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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14834 ***
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14834-h.htm or 14834-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/3/14834/14834-h/14834-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/3/14834/14834-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN
+
+A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity
+to Environment
+
+Being the Morse Lectures of 1895
+
+by
+
+JOHN M. TYLER
+Professor of Biology, Amherst College
+
+New York
+Charles Scribner's Sons
+
+1896
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+          Morse Lectures
+
+    1893--THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN
+      MODERN THEOLOGY. By Rev. A.M.
+      Fairbairn, D.D. 8vo, $2.50
+
+    1894--THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN. By Rev.
+      William Elliot Griffis, D.D.
+      12mo, $2.00.
+
+    1895--THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF
+      MAN. By Professor John M. Tyler.
+      12mo, $1.75.
+
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE PROBLEM: THE MODE OF ITS SOLUTION
+
+The question.--The two theories of man's origin.--The argument
+purely historical.--Means of tracing man's ancestry and
+history.--Classification.--Ontogenesis and Phylogenesis.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PROTOZOA TO WORMS: CELLS, TISSUES, AND ORGANS
+
+Amoeba: Its anatomy and physiology.--Development of the
+cell.--Hydra: The development of digestive and reproductive organs,
+and of tissues.--Forms intermediate between amoeba and hydra:
+Magosphæra, volvox.--Embryonic development.--Turbellaria: Appearance
+of a body wall, of ganglion, and nerve-cords.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+WORMS TO VERTEBRATES: SKELETON AND HEAD
+
+Worms and the development of organs.--Mollusks: The external
+protective skeleton leads to degeneration or stagnation.--Annelids
+and arthropods: The external locomotive skeleton leads
+to temporary rapid advance, but fails of the goal.--Its
+disadvantages.--Vertebrates: The internal locomotive skeleton leads
+to backbone and brain.--Reasons for their dominance.--The primitive
+vertebrate.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+VERTEBRATES: BACKBONE AND BRAIN
+
+The advance of vertebrates from fish through amphibia and reptiles
+to mammals.--The development of skeleton, appendages, circulatory
+and respiratory systems, and brain.--Mammals: The oviparous
+monotremata.--Marsupials.--Placental mammals.--Development of the
+placenta.--Primates.--Arboreal life and the development of the
+hand.--Comparison of man with the highest apes.--Recapitulation of
+the history of man's origin and development.--The sequence of
+dominant functions.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE HISTORY OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS SEQUENCE OF FUNCTIONS
+
+Mode of investigation.--Intellect.--Sense-perceptions.--Association.
+--Inference and understanding.--Rational intelligence.--Modes of mental
+or nervous action.--Reflex action, unconscious and comparatively
+mechanical.--Instinctive action: The actor is conscious, but guided
+by heredity.--Intelligent action.--The actor is conscious, guided by
+intelligence resulting from experience or observation.--The will
+stimulated by motives.--Appetites.--Fear and other prudential
+considerations.--Care for young and love of mates.--The dawn of
+unselfishness.--Motives furnished by the rational intelligence:
+Truth, right, duty.--Recapitulation: The will, stimulated by ever
+higher motives, is finally to be dominated by unselfishness and love
+of truth and righteousness.--These rouse the only inappeasable
+hunger, and are capable of indefinite development.--Strength of
+these motives.--Their complete dominance the goal of human
+development.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT
+
+The reversal of the sequence of functions leads to extermination,
+degeneration, or, rarely, to stagnation.--Natural selection becomes
+more unsparing as we go higher.--Extinction.--Severity of the
+struggle for life.--Environment one.--But lower animals come into
+vital relation with but a small part of it.--It consists of a myriad
+of forces, which, as acting on a given form, may be considered as
+one grand resultant.--Environment is thus a power making at first
+for digestion and reproduction, then for muscular strength and
+activity, then for shrewdness, finally for unselfishness and
+righteousness.--An ultimate "power, not ourselves, making for
+righteousness," a personality.--Our knowledge of this personality
+may be valid, even though very incomplete.--Religion.--Conformity to
+the spiritual in or behind environment is likeness to God.--The
+conservative tendency in evolution.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT
+
+Human environment.--The development of the family as the school of
+man's training.--The family as the school of unselfishness and
+obedience.--The family as the basis of social life.--Society as an
+aid to conformity to environment by increasing intelligence and
+training conscience.--Mental and moral heredity.--Personal
+magnetism.--Man's search for a king.--The essence of
+Christianity.--Conformity to environment gives future supremacy, but
+often at the cost of present hardship.--Conformity as obedience to
+the laws of our being.--Environment best understood through the
+study of the human mind.--Productiveness and prospectiveness of
+vital capital.--Faith.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MAN
+
+Composed of atoms and molecules, hence subject to chemical and
+physical laws.--As a living being.--As an animal.--As a
+vertebrate.--As a mammal.--As a social being.--As a personal and
+moral being.--The conflict between the higher and the lower in
+man.--As a religious being.--As hero.--He has not yet
+attained.--Future man.--He will utilize all his powers, duly
+subordinating the lower to the higher.--The triumph of the common
+people.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE
+
+Subject of the Bible.--_Man_: Body, intellect, heart.--_God_:
+Law, sin, and penalty.--God manifested in Christ.--Salvation, the divine
+life permeating man--Faith.--Prayer.--Hope.--The Church.--The
+battle.--The victory.--The crown.
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
+
+The struggle for existence.--Natural selection.--Correlation of
+organs.--Fortuitous variation.--Origin of the fittest.--Nägeli's
+theory: Initial tendency supreme.--Weismann and the Neo-Darwinians:
+Natural selection omnipotent.--The Neo-Lamarckians.--Comparison of
+the Neo-Darwinian and the Neo-Lamarckian views.--"Individuality" the
+controlling power throughout the life of the organism.--Transmission
+of special effects of use and disuse.--Summary.
+
+
+CHART SHOWING SEQUENCE OF ATTAINMENTS AND OF DOMINANT FUNCTIONS
+
+
+PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In the year 1865 Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, to whom the
+world is indebted for the application of the principles of
+electro-magnetism to telegraphy, gave the sum of ten thousand
+dollars to Union Theological Seminary to found a lectureship in
+memory of his father, the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., theologian,
+geographer, and gazetteer. The subject of the lectures was to have
+to do with "The relations of the Bible to any of the sciences." The
+ten chapters of this book correspond to ten lectures, eight of which
+were delivered as Morse Lectures at Union Theological Seminary
+during the early spring of 1895. The first nine chapters appear in
+form and substance as they were given in the lectures, except that
+Chapters VI. and VII. were condensed in one lecture. Chapter X. is
+new, and I have not hesitated to add a few paragraphs wherever the
+argument seemed especially to demand further evidence or
+illustration.
+
+One of my friends, reading the title of these lectures, said: "Of
+man's origin you know nothing, of his future you know less." I fear
+that many share his opinion, although they might not express it so
+emphatically.
+
+It would seem, therefore, to be in order to show that science is now
+competent to deal with this question; not that she can give a final
+and conclusive answer, but that we can reach results which are
+probably in the main correct. We may grant very cheerfully that we
+can attain no demonstration; the most that we can claim for our
+results will be a high degree of probability. If our conclusions are
+very probably correct, we shall do well to act according to them;
+for all our actions in life are suited to meet the emergencies of a
+probable but uncertain course of events.
+
+We take for granted the probable truth of the theory of evolution as
+stated by Mr. Darwin, and that it applies to man as really as to any
+lower animal. At the same time it concerns our argument but little
+whether natural selection is "omnipotent" or of only secondary
+importance in evolution, as long as it is a real factor, or which
+theory of heredity or variation is the more probable.
+
+If man has been evolved from simple living substance protoplasm, by
+a process of evolution, it will some day be possible to write a
+history of that process. But have we yet sufficient knowledge to
+justify such an attempt?
+
+Before the history of any period can be written its events must have
+been accurately chronicled. Biological history can be written only
+when the successive stages of development and the attainments of
+each stage have been clearly perceived. In other words, the first
+prerequisite would seem to be a genealogical[A] tree of the animal
+kingdom. The means of tracing this genealogical tree are given in
+the first chapter, and the results in the second, third, and fourth
+chapters of this book.
+
+  [Footnote A: See Phylogenetic Chart, p. 310.]
+
+Now, for some of the ancestral stages of man's development a very
+high degree of probability can be claimed. One of man's earliest
+ancestors was almost certainly a unicellular animal. A little later
+he very probably passed through a gastræa stage. He traversed fish,
+amphibian, and reptilian grades. The oviparous monotreme and the
+marsupial almost certainly represent lower mammalian ancestral
+stages. But what kind of fish, what species of amphibian, what form
+of reptiles most closely resembles the old ancestor? How did each of
+these ancestors look? I do not know. It looks as if our ancestral
+tree were entirely uncertain and we were left without any foundation
+for history or argument.
+
+But the history of the development of anatomical details, however
+important and desirable, is not the only history which can be
+written, nor is it essential. It would be interesting to know the
+size of brain, girth of chest, average stature, and the features of
+the ancient Greeks and Romans. But this is not the most important
+part of their history, nor is it essential. The great question is,
+What did they contribute to human progress?
+
+Even if we cannot accurately portray the anatomical details of a
+single ancestral stage, can we perhaps discover what function
+governed its life and was the aim of its existence? Did it live to
+eat, or to move, or to think? If we cannot tell exactly how it
+looked, can we tell what it lived for and what it contributed to the
+evolution of man?
+
+Now, the sequence of dominant functions or aims in life can be
+traced with far more ease and safety, not to say certainty, than one
+of anatomical details. The latter characterize small groups, genera,
+families, or classes; while the dominant function characterizes all
+animals of a given grade, even those which through degeneration
+have reverted to this grade.
+
+Even if I cannot trace the exact path which leads to the
+mountain-top, I may almost with certainty affirm that it leads from
+meadow and pasture through forest to bare rock, and thence over snow
+and ice to the summit; for each of these forms a zone encircling the
+mountain. Very similarly I find that, whatever genealogical tree I
+adopt, one sequence in the dominance of functions characterizes them
+all; digestion is dominant before locomotion and locomotion before
+thought.
+
+And it is hardly less than a physiological necessity that it should
+be so. The plant can and does exist, living almost purely for
+digestion and reproduction, and the same is true of the lowest and
+most primitive animals. A muscular system cannot develop and do its
+work until some sort of a digestive system has arisen to furnish
+nutriment, any more than a steam-engine can run without fuel. And a
+brain is of no use until muscle and sense-organs have appeared.
+
+This sequence of dominant functions,[A] of physiological dynasties,
+would seem therefore to be a fact. And our series of forms described
+in the second, third, and fourth chapters is merely a concrete
+illustration showing how this sequence may have been evolved. The
+substitution of other terms in the anatomical series there
+described--amoeba, volvox, etc.--would not affect this result. By
+a change in the form of our history we have eliminated to a large
+extent the sources of uncertainty and error. And the dominant
+function of a group throws no little light on the details of its
+anatomy.
+
+  [Footnote A: See condensed Chart of Development, etc., p. 309.]
+
+If we can be satisfied that ever higher functions have risen to
+dominance in the successive stages of animal and human development,
+if we can further be convinced that the sequence is irreversible, we
+shall be convinced that future man will be more and more completely
+controlled by the very highest powers or aims to which this sequence
+points. Otherwise we must disbelieve the continuity of history. But
+the germs of the future are always concealed in the history of the
+present. Hence--pardon the reiteration--if we can once trace this
+sequence of dominant functions, whose evolution has filled past
+ages, we can safely foretell something at least of man's future
+development.
+
+The argument and method is therefore purely historical. Here and
+there we will try to find why and how things had to be so. But all
+such digressions are of small account compared with the fact that
+things were or are thus and so. And a mistaken explanation will not
+invalidate the facts of history.
+
+The subject of our history is the development, not of a single human
+race nor of the movements of a century, but the development of
+animal life through ages. And even if our attempts to decipher a few
+pages here and there in the volumes of this vast biological history
+are not as successful as we could hope, we must not allow ourselves
+to be discouraged from future efforts. Even if our translation is
+here and there at fault, we must never forget the existence of the
+history. Some of the worst errors of biologists are due to their
+having forgotten that in the lower stages the germs of the higher
+must be present, even though invisible to any microscope. Our study
+of the worm is inadequate and likely to mislead us, unless we
+remember that a worm was the ancestor of man. And a biologist who
+can tell us nothing about man is neglecting his fairest field.
+
+Conversely history and social science will rest on a firmer basis
+when their students recognize that many human laws and institutions
+are heirlooms, the attainments, or direct results of attainments, of
+animals far below man. We are just beginning to recognize that the
+study of zoölogy is an essential prerequisite to, and firm
+foundation for, that of history, social science, philosophy, and
+theology, just as really as for medicine. An adequate knowledge of
+any history demands more than the study of its last page. The
+zoölogist has been remiss in not claiming his birthright, and in
+this respect has sadly failed to follow the path pointed out by Mr.
+Darwin.
+
+For palæontology, zoölogy, history, social and political science,
+and philosophy are really only parts of one great science, of
+biology in the widest sense, in distinction from the narrower sense
+in which it is now used to include zoölogy and botany. They form an
+organic unity in which no one part can be adequately understood
+without reference to the others. You know nothing of even a
+constellation, if you have studied only one of its stars. Much less
+can the study of a single organ or function give an adequate idea of
+the human body.
+
+Only when we have attained a biological history can we have any
+satisfactory conception of environment. As we look about us in the
+world, environment often seems to us to be a chaos of forces aiding
+or destroying good and bad, fit and unfit, alike.
+
+But our history of animal and human progress shows us successive
+stages, each a little higher than the preceding, and surviving, for
+a time at least, because more completely conformed to environment.
+If this be true, and it must be true unless our theory of evolution
+be false, higher forms are more completely conformed to their
+environment than lower; and man has attained the most complete
+conformity of all. Our biological history is therefore a record of
+the results of successive efforts, each attaining a little more
+complete conformity than the preceding. From such a history we ought
+to be able to draw certain valid deductions concerning the general
+character and laws of our environment, to discover the direction in
+which its forces are urging us, and how man can more completely
+conform to it.
+
+If man is a product of evolution, his mental and moral, just as
+really as his physical, development must be the result of such a
+conformity. The study of environment from this standpoint should
+throw some light on the validity of our moral and religious creeds
+and theories. It would seem, therefore, not only justifiable, but
+imperative to attempt such a study.
+
+Our argument is not directly concerned with modern theories of
+heredity, or variation, or with the "omnipotence" or secondary
+importance of natural selection. And yet Nägeli, and especially
+Weismann, have had so marked an influence on modern thought that we
+cannot afford to neglect their theories. We will briefly notice
+these in the closing chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE PROBLEM: THE MODE OF ITS SOLUTION
+
+
+The story of a human life can be told in very few words. A youth of
+golden dreams and visions; a few years of struggle or of neglected
+opportunities; then retrospect and the end.
+
+        "We come like water, and like wind we go."
+
+But how few of the visions are realized. Faust sums up the whole of
+life in the twice-repeated word _versagen_, renounce, and history
+tells a similar story. Terah died in Haran; Abraham obtained but a
+grave in the land promised him and his children; Jacob, cheated in
+marriage, bitterly disappointed in his children, died in exile,
+leaving his descendants to become slaves in the land of Egypt; and
+Moses, their heroic deliverer, died in the mountains of Moab in
+sight of the land which he was forbidden to enter. You may answer
+that it is no injury that the promise is too large, the vision too
+grand, to be fulfilled in the span of a single life, but must become
+the heritage of a race. But what has been the history of Abraham's
+descendants? A death-grapple for existence, captivity, and
+dispersion. Their national existence has long been lost.
+
+Was there ever a nation of grander promise than Greece or Rome? But
+Greece died of premature old age, and Rome of rottenness begotten
+of sin. But each of them, you will say, left a priceless heritage to
+the immortal race. But if Greece and Rome and a host of older
+nations, of which History has often forgotten the very name, have
+failed and died, can anything but ultimate failure await the race?
+Is human history to prove a story told by an idiot, or does it
+"signify" something? Is the great march of humanity, which Carlyle
+so vividly depicts, "from the inane to the inane, or from God to
+God?"
+
+This is the sphinx question put to every thinking man, and on his
+answer hangs his life. For according to that answer, he will either
+flinch and turn back, or expend every drop of blood and grain of
+power in urging on the march.
+
+To this question the Bible gives a clear and emphatic answer. "God
+created man in his own image," and then, as if men might refuse to
+believe so astounding a statement, it is repeated, "in the image of
+God created he him." When, and by what mode or process, man was
+created we are not told. His origin is condensed almost into a line,
+his present and future occupy all the rest of the book. Whence we
+came is important only in so far as it teaches us humility and yet
+assures us that we may be Godlike because we are His handiwork and
+children, "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ of a heavenly
+inheritance."
+
+Now has Science any answer to this vital question? Perhaps. But this
+much is certain; it can foretell the future only from the past. Its
+answer to the question _whither_ must be an inference from its
+knowledge as to _whence_ we have come. The Bible looks mainly at the
+present and future; Science must at least begin with the study of
+the past. The deciphering of man's past history is the great aim of
+Biology, and ultimately of all Science. For the question of Man's
+past is only a part of a greater question, the origin of all living
+species.
+
+We may say broadly that concerning the origin of species two
+theories, and only two, seem possible. The first theory is that
+every species is the result of an act of immediate creation. And
+every true species, however slightly it may differ from its nearest
+relative, represents such a creative act, and once created is
+practically unchangeable. This is the theory of immutability of
+species. According to the second theory all higher, probably all
+present existing, species are only mediately the result of a
+creative act. The first living germ, whenever and however created,
+was infused with power to give birth to higher species. Of these and
+their descendants some would continue to advance, others would
+degenerate. Each theory demands equally for its ultimate explanation
+a creative act; the second as much as, if not more than, the first.
+According to the first theory the creative power has been
+distributed over a series of acts, according to the second theory it
+has been concentrated in one primal creation. The second is the
+theory of the mutability of species, or, in general, of evolution,
+but not necessarily of Darwinism alone.
+
+The first theory is considered by many the more attractive and
+hopeful. Now a theory need not be attractive, nor at first sight
+appear hopeful, provided only it is true. But let me call your
+attention to certain conclusions which, as it appears to me, are
+necessarily involved in it. Its central thought is the practical
+immutability of species. Each one of these lives its little span of
+time, for species are usually comparatively short-lived, grows
+possibly a very little better or worse, and dies. Its progress has
+added nothing to the total of life; its degeneration harmed no one,
+hardly even itself; it was doomed from the start. Progress there has
+been, in a sense. The Creator has placed ever higher forms on the
+globe. But all the progress lies in the gaps and distances between
+successive forms, not in any advance made, or victory won, by the
+species or individual. The most "aspiring ape," if ever there was
+such a being, remains but an ape. He must comfort himself with the
+thought that, while he and his descendants can never gain an inch,
+the gap between himself and the next higher form shall be far
+greater than that between himself and the lowest monkey.
+
+And if this has been the history of thousands of other species, why
+should it not be true of man also? Who can wonder that many who
+accept this theory doubt whether the world is growing any better, or
+whether even man will ever be higher and better than he now is?
+Would it not be contrary to the whole course of past history, if you
+can properly call such a record a history, if he could advance at
+all? Now I have no wish to misrepresent this or any honestly
+accepted theory, but it appears to me essentially hopeless, a record
+not of the progress of life on the globe, but of a succession of
+stagnations, of deaths. I can never understand why some very good
+and intelligent people still think that the theory of the immediate
+creation of each species does more honor to the Creator and his
+creation than the theory of evolution. Evolution is a process, not
+a force. The power of the Creator is equally demanded in both cases;
+only it is differently distributed. And evolution is the very
+highest proof of the wisdom and skill of the Creator. It elevates
+our views of the living beings, must it not give a higher conception
+of Him who formed them?
+
+The plant in its first stages shows no trace of flowers, but of
+leaves only. Later a branch or twig, similar in structure to all the
+rest, shortens. The cells and tissues which in other twigs turn into
+green leaves here become the petals and other organs of the rose or
+violet. Let us suppose for a moment that every rose and violet
+required a special act of immediate creation, would the springtime
+be as wonderful as now? Would the rose or violet be any more
+beautiful, or are they any less flowers because developed out of
+that which might have remained a common branch? The plant at least
+is glorified by the power to give rise to such beauty. And is not
+the creation of the seed of a violet or rose something infinitely
+grander than the decking of a flowerless plant with newly created
+roses? The attainment of the highest and most diversified beauty and
+utility with the fewest and simplest means is always the sign of
+what we call in man "creative" genius. Is not the same true of God?
+I think you all feel the force of the argument here.
+
+There were at one time no flowering plants. The time came at last
+for their appearance. Which is the higher, grander mode of producing
+them, immediate creation of every flowering species, or development
+of the flower out of the green leaves of some old club moss or
+similar form? The latter seems to me at least by far the higher
+mode. And to have created a ground-pine which could give rise to a
+rose seems far more difficult and greater than to have created both
+separately. It requires more genius, so to speak. It gives us a far
+higher opinion of the ground-pine; does it disgrace the rose? We can
+look dispassionately at plants. The rose is still and always a rose,
+and the oak an oak, whatever its origin. And I believe that we shall
+all readily admit that evolution is here a theory which does the
+highest honor to the wisdom and power of the Creator. What if the
+animal kingdom is continually blossoming in ever higher forms? Does
+not the same reasoning hold true, only with added force? I firmly
+believe that we should all unhesitatingly answer, yes, could we but
+be assured that all men would everywhere and always believe that we,
+men, were the results of an immediate creative act.
+
+But why do we so strenuously object to the application to ourselves
+of the theory of evolution? One or two reasons are easily seen. We
+have all of us a great deal of innate snobbery, we would rather have
+been born great than to have won greatness by the most heroic
+struggle. But is man any less a man for having arisen from something
+lower, and being in a fair way to become something higher? Certainly
+not, unless I am less a man for having once been a baby. It is only
+when I am unusually cross and irritable that I object to being
+reminded of my infancy. But a young child does not like to be
+reminded of it. He is afraid that some one will take him for a baby
+still. And the snob is always desperately afraid that some one will
+fail to notice what a high-born gentleman he is.
+
+Now man can relapse into something lower than a brute; the only
+genuine brute is a degenerate man. And we all recognize the strength
+of tendencies urging us downward. Is not this the often unrecognized
+kern of our eagerness for some mark or stamp that shall prove to all
+that we are no apes, but men? It is not the pure gold that needs the
+"guinea stamp." If we are men, and as we become men, we shall cease
+to fear the theory of evolution. Now this is not the only, or
+perhaps the greatest, objection which men feel or speak against the
+theory. But I must believe that it has more weight with us than we
+are willing to admit.
+
+But some say that the theory of immediate creation and immutability
+of species is the more natural and has always been accepted, while
+the theory of evolution is new and very likely to be as short-lived
+as many another theory which has for a time fascinated men only to
+be forgotten or ridiculed.
+
+But the idea of evolution is as old as Hindu philosophy. The old
+Ionic natural philosophers were all evolutionists. So Aristophanes,
+quoting from these or Hesiod concerning the origin of things, says:
+"Chaos was and Night, and Erebus black, and wide Tartarus. No earth,
+nor air nor sky was yet; when, in the vast bosom of Erebus (or
+chaotic darkness) winged Night brought forth first of all the egg,
+from which in after revolving periods sprang Eros (Love) the much
+desired, glittering with golden wings; and Eros again, in union with
+Chaos, produced the brood of the human race." Here the formative
+process is a birth, not a creation; it is evolution pure and simple.
+"According to the ancient view," says Professor Lewis, "the present
+world was a growth; it was born, it came from something antecedent,
+not merely as a cause but as its seed, embryo or principium.
+Plato's world was a 'zoon,' a living thing, a natural production."
+
+Furthermore, to the ancient writers of the Bible the idea of origin
+by birth from some antecedent form--and this is the essential idea
+of evolution--was perfectly natural. They speak of the "generations
+of the heavens and the earth" as of the "generations" of the
+patriarchs. The first book of the Bible is still called Genesis, the
+book of births. The writer of the ninetieth Psalm says, "Before the
+mountains were born, or ever thou hadst brought to birth the earth
+and the world." And what satisfactory meaning can you give to the
+words, "Let the earth bring forth," and "the earth brought forth,"
+in immediate proximity to the words, "and God made," unless while
+the ultimate source was God's creative power, the immediate process
+of formation was one of evolution.
+
+The Bible is big and broad enough to include both ideas, the human
+mind is prone to overestimate the one or the other. Traces, at
+least, of a similar mode of thought persisted by the Greek Fathers
+of the Church, and disappeared, if ever, with the predominance of
+Latin theology. To the oriental the idea of evolution is natural.
+The earth is to him no inert, resistant clod; she brings forth of
+herself.
+
+But our ancestors lived on a barren soil beneath a forbidding sky.
+They were frozen in winter and parched in summer. Nature was to them
+no kind foster-mother, but a cruel stepmother, training them by
+stern discipline to battle with her and the world. They peopled the
+earth with gnomes and cobolds and giants, and their nymphs were the
+Valkyre. Their God was Thor, of the thunderbolt and hammer, and who
+yet lived in continual dread of the hostile powers of Nature. A
+Norse prophet or prophetess standing beside Elijah at Horeb would
+have bowed down before the earthquake or the fire; the oriental
+waited for the "still small voice." And we are heirs to a Latin
+theology grafted on to the Thor-worship of our pagan ancestors. The
+idea of a Nature producing beneficently and kindly at the word of a
+loving God is foreign to all our inherited modes of thought. And our
+views of the heart of Nature are about as correct as those of our
+ancestors were of God. A little more of oriental tendencies of
+thought would harm neither our theology nor our life.
+
+What, then, is the biblical idea of Nature? God speaks to the earth,
+in the first chapter of Genesis, and the earth responds by "giving
+birth" to mountains and living beings. It is evidently no mere
+lifeless, inert clod, but pulsating with life and responsive to the
+divine commands. While yet a chaos it had been brooded over by the
+Divine Spirit. It is like the great "wheels within wheels," with
+rings full of eyes round about, which Ezekiel saw in his vision by
+the river Chebar. "When the living creatures went, the wheels went
+by them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the
+earth, the wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever the spirit was to
+go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were
+lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creatures
+(or of life) was in the wheels." And above the living creatures was
+the firmament and the throne of God. So Nature may be material, but
+it is material interpenetrated by the divine; if you call it a
+fabric, the woof may be material but the warp is God. This view
+contains all the truth of materialism and pantheism, and vastly
+more than they, and it avoids their errors and omissions.
+
+To the old metaphysical hypothesis of evolution Mr. Darwin gave a
+scientific basis. It had always been admitted that species were
+capable of slight variation and that this divergence might become
+hereditary and thus perhaps give rise to a variety of the parent
+species. But it was denied that the variation could go on increasing
+indefinitely, it seemed soon to reach a limit and stop. Early in the
+present century Lamarck had attempted to prove that by the use and
+disuse of organs through a series of generations a great divergence
+might arise resulting in new species. But the theory was crude,
+capable at best of but limited application, and fell before the
+arguments and authority of Cuvier. The times were not ripe for such
+a theory. Some fifty years later, Mr. Darwin called attention to the
+struggle for existence as a means of aggregating these slight
+modifications in a divergence sufficient to produce new species,
+genera, or families. His argument may be very briefly stated as
+follows:
+
+1. There is in Nature a law of heredity; like begets like.
+
+2. The offspring is never exactly like the parent; and the members
+of the second generation differ more or less from one another. This
+is especially noticeable in domesticated plants and animals, but no
+less true of wild forms. If the parent is not exactly like the other
+members of the species, some of its descendants will inherit its
+peculiarities enhanced, others diminished.
+
+3. Every species tends to increase in geometrical progression. But
+most species actually increase in number very slowly, if at all. Now
+and then some insect or weed escapes from its enemies, comes under
+favorable food conditions, and multiplies with such rapidity that it
+threatens to ravage the country. But as it multiplies it furnishes
+an abundance of food for the enemies which devour it, or of food and
+place for the parasites in and upon it; and they increase with at
+least equal rapidity. Hence while the vanguard increases
+prodigiously in numbers, because it has outrun these enemies, the
+rear is continually slaughtered. And thus these plagues seem in
+successive generations to march across the continent.
+
+And yet even they give but a faint idea of the reproductive powers
+of plants and animals. The female fish produces often many
+thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of eggs. Insects
+generally from a hundred to a thousand. Even birds, slowly as they
+increase, produce in a lifetime probably at least from twelve to
+twenty eggs. Now let us suppose that all these eggs developed, and
+all the birds lived out their normal period of life, and reproduced
+at the same rate. After not many centuries there would not be
+standing room on the globe for the descendants of a single pair.
+
+Again, of the one hundred eggs of an insect let us suppose that only
+sixty develop into the first larval, caterpillar, stage. Of these
+sixty, the number of members of the species remaining constant, only
+two will survive. The other fifty-eight die--of starvation,
+parasites, or other enemies, or from inclement weather. Now which
+two of all shall survive? Those naturally best able to escape their
+enemies or to resist unfavorable influences; in a word, those best
+suited to their conditions, or, to use Mr. Darwin's words,
+"conformed to their environment."
+
+Now if any individual has varied so as to possess some peculiarity
+which enables it even in slight degree to better escape its enemies
+or to resist unfavorable conditions, those of its descendants who
+inherit most markedly this peculiar quality or variation will be the
+most likely to escape, those without it to perish. If a form varies
+unfavorably, becomes for instance more conspicuous to its enemies,
+it will almost certainly perish. Thus favorable variations tend to
+increase and become more marked from generation to generation.
+
+Now it has always been known that breeders could produce a race of
+markedly peculiar form or characteristics by selecting the
+individuals possessing this quality in the highest degree and
+breeding only from these. The breeder depends upon heredity,
+variation, and his selection of the individuals from which to breed.
+Similarly in nature new species have arisen through heredity,
+variation, and a selection according to the laws of nature of those
+varying in conformity with their environment. And this Mr. Darwin
+called natural, in contrast with the breeder's artificial,
+"selection," arising from the "struggle for existence," and
+resulting in what Mr. Spencer has called the "survival of the
+fittest."
+
+Let us take a single illustration. Many of the species of beetles on
+oceanic islands have very rudimentary wings, or none at all, and yet
+their nearest relatives are winged forms on some neighboring
+continent. Mr. Darwin would explain the origin of these evidently
+distinct wingless species as follows: They are descended from winged
+ancestors blown or otherwise transported thither from the
+neighboring continent. But beetles are slow and clumsy fliers, and
+on these wind-swept islands those which flew most would be blown out
+to sea and drowned. Those which flew the least, and these would
+include the individuals with more poorly developed wings, would
+survive. There would thus be a survival in every generation of a
+larger proportion of those having the poorest wings, and destruction
+of those whose wings were strong, or whose habits most active. We
+have here a natural selection which must in time produce a species
+with rudimentary or aborted wings, just as surely as a human
+breeder, by artificial selection can produce such an animal as a pug
+or a poodle. These, like sin, are a human device; nature should not
+be held responsible for them.
+
+But you may urge that the variation which would take place in a
+single generation would be, as a rule, too slight to be of any
+practical value to the animal, and could not be fostered by natural
+selection until greatly enhanced by some other means. Let us think a
+moment. If ten ordinary men run in a foot-race, the two foremost may
+lead by several feet. But if the number of runners be continually
+increased the finish will be ever closer until finally but an atom
+more wind or muscle or pluck would make all the difference between
+winning and losing the prize.
+
+Similarly the million or more young of any species of insect in a
+given area may be said to run a race of which the prize is life, and
+the losing of which means literally death. The competition is
+inconceivably severe. How indefinitely slight will be the difference
+between the poorest of the 2,000 or 20,000 survivors and the best
+of the more than 900,000 which perish. The very slightest favorable
+variation may make all the difference between life and sure death.
+And yet these indefinitely slight variations continued and
+aggregated through ages would foot up an immense total divergence.
+The chalk cliffs of England have been built up of microscopic
+shells.
+
+I have tried to give you very briefly a sketch of the essential
+points of Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution. But you should all read
+that marvel of patience, industry, clear insight, close reasoning,
+and grand honesty, the "Origin of Species." I have no time to give
+the arguments in its favor or to attempt to meet the objections
+which may arise in your minds. I ask you to believe only this much;
+that the theory is accepted with practical unanimity by scientific
+men because it, and it alone, furnishes an explanation for the facts
+which they discover in their daily work. And this is the strongest
+proof of the truth of any accepted theory.
+
+Inasmuch as it is accepted by all scientists and largely by the
+public, it is certainly worth your while to know whether it has any
+bearing on the great moral and religious questions which you are
+considering. And in these lectures I shall take for granted, what
+some scientists still doubt, that man also is a product of
+evolution. For the weight of evidence in favor of this view is
+constantly increasing, and seems already to strongly preponderate.
+Also I wish in these lectures to grant all that the most ardent
+evolutionist can possibly claim. Not that I would lower man's
+position, but I have a continually increasing respect for the
+so-called "lower animals."
+
+Now if the theory of evolution be true, and really only on this
+condition, life has had a history; and human history began ages
+before man's actual appearance on the globe, just as American
+history began to be fashioned by Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans
+before they set foot even in England. We study history mainly to
+deduce its laws; and that knowing them we may from the past forecast
+the future, prepare for its emergencies, and avoid or wisely meet,
+its dangers. And we rely on these laws of history because they are
+the embodiment of ages of human experience.
+
+Whatever be our system of philosophy we all practically rely on past
+experience and observation. Fire burns and water drowns. This we
+know, and this knowledge governs our daily lives, whatever be our
+theories, or even our ignorance, of the laws of heat and
+respiration. Now human history is the embodiment of the experience
+of the race; and we study it in the full confidence that, if we can
+deduce its laws, we can rely on racial experience certainly as
+safely as on that of the individual. Furthermore, if we can discover
+certain great movements or currents of human action or progress
+moving steadily on through past centuries, we have full confidence
+that these movements will continue in the future. The study of
+history should make us seers.
+
+But the line of human progress is like a mountain road, veering and
+twisting, and often appearing to turn back upon itself, and having
+many by-roads, which lead us astray. If we know but a few miles of
+it we cannot tell whether it leads north or south or due west. But
+if from any mountain-top we can gain a clear bird's-eye view of its
+whole course, we easily distinguish the main road, its turns become
+quite insignificant, we see that it leads as directly as any
+engineering skill could locate it through the mountains to the
+fertile plains and rich harvests beyond.
+
+Now our knowledge of the history of man covers so brief a period
+that we can scarcely more than hazard a guess as to the trend of
+human progress. Many of the most promising social movements are like
+by-roads which, at first less steep and difficult, end sooner or
+later against impassable obstacles. And even if there be a main line
+of march, advance seems to alternate with retreat, progress with
+retrogression. To illustrate further, the great waves rush onward
+only to fall back again, and we can hardly tell whether the tide is
+flowing or ebbing.
+
+Yet already certain tendencies appear fairly clear. Governments tend
+to become democratic, if we define democracy as "any form of
+government in which the will of the people finds sovereign
+expression." The tendency of society seems to be toward furnishing
+all its members equality of opportunity to make the most of their
+natural endowments. But if we are convinced that these statements
+express even vaguely the tendency of human development in all its
+past history, we are confident that these tendencies will continue
+in the future for a period somewhat proportional to their time of
+growth in the past. If we are wise, we try to make our own lives and
+actions, and those of our fellows, conform to and advance them.
+Otherwise our lives will be thrown away.
+
+But if the theory of evolution be true, human history is only the
+last page of the one history of all life. If we are to gain any
+adequate, true, extensive view of human progress, we must read more
+than this. We must take into account the history of man when he was
+not yet man. And if we believe in the future continuance of
+tendencies of a few centuries' growth, we shall rest assured of the
+permanence of tendencies which have grown and strengthened through
+the ages.
+
+Our confidence in the results of historical study is therefore
+proportioned to the extent and thoroughness of the experience which
+they record, and to the time during which these laws can be proven
+to have held good. If I can make it even fairly probable that these
+laws, on obedience to which human progress and success seem to
+depend, are merely quoted from a grander code applicable to all life
+in all times, your confidence in them will be even greater. I trust
+I can prove to you that the animal kingdom has not drifted aimlessly
+at the mercy of every wind and tide and current of circumstance. I
+hope to show that along one line it has from the beginning through
+the ages held a steady course straight onward, and that deviation
+from this course has always led to failure or degeneration. From so
+vast a history we may hope to deduce some of the great laws of true
+success in life. Furthermore, if along this central line, at the
+head of which man stands, there always has been progress, we cannot
+doubt that future progress will be as certain, and perhaps far more
+rapid. In all the struggle of life we shall have the sure hope of
+success and victory; if not for ourselves still for those who shall
+come after us. "We are saved by hope." And we may be confident that
+this hope will never make us ashamed.
+
+Finally, even from our present knowledge of the past progress of
+life we shall hope to catch hints at least that man's only path to
+his destined goal is the straight and narrow road pointed out in the
+Bible. If in this we are even fairly successful we shall find a
+relation and bond between the Bible and Science worthy of all
+consideration. And this is the only agreement which can ever satisfy
+us.
+
+If I wished to bring before you a view of the development of man, I
+should best choose individuals or families from various periods of
+human history from the earliest times down to the present. I should
+try to tell you how they looked and lived. But if anyone should
+attempt to condense into three lectures such a history of even one
+line of the human race, you would probably think him insane. Even if
+he succeeded in giving a fairly clear view of the different stages,
+the successive stages would be so remote from one another, such vast
+changes would necessarily remain unnoticed or unexplained that you
+would hardly believe that they could have any genetic relation or
+belong to one developmental series.
+
+But the history which I must attempt to condense for you is measured
+by ages, and the successive terms of the series will be indefinitely
+more remote from each other than the life and thoughts of Lincoln or
+Washington from those of our most primitive Aryan ancestor or of the
+rudest savage of the Stone Age. The series must appear exceedingly
+disconnected. Systems of organs will apparently spring suddenly into
+existence, and we shall have no time to trace their origin or
+earlier development. Even if we had an abundance of time many gaps
+would still remain; for the forms, which according to our theory
+must have occupied their place, have long since disappeared and
+left no trace nor sign. We have generally no conception at all of
+the amount of extermination and degeneration which have taken place
+in past ages.
+
+I grant frankly that I do not believe that the forms which I have
+selected represent exactly the ancestors of man. They have all been
+more or less modified. I claim only that in the balance and relative
+development of their organic systems--muscular, digestive, nervous,
+etc.--they give us a very fair idea of what our ancestor at each
+stage must have been. But it is on this balance and relative
+development of the different systems, that is, whether an animal is
+more reproductive, digestive, or nervous, that my argument will in
+the main be based.
+
+But if the older ancestors have so generally disappeared, and their
+surviving relatives have been so greatly modified, how can we make
+even a shrewd guess at the ancestry of higher forms? The genealogy
+of the animal kingdom has been really the study of centuries,
+although the earlier zoölogists did not know that this was to be the
+result of their labors. The first work of the naturalist was
+necessarily to classify the plants and animals which he found, and
+catalogue and tabulate them so that they might be easily recognized,
+and that later discovered forms might readily find a place in the
+system. Hypotheses and theories were looked upon with suspicion.
+"Even Linnæus," says Romanes, "was express in his limitations of
+true scientific work in natural history to the collecting and
+arranging of species of plants and animals." The question, "What is
+it?" came first; then, "How did it come to be what it is?" We are
+just awakening to the question, "Why this progressive system of
+forms, and what does it all mean?"
+
+Let us experiment a little in forming our own classification of a
+few vertebrates. We see a bat flying through the air. We mistake it
+for a bird. But a glance at it shows that it is a mammal. It is
+covered with hair. It has fore and hind legs. Its wings are
+membranes stretched between the fingers and along the sides of the
+body. It has teeth. It suckles its young. In all these respects it
+differs from birds. It differs from mammals only in its wings. But
+we remember that flying squirrels have a membrane stretching along
+the sides of the body and serving as a parachute, though not as
+wings. We naturally consider the wings as a sort of after-thought
+superinduced on the mammalian structure. We do not hesitate to call
+it a mammal.
+
+The whale makes us more trouble; it certainly looks remarkably like
+a fish. But the fin of its tail is horizontal, not vertical. Its
+front flippers differ altogether from the corresponding fins of
+fish; their bones are the same as those occurring in the forelegs of
+mammals, only shorter and more crowded together. Later we find that
+it has lungs, and a heart with four chambers instead of only two, as
+in fish. The vertebræ of its backbone are not biconcave, but flat in
+front and behind. And, finally, we discover that it suckles its
+young. It, too, is in all its deep-seated characteristics a mammal.
+It is fish-like only in characteristics which it might easily have
+acquired in adaptation to its aquatic life. And there are other
+aquatic mammals, like the seals, in which these characteristics are
+much less marked. Their adaptation has evidently not gone so far.
+
+Now the first attempts resulted in artificial classifications, much
+like our grouping of bats with birds and whales with fish. All
+animals, like coral animals and starfishes, whose similar parts were
+arranged in lines radiating from a centre, were united as radiates,
+however much they might differ in internal structure and grade of
+organization. But this radiate structure proved again to be largely
+a matter of adaptation.
+
+Practically all animals having a heavy calcareous shell were grouped
+with the snails and oysters as mollusks. But the barnacle did not
+fit well with other mollusks. Its shell was entirely different. It
+had several pairs of legs; and no mollusk has legs. The barnacle is
+evidently a sessile crab or better crustacean. Its molluscan
+characteristics were only skin-deep, evidently an adaptation to a
+mode of life like that of mollusks. The old artificial systems were
+based too much on merely external characteristics, the results of
+adaptation. When the internal anatomy had been thoroughly studied
+their groups had to be rearranged.
+
+Reptiles and amphibia were at first united in one class because of
+their resemblance in external form. Our common salamanders look so
+much like lizards that they generally pass by this name. But the
+young salamander, like all amphibia, breathes by gills, its skeleton
+differs greatly from, and is far weaker than, that of the lizard,
+and there are important differences in the circulatory and other
+systems. Moreover, practically all amphibia differ from all reptiles
+in these respects. Evidently the fact that the alligator and many
+snakes and turtles (of which neither the young nor the embryos ever
+breathe by gills) live almost entirely in the water, is no better
+reason for classifying these with amphibia than to call a whale a
+fish, and not a mammal, because of its form and aquatic life.
+
+When the comparative anatomy of fish, amphibia, and reptiles had
+been carefully studied it was evident that the amphibia stood far
+nearer the fish in general structure, while the higher reptiles
+closely approached birds. Then it was noticed that our common fish
+formed a fairly well-defined group, but that the ganoids, including
+the sturgeons, gar-pikes, and some others, had at least traces of
+amphibian characteristics. Such generalized forms, with the
+characteristics of the class less sharply marked, were usually by
+common consent placed at the bottom of the class. And this suited
+well their general structure, while in particular characteristics
+they were often more highly organized than higher groups of the same
+class.
+
+The palæontologist found that the oldest fossil forms belonged to
+these generalized groups, and that more highly specialized
+forms--that is, those in which the special class distinctions were
+more sharply and universally marked--were of later geological
+origin. Thus the oldest fish were most like our present ganoids and
+sharks, though differing much from both. Our common teleost fish,
+like perch and cod, appeared much later. The oldest bird, the
+archæopteryx, had a long tail like that of a lizard, and teeth; and
+thus stood in many respects almost midway between birds and
+reptiles. And most of the earliest forms were "comprehensive,"
+uniting the characteristics of two or more later groups. Thus as the
+classification became more natural, based on a careful comparison of
+the whole anatomy of the animals, its order was found to coincide in
+general with that of geological succession.
+
+Then the zoölogist began to ask and investigate how the animal grew
+in the egg and attained its definite form. And this study of
+embryology brought to light many new and interesting facts. Agassiz
+especially emphasized and maintained the universality of the fact
+that there was a remarkable parallelism between embryos of later
+forms and adults of old or fossil groups. The embryos of higher
+forms, he said, pass through and beyond certain stages of structure,
+which are permanent in lower and older members of the same group.
+
+You remember that the fin on the tail of a fish is as a rule
+bilobed. Now the backbone of a perch or cod ends at a point in the
+end of the tail opposite the angle between the two lobes, without
+extending out into either of them. In the shark it extends almost to
+the end of the upper lobe. Now we have seen that sharks and ganoids
+are older than cod. In the embryo of the cod or perch the backbone
+has, at an early stage, the same position as in the shark or ganoid;
+only at a later stage does it attain its definite position.
+
+So Agassiz says the young lepidosteus (a ganoid fish), long after it
+is hatched, exhibits in the form of its tail characters thus far
+known only among the fossil fishes of the Devonian period. The
+embryology of turtles throws light upon the fossil chelonians. It is
+already known that the embryonic changes of frogs and toads coincide
+with what is known of their succession in past ages. The
+characteristics of extinct genera of mammals exhibit everywhere
+indications that their living representatives in early life resemble
+them more than they do their own parents. A minute comparison of a
+young elephant with any mastodon will show this most fully, not only
+in the peculiarities of their teeth, but even in the proportion of
+their limbs, their toes, etc. It may therefore be considered as
+a general fact that the phases of development of all living
+animals correspond to the order of succession of their extinct
+representatives in past geological times. The above statements are
+quoted almost word for word from Professor Agassiz's "Essay on
+Classification." The larvæ of barnacles and other more degraded
+parasitic crustacea are almost exactly like those of Crustacea in
+general. The embryos of birds have a long tail containing almost or
+quite as many vertebræ as that of archæopteryx. But most of these
+never reach their full development but are absorbed into the pelvis,
+or into the "ploughshare" bone supporting the tail feathers. Thus
+older forms may be said to have retained throughout life a condition
+only embryonic in their higher relatives. And the natural
+classification gave the order not only of geological succession but
+also of stages of embryonic development. Thus the system of
+classification improved continually, although more and more
+intermediate forms, like archæopteryx, were discovered, and certain
+aberrant groups could find no permanent resting-place.
+
+But why should the generalized comprehensive forms stand at the
+bottom rather than the top of the systematic arrangement of their
+classes? Why should the system of classification coincide with the
+order of geologic occurrence, and this with the series of embryonic
+stages? Above all, why should the embryos of bird and perch form
+their tails by such a roundabout method? Why should the embryo of
+the bird have the tail of a lizard? No one could give any
+satisfactory explanation, although the facts were undoubted.
+
+Mr. Darwin's theory was the one impulse needed to crystallize these
+disconnected facts into one comprehensible whole. The connecting
+link was everywhere common descent, difference was due to the
+continual variation and divergence of their ancestors. The
+classification, which all were seeking, was really the ancestral
+tree of the animal kingdom. Forms more generalized should be placed
+lower down on the ancestral tree, and must have had an earlier
+geological occurrence because they represented more nearly the
+ancestors of the higher. But this explains also the facts of
+embryonic development.
+
+According to Mr. Darwin's theory all the species of higher animals
+have developed from unicellular ancestors. It had long been known
+that all higher forms start in life as single cells, egg and
+spermatozoon. And these, fused in the process of fertilization, form
+still a single cell. And when this single cell proceeds through
+successive embryonic stages to develop into an adult individual it
+naturally, through force of hereditary habit, so to speak, treads
+the same path which its ancestors followed from the unicellular
+condition to their present point of development. Thus higher forms
+should be expected to show traces of their early ancestry in their
+embryonic life. Older and lower adult forms should represent
+persistent embryonic stages of higher. It could not well be
+otherwise.
+
+But the path which the embryo has to follow from the egg to the
+adult form is continually lengthening as life advances ever higher.
+From egg to sponge is, comparatively speaking, but a step; it is a
+long march from the egg to the earthworm; and the vertebrate embryo
+makes a vast journey. But embryonic life is and must remain short.
+Hence in higher forms the ancestral stages will often be slurred
+over and very incompletely represented. And the embryo may, and
+often does, shorten the path by "short-cuts" impossible to its
+original ancestor. Still it will in general hold true, and may be
+recognized as a law of vast importance, that any individual during
+his embryonic life repeats very briefly the different stages through
+which his ancestors have passed in their development since the
+beginning of life. Or, briefly stated, ontogenesis, or the embryonic
+development of the individual, is a brief recapitulation of
+phylogenesis, or the ancestral development of the phylum or group.
+
+The illustration and proof of this law is the work of the
+embryologist. We have time to draw only one or two illustrations
+from the embryonic development of birds. We have already seen that
+the embryonic bird has the long tail of his reptilian ancestor. In
+early embryonic life it has gill-slits leading from the pharynx to
+the outside of the neck like those through which the water passes in
+the respiration of fish. The Eustachian tube and the canal of the
+external ear of man, separated only by the "drum," are nothing but
+such an old persistent gill-slit. No gills ever develop in these,
+but the great arteries run to them, and indeed to all parts of the
+embryo, on almost precisely the same general plan as in the adult
+fish. Only later is the definite avian circulation gradually
+acquired.
+
+This law is even more strikingly illustrated in the embryonic
+development of the vertebral column and skull, if we had time to
+trace their development. And the development of the excretory system
+points to an ancestor far more primitive than even the fish. Our
+embryonic development is one of the very strongest evidences of our
+lowly origin.
+
+Thus we have three sources of information for the study of animal
+genealogy. First, the comparative anatomy of all the different
+groups of animals; second, their comparative embryology; and third,
+their palæontological history. Each source has its difficulties or
+defects. But taken all together they give us a genealogical tree
+which is in the main points correct, though here and there very
+defective and doubtful in detail. The points in which we are left
+most in doubt in regard to each ancestor are its modes of life and
+locomotion, and body form. But these may temporarily vary
+considerably without affecting to any great extent the general plan
+of structure and the line of development of the most important
+deep-seated organs.
+
+I have chosen a line composed of forms taken from the comparative
+anatomical series. All such present existing forms have probably
+been modified during the lapse of ages. But I shall try to tell you
+when they have diverged noticeably from the structure of the
+primitive ancestor of the corresponding stage. It is much safer for
+us to study concrete, actual forms than imaginary ones, however real
+may have been the former existence of the latter. And, after all,
+their lateral divergence is of small account compared with the great
+upward and onward march of life, to the right and left of which they
+have remained stationary or retrograded somewhat, like the tribes
+which remained on the other side of Jordan and never entered the
+Promised Land.
+
+To recapitulate: Our question is the Whence and the Whither of man.
+To this question the Bible gives a clear and definite answer. Can
+Science also give an answer, and is this in the main in accord with
+the answer of Scripture? Science can answer the question only by the
+historical method of tracing the history of life in the past and
+observing the goal toward which it tends. If the evolution theory be
+true, the record of human achievement and progress forms only one
+short chapter in the history of the ages. If from the records of
+man's little span of life on the globe we can deduce laws of history
+on whose truth we can rely, with how much greater confidence and
+certainty may we rely on laws which have governed all life since its
+earliest appearance?--always provided that such can be found.
+
+Our first effort must therefore be to trace the great line of
+development through a few of its most characteristic stages from the
+simplest living beings up to man. This will be our work in the three
+succeeding lectures. And to these I must ask you to bring a large
+store of patience. Anatomical details are at best dry and
+uninteresting. But these dry facts of anatomy form the foundation on
+which all our arguments and hopes must rest.
+
+But if you will think long and carefully even of anatomical facts,
+you will see in and behind them something more and grander than
+they. You will catch glimpses of the divinity of Nature. Most of us
+travel threescore years and ten stone-blind in a world of marvellous
+beauty. Why does the artist see so much more in every fence-corner
+and on every hill-side than we, set face to face with the grandest
+landscapes? Primarily, I believe, because he is sympathetic, and
+looks on Nature as a comrade as near and dear as any human sister
+and companion. As Professor Huxley has said, "they get on rarely
+together." She speaks to the artist; to us she is dumb, and ought to
+be, for we are boorishly careless of her and her teachings.
+
+Nature, to be known, must be loved. And though you have all the
+knowledge of a von Humboldt, and do not love her, you will never
+understand her or her teachings. You will go through life with her,
+and yet parted from her as by an adamantine wall.
+
+I do not suppose that the author of the book of Job had ever studied
+geology, or mineralogy, or biology, but read him, and see whether
+this old prince of scientific heroes had loved, and understood, and
+caught the spirit of Nature. And what a grand, free spirit it was,
+and what a giant it made of him. I do not believe that Paul ever had
+a special course of anatomy or botany. But if he had not pondered
+long and lovingly on the structure of his body, and the germination
+of the seed, he never could have written the twelfth and fifteenth
+chapters of the first letter to the Corinthians. And time fails to
+speak of David and all the writers of the Psalms, and of those
+heroic souls misnamed the "Minor" Prophets.
+
+Study the teachings of our Lord. How he must have considered the
+lilies of the field, and that such a tiny seed as that of the
+mustard could have produced so great an herb, and noticed and
+thought on the thorns and the tares and the wheat, and watched the
+sparrows, and pondered and wondered how the birds were fed. All his
+teaching was drawn from Nature. And all the study in the world could
+never have taught him what he knew, if it had not been a loving and
+appreciative study.
+
+There is one strange and interesting passage in John's Gospel, xv.
+1: "I am the true vine." My father used to tell us that the Greek
+word [Greek: alêthinê], rendered true, is usually employed of the
+genuine in distinction from the counterfeit, the reality in
+distinction from the shadow and image. Is not this perhaps the clew
+to our Lord's use of natural imagery? Nature was always the
+presentation to his senses of the divine thought and purpose. He
+studied the words of the ancient Scripture, he found the same words
+and teachings clearly and concretely embodied in the processes of
+Nature. The interpretation of the Parable of the Sower was no mere
+play of fancy to him; it was the genuine and fundamental truth,
+deeper and more real than the existence of the sower, the soil, and
+the seed. The spiritual truth was the substance; the tangible soil
+and seed really only the shadow. And thus all Nature was to him
+divine.
+
+We all of us need to offer the prayer of the blind man, "Lord, that
+our eyes may be opened." Let us learn, too, from the old heathen
+giant, Antæus, who, after every defeat and fall, rose strengthened
+and vivified from contact with his mother Earth. You will experience
+in life many a desperate struggle, many a hard fall. There is at
+such times nothing in the world so strengthening, healing, and
+life-giving as the thoughts and encouragements which Nature pours
+into the hearts and minds of her loving disciples. She will set you
+on your feet again, infused with new life, filled with an
+unconquerable spirit, with unfaltering courage, and an iron will to
+fight once more and win. In every battle her inspiring words will
+ring in your ears, and she will never fail you. We may not see her
+deepest realities, her rarest treasures of thought and wisdom; but
+if we will listen lovingly for her voice, we may be assured that she
+will speak to us many a word of cheer and encouragement, of warning
+and exhortation. For, to paraphrase the language of the nineteenth
+Psalm, "She has no speech nor language, her voice is not heard. But
+her rule is gone out throughout all the earth, and her words to the
+end of the world."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PROTOZOA TO WORMS: CELLS, TISSUES, AND ORGANS
+
+
+The first and lowest form in our ancestral series is the amoeba, a
+little fresh-water animal from 1/500 to 1/1000 of an inch in
+diameter. Under the microscope it looks like a little drop of
+mucilage. This semifluid, mucilaginous substance is the Protoplasm.
+Its outer portion is clear and transparent, its inner more granular.
+In the inner portion is a little spheroidal body, the nucleus. This
+is certainly of great importance in the life of the animal; but just
+what it does, or what is its relation to the surrounding protoplasm
+we do not yet know. There is also a little cavity around which the
+protoplasm has drawn back, and on which it will soon close in again,
+so that it pulsates like a heart. It is continually taking in water
+from the body, or the outside, and driving it out again, and thus
+aids in respiration and excretion. The animal has no organs in the
+proper sense of the word, and yet it has the rudiments of all the
+functions which we possess.
+
+A little projection of the outer, clearer layer of protoplasm, a
+pseudopodium, appears; into this the whole animal may flow and thus
+advance a step, or the projection may be withdrawn. And this power
+of change of form is a lower grade of the contractility of our
+muscular cells. Prick it with a needle and it contracts. It
+recognizes its food even at a microscopic distance; it appears
+therefore to feel and perceive. Perhaps we might say that it has a
+mind and will of its own. It is safer to say that it is irritable,
+that is, it reacts to stimuli too feeble to be regarded as the cause
+of its reaction. It engulfs microscopic plants, and digests them in
+the internal protoplasm by the aid of an acid secretion. It breathes
+oxygen, and excretes carbonic acid and urea, through its whole body
+surface. Its mode of gaining the energy which it manifests is
+therefore apparently like our own, by combustion of food material.
+
+  [Illustration: 1. AMOEBA PROTEUS. HERTWIG, FROM LEIDY.
+  _ek_, ectosarc; _en_, endosarc; _N_, food particles;
+  _n_, nucleus; _cv_, contractile vesicle.]
+
+It grows and reaches a certain size, then constricts itself in the
+middle and divides into two. The old amoeba has divided into two
+young ones, and there is no parent left to die, and death, except by
+violence, does not occur. But this absence of death in other rather
+distant relatives of the amoeba, and probably in the amoeba
+itself, holds true only provided that, after a series of
+self-divisions, reproduction takes place after another mode. Two
+rather small and weak individuals fuse together in one animal of
+renewed vigor, which soon divides into two larger and stronger
+descendants. We have here evidently a process corresponding to the
+fertilization of the egg in higher animals; yet there is no egg,
+spermatozoon, or sex.
+
+It is a little mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus, and
+corresponds, therefore, to one of the cells, most closely to the
+egg-cell or spermatozoon of higher animals. If every living being is
+descended from a single cell, the fertilized egg, it is not hard to
+believe that all higher animals are descended from an ancestor
+having the general structure or lack of structure of the amoeba.
+
+But is the amoeba really structureless? Probably it has an
+exceedingly complex structure, but our microscopes and technique are
+still too imperfect to show more than traces of it. Says Hertwig:
+"Protoplasm is not a single chemical substance, however complicated,
+but a mixture of many substances, which we must picture to ourselves
+as finest particles united in a wonderfully complicated structure."
+Truly protoplasm is, to borrow Mephistopheles' expression concerning
+blood, a "quite peculiar juice." And the complexity of the nucleus
+is far more evident than that of the protoplasm. Is protoplasm
+itself the result of a long development? If so, out of what and how
+did it develop? We cannot even guess. But the beginning of life may,
+apparently must, have been indefinitely farther back than the
+simplest now existing form. The study of the amoeba cannot fail to
+raise a host of questions in the mind of any thoughtful man.
+
+As we have here the animal reduced, so to speak, to lowest terms, it
+may be well to examine a little more closely into its physiology and
+compare it briefly with our own.
+
+The amoeba eats food as we do, but the food is digested directly
+in the internal protoplasm instead of in a stomach; and once
+digested it diffuses to all parts of the cell; here it is built up
+into compounds of a more complex structure, and forms an integral
+part of the animal body. The dead food particle has been transformed
+into living protoplasm, the continually repeated miracle of life.
+But it does not remain long in this condition. In contact with the
+oxygen from the air it is soon oxidized, burned up to furnish the
+energy necessary for the motion and irritability of the body. We are
+all of us low-temperature engines. The digestive function exists in
+all animals merely to bring the food into a soluble, diffusible
+form, so that it can pass to all parts of the body and be used for
+fuel or growth. In our body a circulatory system is necessary to
+carry food and oxygen to the cells and to remove their waste. For
+most of our cells lie at a distance from the stomach, lungs, and
+kidney. But in a small animal the circulatory system is often
+unnecessary and fails. Breathing and excretion take place through
+the whole surface of the body. The body of the frog is devoid of
+scales, so that the blood is separated from the surrounding water
+only by a thin membrane, and it breathes and excretes to a certain
+extent in the same way.
+
+But another factor has to be considered. If we double each dimension
+of our amoeba, we shall increase its surface four times, its mass
+eight-fold. Now the power of absorbing oxygen and excreting waste is
+evidently proportional to the excretory and respiratory surface, and
+much the same is true of digestion. But the amount of oxygen
+required, and of waste to be removed is proportional to the mass;
+for every particle of protoplasm requires food and oxygen, and
+produces waste. The particles of protoplasm in our new, larger
+amoeba can therefore receive only half as much oxygen as before,
+and rid themselves of their waste only half as fast. There is
+danger of what in our bodies would be called suffocation and
+blood-poisoning. The amoeba having attained a certain size meets
+this emergency by dividing into two small individuals, the division
+is a physical adaptation. But the many-celled animal cannot do this;
+it must keep its cells together. It gains the additional surface by
+folding and plaiting. And the complicated internal structure of
+higher animals is in its last analysis such a folding and plaiting
+in order to maintain the proper ratio between the exposed surface of
+the cells and their mass. And each cell in our bodies lives in one
+sense its own individual life, only bathed in the lymph and
+receiving from it its food and oxygen instead of taking it from the
+water.
+
+But in another sense the cells of our body live an entirely
+different life, for they form a community. Division of labor has
+taken place between them, they are interdependent, correlated with
+one another, subject therefore to the laws of the whole community or
+organism. There are many respects in which it is impossible to
+compare Robinson Crusoe with a workman in a huge watch factory; yet
+they are both men.
+
+Both the amoeba and we live in the closest relation to our
+environment, and conformity to it is evidently necessary: life has
+been defined as the adjustment of internal relations to external
+conditions. We continually take food, use it for energy and growth,
+and return the simpler waste compounds. We are all of us, as
+Professor Huxley has said, "whirlpools on the surface of Nature;"
+when the whirl of exchange of particles ceases we die. We have seen
+that the fusion of two amoebæ results in a new rejuvenated
+individual. Why is a mixture of two protoplasms better than one? We
+can frame hypotheses; we know nothing about it. What of the mind of
+the amoeba? A host of questions throng upon us and we can answer
+no one of them. All the great questions concerning life confront us
+here in the lowest term of the animal series, and appear as
+insoluble as in the highest.
+
+Our second ancestral form is also a fresh-water animal, the hydra.
+This is a little, vase-shaped animal, which usually lives attached
+to grass-stems or sticks, but has the power to free itself and hang
+on the surface of the water or to slowly creep on the bottom. The
+mouth is at the top of the vase, and the simple, undivided cavity
+within the vase is the digestive cavity. Around the mouth is a ring
+of from four to ten hollow tentacles, whose cavities communicate
+freely underneath with the digestive cavity. Not only is food taken
+in at the mouth, but indigestible material is thrown out here. The
+animal may thus be compared to a nearly cylindrical sack with a
+circle of tubes attached to it above. The body consists of two
+layers of cells, the ectoderm on the outside and the entoderm lining
+the digestive cavity. Between these two is a structureless, elastic
+membrane, which tends to keep the body moderately expanded.
+
+The food is captured by the tentacles; but digestion takes place
+only partially in the digestive cavity, for each surrounding cell
+engulfs small particles of food and digests them within itself. The
+entodermal cells behave in this respect much like a colony of
+amoebæ. The cells of both layers have at their bases long muscular
+fibrils, those of the ectodermal cells running longitudinally, those
+of the entoderm transversely. The animal can thus contract its body
+in both directions, or, if the body contain water and the transverse
+muscles are contracted, the pressure of the water lengthens the body
+and tends to extend the tentacles.
+
+On the outside of the elastic membrane, just beneath the ectoderm,
+is a plexus or cobweb of nervous cells and fibrils. As in every
+nervous system, three elements are here to be found. 1. An afferent
+or sensory nerve-fibril, which under adequate stimulus is set in
+vibration by some cell of the epidermis or ectoderm, which is
+therefore called a sensory cell. 2. A central or ganglion
+cell, which receives the sensory impulse, translates it into
+consciousness, and is the seat of whatever powers of perception,
+thought, or will the animal possesses. This also gives rise to the
+efferent or motor impulses, which are conveyed by (3) a motor fibril
+to the corresponding muscle, exciting its contraction. But there are
+also nerve-fibrils connecting the different ganglion cells, so that
+they may act in unison. In the higher animals we shall find these
+central or ganglion cells condensed in one or a few masses or
+ganglia. But here they are scattered over the whole surface of the
+elastic supporting membrane.
+
+The reproductive organs for the production of eggs and spermatozoa
+form little protuberances on the outside of the body below the
+tentacles. But hydra reproduces mostly by budding; new individuals
+growing out of the side of the old one, like branches from the trunk
+of a tree, but afterward breaking free and leading an independent
+life. There are special forms of cells besides those described;
+nettle cells for capturing food, interstitial cells, etc., but these
+do not concern us.
+
+The distance from the single-celled amoeba to hydra is vast,
+probably really greater than that between any other successive terms
+of our series. It may therefore be useful to consider one or two
+intermediate forms and the parallel embryonic stages of higher
+animals, and to see how the higher many-celled animal originates
+from the unicellular stage.
+
+The amoeba is an illustration of a great kingdom of similar,
+practically unicellular forms, which have played no unimportant part
+in the geological history of the globe. These are the protozoa. They
+include, first of all, the foraminifera, which usually have shells
+composed of carbonate of lime. These shells, settling to the bottom
+of the ocean, have accumulated in vast beds, and when compacted and
+raised above the surface, form chalk, limestone, or marble,
+according to the degree and mode of their hardening.
+
+The protozoa include also the flagellata, a great, very poorly
+defined mass of forms occupying the boundary between the plant and
+animal kingdoms. They are usually unicellular, and their protoplasm
+is surrounded by a thin, structureless membrane. This prevents their
+putting out pseudopodia as organs of motion. Instead of these they
+have at one end of the ovoid or pear-shaped body a long,
+whiplash-like process or thread, a flagellum, and by swinging this
+they propel themselves through the water. These flagellata seem to
+have a rather marked tendency to form colonies. The first individual
+gives rise to others by division. But the division is not complete;
+the new individuals remain connected by the undivided rear end of
+the body. And such a colony may come to contain a large number of
+individuals.
+
+  [Illustration: 2. MAGOSPHÆRA PLANULA. LANG, FROM HAECKEL.]
+
+Such a colony is represented by magosphæra. This is a microscopic
+globular form, discovered by Professor Haeckel on the coast of
+Norway. It consists of a large number of conical or pear-shaped
+individual cells, whose apices are turned toward the centre of the
+sphere. The cells are cemented together by a mucilaginous substance.
+Around their exposed larger ends, which form the surface of the
+sphere, are rows of flagella, by whose united action the colony
+rolls through the water. After a time each individual absorbs its
+flagella, the colony is broken up, the different individuals settle
+to the bottom, and each gives rise by division to a new colony. This
+group of cells may be considered as a colony or as an individual.
+Each term is defensible.
+
+Volvox is also a spheroidal organism, composed often of a very large
+number of flagellated cells. But it differs from magosphæra in
+certain important respects. In the first place its cells have
+chlorophyl, the green coloring matter of plants. It lives therefore
+on unorganized fluid nourishment, carbon dioxide, nitrates, etc. It
+is a plant. But certain characteristics render it probable that it
+once lived on solid food and was therefore an animal. For where
+almost the sole difference between plants and animals is in the
+fluid or solid character of their food, a change from the one form
+into the other is not as difficult or improbable as one might
+naturally think. And plants and animals are here so near together,
+and travelling by roads so nearly parallel, that, even if volvox
+never was an animal, it might still serve very well to illustrate a
+stage through which animals must have passed.
+
+The cells of volvox do not form a solid mass, but have arranged
+themselves in a single layer on the outer surface of the sphere. For
+a time, under favorable circumstances, volvox reproduces very much
+like magosphæra, and each cell can give rise to a new, many-celled
+individual. But after a time, especially under unfavorable
+circumstances, a new mode of reproduction appears. Certain cells
+withdraw from the outer layer into the interior of the colony. Here
+they are nourished by the other cells and develop into true
+reproductive elements, eggs and spermatozoa. Fertilization, that is,
+the union of egg and spermatozoon, or mainly of their nuclei, takes
+place; and the fertilized egg develops into a new organism. But the
+other cells, which have been all the time nourishing these, seem now
+to lack nutriment, strength, or vitality to give rise to a new
+colony. They die.
+
+We find thus in volvox division of labor and corresponding
+difference of structure or differentiation; certain cells retain the
+power of fusing with other corresponding cells, and thus of
+rejuvenescence and of giving rise to a new organism. And these
+cells, forming a series through all generations, are evidently
+immortal like the protozoa. Natural death cannot touch them. These
+are the reproductive cells. The other cells nourish and transport
+them and carry on the work of excretion and respiration. These
+latter correspond practically to our whole body. We call them
+somatic cells. In volvox they are entirely subservient to, and exist
+for, the reproductive cells, and die when they have completed their
+service of these. The body is here only a vehicle for ova.
+Furthermore, in volvox there has arisen such an interdependence of
+cells that we can no longer speak of it as a colony. The colony has
+become an individual by division of labor and the resulting
+differentiation in structure.
+
+But hydra gives us but a poor idea of the coelenterata, to which
+kingdom it belongs. The higher coelenterata have nearly or quite
+all the tissues of higher animals--muscular, connective, glandular,
+etc. And by tissues we mean groups of cells modified in form and
+structure for the performance of a special work or function. The
+protozoa developed the cell for all time to come, the coelenterata
+developed the tissues which still compose our bodies. But they had
+them mainly in a diffuse form. A sort of digestive and reproductive
+system they did possess. But the work of arranging these tissues and
+condensing them into compact organs was to be done by the next
+higher group, the worms.
+
+Let us now take a glance at certain stages of embryonic development
+which correspond to these earliest ancestral forms. We should expect
+some such correspondence from the fact already stated that the
+embryonic development of the individual is a brief recapitulation of
+the ancestral development of the species or larger group. The egg of
+the lowest vertebrate, amphioxus, shows these changes in a simple
+and apparently primitive form.
+
+  [Illustration: 3. IMMATURE EGG-SHELL FROM OVARY OF ECHINODERM.
+  HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG.]
+
+The fertilized egg of any animal consists of a single cell, a little
+mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus and surrounded by a
+structureless membrane. The egg is globular. The nucleus undergoes
+certain very peculiar, still but little understood, changes and
+divides into two. The protoplasm also soon divides into two masses
+clustering each around its own nucleus. The plane of division will
+be marked around the outside by a circular furrow, but the cells
+will still remain united by a large part of the membrane which
+bounds their adjacent, newly formed, internal faces.
+
+Let us suppose that the egg lay so that the first plane of division
+was vertical and extending north and south. Each cell or half of the
+egg will divide into two precisely as before. The new plane of
+division will be vertical, but extending east and west. Each plane
+passes through the centre of the egg, and the four cells are of the
+same form and size, like much-rounded quarters of an orange. The
+third plane will lie horizontal or equatorial, and will divide each
+of these quarters into an upper and lower octant. The cells keep on
+dividing rapidly, the eight form sixteen, then thirty-two, etc. The
+sharp angle by which the cells met at the centre has become rounded
+off, and has left a little space, the segmentation cavity, filled
+with fluid in the middle of the embryo. The cells continue to press
+or be crowded away from the centre and form a layer one cell deep on
+the surface of the sphere.
+
+This embryo, resembling a hollow rubber ball filled with fluid, is
+called a blastosphere. It corresponds in structure with the fully
+developed volvox, except, of course, in lacking reproductive cells.
+
+  [Illustration: 4. GASTRULA. HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG.
+  Outer layer is the ectoderm; inner layer, the entoderm; internal
+  cavity, the archenteron; mouth of cavity, blastopore.]
+
+If the rubber ball has a hole in it so that I can squeeze out the
+water, I can thrust the one-half into the other, and change the ball
+into a double-walled cup. A similar change takes place in the
+embryo. The cells of the lower half of the blastosphere are slightly
+larger than those of the upper half. This lower hemisphere flattens
+and then thrusts itself, or is invaginated, into the upper
+hemisphere of smaller cells and forms its lining. This cup-shaped
+embryo is called the gastrula. The cup deepens somewhat and becomes
+ovoid. Take a boiled egg, make a hole in the smaller end and remove
+the yolk, and you have a passable model of a gastrula. The shell
+corresponds to the ectoderm or outer layer of smaller cells; the
+layer of "white" represents the entoderm or lining of larger cells.
+The space occupied by the yolk corresponds to the archenteron or
+primitive digestive cavity; and the opening at the end to the
+primitive mouth or blastopore. Ectoderm and entoderm unite around
+the mouth. Both the blastosphere and gastrula often swim freely by
+flagella.
+
+You can hardly have failed to notice how closely the gastrula
+corresponds to a hydra, and many facts lead us to believe that the
+still earlier ancestor of the hydra was free swimming, and that the
+tentacles are a later development correlated with its adult sessile
+life. Yet we must not forget that the hydra is even now not quite
+sessile, it moves somewhat. And our ancestor was almost certainly a
+free swimming gastræa, or hypothetical form corresponding in form
+and structure to the gastrula. The ancestor of man never settled
+down lazily into a sessile life.
+
+But how is an adult worm or vertebrate formed out of such a
+gastrula? To answer this would require a course of lectures on
+embryology. But certain changes interest us. Between the ectoderm
+and entoderm of the gastrula, in the space occupied by the
+supporting membrane of hydra, a new layer of cells, the mesoderm,
+appears. This has been produced by the rapid growth and reproduction
+of certain cells of the entoderm which have migrated, so to speak,
+into this new position. In higher forms it becomes of continually
+greater importance, until finally nearly all the organs of the body
+develop from it. In our bodies only the lining of the mid-intestine
+and of its glands has arisen from the entoderm. And only the
+epidermis, or outer layer of our skin, and the nervous system and
+parts of our sense-organs have arisen from the ectoderm. But our
+mid-intestine is still the greatly elongated archenteron of the
+gastrula.
+
+We may therefore compare the hydra or gastrula to a little portion
+of the lining of the human mid-intestine covered with a little flake
+of epidermis. This much the hydra has attained. But our bones and
+muscles and blood-vessels all come from the mesoderm by folding,
+plaiting, and channelling, and division of labor resulting in
+differentiation of structure. Of all true mesodermal structures the
+hydra has actually none, but in the ectodermal and entodermal cells
+he has the potentiality of them all. We must now try to discover how
+these potentialities became actualities in higher forms.
+
+The third stage in our ancestral series is the turbellarian. This is
+a little, flat, oval worm, varying greatly in size in different
+species, and found both in fresh and salt water. Some would deny
+that this worm belonged in our series at all. But, while doubtless
+considerably modified, it has still retained many characteristics
+almost certainly possessed by our primitive bilateral ancestor. The
+different parts of hydra were arranged like those of most flowers,
+around one main vertical axis; it was thus radiate in structure,
+having neither front nor rear, right nor left side. But our little
+turbellaria, while still without a head, has one end which goes
+first and can be called the front end. The upper or dorsal surface
+is usually more colored with pigment cells than the lower or ventral
+surface, on which is the mouth. It has also a right and left side.
+It is thus bilateral.
+
+The gastræa swam by cilia, little eyelash-like processes which urge
+the animal forward like a myriad of microscopic oars. In our bodies
+they are sometimes used to keep up a current, _e.g._, to remove
+foreign particles from the lungs. The turbellaria is still covered
+with cilia, probably an inheritance from the gastræa; for, while in
+smaller forms they may still be the principal means of locomotion,
+in larger ones the muscles are beginning to assume this function and
+the animal moves by writhing. The bilateral symmetry has arisen in
+connection with this mode of locomotion and is thus a mark of
+important progress.
+
+In the turbellaria we find for the first time a true body-wall
+distinct from underlying organs. The outer layer of this is a
+ciliated epithelium or layer of cells. Under this an elastic
+membrane may occur. Then come true body muscles, running
+transversely, longitudinally and dorso-ventrally. Between the
+external transverse and the internal longitudinal layers we often
+find two muscular layers whose fibres run diagonally. The body is
+well provided with muscles, but their arrangement is still far from
+economical or effective.
+
+Within the body-wall is the parenchym. This is a spongy mass of
+connectile tissue in which the other organs are embedded. The mouth
+lies in the middle, or near the front of the ventral surface. The
+intestine varies in form, but is provided with its own layers of
+longitudinal and transverse muscles, and usually has paired pouches
+extending out from it into the body parenchym. These seem to
+distribute the dissolved nutriment; hence the whole cavity is still
+often called a gastro-vascular cavity as serving both digestion and
+circulation. There is no anal opening, but indigestible material is
+still cast out through the mouth.
+
+The animal can gain sufficient oxygen to supply its muscles and
+nerves, which are the principal seats of combustion, through the
+external surface. It has, therefore, no special respiratory organs.
+But the waste matter of the muscles cannot escape so easily, for
+these are becoming deeper seated. Hence we find an excretory system
+consisting of two tubes with many branches in the parenchym, and
+discharging at the rear end of the body. This again is a sign that
+the muscles are becoming more important, for the excretory system is
+needed mainly to remove their waste. These tubes maybe only greatly
+enlarged glands of the skin.
+
+  [Illustration: 5. TURBELLARIAN. LANG.
+  _va_ and _ha_, front and rear branches of gastro-vascular cavity;
+  _ph_, pharynx. The dark oval with fine branches represents the
+  nervous system.]
+
+The nervous system consists of a plexus of fibres and cells, the
+cells originating impulses and the fibres conveying them. But this
+much was present in hydra also. Here the front end of the body goes
+foremost and is continually coming in contact with new conditions.
+Here the lookout for food and danger must be kept. Hence, as a
+result of constant exercise, or selection, or both, the
+nerve-plexus has thickened at this point into a little compact mass
+of cells and fibres called a ganglion. And because this ganglion
+throughout higher forms usually lies over the oesophagus, it is
+called the supra-oesophogeal ganglion. This is the first faint and
+dim prophecy of a brain, and it sends its nerves to the front end of
+the body. But there run from it to the rear end of the body four to
+eight nerve-cords, consisting of bundles of nerve-threads like our
+nerves, but overlaid with a coating of ganglion cells capable of
+originating impulses. These cords are, therefore, like the plexus
+from which they have condensed, both nerves and centres;
+differentiation has not gone so far as at the front of the body.
+Sense organs are still very rudimentary. Special cells of the skin
+have been modified into neuro-epithelial cells, having sensory hairs
+protruding from them and nerve-fibrils running from their bases.
+
+  [Illustration: 6. CROSS-SECTION OF TURBELLARIAN. HATSCHEK, FROM
+  JIJIMA.
+  _e_, external skin; _rm_, lateral muscles; _la_ and _li_,
+  longitudinal muscles; _mdv_, dorso-ventral muscles; _pa_,
+  parenchyma; _h_, testicle; _ov_, oviduct; _dt_, yolk-gland; _n_,
+  ventral nerve; _i_, gastro-vascular cavity.]
