THE DA WN OF MIND 155 



respect have even gone further. They include 

 mental evolution not only among the hypotheses 

 of Science but among its facts and its necessary 

 facts. "Is it conceivable," asks Mr. Romanes, "that 

 the human mind can have arisen by way of a 

 natural genesis from the minds of the higher 

 quadrumana? I maintain that the material now 

 before us is sufficient to show, not only that this 

 is conceivable, but inevitable." ^ 



It is no part of the present purpose to discuss 

 the ultimate origin or nature of Mind. Our subject 

 is its development. At the present moment the 

 ultimate origin of Mind is as inscrutable a mystery 

 as the origin of Life. It is sometimes charged 

 against Evolution that it tries to explain every- 

 thing and to rob the world of all its problems. 

 There does not appear the shadow of a hope that 

 it is about to rob it of this. On the contrary the 

 foremost scientific exponents of the theory of 

 mental evolution are ceaselessly calling attention 

 to the inscrutable character of the element whose 

 history they attempt to trace. " On the side of 

 its philosophy," says Mr. Romanes, " no one can 

 have a deeper respect for the problem of self- 

 consciousness than I have; for no one can be more 

 profoundly convinced than I am that the problem 

 '^ Op. city p. 213. 



