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in proportion to the simplicity and directness of 

 the syntaxis employed. Among all the possible 

 forms, therefore, which syntaxis might assume, the 

 simplest and most direct would have the advantages 

 (i.) that it could be used by a larger number of 

 organisms than any other, (ii.) that these organisms 

 would more easily obtain food in times of scarcity, 

 and (iii.) that they would be more likely to ^scape 

 from their enemies ; so that the criterion which we 

 have seen in use throughout the history of science, 

 has its foundation in the conditions which were 

 necessary for the survival of nervous organisms long 

 ages before the evolution of the earliest vertebrate. 

 With regard to this theory that our present mental 

 functions are determined by heredity working 

 through the advantage gained by the guidance of 

 action, I may note here, by way of indirect con- 

 firmation, that it gives equally intelligible results 

 when applied to other aspects of the problem of 

 syntaxis. For instance, the question arises, how do 

 we come to accept our reminiscences as being in 

 any degree reinstatements of former sensations ? 

 That we do accept them as such is indisputable, 

 yet we have no guarantee that they are reinstate- 

 ments, beyond the fact that we feel as if they 

 must be so, and the feeling is frequently found 

 to be misleading, because different reminiscences 

 are so contradictory that if they be reinstatements 

 at all they must be extremely confused . and 



