700 The American Naturalist. [September, 
mental ones is, therefore, wholly false. All would depend on 
the prevalence of one or the other sort of conditions. If 
dangers most abounded the creature would be all the more 
quickly destroyed by his excess locomotion. If benefits 
abounded then the creature would prosper because of that fact, 
but not because of any power of muscular tissue to select these 
benefits, save that be by its physical properties—i. e., the 
same which are being studied by the physiologists as before 
mentioned. 
Thus falls the king-bolt in Mr. Baldwin’s “circular reactions.” 
But falling back upon the second link it does seem at first 
sight that advantage should be secured to a creature by a“ new 
factor,” which should have the power of saying when the crea- 
ture should act and when not; and that had the intelligence 
to decide that the creature should move only when in the 
presence of beneficial stimuli and not move in response to de- 
trimental ones. But here again there is a snare and delusion, 
and just where it was least to be expected.” For it is just as 
likely as not that to move would be the most beneficial thing 
in the world under attack of detrimental forces—for instance, 
to get away from them; or that to move under beneficial con- 
ditions would be the most detrimental thing in the world— 
for example, would wiggle the creature away from a newly 
secured morsel of food. In short, so long as it remains true, 
as shown in our last paragraph, that abstract movement is 
equally likely to do harm or good, so also must it remain true, 
that even a “ new factor,” with the power attributed to it by Mr. 
Baldwin, could not by any possibility favor the organism by 
the means described. How should it by the exercise of a 
power which in itself is alike blind to good or ill? 
Thus falls the main swivel in Mr. Baldwin’s chain of reac- 
tions, and falls at a simple touch. But lest it seem to fall too 
easily in proportion to the mighty and world-deciding destiny 
asserted of it, let us pursue it further and in more detail. 
Thoroughly to dispose of an error we must see how and why 
it was made. The doctrine of pleasure, of which Mr. Baldwin’s 
“excess discharge” is the attempted physiological expression, 
dates back to Aristotle. Aristotle declared that pleasure ac- 
