936 Dynamic Theory. 



will receive modifications and additions. The ideas contained in the 

 book will be compared and collated with others already composing the 

 mind, and the mind will be changed ; that is, the brain will receive new 

 impressions and be re-formed in some respects so as to give a different 

 reaction from former ones. The personality of the educated man has 

 become so different from that of his wild brother that it is competent to 

 be affected and altered by a class of stimuli which cannot disturb the 

 latter. And the further this alteration goes, the larger does the class of 

 stimuli become that are competent to effect further alterations. As we 

 express it, the mind is broadened by culture, by education, by books, 

 by travel, &c. , while without them it remains narrow. And these terms 

 'broad and narrow are not figurative ; they express in general terms ac- 

 tual quantity. There is really more mind where there are more ideas, 

 and vice versa, and if there are no ideas there is no mind. 



The infant begins life with a brain inherited from its ancestors, but 

 without a mind. As impressions are made upon the brain through the 

 sense organs, and sensations are roused, the mind begins; each impres- 

 sion increasing the differentiated area of the brain, and the possible re- 

 actions in memory and sensation which constitute the mind. We some- 

 times hear it said that persons have inherited such and such mental 

 characteristics or traits. This is inexact. Mind can no more be in- 

 herited than a wave of the hand, a cough, a laugh, or a snore, and 

 while it is true that a child may have the same gestures, the same voice, 

 the same gait in walking as his parent, we understand that he has them 

 because he has inherited bodily parts so exactly counterparts of those 

 of his parent that their reactions are necessarily identical. If a man 

 makes two windmills just alike, he will expect their movements to be 

 alike. And so if two brains are alike, their movements, that is, their 

 mind, will be alike under the same stimulation. That the minds of 

 parent and child are so very often not alike is due as much to the un- 

 likeness of the stimuli to which they are exposed as to the unlikeness 

 of the organs as originally inherited. If any two people were at the 

 beginning exactly alike in all respects, and then were exposed to pre- 

 cisely the same environment, their development would be the same, and 

 the feeling of identity would be alike in each. They would believe 

 alike, see all things in the same light, have the same tastes, preferences 

 and aversions. The}^ would be alike in personal appearance, gesture, 

 feature, and dress. Accordingly, we find the people of any particular 

 section of the earth, to have a resemblance to each other. And the 

 longer such people have inhabited such country, the more close and 

 striking their similarity. 



It is easy to distinguish a Negro, an Indian, a European, or a China- 

 man in a crowd. It is generally easy to distinguish a German or an 



