THE INSTINCTS AND THE ACQUIREMENTS OF MAN 247 



growth of mind is exactly parallel to that of its organ. At 

 first, as we see, the mind grows very rapidly. But its rate 

 of increase becomes slower, and at length in old age there is 

 regression. In that last stage, though the quantity of brain 

 is the same as in early manhood, the quality is inferior. 

 There is less nervous, and more fibrous tissue. Besides 

 learning man has also the fortunate capacity for forgetting. 

 His brain, enclosed in a box which ceases to grow, has 

 " room " for a limited quantity of mind only. Consequently 

 he remembers, as a rule, important and forgets unimportant 

 things. The things which are important to him are those 

 which impress him deeply, either because they are in- 

 trinsically important and impressive, or because they are 

 very frequently repeated. In the beginning the power of 

 learning predominates, and more enters the mind than leaves 

 it ; but later the capacity for forgetting is greater. In ex- 

 treme old age man is said to reach second childhood. But 

 this second childhood is woefully different from the first. 

 The aged man resembles the child only because his acquire- 

 ments have become small. He differs from the child 

 because he has lost his splendid instincts for making and his 

 wondrous powers for retaining acquirements. 



"For this losing is true dying, 

 This is lordly man's down-lying, 

 This his slow but sure reclining, 

 Star by star his world resigning." 



