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CHAPTEE II. 



MR. HEEBEET SPENCER. ' 



Me. Herbert Spencee wrote to the Athenmum (April 

 5, 1884), and quoted certain passages from the 1855 

 edition of his "Principles of Psychology," " the meanings 

 and implications " from which he contended were suffi- 

 ciently clear. The passages he quoted were as fol- 

 lows: — 



" Though it is manifest that reflex and instinctive seqnences 

 are not determined by the experiences of the individual 

 organism manifesting them, yet there stUl remains the hypo- 

 thesis that they are determined by the experiences of the race 

 of organisms forming its ancestry, which by infinite repetition 

 in coTintless successive generations have established, these 

 sequences as organic relations " (p. 526). 



"The modified nervous tendencies produced by such new 

 habits of life are also bequeathed" (p. 526). 



" That is to say, the tendencies to certain combinations of 

 psychical changes have become organic" (p. 527). 



"The doctrine that the connections among our ideas are 

 determined by experience must, in consistency, be extended 

 not only to all the connections established by the accumulated 

 experiences of every individual, but to aU those established by 

 the accumulated experiences of every race " (p. 529). 



" Here, then, we have one of the simpler forms of instinct 

 which, under the requisite conditions, must necessarily be 

 established by accumulated experiences " (p. 547). 



" And manifestly, if the organisation of inner relations, in 

 correspondence with outer relations, results from a continual 

 registration of experiences," &c. (p. 551). 



