THE FINAL TEST OF THE BRAIN
WORLD COÖPERATION AND RECIVILIZATION
Our most vital issue is no longer a matter of national prosperity
alone. The success and therefore the happiness of the entire world are
at stake. This generation of ours has taught us what to expect from the
old forces of competitive wealth and nationalism. It is not difficult
to foresee the recurrence of one war after another. As Dr. Butler has
so forcibly said: “The world is just now standing at a crossroads.
It may take the path in one direction and so make agriculture,
industry, commerce, trade, finance, the fortunate means of uniting
the whole world, of increasing its prosperity and of buttressing its
peace; or it can take the opposite path and so turn the nations into
narrow-minded, unsympathetic, jealous, and quarrelling neighbours,
and prepare the way for another cataclysm which, if it should come,
would mark civilization’s end. What are we going to do about it? Where
shall our influence be thrown? Shall it be for a repetition of the
old stupidities, the old ignorances and the old antagonisms, or shall
it be for a new world order in which selfish competition shall be
supplanted by kindly and large-minded coöperation? That is in substance
the crucial question which at this moment awaits answer by leaders of
opinion in every land.”[1] There are many who believe that man in
his present exalted phase cannot stand the test. His modern days are
numbered just as surely as were those of his ancient glory. He has no
further reliance, no better assurance now than he had then. The fate
of civilization hangs in the balance; its chances in many respects
are unpromising. There are no guarantees for the future outside of
man himself. Although we have multiplied in number and compounded our
problems of life, the world in which we live is much the same as it has
been for hundreds of thousands of years. If man also remains unchanged
we may expect the same lot which befell other successful people in the
past.
[1] From “The New Center of Gravity,” an address delivered at the
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, L. I., on Sunday evening, September 1,
1929, by Nicholas Murray Butler.
And yet looking beneath the surface and into the depths of the organ
which has been the chief asset of our progress, we may discern
some promising possibilities. These are possibilities which if
developed might subordinate or overcome the ancient lures of power
and possession. They might even establish a new order of existence,
a new age of wisdom, with clearer ways of looking at life and better
methods for realizing its opportunities. We may have no desire to see
these possibilities. We may turn from them now as we have before. They
clearly exist, however, and chief among them is the possibility of a
better human brain, a brain with much more ample power by means of
which to create a better world.
Many facts support this possibility. We know from certain evidence that
man in his earliest period on earth possessed a brain much simpler than
that responsible for his modern successes. Such testimony is given by
the brain cast of the Java ape man. The entire cerebral structure in
this instance was in an intermediate phase of human development. It was
far in advance of the brain of the highest apes but much less developed
than the brain of modern men. In spite of its simplicity it gives
evidence of human progress. It had supplied the structural basis needed
for a crude type of humanity. It indicates that the powers of human
speech had been acquired and that the first steps in the upbuilding of
human intelligence had been taken.
Compared with this primitive race of extinct men, the Piltdown and
Rhodesian brain casts bear signs of definite progress. With the passage
of time brain power continued slowly to acquire new capacities.
Nothing makes this conclusion more certain than the facts revealed by
the Neanderthal casts. From them it is clear that the chief organ of
life which directed the successes of the Neanderthal race had assumed
many aspects of modern development. Most of this progress in the
brain during its gradual stages upward, through the ape man, the Dawn
man of Piltdown, the Rhodesian, and the Neanderthal, manifests its
highest degree of expansion in the frontal lobe. With the coming of the
Cromagnon race all of the cerebral requirements necessary to modern
man made their appearance. Thus through more than a million years the
brain has slowly improved. There has been a steady increase in the size
and richness of its convolutions.
In contrast with the lifetime of other families in the animal kingdom
the human race has scarcely passed out of its early youth. Our race
seems young as the ages of the earth are estimated, and our racial
youth justifies the belief that the modern brain represents some
intermediate phase of ultimate development. The facts of the distant
past point ahead to periods of further progress in the future.
