53 



evolution, and with Moral Phenomena as products of 

 evolution." 1 



Manifestly, then, Spencer's object in the works we have 

 considered, has been to explain psychological phenomena by 

 the processes of the nervous system, and he has done this in 

 accordance with the method employed by the British Associa- 

 tion psychologists, by attempting to show that "true con- 

 clusions respecting psychical phenomena must be based on 

 the facts exhibited throughout organic nature." 2 That is to 

 say, we have found that there is a very intimate dependence 

 of psychological upon physiological processes, and that for 

 every mental state there is a corresponding antecedent nervous 

 state, which latter acts, as it were, as a permanent substratum 

 for the former. We have found that the development from 

 lower to higher forms consists in the increasing adaptation of 

 an organism to its environment. Throughout this develop- 

 ment, pleasure is the concomitant of life-conserving acts, and 

 pain of life-destroying acts, and upon this has depended our 

 development as physiological, psychological, and moral 

 'products'. 



From what has been seen of Spencer's psychology it would 

 appear that a world outside of consciousness produces states 

 in consciousness; that is to say, that conscious events result 

 from nervous and organic conditions. Such conditions, for 

 any individual, are determined, on the one hand, through 

 heredity, and on the other, through contact with environ- 

 ment. The media through which this determination is accom- 

 plished are the factors of pleasure and pain. Consequently 

 it would seem that in the sphere of psychology, and of ethics, 

 what we need primarily is a knowledge of physiological science, 

 because such knowledge would apparently place us in posses- 

 sion of the key to the mental sciences. 



2. GEORGE J. ROMANES. 



Since the publication of the works which have been under 

 consideration above, a good deal has been written along the 

 lines laid down by the Associationists and Spencer. Spencer 

 seems to have been successful in directing the course of many 

 later writers from whose writings it would seem that all phenom- 

 ena without exception are to be brought within the scope of the 

 formula of biological evolution. Following upon the work of 

 Spencer, a rapid development may be noticed along the line 

 of comparative psychology, and closely affiliated with it is 

 genetic psychology. 



MD.C. 193. 



2 " Principles of Psychology", 7. 



