114 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



talent means merely a special form of interconnection of 

 the fundamental reflexes, common to all." (Meyer.) 



This looks very plausible. It is in support of the 

 theory that thought is the chemical and molecular action 

 of the nervous system. A genius who shows a specialty 

 in any direction, is simply pushing, by the exercise of 

 his special mentality, the formation of new connections 

 of the motor nerve ends, which will greatly facilitate the 

 movements necessary to accomplish extraordinary 

 achievements. If he should be an artist, then the sen- 

 sory nerves aroused by sight, excite intensely the motor 

 nerves of the hand, in movements adapted to the imita- 

 tion on the canvas of things, seen by the eye. The in- 

 tensity of the flux, along the fibres running from the 

 eye to the muscles of the hand, meet with resistance by 

 those nervous cells yet undeveloped, and these throw out 

 short circuit fibres, under the intense repeated pressure, 

 which connect with other nearby fibres, and thus excite 

 to motor action, of great co-ordinating power, all the 

 muscles necessary to draw, and paint a great picture. 

 If the genius is gifted in oratory, the principle is the 

 same. The special connections of speech nerves, at their 

 terminals, both in the excited sensory end, and the motor 

 end, whether the sensory end lies in the interior of the 

 brain, or in any of the peripheral sense organs, or in 

 any part of the body, yet, the peculiar material inter- 

 connections of nerve plexuses produce the oratory, which 

 rises in grandeur in proportion to the profundity of the 

 interconnections, which produce also the special associa- 

 tions between ideas just arising and previous ideas 

 acquired from experience or learning. All the mental 

 activities depend upon these nervous connections, and 

 are extraordinary in proportion to the completeness 

 of the interconnections. 



