PSYCHOLOGY 371 



all human art. We may observe the same advance from 

 lower to higher things in all regions in which man's special 

 attributes are exercised. The races from Which civilised 

 nations have sprung have gradually developed their origin- 

 ally meagre and inadequate language with a rich fount of 

 speech, by which the expansion and exchange of ideas has 

 been facilitated, and which, in conjunction with science, has 

 become a power encircling the entire earth. 



In place of the miserable sparks obtained in the infancy 

 of mankind by rubbing together pieces of wood, and replaced 

 some thousands of years later by flint and steel, or pyrites, we 

 have to-day at our command matches which may be kindled 

 in a moment ; gas, oil and electric light illuminate the darkness, 

 and steam, produced and controlled by fire, drives the various 

 machines by which we manufacture our industrial products 

 and convey them at express speed over land and sea. We 

 overcome the influence of cold by warming our dwellings, and 

 by the use of clothes, which can be modified according to the 

 condition of the temperature ; and we have learnt to con- 

 struct a host of vessels and tools of iron which enable us to 

 fashion any substance to suit our wishes. 



With regard to the question as to whether man during the 

 course of his development in the past has at some time over- 

 stepped the barriers which now divide him from the beasts, 

 Wundt thinks that we can certainly give an affirmative answer. 

 This is shown by human history. For as man during his in- 

 dividual development passes from simple association of ideas 

 to a condition of intellectual consciousness, so the whole race 

 has once passed from a state of nature to a state of culture. 



In contrast to man's struggle and progress from savagery 

 to civilisation, the further question arises whether it is to man 

 alone that this spiritual development has been granted, or 

 whether animals also can rise to higher things. Wundt, dealing 

 with this question from the point of view that animals have 

 only a simple power of associating ideas and no actual in- 

 tellectual capacity, thinks that for them any such spiritual de- 

 velopment is in the highest degree improbable. He considers 

 the psychological organisation of animals so circumscribed that 

 further development can only take place within certain narrow 



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