914 Evolutionary Significance of Human Character. |September, 
for untold ages they involved nothing more than the discovery 
and application of general principles of the simplest kind; such as 
the customary sequence of natural phenomena, and the anticipa- 
tion of their operations, as, for instance, in the laying up of winter 
provisions, Occasionally deductive application of an old rule toa 
new case would arise, as in that of the Mygale spider which was _ 
observed by Dr. McCook to substitute cotton for her own silk for 
the lining of her nest. The development of the rational faculty has 
been rather in quantity and quality, than in the nature of its con- 
stituent parts. I may remark, however, that the embryological 
order is here again different from the palzontological. Inherited 
aptitudes, as for music, calculation, etc., precede, in children, any 
considerable powers of thought, while the order of development 
of the race has been the reverse. 
As regards the appearance of the qualities of mind already 
mentioned, which depend on character of tissue, it is difficult to 
present an order which shall be generally true. Our ignorance 
of the subject is profound; nevertheless observation of animals 
and men leads to the following conclusions: First, the primitive 
mind is negative, unimpressible, and little sensitive. In eves 
lution, sensibility has been developed under stimuli, and di- 
minished by disuse and repose. The energy of high-strung sen- oe 
sibility has probably ever won for its possessors success in the l 
struggle for existence, and more or less immunity from the pains 
which stimulate to action? It is true that the non-aggressive and 
ever-harassed Herbivora have developed the higher brain struc- 
ture. The inferiority of brain type of the Carnivora 1S @ w 
known fact of present and past time. The early ruminants were 
smaller than the contemporary flesh-eaters, and therefore subject . 
to the greatest risks. The best developed brains, those F 
Quadrumana, have been developed in still more defenseless ee 
mals, who in their arboreal life have been confronted by sa 
more complex conditions. oe 
orous nutrition, and the consequent constr 
force-converting tissue. Rapidity without intensi 
result from exercise, with a less vigorous constr 
1 The relation of Man to the Tertiary Mammalia, Penn Monthly, 1875: 
