516 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



ception of mental Evolution at large. Methods are con- 

 sidered in relation to the law of development of the fac- 

 ulties as it takes place naturally. Education is regarded 

 as rightly carried on only when it aids the process of self- 

 development ; and it is urged that the course in all cases 

 followed should be from the simple to the complex, from 

 the indefinite to the definite, from the concrete to the ab- 

 stract, and from the empirical to the rational. 



Having reached this stage in the unfolding of his ideas, 

 Mr. Spencer began the writing of the Principles of Psy- 

 chology in August, 1854. This is a work of great origi- 

 nality, and is important as marking the advance of Mr. 

 Spencer's philosophical views at the time of its preparation. 

 The whole subject of mind is dealt with from the Evolu- 

 tion point of view. The idea which runs through Social 

 Statics, that there is ever going on an adaptation between 

 living beings and their circumstances, now took on a pro- 

 founder significance. The relation between the organism 

 and its environing conditions was found to be involved in 

 the very nature of life ; and the idea of adaptation was de- 

 veloped into the conception that life itself " is the definite 

 combination of heterogeneous changes both simultaneous 

 and successive in correspondence with internal coexistences 

 and sequences." It is argued that the degree of life varies 

 with the degree of correspondence, and that all mental 

 phenomena ought to be interpreted in terms of this corre- 

 spondence. Commencing with the lowest types of life, Mr. 

 Spencer, in successive chapters, traces up this relation of 

 correspondence as extending in space and time, as increasing 

 in specialty, in generality, and in complexity. It is also 

 shown that the correspondence progresses from a more 

 homogeneous to a more heterogeneous form, and that it be- 

 comes gradually more integrated the terms here em- 

 ployed in respect to the Evolution of mind being the terms 

 subsequently used in treating of Evolution in general. In 



