PROFESSOR VIRGHOW AND EVOLUTION. 639 



faculties we assume, the state of the brain and the associ- 

 ated mental affections, both might be so tabulated side by 

 side that, if one were given, a mere reference to the table 

 would declare the other. Our present powers, it is true, 

 shrivel into nothingness when brought to bear on such a 

 problem, but it is because of its complexity and our limits 

 that this is the case. The quality of the problem and of 

 our powers are, we believe, so related, that a mere expan- 

 sion of the latter would enable them to cope with the 

 former. Why, then, in scientific speculation should we 

 turn our eyes exclusively to the past? May it not be that 

 a time is coming ages no doubt distant, "but still advanc- 

 ing when the dwellers upon this fair earth, starting from 

 the gross human brain of to-day as a rudiment, may be 

 able to apply to these mighty questions faculties of com- 

 mensurate extent? Given the requisite expansibility to 

 the present senses and intelligence of man given also the 

 time necessary for their expansion and this high goal may 

 be attained. Development is all that is required, and not 

 a change of quality. There need be no absolute breach of 

 continuity betwee*n us and our loftier brothers yet to 

 come. 



" We have guarded ourselves against saying that the 

 inferring of thought from material combinations and 

 arrangements would be an inference a priori. The infer- 

 ence meant would be the same in kind as that which the 

 observation of the effects of food and drink upon the mind 

 would enable us to make, differing only from the latter in 

 the degree of analytical insight which we suppose attained. 

 Given the masses and distances of the planets, we can infer 

 the perturbations consequent on their mutual attractions. 

 Given the nature of a disturbance in water, air, or ether 

 knowing the physical qualities of the medium we can infer 

 how its particles will be affected. In all this we deal with 

 physical laws. The mind runs with certainty along the 

 line of thought which connects the phenomena, and from 

 beginning to end there is no break in the chain. But when 

 we endeavor to pass by a similar process from the phe- 

 nomena of physics to those of thought, we meet a problem 

 which transcends any conceivable expansion of the powers 

 which we now possess. We may think over the subject 

 again and again, but it eludes all intellectual presentation. 

 We stand at length face to face with the Incomprehensible. 



