CHAPTER VIII. 

 THE EMBRYOLOGY OP THE SOUL. 



Importance of ontogeny to psychology. Development of the child- 

 soul. Commencement of existence of the individual soul. 

 The storing of the soul. Mythology of the origin of the soul. 

 Physiology of the origin of the soul. Elementary processes in 

 conception. Coalescence of the ovum and the spermatozoon. 

 Cell-love. Heredity of the soul from parents and ancestors. Its 

 physiological nature as the mechanics of the protoplasm. Blending 

 of souls (psychic amphigony). Reversion, psychological atavism. 

 The biogenetic law in psychology. Palingenetic repetition and 

 cenogenetic modification. Embryonic and post-embryonic psy- 

 chogeny. 



The human soul — whatever we may hold as to its 

 nature — undergoes a continual development through- 

 out the life of the individual. This ontogenetic fact 

 is of fundamental importance in our monistic psy- 

 chology, though the " professional " psychologists pay 

 little or no attention to it. Since the embryology of 

 the individual is, on Baer's principle — and in accor- 

 dance with the universal belief of modern biologists 

 — the " true torch-bearer for all research into the 

 organic body," it will afford us a reliable light on the 

 momentous problems of its psychic activity. 



Although, however, this " embryology of the soul " 

 is so important and interesting, it has hitherto met 

 with the consideration it deserves only within a very 

 narrow circle. Until recently teachers were almost 

 the only ones to occupy themselves with a part of the 



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