+
+In a very few turbellaria we find otolith vesicles. These are
+little sacks in the skin, lined with neuro-epithelial cells and
+having in the middle a little concretion of carbonate of lime hung
+on rather a stiffer hair, like a clapper in a bell. Such organs
+serve in higher animals as organs of hearing, for the sensory hairs
+are set in vibration by the sound-waves. It is quite as probable
+that they here serve as organs for feeling the slightest vibrations
+in the surrounding water, and thus giving warning of approaching
+food or danger. The animal has also eyes, and these may be very
+numerous. They are not able to form images of external objects, but
+only of perceiving light and the direction of its source. A little
+group of these eyes lies directly over the brain, near the front end
+of the body; the others are distributed around the front or nearly
+the whole margin of the body.
+
+The turbellaria, doubtless, have the sense of smell, although we can
+discover no special olfactory organ. This sense would seem to be as
+old as protoplasm itself.
+
+This distribution of the eyes around a large portion of the margin,
+and certain other characteristics of the adult structure and of the
+embryonic development, are very interesting, as giving hints of the
+development of the turbellaria from some radiate ancestor. The mouth
+is in a most unfavorable position, in or near the middle of the
+body, rarely at the front end, as the animal has to swim over its
+food before it can grasp it. The animal only slowly rids itself of
+old disadvantageous form and structure and adapts itself completely
+to a higher mode of life.
+
+By far the most highly developed system in the body is the
+reproductive. It is doubtful whether any animal, except, perhaps,
+the mollusk, has as complicated and highly developed reproductive
+organs. By markedly higher forms they certainly grow simpler.
+
+And here we must notice certain general considerations. We found
+that reproduction in the amoeba could be defined as growth beyond
+the limit normal to the individual. This form of growth benefits
+especially the species. The needs and expenses of the individual
+will therefore first be met and then the balance be devoted to
+reproduction. Now the income of the animal is proportional to its
+surface, its expense to its mass, and activity. And the ratio of
+surface to mass is most favorable in the smallest animals.[A] Hence,
+smaller animals, as a rule, increase faster than larger ones; and
+this is only one illustration of the fact that great size in an
+animal is anything but an unmixed advantage to its possessor. But
+muscles and nerves are the most expensive systems; here most of the
+food is burned up. Hence energetic animals have a small balance
+remaining. Now the turbellarian is small and sluggish, with a fair
+digestive system. With a great amount of nutriment at its disposal
+the reproductive system came rapidly to a high development, and
+relatively to other organs stands higher than it almost ever will
+again.
+
+  [Footnote A: Cf. p. 35.]
+
+It is only fair to state that good authorities hold that so
+primitive an animal could not originally have had so highly
+developed a system, and that this characteristic must be acquired,
+not ancestral.
+
+That certain portions of it may be later developments may be not
+only possible but probable. But anyone who has carefully studied the
+different groups of worms, will, I think, readily grant that in the
+stage of these flat worms reproduction was the dominant function,
+which had most nearly attained its possible height of development.
+From this time on the muscular and nervous systems were to claim an
+ever-increasing share of the nutriment, and the balance for
+reproduction is to grow smaller.
+
+At the close of this lecture I wish to describe very briefly a
+hypothetical form. It no longer exists; perhaps it never did. But
+many facts of embryology and comparative anatomy point to such a
+form as a very possible ancestor of all forms higher than flat
+worms, viz., mollusks, arthropods, and vertebrates.
+
+It was probably rather long and cylindrical, resembling a small
+and short earthworm in shape. The skin may have been much like
+that of turbellaria. Within this the muscles run in only
+two-directions--longitudinally and transversely. Between these and
+the intestine is a cavity--the perivisceral cavity--like that of our
+own bodies, but filled with a nutritive fluid like our lymph. This
+cavity seems to have developed by the expansion and cutting off of
+the paired lateral outgrowths of the digestive system of some old
+flat worm. But other modes of development are quite possible. The
+intestine has now an anal opening at or near the rear end of the
+body. The food moves only from front to rear, and reaches each part
+always in a certain condition. Digestion proper and absorption have
+been distributed to different cells, and the work is better done.
+Three portions can be readily distinguished: fore-intestine with the
+mouth, mid-intestine, as the seat of digestion and absorption, and
+hind-intestine, or rectum, with the anal opening. The front and
+hind-intestine are lined with infolded outer skin.
+
+The nervous system consists of a supra-oesophageal ganglion with
+four posterior nerve-cords--one dorsal, two lateral, and one (or
+perhaps two) ventral. There were probably also remains of the old
+plexus, but this is fast disappearing. The excretory system consists
+of a pair of tubes discharging through the sides of the body-wall,
+and having each a ciliated, funnel-shaped opening in the
+perivisceral cavity. These have received the name of nephridia.
+Through these also the eggs and spermatozoa are discharged. The
+reproductive organs are modified patches of the peritoneum, or
+lining of the perivisceral cavity.
+
+The number of muscles or muscular layers has been reduced in this
+animal. But such a reduction in the number of like parts in any
+animal is a sign of progress. And the longitudinal muscles have
+increased in size and strength, and the animal moves by writhing.
+Such a worm has the general plan of the body of the higher forms
+fairly well, though rudely, sketched. Many improvements will come,
+and details be added. But the rudiments of the trunk of even our own
+bodies are already visible. Head, in any proper sense of the term,
+and skeleton are still lacking; they remain to be developed.
+
+And yet, taking the most hopeful view possible concerning the animal
+kingdom, its prospects of attaining anything very lofty seem at this
+point poor. Its highest representative is a headless trunk, without
+skeleton or legs. It has no brain in any proper sense of the word,
+its sense-organs are feeble; it moves by writhing. Its life is
+devoted to digestion and reproduction. Whatever higher organs it has
+are subsidiary to these lower functions. And yet it has taken ages
+on ages to develop this much. If _this_ is the highest visible
+result of ages on ages of development, what hope is there for the
+future? Can such a thing be the ancestor of a thinking, moral,
+religious person, like man? "That is not first which is spiritual,
+but that which is natural (animal, sensuous); and afterward that
+which is spiritual." First, in order of time, must come the body,
+and then the mind and spirit shall be enthroned in it. The little
+knot of nervous material which forms the supra-oesophageal
+ganglion is so small that it might easily escape our notice; but it
+is the promise of an infinite future. The atom of nervous power
+shall increase until it subdues and dominates the whole mass.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+WORMS TO VERTEBRATES: SKELETON AND HEAD
+
+
+In tracing the genealogy of any American family it is often
+difficult or impossible to say whether a certain branch is descended
+from John Oldworthy or his cousin or second cousin. In the latter
+cases to find the common ancestor we must go back to the grandfather
+or great-grandfather. The same difficulty, but greatly enhanced,
+meets us when we try to make a genealogical tree of the animal
+kingdom. Thus it seems altogether probable that all higher forms are
+descended from an ancestor of the same general structure and grade
+of organization as the turbellaria, although probably free swimming,
+and hence with somewhat different form and development, especially
+of the muscular system. It seems to me altogether probable that all,
+except possibly Mollusca, are descended from a common ancestor
+closely resembling the schematic worm last described. Some would,
+however, maintain that they diverged rather earlier than even the
+turbellaria; others after the schematic worm, if such ever existed.
+As far as our argument is concerned it makes little difference which
+of these views we adopt.
+
+From our turbellaria, or possibly from some even more primitive
+ancestor, many lines diverged. And this was to be expected. The
+coelenterata, as we saw in hydra, had developed rude digestive and
+reproductive systems. The higher groups of this kingdom had
+developed all, or nearly all, the tissues used in building the
+bodies of higher animals--muscular, reproductive, connectile,
+glandular, nervous, etc. But these are mostly very diffuse. The
+muscular fibrils of a jelly-fish are mostly isolated or parallel in
+bands, rarely in compact well-defined bundles. The tissues have
+generally not yet been moulded into compact masses of definite form.
+There are as yet very few structures to which we can give the name
+of organs. To form organs and group them in a body of compact
+definite form was the work pre-eminently of worms. The material for
+the building was ready, but the architecture of the bilateral animal
+was not even sketched. And different worms were their own
+architects, untrammelled by convention or heredity, hence they built
+very different, sometimes almost fantastic, structures.
+
+We must remember, too, the great age of this group. They are present
+in highly modified forms in the very oldest palæozoic strata, and
+probably therefore came into existence as the first traces of
+continental areas were beginning to rise above the primeval ocean.
+They are literally "older than the hills." They were exposed to a
+host of rapidly changing conditions, very different in different
+areas. This prepares us for the fact that the worms represent a
+stage in animal life corresponding fairly well to the Tower of Babel
+in biblical history. The animal kingdom seems almost to explode into
+a host of fragments. Our genealogical tree fairly bristles with
+branches, but the branches do not seem to form any regular whorls or
+spirals. Few of them have developed into more than feeble growths.
+They now contain generally but few species. Many of them are
+largely or entirely parasitic, and in connection with this mode of
+life have undergone modifications and degeneration which make it
+exceedingly difficult to decipher their descent or relationships.
+
+Four of these branches have reached great prominence in numbers and
+importance. One or two others were formerly equally numerous and
+have since become almost extinct; so the brachiopoda, which have
+been almost entirely replaced by mollusks. The same may very
+possibly be true of others. For of the amount of extinction of
+larger groups we have generally but an exceedingly faint conception.
+Indeed in this respect the worms have been well compared to the
+relics which fill the shelves of one of our grandmother's
+china-closets.
+
+The four great branches are the echinoderms, mollusks, articulates,
+and vertebrates. The echinoderms, including starfishes, sea-urchins,
+and others straggled early from the great army. We know as yet
+almost nothing of their history; when deciphered it will be as
+strange as any romance. The vertebrates are of course the most
+important line, as including the ancestors of man. But we must take
+a little glance at mollusks, including our clams, snails, and
+cuttle-fishes; and at the articulates, including annelids and
+culminating in insects. The molluscan and articulate lines, though
+divergent, are of great importance to us as throwing a certain
+amount of light on vertebrate development; and still more as showing
+how a certain line of development may seem, and at first really be,
+advantageous, and still lead to degeneration, or at best to but
+partial success.
+
+When we compare the forms which represent fairly well the direction
+of development of these three lines, a snail or a clam with an
+insect and a fish, we find clearly, I think, that the fundamental
+anatomical difference lies in the skeleton; and that this resulted
+from, and almost irrevocably fixed, certain habits of life.
+
+We may picture to ourselves the primitive ancestor of mollusks as a
+worm having the short and broad form of the turbellaria, but much
+thicker or deeper vertically. A fuller description can be found in
+the "Encyclopædia Britannica," Art., Mollusca. It was hemi-ovoid in
+form. It had apparently the perivisceral cavity and nephridia of the
+schematic worm, and a circulatory system. In this latter respect it
+stood higher than any form which we have yet studied. Its nervous
+system also was rather more advanced. It had apparently already
+taken to a creeping mode of life and the muscles of its ventral
+surface were strongly developed, while its exposed and far less
+muscular dorsal surface was protected by a cap-like shell covering
+the most important internal organs. But the integument of the whole
+dorsal surface was, as is not uncommon in invertebrates, hardening
+by the deposition of carbonate of lime in the integument. And this
+in time increased to such an extent as to replace the primitive,
+probably horny, shell.
+
+Into the anatomy of this animal or of its descendants we have no
+time to enter, for here we must be very brief. We have already
+noticed that the most important viscera were lodged safely under the
+shell. And as these increased in size or were crowded upward by the
+muscles of the creeping disk, their portion of the body grew upward
+in the form of a "visceral hump." Apparently the animal could not
+increase much in length and retain the advantage of the protection
+of the shell; and the shell was the dominating structure. It had
+entered upon a defensive campaign. Motion, slow at the outset,
+became more difficult, and the protection of the shell therefore all
+the more necessary. The shell increased in size and weight and
+motion became almost impossible. The snail represents the average
+result of the experiment. It can crawl, but that is about all; it is
+neither swift nor energetic. Even the earthworm can outcrawl it. It
+has feelers and eyes, and is thus better provided with sense-organs
+than almost any worm. It has a supra-oesophageal ganglion of fair
+size.
+
+The clams and oysters show even more clearly what we might call the
+logical results of molluscan structure. They increased the shell
+until it formed two heavy "valves" hanging down on each side of the
+body and completely enclosing it. They became almost sessile, living
+generally buried in the mud and gaining their food, consisting
+mostly of minute particles of organic matter, by means of currents
+created by cilia covering the large curtain-like gills. Their
+muscular system disappeared except in the ploughshare-shaped "foot"
+used mostly for burrowing, and in the muscles for closing the shell.
+That portion of the body which corresponds to the head of the snail
+practically aborted with nearly all the sense-organs. The nervous
+system degenerated and became reduced to a rudiment. They had given
+up locomotion, had withdrawn, so to speak, from the world; all the
+sense they needed was just enough to distinguish the particles of
+food as they swept past the mouth in the current of water. They have
+an abundance of food, and "wax fat." The clam is so completely
+protected by his shell and the mud that he has little to fear from
+enemies. They have increased and multiplied and filled the mud.
+"Requiescat in pace."
+
+But zoölogy has its tragedies as well as human history. Let us turn
+to the development of a third molluscan line terminating in the
+cuttle-fishes. The ancestors of these cephalopods, although still
+possessed of a shell and a high visceral hump, regained the swimming
+life. First, apparently, by means of fins, and then by a simple but
+very effective use of a current of water, they acquired an often
+rapid locomotion. The highest forms gave up the purely defensive
+campaign, developed a powerful beak, led a life like that of the old
+Norse pirates, and were for a time the rulers and terrors of the
+sea. With their more rapid locomotion the supra-oesophageal
+ganglion reached a higher degree of development, and it was served
+by sense-organs of great efficiency. They reduced the external
+shell, and succeeded, in the highest forms, of almost ridding
+themselves of this burden and encumbrance. Traces of it remain in
+the squids, but transformed into an internal quill-like, supporting,
+not defensive, skeleton. They have retraced the downward steps of
+their ancestors as far as they could. And the high development of
+their supra-oesophageal ganglion and sense-organs, and their
+powerful jaws and arms, or tentacles, show to what good purpose they
+have struggled. But the struggle was in vain, as far as the
+supremacy of the animal kingdom was concerned. Their ancestors had
+taken a course which rendered it impossible for their descendants to
+reach the goal. Their progress became ever slower. They were
+entirely and hopelessly beaten by the vertebrates. They struggled
+hard, but too late.
+
+The history of mollusks is full of interest. They show clearly how
+intimately nervous development is connected with the use of the
+locomotive organs. The snail crept, and slightly increased its
+nervous system and sense-organs. The clam almost lost them in
+connection with its stationary life. The cephalopods were
+exceedingly active, developed, therefore, keen sense-organs and a
+very large and complicated supra-oesophagal ganglion, which we
+might almost call a brain.
+
+The articulate series consists of two groups of animals. The higher
+group includes the crabs, spiders, thousand-legs, and finally the
+insects, and forms the kingdom of arthropoda. The lower members are
+still usually reckoned as worms, and are included under the
+annelids. Of these our common earthworm is a good example, and near
+them belong the leeches. But the marine annelids, of which nereis,
+or a clam-worm, is a good example, are more typical. They are often
+quite large, a foot or even more in length. They are composed of
+many, often several hundred, rings or segments. Between these the
+body-wall is thin, so that the segments move easily upon each other,
+and thus the animal can creep or writhe.
+
+These segments are very much alike except the first two and the
+last. If we examine one from the middle of the body we shall find
+its structure very much like that of our schematic worm. Outside we
+find a very thin, horny cuticle, secreted by the layer of cells just
+beneath it, the hypodermis. Beneath the skin we find a thin layer of
+transverse muscles, and then four heavy bands of longitudinal
+muscles. These latter have been grouped in the four quadrants, a
+much more effective arrangement than the cylindrical layer of the
+schematic worm. Furthermore, the animal has on each segment a pair
+of fin-like projections, stiffened with bristles, the parapodia.
+These are moved by special muscles and form effective organs of
+creeping.
+
+  [Illustration: 7. EUNICE LIMOSA (ANNELID). LANG, FROM EHLERS.
+  Front and hind end seen from dorsal surface.
+  _fa, fp, fc_, feelers; _a_, eye; _k_, gill;
+  _p_, parapodia; _ac_, anal cirri.]
+
+Within the muscles is the perivisceral cavity, and in its central
+axis the intestine, segmented like the body-wall. The reproductive
+organs are formed from patches of the lining of the perivisceral
+cavity, and the reproductive elements, when fully developed, fall
+into the perivisceral fluid and are carried out by nephridia, just
+such as we found in the schematic worm. Beside the perivisceral
+cavity and its fluid there is a special circulatory system. This
+consists mainly of one long tube above the intestine and a second
+below, with often several smaller parallel tubes. Transverse
+vessels run from these to all parts of the body. The dorsal tube
+pulsates and thus acts as a heart. The surface of the body no longer
+suffices to gather oxygen, hence we find special feathery gills on
+the parapodia. But these gills are merely expanded portions of the
+body wall, arranged so as to offer the greatest possible amount of
+surface where the capillaries of the blood system can be almost
+immediately in contact with the surrounding water.
+
+  [Illustration: 8. CROSS-SECTION OF BODY SEGMENT OF ANNELID. LANG.
+  _dp_ and _vp_, dorsal and ventral halves of parapodia; _b_ and _ac_,
+  bristles; _k_, gill; _dc_ and _vc_, feelers; _rm_, lateral muscles;
+  _lm_, longitudinal muscles; _vd_, dorsal blood-vessel; _vo_, ventral
+  blood-vessel; _bm_, ventral ganglion; _ov_, ovary; _tr_, opening of
+  nephridium in the perivisceral cavity; _np_, tubular portion of
+  nephridium. The circles containing dots represent eggs floating in
+  the perivisceral fluid.]
+
+The nervous system consists of a large supra-oesophageal ganglion
+in the first segment; then of a chain of ganglia, one to each
+segment, on the ventral side of the body. With one ganglion in each
+segment there is far more controlling, perceptive, ganglionic
+material than in lower worms. Furthermore the supra-oesophageal
+ganglion is relieved of a large part of the direct control of the
+muscles of each segment, and is becoming more a centre of control
+and perception for the body as a whole. It is more like our brain,
+commander-in-chief, the other ganglia constituting its staff. The
+sense-organs have improved greatly. There are tentacles and otolith
+vesicles as very delicate organs of feeling, or possibly of hearing
+also.
+
+But the annelids were probably the first animals to develop an eye
+capable of forming an image of external objects. The importance of
+this organ in the pursuit of food or the escape from enemies can
+scarcely be over-estimated. The lining of the mouth and pharynx can
+be protruded as a proboscis, and drawn back by powerful muscles, and
+is armed with two or more horny claws. Eyes and claws gave them a
+great advantage over their not quite blind but really visionless and
+comparatively defenceless neighbors, and they must have wrought
+terrible extinction of lower and older forms. But while we cannot
+over-estimate the importance of these eyes, we can easily exaggerate
+their perfectness. They were of short range, fitted for seeing
+objects only a few inches distant, and the image was very imperfect
+in detail. But the plan or fundamental scheme of these eyes is
+correct and capable of indefinitely greater development than the
+organs of touch or smell, perhaps greater even than the otolith
+vesicle.
+
+And the reflex influence of the eye on the brain was the greatest
+advantage of all. Hitherto with feeble muscles and sense-organs it
+has hardly paid the animal to devote more material to building a
+larger brain. It was better to build more muscle. But now with
+stronger muscles at its command, and better sense-organs to report
+to it, every grain of added brain material is beginning to be worth
+ten devoted to muscle. The muscular system will still continue to
+develop, but the brain has begun an almost endless march of
+progress. The eye becomes of continually increasing advantage and
+importance because it has a capable brain to use it; and brain is a
+more and more profitable investment, because it is served by an
+ever-improving eye.
+
+  [Illustration: 9. MYRMELEO FORMICARIUS. ANT-LION. HERTWIG, FROM
+  SCHMARDA.
+  1, adult; 2, larva; 3, cocoon.]
+
+The annelid had hit upon a most advantageous line of development,
+which led ultimately to the insect. The study of the insect will
+show us clearly the advantages and defects of the annelid plan.
+First of all, the insect, like the mollusk, has an external
+skeleton. But the skeleton of the mollusk was purely protective, a
+hindrance to locomotion. That of the insect is still somewhat
+protective, but is mainly, almost purely, locomotive. It is never
+allowed to become so heavy as to interfere with locomotion. In the
+second place, the insect has three body regions, having each its own
+special functions or work. And one of these is a head. The annelid
+had two anterior segments differing from those of the rest of the
+body; these may, perhaps, be considered as the foreshadowings of a
+structure not yet realized; they can only by courtesy be called a
+head. Thirdly, the insect has legs. The annelid had fin-like
+parapodia, approaching the legs of insects about as closely as the
+fins of a fish approach the legs of a mammal. The reproductive and
+digestive systems, while somewhat improved, are not very markedly
+higher than those of annelids. The excretory system has more work to
+perform and reaches a rather higher development.
+
+But in these organs there is no great or striking change; the time
+for marked and rapid development of the digestive and reproductive
+systems has gone by. Material can be more profitably invested in
+brain or muscle. Air is carried to all parts of the body by a
+special system of air-sacks and tubes. This is a very advantageous
+structure for small animals with an external skeleton. In very large
+animals, or where the skeleton is internal, it would hardly be
+practicable; the risk of compression of the tubes at some point, and
+of thus cutting off the air-supply of some portion of the body,
+would be altogether too great.
+
+The circulatory system is very poor. It consists practically only of
+a heart, which drives the blood in an irregular circulation between
+the other organs of the body much as with a syringe you might keep
+up a system of currents in a bowl of water. But the rapidity of the
+flow of the blood in our bodies is mainly to furnish a supply of
+oxygen to the organs. A tea-spoonful of blood can carry a fair
+amount of dissolved solid nutriment like sugar, it can carry at each
+round but a very little gas like oxygen. Hence the blood must make
+its rounds rapidly, carrying but a little oxygen at each circuit.
+But in the insect the blood conveys only the dissolved solid
+nutriment, the food; hence a comparatively irregular circulation
+answers all purposes.
+
+The skeleton is a thickening of the horny cuticle of the annelid on
+the surface of each segment. The horny cylinder surrounding each
+segment is composed of several pieces, and on the abdomen these are
+united by flexible, infolded membranes. This allows the increase in
+the size of the segment corresponding to the varying size of the
+digestive and reproductive systems. In this part of the body the
+skeletal ring of each segment is joined to that of the segments
+before and behind it in the same manner. But in other parts of the
+body we shall find the skeletal pieces of each segment and the rings
+of successive segments fused in one plate of mail. The legs are the
+parapodia of annelids carried to a vastly higher development. They
+are slender and jointed, and yet often very powerful. A large
+portion of the muscular system of the body is attached to these
+appendages.
+
+But the insect has also jaws. The annelid had teeth or claws
+attached to the proboscis. But true jaws are something quite
+different. They always develop by modifying some other organ. In the
+insect they are modified legs. This is shown first by their
+embryonic development. But the king- or horseshoe-crab has still no
+true jaws, but uses the upper joints of its legs for chewing. There
+are primitively three pairs of jaws of various forms for the
+different kinds of food of different species or higher groups. But
+some of them may disappear and the others be greatly modified into
+awls for piercing, or a tube for sucking honey. Into the wonderful
+transformations of these modified legs we cannot enter.
+
+The muscles are no longer arranged to form a sack as in annelids.
+Transverse muscles, running parallel to the unyielding plates of
+chitin or horn could accomplish nothing. They have largely
+disappeared. The work of locomotion has been transferred from the
+trunk to the legs.
+
+The abdomen of the insect is as clearly composed of distinct
+segments as the body of the annelid. Of these there are perhaps
+typically eleven. The thorax is composed of three segments, distinct
+in the lowest forms, fused in the highest. This fusion of segments
+in the thorax of the highest forms furnishes a very firm framework
+for the attachment of wings and muscles. These wings are a new
+development, and how they arose is still a question. But they give
+the insect the capability of exceedingly rapid locomotion.
+
+The three pairs of jaws, modified legs, in the rear half of the head
+show that this portion is composed of three segments. For only one
+pair of legs is ever developed on a single segment. Embryology has
+shown that the portion of the head in front of the mouth is also
+composed of three segments. Possibly between the præ- and post-oral
+portions still another segment should be included, making a total of
+seven in the head. The head has thus been formed by drawing forward
+segments from the trunk, and fusing them successively with the first
+or primitive head segment. This is difficult to conceive of in the
+fully developed insect, where the boundary between head and thorax
+is very sharp. But the ancestors of insects looked more like
+thousand-legs or centipedes, and here head and thorax are much less
+distinct. But in the annelid the mouth is on the second segment;
+here it is on the fourth. It has evidently travelled backward. That
+the mouth of an animal can migrate seems at first impossible, but if
+we had time to examine the embryology of annelids and insects, it
+would no longer appear inconceivable or improbable. And its backward
+migration brought it among the legs which were grasping and chewing
+the food. And in vertebrates the mouth has changed its position,
+though not in exactly the same way. Our present mouth is probably
+not at all the mouth of the primitive ancestor of vertebrates. Thus
+in the insect three segments have fused around the mouth, and three,
+possibly four, in front of it. This makes a head worthy of the name.
+The ganglia of the three post-oral segments, which bear the jaws,
+have fused in one compound ganglion innervating the mouth and jaws.
+Those of the three præ-oral segments have fused to form a brain.
+Eyes are well developed, giving images sometimes accurate in detail,
+sometimes very rude. Ears are not uncommon. The sense of smell is
+often keen.
+
+Perhaps the greatest advance of the insect is its adaptation to land
+life. This gives it a larger supply of oxygen than any aquatic
+animal could ever obtain. This itself stimulates every function, and
+all the work of the body goes on more energetically. Then the heat
+produced is conducted off far less rapidly than in aquatic forms.
+Water is a good conductor of heat, and nearly all aquatic animals
+are cold-blooded. The few which are warm-blooded are protected by a
+thick layer of non-conducting fat. In all land animals, even when
+cold-blooded, the work of the different systems is aided by the
+longer retention of the heat in the body.
+
+Let us recapitulate. The schematic worm had a body composed of two
+concentric tubes. The outer was composed of the muscles of the body
+covered by the protective integument. The inner tube was the
+alimentary canal with its special muscles. Between these two was the
+perivisceral cavity, filled with nutritive fluid, lymph, and
+furnishing a safe lodging-place for the more delicate viscera. It
+represented fairly the trunk of higher animals.
+
+The annelid added segmentation, and thus greater freedom of motion
+by the parapodia. But the segments were still practically alike. In
+the insect division of labor took place, that is, each group of
+segments was allotted its own special work; and these groups of
+segments were modified in structure to best suit the performance of
+this part of the work of the body. The abdomen was least modified
+and its eleven segments were devoted to digestion, reproduction, and
+excretion--the old vegetative functions. Three segments were united
+in the thorax; all their energy was turned to locomotion, and the
+insect became thus an exceedingly active, swift animal. The third
+body-region, the head, includes six segments, of which three
+surrounded the mouth and furnished the jaws, while two more were
+crowded or drawn forward in order that their ganglia might be added
+to the old supraoesophageal ganglion and form a brain. It is
+interesting to note that a form, peripatus, still exists which
+stands almost midway between annelids and insects and has only four
+segments in the head. The formation of the head was thus a gradual
+process, one segment being added after another.
+
+In the turbellaria the dominant functions were digestion and
+reproduction, and their organs composed almost the whole body. Here
+only eleven segments at most are devoted to these functions, and
+nine in head and thorax to locomotion and brain. Head and thorax
+have increased steadily in importance, while the abdomen has
+decreased as steadily in number of segments. And the brain is
+increasing thus rapidly because there are now muscles and
+sense-organs of sufficient power to make such a brain of value. And
+this brain perceives not only objects and qualities, but invisible
+relations between these, and this is an advance amounting to a
+revolution. It remembers, and uses its recollections. It is capable
+of learning a little by experience and observation. The A, B, C of
+thinking was probably learned long before the insect's time, and the
+bee shows a fair amount of intelligence.
+
+The line of development which the insect followed was comparatively
+easy and its course probably rapid. Certain crustacea, aquatic
+arthropoda, are among the oldest fossils, and it is possible that
+insects lived on the land before the first fish swam in the sea.
+They had fine structure and powers; and yet during the later
+geologic periods they have scarcely advanced a step, and are now
+apparently at a standstill. They ran splendidly for a time, and then
+fell out of the race. What hindered and stopped them?
+
+One vital defect in their whole plan of organization is evident. The
+external skeleton is admirably suited to animals of small size, but
+only to these. In larger animals living on land it would have to be
+made so heavy as to be unwieldy and no longer economical. Their mode
+of breathing also is fitted only for animals of small size having
+an external skeleton. Whatever may be our explanation the fact
+remains that insects are always small. This is in itself a
+disadvantage. Very small animals cannot keep up a constant high
+temperature unless the surrounding air is warm, for their radiating
+surface is too large in comparison with their heat-producing mass.
+At the first approach of even cool weather they become chilled and
+sluggish, and must hibernate or die. They are conformed to but a
+limited range of environment in temperature.
+
+But small size is, as a rule, accompanied by an even greater
+disadvantage. It seems to be almost always correlated with short
+life. Why this is so, or how, we do not know. There are exceptions;
+a crow lives as long as a man; or would, if allowed to. But, as a
+rule, the length of an animal's days is roughly proportional to the
+size of its body. And the insect is, as a rule, very short-lived. It
+lives for a few days or weeks, or even months, but rarely outlasts
+the year. It has time to learn but little by experience. The same
+experience must be passed, the same emergency arise and be met, over
+and over again during the lifetime of the same individual if the
+animal is to learn thereby. And intelligence is based upon
+experience. Hence insects can and do possess but a low grade of
+intelligence. But instinct is in many cases habit fixed by heredity
+and improved by selection. The rapid recurrence of successive
+generations was exceedingly favorable to the development of
+instincts, but very unfavorable to intelligence. Insects are
+instinctive, the highest vertebrates intelligent. The future can
+never belong to a tiny animal governed by instincts. Mollusks and
+insects have both failed to reach the goal; another plan of
+structure than theirs must be sought if the animal kingdom is to
+have a future.
+
+The future belonged to the vertebrate. To begin with less
+characteristic organs the digestive system is much like that of the
+annelid or schematic worm, but with greatly increased glandular and
+absorptive surfaces. The present mouth of nearly all vertebrates is
+probably not primitive. It is almost certainly one of the gill-slits
+of some old ancestor of fish, such as now are used to discharge the
+water which is used for respiration. The jaws are modified branchial
+arches or the cartilaginous or bony rods which in our present fish
+support the fringe of gills. These have formed a pair of exceedingly
+effective and powerful jaws. The reproductive system holds still to
+the old type and shows little if any improvement. The excretory
+organs, kidneys, are composed primitively of nephridial tubes like
+those of the schematic worm or annelid, but immensely increased in
+number, modified, and improved in certain very important
+particulars. The muscles in simplest forms are composed of heavy
+longitudinal bands, especially developed toward the dorsal surface
+of the body to the right and left of the axial skeleton. Locomotion
+was produced by lashing the tail right and left, as still in fish.
+There is improvement in all these organs, except perhaps the
+reproductive, but nothing very new or striking. The great
+improvement from this time on was not to be sought in the vegetative
+organs, or even directly to any great extent in muscles.
+
+The new and characteristic organ was not the vertebral column, or
+series of vertebræ, or backbone, from which the kingdom has derived
+its name. This was a later production. The primitive skeleton was
+the notochord, still appearing in the embryos of all vertebrates and
+persisting throughout life in fish. This is an elastic rod of
+cartilage, lying just beneath the spinal marrow or nerve-cord, which
+runs backward from the brain. The nerve-centres are therefore here
+all dorsal, and the notochord or skeleton lies between these and the
+digestive or alimentary canal. The skeleton of the clam or snail is
+purely protective and a hindrance to locomotion. That of the insect
+is almost purely locomotive, but external, that of the vertebrate
+purely locomotive and internal. It does not lie outside even of the
+nervous system, although this system especially required, and was
+worthy of, protection. It does not protect even the brain; the skull
+of vertebrates is an after-thought. It is almost the deepest seated
+of all organs. But lying in the central axis of the body it
+furnishes the very best possible attachment for muscles. Around this
+primitive notochord was a layer of connectile tissue which later
+gave rise to the vertebræ forming our backbone.
+
+  [Illustration: 10. CROSS-SECTION OF AXIAL SKELETON OF PETROMYZON.
+  HERTWIG, FROM HIEDERSHEIM.
+  _SS_, skeletogenous layer; _Ob_, _Ub_, dorsal and ventral processes
+  of _SS_; _C_, notochord; _Cs_, sheath of notochord; _Ee_, elastic
+  external layer of sheath; _F_, fatty tissue; _M_, spinal marrow;
+  _P_, sheath of _M_.]
+
+The nervous system on the dorsal surface of the notochord consists
+of the brain in the head and the spinal marrow running down the
+back. The brain of all except the very lowest vertebrates consists
+of four portions: 1. The cerebrum, or cerebral lobes, or simply
+"forebrain," the seat of consciousness, thought, and will, and from
+which no nerves proceed. Whether the primitive vertebrate had any
+cerebrum is still uncertain. 2. The mid-brain, which sends nerves to
+the eyes, and in this respect reminds us of the brain of insects.
+Its anterior portion appears from embryology to be very primitive.
+3. The small brain, or cerebellum, which in all higher forms is the
+centre for co-ordination of the motions of the body. 4. The medulla,
+which controls especially the internal organs. The spinal marrow, or
+that portion of the nervous system which lies outside of the head,
+is at the same time a great nerve-trunk and a centre for reflex
+action of the muscles of the body. But the development of these
+distinct portions and the division of labor between them must have
+been a long and gradual process.
+
+We have every reason to believe that here, as in insects, the head
+has been formed by annexation of segments from the rump and the
+fusion of their nervous matter with that of the brain. But here,
+instead of only three segments, from nine to fourteen have been
+fused in the head to furnish the material for the brain. Notochord
+and backbone may be the most striking and apparent characteristic of
+vertebrates, but their predominant characteristic is brain. On this
+system they lavished material, giving it from three to four times as
+much as any lower or earlier group had done. They very early set
+apart the cerebral lobes to be the commander-in-chief and centre of
+control for all other nerve-centres. To this all report, and from it
+all directly or indirectly receive orders. It can say to every
+other organ in the body, "Starve that I may live." It is the seat of
+thought and will. The other portions of the brain report to it what
+they have gathered of vision or sound; it explains the vision or
+song or parable. It is relieved as far as possible from all lower
+and routine work that it may think and remember and govern. The
+vertebrate built for mind, not neglecting the body.
+
+Every trait of vertebrates is a promise of a great future. Its
+internal skeleton gives it the possibility of large size. This gave
+it in time the victory in the struggle with its competitors, as to
+whether it should eat or be eaten. It is vigorous and powerful, for
+all its organs are at the best. It gives the possibility of later,
+on land, becoming warm-blooded, _i.e._, of maintaining a constant
+high temperature. It is thus resistant to climate and hardship. In
+time its descendants will face the arctic winter as well as the heat
+of the tropics.
+
+But it has started on the road which leads to mind. The greater size
+is correlated with longer life. The lessons of experience come to it
+over and over again, and it can and must learn them. It is the
+intelligent, remembering, thinking type. The insect had begun to
+peer into the world of invisible and intangible relations, the
+vertebrate will some day see them. This much is prophecied in his
+very structure. He must be heir to an indefinite future.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+You have probably noticed that the vertebrate differs greatly from
+all his predecessors. The gulf between him and them is indeed wide
+and deep. His origin and ancestry are yet far from certain. But an
+attempt to decipher his past history, though it may lead to no sure
+conclusions, will yet be of use to us. Practically all aquatic
+vertebrates lead a swimming life, neither sessile nor creeping. The
+embryonic development of our appendages leads to the same
+conclusion. We must never forget that the embryonic development of
+the individual recapitulates briefly the history of the development
+of the race. Now the legs and arms, or fore- and hind-legs, of
+higher vertebrates and the corresponding paired fins of fish develop
+in the embryo as portions of a long ridge extending from front to
+rear of the side of the body.
+
+This justifies the inference that the primitive vertebrate ancestor
+had a pair of long fins running along the sides of the body, but
+bending slightly downward toward the rear so as to meet one another
+and continue as a single caudal fin behind the anal opening. Such
+fins, like the feathers of an arrow, could be useful only to keep
+the animal "on an even keel" as it was forced through the water by
+the lateral sweeps of the tail. They would have been useless for
+creeping.
+
+But there is another piece of evidence that he was a free swimming
+form. All vertebrates breathe by gills or lungs, and these are
+modified portions of the digestive system, of the walls of the
+oesophagus, from which even the lung is an embryonic outgrowth.
+Now practically all invertebrates breathe through modified portions
+of the integument or outer surface of the body, and their gills are
+merely expansions of this. In the annelid they are projections of
+the parapodia, in the mollusk expansions of the skin, where the foot
+or creeping sole joins the body. Why did the vertebrate take a new
+and strange, and, at first sight, disadvantageous mode of
+breathing? There must have been some good reason for this. The most
+natural explanation would seem to be that he had no projections on
+his outer surface which could develop into gills, and farther, that
+he could not afford to have any. Now projections on the lower
+portion of the sides of the body would be an advantage in creeping,
+but a hindrance in any such mode of swimming as we have described,
+or indeed in any mode of writhing through the water.
+
+Furthermore, if he lived, not a creeping life on the bottom, but
+swimming in the water above, he would have to live almost entirely
+on microscopic animals and embryos; and these would be most easily
+captured by a current of water brought in at the mouth. The whole
+branchial apparatus in its simplest forms would seem to be an
+apparatus for sifting out the microscopic particles of food and only
+later a purely respiratory apparatus. Moreover, we have seen that
+the parapodia of annelids naturally point to the development of an
+external skeleton, for their muscles are already a part of the
+external body-wall and attached to the already existing horny
+cuticle. The logical goal of their development was the insect.
+
+Now I do not wish to conceal from you that many good zoölogists
+believe that the vertebrate is descended from annelids; but for this
+and other reasons such a descent appears to me very improbable. It
+would seem far more natural to derive the vertebrate from some free
+swimming form like the schematic worm, whose largest nerve-cord lay
+on the dorsal surface because its branches ran to heavy muscles much
+used in swimming. Later the other nerve-cords degenerated, for such
+a degeneration of nerve-cords is not at all impossible or
+improbable. "No thoroughfare" is often written across paths
+previously followed by blood or nervous impulses, when other paths
+have been found more economical or effective.
+
+But where did the notochord come from? I do not know. It always
+forms in the embryo out of the entoderm or layer which becomes the
+lining of the intestine. Now this is a very peculiar origin for
+cartilage, and the notochord is a very strange cartilage even if we
+have not made a mistake in calling it cartilage at all. My best
+guess would be that it is simply a thickened portion of the upper
+median surface of the intestine to keep the "balls" of digesting
+nutriment or other hard particles in the intestine from "grinding"
+against the nerve-cord as they are crowded along in the process of
+digestion. Once started its elasticity would be a great aid in
+swimming.
+
+Professor Brooks has called attention to the fact that the higher a
+group stands in development, the longer its ancestors have
+maintained a swimming life. Thus we have noticed that the sponges
+were the first to settle; then a little later the mass of the
+coelenterates followed their example. But the etenophora, the
+nearest relatives of bilateral animals, have remained free swimming.
+Then the flat worms and mollusks took to a creeping mode of life,
+while the annelids and vertebrates still swam. Then the annelids
+settled to the bottom and crept, and all their descendants remained
+creeping forms. The vertebrates alone remained swimming, and
+probably neither they nor their descendants ever crept until they
+emerged on the land, or as amphibia were preparing for land
+life. If this be true, it is a fact worthy of our most careful
+consideration. The swimming life would appear to be neither as easy
+nor as economical as the creeping. It is certainly hard to believe
+that food would not have been obtained with less effort and in
+greater abundance at the bottom than in the water above. The
+swimming life gave rise to higher and stronger forms; but did its
+maintenance give immediate advantage in the struggle for existence?
+This is an exceedingly interesting and important question, and
+demands most careful consideration. But we shall be better prepared
+to answer it in a future lecture.
+
+The period of development of mollusks, articulates, and vertebrates,
+is really one. They developed to a certain extent contemporaneously.
+The development of vertebrates was slow, and they were the last to
+appear on the stage of geological history.
+
+You must all have noticed that development, during this period,
+takes on a much more hopeful form than during that described in the
+last chapter. Then digestion and reproduction were dominant. Now
+muscle is of the greatest importance. If this fails of development,
+as in mollusks, the group is doomed to degeneration or at best
+stagnation. But we have seen the dawn of a still higher function. In
+insects and vertebrates the brain is becoming of importance, and
+absorbing more and more material. This is the promise of something
+vastly higher and better. Better sense-organs are appearing, fitted
+to aid in a wider perception of more distant objects. The vertebrate
+has discovered the right path; though a long journey still lies
+before it. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+VERTEBRATES: BACKBONE AND BRAIN
+
+
+In tracing man's ancestry from fish upward we ought properly to
+describe three or four fish, an amphibian, a reptile, and then take
+up the series of mammalian ancestors. But we have not sufficient
+time for so extended a study, and a simpler method may answer our
+purpose fairly well. Let us fix our attention on the few organs
+which still show the capacity of marked development, and follow each
+one of these rapidly in its upward course.
+
+We must remember that there are changes in the vegetative organs.
+The digestive and excretory systems improve. But this improvement is
+not for the sake of these vegetative functions. Brain and muscle
+demand vastly more fuel, and produce vastly more waste which must be
+removed. At almost the close of the series the reproductive system
+undergoes a modification which is almost revolutionary in its
+results. But we shall find that this modification is necessitated by
+the smaller amount of material which can be spared for this
+function; not by its increasing importance, still less its dominance
+for its own worth. The vertebrate is like an old Roman; everything
+is subordinated to mental and physical power. He is the world
+conqueror.
+
+The important changes from fish upward affect the following organs:
+1. The skeleton. A light, solid framework must be developed for the
+body. 2. The appendages start as fins, and end as the legs and arms
+of man. 3. The circulatory and respiratory systems developed so as
+to carry with the utmost rapidity and certainty fuel and oxygen to
+the muscular and nervous high-pressure engines. Or, to change the
+figure, they are the roads along which supplies and munitions can be
+carried to the army suddenly mobilized at any point on the frontier.
+4. Above all, the brain, especially the cerebrum, the crown and goal
+of vertebrate structure. The improvement is now practically
+altogether in the animal organs of locomotion and thought. Still,
+among these animal organs, the lower systems will lead in point of
+time. The brain must to a certain extent wait for the skeleton.
+
+1. The skeleton. The axial skeleton consists, in the lowest fish, of
+the notochord, a cylindrical unsegmented rod of cartilage running
+nearly the length of the body. This is surrounded by a sheath of
+connective tissue, at first merely membranous, later becoming
+cartilaginous or gristly. Pieces of cartilage extend upward over the
+spinal marrow, and downward around the great aortic artery, forming
+the neural and hæmal arches. These unite with the masses of
+cartilage surrounding the notochord to form cartilaginous vertebræ,
+which may be stiffened by an infiltration of carbonate of lime. The
+vertebral column of sharks has reached this stage. Then the
+cartilaginous vertebræ ossify and form a true backbone. I have
+described the process as if it were very simple. But only the
+student of comparative osteology can have any conception of the
+number of experiments which were tried in different groups before
+the definite mode of forming a bony vertebra was attained. At the
+same time the skull was developing in a somewhat similar manner. But
+the skull is far more complex in origin and undergoes far more
+numerous and important changes than the simpler vertebral column.
+Into its history we have no time to enter.
+
+And what shall we say of bone itself as a mere material or tissue,
+with its admirable lightness, compactness, and flawlessness. And
+every bone in our body is a triumph of engineering architecture. No
+engineer could better recognize the direction of strain and stress,
+and arrange his rods and columns, arches and buttresses, to suitably
+meet them, than these problems are solved in the long bone of our
+thigh. And they must be lengthened while the child is leaping upon
+them. An engineer is justly proud if he can rebuild or lengthen a
+bridge without delaying the passage of a single train. But what
+would he say if you asked him to rebuild a locomotive, while it was
+running even twenty miles an hour? And yet a similar problem had to
+be solved in our bodies.
+
+But the vertebral column is not perfected by fish. The vertebræ with
+few exceptions are hollow in front and behind, biconcave; and
+between each two vertebræ there is a large cavity still occupied by
+the notochord. Thus these vertebræ join one another by their edges,
+like two shallow wine-glasses placed rim to rim. Only gradually is
+the notochord crowded out so that the vertebræ join by their whole
+adjacent surfaces. Even in highest forms, for the sake of mobility,
+they are united by washer-like disks of cartilage. Biconcave
+vertebræ persisted through the oldest amphibia, reptiles, and
+birds. But finally a firm backbone and skull were attained.
+
+2. The appendages. Of these we can say but little. The fish has
+oar-like fins, attached to the body by a joint, but themselves
+unjointed. By the amphibia legs, with the same regions as our own
+and with five toes, have already appeared. The development of the
+leg out of the fin is one of the most difficult and least understood
+problems of vertebrate comparative anatomy. The legs are at first
+weak and scarcely capable of supporting the body. Only gradually do
+they strengthen into the fore- and hind-legs of mammals, or into the
+legs and wings of birds and old flying reptiles.
+
+3. Changes in the circulatory and respiratory systems. The fish
+lives altogether in the water and breathes by gills, but the dipnoi
+among fishes breathes by lungs as well as gills. As long as
+respiration takes place by gills alone, the circulation is simple;
+the blood flows from the heart to the gills, and thence directly all
+over the body; the oxygenated blood from the gills does not return
+directly to the heart. But the blood from the lungs does return to
+the heart; and there at first mixes in the ventricle with the impure
+blood which has returned from the rest of the body. Gradually a
+partition arises in the ventricle, dividing it into a right and left
+half. Thus the two circulations of the venous blood to the lungs,
+and of the oxygenated blood over the body, are more and more
+separated until, in higher reptiles, they become entirely distinct.
+
+As the animal came on land and breathed the air, more completely
+oxygenated blood was carried to the organs, and their activity was
+greatly heightened. As more and more heat was produced by the
+combustion in muscular and nervous tissues, and less was lost by
+conduction, the temperature of the body rose, and in birds and
+mammals becomes constant several degrees above the highest summer
+temperature of the surrounding air.
+
+The changes in the brain affect mainly the large and small brain.
+The cerebellum increases with the greater locomotive powers of the
+animal. But its development is evidently limited. The large brain,
+or cerebrum, is in fish hardly as heavy as the mid-brain; in
+amphibia the reverse is true. In higher recent reptiles the cerebrum
+would somewhat outweigh all the other portions of the brain put
+together. In mammals it extends upward and backward, has already in
+lower forms overspread the mid-brain, and is beginning to cover the
+small brain. But this was not so in the earliest mammals. Here the
+cerebrum was small, more like that of reptiles. But during the
+tertiary period the large brain began to increase with marvellous
+rapidity. It was very late in arriving at the period of rapid
+development, but it kept on after all the other organs of the body
+had settled down into comparative rest, perhaps retrogression.
+
+We have given thus a rapid sketch in outline of the changes in the
+most characteristic systems between fish and mammals. Some of the
+changes which took place in mammals were along the same lines, but
+one at least is so new and unexpected that this highest class
+demands more careful and detailed examination.
+
+The mammal is a vertebrate. Hence all its organs are at their best.
+But mammals stand, all things considered, at the head of
+vertebrates. The skeleton is firm and compact. The muscles are
+beautifully moulded and fitted to the skeleton so as to produce the
+greatest effect with the least mass and weight of tissue. The
+sense-organs are keen, and the eye and ear especially delicate, and
+fitted for perception at long range. Yet in all these respects they
+are surpassed by birds. As a mere anatomical machine the bird always
+seems to me superior to the mammal. It is not easy to see why it
+failed, as it has, to reach the goal of possibility of indefinite
+development and dominance in the animal world. Why he stopped short
+of the higher brain development I cannot tell. The fact remains that
+the mammal is pre-eminent in brain power, and that this gave him the
+supremacy.
+
+But mammals came very late to the throne, and the probability of
+their ever gaining it must for ages have appeared very doubtful.
+They seem to have been a fairly old group with a very slow early
+development. Reptiles especially, and even birds, were far more
+precocious than these slower and weaker forms which crept along the
+earth. But reptiles and birds, like many other precocious children,
+soon reached the limit of their development. They had muscle, the
+mammal brain and nerve; the mammal had the staying power and the
+future. Bitter and discouraging must have been the struggle of these
+feeble early mammals with their larger, swifter, and more powerful,
+reptilian relatives. And yet, perhaps, by this very struggle the
+mammal was trained to shrewdness and endurance.
+
+The primitive mammals laid eggs like reptiles or birds. Only two
+genera, echidna and platypus, survive to bear witness of these old
+oviparous groups, and these only in New Zealand. These retain
+several old reptilian characteristics. Their lower position is shown
+also by the fact that the temperature of their bodies is, at least,
+ten degrees Fahrenheit below that of higher mammals. One of these
+carries the egg in a pouch on the ventral surface; the other, living
+largely in water, deposits its eggs in a nest in a burrow in the
+side of the bank of the stream.
+
+After these came the marsupials. In these the eggs develop in a sort
+of uterus; but there is no placenta, in the sense of an organic
+connection between the embryo and the uterus of the mother. The
+young are at birth exceedingly small and feeble. The adult giant
+Kangaroo weighs over one hundred pounds; the young are at birth not
+as large as your thumb. They are placed by the mother in a marsupial
+pouch on her ventral surface, and here nourished till able to care
+for themselves.
+
+Pardon a moment's digression. The marsupials, except the opossum,
+are confined to Australia, and the oviparous mammals, or monotremes,
+to New Zealand. Formerly the marsupials, at least, ranged all over
+Europe and Asia, for we have indisputable evidence in their fossil
+remains. But they have survived only in this isolated area, and here
+apparently only because their isolation preserved them from the
+competition with higher forms. If the Australian continent had not
+been thus early cut off from all the rest of the world, the only
+trace of both these lower groups would have been the opossum in
+America and certain peculiarities in the development of the egg in
+higher mammals. This shows us how much weight should be assigned to
+the formerly popular argument of the "missing links." The wonder is
+not that so many links are missing, but that any of these primitive
+forms have come down to us. For we see here another proof of the
+fearful extermination of lower forms during the progress of life on
+the globe. It seems as if the intermediate forms were less common
+among these most recent animals than among the older types. This may
+not be true, for it is not easy to compare the gap between two
+mammals with that between two worms or insects, and mistakes are
+very easily made. But it seems as if extermination had done its work
+more ruthlessly among these highest forms than among their humbler
+and lower ancestors. I would not lay much weight on such an opinion;
+but, if true, it has a meaning and is worthy of study.
+
+In higher, true, placental mammals the period of pregnancy is much
+longer, and the young are born in a far higher stage of development,
+or rather, growth. The stage of growth at which the young are born
+differs markedly in different groups. A new-born kitten is a much
+feebler, less developed being than a new-born calf. An embryonic
+appendage, the allantois, used in reptiles and birds for
+respiration, has here been turned to another purpose. It lays itself
+against the walls of the uterus, uterine projections interlock with
+those which it puts forth, and the blood of the mother circulates
+through a host of capillaries separated from those of the blood
+system of the embryo only by the thinnest membrane. This is the
+placenta, developed, in part from the allantois of the embryo, in
+part from the uterus of the mother. It is not a new organ, but an
+old one turned to better and fuller use. In these closely
+associated systems of blood-vessels, nutriment and oxygen diffuse
+from the blood of the mother into that of the embryo, and thus rapid
+growth is assured. The importance and far-reaching effect of this
+new modification in the old reproductive system cannot be
+over-estimated. The internal intra-uterine development of the young,
+and the mammalian habit of suckling them, far more than any other
+factors, have made man what he is. Some explanation must be sought
+for such a fact.
+
+We have already seen that any animal devotes to reproduction the
+balance between income and expenditure of nutriment. Now, the
+digestive system is here well developed, and the income is large.
+But we have already noticed that, as animals grow larger, the ratio
+between the digestive surface and the mass to be supported grows
+continually smaller. On account of size alone the mammal has but a
+small balance. But the amount of expenditure is proportional to the
+mass and activity of the muscular and nervous systems. And the
+mammal is, and from the beginning had to be, an exceedingly active,
+energetic, and nervous animal. The income has increased, but the
+expenses have far outrun the increase. The mammal can devote but
+little to reproduction.
+
+Moreover, it requires a large amount of material to form a mammalian
+egg, such as that of the monotreme. It requires indefinitely more
+nutriment to build a mammal than a worm, for the former is not only
+larger and more perfect at birth; it is also vastly more
+complicated. The embryonic journey has, so to speak, lengthened out
+immensely. One monotreme egg represents more economy and saving than
+a thousand eggs of a worm. Moreover, where the individuals are
+longer lived and the generations follow one another at longer
+intervals, the number of favorable variations and the possibility of
+conformity to environment through these is greatly lessened. In such
+a group it is of the utmost importance that every egg should
+develop; the destruction of a single one is a real and important
+loss to the species. It is not enough to produce such an egg; it
+must be most scrupulously guarded. Even the egg of the platypus is
+deposited in a nest in a hole in the bank, and the female Echidna
+carries the egg in a marsupial pouch until it develops.
+
+Notice further that among certain species of fish, amphibia, and
+reptiles, the females carry the eggs in the body until the embryos
+or young are fairly developed. Viviparous forms are unknown by
+birds, probably because this mode of development is incompatible
+with flight, their dominant characteristic. Putting these facts
+together, what more probable than that certain primitive egg-laying
+mammals should have carried the eggs as long as possible in the
+uterus. The embryo under these conditions would be better nourished
+by a secretion of the uterine glands than by a very large amount of
+yolk. The yolk would diminish and the egg decrease in size, and thus
+the marsupial mode of development would have resulted. And, given
+the marsupial mode of development and an embryo possessing an
+allantois, it is almost a physiological necessity that in some forms
+at least a placenta should develop. That the placenta has resulted
+from some such process of evolution is proven by its different
+stages of development in different orders of mammals. And even the
+feeblest attachment of the allantois of the embryo to the wall of
+the uterus would be of the greatest advantage to the species.
+
+This is not the whole explanation; other factors still undiscovered
+were undoubtedly concerned. But even this shows us that the internal
+development of the young and the habit of suckling them was a
+logical result of mammalian structure and position. The grand
+results of this change we shall trace farther on.
+
+The changes from the lower true mammals to the apes are of great
+interest, but we can notice only one or two of the more important.
+The prosimii, or "half apes," including the lemurs, are nearly all
+arboreal forms. Perhaps they were driven to this life by their more
+powerful competitors. The arboreal life developed the fingers and
+toes, and most of these end, not with a claw, but with a nail. The
+little group has much diversity of structure, and at present finds
+its home mainly in Madagascar; though in earlier times apparently
+occurring all over the globe. The brain is more highly developed
+than in the average mammal, but far inferior to that of the apes.
+They have a fairly opposable thumb.
+
+The highest mammals are the primates. Their characteristics are the
+following: Fingers and toes all armed with nails, the eyes
+comparatively near together and fully enclosed in a bony case. The
+cerebrum with well-developed furrows covers the other portions of
+the brain. There is but one pair of milk-glands, and these on the
+breast. The differences between hand and foot become most strongly
+marked by the "anthropoid" apes. These have become accustomed to an
+upright gait in their climbing; hence the feet are used for
+supporting the body and the hands for grasping. Both thumb and
+great toe are opposable; but the foot is a true foot, and the hand a
+true hand, in anatomical structure. The face, hands, and feet have
+mainly lost the covering of hair. They have no tail, or rather its
+rudiments are concealed beneath the skin. These include the gibbon,
+the orang, the gorilla, and the chimpanzee.
+
+We can sum up the few attainments of mammals in a line. The lower
+forms attained the placental mode of embryonic development; the
+higher attained upright gait, hands and feet, and a great increase
+of brain. Anatomically considered these were but trifles, but the
+addition of these trifles revolutionized life on the globe. The
+principal anatomical differences between man and the anthropoid ape
+are the following: Man is a strictly erect animal. The foot of the
+ape is less fitted for walking on the ground, where he usually "goes
+on all fours." The skull is almost balanced on the condyles by which
+it articulates with the neck, and has but slight tendency to tip
+forward. The facial portion, nose and jaws, is less developed and
+retracted beneath the larger cranium or brain-case. This has greatly
+changed the appearance of the head. Protruding jaws and chin, even
+when combined with large cranium and brain, always give man the
+appearance of brutality and low intelligence.
+
+The pelvis is broad and comparatively shallow. The legs, especially
+the thighs, are long. The foot is long and strong, and rests its
+lower surface, not merely the outer margin as in apes, on the
+ground. The elastic arch of the instep must be excepted in the above
+description, and adds lightness and swiftness to his otherwise slow
+gait. The great toe is short and generally not opposable. The
+muscles of the leg are heavy and the knee-joint has a very broad
+articulating surface. But the great result of man's erect posture is
+that the hand is set free from the work of locomotion, and has
+become a delicate tactile and tool-using organ. The importance of
+this change we cannot over-estimate. The hand was the servant of the
+brain for trying all experiments. Had not our arboreal ancestors
+developed the hand for us we could never have invented tools nor
+used them if invented. And its reflex influence in developing the
+brain has been enormous. The arm is shorter and the hand smaller.
+The brain is absolutely and relatively large, and its surface
+greatly convoluted. This gives place for a large amount of "gray
+matter," whose functions are perception, thought, and will. For this
+gray matter forms a layer on the outside of the brain.
+
+Thus, even anatomically, man differs from the anthropoid apes. His
+whole structure is moulded to and by the higher mental powers, so
+that he is the "Anthropos" of the old Greek philosophers, the being
+who "turns his face upward." Yet in all these anatomical respects
+some of the apes differ less from him than from the lower apes or
+"half apes." And every one of these can easily be explained as the
+result of progressive development and modification. Whoever will
+deny the possibility or probability of man's development from some
+lower form must argue on psychological, not on anatomical, grounds;
+and it grows clearer every day that even the former but poorly
+justify such a denial.
+
+But it is interesting to note that no one ape most closely
+approaches man in all anatomical respects. Thus among the
+anthropoids the orang is perhaps most similar to man in cerebral
+structure, the chimpanzee in form of skull, the gorilla in feet and
+hands. No evolutionist would claim that any existing ape represents
+the ancestor of man. The anthropoids represent very probably the
+culmination of at least three distinct lines of development. But we
+must remember that in early tertiary times apes occurred all over
+Europe, and probably Asia, many degrees farther north than now. In
+those days, as later, the fauna and flora of northern climates were
+superior in vigor and height of development to that of Africa or
+Australia. It is thus, to say the least, not at all improbable that
+there existed in those times apes considerably, if not far, superior
+to any surviving forms. Whether the palæontologist will find for us
+remains of such anthropoids is still to be seen.
+
+But you will naturally ask, "Is there not, after all, a vast
+difference between the brain of man and that of the ape?" Let us
+examine this question as fully as our very brief time will allow.
+Considerable emphasis used to be laid on the facial angle between a
+line drawn parallel to the base of the skull and one obliquely
+vertical touching the teeth and most prominent portion of the
+forehead. Now this angle is in man very large--from seventy-five to
+eighty-five degrees, or even more, and rarely falling below
+sixty-five degrees. But this angle depends largely on the protrusion
+of the jaws, and varies greatly in species of animals showing much
+the same grade of intelligence. In some not especially intelligent
+South American monkeys the facial angle amounts to about sixty-five
+degrees. In this respect the skull of a chimpanzee reminds us of a
+human skull of small cranial capacity and large jaws, in which the
+cranium has been pressed back and the jaws crowded forward and
+slightly upward.
+
+The weight of the brain in proportion to that of the body has been
+considered as of great importance, and within certain limits this is
+undoubtedly correct. Thus, according to Leuret, the weight of the
+brain is to that of the whole body: In fish, 1:5,668; in reptiles,
+1:1,320; in birds, 1:212; in mammals, 1:186. These figures give the
+averages of large numbers of observations and have a certain
+amount of value. But within the same class the ratio varies
+extraordinarily. Thus the weight of the brain is to that of the
+whole body: In the elephant, 1:500; in the largest dogs, 1:305; in
+the cat, 1:156; in the rat, 1:76; in the chimpanzee, 1:50; in man,
+1:36; in the field-mouse, 1:31; in the goldfinch, 1:24.
+
+From this series it is evident that the relative weight of the brain
+is no index of the intelligence of the animal. Indeed if the brain
+were purely an organ of mind, there is no reason that it should be
+any larger in an elephant than in a mouse, provided they had the
+same mental capacity. As animals grow larger the weight of the
+brain, relatively to that of the body, decreases, and considering
+the size of man it is remarkable that it should form so large a
+fraction of his weight. Still the fraction in the chimpanzee is not
+so much smaller. It is still possible that this fraction is above
+the normal for the chimpanzee, for some of the observations may have
+been taken on animals which had died of consumption or some other
+wasting disease. I have not been able to find whether this
+possibility of error has been scrupulously avoided.
+
+A fair idea of the size of the brain may be obtained by measuring
+the cranial capacity. This varies in man from almost one-hundred
+cubic inches to less than seventy. In the gorilla its average is
+perhaps thirty, in the orang and chimpanzee rather less, about
+twenty-eight. This is certainly a vast difference, especially when
+we remember that the gorilla far exceeds man in weight.
+
+Le Bon tells us that of a series of skulls forty-five per cent, of
+the Australian had a cranial capacity of 1,200 to 1,300 c.c., while
+46.7 per cent. of modern Parisian skulls showed a capacity of
+between 1,500 and 1,600 c.c. The skull of the gorilla contains about
+five hundred and seventy cubic centimetres. Broca found that the
+cranial capacity of 115 Parisian skulls, of probably the higher
+classes from the twelfth century, averaged about 1,426 cubic
+centimetres, while ninety of those of the poorer classes of the
+nineteenth century averaged about 1,484. His observations seemed to
+prove that there has been a steady increase in Parisian cranial
+capacity from the twelfth to the nineteenth century.
+
+Turning to the actual weight of the brain, that of Cuvier weighed
+64.5 ounces, and a few cases of weights exceeding 65 ounces have
+been recorded. The lowest limit of weight in a normal human brain
+has not yet been accurately determined. From 34 to 31 ounces have
+been assigned by different writers. The brain of a Bush woman was
+computed by Marshall at 31.5 ounces, and weights of even 31 ounces
+have been recorded without any note to show that the possessors were
+especially lacking in intelligence. As Professor Huxley says in his
+"Man's Place in Nature," a little book which I cannot too highly
+recommend to you all, "It may be doubted whether a healthy human
+adult brain ever weighed less than 31 or 32 ounces, or that the
+heaviest gorilla brain has ever exceeded 20 ounces. The difference
+in weight of brain between the highest and the lowest men is far
+greater, both relatively and absolutely, than that between the
+lowest man and the highest ape. The latter, as has been seen, is
+represented by 12 ounces of cerebral substance absolutely, or by
+32:20 relatively. But as the largest recorded human brain weighed
+between 65 and 66 ounces, the former difference is represented by 33
+ounces absolutely, or by 65:32 relatively."
+
+But there is another characteristic of the brain which seems to bear
+a close relation to the degree of intelligence. The surface of the
+human brain is not smooth but covered with convolutions, with
+alternating grooves or sulci, which vastly increase its surface and
+thus make room for more gray matter. Says Gratiolett: "On comparing
+a series of human and simian brains we are immediately struck with
+the analogy exhibited in the cerebral forms in all these creatures.
+There is a cerebral form peculiar to man and the apes; and so in the
+cerebral convolutions, wherever they appear, there is a general
+unity of arrangement, a plan, the type of which is common to all
+these creatures." Professor Huxley says: "It is most remarkable
+that, as soon as all the principal sulci appear, the pattern
+according to which they are arranged is identical with the
+corresponding sulci in man. The surface of the brain of the monkey
+exhibits a sort of skeleton map of man's, and in the man-like apes
+the details become more and more filled in, until it is only in
+minor characters that the chimpanzee's or orang's brain can be
+structurally distinguished from man's."
+
+The facts of anatomy, at least, are all against us. Struggle as we
+may, be as snobbish as we will, we cannot shake off these poor
+relations of ours. Our adult anatomy at once betrays our ancestry,
+if we attempt to deny it. Read the first chapter of that remarkable
+book by Professor Drummond on the "Ascent of Man," the chapter on
+the ascent of the body, and the second chapter on the scaffolding
+left in the body. The tips of our ears and our rudimentary ear
+muscles, the hair on hand and arm, and the little plica semilunaris,
+or rudimentary third eyelid in the inner angle of our eyes, the
+vermiform appendage of the intestine, the coracoid process on our
+shoulder-blades, the atlas vertebra of our necks--to say nothing of
+the coccyx at the other end of the backbone--many malformations, and
+a host of minor characteristics all refute our denial.
+
+If we appeal from adult anatomy to embryology the case becomes all
+the worse for us. Our ear is lodged in the gill-slit of a fish, our
+jaws are branchial arches, our hyoid bone the rudiment of this
+system of bones supporting the gills. Our circulation begins as a
+veritable fish circulation; our earliest skeleton is a notochord;
+Meckel's cartilage, from which our lower jaw and the bones of our
+middle ear develop, is a whole genealogical tree of disagreeable
+ancestors. Our glandula thyreoidea has, according to good
+authorities, an origin so slimy that it should never be mentioned in
+polite society. The origin of our kidneys appears decidedly vermian.
+Time fails me to read merely the name of the witnesses which could
+be summoned from our own bodies to witness against us.
+
+Even if the testimony of some of these witnesses is not as strong
+as many think, and we have misunderstood several of them, they are
+too numerous and their stories hang too well together not to impress
+an intelligent and impartial jury. But what if it is all true? What
+if, as some think, our millionth cousin, the tiger or cat, is
+anatomically a better mammal than I? His teeth and claws and
+magnificent muscles are of small value compared with man's mental
+power.
+
+What a comedy that man should work so hard to prove that his chief
+glory is his opposable thumb, or a few ounces of brain matter! Man's
+glory is his mind and will, his reason and moral powers, his vision
+of, and communion with, God. And supposing it be true, as I believe
+it is true, that the animal has the germ of these also, does that
+cloud my mind or obscure my vision or weaken my action? It bids me
+only strive the harder to be worthy of the noble ancestors who have
+raised me to my higher level and on whose buried shoulders I stand.
+Whatever may have been our origin, whoever our ancestors, we are
+men. Then let us play the man. If we will but play our part as well
+as our old ancestors played theirs, if we will but walk and act
+according to our light one-half as heroically and well as they
+groped in the darkness, we need not worry about the future. That
+will be assured.
+
+Says Professor Huxley: "Man now stands as on a mountain-top far
+above the level of his humble fellows, and transfigured from his
+grosser nature by reflecting here and there a ray from the infinite
+source of truth. And thoughtful man, once escaped from the blinding
+influences of traditional prejudice, will find in the lowly stock
+whence man has sprung the best evidence of the splendor of his
+capacities, and will discern in his long progress through the past a
+reasonable ground of faith in his attainment of a nobler future."
+
+We have sketched hastily and in rude outline the anatomical
+structure of the successive stages of man's ancestry; let us now, in
+a very brief recapitulation, condense this chronicle into a
+historical record of progress.
+
+We began with the amoeba. This could not have been the beginning.
+In all its structure it tells us of something earlier and far
+simpler, but what this earlier ancestor was we do not know. Rather
+more highly organized relatives of the amoeba, the flagellata,
+have produced a membrane, and swim by means of vibratile,
+whiplash-like flagella. We must emphasize that these little animals
+correspond in all essential respects to the cells of our bodies;
+they are unicellular animals. And the cell once developed remains
+essentially the same structure, modified only in details, throughout
+higher animals. And these unicellular animals have the rudiments of
+all our functions. Their protoplasm and functions seem to differ
+from those of higher animals only in degree, not in kind. And the
+more we consider both these facts the more remarkable and suggestive
+do they become.
+
+Cells with membranes can unite in colonies capable of division of
+labor and differentiation. And magosphæra is just such a little
+spheroidal colony. But the cells are still all alike, each one
+performs all functions equally well. But in volvox division of labor
+and differentiation of structure have taken place. Certain cells
+have become purely reproductive, while the rest gather nutriment for
+these, but are at the same time sensitive and locomotive, excretory
+and respiratory. The first function to have cells specially devoted
+to it is the reproductive; this is a function absolutely necessary
+for the maintenance of the species. For the nutritive cells die when
+they have brought the reproductive cells to their full development.
+These few nutritive cells represent the body of all higher animals
+in contrast with the reproductive elements. And with the development
+of a body, death, as a normal process, enters the world. The
+dominant function is here evidently the reproductive, and the whole
+body is subservient to this.
+
+In hydra the union and differentiation of cells is carried further.
+But the cells are still much alike and only slowly lose their own
+individuality in that of the whole animal. This is shown in the fact
+that each entodermal cell digests its own particles of food,
+although the nutriment once digested diffuses to all parts of the
+body. Also almost any part of the animal containing both ectoderm
+and entoderm can be cut off and will develop into a new animal.
+
+But beside the reproductive cells and tissues hydra has developed a
+very simple digestive system, in which the newly caught food at
+least macerates and begins to be dissolved. This is the second
+essential function. The animal can, and the plant as a rule does,
+exist with only the lowest rudiments of anything like nervous or
+muscular power; but no species can exist without good powers of
+digestion and reproduction. These essential organs must first
+develop and the higher must wait. And the inner, digestive, layer of
+cells persists in our bodies as the lining of the mid-intestine. We
+compared hydra therefore to a little patch of the lining of our
+intestine covered with a flake of epidermis; only these layers in
+hydra possess powers lost to the corresponding cells of our bodies
+in the process of differentiation. Notice, please, that when cell or
+organ has once been developed it persists, as a rule, modified, but
+not lost. Nature's experiments are not in vain; her progress is very
+slow but sure. But hydra has also the promise of better things,
+traces of muscular and nervous tissue. There are still no compact
+muscles, like our own, much less ganglion or brain or nerve-centre
+of individuality. The tissues are diffuse, but they are the
+materials out of which the organs of higher animals will
+crystallize, so to speak. Notice also that these higher muscles and
+nerves are here entirely subservient to, and exist for, digestion
+and reproduction.
+
+In the turbellaria the reproductive system has reached a very high
+grade of development. It is a complex and beautifully constructed
+organ. The digestive system has also vastly improved; it has its own
+muscular layers, and often some means of grasping food. But it is
+slower in reaching its full development than the reproductive
+system. But all the muscles are no longer attached to the stomach;
+they are beginning to assert their independence, and, in a rude way,
+to build a body-wall. But they are in many layers, and run in almost
+all directions. Some of these layers will disappear, but the most
+important ones, consisting of longitudinal and transverse fibres,
+will persist in higher forms. Locomotion by means of these muscles
+is slowly coming into prominence. They are no longer merely slaves
+of digestion.
+
+But a muscular fibril contracts only under the stimulus of a nervous
+impulse. More nerve-cells are necessary to control these more
+numerous muscular fibrils. The animal now moves with one end
+foremost, and that end first comes in contact with food, hindrances,
+or injurious surroundings. Here the sensory cells of feeling and
+their nerve fibrils multiply. Remember that these neuro-epithelial
+sensory cells are suited to respond not merely to pressure, but to a
+variety of the stimuli, chemical, molecular, and of vibration, which
+excite our organs of smell, taste, and hearing. Such organs and the
+directive eyes appear mainly at this anterior end. But a ganglion
+cell sends an impulse to a muscle because it has received one along
+a sensory nerve from one or more of these sensory cells. Hence the
+ganglion cells will increase in number. The old cobweb-like plexus
+condenses into a little knot, the supra-oesophageal ganglion. This
+ganglion cannot do much, if any, thinking; it is rather a steering
+organ to control the muscles and guide the animal. It is the servant
+of the locomotive system. Yet it is the beginning of the brain of
+higher animals, and probably still persists as an infinitesimal
+portion of our human brain. And all this is the prophecy of a head
+soon to be developed. An excretory system has appeared to carry off
+the waste of the muscles and nerves.
+
+In the schematic worm and annelid the reproductive system is
+simpler, though perhaps equally effective. It takes the excess of
+nutriment of the body. The muscular system has taken the form of a
+sack composed of longitudinal and transverse fibres. The
+perivisceral cavity, formed perhaps by cutting off and enlarging the
+lateral pouches of the turbellarian digestive system, serves as a
+very simple but serviceable circulatory system. But in the annelid
+and all higher forms a special system of tubes has developed to
+carry the nutriment, and usually oxygen also, needed to keep up the
+combustion required to furnish the energy in these active organs.
+The digestive system has attained its definite form with the
+appearance of an anal opening and the accompanying division of labor
+and differentiation into fore-, mid-, and hind-intestine.
+
+The digestive and reproductive systems have thus nearly attained
+their final form. From the higher worms upward the digestive system
+will improve greatly. Its lining will fold and flex and vastly
+increase the digestive and absorptive surfaces. The layer of cells
+which now secrete the digestive fluids will in part be replaced by
+massive glands. Far better means of grasping food than the horny
+teeth of annelids will yet appear. But all these changes are
+inconsiderable compared with the vast advance made by the muscular
+and nervous systems. Reproduction and digestion are losing their
+supremacy in the animal body. Their advance and improvement will
+require but little further attention.
+
+In the annelid especially, and to some extent in the schematic worm,
+the supra-oesophageal ganglion is relieved in part of the direct
+control of the muscular fibrils and has become an organ of
+perception and the seat of government of lower nervous centres. In
+all higher forms it innervates directly only the principal
+sense-organs of the head. And at this stage the light-perceiving
+directive eye has developed into a form-perceiving, eidoscopic
+organ. The eye was short of range and its images were perhaps rude
+and imperfect, but it was a visual eye and had vast possibilities.
+The animal is taking cognizance of ever more subtle elements in its
+environment. Perhaps it is not too much to say that the eidoscopic
+eye first awakened the slumbering animal mind, for its reflex effect
+upon the supra-oesophageal ganglion cannot be over-estimated. The
+animal will very soon begin to think.
+
+Between the turbellarian and the annelid many aberrant lines
+diverged. Some of these attained a comparatively high level and then
+seemed to meet insuperable obstacles, while others came to an end or
+turned downward very early. Three of these demanded attention, those
+leading to mollusks, insects, and vertebrates. And it is interesting
+to notice that the fundamental difference between these three lines
+was the skeleton, or perhaps we ought to say it was the habit of
+life which led to the development of such a skeleton.
+
+The mollusk took to a sluggish, creeping mode of life, under an
+external purely protective skeleton; the insect to a creeping mode
+of life, with an external but almost purely locomotive skeleton; the
+vertebrate kept on swimming and developed an internal locomotive
+skeleton. And it must already have become clear to you that the
+destiny of these different lines was fixed not so much directly by
+the skeleton itself as by its reflex effect in moulding the
+muscular, and ultimately the nervous, system.
+
+The insects formed their skeleton by thickening the horny cuticle of
+the annelid. They transformed the annelid parapodia into legs and
+developed wings. They attained life in the air. They devoted the
+muscles of the body largely to the extremities and gained swift
+locomotion. They have a fair circulatory and an excellent
+respiratory system. Best of all, they developed a head and a brain
+by fusing the three anterior ganglia of the body. The insect could
+and does think. Such a structure ought to lead to great and high
+results. But actually their possibilities were very limited. They
+have not progressed markedly during the last geological period.
+Their external skeleton was easily attained and brought speedy
+advantages, which for a time placed them far above all competitors.
+But it limited their size and length of life and opportunities, and
+finally their intelligence. They remained largely the slaves of
+instinct. They followed an attractive and exceedingly promising
+path, but it led to the bottom of a cliff, not to the summit.
+
+The mollusks, clams, and snails took an easier, down-hill road. They
+formed a shell, and it developed large enough to cover them. It
+hampered and almost destroyed locomotion and reduced nerve to a
+minimum. But nerves are nothing but a nuisance anyhow. And why
+should they move? Food was plenty down in the mud, and if danger
+threatened, they withdrew into the shell. They stayed down in the
+mud and let the world go its way. If grievously afflicted by a
+parasite they produced a pearl--to save themselves from further
+discomfort. They developed just enough muscle and nervous system to
+close the shell or drag it a little way; that was all. Digestion and
+reproduction retained the supremacy. They were fruitful and
+multiplied, and produced hosts of other clams and snails. The
+present was enough for them and they had that.
+
+For if the winner in the struggle for existence is the one who gains
+the most food, the most entire protection against discomfort, danger
+from enemies or unfavorable surroundings, and the most fruitful and
+rapid reproduction--and these are all good--then the clam is the
+highest product of evolution. It never has been surpassed--I venture
+to say it never can be--except possibly by the tape-worms. I can
+never help thinking with what contempt these primitive oysters, if
+they had had brains enough, would have looked down upon the toiling,
+struggling, discontented, fighting, aspiring primitive vertebrates.
+How they would have wondered why God allowed such disagreeable,
+disturbing, unconventional creatures to exist, and thanked him that
+he had made the world for them, and heaven too, if there be such a
+place for mollusks. Their road led to the Slough of Contentment.
+
+But even in molluscan history there was a tragic chapter. The squids
+and cuttle-fishes regained the swimming life, and in their latest
+forms gave up the protective shell. But its former presence had so
+modified their structure that any great advance was impossible. It
+was too late. The sins of the fathers were visited upon the children
+in the thousandth generation.
+
+The vertebrate developed an internal skeleton. This was necessarily
+a slow growth, and the type came late to supremacy. The longitudinal
+muscles are arranged in heavy bands on each side of the back, and
+the animal swims rapidly. The sense-organs are keen. The brain
+contains the ganglia of several or many segments and is highly
+differentiated. It has a special centre of perception, thought, and
+will; it is an organ of mind. The vertebrate has the physical and
+mental advantages of large size.
+
+First the definite form and mode of developing a vertebra is
+attained. Then the vertebral column is perfected. The fins are
+modified into legs. The lungs increase in size and the heart becomes
+double. The animal emerges on land; and, with a better supply of
+oxygen and less loss of heat, all the functions are performed with
+the highest possible efficiency. First, apparently, amphibia, then
+reptiles, and finally mammals of enormous size and strength
+appeared. It looked as if the earth were to be an arena where
+gigantic beasts fought a never-ending battle of brute force. But
+these great brutes reproduced slowly, had therefore little power of
+adaptation, were fitted to special conditions, and when the
+conditions changed they disappeared. The bird tried once more the
+experiment of developing the locomotive powers to the highest
+possible extent. It became a flying machine, and every organ was
+moulded to suit this life. Every ounce of spare weight was thrown
+aside, the muscles were wonderfully arranged and of the highest
+possible efficiency. The body temperature is higher than that of
+mammals. The whole organization is a physiological high-pressure
+engine. The sense-organs are perhaps the finest and keenest in the
+whole animal kingdom. The brain is inferior only to that of mammals.