Influences which have operated through vast intervals of time in slowly
advancing the brain from one stage to the next are doubtless still at
work. The impulses necessary to brain development had their beginning
in the fishes. They continued through reptilian and mammalian phases
and finally passed into the period of tree life wherein the foundations
of the human brain were laid. It is difficult to believe that this
impetus of progress which persisted for ages has at length ceased to
act.
The possibility of a better brain finds support in another fact of
great interest. An entirely new force favourable to progressive
development has made itself felt within the last century. Never before
has it exerted an influence upon the process of evolution. At present
it is difficult to estimate its full value as an element of progress.
This new force arises from the fact that men and women throughout
the world have recognized the existence of an evolutionary process.
In all places where the earnest search for truth is being made this
knowledge has become the dominant note. It cannot fail to lead to
new understandings and to add new quota of power to the organ of our
chief reliance. An adequate appreciation of the processes underlying
natural selection is certain to impart new and practical significance
to the survival of the fittest. The means which may subsequently be
employed to further such survival cannot be predicted. Whatever they
may be, if they justify themselves by advantageous results, they will
be applied with courage and intelligence. They may embrace measures of
extensive restriction and intensive selection to meet the conditions
of overcrowding in population, and of inequality in the emoluments of
life. The embarrassments of the laggard fractions of humanity would
thus be overcome.
Application of wise societal regulations having as their object the
better apportionment of opportunity and the greater accessibility of
human happiness might easily be conceived as the outgrowths of such
further extensions in knowledge. Obviously the questions concerning the
character of the means directed to these desirable ends cannot now be
discussed or foreseen. It is sufficient to indicate that whatever these
agencies may be, provided their results are calculated to contribute to
the betterment of mankind, they may be discovered and made practical.
This possibility presupposes the attainment of those advantages which
accrue from a better understanding of man as a participant in a still
active process of evolution.
If up to this time we have employed the full power of our intelligence,
if we have made the best use of the brain, there may be actual
doubts concerning further progress. Many reasons justify the belief,
however, that the human race has not yet utilized the brain to its
fullest capacity. Numerous facts support this view and make it
appear certain that we have developed but a small fraction of our
potential brain power. In exceptional cases of outstanding groups and
highly specialized individuals the brain may have yielded something
approaching its best product. Even in cases of unusual development
there are deficiencies and inequalities of development due to the
circumstances of training, to the introduction of adverse influences,
and to the universal lack of any generally acceptable goal of life.
A cross section of any community estimated by its high and its low
intellectual attainments indicates a striking unevenness in brain
development. It also reveals a low rating in the average intellectual
level. Averages of this kind obtained from nations or races disclose an
aggregate of brain power far below the grade of the brain’s potential
capacity. Instances of individual specializations make the fractional
development of the race still more evident. If, for example, Laura
Bridgman, deprived as she was of sight, hearing, taste, and smell, with
only a fifth of her brain areas accessible to satisfactory contacts
with the world, made an adjustment to life equal to the average of
such adjustments; if Helen Keller, almost equally deprived of sensory
impression, is rated by many as belonging to the class of genius; then
the rank and file of mankind uses but a small fraction of its potential
brain power. This fraction has been variously estimated at one fifth or
one half. It seems obvious that great advantages for the extension of
intelligence might arise from the utilization of the unemployed fifty
to eighty per cent. of human power. The large portion of the brain not
used by the majority of mankind introduces the disquieting thought
that the usual way of life is the easiest way. The intelligent way is
laborious and fraught with many trials incident to arduous application.
Brain capacity may be improved only by patient and continuous effort
and by an unremitting submission to diligent self-discipline. The
avoidance of these exactions has made the development of the brain a
slow process in man. It is the general disinclination to depart from
the path of least effort which has held human intelligence at its
average low levels. Many factors have contributed to this attitude.
Not the least among them is what may be called mixed survival. This
is a provision by which not only those thoroughly equipped but those
as thoroughly unfit are presumed to enjoy equal opportunity in the
advantages of life. The unfit depreciate the general average. Their
inclusion creates the level of mediocrity and retards the progress of
the fittest.
