But the sense-organs are
all the time improving, whether as servants of conscious perception
or of reflex action, and the development of the higher sense-organs,
especially of the eyes, has called forth a higher development of the
brain. The brain continually develops both through constant exercise
and through natural selection. Through the higher and more delicate
sense-organs it perceives a continually wider range of more subtile
elements in its environment. And the higher the sense-organ the more
directly and purely does it minister to consciousness. The eye, when
capable of forming an image, is almost never concerned in a purely
reflex action.
From the constant recurrence of perceptions and experiences in a
constant order the animal begins to associate these, and when he has
perceived the one to expect the other. Out of this grows, in time,
inference and understanding. The mind is beginning to turn its
attention not merely to objects and qualities, but to perceive
relations. And thus it has taken the first step toward the
perception of abstract truth. And if it has the aesthetic perception
and can perceive beauty, we have every reason to believe that the
same faculty will one day perceive truth and right. But on the
purely animal plane of existence these powers could be of but little
service, and we can expect to find them developed only very slightly
and under peculiar surroundings.
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