+The experiment could not have been tried under more favorable
+conditions; it was not a failure, it certainly was not a success
+when compared with that of mammals.
+
+The possibilities of every system except one had been practically
+exhausted. Only brain development remained as the last hope of
+success. Here was an untried line, and the mammals followed it.
+During the short tertiary period the brain in many of their genera
+seems to have increased tenfold. By the arboreal life of the highest
+forms the hand is developed as the instrument of the thinking brain.
+The battle is beginning to become one of wits, and the crown will
+soon pass from the strongest to the shrewdest. Mind, not muscle,
+much less digestion or reproduction, is the goal of the animal
+kingdom. And we shall see later that the mammalian mode of
+reproduction and of care of the young led to an almost purely mental
+and moral advance. For these could have but one logical outcome,
+family life. And the family is the foundation of society. And family
+and social life have been the school in which man has been compelled
+to learn the moral lessons, the application of which has made him
+what he is.
+
+You must all, I think, have noticed that the different systems of
+organs succeed one another in a certain definite order; and that
+each stage from the lowest to the highest is characterized by the
+predominance of a certain function or group of functions. This
+sequence of functions is not a deduction but a fact. Place side by
+side all possible genealogical trees of the animal kingdom, whether
+founded on comparative anatomy, embryology, palæontology, or all
+combined. They will all disclose this sequence of functions arranged
+in the same order. Let me call your attention to the fact that this
+order is not due to chance, but rests upon a physiological basis. We
+might almost claim that if the evolution of man from the single cell
+be granted, no other order of their occurrence is possible.
+
+The protozoa are mostly, though not purely, nutritive and
+reproductive. These functions are essential to the existence of the
+species. Naturally in the early protozoan colonies, and in forms
+like hydra, these functions predominated. But mere digestive tissue
+is not enough for digestion. Muscles are needed to draw the food to
+the mouth, to keep the digestive sack in contact with it, and for
+other purposes. A little higher they are used to enable the animal
+to go in search of its food. They are still, however, more or less
+entirely subservient to digestion. But in the highest worms we are
+beginning to see signs that muscles are predominating in the body;
+and we feel that, while mutually helpful, the digestive system
+exists for the muscles, and these latter are becoming the aim of
+development. From worms upward there is a marked advance in physical
+activity and strength. The muscles thicken and are arranged in
+heavier bands. Skeleton and locomotive appendages and jaws follow in
+insects and vertebrates. The direct battle of animal against animal,
+and of strength opposed to strength or activity, becomes ever
+sharper. The strongest and most active are selected and survive.
+
+And yet this is not the whole truth. Some power of perception is
+possessed by every animal. But until muscles had developed the
+nervous system could be of but little practical value. Knowledge of
+even a great emergency is of little use, if I can do nothing about
+it. But when the muscles appeared, nerves and ganglion cells were
+necessary to stimulate and control them. And this highest system
+holds for a long time a position subordinate to that of the lower
+muscular organ. Its development seems at first sight extraordinarily
+slow. Only in insects and vertebrates has it become a centre of
+instinct and thought. Through the sense-organs it is gaining an ever
+clearer, deeper, and wider knowledge of its environment. First it is
+affected only by the lower stimuli of touch, taste, and smell. Then
+with the development of ear and eye it takes cognizance of ever
+subtler forces and movements. Memory comes into activity very early.
+The animal begins to learn by experience. The brain is becoming not
+merely a steering but a thinking organ. More and more nervous
+material is crowded into it and detailed for its work. Wits and
+shrewdness are beginning to count for something in the battle. Not
+only the animal with the strongest muscles, but the one with the
+best brain survives. And thus at last the brain began to develop
+with a rapidity as remarkable as its long delay. Thus each higher
+function is called into activity by the next lower, serves this at
+first, and only later attains its supremacy.
+
+And yet the advance of the different functions is not altogether
+successive. Muscle and nerve do not wait for digestion and
+reproduction to show signs of halting before they begin to advance.
+They all advance at once. But the progress of reproduction and
+digestion is most rapid at first, and it appears as if they would
+outrun the others. But in the ascending series the others follow
+after, and soon overtake and pass by them. And these lower
+functions, when out-marched, do not lag behind, but keep in touch
+with the others, forming the rear-guard and supply-train of the
+army. And notice that each organ holds the predominance about as
+long as it shows the power of rapid improvement. The length of its
+reign is pretty closely proportional to its capacity of development.
+The digestive system reaches that limit early, the muscular system
+is capable of indefinitely higher complexity, as we see in our hand.
+But the muscular system has nearly or quite reached its limit. The
+body had seen its day of dominance before man arrived on the globe.
+
+But where is the limit to man's mental or moral powers? Every
+upward step in knowledge, wisdom, and righteousness only opens our
+eyes to greater heights, before unperceived and still to be
+attained. 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
+huge reptiles, or mammals of enormous strength, and by birds of
+exceeding swiftness. This portion of our history covers the era of
+muscular activity.
+
+But these huge brutes are mostly doomed to extinction, and the bird
+fails of supremacy in the animal kingdom. "The race is not to the
+swift, nor the battle to the strong." All the time another system
+has been slowly developing. The complicated nervous system has
+required ages for its construction and arrangement. Only in the
+highest mammals does the brain assert its right to supremacy. But
+once established on its throne the brain reigns supreme; its right
+is challenged by no other organ. The possibilities of all the other
+organs, _as supreme rulers_, have been exhausted. Each one has been
+thoroughly tested, and its inadequacy proven beyond doubt by actual
+experiment. These formerly supreme lower organs must serve the
+higher. The age of man's existence on the globe is, and must remain,
+the era of mind. For the mind alone has an inexhaustible store of
+possibilities.
+
+The development of all these systems is simultaneous. From the very
+beginning all the functions have been represented, all the systems
+have been gradually advancing. Hydra has a nervous system just as
+really as man. It has no brain, but it has the potentiality and
+promise of one, and is taking the necessary steps toward its
+attainment. But while the development of all is simultaneous, their
+culmination and supremacy is successive, first stomach and muscle,
+then brain and mind. That was not first which is spiritual, but that
+which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. But now
+that the mind has once become supreme, man must live and work
+chiefly for its higher development. Thus alone is progress possible.
+
+But the word mind calls up before us a long list of powers. And the
+questions arise, Is one mode and line of mental action just as much
+the goal of man's development as another? Is man to cultivate the
+appetite for food and sense gratification just as much as the hunger
+for righteousness? Or is appetite in the mind like digestion in the
+body, a function, necessary indeed and once dominant, but no longer
+fitted for supreme control? Is there in the development of the
+mental powers or functions just as really a sequence of dominance as
+in that of the bodily functions? Are there older and lower powers
+and modes of action, which, though once supreme, must now be rigidly
+kept down in their proper lower place? Are there lower motives, for
+which the very laws of evolution forbid us to live, just as truly as
+they forbid a man's living for stomach or brute strength instead of
+brain and mind? Are these lower powers merely the foundation
+on which the higher motives and powers are to rise in their
+transcendent glory? This is the question which we now must face,
+and it is of vital importance.
+
+We have come to one of the most important and difficult subjects of
+zoölogy. Let us distinctly recognize that it is not our task to
+explain the origin of mind, or even of a single mental faculty. I
+shall take for granted what many of you will not admit, that the
+germs of all man's highest mental powers are present undeveloped in
+the mind, if you will call it so, of the amoeba. The limits of
+this course of lectures have required us to choose between
+alternatives, either to attempt to prove the truth of the theory of
+evolution, or taking this for granted, to attempt to find its
+bearings on our moral and religious beliefs. I have chosen the
+latter course, and here, as elsewhere, will abide by it. I should
+not have followed such a course if I did not thoroughly believe that
+man also, in mind as well as body, is the product of evolution. But
+this is no reason for your accepting these views. You are asked only
+to judge impartially of the tendencies of the theory. We take for
+granted, I repeat, that all man's mental faculties are germinally,
+potentially, present in protoplasm; we seek the history of their
+development.
+
+We must remember, further, that the science of animal or comparative
+psychology is yet in its infancy. Even reliable facts are only
+slowly being sifted and recorded in sufficient numbers to make
+deductions at all safe. And even of these facts different writers
+give very different explanations. As Mr. Romanes has well said, "All
+our knowledge of mental faculties, other than our own, really
+consists of an inferential interpretation of bodily activities--this
+interpretation being founded on our subjective knowledge of our own
+mental activities. By inference we project, as it were, the human
+pattern of our own mental chromograph on what is to us the otherwise
+blank screen of another mind." The value and clearness of our
+inferences will be proportional to the similarity of the animal to
+ourselves. Thus we can educate many of our higher mammals by a
+system of rewards and punishments, and we seem therefore to have
+good reason to believe that fear and joy, anger and desire, certain
+powers of perception and inference, are in their minds similar to
+our own. But fear in a fish is certainly a much dimmer apprehension
+of danger than in us, even if it deserves the name of apprehension.
+And the mental state which we call "alarm" in a fly or any lower
+animal is very difficult to clearly imagine or at all express in
+terms of our own mind.
+
+Some investigators have made the mistake of projecting into the
+animal mind all our emotions and complicated trains of thought. Thus
+Schwammerdam apparently credits the snail with remorse for the
+commission of excesses. Others go to the other extreme and make
+animals hardly more than mindless automata. We are warned,
+therefore, by our very mode of study, to be cautious, not too
+absolutely sure of our results, nor indignant at others who may take
+a very different view. And yet by moving cautiously and accepting
+only what seems fairly clear and evident we may arrive at very
+valuable and tolerably sure results.
+
+The human mind, and the animal mind apparently, manifests itself in
+three states or functions. These are intelligence, the realm of
+knowledge; susceptibility, the realm or state of feelings or
+emotions; will, the power or state of choice. Let us trace first the
+development of intelligence or the intellect in the animal. Let us
+try to discover what kinds of knowledge are successively attained
+and the mode and sequence of their attainment. Hydra appears to be
+conscious of its food. It recognizes it partially by touch, perhaps
+also by feeling the waves caused by its approach. It seems also to
+recognize food at a little distance by a power comparable to our
+sense of smell. Stronger impacts cause it to contract. It neither
+sees nor hears; it probably does little or no thinking. Its
+knowledge is therefore limited to the recognition of objects either
+in contact with, or but slightly removed from, itself. And its
+recognition of the objects is very dim and incomplete, obtained
+through the sense of touch and smell.
+
+A little higher in the animal world a rude ear has developed, first
+as a very delicate organ for feeling the waves caused by approaching
+food or enemies; only later as an organ of hearing. Meanwhile the
+eye has been developing, to perceive the subtle ether vibrations.
+The eye of the turbellaria distinguishes only light from darkness,
+that of the annelid is a true visual organ. Now the brain can begin
+to perceive the shape of objects at a little distance. Touch and
+smell, hearing, sight; such is sequence of sense perceptions. The
+sense-organs respond to continually more delicate and subtle
+impacts, and cover an ever-widening range of more and more distant
+objects. Up to this point intelligence has hardly included more than
+sense-perceptions.
+
+But these sense-perceptions have been all the time spurring the mind
+to begin a higher work. At first it is conscious merely of objects,
+and its main effort is to gain a clearer and clearer perception of
+these.
+
+Now it is led to undertake, so to speak, the work of a sense-organ
+of a higher grade. It begins to directly see invisible relations
+just as truly as through the eye it has perceived light. First
+perhaps it perceives that certain perceptions and experiences,
+agreeable or disagreeable, occur in a certain sequence. It begins to
+associate these. It learns thus to recognize the premonitory
+symptoms of nature's favor or disfavor, and thus gains food or
+avoids dangers. The bee learns to associate accessible nectar with a
+certain spot on the flower marked by bright dots or lines,
+"honey-guides," and the chimpanzee that when a hen cackles there is
+an egg in the nest. But association is only the first lesson;
+inference and understanding follow.
+
+The child at kindergarten receives a few blocks. It admires and
+plays with them. Then it is taught to notice their form. After a
+time it arranges them in groups and learns the first elements of
+number. But when it has advanced to higher mathematics, the blocks,
+or figures on the blackboard, become only symbols or means of
+illustrating the great theorems and propositions of that science.
+Thus the animal has begun in the kindergarten way to dimly perceive
+that there are real, though intangible and invisible, relations
+between objects. But what is all human science but the clearer
+vision, and farther search into, and tracing of these same
+relations? And what is all advance of knowledge but a perception of
+ever subtler relations? What is even the knowledge of right but the
+perception of the subtlest and deepest and widest relations of man
+to his environment? The animal seems to be steadily advancing along
+the path toward the perception of abstract truth, though man alone
+really attains it.
+
+And the higher power of association and inference which we call
+understanding, aided by memory, results in the power of learning by
+experience, so characteristic of higher vertebrates. The hunted bird
+or mammal very quickly becomes wary. A new trap catches more than a
+better old one until the animals have learned to understand it, and
+young animals are trapped more easily than old. Cases showing the
+limitations of mammalian intelligence are interesting in this
+connection. A cat which wished to look out and find the cause of a
+noise outside, when all the windows were closed by wooden blinds,
+jumped upon a stand and looked into a mirror. Her inference as to
+the general use of glass was correct; all its uses had not yet come
+within the range of her experience. A monkey used to stop a hole in
+the side of a cage with straw. The keeper, to tease him, used to
+pull this out. But one day the monkey tugged at a nail in the side
+of his cage until he had pulled it out, and thrust it into the hole.
+But when it was pushed back he fell into a rage. His inference that
+the nail-head could not be pulled through was entirely correct; he
+had failed to foresee that it could be pushed back. Many such
+instances have probably come within the range of your observation,
+if you have noticed them. But many of the facts which Mr. Romanes
+gives us concerning the intelligence of monkeys, apes, and baboons
+would not disgrace the intelligence of children or men.
+
+Mr. Romanes relates the following account of a little capuchin
+monkey from Brazil:
+
+   "To-day he obtained possession of a hearth-brush, one of the kind
+   which has the handle screwed into the brush. He soon found the
+   way to unscrew the handle, and having done that he immediately
+   began to try to find out the way to screw it in again. This he in
+   time accomplished. At first he put the wrong end of the handle
+   into the hole, but turned it round and round the right way for
+   screwing. Finding it did not hold he turned the other end of the
+   handle and carefully stuck it into the hole, and began again to
+   turn it the right way. It was of course a difficult feat for him
+   to perform, for he required both his hands in order to screw it
+   in, and the long bristles of the brush prevented it from
+   remaining steady or with the right side up. He held the brush
+   with his hind hand, but even so it was very difficult for him to
+   get the first turn of the screw to fit into the thread; he worked
+   at it, however, with the most unwearying perseverance until he
+   got the first turn of the screw to catch, and he then quickly
+   turned it round and round until it was screwed up to the end. The
+   most remarkable thing was, that however often he was disappointed
+   in the beginning, he never was induced to try turning the handle
+   the wrong way; he always screwed it from right to left. As soon
+   as he had accomplished his wish he unscrewed it again, and then
+   screwed it in again the second time rather more easily than the
+   first, and so on many times. When he had become by practice
+   tolerably perfect in screwing and unscrewing, he gave it up and
+   took to some other amusement. One remarkable thing is that he
+   should take so much trouble to do that which is no material
+   benefit to him. The desire to accomplish a chosen task seems a
+   sufficient inducement to lead him to take any amount of trouble.
+   This seems a very human feeling, such as is not shown, I believe,
+   by any other animal. It is not the desire of praise, as he never
+   notices people looking on; it is simply the desire to achieve an
+   object for the sake of achieving an object, and he never rests
+   nor allows his attention to be distracted until it is done....
+
+   "As my sister once observed while we were watching him conducting
+   some of his researches, in oblivion to his food and all his other
+   surroundings--'When a monkey behaves like this it is no wonder
+   that man is a scientific animal!'"[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Romanes: Animal Intelligence, pp. 490, 498.]
+
+In the highest mammals we find also different degrees of attention
+and concentration of thought and observation. This difference can
+easily be noticed in young hunting dogs. A trainer of monkeys said
+that he could easily select those which could most easily be taught,
+by noticing in the first lesson whether he could easily gain and
+hold their attention. This was easy with some, while others were
+diverted by every passing fly; and the latter, like heedless
+students, made but slow progress.
+
+It is interesting to notice that one of the perceptions which we
+class among the highest is apparently developed comparatively early.
+I refer to the æsthetic perception of the beautiful. Now, the
+perception of beauty is generally considered as not very far below
+or removed from the perception of truth and right. But some insects
+and birds apparently possess this perception and the corresponding
+emotion in no low degree. The colors of flowers seem to exist mainly
+for the attraction of insects to insure cross-fertilization, and
+certain insects seem to prefer certain colors. But you may say that
+these afford merely sense gratification like that which green
+affords to our eyes or sugar to our tastes.
+
+But does not the grouping of colors in the flower appeal to some
+æsthetic standard in the mind of the insect? What of the tail of the
+peacock? Its iridescent rings and eyes evidently appeal to something
+in the mind of the female. Do form and grouping minister to pure
+sense gratification? What of the song of the thrush? Does not the
+orderly and harmonious arrangement of notes and cadences appeal to
+some standard of order of arrangement, and hence idea of harmony, in
+the mind of the bird's mate?
+
+Now, I grant you readily that the A B C of this training is mere
+sense gratification at the sight of bright colors. Most insects and
+birds have probably not advanced much beyond this first lesson.
+Savages have generally stopped there or reverted to it. But any
+appreciation of form and harmonious arrangement of cadence and
+colors seems to me at least to demand some perception which we must
+call æsthetic, or dangerously near it. But here you must judge
+carefully for yourselves lest you be misled. For remember, please,
+that those schemes of psychology farthest removed from, and least
+readily reconcilable to, the theory of evolution maintain that
+perception of beauty is the work of the rational faculty, which also
+perceives truth and right in much the same way that it perceives
+and recognizes beauty. If the animal has the æsthetic perception, it
+has the faculty which, at the next higher stage of development, will
+perceive, and recognize as such, both truth and right. We are
+considering no unimportant question; for on our answer to this
+depends our answer to questions of far greater importance.
+
+Does it look as if the animal had begun to learn the first rudiments
+of the great science of rights, of his own rights and those of
+others? This is an exceedingly difficult question, though often
+answered unhesitatingly in the negative. But what of the division of
+territory by the dogs in oriental cities, a division evidently
+depending upon something outside of mere brute strength and power to
+maintain, and their respect of boundaries? The female is allowed, I
+am told by an eye-witness long resident in Constantinople, to
+distribute her puppies in unoccupied spots through the city without
+interference. But when she has once located them, she is not allowed
+to return and visit them, or pass that way again. So the account by
+Dr. Washburn of platoons of dogs coming in turn, and peaceably, to
+feed on a dead donkey in the streets of Constantinople, would seem
+to be most naturally explained by some dim recognition of rights.
+Rook communities have not received the attention and investigation
+which they deserve, but their actions are certainly worthy of
+attention. Concerning the sense of ownership in dogs and other
+mammals opinions differ, and yet many facts are most naturally
+explained on such a supposition.
+
+Just one more question in this connection, for we are in the
+borderland or twilightland where it is much safer to ask questions
+than to attempt to answer them. How do you explain the "instinctive"
+fear of man on the part of wild and fierce animals? They certainly
+do not quail before his brute strength, for a blow at such a time
+breaks the charm and insures an attack. They quail before his eye
+and look. Is not this the answering of a personality in the animal
+to the personality in man; a recognition of something deeper than
+bone and muscle? And may not, as Mr. Darwin has urged, this fear in
+the presence of a higher personality be the dim foreshadowing of an
+awe which promises indefinitely better things? Is, after all, the
+attachment of a dog to his master something far deeper than an
+appetite for bones or pats, or a fear of kicks?
+
+A host of other and similar questions throng upon us here, to no one
+of which we can give a definite answer. We need more investigation,
+more light. We must not rest contented with old prejudices or accept
+with too great certainty new explanations. The questions are worthy
+of careful and patient investigation. The study of comparative
+anatomy has thrown a flood of light on the structure and working of
+the human body in health and disease. We shall never fully
+understand the mind of man until we know more of the working of the
+mind of the animal.
+
+It would seem to be clear that there is a sequence of dominance in
+the faculties of the intellect. First, the only means of acquiring
+knowledge is through sense-perception. But memory dawns far down in
+the animal kingdom. And thus the animal begins to associate past
+experience with present objects. The bee remembers the gaining of
+honey in the past, associated with the color of the flower which she
+now sees, and knows that honey is to be attained again. Thus in time
+association leads to inference, and understanding has dawned. But
+the highest faculty of the intellect is the rational intelligence,
+which perceives beauty, truth, and goodness. This is the last to
+develop. Traces of its working may be perhaps discovered below man,
+but only in man does it become dominant. Through it I perceive my
+rights and duties, and come to the consciousness of my own
+personality as a moral agent. This tells me of the relation of my
+own personality to other persons and things. And these are evidently
+the most important objects of human study. The attainment of this
+knowledge and the development of this faculty are evidently the goal
+of human intellectual development. This it is which has insured
+progress and raised man ever higher above the brutes.
+
+Before we can proceed to the study of the will we must clearly
+recognize and define certain modes of mental and nervous action,
+which sooner or later manifest themselves in muscular activity. For,
+while certain of our bodily activities are clearly voluntary, others
+take place wholly, or in part independently, of the individual will.
+Between these different modes of bodily action we must distinguish
+as clearly as may be possible.
+
+1. Reflex Action. I touch something cold or hot in the dark,
+suddenly and unexpectedly. I draw back my hand involuntarily and
+before I have perceived the sensation of cold or heat. You tell me
+to keep my eyes open while you make a sudden pass at them with your
+hand. I try hard to do so, but my eyes shut for all that. I shut
+them unconsciously and against my own will. I say, "They shut of
+themselves." Now, this is not true, but the explanation is not
+difficult. These and similar actions are entirely possible, although
+the continuity between spinal marrow and brain may have been so
+interrupted by some accident that sensation in the reflexly active
+part fails altogether. A bird flaps its wings after its head is cut
+off, and yet the seat of consciousness and will is certainly in the
+brain. A patient with a "broken back," and paralyzed in his legs,
+will draw up his feet if they are tickled, although he is entirely
+unable to move them by any effort of his will and has no
+consciousness of the irritation.
+
+The physiological action is in this case clear. The vibration of the
+nerve caused by the tickling travels from the foot to the
+appropriate centre in the spinal marrow, and here gives rise to, or
+is switched off as, a motor impulse travelling back to the muscles
+of the leg, causing them to contract. In the injured patient the
+nervous impulse cannot reach the brain, the seat of consciousness,
+and hence this is not awakened. Normally consciousness does result
+in a majority of such cases, but only after the beginning or
+completion of the appropriate action. Yet the movements of our
+internal organs, intestine and heart, go on continually, and in
+health we remain entirely unconscious of their action.
+
+But reflex actions may be anything but simple. We walk and talk, and
+write or play the piano without ever thinking of a single muscle or
+organ. Yet we had once to learn with much effort to take each step
+or frame each letter. Thus actions, originally conscious and
+intended, easily become reflex; often repeated the brain leaves
+their control to the lower centres. We often say, "I did not intend
+to do that; I could not help it." We forget that this excuse is our
+worst condemnation. It is a confession that we have allowed or
+encouraged a habit to wear a groove from which the wheels of our
+life cannot escape. The essential characteristic of reflex action is
+therefore that from beginning to completion it goes on independently
+of consciousness.
+
+2. Instinct. This is a much-abused word. It is frequently applied to
+all the mental actions of animals without much thought or care as to
+its meaning. Let us gain a definition from the study of a typical
+case lest we use the word as a cloak for ignorance or negligent
+thoughtlessness. Watch a spider building its wonderful geometrical
+web. The web is a work of art, and every motion of the spider
+beautifully adapted to its purpose. But the spider is not therefore
+necessarily an artist. Let us see of how much the spider is probably
+conscious, remembering that our best judgment is but an inference.
+We have good reason to believe that she is conscious of the stimulus
+to action, hunger. She may be, probably is, conscious of the end to
+be attained--to catch a fly for her dinner. She seems conscious of
+what she is doing. In all these respects this differs from reflex
+action. But she is probably unconscious of the exact fitness of the
+means to the end. We do not believe that she has adopted the
+geometrical pattern, because she has discovered or calculated that
+this will make the closest and largest net for the smallest outlay
+of labor and material. Furthermore the young spider builds
+practically as good a web as the old one. She has inherited the
+power, not developed or gained it by experience or observation. And
+all the members of the species have inherited it in much the same
+degree of perfection.
+
+Concerning the origin of instincts there are several theories. Some
+instincts would seem to be the result of non-intelligent, perhaps
+unconscious, habits becoming fixed by heredity and improved by
+natural selection; others would appear to be modifications of
+actions originally due to intelligence. Instinct is therefore
+characterized by consciousness of the stimulus to act, of the means
+and end, without the knowledge of the exact adaptation of means to
+end. It is hereditary and characterizes species or large groups.
+
+3. Intelligent Action. You come in cold and sit down before an open
+fire. You push the brands together to make the fire burn. Applying
+once more the criterion of consciousness to this action we notice
+that you are conscious of the stimulus to act, of the steps of the
+action, and of the end to be attained, exactly as in instinctive
+action. But finally, and this is the essential characteristic of
+intelligent action, you are aware to a certain extent of the fitness
+of the means to the attainment of the end. This piece of knowledge
+you had to acquire for yourself. Erasmus Darwin defined a fool as a
+man who had never tried an experiment. Experience and observation,
+not heredity, are the sources of intelligence. Intelligence is power
+to think, and a man may be very learned--for do we not have learned
+pigs?--and yet have very little real intelligence. Hence this is
+possessed by different individuals in very varying degrees.
+
+We may now briefly compare these three kinds of nervous action.
+
+Reflex action is involuntary and unconscious. The actor may, and
+usually does, become conscious of the action after it has been
+commenced or completed, but this is not at all necessary or
+universal.
+
+Instinctive action is to a certain extent voluntary and conscious.
+The actor is conscious of the stimulus, the means and mode, and the
+end or purpose of the action. Of the exact fitness or adaptation of
+the means to the end the actor is unconscious.
+
+Intelligent action is conscious and voluntary. The actor is
+conscious of the stimulus to act, of the means and mode, and to a
+certain extent of the adaptation of the means to the end. This last
+item of knowledge, lacking in instinctive action, is acquired by
+experience or observation.
+
+Reflex action may be regarded as a comparatively mechanical, though
+often very complex, process; the reflex ganglia appear to be hardly
+more than switch-boards. There is stimulus of the sense-organs, and
+thus what Mr. Romanes has called "unfelt sensation," unfelt as far
+as the completion of the action is concerned. But in instinct the
+sensation no longer remains unfelt; perception is necessary,
+consciousness plays a part. And this consciousness is a vastly more
+subtle element, differing as much apparently from the vibration of
+brain, or nervous, molecules as the Geni from the rubbing of
+Aladdin's lamp, to borrow an illustration.
+
+But this element of consciousness is one which it is exceedingly
+difficult to detect in our analysis, and yet upon it our
+classification and the psychic position of an animal must to a
+great extent depend. The amoeba contracts when pricked,
+jelly-fishes swim toward the light, the earthworm, "alarmed" by the
+tread of your foot, withdraws into its hole. Are these and similar
+actions reflex or instinctive? A grain of consciousness preceding an
+action which before has been reflex changes it into instinct. Mr.
+Romanes, probably correctly, regards them as purely reflex. We must,
+I think, believe that these actions result in consciousness even in
+the lowest forms. The selection and attainment of food certainly
+looks like conscious action. Probably all nerve-cells or nervous
+material were originally, even in the lowest forms, dimly conscious;
+then by division of labor some became purely conductive, others more
+highly perceptive. The important thing for us to remember in our
+present ignorance is not to be dogmatic.
+
+Furthermore, the gain of a grain of consciousness of the adaptation
+of certain means to special ends changes instinctive action into
+intelligent, and its loss may reverse the process. Fortunately we
+have found that in so far as actions, even instinctive, are modified
+by experience, they are becoming to that extent intelligent. This
+criterion of intelligence seems easily applied. But this profiting
+by experience must manifest itself within the lifetime of the
+individual, or in lines outside of circumstances to which its
+ordinary instincts are adapted, or we may give to individual
+intelligence the credit due really to natural selection. We must be
+cautious in our judgments.
+
+These reflex actions are performed independently of consciousness or
+will. Consciousness may, probably does, attend the selection and
+grasping of food; but most of the actions of the body will go on
+better without its interference. It is not yet sufficiently
+developed, or, so to speak, wise enough to be intrusted with much
+control of the animal.
+
+Among higher worms cases of instinct seem proven. Traces of it will
+almost certainly be yet found much lower down. Fresh-water mussels
+migrate into deeper water at the approach of cold weather. And if
+the clam has instincts, there is no reason why the turbellaria
+should not also possess them. But all higher powers develop
+gradually, and their beginnings usually elude our search. Along the
+line leading from annelids to insects instinct is becoming dominant.
+A supraoesophageal ganglion has developed, and has been relieved
+of most of the direct control of the muscles. Very good sense-organs
+are also present. From this time on consciousness becomes clearer,
+and the brain is beginning to assert its right to at least know what
+is going on in the body, and to have something to say about it.
+Still, as long as the actions remain purely instinctive the brain,
+while conscious, is governed by heredity. The animal does as its
+ancestors always have. It does not occur to it to ask why it should
+do thus or otherwise, or whether other means would be better fitted
+to the end in view. It acts exactly like most of the members of our
+great political and theological parties. And until the animal has a
+better brain this is its best course and is favored by natural
+selection.
+
+But the hand of even the best dead ancestors cannot always be
+allowed to hold the helm. The brain is still enlarging, the
+sense-organs bring in fuller and more definite reports of a wider
+environment. Greater freedom of action by means of a stronger
+locomotive system is bringing continually new and varied
+experiences. And if, as in vertebrates, longer life be added,
+frequent repetition of the experience deepens the impression.
+Slowly, as if tentatively, the animal begins to modify some of its
+instincts, at first only in slight details, or to adopt new lines of
+action not included in its old instincts, but suited to the new
+emergencies. This is the dawn of intelligence. Its beginnings still
+remain undiscovered. Mr. Darwin believes that traces of it can be
+found in earthworms and other annelids. He also tells us that
+oysters taken from a depth never uncovered by the sea, and
+transported inland, open their shells, lose the contained water, and
+die; but that left in reservoirs, where they are occasionally left
+uncovered for a short time, they learn to keep their shells shut,
+and live for a much longer time when removed from the water. If
+oysters can learn by experience, lower worms probably can do the
+same.
+
+Certain experiments made on sea-anemones, actinæ animals a little
+more highly organized than hydra, demand repetition under careful
+observation.[A] The observer placed on one of the tentacles of a
+sea-anemone a bit of paper which had been dipped in beef-juice. It
+was seized and carried to the mouth and here discarded. This
+tentacle after one or two experiments refused to have anything more
+to do with it. But other tentacles could be successively cheated.
+The nerve-cells governing each tentacle appear to have been able to
+learn by experience, but each group in the diffuse nervous system
+had to learn separately. The dawn of this much of intelligence far
+down in the animal kingdom would not be surprising, for the
+selection and grasping of food has always involved higher mental
+power than most of the actions of these lowest animals. Memory goes
+far down in the animal kingdom. Perhaps, as Professor Haeckel has
+urged, it is an ultimate mental property of protoplasm. And the
+memory of past experience would continually tend to modify habit or
+instinct.
+
+  [Footnote A: These experiments have been continued with most
+  interesting and valuable results by Dr. G.H. Parker, of Harvard
+  University.]
+
+It is unsafe, therefore, to say just where intelligence begins. At a
+certain point we find dim traces of it; below that we have failed to
+find them. But that they will not be found, we dare not affirm. In
+the highest insects instinct predominates, but marks of intelligence
+are fairly abundant. Ants and wasps modify their habits to suit
+emergencies which instinct alone could hardly cope with. Bees learn
+to use grafting wax instead of propolis to stop the chinks in their
+hives, and soon cease to store up honey in a warm climate.
+
+Our knowledge of vertebrate psychology is not yet sufficient to give
+a history of the struggle for supremacy between instinct and
+intelligence, between inherited tendency and the consciousness of
+the individual. But the outcome is evident; intelligence prevails,
+instinct wanes. The actions of the young may be purely instinctive;
+it is better that they should be. But instinct in the adult is more
+and more modified by intelligence gained by experience. There is
+perhaps no more characteristic instinct than the habit of
+nest-building in birds. And yet there are numerous instances where
+the structure and position of nests have been completely changed to
+suit new circumstances. And the view that this habit is a pure
+instinct, unmodified by intelligence, has been disproved by Mr.
+Wallace. But while size of brain, keenness of sense-organs, and
+length of life may be rightly emphasized as the most important
+elements in the development of vertebrate intelligence, the
+importance of the appendages should never be forgotten. Cats seem to
+have acquired certain accomplishments--opening doors, ringing
+door-bells, etc.--never attained by the more intelligent dog, mainly
+because of the greater mobility and better powers of grasping of the
+forepaws. The elephant has its trunk and the ape its hand. The power
+of handling and the increased size of the brain aided each other in
+a common advance.
+
+The teachableness of mammals is also a sign of high intelligence.
+The young are often taught by the parent, a dim foreshadowing of the
+human family relation. And we notice this capacity in domestic
+animals because of its practical value to man. And here, too, we
+notice the difference between individuals, which fails in instinct.
+All spiders of the same species build and hunt alike, although
+differences caused by the moulding influence of intelligence will
+probably be here discovered. But among individual dogs and horses we
+find all degrees of intelligence from absolute stupidity to high
+intelligence. And many mammals are slandered grievously by man. The
+pig is not stupid, far from it.
+
+Still only in man does intelligence reign supreme and clearly show
+its innate powers. But even in man certain realms, like those of the
+internal organs, are rarely invaded by consciousness, but are
+normally left to the control of reflex action. These actions go on
+better without the interference of consciousness.
+
+But other lines of action are relegated as rapidly as possible to
+the same control. We learn to walk by a conscious effort to take
+each step; afterward we take each step automatically, and think only
+whither we wish to go. We learn by conscious effort to talk and
+write, to sing, or play the piano. Afterward we frame each letter or
+note automatically, and think only of the idea and its expression.
+
+So also in our moral and spiritual nature.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Mr. James Freeman Clarke has stated this better than I
+  can. "We may state the law thus: 'Any habitual course of conduct
+  changes voluntary actions into automatic or involuntary (_i.e._,
+  reflex) actions.' By practice man forms habits, and habitual action
+  is automatic action, requiring no exercise of will except at the
+  beginning of the series of acts. The law of association does the
+  rest. As voluntary acts are transformed into automatic, the will is
+  set free to devote itself to higher efforts and larger attainments.
+  After telling the truth a while by an effort, we tell the truth
+  naturally, necessarily, automatically. After giving to good objects
+  for a while from principle, we give as a matter of course. Honesty
+  becomes automatic; self-control becomes automatic. We rule over our
+  spirit, repress ill-temper, keep down bad feelings, first by an
+  effort, afterwards as a matter of course.
+
+  "Possibly these virtues really become incarnate in the bodily
+  organization. Possibly goodness is made flesh and becomes
+  consolidate in the fibres of the brain. Vices, beginning in the
+  soul, seem to become at last bodily diseases; why may not virtues
+  follow the same law? If it were not for some such law of
+  accumulation as this, the work of life would have to be begun
+  forever anew. Formation of character would be impossible. We should
+  be incapable of progress, our whole strength being always employed
+  in battling with our first enemies, learning evermore anew our
+  earliest lessons. But by our present constitution he who has taken
+  one step can take another, and life may become a perpetual advance
+  from good to better. And the highest graces of all--Faith, Hope, and
+  Love--obey the same law." See James Freeman Clarke, Every-Day
+  Religion, p. 122.]
+
+There has been therefore in the successive forms and stages of
+animal life a clear sequence of dominant nervous actions. The
+actions of all animals below the annelid are mainly reflex or
+automatic, unconscious and involuntary. But in insects and lower
+vertebrates the highest actions at least are instinctive.
+Consciousness plays a continually more important part. Still the
+actions are controlled by hereditary tendency far more than by the
+will of the individual. But in man instinct has been almost entirely
+replaced by conscious, voluntary, intelligent action. And yet in
+man, as rapidly as possible, actions which at first require
+conscious effort become, through repetition and habit, reflex and
+automatic. All our conscious effort and the energy of the will,
+being no longer required for these oft-repeated actions, are set
+free for higher attainments. The territory which had to be conquered
+by hard battles has become an integral part of the realm. It now
+hardly requires even a garrison, but has become a source of supplies
+for a new advance and march of conquest.
+
+But all this time we have been talking about action and have not
+given a thought to the will. And we have spoken as if conscious
+perception and intelligence directly controlled will and action. But
+this is of course incorrect. Will is practically power of choice.
+You ask me whether I prefer this or that, and I answer perhaps that
+I do not care. Until I "care" I shall never choose. The perception
+must arouse some feeling, if it is to result in choice. I see a
+diamond in the road and think it is merely a piece of glass. I do
+not stop. But as I am passing on; I remember that there was a
+remarkable brilliancy in its flash. It must have been, after all, a
+gem. My feelings are aroused. How proud I shall feel to wear it. Or
+how much money I can get for it. Or how glad the owner will be when
+it is returned to her. I turn back and search eagerly. Perception is
+necessary, but it is only the first step. The perception must excite
+some feeling, if choice or exertion of the will is to follow. This
+is a truism.
+
+Now reflex action takes place independently of consciousness or
+will. Instinctive action may be voluntary, but it is, after all, not
+so much the result of individual purpose as of hereditary tendency.
+Is there then no will in the animal until it has become intelligent?
+I think there has been a sort of voluntary action all the time. Even
+the amoeba selects or chooses, if I may use the word, its food
+among the sand grains. And the will is stimulated to act by the
+appetite. Hunger is the first teacher. And how did appetite develop?
+Why does the animal hunger for just the food suited to its digestion
+and needs? We do not know. And the reproductive appetite soon
+follows. One of these results from the condition of the digestive,
+the other from that of the reproductive, cells or protoplasm. These
+appetites are due to some condition in a part of the organism and
+can be _felt_. They are in a sense not of the mind but of the body.
+And the response to them on the part of the mind is in some respects
+almost comparable to reflex action. But the mode of the response is,
+to a certain extent at least, within the control of consciousness.
+They train and spur the will as pure reflex action never could. But
+the will is as yet hardly more than the expression of these
+appetites. It expresses not so much its own decision as that of the
+stomach. It is the body's slave and mouthpiece. And once again it is
+best and safest for the animal that it should be so.
+
+And these appetites are at first comparatively feeble. There is but
+little muscle or nerve and but little food is required. But these
+continually strengthen and spur the will harder and more frequently.
+And the will stirs up the weary and flagging muscles. The will may
+be a poor slave and the appetites hard taskmasters. But under their
+stern discipline it is growing stronger and more completely
+subjugating the body. Better slavery to hard taskmasters than
+rottenness from inertia. The first requirement is power, activity,
+and then this power can be directed to ever higher ends. You cannot
+steer the vessel until she has sails or an engine; with no "way on"
+she will not mind the helm, she only drifts. But the condition of
+the animal at this stage certainly looks very unpromising. Can the
+will emancipate itself from appetite and control it? Or is it to
+remain the slave of the body?
+
+In time an emotion appears which marks the influence not directly of
+the body but of the individual consciousness. This is fear; it is
+for the body, but not, like hunger, directly of it. It arises in the
+mind. It results from experience and memory. The first animal which
+feared took a long step upward. But when and where was the dawn of
+fear? I touch a sea-anemone and it contracts. Has it felt fear? I
+think not. The action certainly may be purely reflex. Natural
+selection, not mind, deserves the credit of that action. But I am
+sure that the cat fears the dog, or the dog the cat, as the case may
+be. I have little or no doubt that the bird fears the cat. I am
+inclined to believe that the insect fears the bird and the spider
+the wasp. But does the highest worm fear? I do not know. I do not
+see how there can have been any fear until there was a nerve-centre
+highly enough developed to remember past experiences of danger and
+fair sense-organs to report the present risk.
+
+Other emotions soon follow. Anger appears early. The order of
+appearance of these emotions or motives I shall not attempt to give
+to you. Indeed this is to us of relatively slight importance. The
+important point to notice is that a host of these have appeared in
+mammals and birds, and that each one of these is a new spur to the
+will. And the will of a horse or dog, to say nothing of a pig, is by
+no means feeble. And these are slowly emancipating the animal from
+the tyranny of appetite. But how slow the progress is! Has the
+emancipation yet become complete in man? I need not answer.
+
+The will has in part, at least, escaped from abject slavery to
+appetite; it sometimes rises superior to fear. But it is evidently
+self-centred. The animal may have forgotten the claims of his dead
+ancestors, he is certainly fully alive to his own interests. Can he
+even partially rise superior to prudential considerations, as he has
+to some extent to the claims of appetite? Is it possible to develop
+the unselfish out of the purely selfish? And if so, how is this to
+be accomplished? It is not accomplished in the animal; it is but
+very incompletely accomplished in man. It will be accomplished one
+day.
+
+In action, at least, the animal is not purely selfish. As Mr.
+Drummond has shown, reproduction, that old function and first to
+gain an organ, is not primarily for the benefit of self, but for the
+species. And not only the storing up of material in the egg, but
+care for the young after birth, is found in some fish and insects,
+and increases from fish upward. I readily grant you that this in its
+beginnings may be purely instinctive, and that not a particle of
+genuine affection for the young may as yet be present in the mind of
+the parent. But beneficial habits may, under the fostering care of
+selection, develop into instincts. The animal may at first be
+unconscious of these, and yet they may grow continually stronger.
+But one day the animal awakens to its actions, and from that time on
+what had been done blindly and unconsciously is continued
+consciously, intelligently, and from set purpose. This story is
+repeated over and over again in the history of the animal-kingdom.
+The care for the young once started as an instinct, affection will
+follow from the very association of parent with young. Certainly in
+birds and mammals there seems to be a very genuine love of the
+parents for their young. This is at first short lived, and the young
+are and have to be driven away, often by harsh treatment, to shift
+for themselves. But while it lasts it certainly seems entirely real
+and genuine. And how strong it is. "A bear robbed of her whelps" is
+no meaningless expression. And even the weak and timid bird or
+mammal becomes strong and fierce in defence of her young. In the
+presence of this emotion appetite and fear are alike forgotten.
+
+But this affection or love once started does not remain limited to
+parent and offspring. Mammals, especially the higher forms, are
+social. They frequently go in herds and troops, and appear to have a
+genuine affection for each other. You all know how in herds of
+cattle or wild horses the males form a circle around the females and
+young at the approach of wolves. A troop of orangs were surprised by
+dogs at a little distance from their shelter. The old male orangs
+formed a ring and beat off the dogs until the females and young
+could escape, and then retreated. But as they were now in
+comparative safety a cry came from one young one, who had been
+unable to keep up in the scramble over the rocks, and was left on a
+bowlder surrounded by the dogs. Then one old orang turned back,
+fought his way through the dogs, tucked the little fellow under one
+arm, fought his way out with the other, and brought the young one to
+safety. I call that old orang a hero, but I am prejudiced and may
+easily be mistaken.
+
+In a cage in a European zoölogical garden there were kept together a
+little American monkey and a large baboon of which the former was
+greatly afraid. The keeper, to whom the little monkey was strongly
+attached, was one day attacked and thrown down by the baboon and in
+danger of being killed. Then the little monkey ran to his help, and
+bit and beat his tyrant companion until he allowed the keeper to
+escape. We are all proud that the little monkey was an American.
+
+Instances of disinterested actions are so common among dogs and
+horses that farther illustrations are entirely unnecessary. And
+disinterested action is limited to fewer cases because the
+environment is rarely suited to its development in the animal world.
+But do you answer that the affection of the dog is never really
+disinterested, but a very refined form of selfishness. Possibly. But
+it were to be greatly desired that selfishness would more frequently
+take that same refined form among men. But I cannot see how
+selfishness can ever become so refined as to lead an animal to die
+of grief over its master's grave.
+
+And if refined selfishness were all, I for one cannot help believing
+that the dog would long ago have been asleep on a full stomach
+before the kitchen fire. Has no attempt been made to prove that all
+human actions are due to selfishness more or less refined? It is
+very unwise to apply tests and use arguments concerning animals
+which, if applied with equal strictness to human conduct, would
+prove human society irrational and purely selfish.
+
+Mammals may be self-centred. But the highest forms have set their
+faces away from self and toward the non-self; some have at least
+started on the road which leads to unselfishness.
+
+And man is governed to a certain extent by prudential
+considerations. If he entirely disregarded these he would not be
+wise. But the development of the rational faculty has brought before
+his mind a series of motives higher than these, which are slowly but
+surely superseding them. Truth, right, and duty are motives of a
+different order. With regard to these there can be no question of
+profit or loss. Here the mind cannot stop to ask, Will it pay? Self
+must be left out of account.
+
+        "When duty whispers low, Thou must,
+         The soul replies, I can."
+
+And thus man rises above appetite, above prudential considerations,
+and becomes a free and moral agent. And family and social life bring
+him into new relations, press home upon him new duties and
+responsibilities, every one of which is a new motive compelling him
+to rise above self. And thus the unselfish, altruistic emotions have
+made man what he is, and are in him, ever advancing toward their
+future supremacy. But some one will say, This is a very pretty
+theory; it is not history. But the perception of truth and right is
+certainly a fact, the result of ages of development. And the very
+highest which the intellect can perceive is bound to become the
+controlling motive of the will. It always has been so. It must be
+so, if evolution is not to be purely degeneration. Thus only has man
+become what he is. And the voice of the people demanding truth and
+justice, whenever and wherever they see them, is the voice of God
+promising the future triumph of righteousness. For it is proof
+positive that man's face is resolutely set toward these, as his
+ancestors have always marched steadily toward that which was the
+highest possible attainment.
+
+We find thus that there is a sequence in the motives which control
+the will. The first and lowest motives are the appetites, and here
+the will is the mouthpiece of the bodily organs. Then fear and a
+host of other prudential considerations appear. The lowest of these
+tend purely to the gratification of the senses or to the avoidance
+of bodily discomfort. But they originate in the mind, and that is a
+great gain. But the higher prudential considerations take into
+account something higher than mere bodily comfort or discomfort.
+Approbation and disapprobation are motives which weigh heavily with
+the higher mammals. The lower prudential considerations are purely
+selfish. The higher ones, which stimulate to action for
+fellow-animals or men, show at least the dawn of unselfishness. And
+the altruistic motives, which stimulate to action for the happiness
+and welfare of others, predominate in, and are characteristic of,
+man. The human will is slowly rising above the dominance of
+selfishness. With the dawn of the rational perception of truth,
+right, and duty, the very highest motives begin to gain control.
+And the will becomes more and more powerful as the motives become
+higher. It is almost a mis-use of language to speak of the will of a
+slave of appetite. He is governed by the body, not at all by the
+mind.
+
+The man who is governed by prudential considerations, and is always
+asking, Will it pay? is the incarnation of fickleness, instability,
+and feebleness. The apparent strength of the selfish will is usually
+a hollow sham. But truth, right, and love are motives stronger than
+death. And the will, dominated by these, gives the body to be
+burned. The man of the future will have an iron will, because he
+will keep these highest motives constantly before his mind.
+
+In the preceding lectures we have traced the sequence of functions
+and have found that brain and mind, not digestion and muscle, are
+the goal of animal development. In this lecture we have attempted to
+trace a corresponding series of functions in the realm of mind. We
+have found, I think, that there has been an orderly and logical
+development of perceptions, modes of action, and finally of motives
+in the animal mind. Let us now briefly review this history and see
+whether it throws any light on the path of man's future progress.
+
+Most of the sensory cells of the animal minister at first to reflex
+action, and there is thus little true perception. The stimuli which
+have called forth the reflex action may result afterward in
+consciousness; but until brain and muscle have reached a higher
+grade, this could be of but slight benefit to the animal. Perception
+and consciousness are exercised mainly in the recognition and
+attainment of food. When the animal begins to show fear, we may
+feel tolerably certain that it has been conscious of past experience
+of danger and remembers these experiences. 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 æsthetic 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. And in this connection it is
+interesting to notice the great results of man's training and
+education in the dog. For the wolf and the jackal, the dog's
+nearest relatives, if not his actual ancestors, are not especially
+intelligent mammals. Compared with them the dog is a sage and a
+saint.
+
+The earliest form of action is the reflex. This is independent of
+both consciousness and will. The only conscious voluntary action of
+the animal is limited mainly or entirely to the recognition and
+attainment of food. The motive for the exertion of the will is the
+appetite, and the will is the slave or mouthpiece of the body. Far
+higher than this is the stage of instinct. Here the animal is
+conscious of its actions and new motives begin to appear. But the
+animal is guided by tendencies inherited from its ancestors. The
+will has, so to speak, advisory power; it is by no means supreme.
+But with a wider and deeper knowledge of its environment, with the
+memory of past experiences, carried by the higher locomotive powers
+into new surroundings, brought face to face with new emergencies
+outside of the range of its old instincts, it is compelled to try
+some experiments of its own. It begins to modify these instincts,
+and in time altogether does away with many of them. It has risen a
+little above its old abject slavery to the appetites, it is slowly
+throwing off the bondage to heredity. New emotions or motives have
+arisen appealing directly to the individual will. The heir has been
+long enough under guardians and regents, it assumes the government
+and can rightly say, "L'état, c'est moi."
+
+But a greater problem confronts it; can it rise above self? The
+animal often seems absolutely selfish. Can the unselfish be
+developed out of the selfish? This seems at first sight impossible.
+And the first lessons are so easy, the first steps so short, that we
+do not notice them. Reproduction comes to the aid of mind. The
+young are born more and more immature. They begin to receive the
+care of the parent. The love of the parent for the young is at first
+short lived and feeble. But it is the genuine article, and, like the
+mustard-seed planted in good soil, must grow. It strengthens and
+deepens. Soon it begins to widen also. Social life, very rude and
+imperfect, appears. And the members of this social group support,
+help, and defend one another. And doing for one another and helping
+each other, however slightly and imperfectly, strengthens their
+affection for one another. The animal is still selfish, so is man
+frequently, but it is in a fair way to become unselfish, and this is
+all we can reasonably expect of it.
+
+For these are vast revolutions from reflex action to instinct, and
+from instinct to the reign of the individual will, and from appetite
+to selfishness on the ground of higher motives, and from immediate
+gratification to prudential considerations. And the crowning change
+of all is from selfishness to love. And each one of them takes time.
+Remember that the Old Testament history is the record of how God
+taught one little people that there is but one God, Jehovah. Think
+of the struggles, defeats, and captivities which the Israelites had
+to undergo before they learned this lesson, and even then only a
+fraction of the people ever learned it at all. As the prophet
+foretold, so it came to pass. Though Israel was as the sand by the
+sea-shore, but a remnant was saved.
+
+But while we seek to do full justice to the animal, let us not
+underestimate the vast differences between it and man. The true
+evolutionist takes no low view of man's present actual attainments;
+in his possibilities he has a larger faith than that of the
+disbeliever in evolution. In intelligence and thought, in will power
+and freedom of choice, in one word, in all that makes up character
+and personality, man is immeasurably superior to the animal. These
+powers raise him to a new plane of being, give him an indefinitely
+higher and broader life, and his appearance marks a new era. He
+alone is a moral, responsible being, to a certain extent the former
+of his own destiny and recorder of his doom, if he fails. This gives
+to all his actions a peculiar stamp of a dignity only his. What he
+is and is to be we must attempt to trace in another lecture. But to
+one or two characteristic results of his progress we must call
+attention here.
+
+The principal subject of man's study is not so much the things which
+surround him as his relation to them and theirs to each other. His
+environment has become really one, not so much one of tangible and
+visible objects as of invisible relations. And these will demand
+endless investigation. The more he studies them the more wonderful
+do they become. The vein broadens and grows indefinitely richer the
+deeper he searches into it. We find thus the purpose of the
+intellect; it is to study environment.
+
+And now a little about motives. The animal begins with appetite, and
+some animals and men never get any farther. And yet how easily this
+appetite for food is satiated! We all remember our experiences as
+children around the Thanksgiving or Christmas table. What a
+disappointment it was to us to find how soon our appetite had
+forsaken us, and that we had lost the power of enjoying the
+delicacies which we had most anticipated. And over-indulgence often
+brought sad results and was followed by a period of penitential
+fasting. And the appetites for sense gratification must always lead
+to this result. They not only crave things which "perish with the
+using;" temporarily at least, often permanently, the appetite itself
+perishes with the gratification.
+
+But what of the appetite, if you will pardon the expression, for
+truth and right? All attainment only strengthens it; and, instead of
+enslaving, it makes men ever more free. And yet what a power there
+is in the appetite for truth and righteousness? In obedience to it
+man gives his body to be burned, or pours out his life-blood drop by
+drop for its attainment, and rejoices in the sacrifice. There are
+victims to appetite: there are only martyrs to truth. This soul
+hunger for truth and right, growing more intense as the soul is
+filled with the object of desire, is the only one capable of
+indefinite development and dominance of the will. This must be and
+is the mental goal of animal development, if man has a future
+corresponding in length at all to his past. Otherwise the history of
+life becomes a "story told by an idiot." For its satisfaction is the
+only one which never causes satiety, and of which over-indulgence is
+impossible. All others lead only to a slough of despond, or the
+deeper and more treacherous slough of contentment, beyond which rise
+no delectable mountains or golden city.
+
+And now in closing let me call your attention to one thought of
+practical vital importance.
+
+According to the theory which we have agreed to adopt, higher
+species have arisen through a process of natural selection, those
+species surviving which are best conformed to their environment.
+And this applies to man as well as to lower animals. All knowledge
+is in man, therefore, primarily, a means by which he may conform to
+environment, survive, and progress. But conformity includes more
+than mere knowledge of environment. A man might have all knowledge,
+and yet refuse to conform; and then his knowledge could not save him
+from destruction. For conformity alone gives survival. Conformity in
+man requires an effort of the will. It is intelligent, but it is
+also voluntary action. And knowledge is a necessary means of
+conformity because through it we see how we may conform, and because
+it furnishes the motives which stimulate the will to the necessary
+effort.
+
+Now, that faculty of the intellect which is dominant in man, and
+which has raised him immeasurably above the animal, and made him
+man, is the rational intelligence. If there is any such thing as a
+law of history or as continuity in evolution, man's future progress
+must depend upon his clearer vision and recognition of the
+perceptions of this faculty. Through it man perceives beauty, truth,
+and goodness, and attains knowledge of himself as a person and moral
+agent, and recognizes his rights and duties. Of all this the animal
+is and remains unconscious; indeed he is not yet a moral being and
+person in any proper sense of the word.
+
+Inasmuch as the rational perception is the dominant faculty in man,
+it must perceive the lines along which he is to conform. Truth,
+right, and duty must be his watchwords. These are to be the rules
+and motives of all his actions. He cannot live for the body, but for
+something higher, the mind. This was proven before man appeared on
+the globe. He is to be a mental, intelligent being. But he is not to
+be governed by appetite or mere prudential considerations. These are
+animal, not human motives. These are not to be disregarded any more
+than digestion can be safely disregarded by man. But they are not to
+be his chief motives. He must subordinate these to the higher
+motives furnished by right and duty. Man is not merely a mental but
+a moral being. If he sinks below this plane of life he is not
+following the path marked out for him in all his past development.
+In order to progress, the higher vertebrate had to subordinate
+everything to mental development. In order to become man it had to
+develop the rational intelligence. In order to become higher man,
+present man must subordinate everything to moral development. This
+is the great law of animal and human development clearly revealed in
+the sequence of physical and mental functions.
+
+Must man be a religious being also? This question we must try to
+answer in a future lecture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT
+
+
+I have attempted to show that animal development has not been an
+aimless drifting. Functions developed and organs arose and were
+perfected in a certain order. First the purely vegetative organs
+appeared, and the animal lived for digestion and reproduction; then
+came muscle and it brought with it nerve. But these were not enough;
+the brain had all the time been gradually improving, and now it
+becomes the dominant function to which all others are subordinated.
+The experiment was fairly tried. Mere digestion and reproduction are
+carried to about the highest perfection which can be expected of
+them in worms and mollusks. The bird tried what could be done with
+digestion ministering to locomotion guided by the very keenest
+sense-organs and controlled by no mean brain. Even this experiment
+was not a success. But one organ remained, the brain, and on its
+mental possibilities depend the future of the animal kingdom.
+Vegetative organs and muscle have been tried and found wanting.[1]
+
+  [Footnote 1: See chart, p. 310.]
+
+We have followed hastily the development of mind. The mind began its
+career as the servant of digestion, recognizing and aiding to attain
+food. Action is at first mainly reflex. But conscious perception
+plays an ever more important part. The animal is at first guided by
+natural selection through the survival of the most suitable reflex
+actions, then by inherited tendencies, finally by its own conscious
+intelligence and will. The first motives are the appetites, but
+these are succeeded by ever higher motives as the perceptions become
+clearer and more subtile relations in environment are taken into
+account. Governed first purely by appetites, the will is ever more
+influenced by prudential considerations, and finally shows
+well-developed "natural affections." It has set its face toward
+unselfishness.
+
+Digestion and muscle, as well as mind, have persisted in man. He is
+not, cannot be, disembodied spirit. And in his mental life reflex
+action and instinct, appetite and prudence, are still of great
+importance. But the higher and supreme development of these powers
+could never have resulted in man. They might alone have produced a
+superior animal, never man. His mammalian structure found its
+logical and natural goal in family and social life. And even the
+lowest goal of family life is incompatible with pure selfishness,
+and as family life advanced to an ever higher grade it became the
+school of unselfishness and love. And social life had a similar
+effect.
+
+Moreover, man as a social being early began to learn that he could
+claim something from his fellows, and that he owed something to
+them. If he refused to help others, they would refuse to help him.
+This was his first, very rude lesson in rights and duties. Love,
+duty, and right have ever since been the watchwords of his
+development and progress. We have not yet considered, and must for
+the present disregard, the value and efficiency of religion in
+aiding his advance. At present we emphasize only the historical
+fact that man has not become what he is by a higher development of
+the body, nor by giving free rein to appetite, nor yet by making the
+dictates of selfish prudence supreme. And if there is any such thing
+as continuity in history, such modes and aims of life, if now
+followed, would surely only brutalize him and plunge him headlong in
+degeneration. He must live for right, truth, love, and duty. In just
+so far as he makes any other aim in life supreme, or allows it to
+even rival these, he is sinking into brutality. This is the clear,
+unmistakable verdict of history, and we shall do well to heed it.
+
+But granting all that can be claimed for this sequence, have not the
+lower forms whose anatomy we have sketched--worm, fish, and
+bird--halted at various points along this line of march? Yet they
+have evidently survived. And if they have found safe resting-places,
+cannot higher forms turn back and join them? In other words, is not
+degeneration easier than advance and just as safe? What is the
+result if an animal tries to return to a lower plane of life or
+refuses to take the next upward step? Generally extermination. The
+very classification of worms in a number of small isolated groups,
+which must once have been connected by a host of intermediate forms,
+is indisputable proof of most terrible extermination. They did not
+go forward, and the survivors are but an infinitesimal fraction of
+those which perished. Let us take an illustration where palæontology
+can help us. The earth was at one time covered with marsupial
+mammals. Some advanced into placental forms. The great mass remained
+behind. And outside of Australia the opossums are the only survivors
+of them all. And this is only one example where a thousand could be
+given. Place is not long reserved for mere cumberers of the ground.
+There are so few exceptions to this statement that we might almost
+call it a law of biology.
+
+Let us see how it fares with an animal which retreats to a lower
+plane of life. A worm, rather than seek its own food, becomes a
+parasite. It degenerates, but still is easily recognized as a worm.
+A crustacean tries the same experiment, though living outside of its
+host instead of in it. It sinks to a place even lower, if possible,
+than that of the parasitic worm. A locomotive form becomes sessile.
+It loses most of its muscles and the larger part of its nervous
+system; and even the digestive system, which it has made the goal of
+its existence, is inferior to that of its locomotive ancestors and
+relatives. But to the vertebrate these lowest depths of stagnation
+and degeneration are, as a rule, impossible. From true fish upward
+parasitism and sessile life are practically impossible. Here
+stagnation and degeneration mean, as a rule, extinction. Of all the
+relatives of vertebrates back to worms only the very aberrant lines
+of amphioxus and of the tunicata remain. Of the rest not a single
+survivor has yet been discovered. And yet what hosts of species must
+have peopled the sea. The primitive round-mouthed fishes have
+practically disappeared. The ganoids survive in a few species out of
+thousands. The amphibia of the carboniferous and the next period and
+the reptiles of the mesozoic have disappeared; only a few feeble
+degenerate remnants persist. And this was necessarily so. Each
+advancing form crowded hardest on those which occupied the same
+place and sought the same food, that is, the members of the same
+species. And the first to suffer from its competition were its own
+brethren. Death, rarely commuted into life imprisonment, is the
+verdict pronounced on all forms which will not advance. And does not
+the same law of advance or extinction apply to man? What is the
+record of successive civilizations but its verification?
+
+Notice once more that as we ascend in the scale of development
+natural selection selects more unsparingly and the path to life
+narrows. It is a very easy matter for the lowest forms to get food.
+Indeed the plant sits still and its food comes to it. And the battle
+of brute force can be fought in a multitude of ways--by mere
+strength, by activity, by offensive or defensive armor, or even by
+running into the mud and skulking. It is harder to gain knowledge,
+and yet many roads lead to an education. Colleges are by no means
+the only seats of education. And many totally uneducated men have
+college diplomas. And life is, after all, the great university, and
+here the sluggard fails and the plucky man with the poor "fit" often
+carries off the honors.
+
+  "But where shall wisdom be found?
+   And where is the place of understanding?
+   The gold and the crystal cannot equal it:
+   And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
+   No mention shall be made of corals or of pearls:
+   For the price of wisdom is above rubies."
+
+And when it comes to righteousness there is only one right, and
+everything else is wrong. "Wide is the gate and broad is the way
+that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat:
+Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto
+life, and few there be that find it." Therefore "strive to enter in
+at the strait gate." And remember that "strive" means wrestle like
+one of the athletes in the old Olympic games.
+
+   "I saw also that the Interpreter took Christian again by the hand
+   and led him into a pleasant place, where was built a stately
+   palace beautiful to behold; at the sight of which Christian was
+   greatly delighted. He saw also, upon the top thereof, certain
+   persons walking, who were clothed all in gold. Then said
+   Christian, May we go in thither?
+
+   "Then the Interpreter took him and led him up toward the door of
+   the palace; and, behold, at the door stood a great company of
+   men, as desirous to go in, but durst not. There also sat a man at
+   a little distance from the door at a table-side, to take the name
+   of him that should enter therein; he saw also that in the
+   door-way stood many men in armour, to keep it, being resolved to
+   do to the men that would enter what hurt and mischief they could.
+   Now was Christian somewhat in amaze. At last, when every man
+   started back for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man of a
+   very stout countenance come up to the man that sat there to
+   write, saying, Set down my name, Sir; the which when he had done,
+   he saw the man draw his sword, and put an helmet upon his head,
+   and rush toward the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him
+   with deadly force; but the man, not at all discouraged, fell to
+   cutting and hacking most fiercely. So after he had received and
+   given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him out, he cut
+   his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace, at
+   which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that were
+   within, even of those that walked upon the top of the palace
+   saying:
+
+        "'Come in, come in;
+          Eternal glory thou shalt win.'
+
+   "So he went in, and was clothed in such garments as they.
+
+   "Then Christian smiled, and said, I think verily I know the
+   meaning of this."--Bunyan's, Pilgrim's Progress, p. 44.
+
+If you wish to climb the Matterhorn many paths lead up the lower
+slopes, and a stumble here may cost you only a sprain. And I suppose
+that several paths lead to the base of the cone. But thence to the
+summit there is but one path, and a misstep means death. Pardon
+these quotations and illustrations. They are my only means of at all
+adequately presenting to you a scientific man's conception of the
+meaning of the struggle for life. The laws of evolution are written
+in blood and bear the death penalty. For
+
+              "Life is not as idle ore,
+        But iron dug from central gloom,
+        And heated hot with burning fears,
+        And dipt in baths of hissing tears,
+        And battered with the shocks of doom
+        To shape and use."
+
+There would seem therefore to be going on a process of natural
+selection. Natural selection seems to select more unsparingly and
+the struggle for life--or even existence--to grow fiercer as we
+advance from lower forms to higher in the animal kingdom.
+
+But the theory which we have agreed to accept teaches us that these
+survivors are those which or who have conformed to their environment
+and that they have survived because of their conformity. And what do
+we mean by environment? And does not man modify his environment?
+Certainly he changes by irrigation a desert into a garden. He
+carries water against its tendency to the hill-top. But he has
+learned to do this only by studying the laws which govern the
+motions of fluids and rigorously obeying them. He must carry his
+water in strong pipes and take it from some higher point, or must
+use heat or some means to furnish the force to drive it to the
+higher point. He cannot change a single iota of the law, and gains
+control of the elements only by obedience to their laws. Electricity
+is man's best servant as long as he respects its laws, but it kills
+him who disobeys them. But does not man make his own surroundings in
+social life? He merely enters upon a new mode of life; and if this
+new mode be in conformity with the eternal forces and laws of
+environment man prospers in this new mode of life and conforms still
+more closely.
+
+There is, indeed, but one environment, but the lower animal comes in
+contact with, and is affected by, but a small portion of its
+elements. Form and color were in the world before the animal had
+developed an eye, but up to this time these could have but little
+effect on animal life. Light vibrations were present in ether long
+before the animal by responding to them made them any part of its
+own true environment. There is vastly more in environment than man
+has yet discovered, and he will discover these elements only by
+obedience to their laws.
+
+Environment includes ultimately all the forces and elements which go
+to make up our world or universe. It is an exceedingly general term.
+I might say that under the environment of certain wheels, springs,
+and spindles, which we call a Jacquard loom, silk threads become a
+ribbon worthy of a queen. Is Nature and environment only a huge
+divine loom to weave man and something higher yet? One great
+difference is evident. Under normal conditions the silk must become
+a ribbon. But protoplasm can fail to conform and become waste.
+Environment is a very hard word to define, and our views concerning
+it may differ.
+
+One thing, however, seems to me clear and evident. If each
+successive stage in the ascending series is selected or survives on
+account of its conformity to environment there must be some element
+or power, something or somewhat in environment specially
+corresponding in some way to, or suited to drawing out, the
+characteristic of this ascending stage on account of which it
+survives. The forces and elements of environment make and work
+against those at each stage who wander from the right path, and for
+those who follow it. And thus natural selection arises as the total
+result of the combined working of all these forces. They all unite
+in one resultant working along a certain line, and natural selection
+is the effect of this resultant. In the stage represented by hydra
+the forces of environment combine in a resultant which works for
+digestion and reproduction and the best development of their organs.
+But as the animal changes he comes into a new relation or occupies a
+new position in respect to these forces. New elements in the old
+environment are beginning to press upon him. And the resultant
+changes accordingly. He may be compared to a steamer at sea which
+raises a sail. The wind has been blowing for hours, but the sail
+gives it a new hold on the ship. Steam and wind now combine in a new
+resultant of forces. From worms upward environment manifests itself
+through natural selection as a power working for muscular force and
+brute strength or activity.
+
+But soon natural selection ceases to select on the ground of brute
+force. After a time environment proves to be a power making for
+shrewdness. And when the mammal has appeared the resultant of the
+forces of environment impels more and more toward unselfishness, and
+when man has appeared environment proves to be a "power, not
+ourselves, that makes for righteousness." But what shall we say of
+an environment which unmasks itself at last as a power making for
+intelligence, unselfishness, and righteousness? Someone may answer
+it is a host of chemical and physical forces bringing about very
+high ends. That is very true, but is it the whole truth? The
+thinking man must ask, How did it come about, and why is it that all
+these forces work together for such high moral and intelligent ends?
+
+We face, therefore, the question, Can an environment which proves
+finally and ultimately to be a power not ourselves making for
+righteousness and unselfishness be purely material and mechanical?
+Or must there be in or behind it something spiritual? Shall we best
+call environment, in its highest manifestation, "it" or "him?"
+
+The old argument of Socrates, as on the last day of his life he sits
+discoursing with his friends, still holds good. He is discussing the
+same old question, whether there is anything more than force,
+material, mechanism in the world. He says that one might assign as
+"the cause why I am sitting here that my body is composed of bones
+and muscles; that the bones are solid and separate, and that the
+muscles can be contracted and extended, and are all inclosed in the
+flesh and skin; and that the bones, being jointed, can be drawn by
+the muscles, and so I can move my legs as you see; and that this is
+the reason why I am sitting here. But by the dog, these bones and
+muscles would long ago have carried me to Megara or Booetia, moved
+by my opinion of what was best, if I had not thought it more right
+and honorable to submit to the sentence pronounced by the state than
+to run away from it. To call such things causes is absurd. For there
+is a great difference between the cause and that without which the
+cause would not produce its effect."
+
+If there is no intelligence or love of truth in the cause, how can
+there be anything higher in the effect? And if Socrates had been
+only bone and muscle, he ought to have run away.
+
+Our problem stands somewhat as follows: We have given protoplasm, a
+strange substance of marvellous capacities, which we call functions,
+and possessing a power of developing into beings of ever higher
+grades of organization. Environment proves to be a combination of
+forces working for the higher development of functions in a certain
+orderly sequence. And every lower function in the ascending line
+demands the development of the next higher. Digestion demands
+muscle, and muscle nerve, and nerve brain. We shall soon see that
+mammalian structure had to culminate in the family, and the family
+demands unselfishness and obedience. Environment therefore proves
+from the beginning to have been unceasingly working for the highest
+end; never, even temporarily, merely for the lower. For we have seen
+that environment works most unsparingly against those who, having
+taken certain of the steps in the ascending path, fail to continue
+therein.
+
+But in order to attain this highest end for which it has always been
+working, an immense number of subsidiary ends have had to be
+attained. These are not merely digestion and brain, but a host of
+others: _e.g._, in vertebrates, vertebræ of the right substance,
+position, form, arrangement, and union. And in the ascending line,
+for whose highest forms it has continually worked, the difficulties
+of attaining each subsidiary end have been successively solved, and
+through this host of subsidiary ends the animal kingdom has advanced
+straight to its goal of intelligence and righteousness. Now the
+whole process is a grand argument for design. But I would not
+emphasize the process so much as the end attained. This especially,
+when attained by conformity to that environment, demands more than
+mere mindless atoms in or behind that environment. Can we call the
+ultimate power which makes for righteousness "it?" Can we call it
+less than "Him, in whom we live and move and have our being?"
+
+The history of life is a grand drama. "Paradise Lost" and
+Shakespeare's plays are but fragments of it. But without
+intelligence they could never have been composed; without a choice
+of means and ends they could never have been placed upon the stage.
+Does the plot of this grander drama of evolution demand no
+intelligence in its ultimate cause and producer? Is the succession
+of steps, each succeeding the other in such order as to lead to
+truth and right and continual progress toward a spiritual goal, is
+this plot possible without a great composer who has seen the end
+from the beginning? Could it ever have been executed upon the stage
+of the world, and perhaps of the universe, without an executing
+will?
+
+Now I freely grant you that this is no mathematical demonstration.
+Natural science does not deal in demonstrations, it rests upon the
+doctrine of probabilities; just as we have to order our whole lives
+according to this doctrine. Its solution of a problem is never the
+only conceivable answer, but the one which best fits and explains
+all the facts and meets the fewest objections. The arguments for the
+existence of a personal God are far stronger than those in favor of
+any theory of evolution. But we very rightly test the former
+arguments, indefinitely more rigidly and severely, just because our
+very life hangs on them. On the other hand, we should not reject
+them as useless, because they are not of an entirely different kind
+from those on which all the actions and beliefs of our common daily
+life are based. There is a scepticism which is merely a credulity of
+negations. This also we should avoid.
+
+We have considered a few of the reasons for thinking that, with the
+material, there must be something spiritual in environment, that if
+the woof is material the warp is God. Here we need not delay long.
+Blank atheism seems to be at present unpopular and generally
+regarded as unscientific. The so-called philosophic materialism of
+the present day seems to be in general far nearer to pantheism than
+to the old form of materialism which recognized only atoms and
+mechanism. Atheism as a power to deform the lives of men has, for
+the present, lost its hold, and even agnosticism is respectful. The
+materialism against which we have to struggle is not that of the
+school, but of the shop, of society, of life. There are
+comparatively few now who avow a system of philosophy making
+mindless atoms their first cause.
+
+But there is a far grosser, more deadly materialism of the heart
+and will. It sits unrebuked in the front pews of our churches and
+controls alike church and parish, caucus and legislature. It calls
+on us all to fall down and worship, promising the world if we obey,
+the cross if we refuse. And we bow to it; and that is all it asks,
+for a nod on our part makes us its slaves. It is the idolatry of
+money, position, shrewdness, learning--in one word, of success. It
+takes all the strength out of our morality, loyalty and obedience to
+God out of our religion, and makes cowards and liars of us, who
+should be heroes. It makes our religion a byword with honest
+unbelievers. And if they are honest scientific minds, waiting for
+evidence of the practical value of our religion, why should they
+believe, when we live so successfully down to the religion which we
+would scorn to openly profess? Our fathers may have been narrow or
+straight-laced; they were not cross-eyed from trying to keep one eye
+on God and the other on the main chance. What is the use of
+whispering, "Lord, Lord," Sundays, if we shout, "Oh, Baal, hear us,"
+all the rest of the week. Let us at least be honest, and "if Baal be
+god, follow him," and avow it. And worst, and most hideous, of all,
+we are not so much hypocrites as self-deceived. Let us not forget
+the old Greek doctrine of Ate, goddess of judicial blindness, sent
+down only upon those who were living the unpardonable sin of
+indifference.
+
+But supposing that there is in environment something more and other
+than material, can we possibly know anything about it?
+
+I am in a boat near the mouth of a river. The boat is tossed by the
+waves, driven by currents of wind, and now and then temporarily
+turned by eddies. I seem to look out upon a chaos of apparently
+conflicting forces. But all the time the wind and tide are sweeping
+me homeward. Now the wind, which sometimes indeed does shift, and
+the great tidal wave are steadily bearing me in a certain direction,
+though wave and eddy and gust may often make this appear doubtful to
+me. So, underneath all waves and eddies of environment, there is a
+great tidal wave, bearing man steadily onward; and I gain a certain
+amount of valid knowledge of environment from the direction in which
+it is bearing me.
+
+Let us change the illustration. Man survives as all his ancestors
+have survived before him, through conformity to environment.
+Environment has therefore during ages past been continually making
+impressions upon him. And he can draw valid inferences concerning
+the one power, which must underlie the apparent host of forces of
+environment, from the impressions which these have left upon the
+structure of his mind and character. By studying himself he gains
+valid knowledge of what is deepest in environment. For man is the
+most completely and closely conformed thereto of all living beings.
+
+But man _is_ a religious being. This is a fact which demands
+explanation just as much as bone and muscle. Now no evolutionist
+would believe that the eye could ever have developed without the
+stimulus of light acting upon the cells of the skin. Place the
+animal in darkness and the eye becomes rudimentary and disappears.
+Could a visual organ for seeing moral and religious truth have ever
+originated in the mind of man had there been no corresponding
+pulsation and thrill of a corresponding reality in environment? Is
+not the one development just as improbable or inconceivable as the
+other?
+
+And this is the reason that, when man awakened to himself and his
+own powers, he knew that there was and must be a God. "Pass over the
+earth," says Plutarch; "you may discover cities without walls,
+without literature, without monarchs, without palaces and wealth;
+where the theatre and the school are not known; but no man ever saw
+a city without temples and gods, where prayers and oaths and oracles
+and sacrifices were not used for obtaining pardon or averting evil."
+Given man and environment as they are, and a belief in God is a
+necessary result. But you may ask, if we are to worship a personal
+God, why might not a conscious and religious hydra, with equal
+right, worship an infinite stomach, and the annelid a god of mere
+brute force?
+
+There stands in Florence a magnificent statue by Michel Angelo. A
+human figure is only partially hewn out of the stone. He never
+finished it. If you could have seen the master hewing the chips with
+hasty, impatient blows from the shapeless block, you would have been
+tempted to say that he was but a stonecutter, and but a hasty
+workman at that. Even now we do not know exactly what form and
+expression he would have given to the still unfinished head. But no
+one can examine it and hesitate to pronounce it a grand work of a
+master-mind. In any manifestly incomplete work you must judge the
+purpose and character and powers of the workman or artist by its
+highest possibilities, just so far as you have any reason to believe
+that these possibilities will be realized. You must look at the
+rudely outlined heroic human figure in the block of stone, not at
+the rough unfinished pedestal, if you would know Michel Angelo. So
+in the hydra and the annelid you must look at the possibilities of
+the nervous system before you or he think that digestion and muscle
+are all.
+
+Once more the highest powers dawn far down in the animal kingdom.
+There are traces of mind in the amoeba, and of unselfishness in
+the lower mammals. If there were a goal of human development higher
+and other than unselfishness, wisdom, and love, we should have seen
+traces of it before this. But have we found the faintest sign of any
+such? Moreover, remember that a function continues to develop about
+as long as it shows the capacity for development. And during that
+period environment is a power making for its higher development. But
+is there any limit to the possible development of the three mental
+activities mentioned above? I can see none. Then must we not expect
+that environment will always make for these? And will environment
+ever manifest itself to man as the seat or instrument of a power
+possessing higher faculties other than these? Man must worship a
+personal God of wisdom, unselfishness, and love, or cease to
+worship. The latter alternative he never yet has been able to take,
+and society survive under its domination. So I at least am compelled
+to read the finding of biological history.
