544 



SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



mental life of mankind, language being the great instru- 

 ment by which this is accomplished. In this external 

 or objective existence — which, however, is only intel- 

 ligible to beings which form a part of it — that con- 

 tinuity is regained which in the existence of every 

 individual is continually being interrupted and in danger 

 of being lost. Psycho-physical research reveals to us 

 the existence of a unity different from that visible in 

 merely external or physical nature, — a centred unity 

 which is something else than the sum of parts in a 

 mathematical whole. Through this process of cen- 

 tralisation and externalisation there has been formed 

 in the physical world, or in nature, a new world — 

 the world of mind, which is continually growing in 

 contrast to the former, which only changes without 

 increasing or losing its two constituents, matter and 

 energy. 



This new world within the old one, this creation of 

 man, forms indeed a portion of nature — it is the micro- 

 cosm in the macrocosm. It might be investigated by 

 the usual methods of exact research ; and the science of 

 anthropology, with its many branches, proposes to study 

 it in the same way as natural history in modern times 

 has studied the social life of certain animals, such as 

 bees, ants, and beavers. Inasmuch, however, as the exact 

 methods do not lead very far, and have continually to 

 appeal to the interpretations of psychology, gained by 

 personal experience and introspective methods,-^ it seems 



1 Prof. E. Hering ('Ueber das 

 Gedjichtniss als eine allgemeine 

 Funktion der organischen Materie,' 

 Vienna, 1870) says: "So long as 



the physiologist is only a physicist 

 he stands in a one-sided position 

 to the organic world. This one- 

 sidedness is extreme but quite 



