplied with the requisite materials. 

 These functions have for their net result to liberate from the 

 food, etc., certain latent forces. And that distribution of these 

 forces shown by the activities of the organism, is from moment 

 to moment caused partly by the existing arrangement of its 

 parts and partly by the environing conditions." 



"The physical structure thus pervaded by the force thus 

 obtained, constitutes that substantial ego which lies behind 

 and determines those ever-changing states of consciousness 

 we call mind. And while this substantial ego, unknowable in 

 ultimate nature, is phenomenally known to us under its 

 statical form as the organism, it is fundamentally known to 

 us under its dynamical form as the energy diffusing itself 

 through the organism, and among other parts, through the 

 nervous system. Given the external stimuli, and the nervous 

 changes with their correlative mental states, depend partly 

 on the nervous structures and partly on the amount of this 

 diffused energy; each of which factors is determined by causes 

 not in consciousness, but beneath consciousness. The aggre- 

 gate of feelings and ideas constituting the mental 'I' which 

 continually survives as the subject of these changing states, is 

 that portion of the Unknowable Power w r hich is statically 



KXC. 208. 