+
+But let us grant for the sake of argument that man contains still
+undeveloped germs of faculties capable of perceiving and attaining
+something as much higher than wisdom and love as these are higher
+than brute force. You will answer, this is not only inconceivable,
+it is impossible. Still let us grant the possibility. We notice,
+first of all, that it is against the whole course of evolution that
+these faculties should be other than mental, and what we class under
+powers pertaining to our personality. For ages past evidently, and
+no less really from the very beginning, evolution has worked for the
+body only as a perfect vehicle of mind, and for this as leading to
+will and character. And human development has led, and ever more
+tends, as Mr. Drummond has shown, to the arrest, though not the
+degeneration, of the body. It is to remain at the highest possible
+stage of efficiency as the servant of mind. These higher powers will
+thus be mental and personal powers. And how has any and every
+advance to higher capabilities been attained in the animal kingdom?
+Merely by the most active possible exercise of the next lower power.
+This is proven by the sequence of physical and mental functions. We
+shall attain, therefore, any higher mental capacities only by the
+continual practice of wisdom and love. That is our only path to
+something higher, if higher there shall ever be. But if we find that
+the God of our environment is a God of something higher than love
+and righteousness, will these cease to be characteristics of his
+nature and essence? Not at all.
+
+I have learned, perhaps, to know my father as a plain citizen. If I
+later find that he is a king and statesman, with powers and mental
+capacities of which I have never dreamed, do I therefore from that
+time cease to think of him as wise and kind and good? Not in the
+least. I only trust his love and wisdom as guide of my little life
+all the more. And shall not the same be true of God though he be
+king of all worlds and ages? It becomes unwise and wrong to worship
+God as the God of might only when we have found that he is a God
+also of something higher and nobler, of love; and after we have
+perceived this fully and worship him as love, we rest in the arms of
+his infinite power.
+
+But now that the work has gone thus far, we can see that all
+development must take place along personal, spiritual lines; and are
+compelled to believe in a spiritual cause who knew the end from the
+beginning. And man's farther progress depends upon his conformity to
+this spiritual environment. And what is conformity to the personal
+element in our environment but likeness to him? This is my only
+possible mode of conformity to a person--to become like him in word,
+action, thought, and purpose, and finally in all my being. Very far
+from a close resemblance we still are. But we are more like him than
+primitive man was; and our descendants will resemble him far more
+closely than we. And thus man, conscious of his environment, and
+that means capable of knowing something about God, knows at least
+what God requires of him, namely, righteousness, love, and likeness
+to himself; or, as the old heathen seer expressed it, "to do justly,
+love mercy, and walk humbly before God." Man is and must be a
+religious being. And he conforms consciously. Thus to be more like
+God he must know more about him, and to know more about him he must
+become more like him. The two go hand in hand, and by mutual
+reaction strengthen each other. I will not enter into the most
+important question of all, whether we can ever really know a person
+unless we have some love for him. The facts of evolution seem to me
+to admit of but one interpretation, that of Augustine: "Thou hast
+formed me for thee, O Lord, and my restless spirit finds no rest but
+in thee." Granted, therefore, a personal God in and behind
+environment, however dimly perceived, and conformity to environment
+means god-likeness; for conformity to a person can mean nothing less
+than likeness to him.
+
+Some of you must, all of you should, have read Professor Huxley's
+"Address on Education." In it he says, "It is a very plain and
+elementary truth that the life, the fortune, and the happiness of
+every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with
+us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game
+infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game
+which has been played for unknown ages, every man and woman of us
+being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The
+chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the
+universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature.
+The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his
+play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our
+cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest
+allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well the highest
+stakes are paid with that sort of overflowing generosity with which
+the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is
+checkmated--without haste, but without remorse.
+
+"My metaphor," he continues, "will remind some of you of the famous
+picture in which Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with
+man for his soul. Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture
+a calm, strong angel, who is playing for love, as we say, and would
+rather lose than win--and I should accept it as an image of human
+life."[1]
+
+  [Footnote 1: Huxley: Lay Sermons and Addresses, p. 31.]
+
+This is a marvellous illustration, and in general as true as it is
+beautiful and grand. But that "calm, strong angel who is playing for
+love, as we say, and would rather lose than win," is certainly a
+very strange antagonist. Is it, after all, possible that our
+clear-eyed scientific man has altogether misunderstood the game? Is
+not the "calm, strong angel" more probably our partner? Certainly
+very many things point that way. And who are our antagonists? Look
+within yourself and you will always find at least a pair ready to
+take a hand against you, to say nothing of the possibilities of
+environment. "Rex regis rebellis." Our partner is trying by every
+method, except perhaps by "talking across the board," to teach us
+the laws and methods of this great game. And calls and signals are
+always allowable. The game is not finished in one hand; he gives us
+a second and third, and repeats the signals, and never misleads.
+Only when we carelessly or obstinately refuse to learn, and wilfully
+lose the game beyond all hope, does he leave us to meet our losses
+as best we may.
+
+Let us carry the illustration a step farther. Who knows that the
+game was, or could be, at first taught without talking across the
+board? I can find nothing in science to compel such a belief, many
+things render it improbable. Grant a personality in environment to
+which personality in man is to conform and gain likeness.
+Environment can act on the digestive and muscular systems through
+mere material. But how can personality in environment act on
+personality in man except by personal contact or by symbols easy of
+comprehension according to its own laws? Some method of attaining
+acquaintance at least we should certainly expect.
+
+But some of you may ask, How can any theory of evolution guarantee
+that anything of the present shall survive in the future? It is
+continually changing and destroying former types. The old order of
+everything changes and passes away, giving place to the new. But is
+this the whole truth? Evolution is a radical process, but we must
+never forget that it is also, and at the same time, exceedingly
+conservative. The cell was the first invention of the animal
+kingdom, and all higher animals are and must be cellular in
+structure. Our tissues were formed ages on ages ago; they have all
+persisted. Most of our organs are as old as worms. All these are
+very old, older than the mountains, and yet I cannot doubt that they
+must last as long as man exists. Indeed, while Nature is wonderfully
+inventive of new structures, her conservatism in holding on to old
+ones is still more remarkable. In the ascending line of development
+she tries an experiment once exceedingly thorough, and then the
+question is solved for all time. For she always takes time enough to
+try the experiment exhaustively. It took ages to find how to build a
+spinal column or brain, but when the experiment was finished she had
+reason to be, and was, satisfied. And if this is true of bodily
+organs we should expect that the same law would hold good when the
+animal development gradually passes over into the spiritual. And
+what is human history but the record of moral and religious
+experiments, and their success or failure according as the
+experimenters conformed to the laws of the spiritual forces with
+which they had to do?
+
+We need not fear that our old fundamental beliefs will be lost.
+Their very age shows that they have been thoroughly tested in the
+great experiment of human history and found sure. Modified they may
+be; they will be used for higher purposes and the building of better
+characters than ours. They will not be lost or discarded. We too
+often think of nature as building like man, with huge scaffoldings,
+which must later be torn down and destroyed. But in the forest the
+only scaffolding is the heart of oak.
+
+We have seen that the sequence of functions in animal development
+has culminated in man's rational, moral nature. He alone has the
+clear perception of the reality of right, truth, and duty. The
+pursuit of these has made him what he is. His advance, if there is
+any continuity in history, depends upon his making these the ruling
+motives and aims of his life. He must continually grow in
+righteousness and unselfishness, if he is not to degenerate and give
+place to some other product of evolution. Moreover, as these moral
+faculties are capable of indefinite, if not infinite, development,
+they must dominate his life through a future of indefinite duration.
+For the length of the period of dominance of a function has always
+been proportional to the capacity of that function for future
+development. These can never, so far as we can see, be superseded,
+for no rival to them can be discovered. We have found in them the
+culmination of the sequence of functions.
+
+We have attempted to show in this lecture that reversal of this
+grand sequence has always led to degeneration, or, in higher forms,
+far more frequently, to extinction. As we ascend, natural selection
+works more, rather than less, unsparingly. And as advance depends
+upon conformity to environment, and as the highest forms must be
+regarded as therefore most completely conformed, we gain our most
+adequate knowledge of environment when we study it as working
+especially for these. For these have been from the very beginning
+its far-off, chief aim and goal. Viewed from this standpoint,
+environment proves to be a host of interacting forces uniting in a
+resultant "power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness," and
+unselfishness.
+
+Inasmuch as man's rational moral nature, his personality, is the
+result of the last and longest step toward and in conformity to
+environment, these powers correspond to that which is at the same
+time highest, and deepest, and most fundamental in that environment.
+This power which makes for righteousness is therefore to be regarded
+as personal and spiritual rather than material. It is God immanent
+in nature. And it is mainly to this personal and spiritual element
+in his environment that man is in the future to more completely
+conform. Conformity to this element in man's environment does not so
+much result in life as it _is_ life; failure to conform is death.
+And the pressure of environment upon man, compelling him to choose
+between life through conformity and non-conformity with death, can
+be most naturally and adequately explained as the expression of his
+will. We know what he requires of us.
+
+Our knowledge of him is very incomplete, but may be valid as far as
+it extends. And it would seem to be valid, for it has been tested by
+ages of experiment. The results of this grand experiment have been
+summed up in man's fundamental religious beliefs. And farther
+knowledge will be gained by more complete obedience to the
+requirements already known. The evidence, that these fundamental
+religious beliefs will persist, is of the same character as that
+upon which rests our belief in the persistence of cells and tissues.
+The one is rooted in the structure of our minds; the other, in the
+structure of our bodies. But, after all, only will can act upon
+will, and personality upon personality. It remains for us to examine
+how man was compelled by his very structure to develop a new element
+in his environment, conformed indeed to the laws of his old
+environment, but better fitted to draw out the moral and spiritual
+side of his nature. And in connection with this study we may hope to
+gain some new light on the laws of conformity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT
+
+
+We are too prone to think that soil and climate, hill-side or plain,
+mountain and shore, temperature and rainfall, constitute the sole or
+the most important elements in human environment. Every one of these
+elements is doubtless important. Frost, drought, or barrenness of
+soil may make a region a desert, or dwarf the development of its
+inhabitants. Mountaineer, and the dweller on the plain, and the
+fisherman on the shore of the ocean develop different traits through
+the influence of their surroundings. In too warm a climate the human
+race loses its mental and moral vigor and degenerates. This is
+undeniable.
+
+But, though one soil and climate and set of physical surroundings
+may be more conducive than another to the development of heroism,
+truthfulness, unselfishness, and righteousness, no one is essential
+to their production or sure to give rise to them. Moral and
+religious character is a feature of man's personality, and our
+personality is moulded mainly by the men and women with whom we
+associate. A man is not only "known by the company which he keeps;"
+he is usually fashioned by and conforms to it. As President Seelye
+has well said, "The only motive which can move a will is either a
+will itself, or something into which a will enters. It is not a
+thought, but only a sentiment, a deed, or a person, by which we
+become truly inspired. It is not the intellect, but the heart and
+will, through which and by which we are controlled. It is not the
+precepts of life, but life itself, by which alone we are begotten
+and born unto life.
+
+"Now, there are two ways in which living power, personal power, the
+power of a will, may enter a soul and give it life; the one is when
+God's will works upon us, and the other when our wills work upon one
+another. God's will may directly penetrate ours, enabling us to will
+and to do of his good pleasure; and our own wills, thus inspired,
+may be the torch to kindle other wills with the same inspiration. It
+is in only one of these two ways that a human soul can be truly
+inspired; and, without a true inspiration, no amount of instruction,
+whether in duty, or life, or anything else, will change a single
+moral propensity."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Seelye: Christian Missions, p. 154.]
+
+Even though a Lincoln may rise above his hereditary position or his
+surroundings, they are the school in which he is trained; the
+gymnasium in which his mental and moral fibre is strengthened.
+Family and social life form thus the element of man's environment by
+which he is mostly moulded, and to which he most naturally and
+completely conforms. Let us therefore briefly trace the origin of
+this new element of man's environment, and then notice the effect
+upon him of conformity to its laws, and see whither these would lead
+him.
+
+We have already seen that intra-uterine development of the young was
+being carried ever farther by mammals, and we found one explanation
+of this in the fact that each mammalian egg represented a large
+amount of nutriment, and that the mammal had very little material to
+spare for reproduction. Very possibly, too, the newly hatched
+mammals were exposed to even more numerous and greater dangers than
+the young of birds. Even among lower mammals the young is feeble at
+birth. But the human infant is absolutely helpless. And the centre
+of its helplessness is its brain. Its eyes and ears are
+comparatively perfect, but its perceptions are very dim. Its muscles
+are all present, but it must very slowly and gradually learn to use
+them. Its language is but a cry, its few actions reflex. The
+new-born kitten may be just as helpless, but in a few weeks it will
+run and play and hunt, and after a few months can care for itself.
+Not so the child. It must be cared for during months and years
+before it can be given independence. Its brain is so marvellously
+complex that it is finished as a thinking and willing and
+muscle-controlling mechanism only long after birth. This means a
+period of infancy during which the young clings helplessly to the
+mother, who is its natural protector. And during this period the
+mother and young have to be cared for and protected by the male. And
+the period of infancy and the protection of the female and young are
+just as truly, though in far less degree, characteristic of the
+highest apes as of man.
+
+I can give you only this very condensed and incomplete abstract of
+Mr. John Fiske's argument; you must read it for yourself in his
+"Destiny of Man." And as he has there shown, this can have but one
+result, and that is the family life of man. And we may yet very
+possibly have to acknowledge that family life of a very low grade
+is just as truly characteristic of the higher apes as of lower man.
+And thus the family life of man is the physiological result of, and
+rooted in, mammalian structure.
+
+And the benefits of family life are too great and numerous to even
+enumerate. First of all the family is the school of unselfishness.
+All the love of the parent is drawn out for the helpless and
+dependent child, and grows as the parent works and thinks for it.
+And the child returns a fraction of his parents' love. Within the
+close bond of the family the struggle for place and opportunity is
+replaced by mutual helpfulness; and this doing and burden-bearing
+with and for each other is a constant exercise in the practice of
+love. And with out this mutual love and helpfulness the family
+cannot exist.
+
+And slowly man begins to apply the lessons learned in the family to
+other relations with partners, neighbors, and friends. Slowly he
+discovers that an entirely selfish life defeats its own ends. A
+voice within him tells him continually that love is better than
+selfishness and ministering better than being ministered unto. It
+dawns upon him that it is against the nature of things that other
+people should be so selfish and grasping; a few begin to apply the
+moral to themselves, and a few of these to act accordingly.
+
+And what a change the few steps which man has taken in this
+direction have wrought in his life. Says Professor Huxley: "In place
+of ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint, in place of
+thrusting aside or treading down all competitors, it requires that
+the individual shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows;
+its influence is directed not so much to the survival of the
+fittest as to the fitting of as many as possible to survive. It
+repudiates the gladiatoral theory of existence."
+
+It is a vast change from the "gladiatorial theory" to that of
+"mutual helpfulness." Call it a revolution, if you will. Revolutions
+are not unheard of in the history of the animal kingdom any more
+than in human history. We have seen, first, digestion and
+reproduction on the throne of animal organization, then muscle, and
+finally brain. Each of these changes is in one sense a revolution.
+
+A little before the summer solstice the earth is whizzing away from
+the sun; a few weeks later it is whizzing with equal rapidity in
+almost the opposite direction. In the very nature of things it could
+not be otherwise. But so silently and gradually does it come about
+that we never feel the reversal of the engine; indeed the engine has
+not been reversed at all. Very similar is the change of the struggle
+of brute against brute to that of man for man. Indeed human
+development seems now to be almost at such a solstice where the
+power that makes for love is almost exhausted in opposing the
+tendency toward selfishness. We shall not always stay at the
+solstice; soon we shall make more rapid progress. And unselfishness
+like the family relation is firmly rooted in mammalian structure.
+
+And man owes almost everything to family life. First the child gains
+the advantage of the parent's experience. He is educated by the
+parent. In a few formative and receptive years he gains from the
+parent the results of centuries of human experience. The process is
+thus cumulative, the investment bears compound interest. And yet
+this is peculiar to man only in degree. Have you never watched a
+cat train her kittens? And the education of the child in the savage
+family is very incomplete.
+
+The family is the first and fundamental of all higher social and
+political unities. And without the persistence of the family the
+larger social unit would become an inert mass. All the individual
+ambition, all desire for family advancement, must be retained as
+still a motive for energetic advance. And all the training which
+social life can give reaches the individual most effectively, or
+solely, through the family. Society without the family would be like
+an army without company or regimental organization. Thus the very
+existence, not only of training in love and mutual helpfulness, but
+even of society itself as a mere organization, depends upon the
+existence and improvement of family life. And as so much depended
+upon and resulted from it, it could not but be fostered and improved
+by natural selection. The tribe or race with the best family life
+has apparently survived. But all social animals have some means of
+communicating very simple thoughts or perceptions. The simplest
+illustrations of this are the calls and warning cries of mammals and
+birds. It is not impossible that the higher mammals have something
+worthy of the name of language. But man alone, with his better brain
+and better anatomical structure of throat and mouth, and the closer
+interdependence with his fellows, has attained to articulate speech.
+And this again has become the bond to a still closer union.
+
+Now our only question is, How does social life enable and aid man to
+conform to environment? We are interested not so much in his
+happiness as in his progress. It helps and improves the body by
+giving him a better and more constant supply of more suitable food,
+and better protection from inclemency of the weather, and in many
+other ways. Baths and gymnasia are built, and medical science
+prolongs life. Yet make the items as many as you can, and what a
+long list of disadvantages to man physically you must set over
+against these. Many of these evils will doubtless disappear as
+society becomes better organized, but some will always remain to
+plague us. We pamper or abuse our stomachs, and dyspepsia results.
+We live in hot-houses, and a host of diseases are fostered by them.
+Indeed it would be hard to count up the diseases for which social
+life is directly or indirectly responsible. Social life becomes more
+and more complicated, and our nervous systems cannot bear the
+strain. Medical science saves alive thousands who would otherwise
+die, and these grow up to bear children as weak as themselves. We
+are looking now at the physical side alone; and from this standpoint
+the survival of the invalid is a sore evil. Now society will and
+must become healthier; we shall not always abuse our bodies as
+sinfully as we now do. Still, viewed from the standpoint of the body
+alone, the best, as it seems to me, which we can claim, is that
+social life does no more harm than good.
+
+What has social life done for man intellectually? Much. It gives him
+schools and colleges. But are our systems of education an unmixed
+good? How many of our schools and colleges are places where men are
+stuffed with facts until they have no time nor inclination to think?
+They may turn out learned men; do they produce thinkers? And how
+about the spread of knowledge? Is it not a spread of information?
+And most of what goes forth from the press is not worthy of even
+that name, or is information which a man had better be without. We
+are proud of being a nation of readers. And reading is good, if a
+man thinks about what he reads; otherwise it is like undigested food
+in the stomach, an injury and a curse. A dyspeptic gourmand is
+helped by "cutting down his rations." In our mental disease we need
+the same course of treatment. Let us read fewer books and papers and
+think more about what we do read.
+
+Society may foster original thinking; it is none the less opposed to
+it.
+
+        "Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
+         He thinks too much; such men are dangerous."
+
+This is the motto of all great parties in Church and State. Still
+social life has undoubtedly fostered thought. We think vastly more
+and better than primitive man; still we have much to learn. Society
+puts the experience of centuries at the service of every individual.
+Poor and unsatisfactory as are our modes of education, they are a
+great blessing intellectually and will become more helpful.
+And, after all, the friction of mind against mind in social
+life--provided social intercourse is this, and not the commingling
+of two vacua--is a continual education of inestimable advantage. And
+all these advantages would without language have been absolutely
+impossible. Intellectually our debt to society is inestimable.
+
+And how does social life aid man morally? I cannot help believing
+that primitive society was the first school of the human conscience.
+It was a rude school, but it taught man some grand lessons.
+
+The primitive clan would seem to have existed as a rude army for
+the defence of its members and for offensive operations against
+enemies. Individual responsibility on the part of its members was
+slight for offences against individuals of other clans, or against
+the gods. For any such offence of one of its members the whole clan
+was held, or held itself, largely responsible. If one man sinned,
+the clan suffered. It could not therefore afford to pardon wilful
+disobedience to regulations made by it or its leaders. Its very
+existence depended on this strict discipline. And much the same
+stern discipline has to be maintained in our modern armies or they
+become utterly worthless.
+
+Furthermore, man, as a social being, is very ready to accept the
+estimate of his actions placed upon them by his fellows. It is not
+easy to resist public opinion now. The tie of class or professional
+feeling is a tremendous power for good and evil. It must have been
+almost irresistible in that primitive army, which summarily outlawed
+or killed the obstinately disobedient. But all obedience was lauded
+and rewarded. It had to be so. And if the tribe was worthy to
+survive, because its regulations were better than those of its
+rivals, or perhaps as nearly just and right as were well possible,
+it was altogether best and right it should be so. The voice of the
+people was, in a very rude, stammering way, the voice of God. And
+those who survived became more and more obedient, and found
+themselves, when disobedient, feeling debased, and mean, and
+unworthy, as their fellows considered them. And all this feeling
+tended to develop a conscience in the individual answering to the
+estimates and regulations of the community.
+
+And remember that the primitive religion is a tribal religion. The
+gods felt toward a man just as his neighbors did. A public opinion
+of this sort is irresistible, and a man's conscience and estimate of
+himself and his actions must conform to it. But you may say a man
+may grant that this opinion is in a sense irresistible, and find
+himself very miserable and unhappy under its condemnation. But he
+would not feel remorse; this is a very different feeling. Possibly
+it may be. I am not so sure. But what I am interested in maintaining
+is that the condemnation of one's fellow-men puts more vividly
+before one's eyes, and emphasizes, the condemnation of one's own
+self. It may often be a necessary step in self-conviction. And what
+is most important, even in our own case, the condemnation of our
+fellows often brings with it self-condemnation.
+
+Try the experiment, as you will some day, of following a course of
+action which you feel fairly confident is right, but which all your
+neighbors think is foolish and wrong. See if you do not feel twinges
+within you which you must examine very closely to distinguish from
+twinges of conscience. If you do not, I see but one explanation--you
+are conscious that God is with you, and content with this majority.
+But in the case of primitive man God was always on the side of one's
+tribe.
+
+Now this does not explain the origin of man's conception of right;
+it presupposes such a conception in some dim form. I do not now know
+why right is right or beauty beautiful. I only know they are so.
+Where or when either of these perceptions dawned I do not know. But,
+given some such dim perception, I believe that primitive human
+society gave it its iron grip on every fibre of man's nature.
+
+Before the animal could safely be allowed to govern itself
+intelligently it had to serve a long apprenticeship to reflex action
+and instinct. And man's moral nature had to undergo a similar
+apprenticeship to tribal regulation and tribal conscience. Only
+slowly was instinct modified and replaced by intelligent action. And
+how this old tribal conscience persists. Often for good, although
+there it were better replaced by an individual conscience working
+for right. But how slowly you and I learn that there is a higher
+responsibility than to party or class. How often my vote and action
+are controlled, not by my own conscience, but by the opinion of my
+fellows, or the feeling that, if my party suffers defeat, God's work
+will suffer at the hands of my opponents. And what is all this but
+the survival in a very degenerate form of the old tribal conscience
+of primitive man? And he knew, and could know, nothing better: I can
+and do.
+
+But society slowly works for unselfishness. The love learned in the
+family manifests itself in ever-widening circles; it must do so if
+it is the genuine article. It works for neighbors and friends, then
+for the poor and helpless of the community. Then it spreads to other
+communities and nations. For genuine love recognizes no bounds of
+time or place. Slowly we learn that we are our brother's keepers,
+and that the brotherhood cannot stop short of the human race.
+Goodness and kindness radiate from one, perhaps unknown, member of
+the community to his fellows, and thence all over the world. And the
+world is the better for his one action.
+
+Primitive society was thus the best possible school of conscience;
+and the family and it are the great school of unselfishness. But
+society is even more and better than this. It is the medium through
+which thought, power, and moral and religious life can spring from
+man to man. This is its last and culminating advantage: it is that
+for which society really exists.
+
+For, in the close bonds of family and social life, a new possibility
+of development has arisen based upon articulate speech. We might
+almost call it a new form of heredity, independent of all
+blood-relationship. Progress in anatomical structure in the animal
+kingdom was slow, because any improvement could be transmitted only
+to the direct descendants of its original possessor. But in all
+matters pertaining to or based upon mind, a new invention, or idea,
+or system becomes the property of him who can best appreciate it.
+The torch is always handed on to the swiftest runner. Thus Socrates
+is the true father of Plato, and Plato of Aristotle. Whoever can
+best understand and appreciate and enter into the spirit of Socrates
+and Plato becomes heir to their thoughts and interprets them to us.
+And the thought of one man enriches all races and times.
+
+But a great teacher like Socrates is not merely an intellectual
+power. "Probe a little deeper, surgeon," said the French soldier,
+"and you'll find the emperor." Napoleon may have impressed himself
+on the soldier's intellect; he had enthroned himself in his heart.
+"Slave," said the old Roman, Marius, to the barbarian who had been
+sent into the dungeon to despatch him, "slave, wouldst thou kill
+Cains Marius?" And the barbarian, though backed by all the power of
+Rome, is said to have fled in dismay. Why did he run away? I do not
+know. I only know that I should have done the same. One more
+instance. Some thirty years ago the northern army was fleeing, a
+disorganized mob, toward Winchester. Early had fallen upon them
+suddenly in the gray of the morning, and, while one corps still held
+its ground, the rest of the army was melting away in panic. Then a
+little red-faced trooper came tearing down the line shouting, "Face
+the other way boys; face the other way." And those panic-stricken
+men turned and rolled an irresistible avalanche of heroes upon the
+Confederate lines. What made them turn about? It was something which
+I can neither define nor analyze--the personal power of Sheridan. It
+is the secret of every great leader of men. Now Sheridan had
+imparted more than information to these men. Is it too much to say
+that he put himself into them? From such men power streams out like
+electricity from a huge dynamo.
+
+Now society furnishes the medium through which such a man can act.
+You have all met such men, though probably not more than one or two
+of them. But one such man is a host. They may be men of few words.
+But their very presence and look calls out all that is good in you;
+and while you are with them evil loses its power. Says the gay and
+licentious Alcibiades, in Plato's "Banquet" concerning Socrates:
+
+"When I heard Pericles or any other great orator, I was entertained
+and delighted, and I felt that he had spoken well. But no mortal
+speech has ever excited in my mind such emotions as are excited by
+this magician. Whenever I hear him, I am, as it were, charmed and
+fettered. My heart leaps like an inspired Corybant. My inmost soul
+is stung by his words as by the bite of a serpent. It is indignant
+at its own rude and ignoble character. I often weep tears of regret
+and think how vain and inglorious is the life I lead. Nor am I the
+only one that weeps like a child and despairs of himself. Many
+others are affected in the same way."
+
+These men are the real kings. Their power for good, and sometimes
+for evil, is inestimable. And the great advantage of social life, as
+a means of conforming to environment, is the medium which it
+furnishes to conduct the power of such men. Man's last effort toward
+conformity to environment, the struggle for existence in its last
+most real form, is the life and death grapple between good and evil.
+For here good and evil, righteousness and sin, come face to face in
+spiritual form; "we wrestle not with flesh and blood." Life is more
+than a game of chess or whist; it is a great battle; every man must,
+and does, take sides; he must fight or die. And the real kings of
+society are, as a rule, on the side of truth, and aid its triumph.
+For one essential condition of such leadership is the power to
+inspire confidence in the love of the king for his willing subject.
+A suspicion of selfish aims in the leader breaks this bond. The hero
+must be self-forgetful. This is one reason for man's hero-worship,
+and the magnetic, dominant power of the hero. But evil is
+essentially selfish and can gain and hold this kingship only as long
+as it can deceive. And these kings "live forever." Dynasties and
+empires disappear, but Socrates and Plato, Luther and Huss, Cromwell
+and Lincoln, rule an ever-widening kingdom of ever more loyal
+subjects.
+
+And society will have leaders; men may set up whatever form of
+government they will, they are always searching for a king. And this
+is no sign of weakness or credulity. Man's desire for leadership is
+only another proof of the vast future which he knows is before him,
+and into which he longs to be guided. The wiser a man is, the more
+he desires to be taught; the nobler he becomes, the more
+whole-souled is the homage which he pays to the noblest. Is it a
+sign of weakness or ignorance in students, of adult age and ripe
+manhood, to flock to some great university to hear the wisdom and
+catch the inspiration of some great master? When Jackson fell Lee
+exclaimed, "I have lost my right arm." Was Jackson any the less for
+being the right arm to deal, as only he could, the crushing blows
+planned by the great strategist?
+
+But is not man to be independent and free? Certainly. But he gains
+freedom from the petty tyranny of robber-baron or boss, and from the
+very pettiest tyranny of all, the service of self, only as he finds
+and enlists under the king. Serve self and it will plunge you in,
+and drag you through, the ditch, till your own clothes abhor you.
+You are free to choose your teacher and guide and example. But
+choose you will and must. I am not propounding theories; I am
+telling you facts. Whether for better or worse man always does and
+will choose because he must. Look about you, look into yourselves.
+Have you no hero whom you admire and strive to resemble? no teacher
+to whom you listen? You must and do have your example and teacher.
+Is he teaching you to conform to environment, or leading you to be
+ground in pieces by its forces all arrayed against you?
+
+The Carpenter of Nazareth stood before Pilate. "And Pilate said
+unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I
+am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into
+the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that
+is of the truth heareth my voice." And Pilate would not wait for the
+answer to his question, What is truth? and the Jews chose Barabbas.
+Would you and I have acted differently? The answer of our Lord to
+Pilate contains the essence of Christianity. "You a king," says
+Pilate in astonishment; "where is your power to enforce your
+authority?" And our Lord's answer seems to me to mean substantially
+this: Roman legions shall suffer defeat, rout, and extermination;
+and Roman power shall cease to terrify. All its might must decay.
+But "everyone that is of the truth" shall attach himself to me with
+a love which will brave rack and stake. All your power cannot give a
+grain of new life. I can and will infuse my own divine life, my own
+divine _self_, into men. And this new life is invincible, immortal,
+all-conquering. I have infused myself into a few fishermen, and they
+will infuse _me_ into a host of other men. Thus I will transfigure
+into my own character every man in the world, who is of the truth,
+and therefore will hear my voice. All the power of Rome cannot
+prevent it, and whatever opposes it must go down before it.
+
+Christianity is the contagion of a divine life. Society is the
+medium through which it could and was to work. Greece had prepared
+the language necessary for its spread. Roman power had built its
+highways and levelled all obstructions.
+
+"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." "Not by might, nor by
+power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."
+
+But, you will object, the grandest kings have had, as a rule, the
+fewest loyal subjects. The prophets and seers are stoned. Elijah
+stands alone on Carmel and opposed to him are more than a thousand
+prophets of Baal, with court and king at their head. Heroism does
+not pay, and heroes are few. Right is always in a hopeless minority.
+Let us look into this matter carefully, for the objection, even if
+overstated, certainly contains a large amount of truth.
+
+Let us go back to two forms having much the same grade of
+organization: both worms. One of them sets out to become a
+vertebrate, building an internal skeleton. The other forms an
+external skeleton and becomes a crab. To form its skeleton the crab
+had only to thicken the cuticle already present in the annelid. It
+had to modify the already existing parapodia and their muscles,
+changing them to legs. The external skeleton gave from the start a
+double advantage--protection and better locomotion. Every grain of
+thickening aided the animal in the struggle for existence in both
+these ways. The very fact that the skeleton was external may have
+rendered it more liable to variation, because it was thus exposed to
+continual stimuli. And the best were rapidly sifted out by Natural
+Selection. The change and development went on with comparative
+rapidity. In the mollusk the change was apparently still more easy
+and the development still more rapid.
+
+But the development of an internal skeleton was more difficult and
+slower. It was of no use for the protection of the animal, and only
+gradually did it become of much service in locomotion. Being
+deep-seated it very possibly changed all the more slowly.
+Furthermore, a cartilaginous rod, like the notochord, even fully
+developed, hardly enabled the animal to fight directly with the
+mail-clad crab. The internal skeleton had to become far more highly
+developed before its great advantages, and freedom from
+disadvantages, became apparent. The mollusk and crab were working a
+mine rich in surface deposits although soon exhausted. The
+vertebrate lead was poor at the surface, and only later showed its
+inexhaustible richness. It looked as if the vertebrate were making a
+very poor speculation.
+
+Whether this explanation be true or not, a glance at a chart,
+showing the geological succession of occurrence of the different
+kingdoms, proves that in the oldest palæozoic periods there were
+well-developed cuttlefish and crabs before there were any
+vertebrates worthy of the name. If any were present, their skeleton
+was purely cartilaginous and not preserved.
+
+I think we may go farther, although in this latter consideration we
+may very possibly be mistaken. We have already seen that the
+progress made by any animal may be measured more or less accurately
+by the length of time during which its ancestors maintained a
+swimming life. The ancestors of the coelenterates settled to the
+bottom first. Then successively those of flatworms, mollusks,
+annelids, and crabs. All this time the ancestors of vertebrates were
+swimming in the water above. Food was probably more abundant,
+certainly more easily and economically obtained by a creeping life,
+on the bottom. But thither the vertebrate could not go. There his
+mail-clad competitors were too strong for him. Those which settled
+and tried to compete in this sort of life perished. We may have to
+except the ascidia, but they paid for their success by the loss of
+nearly all their vertebrate characteristics. The future progress of
+vertebrates depended upon their continual activity in the swimming
+life. And they were forced by their environment to maintain this.
+Otherwise they might, probably would, never have attained their
+present height of organization. Certainly at this time you would
+have found it hard to believe that the victory was to fall to these
+weaker and smaller vertebrates.
+
+Let us come down to a later period. Reptiles, mammals, and birds are
+struggling for supremacy. Of the power and diversity of form of
+these old reptiles we have generally no adequate conception. The
+forms now living are but feeble remnants. There were huge
+sea-serpents, and forms like our present crocodiles, but far more
+powerful. Others apparently resembled in form and habit the
+herbivorous and carnivorous mammals of to-day. Others strode or
+leaped on two legs. And still others flew like bats or birds. They
+were terrible forms, with coats of mail and powerful jaws and teeth.
+And they were active and swift. When we look at them we see that the
+vertebrate, though slow in gaining the lead, is sure to hold it. The
+internal skeleton gave fewer advantages at the start; its greatest
+superiority had lain in future possibilities.
+
+But which vertebrate is heir to the future? It would have been a
+hard choice between reptile and bird. I feel sure that I, for one,
+should not have selected the mammal, a small, feeble being, hiding
+in holes and ledges, and continually hard put to it to escape
+becoming a mouthful for some huge reptile. And yet the persecution,
+the impossibility of contending by brute strength, may have forced
+the mammal into the line of brain-building and placental
+development. The early development of mammals appears to have been
+slow. Palæontology proves that they were long surpassed by reptiles
+and birds. But the little mammal had the future. The battle was to
+go against the strong.
+
+Once again. The arboreal life of higher mammals would seem to be
+most easily explained by the view that they were driven to it by
+stronger carnivorous mammals having possession of the ground. Brain
+was good, for it planned escape from enemies. But it did not give
+its possessor immediate victory over muscle, tooth, and claw in the
+tiger. That was to come far later with the invention of traps and
+guns. Brain gave its possessor a sure hold of the future, and just
+enough of the present to enable it to survive by a hard struggle.
+And the same appears to have been true of primitive man.
+
+Thus all man's ancestors have had to lead a life of continual
+struggle against overwhelming odds and of seeming defeat. It was a
+life of hardship, if not of positive suffering. The organ which was
+to give them future supremacy, whether it was backbone, placenta, or
+brain, could in its earlier stages aid them only to a hardly won
+survival. The present apparently, and really as far as freedom from
+discomfort and danger is concerned, always belongs to forms
+hopelessly doomed to degeneration or stagnation. Crabs, not
+primitive vertebrates, were masters of the good things of the sea;
+and, in later times, reptiles, not mammals, of those of the land.
+Any progressive form has to choose between the present and the
+future. It cannot grasp both. I am not propounding to you any
+metaphysical theories, but plain, dry, hard facts of palæontology;
+explain them as you will.
+
+And here we must add our last word about conformity to environment;
+and it is a most important consideration. Conformity to environment
+is not such an adaptation as will confer upon an animal the greatest
+immunity from discomfort or danger, or will enable it to gain the
+greatest amount of food and place, and produce the largest number of
+offspring. Indeed, if you will add one element to those mentioned
+above, namely, that all these shall be attained with the least
+amount of effort, they insure degeneration beyond a doubt. This is
+the conformity of the bivalve mollusk. The clam has abundance of
+food, enormous powers of reproduction, almost perfect protection
+against enemies, and lives a life of almost absolute freedom from
+discomfort, and the clam is really lower than most worms.
+
+If an animal is to progress, it must keep such a conformity ever
+secondary to a still more important element, namely, conformity or
+obedience to the laws of its own structure and being. This second
+element the mollusk and every creeping stage neglected, and the
+result of this neglect was stagnation or degeneration. Activity was
+essential to progress from the very structure and laws of
+development of the animal, while a great abundance of food was not.
+A life of ease, for the same reason, necessarily results in
+degeneration.
+
+But you will ask, What becomes of Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution,
+if obedience to the laws of individual being is more important than
+conformity to external conditions? Both are evidently necessary, and
+they are not so different as they may seem at first sight. They are
+really one and the same. Bringing out the best and highest there is
+in us, is the only true conformity to that which is deepest and
+surest and most enduring in our environment. That in environment
+which makes for digestion is almost palpable and tangible, that
+which makes for activity less so perhaps; but that which makes for
+brain and truth and right is intangible and invisible. We easily
+fail to notice it; and, unless we take a careful view of the course
+of development in the highest forms of life, we may be inclined to
+deny its existence. But it is surely there, if man is a product of
+evolution.
+
+Each successive stage of animal life is not the preceding stage on a
+higher plane, but the preceding stage modified in conformity to the
+environment of that from which it has just arisen. Says Professor
+Hertwig[A]: "During the process of organic development the external
+is continually becoming an integral part of the individual. The germ
+is continually growing and changing at the expense of surrounding
+conditions." Every stage thus contains the result of a host of
+reactions to a ruder and older portion of environment. And the
+higher we go the more has the original protoplasm and structure been
+modified as the result of these reactions.
+
+  [Footnote A: Hertwig: Zeit- und Streitfragen, p. 82.]
+
+We have seen clearly that environment must be studied through its
+effect upon living beings. Viewed from any other standpoint it
+appears to be a myriad, almost a chaos, of interacting, apparently
+conflicting, forces. The resultant of some of these is shown by the
+animal at any stage of its development. And as the animal advances,
+the resultant determining its new line, or stage, of advance,
+includes new forces, to which it has only lately become sensitive.
+And thus the human mind, as the last and highest product of
+evolution, mirrors most adequately the resultant of all its forces.
+If we would know environment we must study ourselves, not atoms
+alone, nor rocks, nor worms.
+
+Extremely sensitive photographic plates, after long exposure, have
+proven the existence of stars so dim and far-off as to be invisible
+to the best telescopes. Man's mind is just such a sensitive plate;
+it is the only valid representation of environment.
+
+The truth would appear to be that the law is present in environment,
+but hard to read; but it is stamped upon our structure and being so
+deeply and plainly that the dullest of us cannot fail to read it. We
+learned the fact of gravitation the first time that we fell down in
+learning to walk, long afterward we learned that its law guided
+earth and moon. And it is the presence of this law within us, and
+our own knowledge that we are conscious of it, that makes man
+without excuse. But conformity to that which is deepest in
+environment often, always, demands non-conformity to some of the
+most palpable of surrounding conditions.
+
+There is no better statement of the ultimate law of conformity than
+the words of Paul: "Be not conformed to this world; but be ye
+transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is
+that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
+
+And this difference is exactly what I have been trying to put before
+you. The mollusk conformed, but the vertebrate conformed in a very
+different way, and was transformed, "metamorphosed," to translate
+the Greek word literally, into something higher. And let us not
+forget that man conforms consciously and voluntarily, if at all; he
+is able to read in himself and environment the law to which lower
+forms have been compelled unconsciously to conform.
+
+These facts merely illustrate a great law of life. No man's eye,
+much less hand, can grasp the whole of the present and at the same
+time the future. Rather what we usually call present advantage is
+not advantage at all, but the first step in degeneration. If one
+will be rich in old age he must deny himself some gratifications in
+youth; his present reward is his self-control. If a man will climb
+higher than his fellows he must expect to be sometimes solitary; his
+reward is the ever-widening view, though the path be rougher and the
+air more biting than in their lower altitude. If he point to heights
+yet to attain, the majority will disbelieve him or say, "Our present
+height was good enough for our ancestors, it is good enough for us.
+Why sacrifice a good thing and make yourself ridiculous scrambling
+after what in the end may prove unattainable?" If you discover new
+truths you will certainly be called a subverter of old ones. And
+this is entirely natural. The upward path was never intended to be
+easy.
+
+Read the "Gorgias" of Plato, and let us listen to the closing words
+of Socrates in that dialogue: "And so, bidding farewell to those
+things which most men account honors, and looking onward to the
+truth, I shall earnestly endeavor to grow, so far as may be, in
+goodness, and thus live, and thus, when the time comes, die. And, to
+the best of my power, I exhort all other men also; and you
+especially, in my turn, I exhort to this life and contest, which is,
+I protest, far above all contests here." You must remember that
+Callicles has been taunting Socrates with his lack of worldly wisdom
+and the certainty that in any court of justice he would be
+absolutely helpless because of his lack of knowledge of the
+rhetorician's art: "This way then we will follow, and we will call
+upon all other men to do the same, not that which you believe in and
+call upon me to follow; for that way, Callicles, is worth nothing."
+
+And Socrates met the end which he expected: death at the hands of
+his fellow-citizens.
+
+And here perhaps a little glimmer of light is thrown into one of the
+darkest corners of human experience. The wise old author of
+Ecclesiastes writes: "There is a just man that perisheth in his
+righteousness; and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in
+his wickedness. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that
+there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of
+the wicked; again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth
+according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is
+vanity." "I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to
+the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the
+wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men
+of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all" (Eccles. viii.
+14; ix. 11). It is this element of chance that threatens to make a
+mockery of effort, and sometimes seems to make life but a travesty.
+The terrible feature of Tennyson's description of Arthur's last, dim
+battle in the west is not the "crash of battle-axe on shattered
+helm," but the all-engulfing mist.
+
+Perhaps this is all intended to teach us that riches and favor, and
+even bread, are not the essentials of life, and that failure to
+attain these is not such ruin as we often think. But no man ever
+struggled for wisdom, righteousness, unselfishness, and heroism
+without attaining them; even though the more he attained the more
+dissatisfied he became with all previous attainment. And if our
+slight attainments in wisdom and knowledge always brought wealth and
+favor, we might rest satisfied with the latter, instead of clearly
+recognizing that wisdom must be its own reward. Uncertainty and
+deprivation are the best and only training for a hero, not sure
+reward paid in popular plaudits.
+
+Political economists speak of the productiveness and prospectiveness
+of capital. We may well borrow these terms, using them in a somewhat
+modified sense. In our sense capital is productive in so far as it
+gives an immediate return; it is prospective in proportion as the
+return is expected largely in the future. A "pocket" may yield an
+immediate very large return of gold nuggets at a very slight expense
+of labor and appliances, but it is soon exhausted. In a mine the ore
+may be poor near the surface, but grow richer as the shaft deepens;
+the vein is narrow above, but widens below. The returns are at first
+small, its inexhaustible richness becomes apparent only after
+considerable time and labor. The value of the "pocket" is purely
+productive, that of the mine largely or purely prospective. Indeed
+it may be opened at a loss. But even a rich mine may be worked
+purely for its productive value; it may be "skinned."
+
+Let us apply this thought to the development of a species; although
+what is true of the species will generally be true of the individual
+also, for the development of the two is, in the main, parallel. In
+the animal all functions are to a certain extent productive, and all
+directly or indirectly prospective. When we examine the sequence of
+functions we cannot but notice how largely their value is
+prospective. As long as a lower function is rising to supremacy in
+the animal, it appears to be retained purely for its productive
+value; thus digestion in hydra or gastræa. But after a time animals
+appeared which had some muscle and nerve. And, by the process of
+natural selection, those animals which used digestion as an end for
+its productive value became food for, and gave place to, those using
+it as a means of supporting muscle and nerve of greater prospective
+value. And similarly, those animals which used muscle, or even mind,
+productively gave place to others using these prospectively.
+
+In other words, the functions and capacities of any animal, the
+extent of its conformity to environment, may be regarded as its
+capital. The animal may use this capital productively or
+prospectively. It may spend its income, and more too; it may
+increase its capital. Now social capital will always fall sooner or
+later to those communities whose members use it most prospectively,
+who are willing to forego, to quite an extent, present enjoyment,
+and look for future return. The same is true of all development.
+Sessile forms and mollusks, and, in a less degree, crabs and
+reptiles, worked for immediate return. They are like extravagant
+heirs who draw on their capital and sooner or later come to poverty.
+The primitive vertebrate, the mammal, and the other ancestors of man
+used their capital prospectively, and it increased, as if at
+compound interest.
+
+The spendthrift appears at first sight to have the greatest
+enjoyment in life, the rising business man works hard and foregoes
+much. I believe that the latter is really by far the happier of the
+two. But, if you can spend only a day or two in a city, and your
+examination is superficial, you may easily make the mistake of
+considering the spendthrift as the most successful man in the
+community. So, in our brief visit to the world in times past, we
+picked out the crab, the reptile, and the carnivore as its rising
+members.
+
+Once more, capital can be spent very quickly; to use it
+prospectively requires time. This is a truism; but it does no harm
+to call attention to truisms which have been neglected. Organs and
+powers of great prospective value are slow and difficult of
+development. If their increase is to be at all rapid, they must
+start early. If their development and culture is deferred, there
+will be little or no advance, but probably degeneration.
+Extravagance grows rapidly and soon becomes irresistible; habits of
+saving must be formed early. The same is true of the development of
+all other virtues.
+
+There is in the child an orderly sequence of development of mental
+traits. While these powers are in their earlier, so to speak
+embryonic, stages of development, they can be fostered and increased
+or retarded. They are still plastic. Very early in a child's life
+acquisitiveness shows itself; he begins to say "I," and "mine," and
+desires things to be his "very own." And this can be fostered so
+that the child will grow up a "covetous machine." Or he may be
+taught to share with others.
+
+Not so much later, while the child is still in the lower grades of
+his school life, comes the period of moral development. If, during
+this period, these powers are fostered and cultivated, they may, and
+probably will, be dominant throughout his life. And herein lies the
+dignity and glory of the unappreciated, underpaid, and overworked
+teachers of our "lower" schools, that they have the opportunity to
+cultivate these moral powers of the child during these most critical
+years of his life. Repression or neglect here works life-long and
+irreparable harm. The young man goes out into the world. Here
+"practical" men continually instruct him by precept upon precept,
+line upon line, that he cannot afford to be generous until he has
+acquired wealth; that he must first win success for himself, and
+that he can then help others. And, unless his character is like
+pasture-grown oak, he follows and improves upon their teachings. _He
+reverses the sequence of functions._ He puts acquisitiveness first
+and right and sterling honesty and unselfishness second. For a score
+or more of years he labors. At first he honestly intends to build up
+a strong character and a generous nature just as soon as he can
+afford to; but for the present he cannot afford it. If he is to
+succeed, he must do as others do and walk in the beaten track. He
+wins wealth and position, or learning and fame. He now has the
+ability and means to help others, but he no longer cares to do so.
+Loyalty to truth, sterling honesty--the genuine, not the
+conventional counterfeit--unselfishness, in one word, character,
+these are plants of slow growth. They require cultivation by habit
+through long years. In his case they have become aborted and
+incapable of rejuvenescence. But his rudiment of a moral nature
+feels twinges of remorse. He ought not to have reversed the sequence
+of functions, and he knows it. But he cannot retrace his steps. He
+made the development of character impossible when he made wealth his
+first and chief aim. If he has a million dollars he tries to insure
+his soul by leaving in his will one-tenth to build a church, or,
+possibly, one-half for foreign missions. In the latter case he will
+be held up as a shining example to all the youth of the land, and
+the churches will ring with his praises. But what has been the
+effect of his life on the moral, social capital of the community? Is
+the world better or worse for his life? He has all his life been
+disseminating the germs of a soul-blight more infectious and deadly
+than any bodily disease.
+
+If he has made learning or fame his chief aim, he probably has not
+the money to buy soul-insurance. He takes refuge in agnosticism,
+like an ostrich in a bush. His agnosticism is in his will; he does
+not wish to see. Or its cause is atrophy, through disuse, of moral
+vision. He cannot see. There are agnostics of quite another stamp,
+whom we must respect and honor for their sterling honesty and
+high character, though we may have little respect for their
+philosophical tenets. But how much has our scholar advanced the
+morality of the community? He has probably done even more harm than
+the business man, who is a mere "covetous machine."
+
+The "practical" man has reversed the sequence of functions.
+Character is, and must be, first; and wealth, learning, power, and
+fame are the materials, often exceedingly refractory, which it must
+subjugate to its growth and use. And this subjugation is anything
+but easy. The reversal of the sequence results in a moral
+degradation and poverty indefinitely more dangerous to the community
+than the slums of our great cities. For these may be controlled and
+cleansed; but the moral slum floods our legislatures and positions
+of honor and trust, and invades the churches. The mental and moral
+water-supply of the community is loaded with disease-germs.
+
+The social wealth of a community is the sum total of the wealth of
+its individual members. And a community is truly wealthy only when
+this wealth is, to a certain extent, diffused. If there is any truth
+in our argument that the sequence of functions culminates in
+righteousness and unselfishness, the real social wealth of a
+community consists in its moral character, not in its money, or even
+in its intelligence. We may rest assured that character, resulting
+in industry and economy, will bring sufficient means of subsistence,
+so that all its members will be fed and housed and clothed. And art
+and culture, of the most ennobling and inspiring sort, will surely
+follow. And even if such literature failed as largely composes our
+present _fin-de-siècle_ garbage-heap, we would not regret its
+absence. That community will and must survive in which the largest
+proportion of members make the accumulation of character their chief
+and first aim. And to this community every rival must in time yield
+its place and power, and all its acquisitions. And in every
+advancing community the position of any class or profession will in
+time be determined by its moral wealth.
+
+But this moral wealth is intangible. The rewards and penalties of
+moral law easily escape notice in our hasty and superficial study of
+life. The God immanent in our environment often seems to hide
+himself. The altar of Jehovah is fallen down, and Baal's temples are
+crowded with loud-mouthed worshippers. The bribes of present
+enjoyment and of immediate success loom up before us, and we doubt
+if any other success is possible.
+
+But the law of progress, even now so dimly discernible in
+environment, is written in our minds in letters of fire. For we have
+already seen that environment can be understood only by tracing its
+effects in the development of life. What is best and highest in us
+is the record of the working of what is best and highest in
+environment. And the personal God so dimly seen in environment is
+revealed in man's soul. Man must study himself, if he is to know
+what environment requires of him. And if the knowledge of himself
+and of the laws of his being is the highest knowledge, is not the
+vision of, and struggle toward, higher attainments, not yet realized
+and hence necessarily foreseen, the only mode of farther progress?
+And what is this pursuit of, and devotion to, ideals not yet
+realized and but dimly foreseen, if it is not Faith, "the substance
+of things hoped for, and evidence of things not seen?" By it alone
+can man "obtain a good report." Man must "walk by faith, not by
+sight." "For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
+which are not seen are eternal."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MAN
+
+
+In Kingsley's fascinating historical romance, Raphael Aben-Ezra says
+to Hypatia, "Is it not possible that we have been so busy discussing
+what the philosopher should be, that we have forgotten that he must
+first of all be a man?" This truth we too often forget. No
+statesman, philosopher, least of all teacher, can be truly great who
+is not, first of all, and above all, a great man. And in our study
+of man are we not prone to forget that he stands in certain very
+definite and close relations with surrounding nature?
+
+Man has been the object of so much special study, his position,
+owing to his higher moral and mental power, is so unique that he has
+often been regarded not only as a special creation, but as created
+to occupy a position not only unique, but also exceptional, above
+many of the very laws of nature, and not bound by them. Many speak
+and write of him as if it were his chief glory and prerogative to be
+as far removed as possible, not only from the animal, but even from
+the whole realm of nature. The mistake of making him an exception
+arises, after all, not so much from too high a conception of man, at
+least of his possibilities, as from too low a view of nature.
+
+But however this view may have arisen, it is one-sided and mistaken.
+Man certainly has a place in Nature--not above it. If he is the
+goal toward which the ascending series of living forms has
+continually tended, he is a part of the series--the real goal lies
+far above him.
+
+Pascal says, "It is dangerous to show a man too clearly how closely
+he resembles the brute without showing him at the same time his
+greatness. It is equally dangerous to impress upon him his greatness
+without his lowliness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in
+ignorance of both. But it is of great advantage to point out to him
+both characteristics side by side."
+
+A great German thinker began his work on the human soul with a
+discussion of the law of gravitation.
+
+All study of man must begin with the study of the atom. Man's life
+we have seen to be the aggregate of the work of all the cells of his
+body. But the protoplasm which composes his cells is a chemical
+compound, and hence subject to all the laws of all the atoms of
+which it is composed. And its molecules, or the smallest
+mechanically separable compounds of these atoms, are arranged and
+related according to the laws of physics, so as to permit or produce
+the play of certain forces which are always the result of atomic or
+molecular combination. Every motive or thought demands the
+combustion of a certain amount of material which has been already
+assimilated in the microscopic cellular laboratories of our body.
+Every vital activity is manifested at least through chemical and
+physical forces. And the elements of the fuel for our engines we
+receive through plants from the inorganic world. For the plant, as
+we have seen, stores up as potential energy in its compounds the
+actual energy of the sun's rays. And thus man lives and thinks by
+energy, obtained originally from the sun. But man not only consumes
+food and fuel. The complicated protoplasm is continually wearing out
+and being replaced. Every cell in our bodies is a centre toward
+which particles of material stream to be assimilated and form for a
+time a part of the living substance, and then to be cast out again
+as dead matter. Our very existence depends upon this continual
+change. There is synthesis of simple substances into more complex
+compounds, and then analysis of these complex compounds into
+simpler, and from this latter process results the energy manifested
+in every vital action. We are all whirlpools on the surface of
+nature; when the whirling ceases we disappear. Man, like every other
+living being, exists in a condition of constant interchange with
+surrounding nature; he is rooted in innumerable ways in the
+inorganic world.
+
+And because of these close relations the great characteristic of
+living beings is the necessity and power of conformity to
+environment. Hence a very common definition of life is the continual
+adjustment of internal relations to external relations or
+conditions. To a very slight extent man can rise superior to certain
+of the ruder elements of his surroundings, but he gains this victory
+only by learning and following the laws of the very environment
+which he succeeds in subjecting to himself. Indeed his higher
+development and finer build bring him into touch with an
+indefinitely wider range of surroundings than even the lower animal.
+Forces, conditions, and relations which never enter the sphere of
+life of lower forms, crowd and press upon him and he cannot escape
+them. His higher position, instead of freeing him from dependence
+upon environment and subjection to law, makes him thus more
+sensitive, as well as more capable of exact conformity to an
+environment of almost infinite complexity; and more sure of absolute
+ruin, if ignorant, negligent, or disobedient. The words of the
+German poet are literally true:
+
+        "Nach ehernen, eisernen, grossen Gesetzen,
+         Müssen wir alle unseres Daseins
+         Kreise vollenden."
+
+But man is an animal. And the principal characteristic of an animal
+is that it eats a certain amount of solid food. The plant lives on
+fluid nutriment, and this comes to it by the process of diffusion in
+every drop of water and breath of air. The acquisition of food
+requires no effort, and the plant makes none. It has therefore
+always remained stationary and almost insensible. Not taking the
+first step it has never taken any of the higher ones. But solid food
+would not, as a rule, come to the animal--though stationary and
+sessile animals are not uncommon in the water--he must go in search
+of it. This called into play the powers of locomotion and
+perception. And in the sequence of function we have seen digestion
+calling for the development of muscle; and muscle, of nerve and
+brain. And the brain became the organ of mind.
+
+Man as a mere animal is necessarily active and energetic; otherwise
+he stagnates and degenerates. Labor is a curse, but work a blessing;
+and man's best work, of every kind, is done in the friction of life,
+not in ease and quiet. Man is, further, a being composed of cells,
+tissues, and organs, which were successively developed for him by
+the lower animal kingdoms. The old view, that man was the microcosm,
+had in it a certain amount of every important truth. We need to be
+continually reminded of our indebtedness in a thousand ways to the
+lowest and most insignificant forms of life.
+
+Man is a vertebrate animal. This means that he has a locomotive, not
+protective, skeleton, composed of cartilage--a tough, elastic,
+organic material, hardened, as a rule, by the deposition of mineral
+salts, mainly phosphate of lime, in exceedingly fine particles, so
+as to form a homogeneous, flawless, elastic, tough, light, and
+unyielding skeleton, held together by firm ligaments.
+
+The skeleton is internal, and this fact, as we have seen, gives the
+possibility of large size. And size is in itself no unimportant
+factor. Professor Lotze maintains that without man's size and
+strength, agriculture and the working of metals, and thus all
+civilization, would have been impossible. But we have already seen
+that there is an extreme of size, _e.g._, in the elephant, which
+makes its possessor clumsy, able to exist only where there are large
+amounts of food in limited areas, slow to reproduce, and lacking in
+adaptability. This extreme also is avoided in man; in this, as in
+many other particulars, he holds the golden mean. But we have also
+seen that large size is, as a rule, correlated with long life and
+great opportunity for experience and observation. And these are the
+foundations of intelligence. Hence the deliverance of the higher
+vertebrate, and especially of man, from any iron-bound subjection to
+instinct.
+
+And here another question of vital importance meets us. Is man's
+life at present as long as it should or can be? The question is
+exceedingly difficult, but a negative answer seems more probable. We
+cannot but hope that, with a better knowledge of our physical
+structure, a clearer vision of the dangers to which we are exposed,
+more study of the laws of physiology, heredity, and of our
+environment, and above all, less reckless disregard of these in a
+mad pursuit of pleasure, wealth, and position, man's period of
+mature, healthy, and best activity may be lengthened, perhaps, even
+a score of years. The mitigation of hurry and worry alone, the two
+great curses of our American civilization, might postpone the
+collapse of our nervous systems longer than we even dream. And if we
+could add even five years to the working life of our statesmen,
+scholars, and discoverers, the work of these last five years, with
+the advantage of all previously acquired knowledge and experience,
+might be of more value than that of their whole previous life. Human
+advance could not but be greatly, or even vastly, accelerated.
+
+Moreover, we have seen that the history of vertebrates is really the
+history of the development of the cerebrum, forebrain or large
+brain, as we call it in man. This is the seat in man of
+consciousness, thought, and will. This portion as a distinct and new
+lobe first appears in lowest vertebrates, increases steadily in size
+from class to class, reaches its most rapid development by mammals,
+and its culmination in man. During the tertiary period--the last of
+the great geological periods--the brain in many groups of mammals
+increased in size, both absolutely and relatively, eight to tenfold.
+Dr. Holmes says, that the education of a child should begin a
+century or two before its birth; man really began his mental
+education at least as early as the appearance of vertebrate life.
+
+But man is a mammal. This means that every organ is at its best. The
+digestive system, while making but a small part of the weight of the
+body, and built mainly on the old plan, is wonderfully perfect in
+its microscopic details. The muscles are heavy and powerful,
+arranged with the weight near the axis of the body, and replaced
+near the ends of the appendages by light, tough sinews. The higher
+mammal is this compact, light, and agile. The skeleton is strong,
+and the levers of the appendages are fitted to give rapidity of
+motion even at the expense of strength. And this again is possible
+only because of the high development and strength of the muscles.
+Moreover, the highest mammals are largely arboreal, and in
+connection with this habit have changed the foreleg into an arm and
+hand. The latter became the servant of the brain and gave the
+possibility of using tools.
+
+But increase in size and activity, and the expense of producing each
+new individual, led to the adoption of placental development. And
+the mammal is so complex, the road from the egg to the fully
+developed young is so long, that a long period of gestation is
+necessary. And even at birth the brain, especially of man, is
+anything but complete. Hence the necessity of the mammalian habit of
+suckling and caring for the young. And this feebleness and
+dependence of the young had begun far below man to draw out maternal
+tenderness and affection. And the mammalian mode of reproduction and
+care of young led to a more marked difference and interdependence
+between the sexes.
+
+The result of this is man's family life, as Mr. John Fiske has
+shown so beautifully in that fascinating monograph, "The Destiny of
+Man." And family life once introduced becomes the foundation and
+bulwark of all civilization, morality, and religion. Far down in the
+mammalian series, before the development of the family, maternal
+education has become prominent, and the young begins life, benefited
+by the experiences of the parent. How much more efficient is this in
+family life. But, furthermore, the family is perhaps the first,
+certainly the most important, of those higher unities in which men
+are bound together. Social life of a sort undoubtedly existed,
+before man, among birds, insects, and lower mammals. The community
+was often defective or incomplete in unity, or existed under such
+limitations that it could not show its best results, but that it was
+of vast benefit from an even higher than mere physical standpoint,
+no one will, I think, deny. But with the family a new era of
+education and social life began.
+
+First of all, the struggle for existence is thereby greatly modified
+and mitigated. This crowding out and trampling down of the weaker by
+the stronger is transferred, to a certain extent, from the
+individual to the family and, in great degree, from the family to
+larger and larger social units. For within the limits of the family
+competition tends to be replaced by mutual helpfulness, and not only
+are the loneliness and horror of the struggle between isolated
+individuals banished, but, what is vastly more, the family becomes
+the school of unselfishness and love. And what has thus become true
+of the single family, and groups of nearly related families, is
+slowly being realized in the larger units of communities and
+states. For, as families and communities are just as really
+organisms as are the individual men and women, whose soundness
+depends upon the healthy activity of every organ, so there is a
+survival, first of families, then of communities and rival
+civilizations, in proportion to their unity and soundness in every
+part. For on account of the close bonds of family and social life,
+and in connection with the development of articulate speech, a new
+kind of heredity, so to speak, arises, of vast importance for both
+good and evil. This mental and moral heredity, over-leaping all
+boundaries of blood and natural kinship, spreads light and good
+influence or an immoral contagion through the community. And thus,
+in sheer self-defence, society passes laws setting limits to the
+oppression of the poor and weak, lest, degraded and brutalized, they
+become breeding centres of physical and moral disease in the
+community. The positive lesson that the surest mode of self-defence
+is the elevation of these submerged classes, we are just beginning
+to learn and apply.
+
+By the ever-increasing acceleration of the development the gap
+between man and the lower animal widens with wonderful rapidity. Of
+course it is only in man, and higher man, that these last and
+highest results of mammalian structure appear. But that, far removed
+as they are, they are the results of mammalian and vertebrate
+characteristics cannot, I think, be well denied. And this is only
+one of innumerably possible illustrations of the fact that all our
+most highly prized institutions are rooted far back in our ancestry,
+often ineradicably in the very organs of our bodies. And thus
+evolution, which many view only from its radical side--and it has a
+radical side--is really the conservative bulwark of all that is
+essentially worth possessing in the past.
+
+But every factor in man's development tends toward intellectual and
+spiritual development. Man's vast increase of brain; his finely
+balanced body; his upright gait; setting his hands free from the
+work of locomotion that they might become the skilful servants of
+the mind; finally, articulate speech and social, and, above all,
+family, life, all tended in this same direction.
+
+And this makes the great difficulty in assigning man his
+proper place in our systems of classification. Our zoölogical
+classifications depend upon anatomical characteristics; and
+anatomically man belongs among the order primates. But mental and
+moral values cannot be expressed in terms of anatomy, any more than
+we can speak of an idea of so many horse-power, and hence worth
+three or four ancestral dollars. Hence, while from the zoölogical
+standpoint man is a primate, and while he is very probably descended
+from one of these, he has gradually risen above them mentally and
+spiritually, so that he stands as far above them as they above the
+lowest worm. And this leads us to the consideration of man, not
+merely as a mammal, but as "Anthropos," Homo sapiens, although he
+often degenerates into "Simia destructor."
+
+From what has just been said man's pre-eminence cannot consist in
+any anatomical characteristic, even of the brain--much less of
+thumb, forefinger, hand, or foot. But man's mental and moral
+characteristics (even though germs of these may be present in the
+animal), whether differing in degree or kind from theirs, raise his
+life to a totally different plane. He lives in an environment of
+which the lower animal is as unconscious and ignorant as we of a
+fourth dimension of space. He has the knowledge of abstract truth
+and goodness, of certain standards outside of mere appetite and
+desire, and feels and acknowledges, however dimly, the requirement
+and the ability to conform his life to these standards. He alone can
+say "I ought," and answer "I can and will." And hence man alone
+actually lives in an environment of the laws of reason,
+responsibility, and personality. Whatever germs of these higher
+powers the animal possesses are means to material ends, to the
+physical life of the animal. In man the long and slow evolution has
+ended in revolution, the material and physical have been dethroned,
+and truth and goodness reign supreme as ends in themselves.
+
+But, you may object, this definition of man may be true ideally,
+certainly it is not true actually. Where are the high ideals of
+truth and goodness in the savage? and are these the supreme ends of
+even the average American of to-day? But allowing all weight to this
+objection, does it not remain true that a being who never says "I
+ought," who acknowledges and manifests no responsibility, to whom
+goodness does not appeal, and in whom these feelings cannot be
+awakened, is either not yet or no longer man? But far more than
+this, if the character of the individual is to be judged by his
+tendency more than his present condition, by the way in which he is
+going more than his momentary position, is not the race to be judged
+and defined by a tendency, gradually though very slowly becoming
+realized, and a goal, toward which it looks and which it is surely
+attaining, rather than by its present realization? As we rise
+higher in the animal kingdom the characteristics of the successive
+higher groups are more and more slow of attainment and difficult of
+realization, just because of their grander possibilities. And this
+is true and important above all in the case of man. His
+possibilities are beyond our powers of conception, for, if you will,
+man is yet only larval man.
+
+We have followed the sequence of functions to its culmination in a
+mind completely dominated by righteousness and unselfishness,
+however far above our present attainments this goal may be. We have
+found that all attempts to reverse this sequence end in death or
+degeneration. Failure to advance, especially in higher forms,
+results in extinction or retrogression. We cannot stand still. Each
+higher step is longer and more important than any preceding; each
+last step is essential to life. Righteousness in the will is the
+last step essential to man's progress. And if a sound mind in a
+sound body is important or necessary, a sound will, resolutely set
+on right, is absolutely essential. Failure to attain this is ruin.
+
+And man can to a great extent place himself so that his surroundings
+shall aid him to take this last, essential, upward step. He does
+this by the choice of his associates. If he associates himself with
+men who are tending upward, he will rise ever higher. If he choose
+the opposite kind of associates he must sink into ever deeper
+degradation; he has thereby chosen death. For his associates, once
+chosen, make him like themselves. And thus natural selection makes
+for the survival of those men who resolutely choose life. And
+thoughtless or careless failure to choose is ruin. The man has
+preferred degradation; it is only right that he should have it to
+satiety.
+
+But man is not, and never can be, pure spirit. He may "let the ape
+and tiger die," but he must always retain the animal with its
+natural appetites. Moreover, his higher mental capacities increase
+their power. Memory recalls past gratifications as it never does to
+the animal; imagination paints before him vivid pictures of similar
+future enjoyments, and mental keenness and strength of will tell him
+that they can all be his. But if he yields himself a slave to these
+appetites, if he seeks to be an animal rather than a spiritual
+being, he becomes not an animal but a brute; and the only genuine
+brute is a degenerate man. And thus after conquering the world man's
+very structure compels him to join battle with himself. For here, as
+everywhere else, to attempt to go backward to a plane of life once
+passed is to surely degenerate. The time when the prize of
+pre-eminence could be won by mere physical superiority was passed
+before man had a history. Physical superiority must be maintained,
+and every advance in art and science, considered here as ministering
+to man's physical comfort, is advantageous just so far as these
+allow man freedom and aid to pursue the mental and moral line which
+is the only true path left open to him. But when even these are
+allowed to minister only to the animal, or to tempt to luxurious
+ease and indifference to any higher aims, in a word, in so far as
+they fail to minister to mental and moral advancement, they are in
+great danger of becoming, if they have not already become, a curse
+rather than a blessing. And we all know that this has been proven
+over and over again in human history. Families, cities, and nations
+rot, mainly because they cannot resist the seductions of an
+overwhelming material prosperity. A man says to his soul, "Take
+thine ease, eat, drink and be merry," and to that man scripture and
+science say, with equal emphasis, "Thou fool!"
+
+Every upward step in attainment of the comforts of life, of art and
+science, brings man into new fields not of careless enjoyment but of
+struggle. They swarm with new enemies and temptations before
+unknown. The new attainments are not unalloyed blessings, they are
+merely opportunities for victory or defeat. The uncertain battle is
+only shifted to a little higher plane. Man has increased the forces
+at his command only to meet stronger opposing hosts. And retreat is
+impossible. Man remains a spiritual being only on condition that he
+resolutely and vigilantly purposes to be so. To lag behind in this
+spiritual path is death.
+
+And the epitaph of nations and individuals is the record of their
+defeat in this struggle to be masters and not slaves of their
+material and intellectual attainments. Greece, the most intellectual
+of all nations of all times, died in mental senility of moral
+paralysis. Of Socrates's and Plato's "following after truth" nothing
+remained but the gossipy curiosity of a second childhood, living
+only to tell or to hear some new thing. And the schools of
+philosophy were closed because they had nothing to tell which was
+worth the knowing or hearing. All the wealth of the world was poured
+into Rome, the home of Stoic philosophy, and it was smothered, and
+died in rottenness under its material prosperity.
+
+A family, race, or nation starts out fresh in its youthful physical
+and mental vigor and strict obedience to moral law and in its faith
+in God. For these reasons it survives in the struggle for existence.
+It grows in extent and power, in intelligence and wealth. But with
+this increase in wealth and power comes a deadening of the mind to
+the claims of moral law, and an idolatrous worship of material
+prosperity. The new generation looks upon the stern morality and
+industry and self-control of its ancestors as straight-laced and
+narrow. Morality may not be unfashionable, but any stern rebuke of
+immorality is not conventional. Strong moral earnestness and
+whole-souled loyalty to truth are not in good form. Wealth and
+social position become the chief ends of men's efforts, and, to buy
+these, unselfishness and truth and self-respect are bartered away.
+Luxury, enervation, and effeminacy are rife, and snobbery follows
+close behind them. The ancestral vigor, the insight to recognize
+great moral principles, and the power to gladly hazard all in their
+defence have disappeared in a mist of indifference, which beclouds
+the eyes and benumbs all the powers. The race of giants is dwindling
+into dwarfs. They say, when the time comes, we will rouse ourselves
+and be like our fathers. And the crisis comes, but they are not
+equal to it. The nation has long enough cumbered the ground, it has
+already died by suicide and must now give place to a race and
+civilization which has some aim in, and hence right to, existence,
+and which is of some use to itself and others. If we would learn by
+observation, and not by sad experience, we must remember that man is
+above all, and must be a religious being conforming to the
+personality of the God manifested in his environment.
+
+Can you find anywhere a more profound or scientific philosophy of
+history than that of Paul in the first chapter of Romans? "For the
+invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly
+seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his
+everlasting power and divinity; so that they are without excuse:
+because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither
+gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings and their senseless
+heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became
+fools. And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God
+gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
+fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness."[A] And then follows
+the dark picture, from which we revolt but which the ancient
+historians themselves justify.
+
+  [Footnote A: Romans i. 20-22, 28.]
+
+On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at Rome is Michel Angelo's
+marvellous painting of the creation of Adam. A human figure of
+magnificent strength is half-rising from its recumbent posture, as
+if just awakening to consciousness, and is reaching out its hand to
+touch the outstretched finger of God. The human being became and
+becomes man when, and in proportion as, he puts himself in touch
+with God, and is inspired with the divine life. The lower animal
+conformed mainly to the material in environment, man conforms
+consciously to the spiritual and personal.
+
+Any science of human history that does not acknowledge man's
+relation to a personal God is fatally incomplete; for it has missed
+the goal of man's development and the chief means of his farther
+advance. And a religion which does not emphasize this is worse than
+a broken reed. It is a mirage of the desert, toward which thirsty
+souls run only to die unsatisfied.
+
+Man can never overcome in this battle with the allurements of
+material prosperity and with the pride and selfishness of intellect,
+except as he is interpenetrated and permeated with God, any more
+than we can move or think, unless our blood is charged with the
+oxygen of the air. It is not enough that man have God in his
+intellectual creed; he must have him in his heart and will, in every
+fibre of his personality, in every thought and action of life.
+Otherwise his defeat and ruin are sure.
+
+Three fatal heresies are abroad to-day: 1. Man's chief end is
+avoidance of pain and discomfort, in one word, happiness; and God is
+somehow bound to surfeit man with this. And this is the chief end of
+a mollusk. 2. Man's chief end is material prosperity and social
+position. 3. Man's chief end is intellect, knowledge. Each one of
+these three ends, while good in a subordinate place, will surely
+ruin man if made his chief end. For they leave out of account
+conformity to environment. "Man's chief end is to glorify God and
+enjoy him for ever." And just as the plant glorifies the sun by
+turning to, and being permeated and vivified and built up by, the
+warmth and light of its rays, similarly man must glorify God. This
+is the religion of conformity to environment: man working out his
+salvation because God works in him. Thus, and thus only, shall man
+overcome the allurements of these lower endowments and receive the
+rewards of "him that overcometh."
+
+Thus prosperity and adversity, success and failure, continually test
+a man. If he can rise superior to these, can subjugate them and make
+them subserve his moral progress, he survives; if he is mastered by
+them, he perishes. Through these does natural selection mainly work
+to find and train great souls. They are the threads of the sieve of
+destiny.
+
+In this struggle man must fight against overwhelming odds, and the
+cost of victory is dear. He must be prepared, like Socrates, to "bid
+farewell to those things which most men count honors, and look
+onward to the truth." He appears to the world at large, often to
+himself, eminently unpractical. The majority against his view and
+vote will usually be overwhelming. Truth is a stern goddess, and she
+will often bid him draw sword and stand against his nearest and
+dearest friends. The issue will often appear to him exceeding
+doubtful. The grander the truth for which he is fighting, the
+greater the need of its defence and enforcement, the greater the
+probability that he will never live to see its triumph. The hero
+must be a man of gigantic faith. But all his ancestors have had to
+make a similar choice and to fight a similar battle. The upward path
+was intended to be exceedingly hard. This is a law of biology.
+
+Why this is so I may not know. I only know that no better and surer
+way could have been discovered to train a race of heroes. For no man
+ever becomes a hero who has not learned to battle with the world and
+himself. Does it not look as if God loved a heroic soul as much as
+men worship one, and as if he intended that man should attain to
+it? Man was born and bred in hardship that he might be a hero.
+
+  "Careless seems the great avenger; history's pages but record
+  One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the word;
+  Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,
+  Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
+  Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
+
+  "Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,
+  Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just;
+  Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,
+  Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,
+  And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied."
+
+The Crown Prince of Prussia has less spending money than many a
+young fellow in Berlin. He is trained to economy, industry,
+self-control. He is to learn something better than habits of luxury,
+to rule himself, and thus later the German Empire. The children of a
+great captain, themselves to be soldiers, must endure hardness like
+good soldiers. And man is to fight his way to a throne.
+
+But his powers are still in their infancy and the goal far above
+him. What he is to become you and I can hardly appreciate. First of
+all, the body will become finer, fitted for nobler ends. It will not
+be allowed to degenerate. It may become less fitted for the rough
+work, which can be done by machinery; it will be all the better for
+higher uses. It is to be transformed, transfigured. The eye may not
+see so far, it will be better fitted for perceiving all the beauties
+of art and nature. It will become a better means of expressing
+personality, as our personality becomes more "fit to be seen." It is
+continually gaining a speech of its own. And will not the ear become
+more delicate, a better instrument for responding to the finest
+harmonies, and better gateway to our highest feelings? We may not
+have so many molar teeth for chewing food, but may not our mouths
+become ever finer instruments for speech and song? In other words,
+the body is to be transfigured by the mind and become its worthy
+servant and representative.
+
+As we learn to live for something better than food and clothes, and
+cease to pamper the body, it will become better and healthier.
+Science will stamp out many diseases, and we shall learn to prevent
+others by right living. And what a change in our moral and religious
+life will be made by good health. What a cheerful courage and hope
+it will give.
+
+Man will become more intelligent. He will learn the laws of heredity
+and of life in general. He will see deeper into the relations of
+things. He will recognize in himself and his environment the laws of
+progress. He will clearly discern great moral truths, where we but
+dimly see lights and shadows.
+
+But while we would not underestimate the value and necessity of
+growth in knowledge, we must as clearly recognize that the intellect
+is not the centre and essence of man's being. Knowledge, while the
+surest form of wealth of which no one can rob us, and the best as
+the stepping-stone to the highest well-being, is like wealth in one
+respect: it is not character and can be used for good or evil. If my
+neighbor uses his greater knowledge as a means of overreaching us
+all, it injures us and ruins him.
+
+Our emotions, and this is but another word for our motives, stand
+far nearer to the centre of life; for they control our conduct and
+directly determine what we are. Knowledge of environment is good,
+but of what real and permanent use is such knowledge without
+conformity? Our real weakness is not our ignorance; we know the
+good, but lack the will and purpose to live it out. And this is
+because the thought of truth and goodness excites no such strength
+of feeling as that of some lower gratification. We cannot perhaps
+overrate the value of intellect; we certainly underrate the value of
+emotion and feeling. "Knowledge puffeth up, love buildeth." It does
+not require great intellect, it does require intense feeling to be a
+hero. We slander the emotions by calling people emotional because
+they are always talking about their feelings; but deep feeling is
+always silent. It is not fashionable to feel deeply, and we are
+dwarfed by this conventionality. We have almost ceased to wonder,
+and hence we have almost ceased to learn; for the wise old Greeks
+knew that wonder is the mother of wisdom.
+
+The man of the future will probably be a man of strong appetites,
+for he will be healthy; he will be prudent, because wise; but he
+will hold his appetites well in leash. He will trample upon mere
+prudential considerations at the call of truth or right. For in him
+these highest motives will be absolute monarchs, and they are the
+only motives which can enable a man to face rack and stake without
+flinching. He will be a hero because he feels intensely. In other
+words, he will be a man of gigantic will, because he has a great
+heart. And in the man of the future all these powers will be not
+only highly developed; they will be rightly proportioned and duly
+subordinated. He will be a well-balanced man. But how few complete
+men we now see.
