2 Dynamic Theory. 



reason, and may defy all cause and set aside all law. Nevertheless we 

 are continually talking about bringing influences to bear to change men's 

 wills, arguments to alter their opinions, and inducements to modify or 

 regulate their actions. We also seem by our language to expect that 

 causes will influence the will and alter the actions ; in such expressions 

 as "What could have caused that man to act so?" k ' Whatever pos- 

 sessed him?" " Knowing as he did, why did he not do thus and so?" 

 What inducements can we offer ? The vagueness and confusion of the 

 current ideas on the subject of the mind are clearly traceable to two 

 impossibilities. The first is the impossibility of conceiving of any being 

 or thing short of infinite, not subject to the operations of cause and 

 effect, in short, not subject to law ; the other is the impossibility of 

 conceiving of an immaterial being or thing as being subject to any law 

 or influence whatever ; not to say the impossibility of conceiving of the 

 existence of such a being at all. 



I believe the present state of knowledge to be sufficiently advanced 

 to furnish plausible, if not demonstrative, proof that the mind is not a 

 person or thing at all, but that mental action is a form of physical en- 

 ergy. This theory would take mental action out of the region of fancy, 

 whim and caprice, and place it along with everything else in nature, 

 under the dominion of law which we can learn to watch in its operations 

 and trace in its certain and inevitable effects. 



In stud\*ing man, we shall find that we cannot separate him from his 

 surroundings, and that to understand him we must understand them. 

 Moreover, without hesitation we admit the analogy between one man 

 and another, and expect to find the general characteristics of the race 

 in every individual. The ancients went this far ; but modern discovery 

 enables us to go much further, and confidently to regard every animal 

 as the analogue of man; so that- we study ourselves when we study 

 them. 



CHAPTER II. 



OUR RELATIONS. 



The first step in the argument is to show the intimate relationship 

 existing between man and the rest of animated creation, to prove his 

 kinship to the other animals, and to demonstrate his origin and develop- 

 ment to be identical with theirs. 



There are many general points of. resemblance between man and other 

 animals that are patent to the most ordinary observation. Thus he 

 resembles all in requiring food, in digesting it, in excreting the waste, 

 in requiring the rest and refreshment of sleep, in growth from infancy 

 to maturity, n: the reproduction of his kind, in the dcca} r of old age, and 



