COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



contravenes his own favourite doctrine of the 

 experiential origin of all knowledge, which is 

 in reality part and parcel of that general theory 

 of life. 



With these corollaries I must conclude this 

 too brief account of the process of psychical 

 evolution. In the present chapter and its two 

 predecessors, while steadily refraining from the 

 chimerical attempt to identify Mind with some 

 form of Matter or Motion, it has nevertheless 

 been shown that, owing to the mysterious but 

 unquestionable correlation which exists between 

 the phenomena of Mind and the phenomena 

 of Matter and Motion, it is possible to describe 

 the evolution of the former by the same formula 

 which describes the evolution of the latter. By 

 a continuous differential compounding of im- 

 pressions, we pass, through infinitesimal stages, 

 from the relatively homogeneous and simple 

 set of correspondences known as reflex action, 

 manifested alike by the highest and the lowest 

 animals, to those exceedingly complex and het- 

 erogeneous sets of correspondences known as 

 reason and volition, which are manifested only 

 by the highest animals, and in their greatest 

 complexity by man alone. Throughout this 

 wonderful process we have seen how closely the 

 evolution of psychical function is correlated with 

 the evolution of nerve structure. But great as 

 has been our gain during the foregoing exposi- 

 238 



