180 The Evolution of Mind. 



its creation. When they began to see that these changes 

 were mere metamorphoses, philosophy was born. The im- 

 pressions of sense became connected by speculation.* For 

 ages after this, hypothesis after hypothesis was evolved as 

 to the origin of matter from one or more primal forms, t 

 All this time they went on committing the same blunder 

 with energy, as had been done with matter. Heat, light, 

 sound, motion and other modes were under incessant obser- 

 vation, but no effort was made at connecting them together. 

 They saw motion only as gross and rectilinear. Even as 

 late as our own age, no less a man than Mayer believed that 

 motion ceased when it became heat4 Now we see motion 

 everywhere, and the Universe appears as a 



"Rushing metamorphosis o' erturning all that stable is, 

 Melts things that be to things that seem, and solid nature to a 

 dream." 



The advent of the doctrine of the Correllation and Con- 

 servation of Forces made it possible for Mr. Spencer to 

 formulate the philosophy of Universal Evolution. § Our 

 belief in the indestructibility of matter and continuity of 

 motion, are but phases of our inability to conceive of the 

 non-persistence of the force of which they are manifesta- 

 tions. || But this inexpugnable reality has another aspect 

 than its dimensional one. IT An appreciation of this fact 

 admonishes me of the utter fruitlessness of the effort at giv- 

 ing a clear conception of the evolution of the mind to those 

 who pretend to believe in the incessant creation and annihila- 

 tion of psychic states. As looking behind matter to the 

 persistent underlying reality forces us to believe in its inde- 

 structibility, so an application of the same method of reason- 

 ing to mind leads us to an identical conclusion. Divide 

 matter as we will, we must at every step perceive that the 

 pieces still have dimensions.** No jugglery of thought can 

 conceive of two non-dimensional halves uniting to make a 

 dimensional whole. Precisely the same kind of an impossi- 

 bility of thought greets us in psychology. Divide mental 

 or psychic operations as we will and we must at every step 

 perceive that it must remain psychic still. No jugglery of 



* History of the Inductive Sciences, Vol. 1, p. 43. 



tRodwell's Birth of Chemistry, pp. 13-29. 



jTait's Recent Advances, p. 55. 



§ Spencer's First Principles (Appleton, 1873, p. 185). 



|| Ibid, pp. 179, 184. 



IFiske's Cosmic Philosophy,V<>!. 2, pp. 414-451. 



** Cooke's New Chemistry, pp. 35, 36. 



