ined. These capacities, even to our dim vision, are evidently
capable of an indefinite, perhaps infinite, development. What, as
yet only partially developed, faculty remains to supersede them? As
being capable of an endless development and without a rival, may we
not, _must_ we not, consider them as ends in themselves? They are
evidently what we are here for. Everything points to a spiritual end
in animal evolution. The line of development is from the
predominantly material to the predominance of the non-material. Not
that the material is to be crowded out. It is to reach its highest
development in the service of the mind. The body must be sustained
and perfected, but it is not the end. The goal is mind, the body is
of subordinate importance.

But if this is true, we must study carefully the development of mind
in the animal. The question presses upon us; if there is a sequence
of physical functions in animal development, is there not perhaps
also a sequence in the development of the mental faculties? What is
the crowning faculty of the human mind and how is its fuller
development to be attained? Let us pass therefore to the question of
mind in the animal kingdom.

CHAPTER V

THE HISTORY OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS SEQUENCE OF FUNCTIONS

We have sketched hastily the development of the human body. This
portion of our history is marked by the successive dominance of
higher and higher functions. It is a history treating of successive
eras. There is first the period of the dominance of reproduction and
digestion, purely vegetative functions, characteristics of the plant
just as truly as of the animal. This period extends from the
beginning of life up to the time when the annelid was the highest
living form yet developed. But in insects and lower vertebrates
another system has risen to dominance. This is muscle. The
vertebrate no longer devotes all, or the larger part, of its income
to digestion and reproduction. If it did, it would degenerate or
disappear. The stomach and intestine are improved, but only that
they may furnish more abundant nutriment for building and supporting
more powerful muscles better arranged. The history of vertebrates is
a record of the struggle for supremacy between successive groups of
continually greater and better applied muscular power. Here strength
and activity seem to be the goal of animal development, and the
prize falls to the strongest or most agile. The earth is peopled by