THE DA WN OF MIND. 121 



wide analogies of Nature not make the suggestion 

 worthy at least of inquiry ? The fact, to which there 

 is no exception, that all lesser things evolve, the 

 suggestion, which is daily growing into a further cer- 

 tainty, that there is a mental evolution among animals 

 from the Coelenterate to the Ape ; the fact that the 

 unfolding of the Child-Mind is itself a palpable evolu- 

 tion ; the infinitely more significant circumstance that 

 the Mind in a child seems to unfold in the order in 

 which it would unfold if its mental faculties were 

 received from the Animal world, and in the order in 

 which they have already asserted themselves in the 

 history of the race. jThese seem formidable facts on 

 the side of those consistent evolutionists who, in the 

 face of countless difficulties and countless prejudices, 

 still press the lawful inquiry into the development 

 of human faculty. 



The first feeling in most minds when the idea of 

 mental evolution is presented, is usually one of amuse- 

 ment. This not seldom changes, when the question is 

 seen to be taken seriously, into wonder at the daring 

 of the suggestion or pity for its folly. All great prob- 

 lems have been treated in this way. All have passed 

 through the inevitable phases of laughter, contempt, 

 opposition. It ought to be so. And if this problem is 

 " perhaps the most interesting that has ever been sub- 

 mitted to the contemplation of our race," 1 its basis 

 cannot be criticised with too great care. But none 

 have a right to question either the sanity or the 

 sanctity of such investigations, still less to dismiss 

 them idly on a priori grounds, till they have ap- 

 proached the practical problem for themselves, and 

 1 Romanes. Mental Evolution in Man, p. 2. 



