THE DA WN OF MIND. 123 



words, so far as this aspect of the matter is concerned, 

 I am in complete agreement with the most advanced 

 idealist. I am as far as any one can be from throwing 

 light upon the intrinsic nature of the probable origin 

 of that which I am endeavoring to trace/' * Mr. Darwin 

 himself recoiled from a problem so transcendent : ^* I 

 have nothing to do with the origin of the mental 

 powers, any more than I have with that of life itself." ^ 

 " In what manner," he elsewhere writes, " the mental 

 powers were first developed in the lowest organisms, 

 is as hopeless an inquiry as how life itself first 

 originated."^ 



Notwithstanding his appreciation of the difiiculty 

 of the ultimate problem, Mr. Darwin addressed his 

 whole strength to the question of the Evolution of 

 Mind — the Evolution as distinguished from its origin 

 and nature; and in this he has recently had many 

 followers, as well as many opponents. Among the 

 latter stand the co-discoverer with him of Natural 

 Selection, Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, and Mr. St. 

 George Mivart. Mr. Wallace's opposition, from a 

 scientific point of view, is not so hostile, however, as 

 is generally supposed. While holding his own view 

 as to the origin of Mind, what he attacks in Mr. 

 Darwin's theory of mental evolution is, not the de- 

 velopment itself, but only the supposition that it 

 could have been due to Natural Selection. Mr. Wal- 

 lace's authority is frequently quoted to show that the 

 mathematical, the musical and the artistic faculties 

 could not have been evolved, whereas all he has really 

 emphasized is that " they could not have been devel- 



1 Mental Evolution in Man, pp. 194-5. 



2 Origin of Species, p. 191. ^Descent of Man, p. 06. 



