Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/383

Rh point, must give rise to a period of infancy, during which the career to be followed by the animal's plastic intelligence is determined by early experiences, but during which, also, the animal is unable to take care of itself. The full comprehension of this point depends on the understanding of as much of Mr. Spencer's psychological doctrine as is expounded in Mr. Fiske's work, and we have not space here to do more than state it. It is, however, familiar to every one that, as a matter of fact, apart from all theory, the growth of intelligence, as we rise in the animal scale, is attended by the appearance of a period of early helplessness, or infancy, which is longest in the highest animals, and is very long in the case of man. It is also a very familiar fact that, where this period of helplessness occurs, there is an accompanying appearance of parental affection and approach toward domesticity in the adult members of the race. These facts give the needed clew to the solution of the problem about the origin of family groups. When once we have have two or three children to take care of, the later ones being born before the elder ones are able to shift for themselves, we have the crude shape of a primeval family group or clan, and have passed from animality which is non-social to animality which is social—that is, to rudimentary humanity.

There appears to be no gap left in this explanation. The intelligence, according to Mr. Wallace's suggestion, is acted upon more and more by natural selection, physical variation-taking a subordinate place. By-and-by the growth of intelligence becomes so considerable as to extend beyond the fœtal period into the early years of life. There results a period of helplessness which, when sufficiently prolonged, causes family associations to become permanent, and thus gives rise to society. And it is further observed that this period of helplessness is also a period of plasticity; so that each generation need no longer strictly resemble preceding generations, but may have a slightly different twist given to it in youth, thus making possible a great acceleration of mental progress.

This beautiful generalization, it cannot be denied, throws new and important light upon the obscure and difficult question of the intellectual and social development of man; and, if Mr. Fiske had done nothing more, it would establish his reputation as an original thinker in one of the highest departments of philosophical investigation. But the most interesting part of the work to many readers will, no doubt, be the six chapters of "Corollaries," which discuss the bearings of the doctrine of Evolution upon religion. Those who expect to find in every upholder of development a materialistic atheist, one who—as the Nation said of Dr. Büchner—not only expects to die like a brute, but congratulates himself that he is going to die like a brute, will no doubt be somewhat taken aback by the chapter on "Matter and Spirit," in which it is asserted with emphasis that "the latest results of scientific inquiry, whether in the region of objective psychology, or in that of molecular physics, leave the gulf between mind and matter quite as wide as it was judged to be in the time of Descartes. It still remains as true as then, that, between that of which the differential attribute is Thought and that of which the differential attribute is Extension, there can be nothing like identity or similarity."

A notable point of originality is the treatment of religion as the highest psychical phase of that life which consists in the adjustment of-inner to outer relations. He regards religion as the manifestation of that striving after complete harmony of psychical life with its requirements, stimulated by the sense of sin or moral shortcoming, for which the analogy is furnished by that striving for mere physical adjustment throughout the animal world, to which the sense of pain is the prompter. This view, as Mr. Fiske maintains, detaches religion from theology, and enables philosophical speculation to proceed to the utmost lengths without fear of detriment to that which men really value in religion, and for the sake of which they cling to the formulas, often absurd or inadequate, in which it is enshrined.

We cordially recommend this valuable work to all who are interested in philosophical questions; and especially to those who are desirous of knowing the latest currents and drifts of speculative inquiry.