+
+We see the strong will without the clear intellect to guide it; the
+gush of feeling either directed toward low ends or evaporating in
+sentiment; the clear head with the cold heart. The high development
+of one mental power seems to draw away all strength and vitality
+from the rest. How rarely do we find the strong will guided by the
+keen intellect toward the highest aims clearly discerned. Memory and
+imagination must always play their part in the joy set before us.
+But in addition to all these, the white heat of feeling, of which
+man alone is capable, is necessary for his grandest efforts. Such a
+being would be a man born to be a king. And there will be a race of
+such men. And we must play the man that they may be raised upon our
+buried shoulders. And they will tower above us, as the seers of old
+in Judea, Athens, India, and Rome towered above their indolent,
+luxurious, blind, and material contemporaries. And with all their
+accelerated development, infinite possibilities will still stretch
+beyond the reach of their imagination. For "men follow duty, never
+overtake."
+
+But all our analyses are unsatisfactory. In the history of any great
+people there is a period when they seem to rise above themselves.
+They have the strength of giants, and accomplish things before and
+since impossible. We sometimes ascribe these results to the
+exuberant vitality of the race at this time; and their life is large
+and grand. Such was England under Elizabeth. Think of her soldiers
+and explorers, her statesmen and poets. There were giants in those
+days. What a healthy, hearty enjoyment they showed in all their
+work, and with what ease was the impossible accomplished. The
+greater the hardships to be borne or odds to be faced, the greater
+the joy in overcoming them. They sailed out to give battle to the
+superior power of Spain, not at the command, but by the permission,
+of their queen; often without even this.
+
+And what a vigor and vitality there is in the literature of this
+period. Life is worth living, and studying, and describing. They see
+the world directly as it is; not some distorted picture of it, seen
+by an unhealthy mind and drawn by a feeble hand. The world is ever
+new and fresh to them because they see it through young, clear eyes.
+
+Were they giants or are we dwarfed? Which of the two lives is
+normal? They used all their faculties and utilized all their powers.
+Do we? The only force or product which we are willing to see wasted
+is the highest mental and moral power. Our engines and turbine
+wheels utilize the last ounce of pressure of the steam or water. The
+manufacturers pay high wages to hands who can tend machines run at
+the highest possible speed. The profits of modern business come
+largely from the utilization of force or products formerly wasted.
+But how far do we utilize the highest faculties of the mind, which
+have to do with character, the crowning glory of human development?
+Are we not eminently "penny-wise and pound-foolish?" A ship which
+uses only its donkey-engines, and does nothing but take in and get
+out cargo is a dismantled hulk. A captain who thinks only of cargo,
+and engines, and the length of the daily run, but who takes no
+observations and consults no chart, will make land only to run upon
+rocks. Are we not too much like such dismantled hulks, or ships
+sailing with priceless cargoes but with mad captains?
+
+But we have not yet seen the worst results of this waste of our
+highest powers. The sessile animal, which lives mainly for
+digestion, does not attain as good digestive organs as his more
+active neighbor, who subordinates digestion to muscle. Lower powers
+reach their highest development only in proportion as they are
+strictly subordinated to higher. This may be called a law of
+biology. And our lower mental powers fail of their highest
+development and capacity mainly because of the lack of this
+subordination.
+
+But a disused organ is very likely to become a seat of disease and
+to thus enfeeble or destroy the whole body. And this disease effects
+the most complete ruin when its seat is in the highest organs.
+Dyspepsia is bad enough, but mania or idiocy is infinitely worse.
+And our moral powers are always enfeebled, and often diseased, from
+lack of strong exercise. And some blind guides, seeing only the
+disease, cry out for the extirpation of the whole faculty, as some
+physicians are said to propose the removal of the vermiform
+appendage in children. Similarly might the drunkard argue against
+the value of brain, because it aches after a debauch. Our work is
+hard labor, and we gain no enjoyment in the use of our mental
+powers; for the enjoyment of any activity is proportional to the
+height and glory of the purpose for which it is employed. As long as
+we are content to use only our lower mental faculties and to gain
+low ends, our use of even these will be feeble and ineffectual, and
+our lives will be poor, weak, and unhappy.
+
+But future man will subordinate these lower powers to the higher. He
+will utilize all that there is in him. And his efficiency must be
+vastly greater than ours. And finally, and most important, these men
+will be all-powerful, because they have so conformed to environment
+that all its forces combine to work with them.
+
+England under Elizabeth seemed to rise above itself. Think of
+Holland, under William the Silent, defying all the power of Spain.
+Look at Bohemia, under Ziska, a handful of peasants joining battle
+with and defeating Germany and Austria combined. Think of Cromwell
+and his Ironsides, before whom Europe trembled. These men were not
+merely giants, they were heroes. And the essence of heroism is
+self-forgetfulness. The last thought of William the Silent was not
+for himself, but for his "poor people." And those rugged Ironsides,
+"fighting with their hands and praying with their hearts," smote
+with light good-will and irresistibly, because they struck for truth
+and freedom, for right and God. These are motives of incalculable
+strength, and they transfigure a man and raise him above his
+surroundings and even himself. The man becomes heroic and godlike,
+and when possessed by these motives he has clasped hands with God.
+He is inspired and infused with the divine power and life. Such a
+man has no time nor care to think of himself. To him it matters
+little whether he lives to see the triumph of his cause, provided he
+can hasten it. Though victory be in the future, it is sure; and the
+joy of battle for so sure and grand a triumph is present reward
+enough. His very faith removes mountains and turns to night armies
+of the aliens. For heroism begets faith, just as surely as faith
+begets heroism.
+
+"Where there is no vision the people perish." When the member of
+Congress can see nothing higher than spoils of office, nothing
+larger than a silver dollar, you should not criticise the poor man
+if his oratorical efforts do not move an audience like the sayings
+of Webster, Lincoln, or Phillips.
+
+Future man will be heroic and divine, because he will live in an
+atmosphere of truth and right and God, and will be consciously
+inspired by these divine, omnipotent motives.
+
+But who will compose this future race? We cannot tell. And yet the
+attempt to answer the question may open our eyes to truth of great
+practical importance.
+
+It would seem to be a fact that the offspring of a cross between
+different races of the same species is as a rule more vigorous than
+that of either pure race. Human history seems to show the same
+result. The English race is a mixture of Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Danes,
+and Normans, with a sprinkling of other races. And a new fusion of a
+great number of most diverse strains is rapidly going on in the
+newly populated portions of America and in Australia. The mixture
+contains thus far almost purely occidental races. It will in future
+almost certainly contain oriental also. For the races of India,
+Japan, and even China, are no farther from us to-day than the
+ancestors of many of our occidental fellow-citizens were a century
+ago. Racial prejudices, however strong, weaken rapidly through
+intercourse and better acquaintance. One of the grandest and least
+perceived results of missionary work is the preparation for this
+great fusion.
+
+Many races will undoubtedly go down before the advance of
+civilization and have no share in the future. Progress seems to be
+limited to the inhabitants of temperate zones; and even here the
+weaker may be crowded out before the stronger rather than absorbed
+by them. But many whom we now despise may have a larger inheritance
+in the future than we. God is clearly showing us that we should not
+count any man, much less any nation, common or unclean. And the laws
+of evolution give us a firm confidence that no good attained by any
+race or civilization will fail to be preserved in the future.
+
+The forms which seem to us at any one time the highest are as a rule
+not the ancestors of the race of the future. These highest forms are
+too much specialized, and thus fitted to a narrow range of space,
+time, and general conditions; when these change they pass away.
+Specialization is doubly dangerous when it follows a wrong line. But
+whenever it is carried far enough to lead to a one-sided
+development, it narrows the possibility of future advance; for it
+neglects or crowds out or prevents the development of other powers
+essential to life. The mollusk neglected nerve and muscle. But the
+scholar may, and often does, cultivate the brain at the expense of
+the rest of the body until he and his descendants suffer, and the
+family becomes extinct.
+
+The young men of the nobility of wealth, birth, and fashion usually
+marry heiresses, if they can. But only in families of enormous
+wealth can there be more than one or two heiresses in the same
+generation. She has very probably inherited a portion of her wealth
+from one or more extinct branches of the family. Moreover, not to
+speak of other factors, the labor and anxiety which have been
+essential to the accumulation and preservation of these great
+fortunes, or the mode of life which has accompanied their use or
+abuse, tend to diminish the number of children. Heiresses to very
+large fortunes usually therefore belong to families which are
+tending to sterility. And this has very probably been no unimportant
+factor in the extinction of "noble" families.
+
+A sound body contains many organs, all of which must be sound. And
+in a sound mind there is an even greater number of faculties, all of
+which must be kept at a high grade of efficiency. Man is a
+marvellously complex being, and more in danger of a narrow and
+one-sided development than any lower animal. And it is very easy for
+a certain grade or class of society, or for a whole race, to become
+so specialized, by the cultivation of only one set of faculties as
+to altogether prevent its giving birth to a complete humanity. Along
+certain broad lines the Greeks and Romans attained results never
+since equalled. But their neglect of other, even more important,
+powers and attainments, especially the moral and religious, doomed
+them to a speedy decay. The rude northern races were on the whole
+better and nobler, and became heirs to Greek art and letters, and
+to Roman law. And this is another illustration of the advantage or
+necessity of the fusion of races.
+
+To answer the question, "Which stratum or class in the community or
+world at large is heir to the future?" we must seek the one which is
+still to a large extent generalized. It must be maintaining, in a
+sound body, a steady, even if slow, advance of all the mental
+powers. It will not be remarkable for the high development or lack
+of any quality or power; it must have a fair amount of all of them
+well correlated. It must be well balanced, "good all around," as we
+say. And this class is evidently neither the highest nor the lowest
+in the community, but the "common people, whom God must have loved,
+because he made so many of them."
+
+They have, as a rule, fair-sized or large families. Their bodies are
+kept sound and vigorous by manual labor. They are compelled to think
+on all sorts of questions and to solve them as best they can. They
+have a healthy balance of mental faculties, even if they are not
+very learned or artistic. They are kept temperate because they
+cannot afford many luxuries. Their healthy life prevents an undue
+craving for them. They help one another and cultivate unselfishness.
+The good old word, neighbor, means something to them. They have a
+sturdy morality, and you can always rely upon them in great moral
+crises. They are patriotic and public-spirited; they have not so
+many, or so enslaving, selfish interests. They have always been
+trained to self-sacrifice and the endurance of hardship; and heroism
+is natural to them. They have a strong will, cultivated by the
+battle of daily life. And among them religion never loses its hold.
+
+But what of our tendencies to specialization in education and
+business? Are these wrong and injurious? Specialization, like great
+wealth, is a great danger and a fearful test of character. It tends
+to narrowness. If you will know everything about something, you must
+make a great effort to know something about, and have some interest
+in, everything. The great scholar is often anything but the
+large-minded, whole-souled man which he might have become. He has
+allowed himself to become absorbed in, and fettered by, his
+specialty until he can see and enjoy nothing outside of it. There is
+no selfishness like that of learning.
+
+We can accomplish nothing unless we concentrate our efforts upon a
+comparatively narrow line of work. But this does not necessitate
+that our views should be narrow or our aims low. Teufelsdröckh may
+live on a narrow lane; but his thoughts, starting along the narrow
+lane, lead him over the whole world. The narrowness of our horizon
+is due to our near-sightedness.
+
+But the only absolutely safe specialization is the highest possible
+development of our moral and religious powers. For their cultivation
+only enlarges and strengthens all the other powers of body and mind.
+"But," you will object, "does religion always broaden?" Yes. That
+which narrows is the base alloy of superstition. But a religion
+which finds its goal and end in conformity to environment,
+character, and godlikeness can only broaden.
+
+But there is the so-called "breadth" of the shallow mind which
+attempts to find room at the same time for things which are mutually
+exclusive. God and Baal, right and wrong, honesty and lying,
+selfishness and love, these are mutually exclusive. You cannot find
+room in your mind for both members of the pair at the same time. You
+must choose. And, when you have chosen, abide by your choice. A
+ladleful of thin dough fallen on the floor is very broad. But its
+breadth is due to lack of consistency. Better narrowness than such
+breadth.
+
+But while individual specialization may be safe for the individual,
+and beneficial to the race, the race which is to inherit the future
+must remain unspecialized. It must not sacrifice future
+possibilities to present rapidity of advance. And the common people
+are advancing safely, slowly, but surely. Wealth and learning become
+of permanent prospective and real value only when they are
+invested in the masses. They are the final depositaries of all
+wealth--material, intellectual, moral, and religious. Whatever, and
+only that which, becomes a part of their life becomes thereby
+endowed with immortality. Will we invest freely or will we wait to
+have that which we call our own wrested from us? If we refuse it to
+our own kin and nation, it will surely fall to foreigners. "God made
+great men to help little ones."
+
+The city of God on earth is being slowly "builded by the hands of
+selfish men." But the builders are becoming continually more
+unselfish and righteous, and as they become better and purer its
+walls rise the more rapidly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE
+
+
+We have studied the teachings of science concerning man and his
+environment, let us turn now to the teachings of the Bible. And
+though eight chapters have been devoted to the teachings of science,
+and only one to the teachings of the Bible, it is not because I
+underestimate the importance of the latter. It is more difficult to
+clearly discover just what are the teachings of Nature in science.
+The lesson is written in a language foreign to most of us, and one
+requiring careful study; and yet once deciphered it is clear.
+Science attains the laws of Nature by the study of animal and human
+history. But this record is a history of continually closer
+conformity to environment on the part of all advancing forms. The
+animal kingdom is the clay which is turned, as Job says, to the seal
+of environment, and it makes little difference whether we study the
+seal or the impression; we shall read the same sentence. Environment
+has stamped its laws on the very structure of man's body and mind.
+And the old biblical writers read these laws, guided by God's
+Spirit, in their own hearts, and in those of their neighbors, and in
+their national history, as the record of God's working, and gave us
+concrete examples of the results of obedience and disobedience.
+Hence the teaching of the Bible is always clear and unmistakable.
+
+The Bible treats of three subjects--Nature, Man, and God--and the
+relations of each of these to the others. I have tried to present to
+you in the first chapter the biblical conception of Nature and its
+relation to God. In its relation to man it is his manifestation to
+us, and, in its widest sense, the sum of the means and modes through
+which he develops, aids, and educates us. And in this conception I
+find science to be strictly in accord with scripture.
+
+Now what is the scriptural idea of man? Man interests us especially
+in three aspects. He is a corporeal being; he is an intellectual
+being; he is a moral being, with feelings, will, and personality.
+
+Man's body. Plato considered the body as a source of evil and a
+hindrance to all higher life. And Plato was by no means alone in
+this. The Bible takes a very different view. Neglect of the body is
+always rebuked. The only place, so far as I can find, where the body
+is called vile is where it is compared with the glorious body into
+which it is to be transformed. "Your bodies," writes Paul to the
+Corinthians, "are members of Christ," "temples of the Holy Ghost."
+But the Bible teaches that the body is to be the servant, not the
+ruler, of the spirit. "I keep under my body, and bring it into
+subjection," continues Paul. Here again science is strictly in
+accord with scripture.
+
+Man is an intellectual being. I need not quote the praises of
+knowledge in the Old Testament. They must be fresh in your mind. But
+the practical Peter writes, "giving all diligence add to your faith
+virtue; and to virtue knowledge." And Paul prays that the love of
+the Ephesians may "abound more and more in knowledge and in all
+judgment." But the important knowledge is the knowledge of God, and
+of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. And similarly science
+emphasizes that the chief end of all knowledge is that we should
+know the environment to which we are to conform. Knowledge is useful
+to strengthen and clarify the mind, that it may see and conform to
+truth and God: and if it fails to become a means to conformity, it
+has failed of the chief, and practically the only, end for which it
+was intended. We are to come "in the unity of the faith and of the
+knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of
+the stature of the fulness of Christ." But knowledge which only
+puffs up and distracts the mind from the great aims and ends which
+it should serve is rebuked with equal emphasis by the Bible and by
+science.
+
+I would not claim that we have set too high a value upon knowledge,
+perhaps we cannot; but there is something far higher on which we are
+inclined to set far too low a value. This is righteousness and love;
+and true wisdom is knowledge permeated, vivified, and transfigured
+by devotion to these higher ends. And in this highest realm of the
+mind feeling and will rule conjointly. Love is a feeling which
+always will and must find its way to activity through the will, and
+it is an activity of the will roused by the very deepest feeling,
+inspired by a worthy object. If you try to divorce them, both die.
+Hence Paul can say, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
+angels, and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
+mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I
+could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing." And John
+goes, if possible, even farther and says, "Every one that loveth is
+born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God;
+for God is love." And this sort of love bears and believes and hopes
+and endures, and never fails. And for this reason the Bible lays
+such tremendous emphasis on the heart, not as the centre of emotion
+alone, but as the seat of will as well. And science points to the
+same end, though she sees it afar off.
+
+And what of God? God is a Spirit, Creator, Author, and Finisher of
+all things, and filling all. But while omnipotent, omnipresent, and
+omniscient, these are not the characteristics emphasized in the
+Bible. He is righteous. "Shall not the judge of all the earth do
+right?" is the grand question of the father of the faithful. And
+when Moses prays God to show him his glory, God answers, "I will
+make all my goodness pass before thee." He is the "refuge of
+Israel," the "everlasting arms" underneath them, pitying them "as a
+father pitieth his children." And in the New Testament we are bidden
+to pray to our Father, who _is_ love, and whose temple is the heart
+of whosoever will receive him. Truly a very personal being.
+
+Now the Bible rises here indefinitely above anything that mere
+natural science can describe. But can the ultimate "Power, not
+ourselves, which makes for righteousness" and unselfishness, of
+whose presence in environment science assures us, be ever better
+described than by these words concerning the "Father of our
+spirits?"
+
+And an infinitely wise, good, and loving being will have fixed modes
+of working; for "with him is no variableness, neither shadow of
+turning." Thus only can man trust and know him. The old Stoic
+philosopher tells us "everything has two handles, and can be
+carried by one of them, but not by the other." So with God's laws.
+Many seem to look upon them as a hindrance and limitation to him in
+carrying out his righteous and loving will toward man. But they are
+really the modes or means of his working, which he uses with such
+regularity and consistency that we can always rely upon them and
+him. The pure river of the water of life proceedeth from the throne
+of God and of the Lamb.
+
+If I am lying ill waiting anxiously for the physician I can think of
+this great city as a mass of blocks of houses separating him from
+me. But the houses have been arranged in blocks so as to leave free
+streets, along which he can travel the more quickly. And God's laws
+are not blocks, but thoroughfares, planned that the angels of his
+mercy may fly swiftly to our aid. We are prone to forget that these
+laws are expressly made for your and my benefit, as well as that of
+all beings, that we may be righteous and unselfish. And this is one
+ground of the apostle's faith that "all things work together for
+good to them that love God." And in the Apocalypse the earth helps
+the woman. It must be so.
+
+But what if you or I try to block the thoroughfare? What would
+happen to us if we tried to stop bare-handed the current of a huge
+dynamo, or to hold back the torrent of Niagara? Nothing but death
+can result. And what if I stem myself against the "river of the
+water of life, proceeding from the throne of God," and try to turn
+it aside or hold it back from men perishing of thirst? And that is
+just what sin is, even if done carelessly or thoughtlessly; for men
+have no right to be careless and thoughtless about some things.
+"The wages of sin is death;" physical death for breaking physical
+law, and spiritual death for breaking spiritual law. How can it be
+otherwise? The wages are fairly earned. The hardest doctrine for a
+scientific man to believe is that there can be any forgiveness of
+such sin as the heedless, ungrateful breaking of such wise and
+beneficent laws of a loving Father. And yet my earthly father has
+had to forgive me a host of times during my boyhood. Perhaps I can
+hope the same from God; I take his word for it.
+
+But if you or I think that it is safe to trifle with God's laws, we
+are terribly mistaken. The Lord proclaimed himself to Moses as "The
+Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and
+abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
+forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
+means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
+the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and
+to the fourth generation." But someone will say, This is terrible.
+It is terrible; but the question is, Does the Bible speak the truth
+about nature? Is nature a "fairy godmother," or does she bring men
+up with sternness and inflict suffering upon the innocent children,
+if necessary, lest they copy after their sinful parents? Do the
+children of the defaulter and drunkard and debauchee suffer because
+of the sins of their father, or do they not? If the blessings won by
+parental virtue go down to the thousandth generation, must not the
+evil consequences of sin go down to the third or fourth?
+
+That we are not under the law, but under grace, does not mean, as
+some seem to think, that it is safe to sin. Otherwise the
+forgiveness of God becomes the lowest form of indulgence
+slanderously attributed to the Church of Rome. We gain freedom from
+law as well as penalty only by obedience. The artist can safely
+forget the laws and rules of his art only when by long obedience and
+practice he obeys them unconsciously. We seem to be threatened with
+a belief that God will never punish sin in one who has professed
+Christianity. This view cheapens sin and makes pardon worthless, it
+takes the iron out of the blood, and the backbone out of all our
+religion and ethics. It ruins Christians and disgraces Christianity.
+We sometimes seem to think that our nation or church or denomination
+is so important to the carrying on of God's work that he cannot
+afford to let any evil befall us, whatever we may do or be.
+
+"Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes
+of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment and pervert all equity.
+They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The
+heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for
+hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean
+upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come
+upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field,
+and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as
+the high places of the forest." That was plain preaching, and the
+people did not like it. They would not like it any better to-day; it
+would come too near the truth.
+
+But others seem to think that God is too kind, not to say
+good-natured, to allow his children to suffer for their sins. This
+is part of a creed, unconsciously very widely held to-day, that
+comfort, not character, is the chief end of life. Now if God is too
+kind to allow his children to suffer some of the natural
+consequences of sin, he is not a really kind and loving father, he
+is spoiling his children. Salvation is soundness, sanity, health;
+just as holiness is wholeness, escape from the disease, and not
+merely from the consequences of sin. A physician, unless a quack,
+never promises relief from a deep-seated disease without any pain or
+discomfort. And if the disease is the result of indulgence, he warns
+us that relapse into indulgence will bring a worse recurrence of the
+pain. Perhaps, after all, Socrates was not so far from right when he
+maintained that if a man had sinned the best and only thing for him
+is to suffer for it. "God the Lord will speak peace unto his people,
+and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly." And our
+Lord says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the
+prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say
+unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
+no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. For I say unto you,
+That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
+scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
+heaven." If we would be great in the kingdom of heaven we must do
+and teach the commandments. One of the best lessons that the clergy
+can learn from science is that law and penalty are not things of the
+past. They are eternal facts; and if so, ought sometimes to be at
+least mentioned from the pulpit as well as remembered in the pew.
+
+But if God is a person striving to communicate with man, and if man
+is a person intended to conform to environment by becoming like God,
+what is more probable from the scientific stand-point than that God
+should seek and find some means of making himself clearly known to
+man in some personal way? I do not see how any scientific man who
+believes in a personal God can avoid asking this question. And is
+there any more natural solution of the question than that given in
+the Bible? "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself."
+"God, who spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath
+in these last days spoken unto us by his son." Philip says, "Lord,
+show us the Father and it sufficeth us." Jesus saith unto him, "Have
+I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he
+that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou shew us the
+Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in
+me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the
+Father abiding in me doeth his works."
+
+"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world,
+and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
+evil."
+
+Something more is needed than light. We need more light and
+knowledge of our duty; we need vastly more the will-power to do it.
+I know how I ought to live; I do not live thus. What I need is not a
+teacher, but power to become a son of God. "I delight in the law of
+God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members,
+warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
+under the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I
+am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?"
+
+This is the terrible question. How is it to be answered? Let us
+remember our illustration of the change wrought in that
+panic-stricken army before Winchester by the appearance of Sheridan.
+What these men needed was not information. No plan of battle
+reported as sure of success by trustworthy and competent witnesses,
+and forwarded from the greatest leader could have stayed that rout.
+What they needed was Sheridan and the magnetic power of his
+personality. This is the strange power of all great leaders of men,
+whether orators, statesmen, or generals. It is intellect acting on
+and through intellect, but it is also vastly more; it is will acting
+on will. The leader does not merely instruct others, he inspires
+them, puts himself into them, and makes them heroes like himself.
+
+Now something like this, but vastly grander and deeper, seems to me
+to have been the work of our Lord. Read John's gospel and see how it
+is interpenetrated with the idea of the new life to be gained by
+contact with our Lord, and how this forms the foundation of his hope
+and claim to give men this new life by drawing them to himself. And
+Peter says that it was impossible for the Prince of Life to be
+holden of death, for he was the centre and source from which not
+only new thoughts and purposes, but new will and life was to stream
+out into the souls of men. This power of our Lord may have been
+miraculous and supernatural in degree; I feel assured that it was
+not unnatural in kind and mode of action.
+
+And here, young men, pardon a personal word about your preaching.
+You will need to preach many sermons of warning against, and
+denunciation of, sin; many of instruction in duty. The Bible is a
+store-house of instruction and men need it, and you must make it
+clear to them. All this is good and necessary, but it is not enough.
+Learn from the experience of the greatest preacher, perhaps, who
+ever lived.
+
+Paul, the greatest philosopher of ancient times, came to Athens. You
+can well imagine how he had waited and longed for the opportunity to
+speak in this home of philosophy and intellectual life. Now he was
+to speak, not to uncultured barbarians, but to men who could
+understand and appreciate his best thoughts. He preached in Athens
+the grandest sermon, as far as argument is concerned, ever uttered.
+I doubt if ever a sermon of Paul's accomplished less. He could not
+even rouse a healthy opposition. The idea of a new god, Jesus, and a
+new goddess, the Resurrection, rather tickled the Athenian fancy. He
+left them, and, in deep dejection, went down to Corinth. There he
+determined to know only "Christ and him crucified," and thus
+preaching in material, vicious Corinth he founded a church.
+
+Some of you will go through the same experience. You will preach to
+cultured and intelligent audiences, and they will listen courteously
+and eagerly as long as you tell them something new, and do not ask
+them to do anything. The only possible way of reaching Athenian
+intellect or Corinthian materialism and vice is by preaching Christ,
+"the power of God and the wisdom of God." And you will reach more
+Corinthians than Athenians.
+
+You may preach sermons full of the grandest philosophy and
+theology, and of the highest, most exact, science; you may chain men
+by your logic, thrill them by your rhetoric, and move them to tears
+by your eloquence, and they will go home as dead and cold as they
+came. What they need is power, life. But preach "Christ and him
+crucified"--not merely dead two thousand years ago--but risen and
+alive for evermore, and with us to the end of the world, the
+grandest, most heroic, divinest helper who ever stood by a man, one
+all-powerful to help and who never forsakes, and every one of your
+hearers who is not dead to truth will catch the life, and go home
+alive and not alone.
+
+So long as we preach a dead Christ we shall have a dead church, as
+hopeless as the apostles were before the resurrection. "But now is
+Christ risen from the dead," "alive for evermore." See how Paul and
+Peter and John, and doubtless all the others, talked with him and he
+with them, after he was taken from them, and you have found the
+secret of their power, and of that of all the great Christian heroes
+and martyrs who could truly say, Lord Jesus, we understand each
+other. Better yet, prove by experience that it is possible for every
+one of us.
+
+And our Lord and Master is the connecting link between God and man,
+through whom God's own Holy Spirit is poured like a mighty flood
+into the hearts and lives of men, transfiguring them and filling
+them with the divine power. This is the biblical idea of
+Christianity; man, through Christ, flooded and permeated and
+interpenetrated with the Holy Spirit of God. And thus Paul is dead
+and yet alive, but fully possessed and dominated by the spirit of
+Christ. Alive as never before, and yet his every thought, word, and
+deed is really that of his great leader. Can you talk of self-denial
+to such a Christian? He had forgotten that such a man as Saul of
+Tarsus or Paul ever existed; he lives only in his Master's work, and
+is transfigured by it. This, and nothing less, is Christianity, and
+this is the very highest and grandest heroism. Paul conquers Europe
+single-handed, alone he stands before Cæsar's tribunal, and yet he
+is never alone; and from the gloom of the Mammertine dungeon he
+sends back a shout of triumph. And Peter walks steadily, cheerfully,
+and unflinchingly, in the footsteps of his Master to share his
+cross.
+
+Let us, before leaving this topic, notice carefully just what
+religion, and especially Christianity, is not.
+
+1. It is not merely opinion or intellectual belief in a creed. This
+may be good, or even necessary, but it is not religion. "Thou
+believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also
+believe and tremble." We speak with pride, sometimes, of our
+puissant Christendom, so industrious, so intelligent, so moral, with
+its ubiquitous commerce, its adorning arts, its halls of learning,
+its happy firesides, and its noble charities. And yet what is our
+vaunted Christendom but a vast assemblage of believing but
+disobedient men? Said William Law to John Wesley, "The head can as
+easily amuse itself with a living and justifying faith in the blood
+of Jesus as with any other notion." The most sacred duty may
+degenerate into a dogma, asking only to be believed. "I go, sir,"
+answered the son in the parable, "but went not."
+
+2. It is not mere feeling. It is neither hope of heaven's joy, nor
+fear of hell's misery. It may rightly include these, but it is
+vastly more and higher. It is neither ecstasy nor remorse. The most
+resolutely impenitent sinner can shout "Hallelujah," and "Woe is
+me," as loudly as any saint. Now feeling is of vast importance. It
+stands close to the will and stimulates it, but it is not
+conformity. The will must be aroused to a robust life.
+
+3. Christianity is these and a great deal more. Mere belief would
+make religion a mere theology. Mere emotion would make it mere
+excitement. The true divine idea of it is a life; doing his will,
+not indolently sighing to do it, and then lamenting that we do it
+not; but the thing itself in actual achievement, from day to day,
+from month to month, from year to year. Thus religion rises on us in
+its own imperial majesty. It is no mere delight of the understanding
+in the doctrines of our faith; no mere excitement of the
+sensibilities, now harrowed by fear, and now jubilant in hope; but a
+warfare and a work, a warfare against sin, and a work with God.
+Religion is not an entertainment, but a service. We are to set
+before us the perfect standard, and then struggle to shape our lives
+to it. Personal sanctity must be made a business of.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: This page is mainly a series of quotations from Dr.
+  R.D. Hitchcock's sermon on "Religion, the Doing of God's Will."]
+
+A little more than thirty years ago a regiment was sent home from
+the Army of the Potomac to enforce the draft after the riots in this
+city. Some of you may picture to yourselves a thousand men with silk
+banners and gold lace and bright uniforms, resplendent in the
+sunshine. You could not make a worse mistake.
+
+First in that gray early morning came two old flags, so torn by shot
+and shell that there was hardly enough left of them to tell whether
+the State flag was that of Massachusetts or Virginia. And behind
+these came scant three hundred men. All the rest were sleeping
+between Washington and Richmond, some on almost every battle-field.
+The uniforms were old and faded from sun and rain. Only gun-barrel
+and bayonet were bright. And the men were scarred and tired and
+foot-sore, haggard from hard fighting and long, swift marches. For
+these men had been trained to be hurried back and forth behind the
+long line of battle, that they might be hurled into it wherever the
+need was greatest. I do not suppose that one of them could have
+delivered a fourth-of-July oration on Patriotism. They were trained
+not to talk, but to obey orders. But they had stood in the "bloody
+angle" at Spottsylvania all day and all night; and in the gray dawn
+of the next morning, when strength and courage are always at ebb,
+faint and exhausted, their last cartridge shot away, had sprung
+forward at the command of their colonel to make a last desperate,
+forlorn defence with the bayonet against the advancing enemy.
+Numbers do not count against men like these. What made them such
+invincible heroes? It was mainly the resolute will and long training
+to obey orders. A Christian should never forget that he is a soldier
+in the army of the Lord of Hosts; that enlistment is easy and
+quickly accomplished; but that the training is long, and that he
+must learn, above all, to "endure hardness."
+
+And so, my brothers, I beg of you to preach a heroic Christianity,
+for if there ever was a heroic religion it is ours. If you offer
+merely free transportation to a future heaven of delight on "flowery
+beds of ease," you will enlist only the coward and the sluggard. But
+everyone who has a drop of strong old Norse blood in his veins will
+prefer a heathen Valhalla, though builded in hell, to such a heaven.
+And his Norse instincts will be nearer truth than your counterfeit
+of a debased Christianity. But preach the city of God's
+righteousness on earth and now among men, and call on every heroic
+soul to take sides with God against sin within himself and the evil
+and misery all around him. There is an almost infinite amount of
+strength, endurance, and heroism in this "slow-witted but
+long-winded" human race waiting to leap up at the appeal to fight
+once more and win a victory after repeated defeats before the sun
+goes down. Appeal to this and point to the great "captain of our
+salvation made perfect through sufferings," and every man that is of
+the truth will hear in your voice the call of the Master and King.
+You will not be disappointed, but among the publicans and fishermen
+of America you will find heroic souls, who will leave all to follow,
+as faithfully and unflinchingly as those from the shores of Galilee.
+
+And what of faith? Faith is the personal attachment of a soul to
+such a leader. Fortunately the Bible contains a scientific monograph
+on this subject. I refer, of course, to the eleventh chapter of the
+epistle to the Hebrews. And the whole result is summed up in a few
+words of the thirteenth verse. The great heroes, like Enoch, Noah,
+and Abraham, "saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them,
+and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
+pilgrims on the earth."
+
+They saw the promises afar off, dimly, on the horizon of their
+mental vision; as one looks into the distance and cannot tell
+whether what he sees be cloud or mountain. And until they could make
+up their minds that there was some substance in the vision, they did
+not embrace it. They were not credulous. Neither were they
+carelessly or heedlessly sure that there was and could be nothing in
+the vision but mist and fancy. They recognized that on their
+decision of the question hung the life of which they meant to make
+the very most. They looked again and again, and kept thinking about
+it. Thus they became and were "persuaded of them." And most people
+stop here with a merely intellectual faith in their heads, and very
+little in their hearts and lives. Not so these old heroes; they were
+not so purely and coldly intellectual that they could not _do_
+anything. They "embraced them." They said, that is exactly what I
+want and need, and I'll have it, if it costs me my life.
+
+Now a promise is always conditional; if you want one thing, you must
+give up something else. It involves a choice between alternatives;
+you can have either one freely, you cannot have both. It was to them
+as to Christ on the "exceeding high mountain," God or the world; God
+with the cross, or the world with Satan thrown in. And the same
+alternative confronts us.
+
+Moses could be a good Jew or a good Egyptian. Most of us, while
+resolved to be excellent Jews at heart, would have said nothing
+about it, but remained sons of Pharaoh's daughter in order to
+benefit the Jews by our influence in our lofty station. We should
+have become miserable hybrids with all the vices and weaknesses of
+both races, but with none of the virtues of either. And for all that
+we should ever have done the Jews might have rotted in Egyptian
+bondage. Enlargement and deliverance would have arisen to the Jews
+from some other place; but we and our father's house would have been
+destroyed. By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
+daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the children of
+God, etc. And certainly he did suffer for it.
+
+They embraced the promises with their whole hearts. They were stoned
+and sawn asunder rather than give them up. And what was the effect
+on their characters? Having counted the cost, and being perfectly
+willing to accept any loss or pain for the sake of these promises,
+and hence inspired by them, they became sublime heroes. Through
+faith they "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
+promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of
+fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made
+strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the
+aliens. And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
+moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they wandered about in
+sheepskins and in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
+Of whom the world was not worthy." That is a faith worth having, and
+it is as sound philosophy as it is scripture.
+
+"These all died in faith, not having received the promises." Did
+they receive nothing? Moses and Elijah, Gideon and Barak gained
+power and heroism greater than we can conceive of. Surely that was
+enough. But they did not get the whole of the promise, or even the
+best of it. And the simple reason was that God cannot make a promise
+small enough to be completely fulfilled to a man in his earthly
+life. He gets enough to make him a king, but this does not begin to
+exhaust the promise. It is inexhaustible. This is the experience of
+anyone who will faithfully try it. And this experience is the
+grandest argument for immortality.
+
+Therefore, "giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue ([Greek:
+aretê], strength), and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge
+temperance ([Greek: enkrateia], self-control), and to temperance
+patience ([Greek: hypomenê], endurance), and to patience godliness,
+and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness
+charity" (love).
+
+And what of prayer? How can it be answered in a universe of law? We
+certainly could have no confidence that our prayers could or would
+be answered if ours were not a universe of law. God's laws are, as
+we have seen, his modes of working out his great plan. And the last
+and highest unfolding of God's plan is the development of man. And
+man is to become conformed to his environment, and conformity of
+man's highest powers to his environment is likeness to God.
+
+The laws of nature, then, are in ultimate analysis and highest aim
+the different steps in God's plan of man's salvation from the
+disease of sin, not merely or mainly from its consequences, and his
+attainment of holiness. For this is the only true and sound manhood.
+Salvation is spiritual health, resulting also in health of body and
+of mind. If God's laws are his modes of carrying out his plan for
+godlikeness in man, then they are so thought out as to be the means
+of helping me to every real good.
+
+The Bible declares explicitly that the aim of prayer is not to
+inform God of our needs. For he knows them already. It is not to
+change God's purpose, for he is unchangeable, and we should rejoice
+in this. We are to pray for our daily bread; we are to pray for the
+sick; and, if best for them and consistent with God's plan, they
+shall recover. Elijah prayed for drought and prayed for rain, and
+was answered. And Abraham's prayer would have saved Sodom, had there
+been ten righteous men in the city. "Men ought alway to pray and not
+to faint."
+
+                     "More things are wrought by prayer
+        Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice
+        Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
+        For what are men better than sheep or goats
+        That nourish a blind life within the brain,
+        If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
+        Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
+        For so the whole round earth is every way
+        Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."
+
+But could not all these things be brought about without a single
+prayer? Not according to the plan of man's education which God has
+adopted. Whether he could well have made a plan by which material
+blessings could have been bestowed upon men who do not ask for them,
+I do not know. The ravens and all animals are fed without a single
+prayer, for they are not fitted or intended to hold communion with
+God. But a prayerless race of men has never been fed long; it has
+soon ceased to exist. God's plan of salvation and ordering of the
+universe involves prayer as a means of blessing and good things as
+an answer to prayer. God says, I make you a co-worker with me. I
+will help you in everything; but you must call on me for help, or
+you will forget that I am the source of your help and strength, and
+thus having lost your communion with me will die. "When Jeshurun
+waxed fat he kicked." This is the oft-repeated story of the Old
+Testament and of all history. And thus, while material blessings are
+given in answer to prayer, these are not the chief end for which
+prayer is to be offered.
+
+Prayer is a means of conformity to environment, of godlikeness. How
+do you become like a friend? Of course by associating and talking
+with him. And why does it help you to associate with a hero? Simply
+because you cannot be with him without being inspired with his
+heroism. And so while I may pray for bread and clothes and
+opportunities, and God will give me these or something better; I
+will, if wise, pray for purity, courage, moral power, heroism, and
+holiness. And I know that these will stream from his soul into mine
+like a great river. And so I may pray for bread and be denied; for
+hunger, with some higher good, may be far better for me than a full
+stomach. But if I pray for any spiritual gift, which will make me
+godlike, and on which as an heir of God I have a rightful claim,
+every law and force in God's universe is a means to answer that
+prayer. And best of all, if I pray for the gift of God's Spirit,
+that is the prayer which the whole world of environment has been
+framed to answer.
+
+But this I can never have unless I hunger for it. I can never have
+it to use as a means of gaining some lower good which I worship more
+than God. God will not and cannot lend himself to any such idolatry.
+I must be willing to give up anything and everything else for its
+attainment. Otherwise the answer to the prayer would ruin me.
+
+I cannot grasp the higher while using both hands to grasp the
+lower.
+
+Thus religion is the interpenetration and permeation of my
+personality by that of God. And prayer is the communion by which
+this permeation becomes possible. And faith is the vision of these
+possibilities, the being persuaded by them, and the resolute purpose
+to attain them. And faith in Christ is confiding communion with him
+and obedience to his commands that his divine life may flow over
+into me and dominate mine. And common-sense, and the more refined
+common-sense which we call science, can show me no other means to
+the attainment of that godlikeness which is the only true conformity
+to environment.
+
+And, holding such a belief and faith, we must be hopeful. And only
+next in importance to faith and love stands hope. The hero must be
+hopeful. And when times look dark about you, and they sometimes
+will, you must still hope.
+
+        "O it is hard to work for God,
+           To rise and take his part
+         Upon the battle-field of earth,
+           And not sometimes lose heart!
+
+        "O there is less to try our faith
+           In our mysterious creed,
+         Than in the godless look of earth
+           In these our hours of need.
+
+        "Ill masters good; good seems to change
+           To ill with greatest ease;
+         And, worst of all, the good with good
+           Is at cross purposes.
+
+        "Workman of God! O lose not heart,
+           But learn what God is like;
+         And in the darkest battle-field
+           Thou shalt know where to strike.
+
+        "Muse on his justice, downcast soul!
+           Muse, and take better heart;
+         Back with thine angel to the field,
+           Good luck shall crown thy part!
+
+        "For right is right, since God is God;
+           And right the day must win;
+         To doubt would be disloyalty,
+           To falter would be sin."
+
+Hope on, be strong and of a good courage. For in the dark hours
+others will lean on you to catch your hope and courage. To many a
+poor discouraged soul you must be "a hiding-place from the wind and
+a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
+shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Every power and force in
+the universe of environment makes for the ultimate triumph of truth
+and right. Defeat is impossible. "One man with God on his side is
+the majority that carries the day. 'We are but two,' said Abu Bakr
+to Mohammed as they were flying hunted from Mecca to Medina. 'Nay;'
+answered Mohammed, 'we are three; God is with us.'"
+
+And not only the race will triumph and regain the Paradise lost. The
+city of God shall surely be with men, and God will dwell with them
+and in them. But you and I can and shall triumph too.
+
+We are prone to feel that the individual man is too insignificant a
+being to be the object of God's care and forethought. But we should
+not forget that it is the individual who conforms, and that the
+higher and nobler race is to be attained through the elevation of
+individuals, one after another. God deals with races and nations as
+such. But his laws and promises are made almost entirely for the
+individuals of which these larger units are concerned.
+
+But there is another standpoint from which we may gain a helpful
+view of the matter. I may be the meanest citizen of my native state,
+and my father may leave me heir of only a few acres of rocky land.
+But, if my title is good, every power in the state is pledged to put
+me in possession of my inheritance. They who would rob me may be
+strong; but the state will call out every able-bodied man, and pour
+out every dollar in its treasury before it will allow me to be
+defrauded of my legal rights. And it must do this for me, its
+meanest citizen, else there is no government, but anarchy, and
+oppression, and the rule of the strongest. And we all recognize that
+this is but right and necessary, and would be ashamed of our state
+and government were it not literally true.
+
+If I travel in distant lands, my passport is the sign that all the
+power of these United States is pledged to protect me from
+injustice. Think of the sensitiveness of governments to any wrong
+done to their private citizens. England went to war with Abyssinia
+to protect and deliver two Englishmen. And shall God do less? Can he
+do less? If it is only just and right and necessary for earthly
+governments to thus care for their citizens, shall not the ruler and
+"judge of all the earth do right?"
+
+Now you and I are commanded to be heirs of God, to attain to
+likeness to him. This is therefore our legal right, guaranteed by
+him, for every command of God is really a promise. And he will
+exhaust every power in the universe before he allows anything to
+prevent us from gaining our legal rights, provided only that we are
+earnest in claiming them.
+
+But if I alienate my rights to my inheritance, the commonwealth
+cannot help me. If I renounce my citizenship, the government of the
+United States can no longer protect me. And so I can alienate my
+"right to the tree of life," and to entrance into the city, and I
+can forfeit my heirship to all that God would give me. "For I am
+persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
+principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
+nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, shall be able to
+separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
+Lord." But I can alienate and make void every promise and title, if
+I will or if I do not care. This is the unique glory, and awfulness
+of the human will. And we know that to them that love God all things
+work together for good. "If God is for us who is against us?" It
+must be so if God's laws are his modes of aiding men to conform to
+environment.
+
+And what of the church? Is it anything else or other than a means of
+aiding man to conform to environment? If it fails of this, can it be
+any longer the church of God? The church is a means, not an end. And
+it is a means of godlikeness in man.
+
+Some would make it a social club. The bond of union between its
+members is their common grade of wealth, social position, or
+intellectual attainments. And this idea of the church has deeper
+root in the minds of us all than we think. I can imagine a far
+better club than one formed and framed on this principle, but it is
+difficult for me to imagine a worse counterfeit of a church. Others
+make it a source of intellectual delectation, and the means of
+hearing one or two striking sermons each week. Such a church will
+conduce to the intelligence of its members, and may be rather more,
+though probably less, useful than the old New England Lyceum lecture
+system. Such a church is of about as much practical value to the
+world at large as some consultations of physicians are to their
+patients. The doctors have a most interesting discussion, but the
+patient dies, and the nature of the disease is discovered at the
+autopsy. Others still would make of the church a great railroad
+system, over which sleeping-cars run from the City of Destruction,
+with a coupon good to admit one to the Golden City at the other end.
+The coaches are luxurious and the road-bed smooth. The Slough of
+Despond has been filled, the Valley of Humiliation bridged at its
+narrowest point, and the Delectable Mountains tunnelled. But
+scoffers say that most of the passengers make full use of the
+unlimited stop-over privileges allowed at Vanity Fair.
+
+The Bible would seem to give the impression that the church is the
+army of the Lord of Hosts, a disciplined army of hardy, heroic
+souls, each soldier aiding his fellow in working out the salvation
+which God is working in him. And it joins battle fiercely and
+fearlessly with every form of sin and misery, counting not the odds
+against it. And the Salvation Army seems to me to have conceived and
+realized to a great extent just what at least one corps in this
+grand army can and should be. And you and I can learn many a lesson
+from them.
+
+The church is the body of which Christ is the head, and you and I
+are "members in particular." Let us see to it that we are not the
+weak spot in the body, crippling and maiming the whole. The church
+is the city of God among men, and we are its citizens, bound by its
+laws, loyal servants of the Great King, sworn to obey his commands
+and enlarge his kingdom, and repel all the assaults of his
+adversaries. Thus the Bible seems to me to depict the church of God.
+But what if the army contains a multitude of men who will not obey
+orders or submit to discipline? or if the city be overwhelmed with a
+mass of aliens, who see in its laws and institutions mainly means of
+selfish individual advantage? Responsibility, not privilege, is the
+foundation of strong character in both men and institutions. There
+was a good grain of truth in the old Scotch minister's remark, that
+they had had a blessed work of grace in his church; they had not
+taken anybody in, but a lot had gone out.
+
+There are plenty of churches of Laodicea to-day. May you be
+delivered from them. But, thank God, there are also churches of
+Philadelphia and Smyrna. May you be pastors of one of the latter. It
+will not pay you a very large salary, for Demas has gone to the
+church of Laodicea, because the minister of the church of Smyrna was
+not orthodox, or not sufficiently spiritually minded--meaning
+thereby that he rebuked the sins of actual living men in general,
+and of Demas in particular--or preached politics, and did not mind
+his business. And your church may be small. For many of the
+congregation have gone to the church around the other corner, which
+is mainly a cluster of associations, having excellent names, and
+useful for almost every purpose except building up a manly, rugged,
+heroic, godlike character. The minister there, they will tell you,
+preaches delightful sermons. They make you "feel so good." He
+annihilates pantheism, and his denunciations of materialism are
+eloquent in the extreme. But his incarnations of materialism are
+Huxley and Darwin, and to the uncharitable he seems to almost
+carefully avoid any language which might seem to reflect upon the
+dollar- and place-worship of some of the occupants of his front
+pews. Now, I am not here to defend Mr. Huxley or Mr. Darwin.
+Withstand them to the face wherever they are to be blamed. And for
+some utterances they are undoubtedly to be blamed, honest souls as
+they were. But I for one cannot help feeling that there is among the
+"dwellers in Jerusalem" a materialism of the heart which is
+indefinitely worse than any intellectual heresy. When you hit at the
+one heresy strike hard at the other also.
+
+Many will have left your little church of Smyrna. It had to be so.
+For the divine sifting process, which is natural selection on its
+highest plane, has not ceased to work. It must and shall still go
+on; it cannot be otherwise. Has the great principle ceased to be
+true in modern history that "though the number of the children of
+Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved?"
+
+But do not be discouraged. Preach Christ and a heroic Christianity.
+Do not be afraid to demand great things of your people. Remember
+that Ananias was encouraged to go to Paul because the Lord would
+show Paul how great things he should suffer for the name of Jesus.
+This is what appeals to the heroic in every man, and we do not make
+nearly enough use of it. And the heroic Christ and his heroic
+Christianity will draw every heroic soul in the community to
+himself. They may not be very heroic looking. You may be in some
+hill town in old Massachusetts "Nurse of heroes." Pardon me, I do
+not intend to be invidious. Heroism is cosmopolitan. One of the
+pillars of your church may be the school-teacher of the little red
+school-house at the fork of the roads, in the yard ornamented with
+alders, mulleins, and sumachs. She boards around, and is clad in
+anything but silks and sealskins. But she trains well her band of
+hardy little fellows, who will later fear the multitude as little as
+they now mind the Berkshire winds. And from the pittance she
+receives for training these rebellious urchins into heroic men she
+is supporting an old mother somewhere, or helping a brother to an
+education. And your deacon will be some farmer, perhaps uncouth in
+appearance and rough of dress, and certainly blunt in his scanty
+speech. He'll not flatter you nor your sermons; and until you've
+lived with him for years you will not know what a great heart there
+is in that rugged frame, and what wealth of affection in that silent
+hand-shake. And there is his wife. She is round and ample, and
+certainly does not look especially solemn or pious. She is aunt and
+mother to the whole community, the joy of all the children, nurse of
+the sick, and comfort of the dying. She is doing the work of ten at
+home, and of a host in the village. And your right-hand man is
+great Onesiphorus from the mill down in the valley, fighting an
+uphill battle to keep the wolf from the door, while he and his wife
+deny themselves everything, that their flock of children may have
+better training for fighting God's battles than they ever enjoyed.
+
+I cannot describe these men and women. If you have lived with
+them, you will need no description, and would resent the
+inadequacy of mine. If you have never had the good fortune to live
+with them, it is impossible to make you see them as they are. When
+you once have thoroughly known them, language will fail you to do
+them justice, and you will prefer to be silent rather than slander
+them by inadequate portrayal. They are at first sight not
+attractive-looking. If you stand outside and look at them from a
+distance their lives will appear to you very humdrum and prosaic.
+But remember that for almost thirty years our Lord lived just such
+a life in Nazareth, making ploughs and yokes; and then, when the
+younger brothers and sisters were able to care for themselves,
+snatched three years from supporting a peasant family in Galilee
+to redeem a world. And who was Peter but a rough, hardy fisherman?
+
+Now a Paul, trained at the feet of Gamaliel, was also needed; and
+the twelve did not come from the lowest ranks of society. But they
+were honest, industrious, practical, courageous, hardy, common
+people. And single-handed they went out to conquer empires. And they
+succeeded through the power of God in them.
+
+Who knows the possibilities of your little church in the hilltown of
+Smyrna? These men and women are the pickets of God's great host.
+They are scattered up and down our land, fighting alone the great
+battle, unknown of men and sometimes thinking that they must be
+forgotten of God. And the picket's lonely post is what tries a man's
+courage and strength.
+
+Take your example from Paul's epistle. Greet Phebe, the
+schoolmistress, and Aquila and Priscilla on their rocky farm on the
+mountain-side, and greet the burden-bearing Onesiphorus. And give
+them God's greeting and encouragement, for he sends it to them
+through you. Show them the heroism which there is in their "humdrum"
+lives; and cheer them in the efforts, of whose grandeur they are all
+unconscious. Bid them "be strong and of a very good courage." For in
+the character of these people there is the granite of the eternal
+hills, and in their hearts should be the sunshine of God. Do not be
+ashamed of your congregation. Their dimes or dollars may look
+pitifully small and few on the collector's plate; only God sees the
+real immensity of the gift in the self-denial which it has cost.
+Your people will take sides with the cause of right, while it is
+still unpopular. They have furnished the moral backbone and
+unswerving integrity of many of your great business houses in this
+city to-day. From those families will go forth the men whom the good
+will trust and the evil fear. The power for good proceeding from
+your church will be like the floods which Ezekiel saw pouring out
+from beneath the threshold of the Lord's house.
+
+For these common people, whom "God must have loved because he made
+so many of them," are the true heirs to the future. And wealth and
+culture, art and learning, are to burn like torches to light their
+march. Finally, my young brothers, do not be bitterly disappointed
+if you are not "popular preachers." Do not let too many people go to
+sleep under your preaching, even if one young man did go to sleep
+under one of Paul's sermons. But if now and then someone is angry at
+what you have said, do not worry too much over it. Preach the truth
+in love. If Elijah and John the Baptist, and Peter and Paul, were to
+preach to-day I doubt greatly whether they would be popular
+preachers. I cannot find that they ever were so. They would probably
+be peripatetic candidates, until someone supported them as
+independent evangelists. After their death we would rear them great
+monuments, and then devote ourselves to railing at Timothy because
+he was not more like what we imagine Paul was.
+
+Even Socrates found that he must bid farewell to what men count
+honors, if he would follow after truth. You may have the same
+experience. You will have to champion many an unpopular cause, and
+your people will not like it. They will say you lack tact. Now Paul
+was a man of infinite tact. Witness his sermon on Mars' Hill. But if
+his letters to the church in Corinth were addressed to most modern
+churches, they would soon set out in search of a pastor of greater
+adaptability.
+
+If you play the man, and fight the good fight of faith, I do not see
+how you can always avoid hitting somebody on the other side. And he
+will pull you down if he can; and will probably succeed in sometimes
+making your life very uncomfortable. Remember the teaching of
+scripture and science, that the upward path was never intended to
+be easy. The scriptural passages to this effect you can find all
+through the gospels and epistles, and I need not quote them to you.
+I will, however, tell you honestly that many are of the opinion that
+these passages are now obsolete, being applicable only to the first
+centuries, or to especially critical times in the history of
+the church. I cannot share that view, but, lest I seem too
+old-fashioned, will merely quote the ringing words of our own Dr.
+Hitchcock, that "no man ever enters heaven save on his shield." And
+allow me to quote in the same connection the testimony of that
+prince of scientists, Professor Huxley, in his lecture on "Evolution
+and Ethics:"
+
+"If we may permit ourselves a larger hope of abatement of the
+essential evil of the world than was possible to those who, in the
+infancy of exact knowledge, faced the problem of existence more than
+a score of centuries ago, I deem it an essential condition of the
+realization of that hope that we should cast aside the notion that
+the escape from pain and sorrow is the proper object of life.
+
+"We have long since emerged from the heroic childhood of our race,
+when good and evil could be met with the same 'frolic welcome;' the
+attempts to escape from evil, whether Indian or Greek, have ended in
+flight from the battle-field; it remains to us to throw aside the
+youthful over-confidence and the no less youthful discouragement of
+nonage. We are grown men, and must play the man
+
+                          "... 'strong in will
+        To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,'
+
+"cherishing the good that falls in our way and bearing the evil in
+and around us, with stout heart set on diminishing it. So far we all
+may strive in one faith toward one hope:
+
+        "'It may be that the gulfs will wash us down,
+          It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles.
+
+                 "... but something ere the end,
+           Some work of noble note may yet be done.'"
+
+We must be strong and of a very good courage. While the avoidance of
+pain and discomfort, or even happiness, cannot be the proper end of
+life, it is not a world of misery or an essentially and hopelessly
+evil world. There is plenty of misery in the world, and we cannot
+deny it. Neither can we deny that God has put us in the world to
+relieve misery, and that until we have made every effort and
+strained every nerve as we have never yet done, we, and not God, are
+largely responsible for it. But behind misery stand selfishness and
+sin as its cause. And here we must not parley but fight. And the
+hosts of evil are organized and mighty. "The sons of this world are
+for their own generation wiser than the sons of light." And we shall
+never overcome them by adopting their means. But we can and shall
+surely overcome. For he that is with us is more than they that be
+with them. "The skirmishes are frequently disastrous to us, but the
+great battles all go one way." And we long for the glory of "him
+that overcometh." But the victor's song can come only after the
+battle, and be sung only by those who have overcome. And we would
+not have it otherwise if we could. The closing words of Dr.
+Hitchcock's last sermon are the following:
+
+"It is one of the revelations of scripture that we are to judge the
+angels, sitting above them on the shining heights. It may well be
+so. Those angels are the imperial guard, doing easy duty at home. We
+are the tenth legion, marching in from the swamps and forests of the
+far-off frontier, scarred and battered, but victorious over death
+and sin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
+
+
+In all our study we have taken for granted the truth of the theory
+of evolution. If you are not already persuaded of this by the
+writings of Darwin, Wallace, and many others, no words or arguments
+of mine would convince you. We have used as the foundation of our
+argument only the fundamental propositions of Mr. Darwin's theory.
+
+But while all evolutionists accept these propositions they differ
+more or less in the weight or efficiency which they assign to each.
+In a sum in multiplication you may gain the same product by using
+different factors; but if the product is to be constant, if you
+halve one factor, you must double another. Evolution is a product of
+many factors. One evolutionist lays more, another less, emphasis on
+natural selection, according as he assigns less or more efficiency
+to other forces or processes. Furthermore, evolutionists differ
+widely in questions of detail, and some of these subsidiary
+questions are of great practical importance and interest. It may be
+useful, therefore, to review these propositions in the light of the
+facts which we have gathered, and to see how they are interpreted,
+and what emphasis is laid on each by different thinkers.
+
+The fundamental fact on which Mr. Darwin's theory rests is the
+"struggle for existence." Life is not something to be idly enjoyed,
+but a prize to be won; the world is not a play-ground, but an arena.
+And the severity of the struggle can scarcely be overrated. Only one
+or two of a host of runners reach the goal, the others die along the
+course. Concerning this there can be no doubt, and there is little
+room for difference of interpretation.
+
+The struggle may take the form of a literal battle between two
+individuals, or of the individual with inclemency of climate or
+other destructive agents. More usually it is a competition, no more
+noticeable and no less real than that between merchants or
+manufacturers in the same line of trade.
+
+The weeds in our gardens compete with the flowers for food, light,
+and place, and crowd them out unless prevented by man. And when the
+weeds alone remain, they crowd on each other until only a few of the
+hardiest and most vigorous survive. And flowers, by their nectar,
+color, and odor, compete for the visits of insects, which insure
+cross-fertilization. And fruits are frequently or usually the
+inducements by which plants compete for the aid of animals in the
+dissemination of their seeds. So there is everywhere competition and
+struggle; many fail and perish, few succeed and survive.
+
+In a foot-race it is often very difficult to name the winner. Muscle
+alone does not win, not even good heart and lungs. Good judgment,
+patience, coolness, courage, many mental and moral qualities, are
+essential to the successful athlete. So in the struggle for life.
+The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
+
+The total of "points" which wins this "grand prize" is the
+aggregate of many items, some of which appear to us very
+insignificant. Hence, when we ask, "Who will survive?" the answer is
+necessarily vague. Mr. Darwin's answer is, Those best conformed to
+their environment; and Mr. Spencer's statement of the survival of
+the fittest means the same thing.
+
+The judges who pronounce and execute the verdict of death, or award
+the prize of life, are the forces and conditions of environment. We
+have already considered the meaning of this word. Many of its forces
+and conditions are still unknown, or but very imperfectly
+understood. But known or unknown, visible or invisible, the result
+of their united action is the extinction or degradation of these
+individuals which deviate from certain fairly well-marked lines of
+development. We must keep clearly before our minds the fact that the
+world of living beings makes up by far the most important part of
+the environment of any individual plant or animal. Two plants may be
+equally well suited to the soil and climate of any region; but if
+one have a scanty development of root or leaf, or is for any reason
+more liable to attacks from insects or germs, other things being
+equal, it will in time be crowded out by its competitor. Worms are
+eaten by lower vertebrates, and these by higher. An animal's
+environment, like that of a merchant or manufacturer, is very
+largely a matter of the ability and methods of its competitors. And
+man, compelled to live in society, makes that part of the
+environment by which he is most largely moulded.
+
+This process of extinction Mr. Darwin has called "natural
+selection." Natural selection is not a force, but a process,
+resulting from the combined action of the forces of environment. It
+is not a cause in any proper sense of the word, but a result of a
+myriad of interacting forces. The combination of these forces in a
+process of natural selection leading directly to a moral and
+spiritual goal demands an explanation in some ultimate cause. This
+explanation we have already tried to find.
+
+It is a process of extinction. It favors the fittest, but only by
+leaving them to enjoy the food and place formerly claimed, or still
+furnished, by the less fit. In any advancing group, as the less fit
+are crowded out, and the better fitted gain more place and food and
+more rapid increase, the whole species becomes on an average better
+conformed. More abundant nourishment and increased vigor seem also
+to be accompanied by increased variation. And by the extinction of
+the less fit the probability is increased that more fit individuals
+will pair with one another and give rise to even fitter offspring,
+possessing perhaps new and still more valuable variations.
+
+But if, of a group of weaker forms, those alone survive which adopt
+a parasitic life, those which in adult life move the least will
+survive and reproduce; there will result the survival of the least
+muscular and nervous. This degeneration will continue until the
+species has sunken into equilibrium, so to speak, with its
+surroundings. Here natural selection works for degeneration. Sessile
+animals have had a similar history. But these parasitic and sessile
+forms had already been hopelessly distanced in the race for life.
+Their presence cannot impede the leaders; indeed their survival is
+necessary to directly or indirectly furnish food for the better
+conformed. In the animal and plant world there is abundant room and
+advantage at the top.
+
+Once more, natural selection works as a rule for the survival of
+individuals, only indirectly for that of organs composing, or of
+species including, these individuals. It may work for the
+development of a trait or structure which, while of no immediate
+advantage to the individual, increases the probability of its
+rearing a larger number of fitter offspring. Thus defence of the
+young by birds may be a disadvantage to the parent, but this is more
+than counterbalanced in the life of the species by the number of
+young coming to maturity and inheriting the trait. Even here natural
+selection favors the survival of the trait indirectly by sparing the
+descendants of the individual possessing it. Natural selection may
+always work on and through individuals without always working for
+their sole and selfish advantage.
+
+In human society we find the selection of families, societies,
+nations, and civilizations going on, but mainly as the result of the
+survival of the fittest individuals.
+
+There may very probably be a struggle for existence between organs
+or cells in the body of each individual. The amount of nutriment in
+the body is a more or less fixed quantity; and if one organ seizes
+more than its fair share, others may or must diminish for lack. But
+the limit to this usurpation must apparently be set by the crowding
+out of those individuals in which it is carried too far. Natural
+selection, so to speak, leaves the individual responsible for the
+distribution of the nutriment among the organs, and spares or
+destroys the individual as this usurpation proves for its advantage
+or disadvantage.
+
+It makes its verdict much as the judges at a great poultry or dog
+show count the series of points, giving each one of them a certain
+value on a certain scale, and then award the prize to the individual
+having the highest aggregate on the whole series. Any such
+illustration is very liable to mislead; I wish to emphasize that
+fitness to survive is determined by the aggregate of the qualities
+of an individual.
+
+But an animal having one organ of great value or capacity may thus
+carry off the prize, even though its other organs deserve a much
+lower mark. This is the case with man. In almost every respect,
+except in brain and hand, he is surpassed by the carnivora, the cat,
+for example. But muscle may be marked, in making up the aggregate,
+on a scale of 500, and brain on a scale of 5,000, or perhaps of
+50,000. A very slight difference in brain capacity outweighs a great
+superiority in muscle in the struggle between man and the carnivora,
+or between man and man.
+
+The scale on which an organ is marked will be proportional to its
+usefulness under the conditions given at a given time. During the
+period of development of worms and lower vertebrates much muscle
+with a little brain was more useful than more brain with less
+muscle. Hence, as a rule, the more muscular survived; the brain
+increasing slowly, at first apparently largely because of its
+correlation with muscle and sense-organs. At a later date muscle,
+tooth, and claw were more useful on the ground; brain and hand in
+the trees. Hence carnivora ruled the ground, and certain arboreal
+apes became continually more anthropoid. At a later date brain
+became more useful even on the ground, and was marked on a higher
+scale, because it could invent traps and weapons against which
+muscle was of little avail. Just at present brain is of use to, and
+valued by, a large portion of society in proportion to its
+efficiency in making and selfishly spending money. But slowly and
+surely it is becoming of use as an organ of thought, for the sake of
+the truth which it can discover and incarnate.
+
+Natural selection works thus apparently for the survival of the
+individuals possessing in the aggregate the most complete conformity
+to environment. Let us now imagine that an animal is so constructed
+as to be capable of variation along several disadvantageous or
+neutral lines, and along only one which is advantageous. The
+development would of course proceed along the advantageous line. Let
+us farther imagine that to the descendants of this individual two,
+and only two, advantageous lines of variations are allowed by its
+structure. Then natural selection would probably favor the decidedly
+advantageous line, if such there were. But as long as the structure
+of the animal allows variation along only a few lines, the
+two advantageous variations would, according to the law of
+probabilities, frequently occur in the same individual. The eggs and
+spermatozoa of two such individuals might not infrequently unite,
+and thus in time the two characteristics be inherited by a large
+fraction of the species.
+
+And now let me quote from Mr. Spencer:
+
+   "But in proportion as the life grows complex--in proportion as a
+   healthy existence cannot be secured by a large endowment of some
+   one power, but demands many powers; in the same proportion do
+   there arise obstacles to the increase of any particular power, by
+   'the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life.' As
+   fast as the faculties are multiplied, so fast does it become
+   possible for the several members of a species to have various
+   kinds of superiorities over one another. While one saves its life
+   by higher speed, another does the like by clearer vision, another
+   by keener scent, another by quicker hearing, another by greater
+   strength, another by unusual power of enduring cold or hunger,
+   another by special sagacity, another by special timidity, another
+   by special courage; and others by other bodily and mental
+   attributes. Now it is unquestionably true that, other things
+   equal, each of these attributes, giving its possessor an extra
+   chance of life, is likely to be transmitted to posterity. But
+   there seems no reason to suppose that it will be increased in
+   subsequent generations by natural selection. That it may be thus
+   increased, the individuals not possessing more than average
+   endowments of it must be more frequently killed off than
+   individuals highly endowed with it; and this can happen only when
+   the attribute is one of greater importance, for the time being,
+   than most of the other attributes. If those members of the
+   species which have but ordinary shares of it, nevertheless
+   survive by virtue of other superiorities which they severally
+   possess, then it is not easy to see how this particular attribute
+   can be developed by natural selection in subsequent generations.
+   The probability seems rather to be that, by gamogenesis, this
+   extra endowment will, on the average, be diminished in
+   posterity--just serving in the long run to compensate the
+   deficient endowments of other individuals whose special powers
+   lie in other directions, and so to keep up the normal structure
+   of the species. The working out of the process is here somewhat
+   difficult to follow; but it appears to me that as fast as the
+   number of bodily and mental faculties increases, and as fast as
+   the maintenance of life comes to depend less on the amount of any
+   one, and more on the combined action of all, so fast does the
+   production of specialties of character by natural selection alone
+   become difficult. Particularly does this seem to be so with a
+   species so multitudinous in its powers as mankind, and above all
+   does it seem to be so with such of the human powers as have but
+   minor shares in aiding the struggle for life--the æsthetic
+   faculties for example."--Spencer, "Principles of Biology," § 166.
+
+Can thus natural selection, acting upon fortuitous variations, be
+the sole guiding process concerned in progress? Must there not be
+some combining power to produce the higher individuals which are
+prerequisites to the working of natural selection?
+
+We are considering the efficiency of natural selection in enhancing
+useful variations through a series of generations. Let us return to
+the distinction between productiveness and prospectiveness of social
+capital. Applied to variations productiveness means immediate
+advantage, prospectiveness the greater future and permanent returns.
+Now all persisting variations must, in animals below man, apparently
+be somewhat productive, else they would not continue, much less
+increase. Now the immediate return from prospective variations is
+often smaller than from productive. It looks at first as if
+productive variations would always be preserved by natural
+selection, and that prospective variations would not long advance.
+Yet in the muscular system variations valuable largely for their
+future value are neither few nor unimportant. How can the brain in
+its infancy develop until it gains supremacy over muscle, or muscle
+have done the same with digestion? Now a partial explanation of this
+is to be found in the correlation of organs. This is therefore a
+factor of vast importance in progress through evolution.
+
+Progress in any one line demands correlated changes in many organs.
+Thus in the advance of annelids to insects the muscular system
+increases in relative bulk, and absolutely in complexity. But a
+change or increase in the muscle must be accompanied by
+corresponding changes in the motor-nerve fibrils; and these again
+would be useless unless accompanied by increased complexity and more
+or less readjustment of the cells and fibrils of the nerve-centres.
+And all these additions to, and readjustments of, the nerve-centres
+must take place without any disturbance of the other necessary
+adjustments already attained. This is no simple problem.
+
+We will here neglect the fact that many other changes are going on
+simultaneously. Legs are being formed or moulded into jaws, the
+anterior segments are fusing into a head, and their ganglia into a
+brain; an external skeleton is developing. Furthermore the increase
+of the muscular and nervous systems must be accompanied by increased
+powers of digestion, respiration, and excretion. Practically the
+whole body is being recast. We insist only on the necessity of
+simultaneous and parallel changes in muscles, nerves, and
+nerve-centres; though what is true of these is true, in greater or
+less degree, of all the other organs.
+
+You may answer that this is to be explained by the law of
+correlation of organs; that when changes in one organ demand
+corresponding changes in another, these two change similarly and
+more or less at the same time and rate. But this is evidently not an
+explanation but a restatement of the fact. The question remains,
+What makes the organs vary simultaneously so as to always correspond
+to each other? The whole series of changes must to some extent be
+effected at once and in the same individual, if it is to be
+preserved by natural selection. Fortuitous variations here and there
+along the line of the series are of little or no avail. That the
+whole series of variations should happen to occur in one animal is
+altogether against the law of probabilities; if the favorable
+variation occurs in only a part of the series it remains useless
+until the corresponding variation has taken place in the other
+terms. And while the variation is thus awaiting its completion, so
+to speak, it is useless, and cannot be fostered by natural
+selection.
+
+Evolution by means of fortuitous variations, combined and controlled
+only through natural selection, seems to me at least impossible; and
+this view is, I think, steadily gaining ground.
+
+Natural selection, while a real and very important factor in
+evolution, cannot be its sole and exclusive explanation. It
+presupposes other factors, which we as yet but dimly perceive. And
+this does not impeach the validity of Mr. Darwin's theory any more
+than Newton's theory of gravitation is impeached by the fact that it
+offers no explanation as to why the apple falls or how bodies
+attract one another.
+
+For natural selection explains the survival, but not the origin, of
+the fittest. Given a species or other group composed of more and
+less fit individuals and the fittest will survive. How does it come
+about that there are any more and less fit individuals? This brings
+us to the consideration of the subject of variation.
+
+Let us begin with a simple case of change in the adult body. The
+workman grasps his tools day after day, and his hands become horny.
+The skin has evidently thickened, somewhat as on the soles of the
+feet. This is no mere mechanical result of pressure alone.
+Continuous pressure would produce the opposite result. But under the
+stimulus of intermittent pressure the capillaries, or smallest blood
+vessels, furnish more nutriment to the cells composing the lowest
+layer of the outer skin or epidermis. These cells, being better
+nourished, reproduce by division more rapidly, and the epidermis,
+becoming composed of a greater number of layers of cells, thickens.
+The outer-most layers, being farthest from the blood supply, dry up
+and are packed together into a horny mass.
+
+If I go out into the sunshine I become tanned. This again is not a
+direct and purely chemical or physical result of the sun's rays, but
+these have stimulated the cells of the skin to undergo certain
+modifications. Any change in the living body under changed
+conditions is not passive, but an active reaction to a stimulus
+furnished by the surroundings. The same stimulus may excite very
+different reactions in different individuals or species.
+
+Early in this century a farmer, Seth Wright, found among his lambs a
+young ram with short legs and long body. The farmer kept the ram,
+reasoning that his short legs would prevent him from leading the
+flock over the farm-walls and fences. From this ram was descended
+the breed of ancon, or otter, sheep. Now the stimulus which had
+excited this variation must have been applied early in embryonic
+life, or perhaps during the formation or maturing of the germ-cells
+themselves. Such a variation we call a congenital variation.
+
+These cases are merely illustrations of the general truth that in
+every variation there are two factors concerned: the living being
+with its constitution and inherent tendencies and the external
+stimulus.
+
+The courses of the different balls in a charge of grape-shot, hurled
+from a cannon, are evidently due to two sets of forces--1, their
+initial energy and the direction of their aim; 2, the deflecting
+power of resisting objects or forces--or the different balls might
+roll with great velocity down a precipitous mountain-side. In the
+first case velocity and direction of course would be determined
+largely by initial impulse; in the second, by the attraction of the
+earth and by the inequalities of its surface.
+
+In evolution, environment, roughly speaking, corresponds to these
+deflecting or attracting external objects or forces; inherent
+tendencies to initial impulse. If we lay great weight on initial
+tendencies, inherent in protoplasm from the very beginning, we shall
+probably lay less stress on natural selection as a guiding,
+directing process.
+
+The great botanist, Nägeli, has propounded a most ingenious and
+elaborate theory of evolution, as dependent mainly on inherent
+initial tendency. We can notice only one or two of its salient
+points. All development is, according to his view, due to a tendency
+in the primitive living substance toward more complete division of
+labor and greater complexity. This tendency, which he calls
+progression, or the tendency toward perfection, is the result of the
+chemical and molecular structure of the formative controlling
+protoplasm (idioplasm) of the body, and is transmitted with other
+parental traits from generation to generation. And structural
+complexity thus increases like money at compound interest.
+Development is a process of unfolding or of realization of the
+possibilities of this tendency under the stimulus of surrounding
+influences. Environment plays an essential part in his system. But
+only such changes are transmissible to future generations as have
+resulted from modifications arising in the idioplasm. Descendants of
+plants which have varied under changed conditions revert, as a rule,
+to the old type, when returned to the old surroundings. And in the
+animal world effects of use and disuse are, according to his view,
+not transmissible.
+
+Natural selection plays a very subordinate part. It is purely
+destructive. Given an infinity of place and nourishment--do away,
+that is, with all struggle and selection--and the living world would
+have advanced, purely by the force of the progressive tendency, just
+as far as it now has; only there would have survived an indefinite
+number of intermediate forms. It would have differed from our
+present living world as the milky way does from the starry
+firmament.
+
+He compares the plant kingdom to a great, luxurious tree, branching
+from its very base, whose twigs would represent the present stage of
+our different species. Left to itself it would put out a chaos of
+innumerable branches. Natural selection, like a gardener, prunes the
+tree into shape. Children might imagine that the gardener caused the
+growth; but the tree would have been broader and have branched more
+luxuriantly if left to itself.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: See Nägeli, "Theorie der Abstammungslehre," p. 18;
+  also pp. 12, 118, 285.]
+
+Every species must vary perpetually. Now this proposition is
+apparently not in accord with fact; for some have remained unchanged
+during immense periods. And natural selection, by removing the less
+fit, certainly appears to contribute to progress by raising the
+average of the species. The theory seems extreme and one-sided. And
+yet it has done great service by calling in question the
+all-sufficiency of natural selection and the modifying power of
+environment, and by emphasizing, probably overmuch, the importance
+of initial inherent tendency, whose value has been entirely
+neglected by many evolutionists.
+
+Lack of space compels us to leave unnoticed most of the exceedingly
+valuable suggestions of Nägeli's brilliant work.
+
+It is still less possible to do any justice in a few words to
+Weismann's theory. Into its various modifications, as it has grown
+from year to year, we have no time to enter. And we must confine
+ourselves to his views of variation and heredity.
+
+In studying protozoa we noticed that they reproduced by fission,
+each adult individual dividing into two young ones. There is
+therefore no old parent left to die. Natural death does not occur
+here, only death by violence or unfavorable conditions. The protozoa
+are immortal, not in the sense of the endless persistence of the
+individual, but of the absence of death. Heredity is here easily
+comprehensible, for one-half, or less frequently a smaller fraction,
+of the substance of the parent goes to form the new individual.
+There is direct continuity of substance from generation to
+generation.
+
+But in volvox a change has taken place. The fertilized egg-cell,
+formed by the union of egg and spermatozoon, is a single cell, like
+the individual resulting from the conjugation or fusion of two
+protozoa. But in the many-celled individual, which develops out of
+the fertilized egg, there are two kinds of cells. 1. There are other
+egg-cells, like the first, each one of which can, under favorable
+conditions, develop into a multicellular individual like the
+parent. And the germ-cells (eggs and spermatozoa) of volvox are
+immortal like the protozoa. But, 2, there are nutritive, somatic
+cells, which nourish and transport the germ-cells, and after their
+discharge die. These somatic cells, being mortal, differ altogether
+from the germ-cells and the protozoa. The protoplasm must differ in
+chemical, or molecular, or other structure in the two cases, and we
+distinguish the germ-plasm of the germ-cells, resembling in certain
+respects Nägeli's idioplasm, from somatoplasm, which performs most
+of the functions of the cell. The somatoplasm arises from, and hence
+must be regarded as a modification of, the germ-plasm. The
+germ-plasm can increase indefinitely in the lapse of generations,
+increase of the somatoplasm is limited.
+
+When a new individual develops, a certain portion of the germ-plasm
+of the egg is set aside and remains unchanged in structure. This,
+increasing in quantity, forms the reproductive elements for the next
+generation. The germ-plasm, which does not form the whole of each
+reproductive element, but only a part of the nucleus, is thus an
+exceedingly stable substance. And there is a just as real continuity
+of germ-plasm through successive generations of volvox, or of any
+higher plants or animals, as in successive generations of protozoa.
+
+In certain plants there is an underground stem or rootstock, which
+grows perennially, and each year produces a plant from a bud at its
+end. This underground rootstock would represent the continuous
+germ-plasm of successive generations; the plants which yearly arise
+from it would represent the successive generations of adult
+individuals, composed mainly of somatoplasm. Or we may imagine a
+long chain, with a pendant attached to each tenth or one-hundredth
+link. The links of the chain would represent the series of
+generations of germ-cells; the pendants, the adults of successive
+generations.
+
+But any leaf of begonia can be made to develop into a new plant,
+giving rise to germ-cells. Here there must be scattered through the
+leaves of the plant small portions of germ-plasm, which generally
+remain dormant, and only under special conditions increase and give
+rise to germ-cells.