Another fact affords hope for the further development of the unused
fractions of human brain power. It is possible to demonstrate that
certain structural and chemical elements in the brain develop in
relation to the use made of them. This is particularly true of the
insulating substance surrounding nerve fibres. Such fibres serve the
purpose of impulse conduction. Simple and complex associations alike
depend upon them. It has been shown that the simplest of these fibre
connections come into use early in life while the most important
connections appear at later periods. In order to be effective the
connecting fibres must be insulated. The insulating material, a complex
chemical substance, makes its appearance in direct relation to the
different periods of mental development. This insulating substance is
least in amount at birth. It increases noticeably at the end of the
first year at about the time when speech is acquired. It shows marked
additions at the seventh, tenth, and twentieth years. Thereafter
it increases slowly up to the fortieth year. It also manifests the
interesting phenomenon of gradual decrease in the declining years
of the late decades of life. Apparently the mental development of
different life periods requires differing degrees of insulation in the
brain. The functional use of definite areas appears to bear a direct
relation to the degree of insulation. The more areas in use, the more
numerous are the insulated nerve fibres to facilitate proper operation.
The child uses and needs less than the youth, and, in the general
case, the youth less than the adult. The development of the brain thus
appears to be proportional to the use made of it. In this way human
intelligence may be gauged in terms of actual brain structure. In cases
of low intelligence the demands have been relatively small, and large
fractions of brain remain undeveloped because unused. Higher grades of
intelligence require more extensive development because the objectives
of their application are more complex and more exacting. They are the
response to the more extensive utilization of brain power.
The recognition of this relation between use and structural development
of the brain clearly points the way by which human intelligence may
be extended. This relation has long been understood as a biological
principle. It has been practically applied in the training of
muscular strength and endurance, in the sharpening of the senses,
in the cultivation of the voice. Its practical application to the
development of the brain as a whole has been much less assiduous. Both
in principle and practice this relation of use to structure indicates
possibilities for producing a better human brain. The unused fractions
may accordingly find opportunity for utilization.
Still another possibility for advancement arises from more adequate
systems of human training. The success with which the brain is used
depends in large part upon its conditioning. Such conditioning is
determined by many factors. In the broadest sense it includes the
influence of physical environment from the earliest moments of life,
the effects of societal habits and ideals both in the family and in
the group, the impress of formal education and educational forces, and
the direction imparted by differing degrees of satisfaction, health,
and disease. If, for example, the objective is accommodation to Arctic
life, the conditioning process differs in many details from that
necessary for adjustment to tropical existence. If the end sought is
success according to European standards, a totally different set of
conditionings is essential to this result. Civilized nations as well
as barbarous tribes may be trained through generations to the pursuits
and practices of warlike aggression. The results of such conditioning
were clearly demonstrated in the Great War. Ultimate adjustments are
thus strongly influenced by the group, the group outlook, the time,
and the place. For this reason every experience in and every contact
with existence assumes high value as a conditioning factor. The entire
span of life, from birth to death, becomes a period of active training
which may be consciously directed. The element of chief importance
in this conscious control is the recognition of the end to which the
training is directed. If the highest qualities of human happiness and
satisfaction are the objectives, every factor which contributes to
the conditioning must be carefully estimated and properly adjusted to
this end. Such certainly is not the objective under the modern cult of
success.
The earth, which we have made a bone of contention, might, to our
infinite advantage, become the sphere of human content. In order to
determine such a change it is necessary to reëstimate and readjust
every influence capable of conditioning the activities of the brain.
The recognition of the uninterrupted continuity in the conditioning
process and its specific requirements in relation to definite phases of
development is most essential. Influences of the physical environment
from the first moments after birth through all successive periods
demand extensive, renewed attention. In the formation of habits and
ideals, training in the home and in the group reaches down to the roots
of societal life. These phases of brain conditioning are now largely
matters of dogmatic tradition or confused instruction.
