74 Teachings of Thomas Huxley 



until several hours or days old. The higher 

 functions, then, of thought, feeling, and will 

 are quite embryonic in the human being at 

 birth, and only develop after a relatively long 

 period of education and experience. As Pro- 

 fessor Huxley exju" esses it, "In the new-born 

 infant the Ego is little more than a bundle of 

 potentialities. But later on these become actu- 

 alities, dulness or brightness, weakness or 

 strength, viciousness or uprightness, with each 

 feature modified by confluence with another/' 

 If we imagine an infant born into the world 

 on some desert island, without precept from its 

 kind as to what it should or should not do, 

 cared for as are the plants by the kindness of 

 the soil, we can grant quite readily that it will 

 grow up and become little more than a vegeta- 

 tive mass. Thought would still be possible, but 

 only such thought as animals possess in keep- 

 ing themselves out of harm's way. Speech 

 would, of course, be impossible and there would 

 be little or no cause for comparing itself with 

 the objects about it. Mental development, 

 therefore, is scarcely possible without bodily 

 activity, and bodly activity is largely imitative, 

 certainly in so far as movements of precision 

 are concerned. But given a child on a desert 

 island who must shift for himself to satisfy 

 the wants of his being, development of intelli- 

 gence to that degree would be quite rapid but 

 would scarcely proceed beyond it. Natural 