+
+A large part of the germ-plasm of the fertilized egg is used to give
+rise to the somatoplasm composing the different systems of the
+embryo and adult. Weismann's explanation of this change of
+germ-plasm into somatoplasm is very ingenious, and depends upon his
+theory of the structure of the germ-plasm; and this latter theory
+forms the basis of his theory of evolution. It would take too long
+to state his theory of the structure of germ-plasm, but an
+illustration may present fairly clear all that is of special
+importance to us.
+
+The molecules of germ-plasm are grouped in units, and these in an
+ascending series of units of continually increasing complexity,
+until at last we find the highest unit represented in the nucleus of
+the germ-cell. This grouping of molecules in units of increasing
+complexity is like the grouping of the men of an army in companies,
+regiments, brigades, divisions, etc.
+
+To form the somatoplasm of the different tissues of the body, this
+complicated organization breaks up, as the egg divides, into an
+ever-increasing number of cells. First, so to speak, the corps
+separate to preside over the formation of different body regions.
+Then the different divisions, brigades, and regiments, composing
+each next higher unit, separate, being detailed to form ever
+smaller portions of the body. The process of changing germ-plasm
+into somatoplasm is one of disintegration. The germ-plasm
+contains representatives of the whole army; a somatic cell only
+representatives of one special arm of a special training. Germ-plasm
+in the egg is like Humpty-Dumpty on the wall; somatoplasm, like
+Humpty-Dumpty after his great fall.
+
+I use these rude illustrations to make clear one point: Germ-plasm
+can easily change into somatoplasm, but somatoplasm once formed can
+never be reconverted into germ-plasm, any more than the fallen hero
+of the nursery rhyme could ever be restored.
+
+The germ-plasm is, according to Weismann, a very peculiar, complex,
+stable substance, continuous from generation to generation since the
+first appearance of life on the globe. It is in the body of the
+parent, but scarcely of it. Its relation to the body is like that of
+a plant to the soil or of a parasite to its host. It receives from
+the body practically only transport and nourishment. It is like a
+self-perpetuating, close corporation; and the somatoplasm has no
+means of either controlling it or of gaining representation in it.
+
+Says Weismann[A]: "The germ-cells are contained in the organism, and
+the external influences which affect them are intimately connected
+with the state of the organism in which they lie hid. If it be well
+nourished, the germ-cells will have abundant nutriment; and,
+conversely, if it be weak and sickly, the germ-cells will be
+arrested in their growth. It is even possible that the effects of
+these influences may be more specialized; that is to say, they may
+act only upon certain parts of the germ-cells. But this is indeed
+very different from believing that the changes of the organism which
+result from external stimuli can be transmitted to the germ-cells
+and will redevelop in the next generation at the same time as that
+at which they arose in the parent, and in the same part of the
+organism."
+
+  [Footnote A: Essays upon Heredity, p. 105.]
+
+But if the germ-plasm has this constitution and relation to the rest
+of the body, how is any variation possible? Different individuals of
+any species have slightly different congenital tendencies. Hence in
+the act of fertilization two germ-plasms of slightly different
+structure and tendency are mingled. The mingling of the two produces
+a germ-plasm and individual differing from both of the parents.
+Thus, according to Weismann's earlier view, the origin of variation
+was to be sought in sexual reproduction through the mingling of
+slightly different germ-plasms.
+
+But how did these two germ-plasms come to be different? How was the
+variation started? To explain this Weismann went back to the
+unicellular protozoa. These animals are undoubtedly influenced by
+environment and vary under its stimuli. Here the variations were
+stamped upon the germ-plasm, and the commingling of these variously
+stamped germ-plasms has resulted in all the variations of higher
+animals.
+
+Of late Weismann has modified and greatly improved this portion of
+his theory. He now accepts the view that external influences may act
+upon the germ-plasm not only in protozoa but also in all higher
+animals. Variation is thus due to the action or stimulus of
+external influences, supplemented by sexual reproduction.
+
+But the very constitution of the germ-plasm and its relation to the
+body absolutely forbids the transmission of acquired somatic
+characteristics and of the special effects of use and disuse.
+Muscular activity promotes general health, and might thus conduce to
+better-nourished germ-cells and to more vigorous and therefore
+athletic descendants. The exercise of the muscles might possibly
+cause such a condition of the blood that the portion of the
+germ-plasm representing the muscular system of the next generation
+might be especially nourished or stimulated. Thus an athletic parent
+might produce more athletic children.
+
+But let us imagine twin brothers of equal muscular development. One
+from childhood on exercises the lower half of his body; the other,
+the upper. Both take the same amount of exercise, and have perhaps
+equal muscular development, but located in different halves of the
+body. Now it is hard to conceive that it can make any difference in
+the nourishing or stimulating influence of the blood, whether the
+muscular activity resides in one half of the body or the other. The
+children might be exactly alike.
+
+One man drives the pen, a second plays the piano, and a third wields
+a light hammer. All three use different muscles of the hand and arm.
+How can this use of special muscles stamp itself upon the germ-cells
+in such a way that the offspring will have these special muscles
+enlarged? Granting that external influences of environment and
+bodily condition may effect the germ-cells; granting even that some
+of the most general effects of use and disuse might be transmitted,
+what warrant have we for believing that the special acquired
+characteristic can be transmitted? Weismann answers, None at all.
+The somatoplasm can only in the most general way affect the
+self-perpetuating, close corporation of the germ-plasm.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Weismann, Essays, p. 286.]
+
+There is thus, according to Weismann, nothing to direct variation to
+certain organs, or to guide and combine the variations of these
+organs along certain lines, except natural selection. To a certain
+extent variation may be limited by the very structure of the animal.
+But within these limits there are wide ranges where one variation is
+apparently just as likely to occur as another.
+
+Within these wide limits variation appears to be fortuitous. Natural
+selection must wait until the individuals appear in which these
+variations occur already correlated, and then seize upon these
+individuals. It is apparently the only guiding, directing force.
+Linear variation, that is, a variation advancing continuously along
+one or very few straight lines, would appear to be impossible.
+
+In Nägeli's theory initial tendency is overwhelmingly dominant; in
+Weismann's, natural selection is almighty.
+
+Weismann's followers have received the name of Neo-Darwinians. The
+so-called Neo-Lamarckian school believes in the transmissibility of
+acquired characteristics, and of at least particular effects of use
+and disuse. The one theory is neither more nor less Darwinian than
+the other. For while Darwin emphasized natural selection, he
+accepted to a certain extent the transmission of special effects of
+use and disuse.
+
+A special theory of heredity, pangenesis, has been accepted by many
+of the Neo-Lamarckian school. The theory of pangenesis, as
+propounded by Mr. Darwin, may be very briefly stated as follows: The
+cells in all parts of the body are continually throwing off germinal
+particles, or "gemmules." These become scattered through the body,
+grow, and multiply by division. On account of mutual attraction they
+unite in the reproductive glands to form eggs or spermatozoa. The
+germ-cells are thus the bearers of heredity because they contain
+samples, so to speak, of all the organs of the body.
+
+In heredity, according to Weismann's theory, the egg is the centre
+of control, the continuous germ-plasm the source of all transmitted
+changes; according to Darwin's theory, the body is the source, and
+the egg is derived in great part at least from it. If you put to the
+two the time-honored question, Which is first, the owl or the egg?
+Weismann would announce, with emphasis, The egg; Darwin would say,
+The owl. One proposition is the converse of the other, and most
+facts accord almost equally well with both theories.
+
+In any family, devoted for generations to literary or artistic
+pursuits, the children show, as a rule, an aptitude for such
+pursuits not manifested by those of other families. According to the
+Neo-Lamarckian view, this inherited aptitude is to a certain extent
+the result of the constant exercise of these faculties through a
+series of generations. The active efforts and voluntary disposition
+of the parents have given an increased predisposition to the child.
+"Quite the reverse," says Weismann, "the increase of an organ in the
+course of generations does not depend upon the summation of
+exercise taken during single lives, but upon the summation of more
+favorable predispositions in the germ." "An organism cannot acquire
+anything unless it already possesses the predisposition to acquire
+it."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Weismann, Essays, pp. 85 and 171.]
+
+We may accept or deny this last statement, but it is evident
+that facts like these, and indeed the origin of most or all
+characteristics involving use or disuse, may be explained almost
+equally well by either theory.
+
+But as far as the transmission of effects of somatic changes is
+concerned, if protozoa undergo special modifications under the
+influence of external conditions, will not the germ-cells undergo
+special modification under the influence of changes in the
+somatoplasm which forms their immediate environment? We must never
+forget the close relationship between all the cells of the body, and
+how slight a change in the body or its surroundings may conduce to
+sterility or fertility. Such isolation and independence in the body,
+on the part of the germ-cells, is opposed to all that we know of the
+organic unity of the body, whose cells have arisen by the
+differentiation of, and division of labor between, cells primitively
+alike. The facts of bud-variation, of changes in the parent stock
+due to grafting, and others, of which Mr. Darwin has given a summary
+in the eleventh chapter of the first volume of his "Plants and
+Animals under Domestication," have never been adequately explained
+by Weismann in accordance with his theory. He has perhaps succeeded
+in parrying their force by showing that some such explanation is
+conceivable; they still point strongly against him.
+
+Wilson has good reason for his "steadily growing conviction that
+the cell is not a self-regulating mechanism in itself, that no cell
+is isolated, and that Weismann's fundamental proposition is false."
+
+But, granting the force of these criticisms, the question still
+remains, Is the special effect of use or disuse transmissible? Would
+the blacksmith's son have a stronger right arm?
+
+1. The isolation and independence of the germ-cells, which Weismann
+postulates as opposing this, can hardly be as great as he thinks. 2.
+It is in his view impossible to conceive how these acquired
+characteristics can in any way reach and affect the germ-cells in
+such a manner as to reappear in the next generation. 3. All
+variations can be explained by his own theory without such
+transmission. Why then believe that acquired characteristics can in
+some inconceivable way affect the germ-cells so as to reappear in
+the next generation, as long as all the facts can be explained in a
+more simple and easily conceivable manner?
+
+As to his second argument, I would readily acknowledge that it is at
+present difficult or impossible for me to conceive how any cell can
+act upon another, except through the nutrient or other fluids which
+it can produce. But though I cannot conceive how one cell can affect
+another, I may be compelled to believe that it does so. And this
+Weismann readily acknowledges.
+
+Driesch changed by pressure the relative position of the cells of a
+very young embryo, so that those which in a normal embryo would have
+produced one organ were now compelled, if used at all, to form quite
+a different one. And yet these displaced cells formed the organ
+required of cells normally occupying this new position, not the one
+for which they were normally intended. And the organ which they
+would have builded in a normal embryo was now formed by other cells
+transferred to their rightful place.
+
+What made them thus change? Not change of substance or structure,
+for the slight pressure could hardly have modified this. Not change
+of nutriment. The only visible or easily conceivable change was in
+position relative to other cells of the embryo.
+
+Let us in imagination simplify Driesch's experiment, for the sake of
+gaining a clearer view of its meaning. In a certain embryo at an
+early stage are certain cells whose descendants should form the
+lining of the intestine and be used in the adult for digestion. A
+second set of cells should form muscle endowed mainly with
+contractility. When these two sets of cells, or some of them,
+exchange positions in the embryo, they exchange lines of
+development. The first set now form muscle, the second digestive
+tissue. The only change has been in their relative positions.
+Driesch maintains, therefore, that the goal of development in any
+embryonic cell is determined not by structure or nutriment but by
+position. And this would seem to be true of the cells of the
+earliest embryonic stages.
+
+Certain other experiments point in the same direction. Cut a hydra
+into equal halves and each half will form a complete animal. The
+lower half forms a new top, with mouth and tentacles; the upper
+half, a new base. Cut the other hydra a hair's-breadth farther up.
+The same layer of cells which in the first animal formed the lower
+exposed surface of the upper half now forms the upper exposed
+surface of the lower half. And with this change of position it has
+changed its line of development; it will now give rise to a new
+upper half, not a base as before. The same experiment can be tried
+on certain worms with similar results, only head and tail differ far
+more than top and base of hydra. Difference in the position of cells
+has made vast difference in their line of development. Now in both
+embryo and adult there must be some directing influence guiding
+these cells. What is it?
+
+An army is more than a mob of individuals; it is individuals plus
+organization, discipline, authority. A republic is not square miles
+of territory and thousands or millions of inhabitants. It is these
+plus organization, central government. Webster claimed that the
+central government was, and had to be, before the states. The
+organism cannot exist without its parts; it has a very real
+existence in and through them. It can coerce them. The state may be
+an abstraction, but it is one against which it is usually fatal to
+rebel, and which can say to a citizen, Go and be hanged, and he
+straightway mounts the scaffold. Now these are analogies and prove
+nothing. But in so far as they throw light on the essential idea of
+an organism, they may aid us in gaining a right view of our "cell
+republic."
+
+Says Whitman in a very interesting article on the "Inadequacy of the
+Cell-Theory": "That organization precedes cell-formation and
+regulates it, rather than the reverse, is a conclusion that forces
+itself upon us from many sides." "The structure which we see in a
+cell-mosaic is something superadded to organization, not itself the
+foundation of organization. Comparative embryology reminds us at
+every turn that the organism dominates cell-formation, using for
+the same purpose one, several, or many cells, massing its material
+and directing its movements, and shaping its organs as if cells did
+not exist, or as if they existed only in complete subordination to
+its will, if I may so speak. The organization of the egg is carried
+forward to the adult as an unbroken physiological unity, or
+individuality, through all modifications and transformations." And
+Wilson, Whitman, Hertwig, and others urge "that the organism as a
+whole controls the formative processes going on in each part" of the
+embryo. And many years ago Huxley wrote, "They (the cells) are no
+more the producers of the vital phenomena than the shells scattered
+along the sea-beach are the instruments by which the gravitative
+force of the moon acts upon the ocean. Like these, the cells mark
+only where the vital tides have been, and how they have acted."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: See articles by Whitman and Wilson, Journal of
+  Morphology, vol. viii., pp. 649, 607, etc.]
+
+"Interaction of cells" can help us but little. For how can
+neighboring cells direct others placed in a new position? The
+expression, if not positively misleading and untrue, is at the best
+only a restatement of fact. It certainly offers no explanation.
+Flood-tide is not due to the interaction of particles of water,
+though this may influence the form of the waves.
+
+The centre of control is therefore not to be sought in individual
+cells, whether germ-cells or somatic, but in the organism. And it is
+the whole organism, one and indivisible, which controls in germ,
+embryo, and adult, in egg and owl. This individuality, or whatever
+you will call it, impresses itself upon developing somatic cells,
+moulding them into appropriate organs, and upon germ-cells in
+process of formation, moulding them so that they may continue its
+sway. The muscle, modified by use or disuse, is a better expression
+of the individuality of its possessor, and the same individuality
+moulds similarly and simultaneously the germ-cells. Both are
+different expressions or manifestations of the same individuality.
+Only slowly does the individuality mould the muscles and nerves of
+the adult body to its use. Still more slow may be the moulding of
+the still more refractory germ-plasm, if such there be. But the
+moulding process goes on parallel in the two cases.
+
+But Weismann's argument rests not merely upon any difficulty or
+impossibility of the transmissibility of acquired characteristics.
+His argument is rather that all facts can be better explained by his
+theory without postulating or accepting such transmission, cases of
+which have never been absolutely proven. But the question is not
+whether his theory offers a possible explanation of the facts, but
+whether it is the most probable explanation of all the facts. No one
+would deny, I think, that the continuity of the germ-plasm offers
+the best and most natural explanation of heredity; and that
+variations could be produced by the influence on the germ-plasm of
+external conditions seems entirely probable.
+
+But when we consider the aggregation of these variations in a
+process of evolution, his theory seems unsatisfactory. We have
+already seen that what we commonly call a variation involves not one
+change, but a series of changes, each term of which is necessary.
+Muscle, nerve, and ganglion must all vary simultaneously and
+correspondingly. Correlation and combination are just as essential
+as variation. And evolution often demands the disappearance of less
+fit structures just as much as the advance of the fittest. Says
+Osborne, "It is misleading to base our theory of evolution and
+heredity solely upon entire organs; in the hand and foot we have
+numerous cases of muscles in close contiguity, one steadily
+developing, the other degenerating." Weismann offers the explanation
+that "if the average amount of food which an animal can assimilate
+every day remains constant for a considerable time, it follows that
+a strong influx toward one organ must be accompanied by a drain upon
+others, and this tendency will increase, from generation to
+generation, in proportion to the development of the growing organ,
+which is favored by natural selection in its increased blood-supply,
+etc.; while the operation of natural selection has also determined
+the organ which can bear a corresponding loss without detriment to
+the organism as a whole."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Weismann, Essays, p. 88.]
+
+Here again natural selection of individuals, not the diminished
+supply of nutriment, has to determine which of many muscles shall be
+poorly fed and which favored. But natural selection can favor
+special organs only indirectly through the individuals which possess
+such organs. Variation is fortuitous, and there is nothing, except
+natural selection, to combine or direct them. And, I think, we have
+already seen that any theory which neglects or excludes such
+directing and combining agencies must be unsatisfactory and
+inadequate. Weismann has promised us an explanation of correlation
+of variation in accordance with his theory; and if such an
+explanation can be made, it would remove one of the strongest
+objections. But for the present the objection has very great weight.
+
+Furthermore, as Osborne has insisted, linear variations, or
+variations proceeding along certain single and well-marked lines,
+would seem inexplicable by, if not fatal to, Weismann's theory. And
+yet Osborne, Cope, and others have shown that the teeth of mammals
+have developed steadily along well-marked lines. They have
+apparently not resulted at all by selection from a host of
+fortuitous variations.
+
+Says Osborne in his "Cartwright Lectures"[A]: "It is evident that
+use and disuse characterize all the centres of evolution; that
+changes of structure are slowly following on changes of function or
+habit. In eight independent regions of evolution in the human body
+there are upward of twenty developing organs, upward of thirty
+degenerating organs." Now this parallelism, through a long series of
+generations, between the evolution of organs, their advance or
+degeneration, and the use or disuse of these same organs, that is,
+of the habits of the individual, is certainly of great significance.
+It must have an explanation; and the most natural one would seem to
+be the transmission of the effects of use and disuse.
+
+  [Footnote A: American Naturalist, vols. xxv. and xxvi.]
+
+On the whole Osborne's verdict would seem just: The Neo-Lamarckian
+theory fails to explain heredity, Weismann's theory does not explain
+evolution. But, if the effects of use and disuse are transmitted,
+correlation of variation is to be expected. Muscle, nerve, and
+ganglion all vary in correlation because they are all used together
+and in like degree. Evolution and degeneration of muscles in hand
+and foot go on side by side, because some are used and some are
+disused. Centres of use and disuse must be centres of evolution. And
+there would be as many distinct centres of evolution in different
+parts of the body as there were centres of use and disuse. And
+between these centres there might be no correlation except
+that of use and disuse. Brain, muscles, and jaws would develop
+simultaneously in the ancestors of insects. And the effects of use
+and disuse, transmitted through a series of generations, would be
+cumulative. The species advances rapidly because all its members
+have in general the same habits; the same parts are advancing or
+degenerating, although at different rates, in all its individuals.
+An animal having an organ highly developed is far less likely to
+pair with one having a lower development of the same organ. The
+Neo-Lamarckian theory supplies thus what is lacking in the
+Neo-Darwinian.
+
+In lower forms, like hydra, of simple structure and comparatively
+few possibilities of variation, natural selection is dominant. In
+higher forms, like vertebrates, and especially in man, it is of
+decidedly subordinate value as a promoter of evolution. For man, as
+we have seen, is a marvellously complex being. The great difficulty
+in his case is not so much to quickly gain new and favorable
+variations as to keep all the organs and powers of the body steadily
+advancing side by side. Natural selection has in man the important
+but subordinate position of the judge in a criminal court, to
+pronounce the death verdict on the hopeless and incorrigible.
+
+Both Neo-Darwinians and Neo-Lamarckians have erred in being too
+exclusively mechanical in their theories. It is the main business of
+the scientific man to discover and study mechanisms. But he must
+remember that mechanism does not produce force, it only transmits
+it. If he maintains that he has nothing to do with anything outside
+of mechanism, that the invisible and imponderable force lies outside
+of his domain, he has handed over to metaphysics the fairest and
+richest portion of his realm. In our fear of being metaphysical we
+have swung to another extreme, and have lost sight of valuable truth
+which lay at the bottom of the old vitalistic theories. Cells,
+tissues, and organs are but channels along which the flood of
+life-force flows. Boveri has well said, "There is too much
+intelligence (Verstand) in nature for any purely mechanical theory
+to be possible."
+
+Each theory contains important truth. Nägeli's view of the
+importance of initial tendencies, inherent in the original living
+substance, is too often undervalued. My own conviction, at least, is
+steadily strengthening that, without some such original tendency or
+aim, evolution would never have reached its present culmination in
+man. His error lies in emphasizing this factor too exclusively. The
+fundamental proposition of Weismann's theory, that heredity is due
+to continuity of germ-plasm, seems to contain important truth. But
+we need not therefore accept his theory of a germ-plasm so isolated
+and independent as to be beyond control or influence by the
+habits of the body. The importance of use and disuse, and the
+transmissibility of their effects, would seem to supply a factor
+essential to evolution. Weismann has done good service in
+emphasizing the stability of the germ-plasm. Evolution is always
+slow, and, for that very reason, sure.
+
+If these conclusions are correct, they have an important practical
+bearing. Struggle and effort are essential to progress. Not inborn
+talent alone, but the use which one makes of it, counts in
+evolution. The effects of use and disuse are cumulative. The
+hard-fought battle of past generations becomes an easy victory in
+the present, just because of the strength acquired and handed down
+from the past struggle. Persistent variation toward evil is in time
+weeded out by natural selection. And, while evil remains in the
+world, we are to lay up stores of strength for ourselves and our
+descendants by sturdily fighting it. But the effects of right living
+through a hundred generations are not overcome by the criminal life
+of one or two. Evil surroundings weigh more in producing criminals
+than heredity, and their children are not irreclaimable.
+
+The struggles and victories of each one of us encourage the rest.
+There is, to borrow Mr. Huxley's language, not only a survival of
+the fittest, but a fitting of as many as possible to survive. And in
+the midst of the hardest struggle there is the peace which comes
+from the assurance of a glorious triumph.
+
+
+
+                Condensed Chart of Development of the Main Line
+                    of the Animal Kingdom leading to Man.
+
+               |                            | ORGANS        | MOST RAPIDLY
+  PHYLOGENETIC |                            | APPROACHING   | ADVANCING
+  SERIES.      | NEW ATTAINMENTS.           | CULMINATION.  | ORGANS.
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Amoeba.      | Cell.                      |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Volvox.      | Somatic and reproductive   |               | Reproductive.
+               | cells                      |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Hydra.       | Simple reproductive organs.|               | Reproductive.
+               | Gastro vascular cavity.    |               |
+               | (Tissues).                 |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Turbellaria. | D | Complex reproductive   | Reproductive. | Digestive.
+               | e | Organs. Supra-oes.     |               |
+               | v | Ganglion and cords.    |               |
+               | e | Sense organs.          |               |
+               | l | Body wall.ns.          |               |
+               | o |                        |               |
+               | p |                        |               |
+  -------------+---|------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Annelid.     | O | Perivisceral Cavity.   |               |
+               | r | Intestine. Circulatory |               |
+               | g | system. Nephridia.     |               |
+               | a | Visual eyes.           |               |
+               | n |                        |               |
+               | s |                        |               |
+  -------------+---+------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Primitive    | Notochord. Fins.           |               |
+  Vertebrate.  |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Fish.        | Backbone (incomplete).     | Digestive.    | Muscles.
+               | Paired Fins. Jaws from     |               |
+               | Branchial Arches. Simple   |               |
+               | heart. Air Bladder. Brain. |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Amphibian.   | Legs. Lungs. Cerebrum      |               | Muscles.
+               | increases from this        |               |
+               | form on.                   |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Reptile.     | Double heart.              |               | Muscles and
+               |                            |               | appendages.
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Lower        | Constant high temperature  |               | Muscles and
+  Placental    | Placenta.                  |  Muscle.      | appendages.
+  Mammals.     |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+               +--------------
+  Ape.         | Erect posture. Hand. Large |               | Brain.
+               | cerebrum.                  |               |
+               |                            |               |
+               |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Man.         | Very large cerebrum.       |               | BRAIN.
+               | Personality.               |               |
+               |                            |               |
+               |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+
+                                                   [Table continued below]
+
+
+
+   |             |DOMINANT MENTAL|              |               |
+   | DOMINANT    |(OR NERVOUS)   | SEQUENCE OF  | SEQUENCE OF   | ENVIRONMENT
+   | FUNCTION.   |ACTION.        | PERCEPTIONS. | MOTIVES.      | MAKES FOR.
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+  A|             |               |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+  V|Reproduction.|               |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+
+   |             |               |              |               |
+  H|Reproduction.| Reflex.       |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   |Reproduction.| Reflex.       |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+  T|             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |Rapid
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------|reproduction
+   | Digestion   | Reflex.       | Touch.       | Hunger.       |and good
+  A| Muscular.   |               | Smell.       |               |digestion.
+  n|             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------|
+  P| Digestion   | Instinct.     |  ?           |               |
+  V| Muscular.   |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   | Digestion   | Instinct.     | Hearing.     |               |
+  F| Muscular.   |               | Sight.       |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------|Fear and       |
+  A| Digestion   | Instinct.     | Hearing.     |other          |Strength and
+  m| Muscular.   |               | Sight.       |prudential     |activity.
+   |             |               |              |considerations.|
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------|               |
+  R| Muscular.   | Instinct. ?   | Hearing.     |               |
+   |             |               | Sight.       |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------|               |
+  L| Muscular.   | Instinct ? ?  | Hearing.     |               |
+  P|             |               | Sight.       |               |
+  M|             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   | Muscular.   | Intelligence. |Mental        |      "        |    " ?
+  A| Nervous.    |               |Perception.   |               |(Shrewdness?)
+  p|             |               |Understanding.|               |
+  e|             |               |Association.  |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   | Mind.*      | Intelligence. | Reason.*     | Love of man.  |Shrewdness.
+  M|             |               |              | Truth.        |Righteousness
+  a|             |               |              | Right.*       | and
+  n|             |               |              |               |unelfishness*
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+                               * Apparently capable of indefinite development.
+
+
+
+
+
+    PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF PRINCIPAL TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE.
+    _____________________________________________________
+
+                              Man.
+                              /|\
+                               |
+                               |  Apes.
+                             \ | /
+                              \|/
+                               |
+    Lower Placental Mammals.\  |
+                             \ |
+                              \|
+          Marsupial Mammals.\  |
+                             \ |
+         Oviparous Mammals.\  \|     /Birds.
+                            \  |    /
+                             \ |   /
+                              \|
+                               |  /Reptiles.
+                               | /
+                   Ampibia.\   |/
+                            \  |
+                             \ |
+                              \|
+            Insect.\           |
+                    \          |
+                     \         |
+                      \        |
+                       \       |     /Fish.
+                        \      |    /
+                         \     |   /        /Mollusca.
+                          \    |  /        /
+             Annelid.------\   | /        /
+                            \  |/        /
+                             \ |        /
+                               |       /
+                               |      /
+                               |     /
+                               |    /
+            Schematic Worm.\   |   /
+                            \  |  /
+                             \ | /      /Turbellaria.
+                              \|       /
+                               |      /
+                               |     /
+                               |    /
+                   Hydra.\     |   /
+                          \    |  /
+                           \   | /
+                            \  |/
+                             \ |
+                              \|
+                               |
+                               |    /Volvox.
+                               |   /
+                               |  /
+              Magosphaera.\    | /
+                           \   |/
+                            \  |
+                             \ |
+                              \|    /Amoeba.
+                               |   /
+                               |  /
+                               | /
+                               |/
+                               |
+                               |
+                               |
+    _____________________________________________________
+
+           PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF PRINCIPAL TYPES OF
+                         ANIMAL LIFE.
+    _____________________________________________________
+
+
+
+
+
+  INDEX
+
+
+  Amoeba, 32
+
+  Annelids, 61, 103
+
+  Apes, anthropoid, 91
+
+  Appetites, 137
+
+  Arthropoda, 61
+
+  Articulata, 61
+
+
+  Beauty, perception of, 121
+
+  Bible, 241
+
+  Blastosphere, 44
+
+  Brain, 64, 108;
+    of insects, 69;
+    vertebrates, 75, 85;
+    man, 96.
+    See also Ganglion
+
+
+  Cell, 34, 36
+
+  Child, mental development of, 204
+
+  Christianity, 192, 250, 252
+
+  Church, 265
+
+  Circulatory system,
+    worms, 62;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 84
+
+  Classification, 20
+
+  Coelenterata, 42, 55
+
+  Conformity to environment, 150, 170, 177, 197, 243, 259, 265
+
+  Conscience, 184
+
+  Correlation of organs, 284
+
+
+  Darwinism, 10
+
+  Degeneration, 155, 279
+
+  Digestion, 309;
+    amoeba, 33;
+    hydra, 37;
+    worms, 47, 52;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 73, 81
+
+
+  Ear, 50, 64
+
+  Echinoderms, 57
+
+  Ectoderm, 37, 44
+
+  Egg, 43
+
+  Embryology, 43
+
+  Emotions, 136, 230, 309
+
+  Entoderm, 37, 44
+
+  Environment, 158, 309;
+    God immanent in, 161, 175;
+    mirrored in human mind, 199
+
+  Evolution, 3;
+    conservative, 173
+
+  Excretion,
+    amoeba, 33;
+    worms, 48, 53;
+    vertebrates, 73, 81
+
+
+  Faith, 209, 256
+
+  Family, 180;
+    origin of, Cf. 88, 178, 217;
+    results of, 181
+
+  Flagellata, 39
+
+
+  Ganglion,
+    supra-oesophageal, 49, 54;
+    annelids, 64.
+    See Brain
+
+  Gastræa, 45
+
+  Gastrula, 44
+
+  God, 244;
+    knowable, 167
+
+
+  Head,
+    insect, 68;
+    vertebrate, 75
+
+  Heredity, mental and moral, 188
+
+  Heroism, 193, 200, 227
+
+  History, 15
+
+  Hope, 262
+
+  Huxley (quoted), 99, 171, 273
+
+  Hydra, 37
+
+
+  Insects, 65, 105
+
+  Instinct, 127, 131
+
+  Intellect, 117, 124
+
+  Intelligence, 117
+
+  Intelligent action, 128, 132
+
+
+  Jaws,
+    insects, 67;
+    vertebrates, 73
+
+
+  Knowledge, value of, 150, 229, 242
+
+
+  Law, Divine, 245
+
+  Locomotion and nervous development, 61.
+    See also Muscular System
+
+  Love, 139, 180, 243
+
+
+  Magosphæra, 40
+
+  Mammals, 85, 92;
+    oviparous, 86;
+    marsupial, 87;
+    placental, 88;
+    temporarily surpassed by reptiles, 195
+
+  Man, 210, 219;
+    anatomical characteristics, 92;
+    mental and moral characteristics, 99, 112, 147, 150, 219, 242;
+    relation to nature, 210;
+    animal, 213;
+    moral, 220;
+    religious, 224;
+    hero, 227;
+    future, 228, 231
+
+  Materialism, 165
+
+  Mesoderm, 45
+
+  Mind, 115, 144;
+    amoeba, 33
+
+  Mollusks, 58, 106
+
+  Motives, 136, 148;
+    sequence of, 143
+
+  Muscular system, 309;
+    hydra, 38;
+    worms, 62;
+    insects, 68;
+    vertebrates, 73, 108, 216
+
+
+  Nägeli, 288
+
+  Natural selection, 12, 152, 278
+
+  Nature, 9, 28
+
+  Neo-Darwinians and Neo-Lamarckians, 296
+
+  Nervous system, 102;
+    hydra, 38;
+    turbellaria, 48;
+    mollusks, 59;
+    annelids, 63;
+    insects, 69;
+    vertebrates, 74
+
+  Notochord, 74, 79
+
+
+  Ontogenesis, 26
+
+
+  Phylogenesis, 26, 100, 310
+
+  Placenta, 88
+
+  Prayer, 259
+
+  Primates, 91
+
+  Productiveness and prospectiveness, 193, 200, 202
+
+  Protoplasm, 32, 34
+
+  Protozoa, 39
+
+
+  Reflex action, 125, 135, 146
+
+  Religion, 166, 224, 262
+
+  Reproduction, 309;
+    amoeba, 32, 35;
+    hydra, 38;
+    magosphæra, 40;
+    volvox, 41;
+    turbellaria, 50;
+    annelids, 62;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 73.
+    See also Size and Surface and Mass
+
+  Respiration,
+    amoeba, 35;
+    worms, 48, 63;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 77, 84
+
+
+  Sequence of functions, 80, 109, 174, 309;
+    condensed history of, 100, 152, 221;
+    reversal of, 154, 205
+
+  Sexual reproduction, 33, 37, 41
+
+  Sin, 245
+
+  Size, 35, 51, 72, 76, 89, 214
+
+  Skeleton, 58, 74;
+    mollusks, 59;
+    insects, 65, 67, 71;
+    vertebrates, 74, 82
+
+  Social life, 182, 217
+
+  Socrates, 161, 189, 200
+
+  Specialization, 236, 239
+
+  Struggle for existence, 11, 158, 277;
+    mitigation of, 217
+
+  Surface and mass, 35, 50
+
+
+  Tissues, 42
+
+  Turbellaria, 46, 102
+
+
+  Vertebrates, 73, 81, 107;
+    primitive, 77
+
+  Volvox, 40
+
+
+  Weismann, 290
+
+  Will, 136
+
+  Worms, 56;
+    schematic, 52
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+The Morse Lectures for 1895
+
+THE WHENCE AND WHITHER OF MAN
+
+A BRIEF HISTORY OF MAN'S ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT, AND OF THE
+EVOLUTION OF HIS MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CAPACITIES THROUGH CONFORMITY
+TO ENVIRONMENT
+
+By JOHN M. TYLER Professor of Biology, Amherst College
+
+12mo, $1.75
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This work is a solidification of some new matter with the substance
+of the ten Morse Lectures delivered at Union Theological Seminary in
+the spring of 1895. Professor Tyler aims to trace the development of
+man from the simple living substance to his position at present,
+paying attention to incidental facts merely as incidental and
+contributory. He keeps always in view the successive accomplishments
+of life as they appear in the person of accepted general truth,
+rather than in the guise of the facts of progress.
+
+He begins by saying: "We take for granted the probable truth of the
+theory of evolution as stated by Mr. Darwin, and that it applies to
+man as really as to any lower animal." He assumes that an acceptable
+historian of biology must possess a genealogical tree of the animal
+kingdom, and adds that a knowledge of the sequence of dominant
+functions or "physiological dynasties," is quite as necessary to his
+inquiry as a history of the development of anatomical details. Since
+the germs of the future are always concealed in the history of the
+present, he claims that "if we can trace this sequence of dominant
+functions, whose evolution has filled past ages, we can safely
+foretell something, at least, of man's future development."
+
+The possibility of making false trails, at times, should not deter
+the investigator; for what he would establish is not the history of
+a single human race, nor of the movements of a century, but an
+understanding of the development of animal life through ages. "And
+only," says Professor Tyler, "when we have a biological history can
+we have any satisfactory conception of environment." The book
+concludes with a brief notice of the modern theories of heredity and
+variation advanced by Nageli and Weismann.
+
+
+
+
+The Morse Lectures for 1894
+
+
+THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN
+
+FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY TO THE ERA OF THE MÉIJI
+
+By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D.
+
+Formerly of the Imperial University of Tokio; Author of "The
+Mikado's Empire" and "Corea, the Hermit Nation"
+
+12mo, $2.00
+
+"The book is excellent throughout, and indispensable to the
+religious student."--_The Atlantic Monthly_.
+
+"To any one desiring a knowledge of the development and ethical
+status of the East, this book will prove of the utmost assistance,
+and Dr. Griffis may be thanked for throwing a still greater charm
+about the Land of the Rising Sun."--_The Churchman_.
+
+"Already an acknowledged authority on Japanese questions, Dr.
+Griffis in this volume gives to an appreciative public, what we risk
+calling his most valuable contribution to the literature this
+profoundly interesting nation has evoked."--_The Evangelist_.
+
+"... The fine quality of Dr. Griffis' works. His book is fresh and
+original, and may be depended on as material for scientific use....
+It may safely be said that it is the best general account of the
+religions of Japan that has appeared in the English language, and
+for any but the special student it is the best we know of in any
+tongue."--_The Critic_.
+
+
+
+
+The Morse Lectures for 1893
+
+THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN MODERN THEOLOGY
+
+By A.M. FAIRBAIRN, M.A., D.D.
+
+Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford; Gifford Lecturer in the
+University of Aberdeen; Late Morse Lecturer in Union Seminary, New
+York, and Lyman Beecher Lecturer in Yale University
+
+8vo, $2.50
+
+"One of the most valuable and comprehensive contributions to
+theology that has been made during this generation."--_London
+Spectator_.
+
+"The knowledge, ability, and liberality of the author unite to make
+the work interesting and valuable."--_The Dial_.
+
+"It is very high, but thoroughly deserved, praise to say that it is
+worthy of its great theme."--_The Critical Review_.
+
+"The volume reveals Dr. Fairbairn as a clear and vigorous thinker,
+who knows how to be bold without being too bold."--_New York
+Tribune_.
+
+"Suggestive, stimulating, and a harbinger of the future catholic
+theology."--_Boston Literary World_.
+
+"It is a book abounding in fine and philosophical thoughts, and
+deeply sympathetic with the most earnest religious thinking of the
+time."--_The Critic_.
+
+"If the object of a book of theology is to stir up the heart and
+mind with strong, clear thinking on divine things, no book,
+certainly, of the present season surpasses Dr. Fairbairn's."--_The
+Outlook_.
+
+"An important contribution to theological literature."--_London
+Times_.
+
+"The work shows a keen insight into the relations of truth combined
+with a rare power of accurate judgment."--_New York Observer_.
+
+"Beyond question this is one of the most signally valuable books of
+the season."--_The Advance_, Chicago.
+
+
+
+
+The Ely Lectures for 1891
+
+ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY
+
+A COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF UNION
+THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK
+
+By FRANK F. ELLEWOOD, D.D.
+
+Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian
+Church, U.S.A.; Lecturer on Comparative Religion in the University
+of the City of New York
+
+12mo, $1.75
+
+"The volume is not only valuable, it is interesting; it not only
+gives information, but it stimulates thought."--_Evangelist_.
+
+"Thoroughly Christian in spirit.... There is a compactness about it
+which makes it full of information and suggestion."--_Christian
+Inquirer_.
+
+"The author has read widely, reflected carefully, and written
+ably."--_Congregationalist_.
+
+"It is a book which we can most heartily commend to every pastor and
+to every intelligent student, of the work which the Church is called
+to do in the world."--_The Missionary_.
+
+"An able work."--_Boston Transcript_.
+
+"A more instructive book has not been issued for years."--_New York
+Observer_.
+
+"A noteworthy contribution to Christian polemics."--_Boston Beacon_.
+
+"The special value of this volume is in its careful differentiation
+of the schools of religionists in the East and the distinct points
+of antagonism on the very fundamental ideas of Oriental religions
+toward the religion of Jesus."--_Outlook_.
+
+"We wish this book might be read by all missionaries and by all
+Christians at home."--_Presbyterian and Reformed Review_.
+
+
+
+
+The Ely Lectures for 1890
+
+THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE
+
+By LEWIS FRENCH STEARNS
+
+Professor of Christian Theology in Bangor Theological Seminary
+
+12mo, $2.00
+
+
+"The tone and spirit which pervade them are worthy of the theme, and
+the style is excellent. There is nothing of either cant or pedantry
+in the treatment. There is simplicity, directness, and freshness of
+manner which strongly win and hold the reader."--_Chicago Advance_.
+
+"We have read them with a growing admiration for the ability,
+strength, and completeness displayed in the argument. It is a book
+which should be circulated not only in theological circles, but
+among young men of reflective disposition who are beset by the
+so-called 'scientific' attacks upon the foundations of the Christian
+faith."--_Christian Intelligencer_.
+
+"The style is a model of clearness even where the reasoning is
+deep."--_Christian Inquirer_.
+
+"His presentation of the certainty, reality, and scientific
+character of the facts in a Christian consciousness is very
+strong."--_The Lutheran_.
+
+"An important contribution to the library of apologetics."--_Living
+Church_. (P.E.)
+
+"A good and useful work."--_The Churchman_. (P.E.)
+
+"The work is searching, careful, strong, and sound."--_Chautauquan_.
+
+"As thorough and logical as it is spiritual."--_Congregationalist_.
+
+"A timely and apropos contribution to the defenses of
+Christianity."--_Interior_.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14834 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14834 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Whence and the Whither of Man, by John
+Mason Tyler</h1>
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<h1>THE WHENCE AND THE</h1>
+<h1> WHITHER OF MAN</h1>
+
+
+<h4>A BRIEF HISTORY OF HIS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT<br />
+THROUGH CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT</h4>
+
+
+<p class="center">Being the Morse Lectures of 1895</p>
+
+
+<h5>BY</h5>
+
+<h2>JOHN M. TYLER</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><small>PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, AMHERST COLLEGE</small></p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<h6>New York<br />
+Charles Scribner's Sons</h6>
+
+<h5>1896</h5>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="notehead">  <b>Morse Lectures</b></p>
+
+<p class="note">1893&mdash;THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN<br />
+      MODERN THEOLOGY. By Rev. A.M.<br />
+      Fairbairn, D.D. 8vo, $2.50</p>
+
+<p class="note">1894&mdash;THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN. By Rev.<br />
+      William Elliot Griffis, D.D.<br />
+      12mo, $2.00.</p>
+
+<p class="note"> 1895&mdash;THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF<br />
+      MAN. By Professor John M. Tyler.<br />
+      12mo, $1.75.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3><a name="contents" id="contents"></a>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h3>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="table of contents">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a></td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>THE PROBLEM: THE MODE OF ITS SOLUTION</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The question. &mdash; The two theories of man's origin. &mdash; The argument
+purely historical. &mdash; Means of tracing man's ancestry and
+history. &mdash; Classification. &mdash; Ontogenesis and Phylogenesis.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>PROTOZOA TO WORMS: CELLS, TISSUES, AND ORGANS</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Am&oelig;ba: Its anatomy and physiology. &mdash; Development of the
+ cell. &mdash; Hydra: The development of digestive and reproductive organs,
+ and of tissues. &mdash; Forms intermediate between am&oelig;ba and hydra:
+ Magosph&aelig;ra, volvox. &mdash; Embryonic development. &mdash; Turbellaria: Appearance
+ of a body wall, of ganglion, and nerve-cords.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>WORMS TO VERTEBRATES: SKELETON AND HEAD</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td> Worms and the development of organs. &mdash; Mollusks: The external
+protective skeleton leads to degeneration or stagnation. &mdash; Annelids
+and arthropods: The external locomotive skeleton leads
+to temporary rapid advance, but fails of the goal. &mdash; Its
+disadvantages. &mdash; Vertebrates: The internal locomotive skeleton leads
+to backbone and brain. &mdash; Reasons for their dominance. &mdash; The primitive
+vertebrate.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>VERTEBRATES: BACKBONE AND BRAIN</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The advance of vertebrates from fish through amphibia and reptiles
+to mammals. &mdash; The development of skeleton, appendages, circulatory
+and respiratory systems, and brain. &mdash; Mammals: The oviparous
+monotremata. &mdash; Marsupials. &mdash; Placental mammals. &mdash; Development of the
+placenta. &mdash; Primates. &mdash; Arboreal life and the development of the
+hand. &mdash; Comparison of man with the highest apes. &mdash; Recapitulation of
+the history of man's origin and development. &mdash; The sequence of
+dominant functions.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>THE HISTORY OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS
+ SEQUENCE OF FUNCTIONS</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Mode of investigation. &mdash; Intellect. &mdash; Sense-perceptions. &mdash; Association.
+ &mdash; Inference and understanding. &mdash; Rational intelligence. &mdash; Modes of mental
+or nervous action. &mdash; Reflex action, unconscious and comparatively
+mechanical. &mdash; Instinctive action: The actor is conscious, but guided
+by heredity. &mdash; Intelligent action. &mdash; The actor is conscious, guided by
+intelligence resulting from experience or observation. &mdash; The will
+stimulated by motives. &mdash; Appetites. &mdash; Fear and other prudential
+considerations. &mdash; Care for young and love of mates. &mdash; The dawn of
+unselfishness. &mdash; Motives furnished by the rational intelligence:
+Truth, right, duty. &mdash; Recapitulation: The will, stimulated by ever
+higher motives, is finally to be dominated by unselfishness and love
+of truth and righteousness. &mdash; These rouse the only inappeasable
+hunger, and are capable of indefinite development. &mdash; Strength of
+these motives. &mdash; Their complete dominance the goal of human
+ development.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The reversal of the sequence of functions leads to extermination,
+degeneration, or, rarely, to stagnation. &mdash; Natural selection becomes
+more unsparing as we go higher. &mdash; Extinction. &mdash; Severity of the
+struggle for life. &mdash; Environment one. &mdash; But lower animals come into
+vital relation with but a small part of it. &mdash; It consists of a myriad
+of forces, which, as acting on a given form, may be considered as
+one grand resultant. &mdash; Environment is thus a power making at first
+for digestion and reproduction, then for muscular strength and
+activity, then for shrewdness, finally for unselfishness and
+righteousness. &mdash; An ultimate &quot;power, not ourselves, making for
+righteousness,&quot; a personality. &mdash; Our knowledge of this personality
+may be valid, even though very incomplete. &mdash; Religion. &mdash; Conformity to
+the spiritual in or behind environment is likeness to God. &mdash; The
+conservative tendency in evolution.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Human environment. &mdash; The development of the family as the school of
+man's training. &mdash; The family as the school of unselfishness and
+obedience. &mdash; The family as the basis of social life. &mdash; Society as an
+aid to conformity to environment by increasing intelligence and
+training conscience. &mdash; Mental and moral heredity. &mdash; Personal
+magnetism. &mdash; Man's search for a king. &mdash; The essence of
+Christianity. &mdash; Conformity to environment gives future supremacy, but
+often at the cost of present hardship. &mdash; Conformity as obedience to
+the laws of our being. &mdash; Environment best understood through the
+study of the human mind. &mdash; Productiveness and prospectiveness of
+vital capital. &mdash; Faith.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>MAN</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Composed of atoms and molecules, hence subject to chemical and
+physical laws. &mdash; As a living being. &mdash; As an animal. &mdash; As a
+vertebrate. &mdash; As a mammal. &mdash; As a social being. &mdash; As a personal and
+moral being. &mdash; The conflict between the higher and the lower in
+man. &mdash; As a religious being. &mdash; As hero. &mdash; He has not yet
+attained. &mdash; Future man. &mdash; He will utilize all his powers, duly
+subordinating the lower to the higher. &mdash; The triumph of the common
+people.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Subject of the Bible. &mdash; <i>Man</i>: Body, intellect, heart. &mdash; <i>God</i>:
+Law, sin, and penalty. &mdash; God manifested in Christ. &mdash; Salvation, the divine
+life permeating man &mdash; Faith. &mdash; Prayer. &mdash; Hope. &mdash; The Church. &mdash; The
+battle. &mdash; The victory. &mdash; The crown.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The struggle for existence. &mdash; Natural selection. &mdash; Correlation of
+organs. &mdash; Fortuitous variation. &mdash; Origin of the fittest. &mdash; N&auml;geli's
+theory: Initial tendency supreme. &mdash; Weismann and the Neo-Darwinians:
+Natural selection omnipotent. &mdash; The Neo-Lamarckians. &mdash; Comparison of
+the Neo-Darwinian and the Neo-Lamarckian views. &mdash; &quot;Individuality&quot; the
+controlling power throughout the life of the organism. &mdash; Transmission
+of special effects of use and disuse. &mdash; Summary.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>CHART SHOWING SEQUENCE OF ATTAINMENTS AND
+ OF DOMINANT FUNCTIONS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_309">309</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_310">310</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>INDEX</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_311">311</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center"><small>CHAPTERS</small>: <a href="#INTRODUCTION">Introduction</a>,
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a>,
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a>,
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a>,
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a>, <a href="#INDEX">Index</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>FIGURES</small>: <a href="#Page_33">1</a>, <a href="#Page_40">2</a>, <a href="#Page_43">3</a>,
+<a href="#Page_44">4</a>, <a href="#Page_48">5</a>, <a href="#Page_51">6</a>, <a href="#Page_62">7</a>,
+<a href="#Page_64">8</a>, <a href="#Page_66">9</a>, <a href="#Page_75">10</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix"></a>[ix]</span>In the year 1865 Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, to whom the
+world is indebted for the application of the principles of
+electro-magnetism to telegraphy, gave the sum of ten thousand
+dollars to Union Theological Seminary to found a lectureship in
+memory of his father, the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., theologian,
+geographer, and gazetteer. The subject of the lectures was to have
+to do with &quot;The relations of the Bible to any of the sciences.&quot; The
+ten chapters of this book correspond to ten lectures, eight of which
+were delivered as Morse Lectures at Union Theological Seminary
+during the early spring of 1895. The first nine chapters appear in
+form and substance as they were given in the lectures, except that
+Chapters VI. and VII. were condensed in one lecture. Chapter X. is
+new, and I have not hesitated to add a few paragraphs wherever the
+argument seemed especially to demand further evidence or
+illustration.</p>
+
+<p>One of my friends, reading the title of these lectures, said: &quot;Of
+man's origin you know nothing, of his future you know less.&quot; I fear
+that many share his opinion, although they might not express it so
+emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem, therefore, to be in order to show that science is now
+competent to deal with this question; not that she can give a final
+and conclusive answer, but that we can reach results which are
+probably in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x"></a>[x]</span> main correct. We may grant very cheerfully that we
+can attain no demonstration; the most that we can claim for our
+results will be a high degree of probability. If our conclusions are
+very probably correct, we shall do well to act according to them;
+for all our actions in life are suited to meet the emergencies of a
+probable but uncertain course of events.</p>
+
+<p>We take for granted the probable truth of the theory of evolution as
+stated by Mr. Darwin, and that it applies to man as really as to any
+lower animal. At the same time it concerns our argument but little
+whether natural selection is &quot;omnipotent&quot; or of only secondary
+importance in evolution, as long as it is a real factor, or which
+theory of heredity or variation is the more probable.</p>
+
+<p>If man has been evolved from simple living substance protoplasm, by
+a process of evolution, it will some day be possible to write a
+history of that process. But have we yet sufficient knowledge to
+justify such an attempt?</p>
+
+<p>Before the history of any period can be written its events must have
+been accurately chronicled. Biological history can be written only
+when the successive stages of development and the attainments of
+each stage have been clearly perceived. In other words, the first
+prerequisite would seem to be a genealogical<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> tree of the animal
+kingdom. The means of tracing this genealogical tree are given in
+the first chapter, and the results in the second, third, and fourth
+chapters of this book.</p>
+
+<p>Now, for some of the ancestral stages of man's development a very
+high degree of probability can be claimed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi"></a>[xi]</span> One of man's earliest
+ancestors was almost certainly a unicellular animal. A little later
+he very probably passed through a gastr&aelig;a stage. He traversed fish,
+amphibian, and reptilian grades. The oviparous monotreme and the
+marsupial almost certainly represent lower mammalian ancestral
+stages. But what kind of fish, what species of amphibian, what form
+of reptiles most closely resembles the old ancestor? How did each of
+these ancestors look? I do not know. It looks as if our ancestral
+tree were entirely uncertain and we were left without any foundation
+for history or argument.</p>
+
+<p>But the history of the development of anatomical details, however
+important and desirable, is not the only history which can be
+written, nor is it essential. It would be interesting to know the
+size of brain, girth of chest, average stature, and the features of
+the ancient Greeks and Romans. But this is not the most important
+part of their history, nor is it essential. The great question is,
+What did they contribute to human progress?</p>
+
+<p>Even if we cannot accurately portray the anatomical details of a
+single ancestral stage, can we perhaps discover what function
+governed its life and was the aim of its existence? Did it live to
+eat, or to move, or to think? If we cannot tell exactly how it
+looked, can we tell what it lived for and what it contributed to the
+evolution of man?</p>
+
+<p>Now, the sequence of dominant functions or aims in life can be
+traced with far more ease and safety, not to say certainty, than one
+of anatomical details. The latter characterize small groups, genera,
+families, or classes; while the dominant function characterizes all
+animals<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii"  id="Page_xii"></a>[xii]</span> of a given grade, even those which through degeneration
+have reverted to this grade.</p>
+
+<p>Even if I cannot trace the exact path which leads to the
+mountain-top, I may almost with certainty affirm that it leads from
+meadow and pasture through forest to bare rock, and thence over snow
+and ice to the summit; for each of these forms a zone encircling the
+mountain. Very similarly I find that, whatever genealogical tree I
+adopt, one sequence in the dominance of functions characterizes them
+all; digestion is dominant before locomotion and locomotion before
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>And it is hardly less than a physiological necessity that it should
+be so. The plant can and does exist, living almost purely for
+digestion and reproduction, and the same is true of the lowest and
+most primitive animals. A muscular system cannot develop and do its
+work until some sort of a digestive system has arisen to furnish
+nutriment, any more than a steam-engine can run without fuel. And a
+brain is of no use until muscle and sense-organs have appeared.</p>
+
+<p>This sequence of dominant functions,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> of physiological dynasties,
+would seem therefore to be a fact. And our series of forms described
+in the second, third, and fourth chapters is merely a concrete
+illustration showing how this sequence may have been evolved. The
+substitution of other terms in the anatomical series there
+described&mdash;am&oelig;ba, volvox, etc.&mdash;would not affect this result. By
+a change in the form of our history we have eliminated to a large
+extent the sources of uncertainty and error. And the dominant
+function of a group throws no little light on the details of its
+anatomy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii"></a>[xiii]</span>If we can be satisfied that ever higher functions have risen to
+dominance in the successive stages of animal and human development,
+if we can further be convinced that the sequence is irreversible, we
+shall be convinced that future man will be more and more completely
+controlled by the very highest powers or aims to which this sequence
+points. Otherwise we must disbelieve the continuity of history. But
+the germs of the future are always concealed in the history of the
+present. Hence&mdash;pardon the reiteration&mdash;if we can once trace this
+sequence of dominant functions, whose evolution has filled past
+ages, we can safely foretell something at least of man's future
+development.</p>
+
+<p>The argument and method is therefore purely historical. Here and
+there we will try to find why and how things had to be so. But all
+such digressions are of small account compared with the fact that
+things were or are thus and so. And a mistaken explanation will not
+invalidate the facts of history.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of our history is the development, not of a single human
+race nor of the movements of a century, but the development of
+animal life through ages. And even if our attempts to decipher a few
+pages here and there in the volumes of this vast biological history
+are not as successful as we could hope, we must not allow ourselves
+to be discouraged from future efforts. Even if our translation is
+here and there at fault, we must never forget the existence of the
+history. Some of the worst errors of biologists are due to their
+having forgotten that in the lower stages the germs of the higher
+must be present, even though invisible to any microscope. Our study
+of the worm is inadequate and likely to mislead us, unless we
+remember that a worm was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv"></a>[xiv]</span> the ancestor of man. And a biologist who
+can tell us nothing about man is neglecting his fairest field.</p>
+
+<p>Conversely history and social science will rest on a firmer basis
+when their students recognize that many human laws and institutions
+are heirlooms, the attainments, or direct results of attainments, of
+animals far below man. We are just beginning to recognize that the
+study of zo&ouml;logy is an essential prerequisite to, and firm
+foundation for, that of history, social science, philosophy, and
+theology, just as really as for medicine. An adequate knowledge of
+any history demands more than the study of its last page. The
+zo&ouml;logist has been remiss in not claiming his birthright, and in
+this respect has sadly failed to follow the path pointed out by Mr.
+Darwin.</p>
+
+<p>For pal&aelig;ontology, zo&ouml;logy, history, social and political science,
+and philosophy are really only parts of one great science, of
+biology in the widest sense, in distinction from the narrower sense
+in which it is now used to include zo&ouml;logy and botany. They form an
+organic unity in which no one part can be adequately understood
+without reference to the others. You know nothing of even a
+constellation, if you have studied only one of its stars. Much less
+can the study of a single organ or function give an adequate idea of
+the human body.</p>
+
+<p>Only when we have attained a biological history can we have any
+satisfactory conception of environment. As we look about us in the
+world, environment often seems to us to be a chaos of forces aiding
+or destroying good and bad, fit and unfit, alike.</p>
+
+<p>But our history of animal and human progress shows us successive
+stages, each a little higher than the preceding,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv"></a>[xv]</span> and surviving, for
+a time at least, because more completely conformed to environment.
+If this be true, and it must be true unless our theory of evolution
+be false, higher forms are more completely conformed to their
+environment than lower; and man has attained the most complete
+conformity of all. Our biological history is therefore a record of
+the results of successive efforts, each attaining a little more
+complete conformity than the preceding. From such a history we ought
+to be able to draw certain valid deductions concerning the general
+character and laws of our environment, to discover the direction in
+which its forces are urging us, and how man can more completely
+conform to it.</p>
+
+<p>If man is a product of evolution, his mental and moral, just as
+really as his physical, development must be the result of such a
+conformity. The study of environment from this standpoint should
+throw some light on the validity of our moral and religious creeds
+and theories. It would seem, therefore, not only justifiable, but
+imperative to attempt such a study.</p>
+
+<p>Our argument is not directly concerned with modern theories of
+heredity, or variation, or with the &quot;omnipotence&quot; or secondary
+importance of natural selection. And yet N&auml;geli, and especially
+Weismann, have had so marked an influence on modern thought that we
+cannot afford to neglect their theories. We will briefly notice
+these in the closing chapter.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a> See Phylogenetic Chart, p. <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2">[2]</a> See condensed Chart of Development, etc., p. <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PROBLEM: THE MODE OF ITS SOLUTION</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span>The story of a human life can be told in very few words. A youth of
+golden dreams and visions; a few years of struggle or of neglected
+opportunities; then retrospect and the end.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;We come like water, and like wind we go.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">But how few of the visions are realized. Faust sums up the whole of
+life in the twice-repeated word <i>versagen</i>, renounce, and history
+tells a similar story. Terah died in Haran; Abraham obtained but a
+grave in the land promised him and his children; Jacob, cheated in
+marriage, bitterly disappointed in his children, died in exile,
+leaving his descendants to become slaves in the land of Egypt; and
+Moses, their heroic deliverer, died in the mountains of Moab in
+sight of the land which he was forbidden to enter. You may answer
+that it is no injury that the promise is too large, the vision too
+grand, to be fulfilled in the span of a single life, but must become
+the heritage of a race. But what has been the history of Abraham's
+descendants? A death-grapple for existence, captivity, and
+dispersion. Their national existence has long been lost.</p>
+
+<p>Was there ever a nation of grander promise than Greece or Rome? But
+Greece died of premature old <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a>[2]</span> age, and Rome of rottenness begotten
+of sin. But each of them, you will say, left a priceless heritage to
+the immortal race. But if Greece and Rome and a host of older
+nations, of which History has often forgotten the very name, have
+failed and died, can anything but ultimate failure await the race?
+Is human history to prove a story told by an idiot, or does it
+&quot;signify&quot; something? Is the great march of humanity, which Carlyle
+so vividly depicts, &quot;from the inane to the inane, or from God to
+God?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This is the sphinx question put to every thinking man, and on his
+answer hangs his life. For according to that answer, he will either
+flinch and turn back, or expend every drop of blood and grain of
+power in urging on the march.</p>
+
+<p>To this question the Bible gives a clear and emphatic answer. &quot;God
+created man in his own image,&quot; and then, as if men might refuse to
+believe so astounding a statement, it is repeated, &quot;in the image of
+God created he him.&quot; When, and by what mode or process, man was
+created we are not told. His origin is condensed almost into a line,
+his present and future occupy all the rest of the book. Whence we
+came is important only in so far as it teaches us humility and yet
+assures us that we may be Godlike because we are His handiwork and
+children, &quot;heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ of a heavenly
+inheritance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now has Science any answer to this vital question? Perhaps. But this
+much is certain; it can foretell the future only from the past. Its
+answer to the question <i>whither</i> must be an inference from its
+knowledge as to <i>whence</i> we have come. The Bible looks mainly at the
+present and future; Science must at least begin with <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span>the study of
+the past. The deciphering of man's past history is the great aim of
+Biology, and ultimately of all Science. For the question of Man's
+past is only a part of a greater question, the origin of all living
+species.</p>
+
+<p>We may say broadly that concerning the origin of species two
+theories, and only two, seem possible. The first theory is that
+every species is the result of an act of immediate creation. And
+every true species, however slightly it may differ from its nearest
+relative, represents such a creative act, and once created is
+practically unchangeable. This is the theory of immutability of
+species. According to the second theory all higher, probably all
+present existing, species are only mediately the result of a
+creative act. The first living germ, whenever and however created,
+was infused with power to give birth to higher species. Of these and
+their descendants some would continue to advance, others would
+degenerate. Each theory demands equally for its ultimate explanation
+a creative act; the second as much as, if not more than, the first.
+According to the first theory the creative power has been
+distributed over a series of acts, according to the second theory it
+has been concentrated in one primal creation. The second is the
+theory of the mutability of species, or, in general, of evolution,
+but not necessarily of Darwinism alone.</p>
+
+<p>The first theory is considered by many the more attractive and
+hopeful. Now a theory need not be attractive, nor at first sight
+appear hopeful, provided only it is true. But let me call your
+attention to certain conclusions which, as it appears to me, are
+necessarily involved in it. Its central thought is the practical
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span>immutability of species. Each one of these lives its little span of
+time, for species are usually comparatively short-lived, grows
+possibly a very little better or worse, and dies. Its progress has
+added nothing to the total of life; its degeneration harmed no one,
+hardly even itself; it was doomed from the start. Progress there has
+been, in a sense. The Creator has placed ever higher forms on the
+globe. But all the progress lies in the gaps and distances between
+successive forms, not in any advance made, or victory won, by the
+species or individual. The most &quot;aspiring ape,&quot; if ever there was
+such a being, remains but an ape. He must comfort himself with the
+thought that, while he and his descendants can never gain an inch,
+the gap between himself and the next higher form shall be far
+greater than that between himself and the lowest monkey.</p>
+
+<p>And if this has been the history of thousands of other species, why
+should it not be true of man also? Who can wonder that many who
+accept this theory doubt whether the world is growing any better, or
+whether even man will ever be higher and better than he now is?
+Would it not be contrary to the whole course of past history, if you
+can properly call such a record a history, if he could advance at
+all? Now I have no wish to misrepresent this or any honestly
+accepted theory, but it appears to me essentially hopeless, a record
+not of the progress of life on the globe, but of a succession of
+stagnations, of deaths. I can never understand why some very good
+and intelligent people still think that the theory of the immediate
+creation of each species does more honor to the Creator and his
+creation than the theory of evolution. Evolution <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span>is a process, not
+a force. The power of the Creator is equally demanded in both cases;
+only it is differently distributed. And evolution is the very
+highest proof of the wisdom and skill of the Creator. It elevates
+our views of the living beings, must it not give a higher conception
+of Him who formed them?</p>
+
+<p>The plant in its first stages shows no trace of flowers, but of
+leaves only. Later a branch or twig, similar in structure to all the
+rest, shortens. The cells and tissues which in other twigs turn into
+green leaves here become the petals and other organs of the rose or
+violet. Let us suppose for a moment that every rose and violet
+required a special act of immediate creation, would the springtime
+be as wonderful as now? Would the rose or violet be any more
+beautiful, or are they any less flowers because developed out of
+that which might have remained a common branch? The plant at least
+is glorified by the power to give rise to such beauty. And is not
+the creation of the seed of a violet or rose something infinitely
+grander than the decking of a flowerless plant with newly created
+roses? The attainment of the highest and most diversified beauty and
+utility with the fewest and simplest means is always the sign of
+what we call in man &quot;creative&quot; genius. Is not the same true of God?
+I think you all feel the force of the argument here.</p>
+
+<p>There were at one time no flowering plants. The time came at last
+for their appearance. Which is the higher, grander mode of producing
+them, immediate creation of every flowering species, or development
+of the flower out of the green leaves of some old club moss or
+similar form? The latter seems to me at least by far the higher
+mode. And to have created a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span>ground-pine which could give rise to a
+rose seems far more difficult and greater than to have created both
+separately. It requires more genius, so to speak. It gives us a far
+higher opinion of the ground-pine; does it disgrace the rose? We can
+look dispassionately at plants. The rose is still and always a rose,
+and the oak an oak, whatever its origin. And I believe that we shall
+all readily admit that evolution is here a theory which does the
+highest honor to the wisdom and power of the Creator. What if the
+animal kingdom is continually blossoming in ever higher forms? Does
+not the same reasoning hold true, only with added force? I firmly
+believe that we should all unhesitatingly answer, yes, could we but
+be assured that all men would everywhere and always believe that we,
+men, were the results of an immediate creative act.</p>
+
+<p>But why do we so strenuously object to the application to ourselves
+of the theory of evolution? One or two reasons are easily seen. We
+have all of us a great deal of innate snobbery, we would rather have
+been born great than to have won greatness by the most heroic
+struggle. But is man any less a man for having arisen from something
+lower, and being in a fair way to become something higher? Certainly
+not, unless I am less a man for having once been a baby. It is only
+when I am unusually cross and irritable that I object to being
+reminded of my infancy. But a young child does not like to be
+reminded of it. He is afraid that some one will take him for a baby
+still. And the snob is always desperately afraid that some one will
+fail to notice what a high-born gentleman he is.</p>
+
+<p>Now man can relapse into something lower than a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span>brute; the only
+genuine brute is a degenerate man. And we all recognize the strength
+of tendencies urging us downward. Is not this the often unrecognized
+kern of our eagerness for some mark or stamp that shall prove to all
+that we are no apes, but men? It is not the pure gold that needs the
+&quot;guinea stamp.&quot; If we are men, and as we become men, we shall cease
+to fear the theory of evolution. Now this is not the only, or
+perhaps the greatest, objection which men feel or speak against the
+theory. But I must believe that it has more weight with us than we
+are willing to admit.</p>
+
+<p>But some say that the theory of immediate creation and immutability
+of species is the more natural and has always been accepted, while
+the theory of evolution is new and very likely to be as short-lived
+as many another theory which has for a time fascinated men only to
+be forgotten or ridiculed.</p>
+
+<p>But the idea of evolution is as old as Hindu philosophy. The old
+Ionic natural philosophers were all evolutionists. So Aristophanes,
+quoting from these or Hesiod concerning the origin of things, says:
+&quot;Chaos was and Night, and Erebus black, and wide Tartarus. No earth,
+nor air nor sky was yet; when, in the vast bosom of Erebus (or
+chaotic darkness) winged Night brought forth first of all the egg,
+from which in after revolving periods sprang Eros (Love) the much
+desired, glittering with golden wings; and Eros again, in union with
+Chaos, produced the brood of the human race.&quot; Here the formative
+process is a birth, not a creation; it is evolution pure and simple.
+&quot;According to the ancient view,&quot; says Professor Lewis, &quot;the present
+world was a growth; it was born, it came from something antecedent,
+not merely as a cause but as its seed, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span>embryo or principium.
+Plato's world was a 'zoon,' a living thing, a natural production.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, to the ancient writers of the Bible the idea of origin
+by birth from some antecedent form&mdash;and this is the essential idea
+of evolution&mdash;was perfectly natural. They speak of the &quot;generations
+of the heavens and the earth&quot; as of the &quot;generations&quot; of the
+patriarchs. The first book of the Bible is still called Genesis, the
+book of births. The writer of the ninetieth Psalm says, &quot;Before the
+mountains were born, or ever thou hadst brought to birth the earth
+and the world.&quot; And what satisfactory meaning can you give to the
+words, &quot;Let the earth bring forth,&quot; and &quot;the earth brought forth,&quot;
+in immediate proximity to the words, &quot;and God made,&quot; unless while
+the ultimate source was God's creative power, the immediate process
+of formation was one of evolution.</p>
+
+<p>The Bible is big and broad enough to include both ideas, the human
+mind is prone to overestimate the one or the other. Traces, at
+least, of a similar mode of thought persisted by the Greek Fathers
+of the Church, and disappeared, if ever, with the predominance of
+Latin theology. To the oriental the idea of evolution is natural.
+The earth is to him no inert, resistant clod; she brings forth of
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>But our ancestors lived on a barren soil beneath a forbidding sky.
+They were frozen in winter and parched in summer. Nature was to them
+no kind foster-mother, but a cruel stepmother, training them by
+stern discipline to battle with her and the world. They peopled the
+earth with gnomes and cobolds and giants, and their nymphs were the
+Valkyre. Their God was Thor, of the thunderbolt and hammer, and who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span>yet lived in continual dread of the hostile powers of Nature. A
+Norse prophet or prophetess standing beside Elijah at Horeb would
+have bowed down before the earthquake or the fire; the oriental
+waited for the &quot;still small voice.&quot; And we are heirs to a Latin
+theology grafted on to the Thor-worship of our pagan ancestors. The
+idea of a Nature producing beneficently and kindly at the word of a
+loving God is foreign to all our inherited modes of thought. And our
+views of the heart of Nature are about as correct as those of our
+ancestors were of God. A little more of oriental tendencies of
+thought would harm neither our theology nor our life.</p>
+
+<p>What, then, is the biblical idea of Nature? God speaks to the earth,
+in the first chapter of Genesis, and the earth responds by &quot;giving
+birth&quot; to mountains and living beings. It is evidently no mere
+lifeless, inert clod, but pulsating with life and responsive to the
+divine commands. While yet a chaos it had been brooded over by the
+Divine Spirit. It is like the great &quot;wheels within wheels,&quot; with
+rings full of eyes round about, which Ezekiel saw in his vision by
+the river Chebar. &quot;When the living creatures went, the wheels went
+by them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the
+earth, the wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever the spirit was to
+go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were
+lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creatures
+(or of life) was in the wheels.&quot; And above the living creatures was
+the firmament and the throne of God. So Nature may be material, but
+it is material interpenetrated by the divine; if you call it a
+fabric, the woof may be material but the warp is God. This view
+contains all <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span>the truth of materialism and pantheism, and vastly
+more than they, and it avoids their errors and omissions.</p>
+
+<p>To the old metaphysical hypothesis of evolution Mr. Darwin gave a
+scientific basis. It had always been admitted that species were
+capable of slight variation and that this divergence might become
+hereditary and thus perhaps give rise to a variety of the parent
+species. But it was denied that the variation could go on increasing
+indefinitely, it seemed soon to reach a limit and stop. Early in the
+present century Lamarck had attempted to prove that by the use and
+disuse of organs through a series of generations a great divergence
+might arise resulting in new species. But the theory was crude,
+capable at best of but limited application, and fell before the
+arguments and authority of Cuvier. The times were not ripe for such
+a theory. Some fifty years later, Mr. Darwin called attention to the
+struggle for existence as a means of aggregating these slight
+modifications in a divergence sufficient to produce new species,
+genera, or families. His argument may be very briefly stated as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>1. There is in Nature a law of heredity; like begets like.</p>
+
+<p>2. The offspring is never exactly like the parent; and the members
+of the second generation differ more or less from one another. This
+is especially noticeable in domesticated plants and animals, but no
+less true of wild forms. If the parent is not exactly like the other
+members of the species, some of its descendants will inherit its
+peculiarities enhanced, others diminished.</p>
+
+<p>3. Every species tends to increase in geometrical <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span>progression. But
+most species actually increase in number very slowly, if at all. Now
+and then some insect or weed escapes from its enemies, comes under
+favorable food conditions, and multiplies with such rapidity that it
+threatens to ravage the country. But as it multiplies it furnishes
+an abundance of food for the enemies which devour it, or of food and
+place for the parasites in and upon it; and they increase with at
+least equal rapidity. Hence while the vanguard increases
+prodigiously in numbers, because it has outrun these enemies, the
+rear is continually slaughtered. And thus these plagues seem in
+successive generations to march across the continent.</p>
+
+<p>And yet even they give but a faint idea of the reproductive powers
+of plants and animals. The female fish produces often many
+thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of eggs. Insects
+generally from a hundred to a thousand. Even birds, slowly as they
+increase, produce in a lifetime probably at least from twelve to
+twenty eggs. Now let us suppose that all these eggs developed, and
+all the birds lived out their normal period of life, and reproduced
+at the same rate. After not many centuries there would not be
+standing room on the globe for the descendants of a single pair.</p>
+
+<p>Again, of the one hundred eggs of an insect let us suppose that only
+sixty develop into the first larval, caterpillar, stage. Of these
+sixty, the number of members of the species remaining constant, only
+two will survive. The other fifty-eight die&mdash;of starvation,
+parasites, or other enemies, or from inclement weather. Now which
+two of all shall survive? Those naturally best able to escape their
+enemies or to resist unfavorable influences; in a word, those best
+suited to their <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span>conditions, or, to use Mr. Darwin's words,
+&quot;conformed to their environment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now if any individual has varied so as to possess some peculiarity
+which enables it even in slight degree to better escape its enemies
+or to resist unfavorable conditions, those of its descendants who
+inherit most markedly this peculiar quality or variation will be the
+most likely to escape, those without it to perish. If a form varies
+unfavorably, becomes for instance more conspicuous to its enemies,
+it will almost certainly perish. Thus favorable variations tend to
+increase and become more marked from generation to generation.</p>
+
+<p>Now it has always been known that breeders could produce a race of
+markedly peculiar form or characteristics by selecting the
+individuals possessing this quality in the highest degree and
+breeding only from these. The breeder depends upon heredity,
+variation, and his selection of the individuals from which to breed.
+Similarly in nature new species have arisen through heredity,
+variation, and a selection according to the laws of nature of those
+varying in conformity with their environment. And this Mr. Darwin
+called natural, in contrast with the breeder's artificial,
+&quot;selection,&quot; arising from the &quot;struggle for existence,&quot; and
+resulting in what Mr. Spencer has called the &quot;survival of the
+fittest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Let us take a single illustration. Many of the species of beetles on
+oceanic islands have very rudimentary wings, or none at all, and yet
+their nearest relatives are winged forms on some neighboring
+continent. Mr. Darwin would explain the origin of these evidently
+distinct wingless species as follows: They are descended from winged
+ancestors blown or otherwise <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span>transported thither from the
+neighboring continent. But beetles are slow and clumsy fliers, and
+on these wind-swept islands those which flew most would be blown out
+to sea and drowned. Those which flew the least, and these would
+include the individuals with more poorly developed wings, would
+survive. There would thus be a survival in every generation of a
+larger proportion of those having the poorest wings, and destruction
+of those whose wings were strong, or whose habits most active. We
+have here a natural selection which must in time produce a species
+with rudimentary or aborted wings, just as surely as a human
+breeder, by artificial selection can produce such an animal as a pug
+or a poodle. These, like sin, are a human device; nature should not
+be held responsible for them.</p>
+
+<p>But you may urge that the variation which would take place in a
+single generation would be, as a rule, too slight to be of any
+practical value to the animal, and could not be fostered by natural
+selection until greatly enhanced by some other means. Let us think a
+moment. If ten ordinary men run in a foot-race, the two foremost may
+lead by several feet. But if the number of runners be continually
+increased the finish will be ever closer until finally but an atom
+more wind or muscle or pluck would make all the difference between
+winning and losing the prize.</p>
+
+<p>Similarly the million or more young of any species of insect in a
+given area may be said to run a race of which the prize is life, and
+the losing of which means literally death. The competition is
+inconceivably severe. How indefinitely slight will be the difference
+between the poorest of the 2,000 or 20,000 survivors <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span>and the best
+of the more than 900,000 which perish. The very slightest favorable
+variation may make all the difference between life and sure death.
+And yet these indefinitely slight variations continued and
+aggregated through ages would foot up an immense total divergence.
+The chalk cliffs of England have been built up of microscopic
+shells.</p>
+
+<p>I have tried to give you very briefly a sketch of the essential
+points of Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution. But you should all read
+that marvel of patience, industry, clear insight, close reasoning,
+and grand honesty, the &quot;Origin of Species.&quot; I have no time to give
+the arguments in its favor or to attempt to meet the objections
+which may arise in your minds. I ask you to believe only this much;
+that the theory is accepted with practical unanimity by scientific
+men because it, and it alone, furnishes an explanation for the facts
+which they discover in their daily work. And this is the strongest
+proof of the truth of any accepted theory.</p>
+
+<p>Inasmuch as it is accepted by all scientists and largely by the
+public, it is certainly worth your while to know whether it has any
+bearing on the great moral and religious questions which you are
+considering. And in these lectures I shall take for granted, what
+some scientists still doubt, that man also is a product of
+evolution. For the weight of evidence in favor of this view is
+constantly increasing, and seems already to strongly preponderate.
+Also I wish in these lectures to grant all that the most ardent
+evolutionist can possibly claim. Not that I would lower man's
+position, but I have a continually increasing respect for the
+so-called &quot;lower animals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now if the theory of evolution be true, and really <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span>only on this
+condition, life has had a history; and human history began ages
+before man's actual appearance on the globe, just as American
+history began to be fashioned by Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans
+before they set foot even in England. We study history mainly to
+deduce its laws; and that knowing them we may from the past forecast
+the future, prepare for its emergencies, and avoid or wisely meet,
+its dangers. And we rely on these laws of history because they are
+the embodiment of ages of human experience.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever be our system of philosophy we all practically rely on past
+experience and observation. Fire burns and water drowns. This we
+know, and this knowledge governs our daily lives, whatever be our
+theories, or even our ignorance, of the laws of heat and
+respiration. Now human history is the embodiment of the experience
+of the race; and we study it in the full confidence that, if we can
+deduce its laws, we can rely on racial experience certainly as
+safely as on that of the individual. Furthermore, if we can discover
+certain great movements or currents of human action or progress
+moving steadily on through past centuries, we have full confidence
+that these movements will continue in the future. The study of
+history should make us seers.</p>
+
+<p>But the line of human progress is like a mountain road, veering and
+twisting, and often appearing to turn back upon itself, and having
+many by-roads, which lead us astray. If we know but a few miles of
+it we cannot tell whether it leads north or south or due west. But
+if from any mountain-top we can gain a clear bird's-eye view of its
+whole course, we easily distinguish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span> the main road, its turns become
+quite insignificant, we see that it leads as directly as any
+engineering skill could locate it through the mountains to the
+fertile plains and rich harvests beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Now our knowledge of the history of man covers so brief a period
+that we can scarcely more than hazard a guess as to the trend of
+human progress. Many of the most promising social movements are like
+by-roads which, at first less steep and difficult, end sooner or
+later against impassable obstacles. And even if there be a main line
+of march, advance seems to alternate with retreat, progress with
+retrogression. To illustrate further, the great waves rush onward
+only to fall back again, and we can hardly tell whether the tide is
+flowing or ebbing.</p>
+
+<p>Yet already certain tendencies appear fairly clear. Governments tend
+to become democratic, if we define democracy as &quot;any form of
+government in which the will of the people finds sovereign
+expression.&quot; The tendency of society seems to be toward furnishing
+all its members equality of opportunity to make the most of their
+natural endowments. But if we are convinced that these statements
+express even vaguely the tendency of human development in all its
+past history, we are confident that these tendencies will continue
+in the future for a period somewhat proportional to their time of
+growth in the past. If we are wise, we try to make our own lives and
+actions, and those of our fellows, conform to and advance them.
