The Psychological Consequences of Heredity. 3 1 1 



forms of life, they are evolutions, not preformations. While they 

 are the laws of experience, they are at the same time its results 

 results of the experience of the race, and not of the individual ; 

 they are the product of heredity. Let us get a clear idea of this 

 doctrine. 



I hear a bell ring. This fact, apparently so simple, is neverthe- 

 less highly complex ; it consists of a group of sensations, induc- 

 tions, and sense-images, each one of which is in itself a group. 

 Not to speak of the primitive elements, which is not here neces- 

 sary, and noting only the simple, rough, well-known facts, the sum 

 of which makes up for us the phenomenon, we can tell the quality 

 of the sound of a bell which is rung ; whether the bell is large, 

 small, or medium sized ; whether it is near or distant, whether it is 

 sounded by a hammer or by a clapper, whether it is in this church 

 or in that, etc. ; finally, whether the sound continues for a long 

 time or not. This last fact, the continuance of the sensation, I take to 

 be one of the elements of the group, in fact, an essential and funda- 

 mental element, and, so to speak, the ground on which all the others 

 are projected. Again, suppose I have a tooth drawn. This fact 

 also consists of a group of sensations, sentiments, and ideas, far 

 more complex than the preceding ; and here, too, we find that 

 duration is an essential element. Take any fact, any experience 

 whatever, and you will always find groups of sensations, and 

 among the elements of each group you will find duration, or time 

 that is to say, duration in its abstract and universal form, con- 

 sidered objectively. 



I open my eyes, and see before me a fresh sown field. This 

 fact, too, is a group of sensations and ideas (colour, form, distance, 

 etc.), and in this group there is one attribute which, in like manner, 

 is regarded as essential viz. that continuity which, uniting together 

 all the countless points of the field, makes of them one extended 

 whole. This quality of extension I find coupled with other 

 variable qualities, in an immense number of objects which I call 

 material. Hence I regard extension or space, Le. abstract, simple, 

 possible extension, as a permanent attribute of all bodies. 



I approach the fire, and it warms me ; I smell an alkali, and it 

 catches my breath ; I see a cannon ball fired, and it knocks down 

 the wall it strikes. In these, and countless other cases like them 



