452 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



suppose a period in the human germ-history, at which the 

 mind enters the body, enters the brain ; and we must also 

 suppose a moment at death, at which it leaves the body ; 

 and further, as every man inherits certain individual 

 mental qualities from each parent, we must suppose that 

 portions of the mind of each were transferred to the germ 

 at the time of its procreation. A little piece of the father's 

 mind accompanied the sperm-cell, a little piece of the 

 mother's mind remained with the egg-cell. This dualistic 

 view entirely fails to explain the phenomena of evolution. 

 We all know that the new-born child has no consciousness, 

 no knowledge of itself and of the objective world. Who- 

 ever has children of his own, and follows their mental 

 development candidly, cannot possibly deny that processes 

 of biological evolution are at work there. Just as all other 

 functions of the body develop in connection with their 

 organs, so does the mind develop in connection with the 

 brain. And this gradual development of the child's mind 

 is such a wonderful and beautiful phenomenon, that every 

 mother and every father with eyes to see takes unwearied 

 delight in observing it. The text-books of Psychology 

 alone are ignorant of any such development, and we are 

 almost forced to the conclusion that their authors them- 

 selves never had any children. The human mind, as it is 

 represented in the great majority of psychological works, 

 is only the one-sided mind of a learned philosopher, who, 

 indeed, knows many books, but nothing of the process of 

 evolution, and does not suspect that even his own mind has 

 developed. 



These same dualistic philosophers must, of course, if 

 they are consistent, also assume that there was a moment 



