THE CAUSATION OF DISEASE. 1 39 



us. The plastic being is shaped by the E in all sorts of 

 different ways, both as regards mind and body. We do 

 not always take this sufficiently into account ; certainly not 

 as regards mind. In our commerce with the world we forget 

 how vast is the difference between the mental worlds of different 

 individuals, so apt are we to judge others by ourselves. The 

 natural mental diversity accounts, of course, for much of the 

 difference, but over and above this, there can be no doubt that 

 the general cast of the mind is enormously influenced by the 

 surroundings. How different, for instance, are the mental 

 worlds of the artisan, doctor, lawyer, divine ! The fact is no 

 doubt readily allowed in theory, but it is not practically acted 

 up to. And thus when an argument is started, each looks at 

 the matter from his own particular standpoint, and views it in 

 a different light. If we could only rightly estimate the in- 

 fluence of E upon mind, there would be less of that terrible 

 bigotry which so often warps the judgment, and makes an 

 otherwise powerful intellect as ineffectual as a child's. 



The animal organism is very pliant, very plastic. The 

 process of moulding is termed education, and this is both con- 

 scious and unconscious, although the term is more commonly 

 applied to the voluntary, conscious process. AVe may define 

 the latter, or the " art of education,"' as the voluntary 

 application of a specific E to plastic organic matter, with 

 intent to improve its structure.* Plasticity is greatest in 

 early life, and education is then most effectual. This pro- 

 cess, be it remembered, includes not only mental moulding, 

 but physical moulding likewise. Indeed, the two fall, in 

 the long run, under the same head, for all mental training 

 has a physical basis ; wherefore mental training is physical 

 training. 



Now every structural change impressed upon an organism 

 by its E, and other than that which is the distinct outcome of 



* The structural change -wrought by education is, of course, an evolutionary 

 process. When a specific E, voluntarily applied, causes dissolution, as in 

 a voluntary maiming of the body, the process would obviously not be one 

 of education. Nor could surgical operations be classed under the head of 

 " education." Nevertheless, they appear to me to be, in a, sense, educatory, 

 since the body is thereby altered for the better by the application of a specific 

 environment in the shape of surgical skill. 



