536 The Relations of Mind and Matter. [June, 
cally traced, not only to the rhizopod, but to the chemical 
elements, 
The second great phase of material evolution, the functional, 
which has gradually unfolded until, from forms lower than the 
rhizopods—mere homogeneous masses of protoplasmic mole- 
cules—it has produced the extraordinarily intricate and hetero- 
geneous form of man, as the highest existing stage of material 
combination, is due to the operation of two characteristics inhe- 
rent in protoplasm. The first of these is the power of self-move- 
ment, through the agency of internal energy set free by oxida- 
tion. The second is the power of inducing new chemical action 
to the production of new protoplasm. The mode of operation ot 
this second agency is as yet in great part a mystery. But that it 
exists is too evident to be for a moment questioned. And there — 
is considerable reason to believe that these two agencies do not 
act simultaneously, but that oxidation of protoplasm and reinte- 
gration of the same are always successive processes in the organic 
economy. 
At some period in this long process of organic development 
there came into operation a third distinct phase or process of 
evolution, the psychical or mental phase. It is this with which 
we are here alone concerned. Its appearance and unfoldment 
seem related to functional action as the latter is to chemism. 
Psychical action has constantly tended to check functional varia- 
tion, and to replace it by a new controlling agency. As organic 
action slowly checked the development of chemism, and at last 
wholly or nearly superseded it, so psychical action has opposed 
the energy of functional variation and, in the case of man, has 
largely superseded it. The three modes of energy here indicated 
are probably all due to the action of forces inherent in the con- 
stitution of matter, and some of the conditions of this action are 
very evident. These it may not be amiss to briefly indicate. 
Every mass of matter, however composed, is constantly affected — 
by two sets of forces, those acting internally and tending to pre- 
serve and increase its complexity of organization, and those act- 
ing upon it from the external world and tending to reduce or 
destroy its complexity. In chemical integration the internal 
energy is in the ascendant. The compound is formed by the 
__ innate forces of its elements, and grows more complex through 
"See The Organic Function of Oxygen, AMER. NAT., Feb. and March, 1883. 
