22O The Evolution Hypothesis. 



"Mind is certainly in some cases, and probably in all, 

 resolvable into nervous shocks." * 



Though Mr. Spencer seems to speak with confidence 

 that he has found the unit of consciousness, out of 

 which mind may be built up ; yet there is consider- 

 able hesitancy in his treatment of the question. " The 

 subjective effect," he says, " produced by a crack or 

 noise that has no appreciable duration is little else 

 than a nervous shock The state of conscious- 

 ness so generated is in fact comparable in quality to 

 the initial state of consciousness caused by a blow . . . 

 which state of consciousness may be taken as the 

 primitive and tpyical form of the nervous shock. 

 It is possible, then may we not say probable that 

 something of the same order as that which we call a 

 nervous shock is the ultimate unit of consciousness." ( 

 The subject is dealt with in a hesitating and tentative 

 way. Possibilities and probabilities will not suffice. 

 The doctrine of the evolution of mind lies at the very 

 heart of evolutionism. Mr. Spencer cannot evolve 

 mind without his unit of consciousness. Whatever 

 doubt attaches to this primal element, attaches to the 

 composite whole built up out of it. If the evolu- 

 tionist is not fully confident about his unit, he needs 

 to be much less confident when he proceeds to com- 

 pound his units with one another, and recompound 



* Psychology, Vol. L, 60, 61, 62. 

 t Ibid., Vol. I., 60. 



