212 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



gave him the impression that the thinking process was 

 to him so automatic, that it appeared to him. that it 

 would proceed even without a body, and without an 

 abiding place. At the same time he claimed that he 

 had purged his brain of all previous impressions, or 

 prejudices. We know that he was a believer in the 

 current theology. One cannot help thinking, notwith- 

 standing, he undoubtedly made every effort to forget, 

 for the time being, these theological beliefs, yet how 

 squarely his meditations supported on all sides these 

 beliefs? But everyone knows how impossible it is to 

 get away, simply by one's effort to forget, from the 

 teachings of a lifetime, and the impressions made upon 

 the young mind, by teachers. It can be done by a 

 long line of study, in the natural sciences, the facts of 

 which replace in the mind the former impressions. But 

 Descartes had not proceeded in that way, nor did he 

 desire to get away from theological ideas. To arrive 

 at the idea of the true ego, he did not enter upon a 

 scientific analysis of the connection of thought with the 

 function of the brain. He made no genetic comparison 

 of the growth of thought from birth to death, at ma- 

 turity. He had already concluded that animals did 

 not think, and, therefore he did not consider a com- 

 parative physiology, or psychology. Had he studied 

 the infant "mind"' empirically, he would have discov- 

 ered that its thinking was very small compared with 

 that of the mature "mind." and that as it grew 

 toward maturity its power to think increased only with 

 the growth of its body, and brain. The use of the 

 thinking process, stimulated every moment by outside 

 influences, such as the matured actions and speech of its 

 parents, teachers and playmates, shows that in infancy 

 the chance of independent thinking without a body 



