190 The Evohition of Mind. 



artificial subdivisions of a continuously coniu'cted ■whole, 

 whose invariable aim is correspondence with the environ- 

 ment. Ever}' successive step seeks to fix an exact parallel- 

 ism between the order of our mental contents and the order of 

 the forces of nature.* When external relations and internal 

 conceptions liave become perfect correspondences, intelli- 

 gence will be at its highest. Life will have become unend- 

 ing when adjustnuMits are as perfect as this knowledge. In 

 studying this parallelism between the contents of the mind 

 and its environment, Ave should not forget that the inner is 

 only synd)olic of the outer. It has been wisely said that 

 " We are fearfully and wonderfully made." The grotesque 

 notions of our fathers and the fantasies of the savage are 

 far short of the great reality. But few grasp what the 

 mind does. They never pause to consider that all that is 

 grand in so-called objective nature is but states of their own 

 consciousness. t The actual universe without is unknow- 

 able.! Knowing is the mind's special function, and all we 

 know is in, and not out of it.§ Within its sacred precincts 

 is focalized the dazzling brilliance of the glittering dome of 

 space, the weird loveliness of the mountain landscape, the 

 verdant flower-bespangled prairie, and the vast, surging 

 waters of the ocean. The physicist resolves the outer phase 

 of the correspondence into motions, and the psychologist 

 the inner one to feelings. In the attempt at making such 

 a resolution, however, a vast amount of mental confusion 

 exists. We speak of the brain as the organ of the mind, 

 and yet very few have any definite idea as to what they 

 mean by this. The eye is the organ of sight, yet the eye 

 is not the seer. || The ear is the organ of hearing, yet it is 

 not the hearer. The brain is the organ of thought, yet 

 there are many facts that go to show that the whole brain 

 cannot be the thinker. The great bulk of that organ (or 

 rather combination of organs) appears to be related to the 

 thinking process much as the eye is to the seeing one. The 

 comparison of symptoms in the living with post-mortem- 

 found lesions of the brain, and the careful experiments upon 

 animals by Ferrier,1[ McKendriek,** Goltz,tt Burden-San- 



* Spencer's Psycholoj^y, pp. 407-417. 



t Hiixley's Critiques and Addresses, pp. 285-317. 



t Spenc-er's First Priiicii)les, ])p. 85-97. 



§ Bernstein's Five Senses, \t. itiii. || Ibid, p. 3. 



1[ Ferrier's Functions of tlie Krain, pj). 280-ol.s. 



** Tran's Koy. Soe. Edin., ls73, article on Expcr. on Brains of Pigeons. 



tt Ferrier's inunctions, p. 258. 



