INTRODUCTION 



deal with one of Spencer's most technical and 

 questionable speculations, — that relating to the 

 ultimate elements of psychical life, and to the 

 way in which they are " compounded " in order 

 to form consciousness. While carefully using 

 the term " psychical shock," rather than Spen- 

 cer's original phrase " nervous shock," to de- 

 signate the hypothetical " ultimate unit of con- 

 sciousness," and while thus showing the same 

 keen sensitiveness as before to the need of keep- 

 ing asunder, in the reader's mind, the " psy- 

 chical " and the " physical," Fiske finds no 

 essential difficulty in the way of accepting the 

 substance of the Spencerian hypothesis, and in 

 supposing mental life to be composed of ele- 

 ments which are separately unconscious. He 

 speaks therefore still, in this chapter, as exposi- 

 tor and disciple. Yet he has in mind, neverthe- 

 less, the motive that later proved so powerful 

 in leading him away from his master's attitude 

 in view of the problem of the relation of mind 

 to the Ultimate Reality. 



21. Chapter xvi., on "The Evolution of 

 Mind," seems to the reader to be also, in the 

 main, expository of Spencer ; yet Fiske informs 

 us in the Preface that " the chapter was mostly 

 written,and the theory contained therein entirely 

 worked out, before the publication of Part V. 

 of the second edition of Mr. Spencer's * Princi- 

 Ixvi 



