New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-09-05

In early life the cerebral ofganiIatiou 10 ss
The period necessary for completion varies with the
r.oa and with the individual As round shot outstrps
rinsd one on quitting the muzze OF the Run so the
lower race In childhood may outstrip the higher But
the higher eventually overskes the lower and surpasses
1t In range.
HEREDITARY EXPERIENCE.
A regards ind do not always ma tue pre-
cocity youth prolonged to mental power In maturity
while the dulness Of b0yho0d IS sometimes striKingV
cont-asted with the intellectual energy OF aer years.
Newton, when boy, was weakly and he showed no
particular aptitude at school, but In his 18TH year ne
went to Cambridge and soon afterward asonished MS
teachers y his DO wer OF dealing with geometrcal prob
LENS During his quiet youth his brain was slowly pre-
paring itself to be the organ Of those energies which ne
subsequently displayed. By myriad blows oo use Lu
crean phrase) the image and superscrptoh OF the eA
ternal world are stamped states OF consciousness
upon the organism the depth OF the impression depend
ing upon the number Of blows When two or more phe-
nomena occur in the environment invariably together
they are stamped the depth or to the same re-
Iief and ndissoluby connected And here we come to
the threshold of great question Seeing that he could
in no way rid himself Of the consciousness OF space ana
Time, Kant assumes them TO be necessary forms OF
thought" Che molds and shape into which our intu
lions are thrown, belonging to ourselves soiey anu
without objective existence. With unexpected power
and success, Mr. Spencer brings the hereditary expo
rence theory holds it, to bear upon this question
II there exists certain external relations which are
experienced by all organisms at all instants OF their
waking lyes-relations which are absolutely constant
and uniyersa-there will be established answering In
ternal relations that absolutely constant ana uni
versa Such relations have In those OF space ana
Time. As the subsratum OF all other relations OF the
Non,Ego, they must be responded TO by conceptions
that are the substrata Of all other relations In the Ego
Being the constant and infinitely repeated elements OF
thought they must the automatic elements OF
elements Of thought which 1t Is Impossible
to get rid of-the " forms OF intuition"
SPENCER AND JOHN STUART MILL.
Throughout this application and extension OF the
claw of Inseparabe Association" Mr.. Spencer stands
on totally different ground from Mr. John Stuart MILL
invoking the registered experiences of the race instead
of the experiences of the individual His overthrow OF
Mr. Ms restriction OF experience is, think. complete
That restriction ignores the power OF organizing e1pe
rience furnished at the outset to each individual; IL
ignores the different degrees Of this power possessed by
different and by different individuals OF the same
race Were there not in the human brain potency an
tecedent to all experience dog cat ought to be as
capable Of education as a man. These predetermined
internal relations are Independent of the experiences OF
the individual. The human brain is the organized
register OF infinitely numerous experiences received
during the evolution Of life. or rather during the eVou
ton of that series Of organisms through which the hu
man organism has been reached The effects OF the most
uniform and frequent OF these experiences have been sue
cessiyey bequeathed principal and interest and nave
slowly mounted to that high intelligence which lies
latent in the brain Of the infant Thus 1t happens that
the European nherts from 20 to 80 cubic inches more
of brain than the Papuan Thus 1t happens that facul
ties as of music which scarcely exist In some inferior
races, become congenital In superior ones Thus 1t
happens that out of savages unable 10 count up TO the
number of their fingers and speaking language con-
tanning only aud verbs arise at length our New
tons and Shakespeare At the outset OF this Addresst
was stated that physical theories which lie beyond ex
perience are derived by process OF abstraction from ex
perence 1t is instructive to note from this point OF
view the successive PRODUCTION Of conceptions The
idea OF the attraction OF gravaon was preceded by the
observation Of the attraction OF iron by the magnet ana
OF light bodies by rubbed amber. The polarity Of mag
netism and electricity appealed to the senses and thus
became the substratum OF the conception that atoms
and molecules are endowed with definite, attractive and
repeent poles by the play of which definite forms Of
crystalline architecture produced Thus molecular
force structural 1t required no great bodness
of thought extend Its play into organic nature ana 10
recognize in molecular force the agency by which DOtn
plants and ANIMALS built la this way out OF ex-
perience arise conceptions which are wholly ultra-ex-
perimenta.
THE ORIGIN OF LIFE.
The oreination Of life is point lightly touched upon
gradually the number OF progenitors Mr. Darwin comes
at length to one "primordal form " but he does not
say as far remember how he supposes this form to
have been introduced He qotes with satisfaction the
words OF celebrated author and divine who had gradu
ally learned 10 see that 1t Just noble conception
of the Deity to believe He created few original FORMS
capable Of self-development into other and needful
FORMS as to believe He required fresh act OF Gre
alton to supply the vods caused by the action OF his
laws" What Mr. Darwin thinks Of this view Of the In
PRODUCTION OF life do know. Whether he does or
does not introduce his "primordal form" by q
creative act, do not know. But the question
will inevitably be asked, How came the form
there ~ With regard to the dminution OF the
number Of created FORMS does not that much adj
vantage is gained by 1t. The anhropomorphism which
IL seemed the object Of Mr. Darwin 70 set aside. Is
as firmly associated with the creation Of few forms
with the creation Of q multitude. We need clearness
and thoroughness here Two courses and two only are
possible. Either let us open our doors freely 10 the
conception OF creative acts Or abandoning Them let
radically change notions OF matter. II we look at
matter as pictured by Democrtus and as defined for
generations In scientific textbooks, the absolute
impossbiity OF any form Of life coming out OF 1: would
be sufficient to render any other hypothesis preferable
but the definitions of matter given in our textbooks
were intended to it's purely physical ana mechan
zeal properties And taught have been to regard
these definitions complete, we naturally and rightly
reectthe notion that out OF such matter
form Of life could possibly arise But are the definitions
eompletei Everything depends on the answer to be
given to this question.
Trace the line of life backwards, and see 1t ap-
preaching more and more to what we call the purely
physical condition We reach at length those organisms
which have compared to drops Of oil suspended in
mixture OF alcohol and water We reach the Hrotogenes
OF Haeckel, in which we have "a type dlstngushable
from fragment of albumen only by Its finely granular
character" Can we pause here We break magnet
and find two poles in each Of its fragments. We con-
tinue the process OF breaking. but however small
the parts each with It, though enfeebed the
polarity Of the whole And when break longer
we proong the intellectual vision to the polar molecules
Are we not urged do something similar in the case Of
life is there not temptation TO close to extent
with Lucretius when he arms that nature seen to
do oil thnna snnntane nnslY OF herself Mifhnnt tho