It is quite possible to make a fetish of classical learning; but Sir
Henry Maine's remark, that nothing moves in the modern world that is
not Greek in its origin, is quite just.
The real variable is the individual, not the race. In the
beginning--perhaps as the result of a mutation or series of
mutations--a type of brain developed which has remained relatively
fixed in all times and among all races. This brain will never have
any faculty in addition to what it now possesses, because as a type of
structure it is as fixed as the species itself, and is indeed a mark
of species. It is not apparent either that we are greatly in need of
another faculty, or that we could make use of it even if by a chance
mutation it should emerge, since with the power of abstraction we are
able to do any class of work we know anything about. Moreover, the
brain is less likely to make a leap now than in earlier time, both
because the conditions of nature are more fixed or more nearly
controlled by man, and hence the urgency of adjustment to sharp
variations in external conditions is removed, and because the struggle
for existence has been mitigated so that the unfit survive along with
the fit.
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