264 THE HUMAN SPECIES 



generations of psychical qualities which after lying dormant 

 come to light again in some remote descendant. 



Those animals whose embryos leave the shelter of the 

 ovum at an early stage and pass through a metamorphosis 

 with gradual perfection of their organism come very soon into 

 contact with the external world, and to a certain extent ex- 

 perience the progressive development of their mind under ex- 

 ternal influences, while those animals which are born structurally 

 complete and develop in the uterus protected from external 

 influences pass through an embryonic resting stage, so far as 

 the psychic functions are concerned, which ends at birth when 

 the mind can only be regarded as a tabula rasa. How long 

 it will remain so varies according as the most important sense- 

 organs are receptive to the outer world or still remain dormant. 



The mammals that are born blind, and even more the 

 offspring of man and the higher apes, pass through a much 

 longer mental babyhood than other mammalian young. 1 



Their movements show that besides organic and general 

 feelings and cutaneous sensibility they only possess the sense 

 of taste and smell necessary for suckling : sight and hearing 

 are not yet in communication with the world outside. When 

 these senses first take on their functions the foundations of a 

 psychical apparatus are laid down. 



Man's psychic activity, like that of most of the higher 

 animals, runs through a long series of stages of development 

 during the individual life. We may single out the five follow- 

 ing as the most important : 



i. The mind of the new-born infant up to the birth of self- 

 consciousness and the learning of speech. 



ii. The mind of the boy, or girl, up to puberty. 



iii. The mind of the youth, or maiden, up to marriage. 



iv. The mind of the grown man and mature woman. 



v. The period of degeneration in old age.- 



The embryogeny of the mind alone will not crush the 

 opponent of the theory of the gradual variation of the animal 

 and human mind if the phylogeny does not tell an even more 

 convincing story. Haeckel was the first to set out the 



1 W. Preyer, Die Sccle des Kindes, 4th ed., 1895. 

 2 Haeckel, The Riddle of the Universe. 



