78 



vous system. This is evident in the statement that "the 

 ability to co-ordinate impressions, and to perform the appro- 

 priate actions, always implies the pre-existence of certain 

 nerves arranged in a certain way". "What is the meaning 

 of the human brain?" he asks. "It is that the many estab- 

 lished relations among its parts stand for so many established 

 relations among the psychical changes." "In the sense, then, 

 that there exist in the nervous system certain pre-established 

 relations answering to relations in the environment, there is 

 truth in the doctrine of 'forms of intuition'." 1 



This relation of the nervous system to the 'forms of in- 

 tuition' is more definitely brought out in his section on the 

 Physical Synthesis, where he asks, "By what process is the 

 organization of experiences achieved?" This leads Spencer 

 into four long chapters on the genesis of nerves, simple and 

 compound nervous systems, etc., and it is seen that "from 

 beginning to end, the development of nerve results from the 

 passage of motion along the line of least resistance, and the 

 reduction of it to a line of less and less resistance continually". 2 

 With this basis Spencer goes on to deal with the ' functions as 

 related to these structures', stating that "what have been 

 considered as increasingly-complex nervous actions, we have 

 now to consider as increasingly-complex mental states". 3 On 

 this basis, that is, psychical laws are to be interpreted. In a 

 brief summary we read: "It was pointed out in Sec. 222, that 

 the a priori law of intelligence w r ould be fulfilled, and the 

 growth of intelligence would be explained, if it could be shown 

 ' that when a wave of molecular transformation passes through 

 a nervous structure, there is wrought in the structure a modifi- 

 cation such that, other things equal, a subsequent like wave 

 passes through this structure with greater facility than its 

 predecessor." It was thereafter inferred from established 

 mechanical principles, that a structural change of this kind 

 will occur. And we have since occupied ourselves in tracing 

 up nervous evolution as an accumulated result of such 

 changes." 4 



Having now laid the foundation, Spencer proceeds to 

 build the superstructure. "Its most finished form will be 

 given to this interpretation, " he says, "by going on to consider 

 how it enables us to understand the origin of the space in- 

 tuitions which we recognize as necessary. The general theory 

 of these, the reader will at once see, is that they are the fixed 



'O.C. 208. 

 2 O.C. 225. 

 O.C. 243. 

 *O.C. 249. 



