REASON. 453 



in the Phylogeny of the human mind at which this mind 

 first entered the vertebrate body of man. Accordingly, at 

 the time when the human body developed from the body 

 of the Anthropoid Ape (thus, probably, in the latter part of 

 the Tertiary Period), a specific human mind-element or, as it 

 is usually expressed, a " divine spark " must have suddenly 

 entered or been breathed into the brain of the Anthropoid 

 Ape, and there have associated itself with the already 

 existing Ape-mind. I need not point out the theoretic 

 difficulties involved in this conception. I will only remark 

 that even this " divine spark," by which the mind of Man 

 is said to be distinguished from that of all other animals, 

 must itself be a thing capable of evolution, and has actually 

 developed progressively in the course of human histoiy. 

 This " divine spark " is usually understood to be " reason," 

 and is ascribed to man as a mental function distinguishing 

 him from all "irrational animals." Comparative Psycho- 

 logy, however, teaches that this frontier-post between man 

 and beast is altogether untenable. 198 We must either take 

 the idea of reason in its broader sense, in which case it 

 belongs to the higher Mammals (the Ape, Dog, Elephant, 

 Horse), as much as to the majority of men ; or we must 

 conceive it in its narrower sense, and then it is lacking in 

 the majority of men, as well as in most animals. On the 

 whole, that which Goethe's Mephistopheles said of his time, 

 is true of Man's reason to-day : 



" He might have kept himself more right 

 Hadst Thou ne'er shewn to him a glimpse of heaven's light. 

 He calls it Reason, but Thou seest 

 Its use but makes him beastlier than the beast." 



If, therefore, we must abandon this generally preferred. 