Our present cult of success dominates formal education. The profound,
far-reaching influence of this department of life is exerted through
the most effective agencies for adjustment and readjustment. Education
is charged with the responsibilities of devising the most beneficial
methods for conditioning the brain. It participates in deciding to what
ends such conditioning shall be directed and thus occupies a position
of supreme control over human behaviour. Its supervision embraces and
guides every period of life. Its disciplines have power to shape the
character of human intelligence. Its inspirations are the hope of the
future. Opportunities are even now at hand for it to overcome its
traditional resistances and to open new fields for human satisfaction
and contentment. Greater than the power of armies, more compelling than
the military force of the entire globe, is the peaceful sway which
education may exert in the satisfactory reshaping of existence.
There should be added to these possibilities of future progress the
fact that man, in spite of his blemishes, his delinquencies, and
failures, is an aspiring and plastic animal. He is not unwilling to
take the form of any mold in which he may be cast. He has been the
victim of many prejudicial molds--clay in the hands of circumstance.
Yet, whatever his form or deformities, he has always aspired to rise
above himself. His aspirations have been sublimated in the heroes he
has made to admire, in the gods he has selected for worship. Unlike
all other animals, he has had the gift of idealization, the power of
projecting far ahead of himself, beyond the limits of his recognized
imperfections, the ideals of what he hoped or craved to be. Even his
societal veneer, his morals, and his manners are products of his
aspirations. His idealizations of existence in poetry and art show how
tenaciously his vision has dwelt on higher things. Recognition of his
own futilities has made him aspire to a future life of purification and
redemption. Yet in this aspiring he manifests a lingering childhood,
which reveals his still plastic state. The hereafter which he has
designed for himself is based on an infantile system of rewards and
penalties. This eventual refuge is an acquisitive immortality born of
self-interest and bred in self-conceit. It bears the taint of ancient
and sordid motives of the race. It has none of the altruism of that
more noble and practical immortality through which earthly life strives
unselfishly to leave a worthy influence for the benefit of those who
later follow the path of human experience.
In the light of his possibilities man’s further progress seems assured.
Add to these possibilities his remarkable plasticity, his aspiring
spirit, his youthful racial development, and it appears inconceivable
that he should not advance. Science is constantly placing increased
power at his command. While disclosing to him his place in nature, it
is also revealing what still remains to be accomplished in the conquest
of himself.
Whatever fault may be found with the technique of human living,
the major complaint is directed against the persistence of the old
objectives. Ancient motives and standards are obstacles in the path
of progress. A less complex life is needed--one with new incentives
and different goals. Many are living and have lived this kind of
life. One among these, the Great Galilean, has made it exemplary. As
its influence comes down through the Christian centuries this life
brings increasing conviction that it is the best yet lived. One third
of the globe’s population professes to follow it. As followers they
are frustrated in their purpose by the persistence of more ancient
influences of the past. Yet it cannot be denied that any order of
humanity higher than the present one requires extensive modifications
in our purposes, our desires, our outlook on life, our manner of
self-expression. A long step in this direction will be taken when the
ancient password of the Old Stone Age--_get_, which for thousands of
years has been the mainspring of existence, is gradually subordinated
by the keynote of a New Golden Age--_give_. This solution of the
problem is likely to seem utopian. Long ago we were admonished to
try it. If we have failed we need not altogether despair. The human
brain has overcome other difficulties to which it has been applied.
With all of its possibilities for improvement, it may in time solve
the supremely difficult problem of human nature. Success such as this
depends upon the further development of science--especially that
comprehensive science which will deal with all of the principles
underlying the behaviour of man.
In all respects it is a task of gigantic proportions to build the world
anew--to readjust, to recivilize ourselves. At the same time it is the
greatest adventure ever conceived by man--to construct his final empire
of world coöperation wherein to know and to control himself. Should
this be deemed worth while, it must be paid for by the intelligent,
unremitting toil necessary to develop the full capacity of our chief
reliance--the human brain.
THE END
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
Page 8: original spelling of “Poriphara” retained.
Typos corrected: “in the dog.” to “in the dog,” (page 146); “pryamid”
to “pyramid” (page 166); “preeminent” to “preëminent” (page 272);
“sufficently” to “sufficiently” (page 316).
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been left unchanged.