CHAPTER XIV. The Final Test of the Brain

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.” 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.

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.