INTRODUCTION 



vastly altered since he wrote this book, would 

 have been needed to give counsel as to how 

 he should restate, in the light of later research, 

 Spencer's notions regarding the evolution of 

 nervous systems, and regarding the relations 

 between brain and mind. And finally, if one 

 may again mention a distinctively philosophical 

 topic, Fiske's favourite assertion of the " con- 

 comitance," or " parallelism " between the ner- 

 vous functions and the mind, — an assertion 

 which he opposed, as we know, to all theories 

 of interaction, or of "transformation of energy" 

 between the physical and mental world, — would 

 have required, had he undertaken to restate and 

 defend it afresh, a discussion of the recent phases 

 of the controversy about this very " psycho- 

 physical parallelism," — a controversy which 

 was never so warm and never so varied as it 

 is at the present moment. 



47. How Fiske, if endowed afresh with the 

 vigour of his youth, would have set about the 

 vast task of adjusting his "Cosmic Philosophy" 

 to the results of that very advance of opinion 

 and of knowledge to which, as a public teacher, 

 he had contributed, we cannot know. But 

 summing up the foregoing, we can feel fairly 

 sure (i) that the work, if revised to suit its au- 

 thor's mind, would have especially emphasized 

 that gradual growth of his own religious and 

 cxlviii 



