Tlic Evolution of Mind. 187 



we perceive a perfect parallelism between the production of 

 the subjective and objective world. No such parallelism, 

 however, can be discovered by those who believe that con- 

 sciousness was out of the succession at an}- point. The ar- 

 rangements of our cells, the tortuous anastamoses of our 

 veins and capillaries, the striation of our muscles, the reticu- 

 lation of our connective tissue, the mechanism of our bones, 

 the arborescence of our nerves, and the whole grand miracle 

 of our organic com])lexity. is but a wonderful history of the 

 development of higher and higher psychic power. Millions 

 of vibrations may resound within this fretted network, but 

 only the grand resultant is perceived as a feeling of well- 

 being. A break in the harmony attracts attention by dis- 

 comfort, and many breaks constitute the feelings of disease. 

 As the driver of a many-horsed stage holds lines to every 

 horse by which to guide them, so the central will appears 

 to be connected with every part of the body, psychically as 

 Avell as physically.* This coenasthesis constitutes the back- 

 ground of the minds of higher animals, while the organs 

 of special sense provide the data of knowledge. In reach- 

 ing up to these possibilities of our intellect, a long chain 

 of pains and pleasures were the guiding impulses. Comfort 

 is the state forever sought by every creature. A condition 

 of comfort or pleasure is the concomitant of evolution, while 

 one of discomfort or pain means dissolution.f AVe cannot 

 conceive of organized existence under conditions other than 

 these. To like that Avhich injures the system is to journey 

 toward dissolution. All injurious external relations are to 

 organized beings more or less painful. The mind is there- 

 fore incessantly seeking to adjust the body in a way that 

 will increase its pleasure or diminish its pain. The more per- 

 fect this adjustment the more perfect the life of the creature. $ 

 In watching the movements of an animal, we judge its place 

 as high or low on the mental scale in proportion to its power 

 of adaptation to its environment. "We can as yet only in 

 the roughest fashion make any classification in comparative 

 psychology, although the thing at first glance seems simple. 

 The fact is, we know very little aboiit how speechless ani- 

 mals feel or think. Many of them seem to possess powers 

 of adjustment in special directions that far exceed our own. 



♦Luy's Brain and its Functions, pp. 91-101 (Int. Sci. Ser.) 

 t Spencer's Psycholofry, Vol. 1, pp. 272-28«. 

 + Spencer's Biblogj-. Vol. 1, pp. 82-93. 



