4 o8 MIND IN EVOLUTION CHAP. 



to systematise induces two consequences. The first is a 

 criticism of the principles upon which thought has hitherto 

 dealt with experience, the second a criticism of experience 

 itself, or perhaps rather of the result constructed by 

 thought operating in and upon experience. In this move- 

 ment, the work of analysis, of rendering thought articulate, 

 reaches its final stage, at which it attacks the principles, 

 methods, and processes of thought itself. We compared 

 the inferences of the last stage to a syllogism in which 

 both premisses and conclusion were completely explicit ; 

 but in this stage there is yet another point that is explicit, 

 i.e., the assumptions involved in syllogising, in building 

 up and applying universal conceptions. 



Ideally, intelligence at this stage also reaches its highest 

 development in point of scope, for its ultimate goal is 

 nothing less than the complete synthesis of reality as a 

 whole. This goal we have treated as merely a " regulative 

 concept." Reality is infinite, but the conditions affect- 

 ing human life and its development are finite, and there 

 is no reason why they should not come within the scope 

 of science. The knowledge of the conditions of human 

 life and the possibilities of the human race would there- 

 fore constitute the scope of intelligence, if we conceive the 

 scientific stage to have arrived at maturity. The result 

 would be a system including not all reality, but all that 

 affects practical life. 



The application of such a system would be a deliberate 

 organisation of life, in which the development of the race 

 is itself the supreme object. And of such an organisation 

 the highest ethical consciousness supplies the necessary 

 basis. If we imagine the tendencies which we see in germ 

 to have reached maturity, we should have brought the de- 

 velopment of mind to a point at which the slow and uncer- 

 tain growth emerging through conflict and competition with 

 forms that are often stronger though less worthy, would 

 be replaced by an orderly development moving steadily 

 towards an ascertained goal, and master of the conditions, 

 internal and external, of its advance. Thus the scope of 

 correlation at this stage is inclusive of all matters affecting 

 action. The whole experience of the race is used to guide 