+Otherwise our lives will be thrown away.</p>
+
+<p>But if the theory of evolution be true, human history is only the
+last page of the one history of all life. If we are to gain any
+adequate, true, extensive view of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span>human progress, we must read more
+than this. We must take into account the history of man when he was
+not yet man. And if we believe in the future continuance of
+tendencies of a few centuries' growth, we shall rest assured of the
+permanence of tendencies which have grown and strengthened through
+the ages.</p>
+
+<p>Our confidence in the results of historical study is therefore
+proportioned to the extent and thoroughness of the experience which
+they record, and to the time during which these laws can be proven
+to have held good. If I can make it even fairly probable that these
+laws, on obedience to which human progress and success seem to
+depend, are merely quoted from a grander code applicable to all life
+in all times, your confidence in them will be even greater. I trust
+I can prove to you that the animal kingdom has not drifted aimlessly
+at the mercy of every wind and tide and current of circumstance. I
+hope to show that along one line it has from the beginning through
+the ages held a steady course straight onward, and that deviation
+from this course has always led to failure or degeneration. From so
+vast a history we may hope to deduce some of the great laws of true
+success in life. Furthermore, if along this central line, at the
+head of which man stands, there always has been progress, we cannot
+doubt that future progress will be as certain, and perhaps far more
+rapid. In all the struggle of life we shall have the sure hope of
+success and victory; if not for ourselves still for those who shall
+come after us. &quot;We are saved by hope.&quot; And we may be confident that
+this hope will never make us ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, even from our present knowledge of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span>past progress of
+life we shall hope to catch hints at least that man's only path to
+his destined goal is the straight and narrow road pointed out in the
+Bible. If in this we are even fairly successful we shall find a
+relation and bond between the Bible and Science worthy of all
+consideration. And this is the only agreement which can ever satisfy
+us.</p>
+
+<p>If I wished to bring before you a view of the development of man, I
+should best choose individuals or families from various periods of
+human history from the earliest times down to the present. I should
+try to tell you how they looked and lived. But if anyone should
+attempt to condense into three lectures such a history of even one
+line of the human race, you would probably think him insane. Even if
+he succeeded in giving a fairly clear view of the different stages,
+the successive stages would be so remote from one another, such vast
+changes would necessarily remain unnoticed or unexplained that you
+would hardly believe that they could have any genetic relation or
+belong to one developmental series.</p>
+
+<p>But the history which I must attempt to condense for you is measured
+by ages, and the successive terms of the series will be indefinitely
+more remote from each other than the life and thoughts of Lincoln or
+Washington from those of our most primitive Aryan ancestor or of the
+rudest savage of the Stone Age. The series must appear exceedingly
+disconnected. Systems of organs will apparently spring suddenly into
+existence, and we shall have no time to trace their origin or
+earlier development. Even if we had an abundance of time many gaps
+would still remain; for the forms, which according to our theory
+must have occupied <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span>their place, have long since disappeared and
+left no trace nor sign. We have generally no conception at all of
+the amount of extermination and degeneration which have taken place
+in past ages.</p>
+
+<p>I grant frankly that I do not believe that the forms which I have
+selected represent exactly the ancestors of man. They have all been
+more or less modified. I claim only that in the balance and relative
+development of their organic systems&mdash;muscular, digestive, nervous,
+etc.&mdash;they give us a very fair idea of what our ancestor at each
+stage must have been. But it is on this balance and relative
+development of the different systems, that is, whether an animal is
+more reproductive, digestive, or nervous, that my argument will in
+the main be based.</p>
+
+<p>But if the older ancestors have so generally disappeared, and their
+surviving relatives have been so greatly modified, how can we make
+even a shrewd guess at the ancestry of higher forms? The genealogy
+of the animal kingdom has been really the study of centuries,
+although the earlier zo&ouml;logists did not know that this was to be the
+result of their labors. The first work of the naturalist was
+necessarily to classify the plants and animals which he found, and
+catalogue and tabulate them so that they might be easily recognized,
+and that later discovered forms might readily find a place in the
+system. Hypotheses and theories were looked upon with suspicion.
+&quot;Even Linn&aelig;us,&quot; says Romanes, &quot;was express in his limitations of
+true scientific work in natural history to the collecting and
+arranging of species of plants and animals.&quot; The question, &quot;What is
+it?&quot; came first; then, &quot;How did it come to be what it is?&quot; We are
+just awakening to the question, &quot;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span>Why this progressive system of
+forms, and what does it all mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Let us experiment a little in forming our own classification of a
+few vertebrates. We see a bat flying through the air. We mistake it
+for a bird. But a glance at it shows that it is a mammal. It is
+covered with hair. It has fore and hind legs. Its wings are
+membranes stretched between the fingers and along the sides of the
+body. It has teeth. It suckles its young. In all these respects it
+differs from birds. It differs from mammals only in its wings. But
+we remember that flying squirrels have a membrane stretching along
+the sides of the body and serving as a parachute, though not as
+wings. We naturally consider the wings as a sort of after-thought
+superinduced on the mammalian structure. We do not hesitate to call
+it a mammal.</p>
+
+<p>The whale makes us more trouble; it certainly looks remarkably like
+a fish. But the fin of its tail is horizontal, not vertical. Its
+front flippers differ altogether from the corresponding fins of
+fish; their bones are the same as those occurring in the forelegs of
+mammals, only shorter and more crowded together. Later we find that
+it has lungs, and a heart with four chambers instead of only two, as
+in fish. The vertebr&aelig; of its backbone are not biconcave, but flat in
+front and behind. And, finally, we discover that it suckles its
+young. It, too, is in all its deep-seated characteristics a mammal.
+It is fish-like only in characteristics which it might easily have
+acquired in adaptation to its aquatic life. And there are other
+aquatic mammals, like the seals, in which these characteristics are
+much less marked. Their adaptation has evidently not gone so far.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span>Now the first attempts resulted in artificial classifications, much
+like our grouping of bats with birds and whales with fish. All
+animals, like coral animals and starfishes, whose similar parts were
+arranged in lines radiating from a centre, were united as radiates,
+however much they might differ in internal structure and grade of
+organization. But this radiate structure proved again to be largely
+a matter of adaptation.</p>
+
+<p>Practically all animals having a heavy calcareous shell were grouped
+with the snails and oysters as mollusks. But the barnacle did not
+fit well with other mollusks. Its shell was entirely different. It
+had several pairs of legs; and no mollusk has legs. The barnacle is
+evidently a sessile crab or better crustacean. Its molluscan
+characteristics were only skin-deep, evidently an adaptation to a
+mode of life like that of mollusks. The old artificial systems were
+based too much on merely external characteristics, the results of
+adaptation. When the internal anatomy had been thoroughly studied
+their groups had to be rearranged.</p>
+
+<p>Reptiles and amphibia were at first united in one class because of
+their resemblance in external form. Our common salamanders look so
+much like lizards that they generally pass by this name. But the
+young salamander, like all amphibia, breathes by gills, its skeleton
+differs greatly from, and is far weaker than, that of the lizard,
+and there are important differences in the circulatory and other
+systems. Moreover, practically all amphibia differ from all reptiles
+in these respects. Evidently the fact that the alligator and many
+snakes and turtles (of which neither the young nor the embryos ever
+breathe by gills) live almost entirely in the water, is no better
+reason for classifying <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span>these with amphibia than to call a whale a
+fish, and not a mammal, because of its form and aquatic life.</p>
+
+<p>When the comparative anatomy of fish, amphibia, and reptiles had
+been carefully studied it was evident that the amphibia stood far
+nearer the fish in general structure, while the higher reptiles
+closely approached birds. Then it was noticed that our common fish
+formed a fairly well-defined group, but that the ganoids, including
+the sturgeons, gar-pikes, and some others, had at least traces of
+amphibian characteristics. Such generalized forms, with the
+characteristics of the class less sharply marked, were usually by
+common consent placed at the bottom of the class. And this suited
+well their general structure, while in particular characteristics
+they were often more highly organized than higher groups of the same
+class.</p>
+
+<p>The pal&aelig;ontologist found that the oldest fossil forms belonged to
+these generalized groups, and that more highly specialized
+forms&mdash;that is, those in which the special class distinctions were
+more sharply and universally marked&mdash;were of later geological
+origin. Thus the oldest fish were most like our present ganoids and
+sharks, though differing much from both. Our common teleost fish,
+like perch and cod, appeared much later. The oldest bird, the
+arch&aelig;opteryx, had a long tail like that of a lizard, and teeth; and
+thus stood in many respects almost midway between birds and
+reptiles. And most of the earliest forms were &quot;comprehensive,&quot;
+uniting the characteristics of two or more later groups. Thus as the
+classification became more natural, based on a careful comparison of
+the whole anatomy of the animals, its order was found to coincide in
+general with that of geological succession.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span>Then the zo&ouml;logist began to ask and investigate how the animal grew
+in the egg and attained its definite form. And this study of
+embryology brought to light many new and interesting facts. Agassiz
+especially emphasized and maintained the universality of the fact
+that there was a remarkable parallelism between embryos of later
+forms and adults of old or fossil groups. The embryos of higher
+forms, he said, pass through and beyond certain stages of structure,
+which are permanent in lower and older members of the same group.</p>
+
+<p>You remember that the fin on the tail of a fish is as a rule
+bilobed. Now the backbone of a perch or cod ends at a point in the
+end of the tail opposite the angle between the two lobes, without
+extending out into either of them. In the shark it extends almost to
+the end of the upper lobe. Now we have seen that sharks and ganoids
+are older than cod. In the embryo of the cod or perch the backbone
+has, at an early stage, the same position as in the shark or ganoid;
+only at a later stage does it attain its definite position.</p>
+
+<p>So Agassiz says the young lepidosteus (a ganoid fish), long after it
+is hatched, exhibits in the form of its tail characters thus far
+known only among the fossil fishes of the Devonian period. The
+embryology of turtles throws light upon the fossil chelonians. It is
+already known that the embryonic changes of frogs and toads coincide
+with what is known of their succession in past ages. The
+characteristics of extinct genera of mammals exhibit everywhere
+indications that their living representatives in early life resemble
+them more than they do their own parents. A minute comparison of a
+young elephant with any mastodon will show this most fully, not only
+in the peculiarities of their teeth, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span>but even in the proportion of
+their limbs, their toes, etc. It may therefore be considered as
+a general fact that the phases of development of all living
+animals correspond to the order of succession of their extinct
+representatives in past geological times. The above statements are
+quoted almost word for word from Professor Agassiz's &quot;Essay on
+Classification.&quot; The larv&aelig; of barnacles and other more degraded
+parasitic crustacea are almost exactly like those of Crustacea in
+general. The embryos of birds have a long tail containing almost or
+quite as many vertebr&aelig; as that of arch&aelig;opteryx. But most of these
+never reach their full development but are absorbed into the pelvis,
+or into the &quot;ploughshare&quot; bone supporting the tail feathers. Thus
+older forms may be said to have retained throughout life a condition
+only embryonic in their higher relatives. And the natural
+classification gave the order not only of geological succession but
+also of stages of embryonic development. Thus the system of
+classification improved continually, although more and more
+intermediate forms, like arch&aelig;opteryx, were discovered, and certain
+aberrant groups could find no permanent resting-place.</p>
+
+<p>But why should the generalized comprehensive forms stand at the
+bottom rather than the top of the systematic arrangement of their
+classes? Why should the system of classification coincide with the
+order of geologic occurrence, and this with the series of embryonic
+stages? Above all, why should the embryos of bird and perch form
+their tails by such a roundabout method? Why should the embryo of
+the bird have the tail of a lizard? No one could give any
+satisfactory explanation, although the facts were undoubted.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span>Mr. Darwin's theory was the one impulse needed to crystallize these
+disconnected facts into one comprehensible whole. The connecting
+link was everywhere common descent, difference was due to the
+continual variation and divergence of their ancestors. The
+classification, which all were seeking, was really the ancestral
+tree of the animal kingdom. Forms more generalized should be placed
+lower down on the ancestral tree, and must have had an earlier
+geological occurrence because they represented more nearly the
+ancestors of the higher. But this explains also the facts of
+embryonic development.</p>
+
+<p>According to Mr. Darwin's theory all the species of higher animals
+have developed from unicellular ancestors. It had long been known
+that all higher forms start in life as single cells, egg and
+spermatozoon. And these, fused in the process of fertilization, form
+still a single cell. And when this single cell proceeds through
+successive embryonic stages to develop into an adult individual it
+naturally, through force of hereditary habit, so to speak, treads
+the same path which its ancestors followed from the unicellular
+condition to their present point of development. Thus higher forms
+should be expected to show traces of their early ancestry in their
+embryonic life. Older and lower adult forms should represent
+persistent embryonic stages of higher. It could not well be
+otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>But the path which the embryo has to follow from the egg to the
+adult form is continually lengthening as life advances ever higher.
+From egg to sponge is, comparatively speaking, but a step; it is a
+long march from the egg to the earthworm; and the vertebrate embryo
+makes a vast journey. But embryonic life is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span>and must remain short.
+Hence in higher forms the ancestral stages will often be slurred
+over and very incompletely represented. And the embryo may, and
+often does, shorten the path by &quot;short-cuts&quot; impossible to its
+original ancestor. Still it will in general hold true, and may be
+recognized as a law of vast importance, that any individual during
+his embryonic life repeats very briefly the different stages through
+which his ancestors have passed in their development since the
+beginning of life. Or, briefly stated, ontogenesis, or the embryonic
+development of the individual, is a brief recapitulation of
+phylogenesis, or the ancestral development of the phylum or group.</p>
+
+<p>The illustration and proof of this law is the work of the
+embryologist. We have time to draw only one or two illustrations
+from the embryonic development of birds. We have already seen that
+the embryonic bird has the long tail of his reptilian ancestor. In
+early embryonic life it has gill-slits leading from the pharynx to
+the outside of the neck like those through which the water passes in
+the respiration of fish. The Eustachian tube and the canal of the
+external ear of man, separated only by the &quot;drum,&quot; are nothing but
+such an old persistent gill-slit. No gills ever develop in these,
+but the great arteries run to them, and indeed to all parts of the
+embryo, on almost precisely the same general plan as in the adult
+fish. Only later is the definite avian circulation gradually
+acquired.</p>
+
+<p>This law is even more strikingly illustrated in the embryonic
+development of the vertebral column and skull, if we had time to
+trace their development. And the development of the excretory system
+points to an ancestor far more primitive than even the fish. Our
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span>embryonic development is one of the very strongest evidences of our
+lowly origin.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we have three sources of information for the study of animal
+genealogy. First, the comparative anatomy of all the different
+groups of animals; second, their comparative embryology; and third,
+their pal&aelig;ontological history. Each source has its difficulties or
+defects. But taken all together they give us a genealogical tree
+which is in the main points correct, though here and there very
+defective and doubtful in detail. The points in which we are left
+most in doubt in regard to each ancestor are its modes of life and
+locomotion, and body form. But these may temporarily vary
+considerably without affecting to any great extent the general plan
+of structure and the line of development of the most important
+deep-seated organs.</p>
+
+<p>I have chosen a line composed of forms taken from the comparative
+anatomical series. All such present existing forms have probably
+been modified during the lapse of ages. But I shall try to tell you
+when they have diverged noticeably from the structure of the
+primitive ancestor of the corresponding stage. It is much safer for
+us to study concrete, actual forms than imaginary ones, however real
+may have been the former existence of the latter. And, after all,
+their lateral divergence is of small account compared with the great
+upward and onward march of life, to the right and left of which they
+have remained stationary or retrograded somewhat, like the tribes
+which remained on the other side of Jordan and never entered the
+Promised Land.</p>
+
+<p>To recapitulate: Our question is the Whence and the Whither of man.
+To this question the Bible gives <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span>a clear and definite answer. Can
+Science also give an answer, and is this in the main in accord with
+the answer of Scripture? Science can answer the question only by the
+historical method of tracing the history of life in the past and
+observing the goal toward which it tends. If the evolution theory be
+true, the record of human achievement and progress forms only one
+short chapter in the history of the ages. If from the records of
+man's little span of life on the globe we can deduce laws of history
+on whose truth we can rely, with how much greater confidence and
+certainty may we rely on laws which have governed all life since its
+earliest appearance?&mdash;always provided that such can be found.</p>
+
+<p>Our first effort must therefore be to trace the great line of
+development through a few of its most characteristic stages from the
+simplest living beings up to man. This will be our work in the three
+succeeding lectures. And to these I must ask you to bring a large
+store of patience. Anatomical details are at best dry and
+uninteresting. But these dry facts of anatomy form the foundation on
+which all our arguments and hopes must rest.</p>
+
+<p>But if you will think long and carefully even of anatomical facts,
+you will see in and behind them something more and grander than
+they. You will catch glimpses of the divinity of Nature. Most of us
+travel threescore years and ten stone-blind in a world of marvellous
+beauty. Why does the artist see so much more in every fence-corner
+and on every hill-side than we, set face to face with the grandest
+landscapes? Primarily, I believe, because he is sympathetic, and
+looks on Nature as a comrade as near and dear as any <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span>human sister
+and companion. As Professor Huxley has said, &quot;they get on rarely
+together.&quot; She speaks to the artist; to us she is dumb, and ought to
+be, for we are boorishly careless of her and her teachings.</p>
+
+<p>Nature, to be known, must be loved. And though you have all the
+knowledge of a von Humboldt, and do not love her, you will never
+understand her or her teachings. You will go through life with her,
+and yet parted from her as by an adamantine wall.</p>
+
+<p>I do not suppose that the author of the book of Job had ever studied
+geology, or mineralogy, or biology, but read him, and see whether
+this old prince of scientific heroes had loved, and understood, and
+caught the spirit of Nature. And what a grand, free spirit it was,
+and what a giant it made of him. I do not believe that Paul ever had
+a special course of anatomy or botany. But if he had not pondered
+long and lovingly on the structure of his body, and the germination
+of the seed, he never could have written the twelfth and fifteenth
+chapters of the first letter to the Corinthians. And time fails to
+speak of David and all the writers of the Psalms, and of those
+heroic souls misnamed the &quot;Minor&quot; Prophets.</p>
+
+<p>Study the teachings of our Lord. How he must have considered the
+lilies of the field, and that such a tiny seed as that of the
+mustard could have produced so great an herb, and noticed and
+thought on the thorns and the tares and the wheat, and watched the
+sparrows, and pondered and wondered how the birds were fed. All his
+teaching was drawn from Nature. And all the study in the world could
+never have taught him what he knew, if it had not been a loving and
+appreciative study.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span>There is one strange and interesting passage in John's Gospel, xv.
+1: &quot;I am the true vine.&quot; My father used to tell us that the Greek
+word &#945;&#955;&#951;&#952;&#953;&#957;&#951;, rendered true, is usually employed of the
+genuine in distinction from the counterfeit, the reality in
+distinction from the shadow and image. Is not this perhaps the clew
+to our Lord's use of natural imagery? Nature was always the
+presentation to his senses of the divine thought and purpose. He
+studied the words of the ancient Scripture, he found the same words
+and teachings clearly and concretely embodied in the processes of
+Nature. The interpretation of the Parable of the Sower was no mere
+play of fancy to him; it was the genuine and fundamental truth,
+deeper and more real than the existence of the sower, the soil, and
+the seed. The spiritual truth was the substance; the tangible soil
+and seed really only the shadow. And thus all Nature was to him
+divine.</p>
+
+<p>We all of us need to offer the prayer of the blind man, &quot;Lord, that
+our eyes may be opened.&quot; Let us learn, too, from the old heathen
+giant, Ant&aelig;us, who, after every defeat and fall, rose strengthened
+and vivified from contact with his mother Earth. You will experience
+in life many a desperate struggle, many a hard fall. There is at
+such times nothing in the world so strengthening, healing, and
+life-giving as the thoughts and encouragements which Nature pours
+into the hearts and minds of her loving disciples. She will set you
+on your feet again, infused with new life, filled with an
+unconquerable spirit, with unfaltering courage, and an iron will to
+fight once more and win. In every battle her inspiring words will
+ring in your ears, and she will never fail you. We may <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span>not see her
+deepest realities, her rarest treasures of thought and wisdom; but
+if we will listen lovingly for her voice, we may be assured that she
+will speak to us many a word of cheer and encouragement, of warning
+and exhortation. For, to paraphrase the language of the nineteenth
+Psalm, &quot;She has no speech nor language, her voice is not heard. But
+her rule is gone out throughout all the earth, and her words to the
+end of the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>PROTOZOA TO WORMS: CELLS, TISSUES, AND ORGANS</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span>The first and lowest form in our ancestral series is the am&oelig;ba, a
+little fresh-water animal from 1/500 to 1/1000 of an inch in
+diameter. Under the microscope it looks like a little drop of
+mucilage. This semifluid, mucilaginous substance is the Protoplasm.
+Its outer portion is clear and transparent, its inner more granular.
+In the inner portion is a little spheroidal body, the nucleus. This
+is certainly of great importance in the life of the animal; but just
+what it does, or what is its relation to the surrounding protoplasm
+we do not yet know. There is also a little cavity around which the
+protoplasm has drawn back, and on which it will soon close in again,
+so that it pulsates like a heart. It is continually taking in water
+from the body, or the outside, and driving it out again, and thus
+aids in respiration and excretion. The animal has no organs in the
+proper sense of the word, and yet it has the rudiments of all the
+functions which we possess.</p>
+
+<p>A little projection of the outer, clearer layer of protoplasm, a
+pseudopodium, appears; into this the whole animal may flow and thus
+advance a step, or the projection may be withdrawn. And this power
+of change of form is a lower grade of the contractility of our
+muscular cells. Prick it with a needle and it contracts.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span> It
+recognizes its food even at a microscopic distance; it appears
+therefore to feel and perceive. Perhaps we might say that it has a
+mind and will of its own. It is safer to say that it is irritable,
+that is, it reacts to stimuli too feeble to be regarded as the cause
+of its reaction. It engulfs microscopic plants, and digests them in
+the internal protoplasm by the aid of an acid secretion. It breathes
+oxygen, and excretes carbonic acid and urea, through its whole body
+surface. Its mode of gaining the energy which it manifests is
+therefore apparently like our own, by combustion of food material.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/tyler01.jpg" width="223" height="300" alt="1. AM&OElig;BA PROTEUS. HERTWIG, FROM LEIDY.
+" title="Figure 1" />
+<h5>1. AM&OElig;BA PROTEUS. HERTWIG, FROM LEIDY.</h5>
+<p class="cap"><i>ek</i>, ectosarc; <i>en</i>, endosarc; <i>N</i>, food particles;
+<i>n</i>, nucleus; <i>cv</i>, contractile vesicle.</p> <p class="ar"> <a href="images/tyler01large.jpg">[<small>LARGER</small>]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<p>It grows and reaches a certain size, then constricts itself in the
+middle and divides into two. The old am&oelig;ba has divided into two
+young ones, and there is no parent left to die, and death, except by
+violence, does not occur. But this absence of death in other rather
+distant relatives of the am&oelig;ba, and probably in the am&oelig;ba
+itself, holds true only provided that, after a series of
+self-divisions, reproduction takes place after another mode. Two
+rather small and weak individuals fuse together in one animal of
+renewed vigor, which soon divides into two <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span>larger and stronger
+descendants. We have here evidently a process corresponding to the
+fertilization of the egg in higher animals; yet there is no egg,
+spermatozoon, or sex.</p>
+
+<p>It is a little mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus, and
+corresponds, therefore, to one of the cells, most closely to the
+egg-cell or spermatozoon of higher animals. If every living being is
+descended from a single cell, the fertilized egg, it is not hard to
+believe that all higher animals are descended from an ancestor
+having the general structure or lack of structure of the am&oelig;ba.</p>
+
+<p>But is the am&oelig;ba really structureless? Probably it has an
+exceedingly complex structure, but our microscopes and technique are
+still too imperfect to show more than traces of it. Says Hertwig:
+&quot;Protoplasm is not a single chemical substance, however complicated,
+but a mixture of many substances, which we must picture to ourselves
+as finest particles united in a wonderfully complicated structure.&quot;
+Truly protoplasm is, to borrow Mephistopheles' expression concerning
+blood, a &quot;quite peculiar juice.&quot; And the complexity of the nucleus
+is far more evident than that of the protoplasm. Is protoplasm
+itself the result of a long development? If so, out of what and how
+did it develop? We cannot even guess. But the beginning of life may,
+apparently must, have been indefinitely farther back than the
+simplest now existing form. The study of the am&oelig;ba cannot fail to
+raise a host of questions in the mind of any thoughtful man.</p>
+
+<p>As we have here the animal reduced, so to speak, to lowest terms, it
+may be well to examine a little more closely into its physiology and
+compare it briefly with our own.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span>The am&oelig;ba eats food as we do, but the food is digested directly
+in the internal protoplasm instead of in a stomach; and once
+digested it diffuses to all parts of the cell; here it is built up
+into compounds of a more complex structure, and forms an integral
+part of the animal body. The dead food particle has been transformed
+into living protoplasm, the continually repeated miracle of life.
+But it does not remain long in this condition. In contact with the
+oxygen from the air it is soon oxidized, burned up to furnish the
+energy necessary for the motion and irritability of the body. We are
+all of us low-temperature engines. The digestive function exists in
+all animals merely to bring the food into a soluble, diffusible
+form, so that it can pass to all parts of the body and be used for
+fuel or growth. In our body a circulatory system is necessary to
+carry food and oxygen to the cells and to remove their waste. For
+most of our cells lie at a distance from the stomach, lungs, and
+kidney. But in a small animal the circulatory system is often
+unnecessary and fails. Breathing and excretion take place through
+the whole surface of the body. The body of the frog is devoid of
+scales, so that the blood is separated from the surrounding water
+only by a thin membrane, and it breathes and excretes to a certain
+extent in the same way.</p>
+
+<p>But another factor has to be considered. If we double each dimension
+of our am&oelig;ba, we shall increase its surface four times, its mass
+eight-fold. Now the power of absorbing oxygen and excreting waste is
+evidently proportional to the excretory and respiratory surface, and
+much the same is true of digestion. But the amount of oxygen
+required, and of waste to be removed is proportional to the mass;
+for every particle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span> of protoplasm requires food and oxygen, and
+produces waste. The particles of protoplasm in our new, larger
+am&oelig;ba can therefore receive only half as much oxygen as before,
+and rid themselves of their waste only half as fast. There is
+danger of what in our bodies would be called suffocation and
+blood-poisoning. The am&oelig;ba having attained a certain size meets
+this emergency by dividing into two small individuals, the division
+is a physical adaptation. But the many-celled animal cannot do this;
+it must keep its cells together. It gains the additional surface by
+folding and plaiting. And the complicated internal structure of
+higher animals is in its last analysis such a folding and plaiting
+in order to maintain the proper ratio between the exposed surface of
+the cells and their mass. And each cell in our bodies lives in one
+sense its own individual life, only bathed in the lymph and
+receiving from it its food and oxygen instead of taking it from the
+water.</p>
+
+<p>But in another sense the cells of our body live an entirely
+different life, for they form a community. Division of labor has
+taken place between them, they are interdependent, correlated with
+one another, subject therefore to the laws of the whole community or
+organism. There are many respects in which it is impossible to
+compare Robinson Crusoe with a workman in a huge watch factory; yet
+they are both men.</p>
+
+<p>Both the am&oelig;ba and we live in the closest relation to our
+environment, and conformity to it is evidently necessary: life has
+been defined as the adjustment of internal relations to external
+conditions. We continually take food, use it for energy and growth,
+and return the simpler waste compounds. We are all of us, as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span>Professor Huxley has said, &quot;whirlpools on the surface of Nature;&quot;
+when the whirl of exchange of particles ceases we die. We have seen
+that the fusion of two am&oelig;b&aelig; results in a new rejuvenated
+individual. Why is a mixture of two protoplasms better than one? We
+can frame hypotheses; we know nothing about it. What of the mind of
+the am&oelig;ba? A host of questions throng upon us and we can answer
+no one of them. All the great questions concerning life confront us
+here in the lowest term of the animal series, and appear as
+insoluble as in the highest.</p>
+
+<p>Our second ancestral form is also a fresh-water animal, the hydra.
+This is a little, vase-shaped animal, which usually lives attached
+to grass-stems or sticks, but has the power to free itself and hang
+on the surface of the water or to slowly creep on the bottom. The
+mouth is at the top of the vase, and the simple, undivided cavity
+within the vase is the digestive cavity. Around the mouth is a ring
+of from four to ten hollow tentacles, whose cavities communicate
+freely underneath with the digestive cavity. Not only is food taken
+in at the mouth, but indigestible material is thrown out here. The
+animal may thus be compared to a nearly cylindrical sack with a
+circle of tubes attached to it above. The body consists of two
+layers of cells, the ectoderm on the outside and the entoderm lining
+the digestive cavity. Between these two is a structureless, elastic
+membrane, which tends to keep the body moderately expanded.</p>
+
+<p>The food is captured by the tentacles; but digestion takes place
+only partially in the digestive cavity, for each surrounding cell
+engulfs small particles of food and digests them within itself. The
+entodermal cells <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span>behave in this respect much like a colony of
+am&oelig;b&aelig;. The cells of both layers have at their bases long muscular
+fibrils, those of the ectodermal cells running longitudinally, those
+of the entoderm transversely. The animal can thus contract its body
+in both directions, or, if the body contain water and the transverse
+muscles are contracted, the pressure of the water lengthens the body
+and tends to extend the tentacles.</p>
+
+<p>On the outside of the elastic membrane, just beneath the ectoderm,
+is a plexus or cobweb of nervous cells and fibrils. As in every
+nervous system, three elements are here to be found. 1. An afferent
+or sensory nerve-fibril, which under adequate stimulus is set in
+vibration by some cell of the epidermis or ectoderm, which is
+therefore called a sensory cell. 2. A central or ganglion
+cell, which receives the sensory impulse, translates it into
+consciousness, and is the seat of whatever powers of perception,
+thought, or will the animal possesses. This also gives rise to the
+efferent or motor impulses, which are conveyed by (3) a motor fibril
+to the corresponding muscle, exciting its contraction. But there are
+also nerve-fibrils connecting the different ganglion cells, so that
+they may act in unison. In the higher animals we shall find these
+central or ganglion cells condensed in one or a few masses or
+ganglia. But here they are scattered over the whole surface of the
+elastic supporting membrane.</p>
+
+<p>The reproductive organs for the production of eggs and spermatozoa
+form little protuberances on the outside of the body below the
+tentacles. But hydra reproduces mostly by budding; new individuals
+growing out of the side of the old one, like branches from the trunk
+of a tree, but afterward breaking free and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span>leading an independent
+life. There are special forms of cells besides those described;
+nettle cells for capturing food, interstitial cells, etc., but these
+do not concern us.</p>
+
+<p>The distance from the single-celled am&oelig;ba to hydra is vast,
+probably really greater than that between any other successive terms
+of our series. It may therefore be useful to consider one or two
+intermediate forms and the parallel embryonic stages of higher
+animals, and to see how the higher many-celled animal originates
+from the unicellular stage.</p>
+
+<p>The am&oelig;ba is an illustration of a great kingdom of similar,
+practically unicellular forms, which have played no unimportant part
+in the geological history of the globe. These are the protozoa. They
+include, first of all, the foraminifera, which usually have shells
+composed of carbonate of lime. These shells, settling to the bottom
+of the ocean, have accumulated in vast beds, and when compacted and
+raised above the surface, form chalk, limestone, or marble,
+according to the degree and mode of their hardening.</p>
+
+<p>The protozoa include also the flagellata, a great, very poorly
+defined mass of forms occupying the boundary between the plant and
+animal kingdoms. They are usually unicellular, and their protoplasm
+is surrounded by a thin, structureless membrane. This prevents their
+putting out pseudopodia as organs of motion. Instead of these they
+have at one end of the ovoid or pear-shaped body a long,
+whiplash-like process or thread, a flagellum, and by swinging this
+they propel themselves through the water. These flagellata seem to
+have a rather marked tendency to form colonies. The first individual
+gives rise to others by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span>division. But the division is not complete;
+the new individuals remain connected by the undivided rear end of
+the body. And such a colony may come to contain a large number of
+individuals.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/tyler02.jpg" width="250" height="244" alt="2. MAGOSPH&AElig;RA PLANULA. LANG, FROM HAECKEL."
+title="Figure 2" />
+<h5>2. MAGOSPH&AElig;RA PLANULA. LANG, FROM HAECKEL.</h5>
+</div>
+
+<p>Such a colony is represented by magosph&aelig;ra. This is a microscopic
+globular form, discovered by Professor Haeckel on the coast of
+Norway. It consists of a large number of conical or pear-shaped
+individual cells, whose apices are turned toward the centre of the
+sphere. The cells are cemented together by a mucilaginous substance.
+Around their exposed larger ends, which form the surface of the
+sphere, are rows of flagella, by whose united action the colony
+rolls through the water. After a time each individual absorbs its
+flagella, the colony is broken up, the different individuals settle
+to the bottom, and each gives rise by division to a new colony. This
+group of cells may be considered as a colony or as an individual.
+Each term is defensible.</p>
+
+<p>Volvox is also a spheroidal organism, composed often of a very large
+number of flagellated cells. But it differs from magosph&aelig;ra in
+certain important respects. In the first place its cells have
+chlorophyl, the green <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span>coloring matter of plants. It lives therefore
+on unorganized fluid nourishment, carbon dioxide, nitrates, etc. It
+is a plant. But certain characteristics render it probable that it
+once lived on solid food and was therefore an animal. For where
+almost the sole difference between plants and animals is in the
+fluid or solid character of their food, a change from the one form
+into the other is not as difficult or improbable as one might
+naturally think. And plants and animals are here so near together,
+and travelling by roads so nearly parallel, that, even if volvox
+never was an animal, it might still serve very well to illustrate a
+stage through which animals must have passed.</p>
+
+<p>The cells of volvox do not form a solid mass, but have arranged
+themselves in a single layer on the outer surface of the sphere. For
+a time, under favorable circumstances, volvox reproduces very much
+like magosph&aelig;ra, and each cell can give rise to a new, many-celled
+individual. But after a time, especially under unfavorable
+circumstances, a new mode of reproduction appears. Certain cells
+withdraw from the outer layer into the interior of the colony. Here
+they are nourished by the other cells and develop into true
+reproductive elements, eggs and spermatozoa. Fertilization, that is,
+the union of egg and spermatozoon, or mainly of their nuclei, takes
+place; and the fertilized egg develops into a new organism. But the
+other cells, which have been all the time nourishing these, seem now
+to lack nutriment, strength, or vitality to give rise to a new
+colony. They die.</p>
+
+<p>We find thus in volvox division of labor and corresponding
+difference of structure or differentiation; certain cells retain the
+power of fusing with other corresponding <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span>cells, and thus of
+rejuvenescence and of giving rise to a new organism. And these
+cells, forming a series through all generations, are evidently
+immortal like the protozoa. Natural death cannot touch them. These
+are the reproductive cells. The other cells nourish and transport
+them and carry on the work of excretion and respiration. These
+latter correspond practically to our whole body. We call them
+somatic cells. In volvox they are entirely subservient to, and exist
+for, the reproductive cells, and die when they have completed their
+service of these. The body is here only a vehicle for ova.
+Furthermore, in volvox there has arisen such an interdependence of
+cells that we can no longer speak of it as a colony. The colony has
+become an individual by division of labor and the resulting
+differentiation in structure.</p>
+
+<p>But hydra gives us but a poor idea of the c&oelig;lenterata, to which
+kingdom it belongs. The higher c&oelig;lenterata have nearly or quite
+all the tissues of higher animals&mdash;muscular, connective, glandular,
+etc. And by tissues we mean groups of cells modified in form and
+structure for the performance of a special work or function. The
+protozoa developed the cell for all time to come, the c&oelig;lenterata
+developed the tissues which still compose our bodies. But they had
+them mainly in a diffuse form. A sort of digestive and reproductive
+system they did possess. But the work of arranging these tissues and
+condensing them into compact organs was to be done by the next
+higher group, the worms.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now take a glance at certain stages of embryonic development
+which correspond to these earliest ancestral forms. We should expect
+some such <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span>correspondence from the fact already stated that the
+embryonic development of the individual is a brief recapitulation of
+the ancestral development of the species or larger group. The egg of
+the lowest vertebrate, amphioxus, shows these changes in a simple
+and apparently primitive form.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 246px;">
+<img src="images/tyler03.jpg" width="246" height="250" alt="3. IMMATURE EGG-SHELL FROM OVARY OF ECHINODERM.
+HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG." title="Figure 3" />
+<h5>3. IMMATURE EGG-SHELL FROM OVARY OF ECHINODERM.
+HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG.</h5>
+</div>
+
+<p>The fertilized egg of any animal consists of a single cell, a little
+mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus and surrounded by a
+structureless membrane. The egg is globular. The nucleus undergoes
+certain very peculiar, still but little understood, changes and
+divides into two. The protoplasm also soon divides into two masses
+clustering each around its own nucleus. The plane of division will
+be marked around the outside by a circular furrow, but the cells
+will still remain united by a large part of the membrane which
+bounds their adjacent, newly formed, internal faces.</p>
+
+<p>Let us suppose that the egg lay so that the first plane of division
+was vertical and extending north and south. Each cell or half of the
+egg will divide into two precisely as before. The new plane of
+division will be vertical, but extending east and west. Each plane
+passes through the centre of the egg, and the four cells are of the
+same form and size, like much-rounded quarters of an orange. The
+third plane will lie horizontal or equatorial, and will divide each
+of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span>these quarters into an upper and lower octant. The cells keep on
+dividing rapidly, the eight form sixteen, then thirty-two, etc. The
+sharp angle by which the cells met at the centre has become rounded
+off, and has left a little space, the segmentation cavity, filled
+with fluid in the middle of the embryo. The cells continue to press
+or be crowded away from the centre and form a layer one cell deep on
+the surface of the sphere.</p>
+
+<p>This embryo, resembling a hollow rubber ball filled with fluid, is
+called a blastosphere. It corresponds in structure with the fully
+developed volvox, except, of course, in lacking reproductive cells.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 245px;">
+<img src="images/tyler04.jpg" width="245" height="250" alt="4. GASTRULA. HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG."
+title="Figure 4" />
+<h5>4. GASTRULA. HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG.</h5>
+<p class="cap">Outer layer is the ectoderm; inner layer, the entoderm; internal
+cavity, the archenteron; mouth of cavity, blastopore.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p>If the rubber ball has a hole in it so that I can squeeze out the
+water, I can thrust the one-half into the other, and change the ball
+into a double-walled cup. A similar change takes place in the
+embryo. The cells of the lower half of the blastosphere are slightly
+larger than those of the upper half. This lower hemisphere flattens
+and then thrusts itself, or is invaginated, into the upper
+hemisphere of smaller cells and forms its lining. This cup-shaped
+embryo is called the gastrula. The cup deepens somewhat and becomes
+ovoid. Take a boiled egg, make a hole in the smaller end and remove
+the yolk, and you have a passable model of a gastrula. The shell
+corresponds to the ectoderm or outer layer of smaller cells; the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span>layer of &quot;white&quot; represents the entoderm or lining of larger cells.
+The space occupied by the yolk corresponds to the archenteron or
+primitive digestive cavity; and the opening at the end to the
+primitive mouth or blastopore. Ectoderm and entoderm unite around
+the mouth. Both the blastosphere and gastrula often swim freely by
+flagella.</p>
+
+<p>You can hardly have failed to notice how closely the gastrula
+corresponds to a hydra, and many facts lead us to believe that the
+still earlier ancestor of the hydra was free swimming, and that the
+tentacles are a later development correlated with its adult sessile
+life. Yet we must not forget that the hydra is even now not quite
+sessile, it moves somewhat. And our ancestor was almost certainly a
+free swimming gastr&aelig;a, or hypothetical form corresponding in form
+and structure to the gastrula. The ancestor of man never settled
+down lazily into a sessile life.</p>
+
+<p>But how is an adult worm or vertebrate formed out of such a
+gastrula? To answer this would require a course of lectures on
+embryology. But certain changes interest us. Between the ectoderm
+and entoderm of the gastrula, in the space occupied by the
+supporting membrane of hydra, a new layer of cells, the mesoderm,
+appears. This has been produced by the rapid growth and reproduction
+of certain cells of the entoderm which have migrated, so to speak,
+into this new position. In higher forms it becomes of continually
+greater importance, until finally nearly all the organs of the body
+develop from it. In our bodies only the lining of the mid-intestine
+and of its glands has arisen from the entoderm. And only the
+epidermis, or outer layer of our skin, and the nervous system and
+parts of our <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span>sense-organs have arisen from the ectoderm. But our
+mid-intestine is still the greatly elongated archenteron of the
+gastrula.</p>
+
+<p>We may therefore compare the hydra or gastrula to a little portion
+of the lining of the human mid-intestine covered with a little flake
+of epidermis. This much the hydra has attained. But our bones and
+muscles and blood-vessels all come from the mesoderm by folding,
+plaiting, and channelling, and division of labor resulting in
+differentiation of structure. Of all true mesodermal structures the
+hydra has actually none, but in the ectodermal and entodermal cells
+he has the potentiality of them all. We must now try to discover how
+these potentialities became actualities in higher forms.</p>
+
+<p>The third stage in our ancestral series is the turbellarian. This is
+a little, flat, oval worm, varying greatly in size in different
+species, and found both in fresh and salt water. Some would deny
+that this worm belonged in our series at all. But, while doubtless
+considerably modified, it has still retained many characteristics
+almost certainly possessed by our primitive bilateral ancestor. The
+different parts of hydra were arranged like those of most flowers,
+around one main vertical axis; it was thus radiate in structure,
+having neither front nor rear, right nor left side. But our little
+turbellaria, while still without a head, has one end which goes
+first and can be called the front end. The upper or dorsal surface
+is usually more colored with pigment cells than the lower or ventral
+surface, on which is the mouth. It has also a right and left side.
+It is thus bilateral.</p>
+
+<p>The gastr&aelig;a swam by cilia, little eyelash-like <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span>processes which urge
+the animal forward like a myriad of microscopic oars. In our bodies
+they are sometimes used to keep up a current, <i>e.g.</i>, to remove
+foreign particles from the lungs. The turbellaria is still covered
+with cilia, probably an inheritance from the gastr&aelig;a; for, while in
+smaller forms they may still be the principal means of locomotion,
+in larger ones the muscles are beginning to assume this function and
+the animal moves by writhing. The bilateral symmetry has arisen in
+connection with this mode of locomotion and is thus a mark of
+important progress.</p>
+
+<p>In the turbellaria we find for the first time a true body-wall
+distinct from underlying organs. The outer layer of this is a
+ciliated epithelium or layer of cells. Under this an elastic
+membrane may occur. Then come true body muscles, running
+transversely, longitudinally and dorso-ventrally. Between the
+external transverse and the internal longitudinal layers we often
+find two muscular layers whose fibres run diagonally. The body is
+well provided with muscles, but their arrangement is still far from
+economical or effective.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 180px;">
+<img src="images/tyler05.jpg" width="180" height="400" alt="5. TURBELLARIAN. LANG."
+title="Figure 5" />
+<h5>5. TURBELLARIAN. LANG.</h5>
+<p class="cap"><i>va</i> and <i>ha</i>, front and rear branches of gastro-vascular cavity;
+<i>ph</i>, pharynx. The dark oval with fine branches represents the
+nervous system.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Within the body-wall is the parenchym. This is a spongy mass of
+connectile tissue in which the other organs are embedded. The mouth
+lies in the middle, or near the front of the ventral surface. The
+intestine varies in form, but is provided with its own layers of
+longitudinal and transverse muscles, and usually has paired pouches
+extending out from it into the body parenchym. These seem to
+distribute the dissolved nutriment; hence the whole cavity is still
+often called a gastro-vascular cavity as serving both digestion and
+circulation. There is no anal opening, but indigestible material is
+still cast out through the mouth.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span>The animal can gain sufficient oxygen to supply its muscles and
+nerves, which are the principal seats of combustion, through the
+external surface. It has, therefore, no special respiratory organs.
+But the waste matter of the muscles cannot escape so easily, for
+these are becoming deeper seated. Hence we find an excretory system
+consisting of two tubes with many branches in the parenchym, and
+discharging at the rear end of the body. This again is a sign that
+the muscles are becoming more important, for the excretory system is
+needed mainly to remove their waste. These tubes maybe only greatly
+enlarged glands of the skin.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>The nervous system consists of a plexus of fibres and cells, the
+cells originating impulses and the fibres conveying them. But this
+much was present in hydra also. Here the front end of the body goes
+foremost and is continually coming in contact with new conditions.
+Here the lookout for food and danger must be kept. Hence, as a
+result of constant exercise, or selection, or both, the
+nerve-plexus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span> has thickened at this point into a little compact mass
+of cells and fibres called a ganglion. And because this ganglion
+throughout higher forms usually lies over the &oelig;sophagus, it is
+called the supra-&oelig;sophogeal ganglion. This is the first faint and
+dim prophecy of a brain, and it sends its nerves to the front end of
+the body. But there run from it to the rear end of the body four to
+eight nerve-cords, consisting of bundles of nerve-threads like our
+nerves, but overlaid with a coating of ganglion cells capable of
+originating impulses. These cords are, therefore, like the plexus
+from which they have condensed, both nerves and centres;
+differentiation has not gone so far as at the front of the body.
+Sense organs are still very rudimentary. Special cells of the skin
+have been modified into neuro-epithelial cells, having sensory hairs
+protruding from them and nerve-fibrils running from their bases.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>In a very few turbellaria we find otolith vesicles. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span>These are
+little sacks in the skin, lined with neuro-epithelial cells and
+having in the middle a little concretion of carbonate of lime hung
+on rather a stiffer hair, like a clapper in a bell. Such organs
+serve in higher animals as organs of hearing, for the sensory hairs
+are set in vibration by the sound-waves. It is quite as probable
+that they here serve as organs for feeling the slightest vibrations
+in the surrounding water, and thus giving warning of approaching
+food or danger. The animal has also eyes, and these may be very
+numerous. They are not able to form images of external objects, but
+only of perceiving light and the direction of its source. A little
+group of these eyes lies directly over the brain, near the front end
+of the body; the others are distributed around the front or nearly
+the whole margin of the body.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 180px;">
+<img src="images/tyler06.jpg" width="174" height="450"
+alt="6. CROSS-SECTION OF TURBELLARIAN. HATSCHEK, FROM
+JIJIMA." title="Figure 6" />
+<h5>6. CROSS-SECTION OF TURBELLARIAN. HATSCHEK, FROM
+JIJIMA.</h5>
+<p class="cap"><i>e</i>, external skin; <i>rm</i>, lateral muscles; <i>la</i> and <i>li</i>,
+longitudinal muscles; <i>mdv</i>, dorso-ventral muscles; <i>pa</i>,
+parenchyma; <i>h</i>, testicle; <i>ov</i>, oviduct; <i>dt</i>, yolk-gland; <i>n</i>,
+ventral nerve; <i>i</i>, gastro-vascular cavity.</p> <p class="ar">
+<a href="images/tyler06large.jpg">[<small>LARGER</small>]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The turbellaria, doubtless, have the sense of smell, although we can
+discover no special olfactory organ. This sense would seem to be as
+old as protoplasm itself.</p>
+
+<p>This distribution of the eyes around a large portion of the margin,
+and certain other characteristics of the adult structure and of the
+embryonic development, are very interesting, as giving hints of the
+development of the turbellaria from some radiate ancestor. The mouth
+is in a most unfavorable position, in or near the middle of the
+body, rarely at the front end, as the animal has to swim over its
+food before it can grasp it. The animal only slowly rids itself of
+old disadvantageous form and structure and adapts itself completely
+to a higher mode of life.</p>
+
+<p>By far the most highly developed system in the body is the
+reproductive. It is doubtful whether any animal, except, perhaps,
+the mollusk, has as complicated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span> and highly developed reproductive
+organs. By markedly higher forms they certainly grow simpler.</p>
+
+<p>And here we must notice certain general considerations. We found
+that reproduction in the am&oelig;ba could be defined as growth beyond
+the limit normal to the individual. This form of growth benefits
+especially the species. The needs and expenses of the individual
+will therefore first be met and then the balance be devoted to
+reproduction. Now the income of the animal is proportional to its
+surface, its expense to its mass, and activity. And the ratio of
+surface to mass is most favorable in the smallest animals.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Hence,
+smaller animals, as a rule, increase faster than larger ones; and
+this is only one illustration of the fact that great size in an
+animal is anything but an unmixed advantage to its possessor. But
+muscles and nerves are the most expensive systems; here most of the
+food is burned up. Hence energetic animals have a small balance
+remaining. Now the turbellarian is small and sluggish, with a fair
+digestive system. With a great amount of nutriment at its disposal
+the reproductive system came rapidly to a high development, and
+relatively to other organs stands higher than it almost ever will
+again.</p>
+
+<p>It is only fair to state that good authorities hold that so
+primitive an animal could not originally have had so highly
+developed a system, and that this characteristic must be acquired,
+not ancestral.</p>
+
+<p>That certain portions of it may be later developments may be not
+only possible but probable. But anyone who has carefully studied the
+different groups of worms, will, I think, readily grant that in the
+stage <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span>of these flat worms reproduction was the dominant function,
+which had most nearly attained its possible height of development.
+From this time on the muscular and nervous systems were to claim an
+ever-increasing share of the nutriment, and the balance for
+reproduction is to grow smaller.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of this lecture I wish to describe very briefly a
+hypothetical form. It no longer exists; perhaps it never did. But
+many facts of embryology and comparative anatomy point to such a
+form as a very possible ancestor of all forms higher than flat
+worms, viz., mollusks, arthropods, and vertebrates.</p>
+
+<p>It was probably rather long and cylindrical, resembling a small
+and short earthworm in shape. The skin may have been much like
+that of turbellaria. Within this the muscles run in only
+two-directions&mdash;longitudinally and transversely. Between these and
+the intestine is a cavity&mdash;the perivisceral cavity&mdash;like that of our
+own bodies, but filled with a nutritive fluid like our lymph. This
+cavity seems to have developed by the expansion and cutting off of
+the paired lateral outgrowths of the digestive system of some old
+flat worm. But other modes of development are quite possible. The
+intestine has now an anal opening at or near the rear end of the
+body. The food moves only from front to rear, and reaches each part
+always in a certain condition. Digestion proper and absorption have
+been distributed to different cells, and the work is better done.
+Three portions can be readily distinguished: fore-intestine with the
+mouth, mid-intestine, as the seat of digestion and absorption, and
+hind-intestine, or rectum, with the anal opening. The front and
+hind-intestine are lined with infolded outer skin.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span>The nervous system consists of a supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion with
+four posterior nerve-cords&mdash;one dorsal, two lateral, and one (or
+perhaps two) ventral. There were probably also remains of the old
+plexus, but this is fast disappearing. The excretory system consists
+of a pair of tubes discharging through the sides of the body-wall,
+and having each a ciliated, funnel-shaped opening in the
+perivisceral cavity. These have received the name of nephridia.
+Through these also the eggs and spermatozoa are discharged. The
+reproductive organs are modified patches of the peritoneum, or
+lining of the perivisceral cavity.</p>
+
+<p>The number of muscles or muscular layers has been reduced in this
+animal. But such a reduction in the number of like parts in any
+animal is a sign of progress. And the longitudinal muscles have
+increased in size and strength, and the animal moves by writhing.
+Such a worm has the general plan of the body of the higher forms
+fairly well, though rudely, sketched. Many improvements will come,
+and details be added. But the rudiments of the trunk of even our own
+bodies are already visible. Head, in any proper sense of the term,
+and skeleton are still lacking; they remain to be developed.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, taking the most hopeful view possible concerning the animal
+kingdom, its prospects of attaining anything very lofty seem at this
+point poor. Its highest representative is a headless trunk, without
+skeleton or legs. It has no brain in any proper sense of the word,
+its sense-organs are feeble; it moves by writhing. Its life is
+devoted to digestion and reproduction. Whatever higher organs it has
+are subsidiary to these lower functions. And yet it has taken <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span>ages
+on ages to develop this much. If <i>this</i> is the highest visible
+result of ages on ages of development, what hope is there for the
+future? Can such a thing be the ancestor of a thinking, moral,
+religious person, like man? &quot;That is not first which is spiritual,
+but that which is natural (animal, sensuous); and afterward that
+which is spiritual.&quot; First, in order of time, must come the body,
+and then the mind and spirit shall be enthroned in it. The little
+knot of nervous material which forms the supra-&oelig;sophageal
+ganglion is so small that it might easily escape our notice; but it
+is the promise of an infinite future. The atom of nervous power
+shall increase until it subdues and dominates the whole mass.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3">[3]</a> Cf. p. <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>WORMS TO VERTEBRATES: SKELETON AND HEAD</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span>In tracing the genealogy of any American family it is often
+difficult or impossible to say whether a certain branch is descended
+from John Oldworthy or his cousin or second cousin. In the latter
+cases to find the common ancestor we must go back to the grandfather
+or great-grandfather. The same difficulty, but greatly enhanced,
+meets us when we try to make a genealogical tree of the animal
+kingdom. Thus it seems altogether probable that all higher forms are
+descended from an ancestor of the same general structure and grade
+of organization as the turbellaria, although probably free swimming,
+and hence with somewhat different form and development, especially
+of the muscular system. It seems to me altogether probable that all,
+except possibly Mollusca, are descended from a common ancestor
+closely resembling the schematic worm last described. Some would,
+however, maintain that they diverged rather earlier than even the
+turbellaria; others after the schematic worm, if such ever existed.
+As far as our argument is concerned it makes little difference which
+of these views we adopt.</p>
+
+<p>From our turbellaria, or possibly from some even more primitive
+ancestor, many lines diverged. And this was to be expected. The
+c&oelig;lenterata, as we saw in hydra, had developed rude digestive and
+reproductive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span> systems. The higher groups of this kingdom had
+developed all, or nearly all, the tissues used in building the
+bodies of higher animals&mdash;muscular, reproductive, connectile,
+glandular, nervous, etc. But these are mostly very diffuse. The
+muscular fibrils of a jelly-fish are mostly isolated or parallel in
+bands, rarely in compact well-defined bundles. The tissues have
+generally not yet been moulded into compact masses of definite form.
+There are as yet very few structures to which we can give the name
+of organs. To form organs and group them in a body of compact
+definite form was the work pre-eminently of worms. The material for
+the building was ready, but the architecture of the bilateral animal
+was not even sketched. And different worms were their own
+architects, untrammelled by convention or heredity, hence they built
+very different, sometimes almost fantastic, structures.</p>
+
+<p>We must remember, too, the great age of this group. They are present
+in highly modified forms in the very oldest pal&aelig;ozoic strata, and
+probably therefore came into existence as the first traces of
+continental areas were beginning to rise above the primeval ocean.
+They are literally &quot;older than the hills.&quot; They were exposed to a
+host of rapidly changing conditions, very different in different
+areas. This prepares us for the fact that the worms represent a
+stage in animal life corresponding fairly well to the Tower of Babel
+in biblical history. The animal kingdom seems almost to explode into
+a host of fragments. Our genealogical tree fairly bristles with
+branches, but the branches do not seem to form any regular whorls or
+spirals. Few of them have developed into more than feeble growths.
+They now contain generally but few species. Many of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span>them are
+largely or entirely parasitic, and in connection with this mode of
+life have undergone modifications and degeneration which make it
+exceedingly difficult to decipher their descent or relationships.</p>
+
+<p>Four of these branches have reached great prominence in numbers and
+importance. One or two others were formerly equally numerous and
+have since become almost extinct; so the brachiopoda, which have
+been almost entirely replaced by mollusks. The same may very
+possibly be true of others. For of the amount of extinction of
+larger groups we have generally but an exceedingly faint conception.
+Indeed in this respect the worms have been well compared to the
+relics which fill the shelves of one of our grandmother's
+china-closets.</p>
+
+<p>The four great branches are the echinoderms, mollusks, articulates,
+and vertebrates. The echinoderms, including starfishes, sea-urchins,
+and others straggled early from the great army. We know as yet
+almost nothing of their history; when deciphered it will be as
+strange as any romance. The vertebrates are of course the most
+important line, as including the ancestors of man. But we must take
+a little glance at mollusks, including our clams, snails, and
+cuttle-fishes; and at the articulates, including annelids and
+culminating in insects. The molluscan and articulate lines, though
+divergent, are of great importance to us as throwing a certain
+amount of light on vertebrate development; and still more as showing
+how a certain line of development may seem, and at first really be,
+advantageous, and still lead to degeneration, or at best to but
+partial success.</p>
+
+<p>When we compare the forms which represent fairly well the direction
+of development of these three lines, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span>a snail or a clam with an
+insect and a fish, we find clearly, I think, that the fundamental
+anatomical difference lies in the skeleton; and that this resulted
+from, and almost irrevocably fixed, certain habits of life.</p>
+
+<p>We may picture to ourselves the primitive ancestor of mollusks as a
+worm having the short and broad form of the turbellaria, but much
+thicker or deeper vertically. A fuller description can be found in
+the &quot;Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica,&quot; Art., Mollusca. It was hemi-ovoid in
+form. It had apparently the perivisceral cavity and nephridia of the
+schematic worm, and a circulatory system. In this latter respect it
+stood higher than any form which we have yet studied. Its nervous
+system also was rather more advanced. It had apparently already
+taken to a creeping mode of life and the muscles of its ventral
+surface were strongly developed, while its exposed and far less
+muscular dorsal surface was protected by a cap-like shell covering
+the most important internal organs. But the integument of the whole
+dorsal surface was, as is not uncommon in invertebrates, hardening
+by the deposition of carbonate of lime in the integument. And this
+in time increased to such an extent as to replace the primitive,
+probably horny, shell.</p>
+
+<p>Into the anatomy of this animal or of its descendants we have no
+time to enter, for here we must be very brief. We have already
+noticed that the most important viscera were lodged safely under the
+shell. And as these increased in size or were crowded upward by the
+muscles of the creeping disk, their portion of the body grew upward
+in the form of a &quot;visceral hump.&quot; Apparently the animal could not
+increase <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span>much in length and retain the advantage of the protection
+of the shell; and the shell was the dominating structure. It had
+entered upon a defensive campaign. Motion, slow at the outset,
+became more difficult, and the protection of the shell therefore all
+the more necessary. The shell increased in size and weight and
+motion became almost impossible. The snail represents the average
+result of the experiment. It can crawl, but that is about all; it is
+neither swift nor energetic. Even the earthworm can outcrawl it. It
+has feelers and eyes, and is thus better provided with sense-organs
+than almost any worm. It has a supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion of fair
+size.</p>
+
+<p>The clams and oysters show even more clearly what we might call the
+logical results of molluscan structure. They increased the shell
+until it formed two heavy &quot;valves&quot; hanging down on each side of the
+body and completely enclosing it. They became almost sessile, living
+generally buried in the mud and gaining their food, consisting
+mostly of minute particles of organic matter, by means of currents
+created by cilia covering the large curtain-like gills. Their
+muscular system disappeared except in the ploughshare-shaped &quot;foot&quot;
+used mostly for burrowing, and in the muscles for closing the shell.
+That portion of the body which corresponds to the head of the snail
+practically aborted with nearly all the sense-organs. The nervous
+system degenerated and became reduced to a rudiment. They had given
+up locomotion, had withdrawn, so to speak, from the world; all the
+sense they needed was just enough to distinguish the particles of
+food as they swept past the mouth in the current of water. They have
+an abundance of food, and &quot;wax fat.&quot; <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span>The clam is so completely
+protected by his shell and the mud that he has little to fear from
+enemies. They have increased and multiplied and filled the mud.
+&quot;Requiescat in pace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But zo&ouml;logy has its tragedies as well as human history. Let us turn
+to the development of a third molluscan line terminating in the
+cuttle-fishes. The ancestors of these cephalopods, although still
+possessed of a shell and a high visceral hump, regained the swimming
+life. First, apparently, by means of fins, and then by a simple but
+very effective use of a current of water, they acquired an often
+rapid locomotion. The highest forms gave up the purely defensive
+campaign, developed a powerful beak, led a life like that of the old
+Norse pirates, and were for a time the rulers and terrors of the
+sea. With their more rapid locomotion the supra-&oelig;sophageal
+ganglion reached a higher degree of development, and it was served
+by sense-organs of great efficiency. They reduced the external
+shell, and succeeded, in the highest forms, of almost ridding
+themselves of this burden and encumbrance. Traces of it remain in
+the squids, but transformed into an internal quill-like, supporting,
+not defensive, skeleton. They have retraced the downward steps of
+their ancestors as far as they could. And the high development of
+their supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion and sense-organs, and their
+powerful jaws and arms, or tentacles, show to what good purpose they
+have struggled. But the struggle was in vain, as far as the
+supremacy of the animal kingdom was concerned. Their ancestors had
+taken a course which rendered it impossible for their descendants to
+reach the goal. Their progress became ever slower. They were
+entirely and hopelessly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span> beaten by the vertebrates. They struggled
+hard, but too late.</p>
+
+<p>The history of mollusks is full of interest. They show clearly how
+intimately nervous development is connected with the use of the
+locomotive organs. The snail crept, and slightly increased its
+nervous system and sense-organs. The clam almost lost them in
+connection with its stationary life. The cephalopods were
+exceedingly active, developed, therefore, keen sense-organs and a
+very large and complicated supra-&oelig;sophagal ganglion, which we
+might almost call a brain.</p>
+
+<p>The articulate series consists of two groups of animals. The higher
+group includes the crabs, spiders, thousand-legs, and finally the
+insects, and forms the kingdom of arthropoda. The lower members are
+still usually reckoned as worms, and are included under the
+annelids. Of these our common earthworm is a good example, and near
+them belong the leeches. But the marine annelids, of which nereis,
+or a clam-worm, is a good example, are more typical. They are often
+quite large, a foot or even more in length. They are composed of
+many, often several hundred, rings or segments. Between these the
+body-wall is thin, so that the segments move easily upon each other,
+and thus the animal can creep or writhe.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 160px;">
+<img src="images/tyler07.jpg" width="149" height="400"
+alt="7. EUNICE LIMOSA (ANNELID). LANG, FROM EHLERS." title="Figure 7" />
+<h5>7. EUNICE LIMOSA (ANNELID). LANG, FROM EHLERS.</h5>
+<p class="cap">Front and hind end seen from dorsal surface.
+<i>fa, fp, fc</i>, feelers; <i>a</i>, eye; <i>k</i>, gill;
+<i>p</i>, parapodia; <i>ac</i>, anal cirri.</p>
+<p class="ar">
+<a href="images/tyler07large.jpg">[<small>LARGER</small>]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>These segments are very much alike except the first two and the
+last. If we examine one from the middle of the body we shall find
+its structure very much like that of our schematic worm. Outside we
+find a very thin, horny cuticle, secreted by the layer of cells just
+beneath it, the hypodermis. Beneath the skin we find a thin layer of
+transverse muscles, and then four heavy <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span>bands of longitudinal
+muscles. These latter have been grouped in the four quadrants, a
+much more effective arrangement than the cylindrical layer of the
+schematic worm. Furthermore, the animal has on each segment a pair
+of fin-like projections, stiffened with bristles, the parapodia.
+These are moved by special muscles and form effective organs of
+creeping.</p>
+
+
+<p>Within the muscles is the perivisceral cavity, and in its central
+axis the intestine, segmented like the body-wall. The reproductive
+organs are formed from patches of the lining of the perivisceral
+cavity, and the reproductive elements, when fully developed, fall
+into the perivisceral fluid and are carried out by nephridia, just
+such as we found in the schematic worm. Beside the perivisceral
+cavity and its fluid there is a special circulatory system. This
+consists mainly of one long tube above the intestine and a second
+below, with often several smaller parallel <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span>tubes. Transverse
+vessels run from these to all parts of the body. The dorsal tube
+pulsates and thus acts as a heart. The surface of the body no longer
+suffices to gather oxygen, hence we find special feathery gills on
+the parapodia. But these gills are merely expanded portions of the
+body wall, arranged so as to offer the greatest possible amount of
+surface where the capillaries of the blood system can be almost
+immediately in contact with the surrounding water.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>The nervous system consists of a large supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion
+in the first segment; then of a chain of ganglia, one to each
+segment, on the ventral side of the body. With one ganglion in each
+segment there is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span>far more controlling, perceptive, ganglionic
+material than in lower worms. Furthermore the supra-&oelig;sophageal
+ganglion is relieved of a large part of the direct control of the
+muscles of each segment, and is becoming more a centre of control
+and perception for the body as a whole. It is more like our brain,
+commander-in-chief, the other ganglia constituting its staff. The
+sense-organs have improved greatly. There are tentacles and otolith
+vesicles as very delicate organs of feeling, or possibly of hearing
+also.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>But the annelids were probably the first animals to develop an eye
+capable of forming an image of external objects. The importance of
+this organ in the pursuit of food or the escape from enemies can
+scarcely be over-estimated. The lining of the mouth and pharynx can
+be protruded as a proboscis, and drawn back by powerful muscles, and
+is armed with two or more horny claws. Eyes and claws gave them a
+great advantage over their not quite blind but really visionless and
+comparatively defenceless neighbors, and they must have wrought
+terrible extinction of lower and older forms. But while we cannot
+over-estimate the importance of these eyes, we can easily exaggerate
+their perfectness. They were of short range, fitted for seeing
+objects only a few inches distant, and the image was very imperfect
+in detail. But the plan or fundamental scheme of these eyes is
+correct and capable of indefinitely greater development than the
+organs of touch or smell, perhaps greater even than the otolith
+vesicle.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/tyler08.jpg" width="400" height="293"
+alt="8. CROSS-SECTION OF BODY SEGMENT OF ANNELID. LANG." title="Figure 8" />
+<h5>8. CROSS-SECTION OF BODY SEGMENT OF ANNELID. LANG.</h5>
+<p class="cap"><i>dp</i> and <i>vp</i>, dorsal and ventral halves of parapodia; <i>b</i> and <i>ac</i>,
+bristles; <i>k</i>, gill; <i>dc</i> and <i>vc</i>, feelers; <i>rm</i>, lateral muscles;
+<i>lm</i>, longitudinal muscles; <i>vd</i>, dorsal blood-vessel; <i>vo</i>, ventral
+blood-vessel; <i>bm</i>, ventral ganglion; <i>ov</i>, ovary; <i>tr</i>, opening of
+nephridium in the perivisceral cavity; <i>np</i>, tubular portion of
+nephridium. The circles containing dots represent eggs floating in
+the perivisceral fluid.</p><p class="ar">
+<a href="images/tyler08large.jpg">[<small>LARGER</small>]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And the reflex influence of the eye on the brain was the greatest
+advantage of all. Hitherto with feeble muscles and sense-organs it
+has hardly paid the animal <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span>to devote more material to building a
+larger brain. It was better to build more muscle. But now with
+stronger muscles at its command, and better sense-organs to report
+to it, every grain of added brain material is beginning to be worth
+ten devoted to muscle. The muscular system will still continue to
+develop, but the brain has begun an almost endless march of
+progress. The eye becomes of continually increasing advantage and
+importance because it has a capable brain to use it; and brain is a
+more and more profitable investment, because it is served by an
+ever-improving eye.</p>
+
+
+<p>The annelid had hit upon a most advantageous line of development,
+which led ultimately to the insect. The study of the insect will
+show us clearly the advantages and defects of the annelid plan.
+First of all, the insect, like the mollusk, has an external
+skeleton. But the skeleton of the mollusk was purely protective, a
+hindrance to locomotion. That of the insect is still somewhat
+protective, but is mainly, almost purely, locomotive. It is never
+allowed to become so heavy as to interfere with locomotion. In the
+second place, the insect has three body regions, having each its own
+special functions or work. And one of these is a head. The annelid
+had two anterior segments differing from those of the rest of the
+body; these may, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span>perhaps, be considered as the foreshadowings of a
+structure not yet realized; they can only by courtesy be called a
+head. Thirdly, the insect has legs. The annelid had fin-like
+parapodia, approaching the legs of insects about as closely as the
+fins of a fish approach the legs of a mammal. The reproductive and
+digestive systems, while somewhat improved, are not very markedly
+higher than those of annelids. The excretory system has more work to
+perform and reaches a rather higher development.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/tyler09.jpg" width="400" height="266" alt="9. MYRMELEO FORMICARIUS. ANT-LION. HERTWIG, FROM
+SCHMARDA." title="Figure 9" />
+<h5>9. MYRMELEO FORMICARIUS. ANT-LION. HERTWIG, FROM
+SCHMARDA.</h5>
+<p class="cap2">
+1, adult; 2, larva; 3, cocoon.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>But in these organs there is no great or striking change; the time
+for marked and rapid development of the digestive and reproductive
+systems has gone by. Material can be more profitably invested in
+brain or muscle. Air is carried to all parts of the body by a
+special system of air-sacks and tubes. This is a very advantageous
+structure for small animals with an external skeleton. In very large
+animals, or where the skeleton is internal, it would hardly be
+practicable; the risk of compression of the tubes at some point, and
+of thus cutting off the air-supply of some portion of the body,
+would be altogether too great.</p>
+
+<p>The circulatory system is very poor. It consists practically only of
+a heart, which drives the blood in an irregular circulation between
+the other organs of the body much as with a syringe you might keep
+up a system of currents in a bowl of water. But the rapidity of the
+flow of the blood in our bodies is mainly to furnish a supply of
+oxygen to the organs. A tea-spoonful of blood can carry a fair
+amount of dissolved solid nutriment like sugar, it can carry at each
+round but a very little gas like oxygen. Hence the blood must make
+its rounds rapidly, carrying but a little <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span>oxygen at each circuit.
+But in the insect the blood conveys only the dissolved solid
+nutriment, the food; hence a comparatively irregular circulation
+answers all purposes.</p>
+
+<p>The skeleton is a thickening of the horny cuticle of the annelid on
+the surface of each segment. The horny cylinder surrounding each
+segment is composed of several pieces, and on the abdomen these are
+united by flexible, infolded membranes. This allows the increase in
+the size of the segment corresponding to the varying size of the
+digestive and reproductive systems. In this part of the body the
+skeletal ring of each segment is joined to that of the segments
+before and behind it in the same manner. But in other parts of the
+body we shall find the skeletal pieces of each segment and the rings
+of successive segments fused in one plate of mail. The legs are the
+parapodia of annelids carried to a vastly higher development. They
+are slender and jointed, and yet often very powerful. A large
+portion of the muscular system of the body is attached to these
+appendages.</p>
+
+<p>But the insect has also jaws. The annelid had teeth or claws
+attached to the proboscis. But true jaws are something quite
+different. They always develop by modifying some other organ. In the
+insect they are modified legs. This is shown first by their
+embryonic development. But the king- or horseshoe-crab has still no
+true jaws, but uses the upper joints of its legs for chewing. There
+are primitively three pairs of jaws of various forms for the
+different kinds of food of different species or higher groups. But
+some of them may disappear and the others be greatly modified into
+awls for piercing, or a tube for sucking honey. Into the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span>wonderful
+transformations of these modified legs we cannot enter.</p>
+
+<p>The muscles are no longer arranged to form a sack as in annelids.
+Transverse muscles, running parallel to the unyielding plates of
+chitin or horn could accomplish nothing. They have largely
+disappeared. The work of locomotion has been transferred from the
+trunk to the legs.</p>
+
+<p>The abdomen of the insect is as clearly composed of distinct
+segments as the body of the annelid. Of these there are perhaps
+typically eleven. The thorax is composed of three segments, distinct
+in the lowest forms, fused in the highest. This fusion of segments
+in the thorax of the highest forms furnishes a very firm framework
+for the attachment of wings and muscles. These wings are a new
+development, and how they arose is still a question. But they give
+the insect the capability of exceedingly rapid locomotion.</p>
+
+<p>The three pairs of jaws, modified legs, in the rear half of the head
+show that this portion is composed of three segments. For only one
+pair of legs is ever developed on a single segment. Embryology has
+shown that the portion of the head in front of the mouth is also
+composed of three segments. Possibly between the pr&aelig;- and post-oral
+portions still another segment should be included, making a total of
+seven in the head. The head has thus been formed by drawing forward
+segments from the trunk, and fusing them successively with the first
+or primitive head segment. This is difficult to conceive of in the
+fully developed insect, where the boundary between head and thorax
+is very sharp. But the ancestors of insects looked more like
+thousand-legs or centipedes, and here head and thorax <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span>are much less
+distinct. But in the annelid the mouth is on the second segment;
+here it is on the fourth. It has evidently travelled backward. That
+the mouth of an animal can migrate seems at first impossible, but if
+we had time to examine the embryology of annelids and insects, it
+would no longer appear inconceivable or improbable. And its backward
+migration brought it among the legs which were grasping and chewing
+the food. And in vertebrates the mouth has changed its position,
+though not in exactly the same way. Our present mouth is probably
+not at all the mouth of the primitive ancestor of vertebrates. Thus
+in the insect three segments have fused around the mouth, and three,
+possibly four, in front of it. This makes a head worthy of the name.
+The ganglia of the three post-oral segments, which bear the jaws,
+have fused in one compound ganglion innervating the mouth and jaws.
+Those of the three pr&aelig;-oral segments have fused to form a brain.
+Eyes are well developed, giving images sometimes accurate in detail,
+sometimes very rude. Ears are not uncommon. The sense of smell is
+often keen.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the greatest advance of the insect is its adaptation to land
+life. This gives it a larger supply of oxygen than any aquatic
+animal could ever obtain. This itself stimulates every function, and
+all the work of the body goes on more energetically. Then the heat
+produced is conducted off far less rapidly than in aquatic forms.
+Water is a good conductor of heat, and nearly all aquatic animals
+are cold-blooded. The few which are warm-blooded are protected by a
+thick layer of non-conducting fat. In all land animals, even when
+cold-blooded, the work of the different systems<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span> is aided by the
+longer retention of the heat in the body.</p>
+
+<p>Let us recapitulate. The schematic worm had a body composed of two
+concentric tubes. The outer was composed of the muscles of the body
+covered by the protective integument. The inner tube was the
+alimentary canal with its special muscles. Between these two was the
+perivisceral cavity, filled with nutritive fluid, lymph, and
+furnishing a safe lodging-place for the more delicate viscera. It
+represented fairly the trunk of higher animals.</p>
+
+<p>The annelid added segmentation, and thus greater freedom of motion
+by the parapodia. But the segments were still practically alike. In
+the insect division of labor took place, that is, each group of
+segments was allotted its own special work; and these groups of
+segments were modified in structure to best suit the performance of
+this part of the work of the body. The abdomen was least modified
+and its eleven segments were devoted to digestion, reproduction, and
+excretion&mdash;the old vegetative functions. Three segments were united
+in the thorax; all their energy was turned to locomotion, and the
+insect became thus an exceedingly active, swift animal. The third
+body-region, the head, includes six segments, of which three
+surrounded the mouth and furnished the jaws, while two more were
+crowded or drawn forward in order that their ganglia might be added
+to the old supra&oelig;sophageal ganglion and form a brain. It is
+interesting to note that a form, peripatus, still exists which
+stands almost midway between annelids and insects and has only four
+segments in the head. The formation of the head was thus a gradual
+process, one segment being added after another.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span>In the turbellaria the dominant functions were digestion and
+reproduction, and their organs composed almost the whole body. Here
+only eleven segments at most are devoted to these functions, and
+nine in head and thorax to locomotion and brain. Head and thorax
+have increased steadily in importance, while the abdomen has
+decreased as steadily in number of segments. And the brain is
+increasing thus rapidly because there are now muscles and
+sense-organs of sufficient power to make such a brain of value. And
+this brain perceives not only objects and qualities, but invisible
+relations between these, and this is an advance amounting to a
+revolution. It remembers, and uses its recollections. It is capable
+of learning a little by experience and observation. The A, B, C of
+thinking was probably learned long before the insect's time, and the
+bee shows a fair amount of intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>The line of development which the insect followed was comparatively
+easy and its course probably rapid. Certain crustacea, aquatic
+arthropoda, are among the oldest fossils, and it is possible that
+insects lived on the land before the first fish swam in the sea.
+They had fine structure and powers; and yet during the later
+geologic periods they have scarcely advanced a step, and are now
+apparently at a standstill. They ran splendidly for a time, and then
+fell out of the race. What hindered and stopped them?</p>
+
+<p>One vital defect in their whole plan of organization is evident. The
+external skeleton is admirably suited to animals of small size, but
+only to these. In larger animals living on land it would have to be
+made so heavy as to be unwieldy and no longer economical. Their mode
+of breathing also is fitted only for animals <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span>of small size having
+an external skeleton. Whatever may be our explanation the fact
+remains that insects are always small. This is in itself a
+disadvantage. Very small animals cannot keep up a constant high
+temperature unless the surrounding air is warm, for their radiating
+surface is too large in comparison with their heat-producing mass.
