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the separate objects present themselves in a manner that bears all the characteristics of sheer fortuity. the mind it is as if chance, in defiance of law, prevailed in this department.

356. This eddying current of ideas runs parallel always with the more uniform current of sensations, coming in from the real world around us; and as these are usually the more potent, they turn it from its track and give it a new direction, and impart to it still more the aspect of fortuity. And yet it is from out of this ever-shifting mass of disorder that the human intelligence obtains the most admirable products.

357. The animal mind in many, if not in all its lower ranks, is, like the human mind, retentive of the impressions it receives through the senses: this we can not doubt. The dream of the dog, which we may almost see as we watch his nervous sleep, indicates this fact. So does his faculty, and that of other domesticated animals, of acquiring habits show it. Retentiveness of the recollection of places, remarkable as it is in some animals, can be understood only on this supposition. But in the inferior orders this faculty of storing perceptions completes its purpose within very narrow limits, and it fails to develop any powers of Mind so as to become a source of free energy. In the human mind, at the moment when this power wakes up and steps forward in its own manner, the scene changes-the phenomena of consciousness take quite another character; and that which is fortuitous, as well as that which is bound by law, gives way to that which shows its relationship to a determinative principle.

358. We can scarcely misunderstand the purpose of this structure of the human mind which brings its active rudiment, or, we ought to say, itself into contact with this great store of materials, confusedly heaped together as they are. This intention may be traced in following the progress of the mind from its earliest period until its faculties have become consolidated.

XI.

THE POINT OF DIVERGENCE OF THE HIGHER AND THE LOWER ORDERS OF MIND.

359. THE human infant, from its first days of sentient life, gives evidence that preparations are, in this instance, making, not merely for the development of faculties of a high order, but for giving the greatest breadth to the field upon which these faculties are to come into action.

360. The actions of the animal (inferior orders) have their rise mainly in its instincts, appetites, wants, as these are related to the objects present to the senses from one moment to another. Yet it is not exclusive

ly so; for there is a class of actions which appear to be prompted by ideas or images furnished from what may be called the stores of the brute imagination. The reality of this species of action may be admitted as more than probable, if not certain.

361. But not at all questionable is it that, with man, action arises from this source in a large proportion of instances; and thus it is that, while the incitements of volition are greatly multiplied, the energies

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of Mind come to take effect with more freedom than

otherwise they could do.

362. The human infant, while under the discipline of nature, and long before maternal teaching commences, yields itself to the constant succession of sensuous impressions; it is receiving, imbibing, assimilating the greatest possible amount of sensations: while awake, this passive process goes on without ceasing; and during sleep-if we may so far surmise-the accumulated stores are turned over and over, and are commingled in endless modes of combination.

363. In proportion as infancy opens itself into childhood, emotions of all kinds become more vivid, so that this operation of stocking the mind comes to be more and more an active process. MIND is now waking up, and scarcely any thing takes place within its prospect with which it does not in some way concern itself. Thus it is that sensuous ideas, inasmuch as the accompanying emotion is more vivid, and also because the mind itself, at this time, mingles itself with every thing, are in themselves more and more distinct and more persistent; they claim more attention, and they

receive it.

364. Throughout the years of childhood, these impressions, these images or ideas, are tending to fall into chronological order, and in doing so, they give coherence to the consciousness of personal identity. Man is not man until the moment when he learns to look upon himself from the historical point of view. Whether any analogous process of individualization takes place among the lower orders can not be known; yet, if it does, probably it stops short at a point where it is a mere rudiment.

365. Childhood, in its onward course toward maturity, passes into an intermediate condition, the characteristic of which is this: that the mind itself, or, if we choose to say so, its active rudiment, is much in excess of the appetites, wants, desires of the animal nature. Man, at this spring-time, has very much more of a vague impulse to act than of any definite motive for acting. This, however, is a disproportion which continues only for a brief period; the equilibrium is soon restored, and the excess thenceforward comes to be on the other side.

366. But during this brief period, whatever may be its date, preparations are making, under the discipline of nature, for the development of MIND in man of a far deeper meaning than has any place in the animal orders around him. It is now that he is learning to take his position as possessor of a freedom apart from which there could neither be intellectual expansion nor moral progress.

367. Throughout this transition-period, the conduct, or, as it is conventionally called, "the behavior" of those who are passing through it, stands open to frequent criticism, and to rebuke too on the part of senior minds; for it has become capricious, wayward, inconsiderate, or, to say all in a word, "thoughtless." But "thoughtless behavior" is not good in itself; it is often in a high degree inconvenient or even dangerous, and therefore it should be brought under control. And yet it should not be so criticised or be so controlled as that the intentions of nature at this moment should be defeated. If, through an excess of parental wisdom, or by overdone discretion, nature is thwarted

at this time, the after-man will be so much the less the man as he has been brought into the condition of a machine.

368. In the absence or during the abeyance of powerful animal impulses, and while there is a large suggestive fund of ever-shifting imaginations, as the incitements of volition, and an exuberance of energy which must be spent, the human mind is coming into the use of its inherent liberty; it is tasting the enjoyment of its birthright-its sovereignty in relation to motives of all kinds. Among these motives, whether they may be stronger or weaker in themselves, it takes its sport, refusing to be enthralled by any, and spurning every despotism: it is learning to be free.

369. If we can bring ourselves to think of human nature from a physical point of view only, and if we simply consult consciousness, and if, with independence of thought, we observe facts, we shall admit, on this ground, the reality of the distinction which is claimed on behalf of the human mind when it is brought into comparison with the animal orders around us. These orders, indeed, enjoy a liberty which places them far in advance of the ranks of vegetative life, but then beyond this limit the human and the animal mind cease to run abreast.

370. It can only be on some purely hypothetic ground—perhaps theological or metaphysical, or perhaps merely logical-that this distinction will be called in question or that it can be denied. With such grounds of exception we need not now be concerned. Human nature and the brute nature diverge at this point, and thenceforward they are separated by an ever-widening interval.