GENESIS OF MAN, INTELLECTUALLY 



remoteness from primitive reflex action," Mr. 

 Spencer observes that " in reflex action, which 

 is the action of nervous structures that effect 

 few, simple, and often repeated coordinations, 

 the sequent nervous state follows irresistibly the 

 antecedent nervous state — and does this not 

 only for the reason that the discharge follows a 

 perfectly permeable channel, but also for the 

 reason that no alternative channel exists. From 

 this stage, in which the psychical life is auto- 

 matically restrained within the narrowest limits, 

 up through higher stages in which increasing 

 rnervous complexities give increasing varieties of 

 tactions and possibilities of new combinations, 

 Ithe process continues the same ; and it contin- 

 ues the same as we advance from the savage to 

 [the civilized man. For where the life furnishes 

 relatively few and little varied experiences, where 

 the restricted sphere in which it is passed yields 

 [no sign of the multitudinous combinations of 

 [phenomena that occur elsewhere, the thought 

 [follows irresistibly one or other of the few chan- 

 nels which the experiences have made for it, — 

 [cannot be determined in some other direction 

 For want of some other channel. But as fast as 

 idvancing civilization brings more numerous ex- 

 periences to each man, as well as accumulations 

 of other men's experiences, past and present, the 

 ever multiplying connections of ideas that result 

 imply ever multiplying possibilities of thought. 



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