202 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



inheritable ; and thus the present, human organisms, on 

 this globe, are simply the organized registration of the 

 habits, and peculiarities, of all of their ancestry, back 

 to the beginning of life. The process has undoubtedly 

 been exceedingly slow. 



MENTALITY DEPENDS ON STRUCTURE. Nervous struc- 

 tures may be compared to an J^olian harp, which 

 produces beautiful music, when the motion of the 

 air strikes its chords. If the correct arrangement of 

 the strings exists, the harmony is produced. The 

 quality of music depends upon the structure. The 

 higher the structure of the instrument, the higher the 

 class of music. So the quality of thought, in man, is 

 determined by the structure of the nervous system. ' If 

 the structure adapted to respond to the higher and 

 finer qualities of sensations, transforming these into 

 percepts and concepts, is not there, there will be, either 

 no response, or an abortive, or inharmonious psychical 

 reaction. This high structure was in Shakespeare, and, 

 in fact, in all the great thinkers ; and was so responsive 

 to the most acute and truthful sensations coming to it 

 from the highest harmony of objective relationship in 

 the environment, that the thoughts Shakespeare pro- 

 duced are among the most satisfying, that have been 

 perpetuated in written language. 



Why did Newton see the significance of the falling 

 of the apple, while other men, with brains and nerves 

 apparently like his, failed to make such an important 

 discovery? It must be, because there was a small 

 structure (a variation), of nerve matter in his brain, 

 lacking in other heads, that responded to the sensation 

 coming from the falling apple, through the optic nerve, 

 upon the optic brain center, forming a series of suc- 

 cessive images, impossible to the other brains. These 



