MIND AS A SOCIAL FACTOR. 563 hereafter. Possibly enough, they may : but until they do, we must just accept them as given ; and tehen they do (if ever), the ground, and therefore the justification, of the change will be ex- perience still. A priori reasoning is a help indeed ; but only after we have already reached certain conceptions (such as those of mind and human nature) a. t . And this we may rest assured of, that whatever reasoning leads us into contradictions or into impenetrable haze is ipso facto stultified : it stands self- condemned as illusory and inept. MIND AS A SOCIAL FACTOR. By LESTER F. WAED. After many centuries of exclusive study of the soul the thinkers of the world turned their attention for some centuries more to the study of the intellect. During all this time, the true influence of mind as a social factor was left quite out of view. At last there rose up the scientific philosophy which essayed to explain the nature of mind. Its dependence upon organisa- tion in general and upon brain in particular was proved by scientific experimentation, and the domain of metaphysics be- came that of psychology. Mind was shown to be a function of body and psychology became a department of biology. Man has now taken his true position in the animal world as a product of development. Brain, which alone raises him above other animals, has been developed in the same manner as the other anatomical characters. The brain is the organ of the mind, its physical seat and cause. Mind is therefore a natural product of evolution, and its achievements are to be classed and studied along with all other natural phenomena. Such is the scientific conception of mind. The modern scientist places all objects in the midst of an infi- nite series of antecedents and consequents. Organic forms as well as inorganic must take their places in this series the animal no less than the plant, the man no less than the beast. Mind itself is a link of this endless chain. Its activities con- sist in the transmission of the properties of its antecedents to its consequents. The quantity of force in the universe is con- stant. Xo power can increase or diminish it. All attempts on the part of the creatures of this constant and unchangeable force to modify its normal effects are not less vain because such crea- tures happen to have acquired the faculty of observing the changes going on in nature. The protracted study of nature's processes leads to admiration of them, and the belief has become prevalent that they are not only unalterable but also in some way necessarily beneficent.
