Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 11.djvu/560

 544 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

equipment of instinct is reduced to a minimum, which is the rea- son he is so helpless at birth. But he has a most enormous memory, a most prodigious power of growing mentally as he uses his mind. From birth forward he continually stores experiences, by which he guides his future conduct, and thus becomes the most helpful of animals. Only a very little part of his mind, therefore, is inborn and instinctive ; immensely the greater part is acquired, in the sense that it develops under the influence of use, of experi- ence.

Now, because the beetle's mind is inborn, owing nothing to experience, therefore one beetle is mentally almost exactly like every other beetle of the same species. If different beetles have different experiences, that makes no difference to their minds, since they are incapable of profiting by it. But, because a man's mind develops almost wholly under the influence of experience, the minds of no two men are alike. Think how different are the minds of the various people in this room how different the con- tents of their memories, how different their hopes and hates, their ideals, and ambitions, and temptations. If, were it possible, we exchanged minds one with another, and were conscious of the change, we should feel almost that we had entered a new and extraordinary world. But if one Sitaris exchanged mind with another, he would not know the difference. In brief, our minds differ because we are able to store in memory our experiences, which are never alike in any two men. The minds of beetles, on the other hand, are alike, because they are not affected by experi- ence. According to the experience he has, an average baby may become a fool or a wise man, a yokel or a statesman, a savage or a civilized man, a saint or a thief. He may be trained to love or abhor a particular religion, or code of morals, or country. Sitaris can be trained to nothing, because he is able to learn to remember nothing. It is possible to trace the evolution of memory, of the power of learning by experience. In the fish and frog this power is extremely limited. These animals have almost purely instinct- ive minds. Their bodies also appear to develop almost solely under the influence of nutrition, for frogs imprisoned in cavities from the tadpole stage have emerged with the body and mind fully