302 COSMIC PHILOSOPRY. [pt. ii. 



classes and orders of the animal kingdom in an ascending 

 series, it is to be observed that until we reach the higher 

 mammals the two kinds of correspondence advance together, 

 — the distance at which outer relations are cognized forming 

 a measure of the interval by which their effects may be 

 anticipated. But among the higher mammals there is 

 observed a higher order of adjustments to future emer- 

 gencies, which advances more rapidly than the extension of 

 the correspondence in space, and which in the human race 

 first acquires a notable development. " Not that the transi- 

 tion is sudden," observes Mr. Spencer. "During the first 

 stages of human progress, the method of estimating epochs 

 does not differ in nature from that employed by the more 

 intelligent animals. There are historical traces of the 

 fact that originally the civilized races adjusted their actions 

 to the lomjer sequences in the environment just as Aus- 

 tralians and Bushmen do now, by observing their coincidence 

 with the migrations of birds, the floodings of rivers, the 

 flowerings of plants. And it is obvious that the savages 

 who, after the ripening of a certain berry, travel to the sea- 

 shore, knowing that they will then find a particular shell-fish 

 in scuson, are guided by much the same process as the dog 

 who, on seeing the cloth laid for dinner, goes to the window 

 to watch for his master. But when these phenomena of the 

 season? are observed to coincide with recurring phenomena 

 in the heavens, — when, as was the case with the aboriginal 

 Hottentots, periods come to be measured partly by astro- 

 nomical and partly by terrestrial changes, — then we see 

 making its appearance a means whereby the correspondence 

 in time may be indefinitely extended. The sun's daily 

 movements and the monthly phases of the moon having once 

 been generalized, and some small power of counting having 

 been reached, it becomes possible to recognize the interval 

 between antecedents and consequents that are long apart, 

 ■jnd to adjust the actions to them. Multitudes of sequence* 