+At the first approach of even cool weather they become chilled and
+sluggish, and must hibernate or die. They are conformed to but a
+limited range of environment in temperature.</p>
+
+<p>But small size is, as a rule, accompanied by an even greater
+disadvantage. It seems to be almost always correlated with short
+life. Why this is so, or how, we do not know. There are exceptions;
+a crow lives as long as a man; or would, if allowed to. But, as a
+rule, the length of an animal's days is roughly proportional to the
+size of its body. And the insect is, as a rule, very short-lived. It
+lives for a few days or weeks, or even months, but rarely outlasts
+the year. It has time to learn but little by experience. The same
+experience must be passed, the same emergency arise and be met, over
+and over again during the lifetime of the same individual if the
+animal is to learn thereby. And intelligence is based upon
+experience. Hence insects can and do possess but a low grade of
+intelligence. But instinct is in many cases habit fixed by heredity
+and improved by selection. The rapid recurrence of successive
+generations was exceedingly favorable to the development of
+instincts, but very unfavorable to intelligence. Insects are
+instinctive, the highest vertebrates intelligent. The future can
+never belong to a tiny animal governed by instincts. Mollusks and
+insects have both failed to reach the goal; another <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span>plan of
+structure than theirs must be sought if the animal kingdom is to
+have a future.</p>
+
+<p>The future belonged to the vertebrate. To begin with less
+characteristic organs the digestive system is much like that of the
+annelid or schematic worm, but with greatly increased glandular and
+absorptive surfaces. The present mouth of nearly all vertebrates is
+probably not primitive. It is almost certainly one of the gill-slits
+of some old ancestor of fish, such as now are used to discharge the
+water which is used for respiration. The jaws are modified branchial
+arches or the cartilaginous or bony rods which in our present fish
+support the fringe of gills. These have formed a pair of exceedingly
+effective and powerful jaws. The reproductive system holds still to
+the old type and shows little if any improvement. The excretory
+organs, kidneys, are composed primitively of nephridial tubes like
+those of the schematic worm or annelid, but immensely increased in
+number, modified, and improved in certain very important
+particulars. The muscles in simplest forms are composed of heavy
+longitudinal bands, especially developed toward the dorsal surface
+of the body to the right and left of the axial skeleton. Locomotion
+was produced by lashing the tail right and left, as still in fish.
+There is improvement in all these organs, except perhaps the
+reproductive, but nothing very new or striking. The great
+improvement from this time on was not to be sought in the vegetative
+organs, or even directly to any great extent in muscles.</p>
+
+<p>The new and characteristic organ was not the vertebral column, or
+series of vertebr&aelig;, or backbone, from which the kingdom has derived
+its name. This was a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span>later production. The primitive skeleton was
+the notochord, still appearing in the embryos of all vertebrates and
+persisting throughout life in fish. This is an elastic rod of
+cartilage, lying just beneath the spinal marrow or nerve-cord, which
+runs backward from the brain. The nerve-centres are therefore here
+all dorsal, and the notochord or skeleton lies between these and the
+digestive or alimentary canal. The skeleton of the clam or snail is
+purely protective and a hindrance to locomotion. That of the insect
+is almost purely locomotive, but external, that of the vertebrate
+purely locomotive and internal. It does not lie outside even of the
+nervous system, although this system especially required, and was
+worthy of, protection. It does not protect even the brain; the skull
+of vertebrates is an after-thought. It is almost the deepest seated
+of all organs. But lying in the central axis of the body it
+furnishes the very best possible attachment for muscles. Around this
+primitive notochord was a layer of connectile tissue which later
+gave rise to the vertebr&aelig; forming our backbone.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 189px;">
+<img src="images/tyler10.jpg" width="189" height="300" alt="10. CROSS-SECTION OF AXIAL SKELETON OF PETROMYZON.
+HERTWIG, FROM HIEDERSHEIM." title="Figure 10" />
+<h5>10. CROSS-SECTION OF AXIAL SKELETON OF PETROMYZON.
+HERTWIG, FROM HIEDERSHEIM.</h5>
+<p class="cap"><i>SS</i>, skeletogenous layer; <i>Ob</i>, <i>Ub</i>, dorsal and ventral processes
+of <i>SS</i>; <i>C</i>, notochord; <i>Cs</i>, sheath of notochord; <i>Ee</i>, elastic
+external layer of sheath; <i>F</i>, fatty tissue; <i>M</i>, spinal marrow;
+<i>P</i>, sheath of <i>M</i>.</p><p class="ar">
+<a href="images/tyler10large.jpg">[<small>LARGER</small>]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The nervous system on the dorsal surface of the notochord consists
+of the brain in the head and the spinal <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span>marrow running down the
+back. The brain of all except the very lowest vertebrates consists
+of four portions: 1. The cerebrum, or cerebral lobes, or simply
+&quot;forebrain,&quot; the seat of consciousness, thought, and will, and from
+which no nerves proceed. Whether the primitive vertebrate had any
+cerebrum is still uncertain. 2. The mid-brain, which sends nerves to
+the eyes, and in this respect reminds us of the brain of insects.
+Its anterior portion appears from embryology to be very primitive.
+3. The small brain, or cerebellum, which in all higher forms is the
+centre for co-ordination of the motions of the body. 4. The medulla,
+which controls especially the internal organs. The spinal marrow, or
+that portion of the nervous system which lies outside of the head,
+is at the same time a great nerve-trunk and a centre for reflex
+action of the muscles of the body. But the development of these
+distinct portions and the division of labor between them must have
+been a long and gradual process.</p>
+
+<p>We have every reason to believe that here, as in insects, the head
+has been formed by annexation of segments from the rump and the
+fusion of their nervous matter with that of the brain. But here,
+instead of only three segments, from nine to fourteen have been
+fused in the head to furnish the material for the brain. Notochord
+and backbone may be the most striking and apparent characteristic of
+vertebrates, but their predominant characteristic is brain. On this
+system they lavished material, giving it from three to four times as
+much as any lower or earlier group had done. They very early set
+apart the cerebral lobes to be the commander-in-chief and centre of
+control for all other nerve-centres. To this all report, and from it
+all directly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span> or indirectly receive orders. It can say to every
+other organ in the body, &quot;Starve that I may live.&quot; It is the seat of
+thought and will. The other portions of the brain report to it what
+they have gathered of vision or sound; it explains the vision or
+song or parable. It is relieved as far as possible from all lower
+and routine work that it may think and remember and govern. The
+vertebrate built for mind, not neglecting the body.</p>
+
+<p>Every trait of vertebrates is a promise of a great future. Its
+internal skeleton gives it the possibility of large size. This gave
+it in time the victory in the struggle with its competitors, as to
+whether it should eat or be eaten. It is vigorous and powerful, for
+all its organs are at the best. It gives the possibility of later,
+on land, becoming warm-blooded, <i>i.e.</i>, of maintaining a constant
+high temperature. It is thus resistant to climate and hardship. In
+time its descendants will face the arctic winter as well as the heat
+of the tropics.</p>
+
+<p>But it has started on the road which leads to mind. The greater size
+is correlated with longer life. The lessons of experience come to it
+over and over again, and it can and must learn them. It is the
+intelligent, remembering, thinking type. The insect had begun to
+peer into the world of invisible and intangible relations, the
+vertebrate will some day see them. This much is prophecied in his
+very structure. He must be heir to an indefinite future.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p>You have probably noticed that the vertebrate differs greatly from
+all his predecessors. The gulf between him and them is indeed wide
+and deep. His origin and ancestry are yet far from certain. But an
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span>attempt to decipher his past history, though it may lead to no sure
+conclusions, will yet be of use to us. Practically all aquatic
+vertebrates lead a swimming life, neither sessile nor creeping. The
+embryonic development of our appendages leads to the same
+conclusion. We must never forget that the embryonic development of
+the individual recapitulates briefly the history of the development
+of the race. Now the legs and arms, or fore- and hind-legs, of
+higher vertebrates and the corresponding paired fins of fish develop
+in the embryo as portions of a long ridge extending from front to
+rear of the side of the body.</p>
+
+<p>This justifies the inference that the primitive vertebrate ancestor
+had a pair of long fins running along the sides of the body, but
+bending slightly downward toward the rear so as to meet one another
+and continue as a single caudal fin behind the anal opening. Such
+fins, like the feathers of an arrow, could be useful only to keep
+the animal &quot;on an even keel&quot; as it was forced through the water by
+the lateral sweeps of the tail. They would have been useless for
+creeping.</p>
+
+<p>But there is another piece of evidence that he was a free swimming
+form. All vertebrates breathe by gills or lungs, and these are
+modified portions of the digestive system, of the walls of the
+&oelig;sophagus, from which even the lung is an embryonic outgrowth.
+Now practically all invertebrates breathe through modified portions
+of the integument or outer surface of the body, and their gills are
+merely expansions of this. In the annelid they are projections of
+the parapodia, in the mollusk expansions of the skin, where the foot
+or creeping sole joins the body. Why did the vertebrate take a new
+and strange, and, at first sight, disadvantageous <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span>mode of
+breathing? There must have been some good reason for this. The most
+natural explanation would seem to be that he had no projections on
+his outer surface which could develop into gills, and farther, that
+he could not afford to have any. Now projections on the lower
+portion of the sides of the body would be an advantage in creeping,
+but a hindrance in any such mode of swimming as we have described,
+or indeed in any mode of writhing through the water.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, if he lived, not a creeping life on the bottom, but
+swimming in the water above, he would have to live almost entirely
+on microscopic animals and embryos; and these would be most easily
+captured by a current of water brought in at the mouth. The whole
+branchial apparatus in its simplest forms would seem to be an
+apparatus for sifting out the microscopic particles of food and only
+later a purely respiratory apparatus. Moreover, we have seen that
+the parapodia of annelids naturally point to the development of an
+external skeleton, for their muscles are already a part of the
+external body-wall and attached to the already existing horny
+cuticle. The logical goal of their development was the insect.</p>
+
+<p>Now I do not wish to conceal from you that many good zo&ouml;logists
+believe that the vertebrate is descended from annelids; but for this
+and other reasons such a descent appears to me very improbable. It
+would seem far more natural to derive the vertebrate from some free
+swimming form like the schematic worm, whose largest nerve-cord lay
+on the dorsal surface because its branches ran to heavy muscles much
+used in swimming. Later the other nerve-cords degenerated, for such
+a degeneration of nerve-cords is not at all impossible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span> or
+improbable. &quot;No thoroughfare&quot; is often written across paths
+previously followed by blood or nervous impulses, when other paths
+have been found more economical or effective.</p>
+
+<p>But where did the notochord come from? I do not know. It always
+forms in the embryo out of the entoderm or layer which becomes the
+lining of the intestine. Now this is a very peculiar origin for
+cartilage, and the notochord is a very strange cartilage even if we
+have not made a mistake in calling it cartilage at all. My best
+guess would be that it is simply a thickened portion of the upper
+median surface of the intestine to keep the &quot;balls&quot; of digesting
+nutriment or other hard particles in the intestine from &quot;grinding&quot;
+against the nerve-cord as they are crowded along in the process of
+digestion. Once started its elasticity would be a great aid in
+swimming.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Brooks has called attention to the fact that the higher a
+group stands in development, the longer its ancestors have
+maintained a swimming life. Thus we have noticed that the sponges
+were the first to settle; then a little later the mass of the
+c&oelig;lenterates followed their example. But the etenophora, the
+nearest relatives of bilateral animals, have remained free swimming.
+Then the flat worms and mollusks took to a creeping mode of life,
+while the annelids and vertebrates still swam. Then the annelids
+settled to the bottom and crept, and all their descendants remained
+creeping forms. The vertebrates alone remained swimming, and
+probably neither they nor their descendants ever crept until they
+emerged on the land, or as amphibia were preparing for land
+life. If this be true, it is a fact worthy of our most <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span>careful
+consideration. The swimming life would appear to be neither as easy
+nor as economical as the creeping. It is certainly hard to believe
+that food would not have been obtained with less effort and in
+greater abundance at the bottom than in the water above. The
+swimming life gave rise to higher and stronger forms; but did its
+maintenance give immediate advantage in the struggle for existence?
+This is an exceedingly interesting and important question, and
+demands most careful consideration. But we shall be better prepared
+to answer it in a future lecture.</p>
+
+<p>The period of development of mollusks, articulates, and vertebrates,
+is really one. They developed to a certain extent contemporaneously.
+The development of vertebrates was slow, and they were the last to
+appear on the stage of geological history.</p>
+
+<p>You must all have noticed that development, during this period,
+takes on a much more hopeful form than during that described in the
+last chapter. Then digestion and reproduction were dominant. Now
+muscle is of the greatest importance. If this fails of development,
+as in mollusks, the group is doomed to degeneration or at best
+stagnation. But we have seen the dawn of a still higher function. In
+insects and vertebrates the brain is becoming of importance, and
+absorbing more and more material. This is the promise of something
+vastly higher and better. Better sense-organs are appearing, fitted
+to aid in a wider perception of more distant objects. The vertebrate
+has discovered the right path; though a long journey still lies
+before it. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>VERTEBRATES: BACKBONE AND BRAIN</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span>In tracing man's ancestry from fish upward we ought properly to
+describe three or four fish, an amphibian, a reptile, and then take
+up the series of mammalian ancestors. But we have not sufficient
+time for so extended a study, and a simpler method may answer our
+purpose fairly well. Let us fix our attention on the few organs
+which still show the capacity of marked development, and follow each
+one of these rapidly in its upward course.</p>
+
+<p>We must remember that there are changes in the vegetative organs.
+The digestive and excretory systems improve. But this improvement is
+not for the sake of these vegetative functions. Brain and muscle
+demand vastly more fuel, and produce vastly more waste which must be
+removed. At almost the close of the series the reproductive system
+undergoes a modification which is almost revolutionary in its
+results. But we shall find that this modification is necessitated by
+the smaller amount of material which can be spared for this
+function; not by its increasing importance, still less its dominance
+for its own worth. The vertebrate is like an old Roman; everything
+is subordinated to mental and physical power. He is the world
+conqueror.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span>The important changes from fish upward affect the following organs:
+1. The skeleton. A light, solid framework must be developed for the
+body. 2. The appendages start as fins, and end as the legs and arms
+of man. 3. The circulatory and respiratory systems developed so as
+to carry with the utmost rapidity and certainty fuel and oxygen to
+the muscular and nervous high-pressure engines. Or, to change the
+figure, they are the roads along which supplies and munitions can be
+carried to the army suddenly mobilized at any point on the frontier.
+4. Above all, the brain, especially the cerebrum, the crown and goal
+of vertebrate structure. The improvement is now practically
+altogether in the animal organs of locomotion and thought. Still,
+among these animal organs, the lower systems will lead in point of
+time. The brain must to a certain extent wait for the skeleton.</p>
+
+<p>1. The skeleton. The axial skeleton consists, in the lowest fish, of
+the notochord, a cylindrical unsegmented rod of cartilage running
+nearly the length of the body. This is surrounded by a sheath of
+connective tissue, at first merely membranous, later becoming
+cartilaginous or gristly. Pieces of cartilage extend upward over the
+spinal marrow, and downward around the great aortic artery, forming
+the neural and h&aelig;mal arches. These unite with the masses of
+cartilage surrounding the notochord to form cartilaginous vertebr&aelig;,
+which may be stiffened by an infiltration of carbonate of lime. The
+vertebral column of sharks has reached this stage. Then the
+cartilaginous vertebr&aelig; ossify and form a true backbone. I have
+described the process as if it were very simple. But only the
+student of comparative osteology can have any conception<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span> of the
+number of experiments which were tried in different groups before
+the definite mode of forming a bony vertebra was attained. At the
+same time the skull was developing in a somewhat similar manner. But
+the skull is far more complex in origin and undergoes far more
+numerous and important changes than the simpler vertebral column.
+Into its history we have no time to enter.</p>
+
+<p>And what shall we say of bone itself as a mere material or tissue,
+with its admirable lightness, compactness, and flawlessness. And
+every bone in our body is a triumph of engineering architecture. No
+engineer could better recognize the direction of strain and stress,
+and arrange his rods and columns, arches and buttresses, to suitably
+meet them, than these problems are solved in the long bone of our
+thigh. And they must be lengthened while the child is leaping upon
+them. An engineer is justly proud if he can rebuild or lengthen a
+bridge without delaying the passage of a single train. But what
+would he say if you asked him to rebuild a locomotive, while it was
+running even twenty miles an hour? And yet a similar problem had to
+be solved in our bodies.</p>
+
+<p>But the vertebral column is not perfected by fish. The vertebr&aelig; with
+few exceptions are hollow in front and behind, biconcave; and
+between each two vertebr&aelig; there is a large cavity still occupied by
+the notochord. Thus these vertebr&aelig; join one another by their edges,
+like two shallow wine-glasses placed rim to rim. Only gradually is
+the notochord crowded out so that the vertebr&aelig; join by their whole
+adjacent surfaces. Even in highest forms, for the sake of mobility,
+they are united by washer-like disks of cartilage. Biconcave
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span>vertebr&aelig; persisted through the oldest amphibia, reptiles, and
+birds. But finally a firm backbone and skull were attained.</p>
+
+<p>2. The appendages. Of these we can say but little. The fish has
+oar-like fins, attached to the body by a joint, but themselves
+unjointed. By the amphibia legs, with the same regions as our own
+and with five toes, have already appeared. The development of the
+leg out of the fin is one of the most difficult and least understood
+problems of vertebrate comparative anatomy. The legs are at first
+weak and scarcely capable of supporting the body. Only gradually do
+they strengthen into the fore- and hind-legs of mammals, or into the
+legs and wings of birds and old flying reptiles.</p>
+
+<p>3. Changes in the circulatory and respiratory systems. The fish
+lives altogether in the water and breathes by gills, but the dipnoi
+among fishes breathes by lungs as well as gills. As long as
+respiration takes place by gills alone, the circulation is simple;
+the blood flows from the heart to the gills, and thence directly all
+over the body; the oxygenated blood from the gills does not return
+directly to the heart. But the blood from the lungs does return to
+the heart; and there at first mixes in the ventricle with the impure
+blood which has returned from the rest of the body. Gradually a
+partition arises in the ventricle, dividing it into a right and left
+half. Thus the two circulations of the venous blood to the lungs,
+and of the oxygenated blood over the body, are more and more
+separated until, in higher reptiles, they become entirely distinct.</p>
+
+<p>As the animal came on land and breathed the air, more completely
+oxygenated blood was carried to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span>organs, and their activity was
+greatly heightened. As more and more heat was produced by the
+combustion in muscular and nervous tissues, and less was lost by
+conduction, the temperature of the body rose, and in birds and
+mammals becomes constant several degrees above the highest summer
+temperature of the surrounding air.</p>
+
+<p>The changes in the brain affect mainly the large and small brain.
+The cerebellum increases with the greater locomotive powers of the
+animal. But its development is evidently limited. The large brain,
+or cerebrum, is in fish hardly as heavy as the mid-brain; in
+amphibia the reverse is true. In higher recent reptiles the cerebrum
+would somewhat outweigh all the other portions of the brain put
+together. In mammals it extends upward and backward, has already in
+lower forms overspread the mid-brain, and is beginning to cover the
+small brain. But this was not so in the earliest mammals. Here the
+cerebrum was small, more like that of reptiles. But during the
+tertiary period the large brain began to increase with marvellous
+rapidity. It was very late in arriving at the period of rapid
+development, but it kept on after all the other organs of the body
+had settled down into comparative rest, perhaps retrogression.</p>
+
+<p>We have given thus a rapid sketch in outline of the changes in the
+most characteristic systems between fish and mammals. Some of the
+changes which took place in mammals were along the same lines, but
+one at least is so new and unexpected that this highest class
+demands more careful and detailed examination.</p>
+
+<p>The mammal is a vertebrate. Hence all its organs are at their best.
+But mammals stand, all things <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span>considered, at the head of
+vertebrates. The skeleton is firm and compact. The muscles are
+beautifully moulded and fitted to the skeleton so as to produce the
+greatest effect with the least mass and weight of tissue. The
+sense-organs are keen, and the eye and ear especially delicate, and
+fitted for perception at long range. Yet in all these respects they
+are surpassed by birds. As a mere anatomical machine the bird always
+seems to me superior to the mammal. It is not easy to see why it
+failed, as it has, to reach the goal of possibility of indefinite
+development and dominance in the animal world. Why he stopped short
+of the higher brain development I cannot tell. The fact remains that
+the mammal is pre-eminent in brain power, and that this gave him the
+supremacy.</p>
+
+<p>But mammals came very late to the throne, and the probability of
+their ever gaining it must for ages have appeared very doubtful.
+They seem to have been a fairly old group with a very slow early
+development. Reptiles especially, and even birds, were far more
+precocious than these slower and weaker forms which crept along the
+earth. But reptiles and birds, like many other precocious children,
+soon reached the limit of their development. They had muscle, the
+mammal brain and nerve; the mammal had the staying power and the
+future. Bitter and discouraging must have been the struggle of these
+feeble early mammals with their larger, swifter, and more powerful,
+reptilian relatives. And yet, perhaps, by this very struggle the
+mammal was trained to shrewdness and endurance.</p>
+
+<p>The primitive mammals laid eggs like reptiles or birds. Only two
+genera, echidna and platypus, survive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span> to bear witness of these old
+oviparous groups, and these only in New Zealand. These retain
+several old reptilian characteristics. Their lower position is shown
+also by the fact that the temperature of their bodies is, at least,
+ten degrees Fahrenheit below that of higher mammals. One of these
+carries the egg in a pouch on the ventral surface; the other, living
+largely in water, deposits its eggs in a nest in a burrow in the
+side of the bank of the stream.</p>
+
+<p>After these came the marsupials. In these the eggs develop in a sort
+of uterus; but there is no placenta, in the sense of an organic
+connection between the embryo and the uterus of the mother. The
+young are at birth exceedingly small and feeble. The adult giant
+Kangaroo weighs over one hundred pounds; the young are at birth not
+as large as your thumb. They are placed by the mother in a marsupial
+pouch on her ventral surface, and here nourished till able to care
+for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Pardon a moment's digression. The marsupials, except the opossum,
+are confined to Australia, and the oviparous mammals, or monotremes,
+to New Zealand. Formerly the marsupials, at least, ranged all over
+Europe and Asia, for we have indisputable evidence in their fossil
+remains. But they have survived only in this isolated area, and here
+apparently only because their isolation preserved them from the
+competition with higher forms. If the Australian continent had not
+been thus early cut off from all the rest of the world, the only
+trace of both these lower groups would have been the opossum in
+America and certain peculiarities in the development of the egg in
+higher mammals. This shows us how much weight should be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span>assigned to
+the formerly popular argument of the &quot;missing links.&quot; The wonder is
+not that so many links are missing, but that any of these primitive
+forms have come down to us. For we see here another proof of the
+fearful extermination of lower forms during the progress of life on
+the globe. It seems as if the intermediate forms were less common
+among these most recent animals than among the older types. This may
+not be true, for it is not easy to compare the gap between two
+mammals with that between two worms or insects, and mistakes are
+very easily made. But it seems as if extermination had done its work
+more ruthlessly among these highest forms than among their humbler
+and lower ancestors. I would not lay much weight on such an opinion;
+but, if true, it has a meaning and is worthy of study.</p>
+
+<p>In higher, true, placental mammals the period of pregnancy is much
+longer, and the young are born in a far higher stage of development,
+or rather, growth. The stage of growth at which the young are born
+differs markedly in different groups. A new-born kitten is a much
+feebler, less developed being than a new-born calf. An embryonic
+appendage, the allantois, used in reptiles and birds for
+respiration, has here been turned to another purpose. It lays itself
+against the walls of the uterus, uterine projections interlock with
+those which it puts forth, and the blood of the mother circulates
+through a host of capillaries separated from those of the blood
+system of the embryo only by the thinnest membrane. This is the
+placenta, developed, in part from the allantois of the embryo, in
+part from the uterus of the mother. It is not a new organ, but an
+old one turned to better and fuller use. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span>In these closely
+associated systems of blood-vessels, nutriment and oxygen diffuse
+from the blood of the mother into that of the embryo, and thus rapid
+growth is assured. The importance and far-reaching effect of this
+new modification in the old reproductive system cannot be
+over-estimated. The internal intra-uterine development of the young,
+and the mammalian habit of suckling them, far more than any other
+factors, have made man what he is. Some explanation must be sought
+for such a fact.</p>
+
+<p>We have already seen that any animal devotes to reproduction the
+balance between income and expenditure of nutriment. Now, the
+digestive system is here well developed, and the income is large.
+But we have already noticed that, as animals grow larger, the ratio
+between the digestive surface and the mass to be supported grows
+continually smaller. On account of size alone the mammal has but a
+small balance. But the amount of expenditure is proportional to the
+mass and activity of the muscular and nervous systems. And the
+mammal is, and from the beginning had to be, an exceedingly active,
+energetic, and nervous animal. The income has increased, but the
+expenses have far outrun the increase. The mammal can devote but
+little to reproduction.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, it requires a large amount of material to form a mammalian
+egg, such as that of the monotreme. It requires indefinitely more
+nutriment to build a mammal than a worm, for the former is not only
+larger and more perfect at birth; it is also vastly more
+complicated. The embryonic journey has, so to speak, lengthened out
+immensely. One monotreme egg represents more economy and saving than
+a thousand <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span>eggs of a worm. Moreover, where the individuals are
+longer lived and the generations follow one another at longer
+intervals, the number of favorable variations and the possibility of
+conformity to environment through these is greatly lessened. In such
+a group it is of the utmost importance that every egg should
+develop; the destruction of a single one is a real and important
+loss to the species. It is not enough to produce such an egg; it
+must be most scrupulously guarded. Even the egg of the platypus is
+deposited in a nest in a hole in the bank, and the female Echidna
+carries the egg in a marsupial pouch until it develops.</p>
+
+<p>Notice further that among certain species of fish, amphibia, and
+reptiles, the females carry the eggs in the body until the embryos
+or young are fairly developed. Viviparous forms are unknown by
+birds, probably because this mode of development is incompatible
+with flight, their dominant characteristic. Putting these facts
+together, what more probable than that certain primitive egg-laying
+mammals should have carried the eggs as long as possible in the
+uterus. The embryo under these conditions would be better nourished
+by a secretion of the uterine glands than by a very large amount of
+yolk. The yolk would diminish and the egg decrease in size, and thus
+the marsupial mode of development would have resulted. And, given
+the marsupial mode of development and an embryo possessing an
+allantois, it is almost a physiological necessity that in some forms
+at least a placenta should develop. That the placenta has resulted
+from some such process of evolution is proven by its different
+stages of development in different orders of mammals. And even the
+feeblest attachment of the allantois of the embryo to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span>the wall of
+the uterus would be of the greatest advantage to the species.</p>
+
+<p>This is not the whole explanation; other factors still undiscovered
+were undoubtedly concerned. But even this shows us that the internal
+development of the young and the habit of suckling them was a
+logical result of mammalian structure and position. The grand
+results of this change we shall trace farther on.</p>
+
+<p>The changes from the lower true mammals to the apes are of great
+interest, but we can notice only one or two of the more important.
+The prosimii, or &quot;half apes,&quot; including the lemurs, are nearly all
+arboreal forms. Perhaps they were driven to this life by their more
+powerful competitors. The arboreal life developed the fingers and
+toes, and most of these end, not with a claw, but with a nail. The
+little group has much diversity of structure, and at present finds
+its home mainly in Madagascar; though in earlier times apparently
+occurring all over the globe. The brain is more highly developed
+than in the average mammal, but far inferior to that of the apes.
+They have a fairly opposable thumb.</p>
+
+<p>The highest mammals are the primates. Their characteristics are the
+following: Fingers and toes all armed with nails, the eyes
+comparatively near together and fully enclosed in a bony case. The
+cerebrum with well-developed furrows covers the other portions of
+the brain. There is but one pair of milk-glands, and these on the
+breast. The differences between hand and foot become most strongly
+marked by the &quot;anthropoid&quot; apes. These have become accustomed to an
+upright gait in their climbing; hence the feet are used for
+supporting the body and the hands for grasping. Both <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span>thumb and
+great toe are opposable; but the foot is a true foot, and the hand a
+true hand, in anatomical structure. The face, hands, and feet have
+mainly lost the covering of hair. They have no tail, or rather its
+rudiments are concealed beneath the skin. These include the gibbon,
+the orang, the gorilla, and the chimpanzee.</p>
+
+<p>We can sum up the few attainments of mammals in a line. The lower
+forms attained the placental mode of embryonic development; the
+higher attained upright gait, hands and feet, and a great increase
+of brain. Anatomically considered these were but trifles, but the
+addition of these trifles revolutionized life on the globe. The
+principal anatomical differences between man and the anthropoid ape
+are the following: Man is a strictly erect animal. The foot of the
+ape is less fitted for walking on the ground, where he usually &quot;goes
+on all fours.&quot; The skull is almost balanced on the condyles by which
+it articulates with the neck, and has but slight tendency to tip
+forward. The facial portion, nose and jaws, is less developed and
+retracted beneath the larger cranium or brain-case. This has greatly
+changed the appearance of the head. Protruding jaws and chin, even
+when combined with large cranium and brain, always give man the
+appearance of brutality and low intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>The pelvis is broad and comparatively shallow. The legs, especially
+the thighs, are long. The foot is long and strong, and rests its
+lower surface, not merely the outer margin as in apes, on the
+ground. The elastic arch of the instep must be excepted in the above
+description, and adds lightness and swiftness to his otherwise slow
+gait. The great toe is short and generally <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span>not opposable. The
+muscles of the leg are heavy and the knee-joint has a very broad
+articulating surface. But the great result of man's erect posture is
+that the hand is set free from the work of locomotion, and has
+become a delicate tactile and tool-using organ. The importance of
+this change we cannot over-estimate. The hand was the servant of the
+brain for trying all experiments. Had not our arboreal ancestors
+developed the hand for us we could never have invented tools nor
+used them if invented. And its reflex influence in developing the
+brain has been enormous. The arm is shorter and the hand smaller.
+The brain is absolutely and relatively large, and its surface
+greatly convoluted. This gives place for a large amount of &quot;gray
+matter,&quot; whose functions are perception, thought, and will. For this
+gray matter forms a layer on the outside of the brain.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, even anatomically, man differs from the anthropoid apes. His
+whole structure is moulded to and by the higher mental powers, so
+that he is the &quot;Anthropos&quot; of the old Greek philosophers, the being
+who &quot;turns his face upward.&quot; Yet in all these anatomical respects
+some of the apes differ less from him than from the lower apes or
+&quot;half apes.&quot; And every one of these can easily be explained as the
+result of progressive development and modification. Whoever will
+deny the possibility or probability of man's development from some
+lower form must argue on psychological, not on anatomical, grounds;
+and it grows clearer every day that even the former but poorly
+justify such a denial.</p>
+
+<p>But it is interesting to note that no one ape most closely
+approaches man in all anatomical respects. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span>Thus among the
+anthropoids the orang is perhaps most similar to man in cerebral
+structure, the chimpanzee in form of skull, the gorilla in feet and
+hands. No evolutionist would claim that any existing ape represents
+the ancestor of man. The anthropoids represent very probably the
+culmination of at least three distinct lines of development. But we
+must remember that in early tertiary times apes occurred all over
+Europe, and probably Asia, many degrees farther north than now. In
+those days, as later, the fauna and flora of northern climates were
+superior in vigor and height of development to that of Africa or
+Australia. It is thus, to say the least, not at all improbable that
+there existed in those times apes considerably, if not far, superior
+to any surviving forms. Whether the pal&aelig;ontologist will find for us
+remains of such anthropoids is still to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>But you will naturally ask, &quot;Is there not, after all, a vast
+difference between the brain of man and that of the ape?&quot; Let us
+examine this question as fully as our very brief time will allow.
+Considerable emphasis used to be laid on the facial angle between a
+line drawn parallel to the base of the skull and one obliquely
+vertical touching the teeth and most prominent portion of the
+forehead. Now this angle is in man very large&mdash;from seventy-five to
+eighty-five degrees, or even more, and rarely falling below
+sixty-five degrees. But this angle depends largely on the protrusion
+of the jaws, and varies greatly in species of animals showing much
+the same grade of intelligence. In some not especially intelligent
+South American monkeys the facial angle amounts to about sixty-five
+degrees. In this respect the skull of a chimpanzee reminds us of a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span>human skull of small cranial capacity and large jaws, in which the
+cranium has been pressed back and the jaws crowded forward and
+slightly upward.</p>
+
+<p>The weight of the brain in proportion to that of the body has been
+considered as of great importance, and within certain limits this is
+undoubtedly correct. Thus, according to Leuret, the weight of the
+brain is to that of the whole body: In fish, 1:5,668; in reptiles,
+1:1,320; in birds, 1:212; in mammals, 1:186. These figures give the
+averages of large numbers of observations and have a certain
+amount of value. But within the same class the ratio varies
+extraordinarily. Thus the weight of the brain is to that of the
+whole body: In the elephant, 1:500; in the largest dogs, 1:305; in
+the cat, 1:156; in the rat, 1:76; in the chimpanzee, 1:50; in man,
+1:36; in the field-mouse, 1:31; in the goldfinch, 1:24.</p>
+
+<p>From this series it is evident that the relative weight of the brain
+is no index of the intelligence of the animal. Indeed if the brain
+were purely an organ of mind, there is no reason that it should be
+any larger in an elephant than in a mouse, provided they had the
+same mental capacity. As animals grow larger the weight of the
+brain, relatively to that of the body, decreases, and considering
+the size of man it is remarkable that it should form so large a
+fraction of his weight. Still the fraction in the chimpanzee is not
+so much smaller. It is still possible that this fraction is above
+the normal for the chimpanzee, for some of the observations may have
+been taken on animals which had died of consumption or some other
+wasting disease. I have not been able to find whether this
+possibility of error has been scrupulously avoided.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span>A fair idea of the size of the brain may be obtained by measuring
+the cranial capacity. This varies in man from almost one-hundred
+cubic inches to less than seventy. In the gorilla its average is
+perhaps thirty, in the orang and chimpanzee rather less, about
+twenty-eight. This is certainly a vast difference, especially when
+we remember that the gorilla far exceeds man in weight.</p>
+
+<p>Le Bon tells us that of a series of skulls forty-five per cent, of
+the Australian had a cranial capacity of 1,200 to 1,300 c.c., while
+46.7 per cent. of modern Parisian skulls showed a capacity of
+between 1,500 and 1,600 c.c. The skull of the gorilla contains about
+five hundred and seventy cubic centimetres. Broca found that the
+cranial capacity of 115 Parisian skulls, of probably the higher
+classes from the twelfth century, averaged about 1,426 cubic
+centimetres, while ninety of those of the poorer classes of the
+nineteenth century averaged about 1,484. His observations seemed to
+prove that there has been a steady increase in Parisian cranial
+capacity from the twelfth to the nineteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>Turning to the actual weight of the brain, that of Cuvier weighed
+64.5 ounces, and a few cases of weights exceeding 65 ounces have
+been recorded. The lowest limit of weight in a normal human brain
+has not yet been accurately determined. From 34 to 31 ounces have
+been assigned by different writers. The brain of a Bush woman was
+computed by Marshall at 31.5 ounces, and weights of even 31 ounces
+have been recorded without any note to show that the possessors were
+especially lacking in intelligence. As Professor Huxley says in his
+&quot;Man's Place in Nature,&quot; a little <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span>book which I cannot too highly
+recommend to you all, &quot;It may be doubted whether a healthy human
+adult brain ever weighed less than 31 or 32 ounces, or that the
+heaviest gorilla brain has ever exceeded 20 ounces. The difference
+in weight of brain between the highest and the lowest men is far
+greater, both relatively and absolutely, than that between the
+lowest man and the highest ape. The latter, as has been seen, is
+represented by 12 ounces of cerebral substance absolutely, or by
+32:20 relatively. But as the largest recorded human brain weighed
+between 65 and 66 ounces, the former difference is represented by 33
+ounces absolutely, or by 65:32 relatively.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But there is another characteristic of the brain which seems to bear
+a close relation to the degree of intelligence. The surface of the
+human brain is not smooth but covered with convolutions, with
+alternating grooves or sulci, which vastly increase its surface and
+thus make room for more gray matter. Says Gratiolett: &quot;On comparing
+a series of human and simian brains we are immediately struck with
+the analogy exhibited in the cerebral forms in all these creatures.
+There is a cerebral form peculiar to man and the apes; and so in the
+cerebral convolutions, wherever they appear, there is a general
+unity of arrangement, a plan, the type of which is common to all
+these creatures.&quot; Professor Huxley says: &quot;It is most remarkable
+that, as soon as all the principal sulci appear, the pattern
+according to which they are arranged is identical with the
+corresponding sulci in man. The surface of the brain of the monkey
+exhibits a sort of skeleton map of man's, and in the man-like apes
+the details become more and more filled in, until it is only in
+minor <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span>characters that the chimpanzee's or orang's brain can be
+structurally distinguished from man's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The facts of anatomy, at least, are all against us. Struggle as we
+may, be as snobbish as we will, we cannot shake off these poor
+relations of ours. Our adult anatomy at once betrays our ancestry,
+if we attempt to deny it. Read the first chapter of that remarkable
+book by Professor Drummond on the &quot;Ascent of Man,&quot; the chapter on
+the ascent of the body, and the second chapter on the scaffolding
+left in the body. The tips of our ears and our rudimentary ear
+muscles, the hair on hand and arm, and the little plica semilunaris,
+or rudimentary third eyelid in the inner angle of our eyes, the
+vermiform appendage of the intestine, the coracoid process on our
+shoulder-blades, the atlas vertebra of our necks&mdash;to say nothing of
+the coccyx at the other end of the backbone&mdash;many malformations, and
+a host of minor characteristics all refute our denial.</p>
+
+<p>If we appeal from adult anatomy to embryology the case becomes all
+the worse for us. Our ear is lodged in the gill-slit of a fish, our
+jaws are branchial arches, our hyoid bone the rudiment of this
+system of bones supporting the gills. Our circulation begins as a
+veritable fish circulation; our earliest skeleton is a notochord;
+Meckel's cartilage, from which our lower jaw and the bones of our
+middle ear develop, is a whole genealogical tree of disagreeable
+ancestors. Our glandula thyreoidea has, according to good
+authorities, an origin so slimy that it should never be mentioned in
+polite society. The origin of our kidneys appears decidedly vermian.
+Time fails me to read merely the name of the witnesses which could
+be summoned from our own bodies to witness against us.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span>Even if the testimony of some of these witnesses is not as strong
+as many think, and we have misunderstood several of them, they are
+too numerous and their stories hang too well together not to impress
+an intelligent and impartial jury. But what if it is all true? What
+if, as some think, our millionth cousin, the tiger or cat, is
+anatomically a better mammal than I? His teeth and claws and
+magnificent muscles are of small value compared with man's mental
+power.</p>
+
+<p>What a comedy that man should work so hard to prove that his chief
+glory is his opposable thumb, or a few ounces of brain matter! Man's
+glory is his mind and will, his reason and moral powers, his vision
+of, and communion with, God. And supposing it be true, as I believe
+it is true, that the animal has the germ of these also, does that
+cloud my mind or obscure my vision or weaken my action? It bids me
+only strive the harder to be worthy of the noble ancestors who have
+raised me to my higher level and on whose buried shoulders I stand.
+Whatever may have been our origin, whoever our ancestors, we are
+men. Then let us play the man. If we will but play our part as well
+as our old ancestors played theirs, if we will but walk and act
+according to our light one-half as heroically and well as they
+groped in the darkness, we need not worry about the future. That
+will be assured.</p>
+
+<p>Says Professor Huxley: &quot;Man now stands as on a mountain-top far
+above the level of his humble fellows, and transfigured from his
+grosser nature by reflecting here and there a ray from the infinite
+source of truth. And thoughtful man, once escaped from the blinding
+influences of traditional prejudice, will find in the lowly stock
+whence man has sprung the best evidence of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span>splendor of his
+capacities, and will discern in his long progress through the past a
+reasonable ground of faith in his attainment of a nobler future.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>We have sketched hastily and in rude outline the anatomical
+structure of the successive stages of man's ancestry; let us now, in
+a very brief recapitulation, condense this chronicle into a
+historical record of progress.</p>
+
+<p>We began with the am&oelig;ba. This could not have been the beginning.
+In all its structure it tells us of something earlier and far
+simpler, but what this earlier ancestor was we do not know. Rather
+more highly organized relatives of the am&oelig;ba, the flagellata,
+have produced a membrane, and swim by means of vibratile,
+whiplash-like flagella. We must emphasize that these little animals
+correspond in all essential respects to the cells of our bodies;
+they are unicellular animals. And the cell once developed remains
+essentially the same structure, modified only in details, throughout
+higher animals. And these unicellular animals have the rudiments of
+all our functions. Their protoplasm and functions seem to differ
+from those of higher animals only in degree, not in kind. And the
+more we consider both these facts the more remarkable and suggestive
+do they become.</p>
+
+<p>Cells with membranes can unite in colonies capable of division of
+labor and differentiation. And magosph&aelig;ra is just such a little
+spheroidal colony. But the cells are still all alike, each one
+performs all functions equally well. But in volvox division of labor
+and differentiation of structure have taken place. Certain cells
+have become purely reproductive, while the rest gather nutriment for
+these, but are at the same time sensitive and locomotive, excretory
+and respiratory. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span>The first function to have cells specially devoted
+to it is the reproductive; this is a function absolutely necessary
+for the maintenance of the species. For the nutritive cells die when
+they have brought the reproductive cells to their full development.
+These few nutritive cells represent the body of all higher animals
+in contrast with the reproductive elements. And with the development
+of a body, death, as a normal process, enters the world. The
+dominant function is here evidently the reproductive, and the whole
+body is subservient to this.</p>
+
+<p>In hydra the union and differentiation of cells is carried further.
+But the cells are still much alike and only slowly lose their own
+individuality in that of the whole animal. This is shown in the fact
+that each entodermal cell digests its own particles of food,
+although the nutriment once digested diffuses to all parts of the
+body. Also almost any part of the animal containing both ectoderm
+and entoderm can be cut off and will develop into a new animal.</p>
+
+<p>But beside the reproductive cells and tissues hydra has developed a
+very simple digestive system, in which the newly caught food at
+least macerates and begins to be dissolved. This is the second
+essential function. The animal can, and the plant as a rule does,
+exist with only the lowest rudiments of anything like nervous or
+muscular power; but no species can exist without good powers of
+digestion and reproduction. These essential organs must first
+develop and the higher must wait. And the inner, digestive, layer of
+cells persists in our bodies as the lining of the mid-intestine. We
+compared hydra therefore to a little patch of the lining of our
+intestine covered with a flake <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span>of epidermis; only these layers in
+hydra possess powers lost to the corresponding cells of our bodies
+in the process of differentiation. Notice, please, that when cell or
+organ has once been developed it persists, as a rule, modified, but
+not lost. Nature's experiments are not in vain; her progress is very
+slow but sure. But hydra has also the promise of better things,
+traces of muscular and nervous tissue. There are still no compact
+muscles, like our own, much less ganglion or brain or nerve-centre
+of individuality. The tissues are diffuse, but they are the
+materials out of which the organs of higher animals will
+crystallize, so to speak. Notice also that these higher muscles and
+nerves are here entirely subservient to, and exist for, digestion
+and reproduction.</p>
+
+<p>In the turbellaria the reproductive system has reached a very high
+grade of development. It is a complex and beautifully constructed
+organ. The digestive system has also vastly improved; it has its own
+muscular layers, and often some means of grasping food. But it is
+slower in reaching its full development than the reproductive
+system. But all the muscles are no longer attached to the stomach;
+they are beginning to assert their independence, and, in a rude way,
+to build a body-wall. But they are in many layers, and run in almost
+all directions. Some of these layers will disappear, but the most
+important ones, consisting of longitudinal and transverse fibres,
+will persist in higher forms. Locomotion by means of these muscles
+is slowly coming into prominence. They are no longer merely slaves
+of digestion.</p>
+
+<p>But a muscular fibril contracts only under the stimulus of a nervous
+impulse. More nerve-cells are necessary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span> to control these more
+numerous muscular fibrils. The animal now moves with one end
+foremost, and that end first comes in contact with food, hindrances,
+or injurious surroundings. Here the sensory cells of feeling and
+their nerve fibrils multiply. Remember that these neuro-epithelial
+sensory cells are suited to respond not merely to pressure, but to a
+variety of the stimuli, chemical, molecular, and of vibration, which
+excite our organs of smell, taste, and hearing. Such organs and the
+directive eyes appear mainly at this anterior end. But a ganglion
+cell sends an impulse to a muscle because it has received one along
+a sensory nerve from one or more of these sensory cells. Hence the
+ganglion cells will increase in number. The old cobweb-like plexus
+condenses into a little knot, the supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion. This
+ganglion cannot do much, if any, thinking; it is rather a steering
+organ to control the muscles and guide the animal. It is the servant
+of the locomotive system. Yet it is the beginning of the brain of
+higher animals, and probably still persists as an infinitesimal
+portion of our human brain. And all this is the prophecy of a head
+soon to be developed. An excretory system has appeared to carry off
+the waste of the muscles and nerves.</p>
+
+<p>In the schematic worm and annelid the reproductive system is
+simpler, though perhaps equally effective. It takes the excess of
+nutriment of the body. The muscular system has taken the form of a
+sack composed of longitudinal and transverse fibres. The
+perivisceral cavity, formed perhaps by cutting off and enlarging the
+lateral pouches of the turbellarian digestive system, serves as a
+very simple but serviceable circulatory system. But in the annelid
+and all higher forms a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span>special system of tubes has developed to
+carry the nutriment, and usually oxygen also, needed to keep up the
+combustion required to furnish the energy in these active organs.
+The digestive system has attained its definite form with the
+appearance of an anal opening and the accompanying division of labor
+and differentiation into fore-, mid-, and hind-intestine.</p>
+
+<p>The digestive and reproductive systems have thus nearly attained
+their final form. From the higher worms upward the digestive system
+will improve greatly. Its lining will fold and flex and vastly
+increase the digestive and absorptive surfaces. The layer of cells
+which now secrete the digestive fluids will in part be replaced by
+massive glands. Far better means of grasping food than the horny
+teeth of annelids will yet appear. But all these changes are
+inconsiderable compared with the vast advance made by the muscular
+and nervous systems. Reproduction and digestion are losing their
+supremacy in the animal body. Their advance and improvement will
+require but little further attention.</p>
+
+<p>In the annelid especially, and to some extent in the schematic worm,
+the supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion is relieved in part of the direct
+control of the muscular fibrils and has become an organ of
+perception and the seat of government of lower nervous centres. In
+all higher forms it innervates directly only the principal
+sense-organs of the head. And at this stage the light-perceiving
+directive eye has developed into a form-perceiving, eidoscopic
+organ. The eye was short of range and its images were perhaps rude
+and imperfect, but it was a visual eye and had vast possibilities.
+The animal is taking cognizance of ever more subtle elements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span> in its
+environment. Perhaps it is not too much to say that the eidoscopic
+eye first awakened the slumbering animal mind, for its reflex effect
+upon the supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion cannot be over-estimated. The
+animal will very soon begin to think.</p>
+
+<p>Between the turbellarian and the annelid many aberrant lines
+diverged. Some of these attained a comparatively high level and then
+seemed to meet insuperable obstacles, while others came to an end or
+turned downward very early. Three of these demanded attention, those
+leading to mollusks, insects, and vertebrates. And it is interesting
+to notice that the fundamental difference between these three lines
+was the skeleton, or perhaps we ought to say it was the habit of
+life which led to the development of such a skeleton.</p>
+
+<p>The mollusk took to a sluggish, creeping mode of life, under an
+external purely protective skeleton; the insect to a creeping mode
+of life, with an external but almost purely locomotive skeleton; the
+vertebrate kept on swimming and developed an internal locomotive
+skeleton. And it must already have become clear to you that the
+destiny of these different lines was fixed not so much directly by
+the skeleton itself as by its reflex effect in moulding the
+muscular, and ultimately the nervous, system.</p>
+
+<p>The insects formed their skeleton by thickening the horny cuticle of
+the annelid. They transformed the annelid parapodia into legs and
+developed wings. They attained life in the air. They devoted the
+muscles of the body largely to the extremities and gained swift
+locomotion. They have a fair circulatory and an excellent
+respiratory system. Best of all, they developed a head and a brain
+by fusing the three anterior <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span>ganglia of the body. The insect could
+and does think. Such a structure ought to lead to great and high
+results. But actually their possibilities were very limited. They
+have not progressed markedly during the last geological period.
+Their external skeleton was easily attained and brought speedy
+advantages, which for a time placed them far above all competitors.
+But it limited their size and length of life and opportunities, and
+finally their intelligence. They remained largely the slaves of
+instinct. They followed an attractive and exceedingly promising
+path, but it led to the bottom of a cliff, not to the summit.</p>
+
+<p>The mollusks, clams, and snails took an easier, down-hill road. They
+formed a shell, and it developed large enough to cover them. It
+hampered and almost destroyed locomotion and reduced nerve to a
+minimum. But nerves are nothing but a nuisance anyhow. And why
+should they move? Food was plenty down in the mud, and if danger
+threatened, they withdrew into the shell. They stayed down in the
+mud and let the world go its way. If grievously afflicted by a
+parasite they produced a pearl&mdash;to save themselves from further
+discomfort. They developed just enough muscle and nervous system to
+close the shell or drag it a little way; that was all. Digestion and
+reproduction retained the supremacy. They were fruitful and
+multiplied, and produced hosts of other clams and snails. The
+present was enough for them and they had that.</p>
+
+<p>For if the winner in the struggle for existence is the one who gains
+the most food, the most entire protection against discomfort, danger
+from enemies or unfavorable surroundings, and the most fruitful and
+rapid reproduction&mdash;and these are all good&mdash;then the clam <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span>is the
+highest product of evolution. It never has been surpassed&mdash;I venture
+to say it never can be&mdash;except possibly by the tape-worms. I can
+never help thinking with what contempt these primitive oysters, if
+they had had brains enough, would have looked down upon the toiling,
+struggling, discontented, fighting, aspiring primitive vertebrates.
+How they would have wondered why God allowed such disagreeable,
+disturbing, unconventional creatures to exist, and thanked him that
+he had made the world for them, and heaven too, if there be such a
+place for mollusks. Their road led to the Slough of Contentment.</p>
+
+<p>But even in molluscan history there was a tragic chapter. The squids
+and cuttle-fishes regained the swimming life, and in their latest
+forms gave up the protective shell. But its former presence had so
+modified their structure that any great advance was impossible. It
+was too late. The sins of the fathers were visited upon the children
+in the thousandth generation.</p>
+
+<p>The vertebrate developed an internal skeleton. This was necessarily
+a slow growth, and the type came late to supremacy. The longitudinal
+muscles are arranged in heavy bands on each side of the back, and
+the animal swims rapidly. The sense-organs are keen. The brain
+contains the ganglia of several or many segments and is highly
+differentiated. It has a special centre of perception, thought, and
+will; it is an organ of mind. The vertebrate has the physical and
+mental advantages of large size.</p>
+
+<p>First the definite form and mode of developing a vertebra is
+attained. Then the vertebral column is perfected. The fins are
+modified into legs. The lungs increase in size and the heart becomes
+double. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span>The animal emerges on land; and, with a better supply of
+oxygen and less loss of heat, all the functions are performed with
+the highest possible efficiency. First, apparently, amphibia, then
+reptiles, and finally mammals of enormous size and strength
+appeared. It looked as if the earth were to be an arena where
+gigantic beasts fought a never-ending battle of brute force. But
+these great brutes reproduced slowly, had therefore little power of
+adaptation, were fitted to special conditions, and when the
+conditions changed they disappeared. The bird tried once more the
+experiment of developing the locomotive powers to the highest
+possible extent. It became a flying machine, and every organ was
+moulded to suit this life. Every ounce of spare weight was thrown
+aside, the muscles were wonderfully arranged and of the highest
+possible efficiency. The body temperature is higher than that of
+mammals. The whole organization is a physiological high-pressure
+engine. The sense-organs are perhaps the finest and keenest in the
+whole animal kingdom. The brain is inferior only to that of mammals.
+The experiment could not have been tried under more favorable
+conditions; it was not a failure, it certainly was not a success
+when compared with that of mammals.</p>
+
+<p>The possibilities of every system except one had been practically
+exhausted. Only brain development remained as the last hope of
+success. Here was an untried line, and the mammals followed it.
+During the short tertiary period the brain in many of their genera
+seems to have increased tenfold. By the arboreal life of the highest
+forms the hand is developed as the instrument of the thinking brain.
+The battle is beginning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span> to become one of wits, and the crown will
+soon pass from the strongest to the shrewdest. Mind, not muscle,
+much less digestion or reproduction, is the goal of the animal
+kingdom. And we shall see later that the mammalian mode of
+reproduction and of care of the young led to an almost purely mental
+and moral advance. For these could have but one logical outcome,
+family life. And the family is the foundation of society. And family
+and social life have been the school in which man has been compelled
+to learn the moral lessons, the application of which has made him
+what he is.</p>
+
+<p>You must all, I think, have noticed that the different systems of
+organs succeed one another in a certain definite order; and that
+each stage from the lowest to the highest is characterized by the
+predominance of a certain function or group of functions. This
+sequence of functions is not a deduction but a fact. Place side by
+side all possible genealogical trees of the animal kingdom, whether
+founded on comparative anatomy, embryology, pal&aelig;ontology, or all
+combined. They will all disclose this sequence of functions arranged
+in the same order. Let me call your attention to the fact that this
+order is not due to chance, but rests upon a physiological basis. We
+might almost claim that if the evolution of man from the single cell
+be granted, no other order of their occurrence is possible.</p>
+
+<p>The protozoa are mostly, though not purely, nutritive and
+reproductive. These functions are essential to the existence of the
+species. Naturally in the early protozoan colonies, and in forms
+like hydra, these functions predominated. But mere digestive tissue
+is not enough for digestion. Muscles are needed to draw the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span>food to
+the mouth, to keep the digestive sack in contact with it, and for
+other purposes. A little higher they are used to enable the animal
+to go in search of its food. They are still, however, more or less
+entirely subservient to digestion. But in the highest worms we are
+beginning to see signs that muscles are predominating in the body;
+and we feel that, while mutually helpful, the digestive system
+exists for the muscles, and these latter are becoming the aim of
+development. From worms upward there is a marked advance in physical
+activity and strength. The muscles thicken and are arranged in
+heavier bands. Skeleton and locomotive appendages and jaws follow in
+insects and vertebrates. The direct battle of animal against animal,
+and of strength opposed to strength or activity, becomes ever
+sharper. The strongest and most active are selected and survive.</p>
+
+<p>And yet this is not the whole truth. Some power of perception is
+possessed by every animal. But until muscles had developed the
+nervous system could be of but little practical value. Knowledge of
+even a great emergency is of little use, if I can do nothing about
+it. But when the muscles appeared, nerves and ganglion cells were
+necessary to stimulate and control them. And this highest system
+holds for a long time a position subordinate to that of the lower
+muscular organ. Its development seems at first sight extraordinarily
+slow. Only in insects and vertebrates has it become a centre of
+instinct and thought. Through the sense-organs it is gaining an ever
+clearer, deeper, and wider knowledge of its environment. First it is
+affected only by the lower stimuli of touch, taste, and smell. Then
+with the development of ear and eye it takes <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span>cognizance of ever
+subtler forces and movements. Memory comes into activity very early.
+The animal begins to learn by experience. The brain is becoming not
+merely a steering but a thinking organ. More and more nervous
+material is crowded into it and detailed for its work. Wits and
+shrewdness are beginning to count for something in the battle. Not
+only the animal with the strongest muscles, but the one with the
+best brain survives. And thus at last the brain began to develop
+with a rapidity as remarkable as its long delay. Thus each higher
+function is called into activity by the next lower, serves this at
+first, and only later attains its supremacy.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the advance of the different functions is not altogether
+successive. Muscle and nerve do not wait for digestion and
+reproduction to show signs of halting before they begin to advance.
+They all advance at once. But the progress of reproduction and
+digestion is most rapid at first, and it appears as if they would
+outrun the others. But in the ascending series the others follow
+after, and soon overtake and pass by them. And these lower
+functions, when out-marched, do not lag behind, but keep in touch
+with the others, forming the rear-guard and supply-train of the
+army. And notice that each organ holds the predominance about as
+long as it shows the power of rapid improvement. The length of its
+reign is pretty closely proportional to its capacity of development.
+The digestive system reaches that limit early, the muscular system
+is capable of indefinitely higher complexity, as we see in our hand.
+But the muscular system has nearly or quite reached its limit. The
+body had seen its day of dominance before man arrived on the globe.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span>But where is the limit to man's mental or moral powers? Every
+upward step in knowledge, wisdom, and righteousness only opens our
+eyes to greater heights, before unperceived and still to be
+attained. 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, <i>must</i> 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HISTORY OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS SEQUENCE OF FUNCTIONS</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span>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
+huge reptiles, or mammals of enormous strength, and by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span>birds of
+exceeding swiftness. This portion of our history covers the era of
+muscular activity.</p>
+
+<p>But these huge brutes are mostly doomed to extinction, and the bird
+fails of supremacy in the animal kingdom. &quot;The race is not to the
+swift, nor the battle to the strong.&quot; All the time another system
+has been slowly developing. The complicated nervous system has
+required ages for its construction and arrangement. Only in the
+highest mammals does the brain assert its right to supremacy. But
+once established on its throne the brain reigns supreme; its right
+is challenged by no other organ. The possibilities of all the other
+organs, <i>as supreme rulers</i>, have been exhausted. Each one has been
+thoroughly tested, and its inadequacy proven beyond doubt by actual
+experiment. These formerly supreme lower organs must serve the
+higher. The age of man's existence on the globe is, and must remain,
+the era of mind. For the mind alone has an inexhaustible store of
+possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>The development of all these systems is simultaneous. From the very
+beginning all the functions have been represented, all the systems
+have been gradually advancing. Hydra has a nervous system just as
+really as man. It has no brain, but it has the potentiality and
+promise of one, and is taking the necessary steps toward its
+attainment. But while the development of all is simultaneous, their
+culmination and supremacy is successive, first stomach and muscle,
+then brain and mind. That was not first which is spiritual, but that
+which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. But now
+that the mind has once become supreme, man must live and work
+chiefly for its higher development. Thus alone is progress possible.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span>But the word mind calls up before us a long list of powers. And the
+questions arise, Is one mode and line of mental action just as much
+the goal of man's development as another? Is man to cultivate the
+appetite for food and sense gratification just as much as the hunger
+for righteousness? Or is appetite in the mind like digestion in the
+body, a function, necessary indeed and once dominant, but no longer
+fitted for supreme control? Is there in the development of the
+mental powers or functions just as really a sequence of dominance as
+in that of the bodily functions? Are there older and lower powers
+and modes of action, which, though once supreme, must now be rigidly
+kept down in their proper lower place? Are there lower motives, for
+which the very laws of evolution forbid us to live, just as truly as
+they forbid a man's living for stomach or brute strength instead of
+brain and mind? Are these lower powers merely the foundation
+on which the higher motives and powers are to rise in their
+transcendent glory? This is the question which we now must face,
+and it is of vital importance.</p>
+
+<p>We have come to one of the most important and difficult subjects of
+zo&ouml;logy. Let us distinctly recognize that it is not our task to
+explain the origin of mind, or even of a single mental faculty. I
+shall take for granted what many of you will not admit, that the
+germs of all man's highest mental powers are present undeveloped in
+the mind, if you will call it so, of the am&oelig;ba. The limits of
+this course of lectures have required us to choose between
+alternatives, either to attempt to prove the truth of the theory of
+evolution, or taking this for granted, to attempt to find its
+bearings on our moral and religious beliefs. I have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>[116]</span>chosen the
+latter course, and here, as elsewhere, will abide by it. I should
+not have followed such a course if I did not thoroughly believe that
+man also, in mind as well as body, is the product of evolution. But
+this is no reason for your accepting these views. You are asked only
+to judge impartially of the tendencies of the theory. We take for
+granted, I repeat, that all man's mental faculties are germinally,
+potentially, present in protoplasm; we seek the history of their
+development.</p>
+
+<p>We must remember, further, that the science of animal or comparative
+psychology is yet in its infancy. Even reliable facts are only
+slowly being sifted and recorded in sufficient numbers to make
+deductions at all safe. And even of these facts different writers
+give very different explanations. As Mr. Romanes has well said, &quot;All
+our knowledge of mental faculties, other than our own, really
+consists of an inferential interpretation of bodily activities&mdash;this
+interpretation being founded on our subjective knowledge of our own
+mental activities. By inference we project, as it were, the human
+pattern of our own mental chromograph on what is to us the otherwise
+blank screen of another mind.&quot; The value and clearness of our
+inferences will be proportional to the similarity of the animal to
+ourselves. Thus we can educate many of our higher mammals by a
+system of rewards and punishments, and we seem therefore to have
+good reason to believe that fear and joy, anger and desire, certain
+powers of perception and inference, are in their minds similar to
+our own. But fear in a fish is certainly a much dimmer apprehension
+of danger than in us, even if it deserves the name of apprehension.
+And the mental state which we call &quot;alarm&quot; in a fly or any lower
+animal is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span>very difficult to clearly imagine or at all express in
+terms of our own mind.</p>
+
+<p>Some investigators have made the mistake of projecting into the
+animal mind all our emotions and complicated trains of thought. Thus
+Schwammerdam apparently credits the snail with remorse for the
+commission of excesses. Others go to the other extreme and make
+animals hardly more than mindless automata. We are warned,
+therefore, by our very mode of study, to be cautious, not too
+absolutely sure of our results, nor indignant at others who may take
+a very different view. And yet by moving cautiously and accepting
+only what seems fairly clear and evident we may arrive at very
+valuable and tolerably sure results.</p>
+
+<p>The human mind, and the animal mind apparently, manifests itself in
+three states or functions. These are intelligence, the realm of
+knowledge; susceptibility, the realm or state of feelings or
+emotions; will, the power or state of choice. Let us trace first the
+development of intelligence or the intellect in the animal. Let us
+try to discover what kinds of knowledge are successively attained
+and the mode and sequence of their attainment. Hydra appears to be
+conscious of its food. It recognizes it partially by touch, perhaps
+also by feeling the waves caused by its approach. It seems also to
+recognize food at a little distance by a power comparable to our
+sense of smell. Stronger impacts cause it to contract. It neither
+sees nor hears; it probably does little or no thinking. Its
+knowledge is therefore limited to the recognition of objects either
+in contact with, or but slightly removed from, itself. And its
+recognition of the objects is very dim and incomplete, obtained
+through the sense of touch and smell.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span>A little higher in the animal world a rude ear has developed, first
+as a very delicate organ for feeling the waves caused by approaching
+food or enemies; only later as an organ of hearing. Meanwhile the
+eye has been developing, to perceive the subtle ether vibrations.
+The eye of the turbellaria distinguishes only light from darkness,
+that of the annelid is a true visual organ. Now the brain can begin
+to perceive the shape of objects at a little distance. Touch and
+smell, hearing, sight; such is sequence of sense perceptions. The
+sense-organs respond to continually more delicate and subtle
+impacts, and cover an ever-widening range of more and more distant
+objects. Up to this point intelligence has hardly included more than
+sense-perceptions.</p>
+
+<p>But these sense-perceptions have been all the time spurring the mind
+to begin a higher work. At first it is conscious merely of objects,
+and its main effort is to gain a clearer and clearer perception of
+these.</p>
+
+<p>Now it is led to undertake, so to speak, the work of a sense-organ
+of a higher grade. It begins to directly see invisible relations
+just as truly as through the eye it has perceived light. First
+perhaps it perceives that certain perceptions and experiences,
+agreeable or disagreeable, occur in a certain sequence. It begins to
+associate these. It learns thus to recognize the premonitory
+symptoms of nature's favor or disfavor, and thus gains food or
+avoids dangers. The bee learns to associate accessible nectar with a
+certain spot on the flower marked by bright dots or lines,
+&quot;honey-guides,&quot; and the chimpanzee that when a hen cackles there is
+an egg in the nest. But association is only the first lesson;
+inference and understanding follow.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span>The child at kindergarten receives a few blocks. It admires and
+plays with them. Then it is taught to notice their form. After a
+time it arranges them in groups and learns the first elements of
+number. But when it has advanced to higher mathematics, the blocks,
+or figures on the blackboard, become only symbols or means of
+illustrating the great theorems and propositions of that science.
+Thus the animal has begun in the kindergarten way to dimly perceive
+that there are real, though intangible and invisible, relations
+between objects. But what is all human science but the clearer
+vision, and farther search into, and tracing of these same
+relations? And what is all advance of knowledge but a perception of
+ever subtler relations? What is even the knowledge of right but the
+perception of the subtlest and deepest and widest relations of man
+to his environment? The animal seems to be steadily advancing along
+the path toward the perception of abstract truth, though man alone
+really attains it.</p>
+
+<p>And the higher power of association and inference which we call
+understanding, aided by memory, results in the power of learning by
+experience, so characteristic of higher vertebrates. The hunted bird
+or mammal very quickly becomes wary. A new trap catches more than a
+better old one until the animals have learned to understand it, and
+young animals are trapped more easily than old. Cases showing the
+limitations of mammalian intelligence are interesting in this
+connection. A cat which wished to look out and find the cause of a
+noise outside, when all the windows were closed by wooden blinds,
+jumped upon a stand and looked into a mirror. Her inference as to
+the general use of glass was correct; all its uses had not yet come
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span>within the range of her experience. A monkey used to stop a hole in
+the side of a cage with straw. The keeper, to tease him, used to
+pull this out. But one day the monkey tugged at a nail in the side
+of his cage until he had pulled it out, and thrust it into the hole.
+But when it was pushed back he fell into a rage. His inference that
+the nail-head could not be pulled through was entirely correct; he
+had failed to foresee that it could be pushed back. Many such
+instances have probably come within the range of your observation,
+if you have noticed them. But many of the facts which Mr. Romanes
+gives us concerning the intelligence of monkeys, apes, and baboons
+would not disgrace the intelligence of children or men.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Romanes relates the following account of a little capuchin
+monkey from Brazil:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent">&quot;To-day he obtained possession of a hearth-brush, one of the kind
+which has the handle screwed into the brush. He soon found the
+way to unscrew the handle, and having done that he immediately
+began to try to find out the way to screw it in again. This he in
+time accomplished. At first he put the wrong end of the handle
+into the hole, but turned it round and round the right way for
+screwing. Finding it did not hold he turned the other end of the
+handle and carefully stuck it into the hole, and began again to
+turn it the right way. It was of course a difficult feat for him
+to perform, for he required both his hands in order to screw it
+in, and the long bristles of the brush prevented it from
+remaining steady or with the right side up. He held the brush
+with his hind hand, but even so it was very difficult for him to
+get the first turn of the screw to fit into the thread; he worked
+at it, however, with the most unwearying perseverance until he
+got the first turn of the screw to catch, and he then quickly
+turned it round and round until it was screwed up to the end. The
+most remarkable thing was, that however often he was disappointed
+in the beginning, he never <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>[121]</span>was induced to try turning the handle
+the wrong way; he always screwed it from right to left. As soon
+as he had accomplished his wish he unscrewed it again, and then
+screwed it in again the second time rather more easily than the
+first, and so on many times. When he had become by practice
+tolerably perfect in screwing and unscrewing, he gave it up and
+took to some other amusement. One remarkable thing is that he
+should take so much trouble to do that which is no material
+benefit to him. The desire to accomplish a chosen task seems a
+sufficient inducement to lead him to take any amount of trouble.
+This seems a very human feeling, such as is not shown, I believe,
+by any other animal. It is not the desire of praise, as he never
+notices people looking on; it is simply the desire to achieve an
+object for the sake of achieving an object, and he never rests
+nor allows his attention to be distracted until it is done....</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">&quot;As my sister once observed while we were watching him conducting
+some of his researches, in oblivion to his food and all his other
+surroundings&mdash;'When a monkey behaves like this it is no wonder
+that man is a scientific animal!'&quot;<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>In the highest mammals we find also different degrees of attention
+and concentration of thought and observation. This difference can
+easily be noticed in young hunting dogs. A trainer of monkeys said
+that he could easily select those which could most easily be taught,
+by noticing in the first lesson whether he could easily gain and
+hold their attention. This was easy with some, while others were
+diverted by every passing fly; and the latter, like heedless
+students, made but slow progress.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to notice that one of the perceptions which we
+class among the highest is apparently developed comparatively early.
+I refer to the &aelig;sthetic perception of the beautiful. Now, the
+perception of beauty is generally considered as not very far below
+or <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span>removed from the perception of truth and right. But some insects
+and birds apparently possess this perception and the corresponding
+emotion in no low degree. The colors of flowers seem to exist mainly
+for the attraction of insects to insure cross-fertilization, and
+certain insects seem to prefer certain colors. But you may say that
+these afford merely sense gratification like that which green
+affords to our eyes or sugar to our tastes.</p>
+
+<p>But does not the grouping of colors in the flower appeal to some
+&aelig;sthetic standard in the mind of the insect? What of the tail of the
+peacock? Its iridescent rings and eyes evidently appeal to something
+in the mind of the female. Do form and grouping minister to pure
+sense gratification? What of the song of the thrush? Does not the
+orderly and harmonious arrangement of notes and cadences appeal to
+some standard of order of arrangement, and hence idea of harmony, in
+the mind of the bird's mate?</p>
+
+<p>Now, I grant you readily that the A B C of this training is mere
+sense gratification at the sight of bright colors. Most insects and
+birds have probably not advanced much beyond this first lesson.
+Savages have generally stopped there or reverted to it. But any
+appreciation of form and harmonious arrangement of cadence and
+colors seems to me at least to demand some perception which we must
+call &aelig;sthetic, or dangerously near it. But here you must judge
+carefully for yourselves lest you be misled. For remember, please,
+that those schemes of psychology farthest removed from, and least
+readily reconcilable to, the theory of evolution maintain that
+perception of beauty is the work of the rational faculty, which also
+perceives truth <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span>and right in much the same way that it perceives
+and recognizes beauty. If the animal has the &aelig;sthetic perception, it
+has the faculty which, at the next higher stage of development, will
+perceive, and recognize as such, both truth and right. We are
+considering no unimportant question; for on our answer to this
+depends our answer to questions of far greater importance.</p>
+
+<p>Does it look as if the animal had begun to learn the first rudiments
+of the great science of rights, of his own rights and those of
+others? This is an exceedingly difficult question, though often
+answered unhesitatingly in the negative. But what of the division of
+territory by the dogs in oriental cities, a division evidently
+depending upon something outside of mere brute strength and power to
+maintain, and their respect of boundaries? The female is allowed, I
+am told by an eye-witness long resident in Constantinople, to
+distribute her puppies in unoccupied spots through the city without
+interference. But when she has once located them, she is not allowed
+to return and visit them, or pass that way again. So the account by
+Dr. Washburn of platoons of dogs coming in turn, and peaceably, to
+feed on a dead donkey in the streets of Constantinople, would seem
+to be most naturally explained by some dim recognition of rights.
+Rook communities have not received the attention and investigation
+which they deserve, but their actions are certainly worthy of
+attention. Concerning the sense of ownership in dogs and other
+mammals opinions differ, and yet many facts are most naturally
+explained on such a supposition.</p>
+
+<p>Just one more question in this connection, for we <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span>are in the
+borderland or twilightland where it is much safer to ask questions
+than to attempt to answer them. How do you explain the &quot;instinctive&quot;
+fear of man on the part of wild and fierce animals? They certainly
+do not quail before his brute strength, for a blow at such a time
+breaks the charm and insures an attack. They quail before his eye
+and look. Is not this the answering of a personality in the animal
+to the personality in man; a recognition of something deeper than
+bone and muscle? And may not, as Mr. Darwin has urged, this fear in
+the presence of a higher personality be the dim foreshadowing of an
+awe which promises indefinitely better things? Is, after all, the
+attachment of a dog to his master something far deeper than an
+appetite for bones or pats, or a fear of kicks?</p>
+
+<p>A host of other and similar questions throng upon us here, to no one
+of which we can give a definite answer. We need more investigation,
+more light. We must not rest contented with old prejudices or accept
+with too great certainty new explanations. The questions are worthy
+of careful and patient investigation. The study of comparative
+anatomy has thrown a flood of light on the structure and working of
+the human body in health and disease. We shall never fully
+understand the mind of man until we know more of the working of the
+mind of the animal.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem to be clear that there is a sequence of dominance in
+the faculties of the intellect. First, the only means of acquiring
+knowledge is through sense-perception. But memory dawns far down in
+the animal kingdom. And thus the animal begins to associate past
+experience with present objects. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span>bee remembers the gaining of
+honey in the past, associated with the color of the flower which she
+now sees, and knows that honey is to be attained again. Thus in time
+association leads to inference, and understanding has dawned. But
+the highest faculty of the intellect is the rational intelligence,
+which perceives beauty, truth, and goodness. This is the last to
+develop. Traces of its working may be perhaps discovered below man,
+but only in man does it become dominant. Through it I perceive my
+rights and duties, and come to the consciousness of my own
+personality as a moral agent. This tells me of the relation of my
+own personality to other persons and things. And these are evidently
+the most important objects of human study. The attainment of this
+knowledge and the development of this faculty are evidently the goal
+of human intellectual development. This it is which has insured
+progress and raised man ever higher above the brutes.</p>
+
+<p>Before we can proceed to the study of the will we must clearly
+recognize and define certain modes of mental and nervous action,
+which sooner or later manifest themselves in muscular activity. For,
+while certain of our bodily activities are clearly voluntary, others
+take place wholly, or in part independently, of the individual will.
+Between these different modes of bodily action we must distinguish
+as clearly as may be possible.</p>
+
+<p>1. Reflex Action. I touch something cold or hot in the dark,
+suddenly and unexpectedly. I draw back my hand involuntarily and
+before I have perceived the sensation of cold or heat. You tell me
+to keep my eyes open while you make a sudden pass at them <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span>with your
+hand. I try hard to do so, but my eyes shut for all that. I shut
+them unconsciously and against my own will. I say, &quot;They shut of
+themselves.&quot; Now, this is not true, but the explanation is not
+difficult. These and similar actions are entirely possible, although
+the continuity between spinal marrow and brain may have been so
+interrupted by some accident that sensation in the reflexly active
+part fails altogether. A bird flaps its wings after its head is cut
+off, and yet the seat of consciousness and will is certainly in the
+brain. A patient with a &quot;broken back,&quot; and paralyzed in his legs,
+will draw up his feet if they are tickled, although he is entirely
+unable to move them by any effort of his will and has no
+consciousness of the irritation.</p>
+
+<p>The physiological action is in this case clear. The vibration of the
+nerve caused by the tickling travels from the foot to the
+appropriate centre in the spinal marrow, and here gives rise to, or
+is switched off as, a motor impulse travelling back to the muscles
+of the leg, causing them to contract. In the injured patient the
+nervous impulse cannot reach the brain, the seat of consciousness,
+and hence this is not awakened. Normally consciousness does result
+in a majority of such cases, but only after the beginning or
+completion of the appropriate action. Yet the movements of our
+internal organs, intestine and heart, go on continually, and in
+health we remain entirely unconscious of their action.</p>
+
+<p>But reflex actions may be anything but simple. We walk and talk, and
+write or play the piano without ever thinking of a single muscle or
+organ. Yet we had once to learn with much effort to take each step
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span>or frame each letter. Thus actions, originally conscious and
+intended, easily become reflex; often repeated the brain leaves
+their control to the lower centres. We often say, &quot;I did not intend
+to do that; I could not help it.&quot; We forget that this excuse is our
+worst condemnation. It is a confession that we have allowed or
+encouraged a habit to wear a groove from which the wheels of our
+life cannot escape. The essential characteristic of reflex action is
+therefore that from beginning to completion it goes on independently
+of consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>2. Instinct. This is a much-abused word. It is frequently applied to
+all the mental actions of animals without much thought or care as to
+its meaning. Let us gain a definition from the study of a typical
+case lest we use the word as a cloak for ignorance or negligent
+thoughtlessness. Watch a spider building its wonderful geometrical
+web. The web is a work of art, and every motion of the spider
+beautifully adapted to its purpose. But the spider is not therefore
+necessarily an artist. Let us see of how much the spider is probably
+conscious, remembering that our best judgment is but an inference.
+We have good reason to believe that she is conscious of the stimulus
+to action, hunger. She may be, probably is, conscious of the end to
+be attained&mdash;to catch a fly for her dinner. She seems conscious of
+what she is doing. In all these respects this differs from reflex
+action. But she is probably unconscious of the exact fitness of the
+means to the end. We do not believe that she has adopted the
+geometrical pattern, because she has discovered or calculated that
+this will make the closest and largest net for the smallest outlay
+of labor and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span>material. Furthermore the young spider builds
+practically as good a web as the old one. She has inherited the
+power, not developed or gained it by experience or observation. And
+all the members of the species have inherited it in much the same
+degree of perfection.</p>
+
+<p>Concerning the origin of instincts there are several theories. Some
+instincts would seem to be the result of non-intelligent, perhaps
+unconscious, habits becoming fixed by heredity and improved by
+natural selection; others would appear to be modifications of
+actions originally due to intelligence. Instinct is therefore
+characterized by consciousness of the stimulus to act, of the means
+and end, without the knowledge of the exact adaptation of means to
+end. It is hereditary and characterizes species or large groups.</p>
+
+<p>3. Intelligent Action. You come in cold and sit down before an open
+fire. You push the brands together to make the fire burn. Applying
+once more the criterion of consciousness to this action we notice
+that you are conscious of the stimulus to act, of the steps of the
+action, and of the end to be attained, exactly as in instinctive
+action. But finally, and this is the essential characteristic of
+intelligent action, you are aware to a certain extent of the fitness
+of the means to the attainment of the end. This piece of knowledge
+you had to acquire for yourself. Erasmus Darwin defined a fool as a
+man who had never tried an experiment. Experience and observation,
+not heredity, are the sources of intelligence. Intelligence is power
+to think, and a man may be very learned&mdash;for do we not have learned
+pigs?&mdash;and yet have very little real intelligence. Hence this is
+possessed by different individuals in very varying degrees.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span>We may now briefly compare these three kinds of nervous action.</p>
+
+<p>Reflex action is involuntary and unconscious. The actor may, and
+usually does, become conscious of the action after it has been
+commenced or completed, but this is not at all necessary or
+universal.</p>
+
+<p>Instinctive action is to a certain extent voluntary and conscious.
+The actor is conscious of the stimulus, the means and mode, and the
+end or purpose of the action. Of the exact fitness or adaptation of
+the means to the end the actor is unconscious.</p>
+
+<p>Intelligent action is conscious and voluntary. The actor is
+conscious of the stimulus to act, of the means and mode, and to a
+certain extent of the adaptation of the means to the end. This last
+item of knowledge, lacking in instinctive action, is acquired by
+experience or observation.</p>
+
+<p>Reflex action may be regarded as a comparatively mechanical, though
+often very complex, process; the reflex ganglia appear to be hardly
+more than switch-boards. There is stimulus of the sense-organs, and
+thus what Mr. Romanes has called &quot;unfelt sensation,&quot; unfelt as far
+as the completion of the action is concerned. But in instinct the
+sensation no longer remains unfelt; perception is necessary,
+consciousness plays a part. And this consciousness is a vastly more
+subtle element, differing as much apparently from the vibration of
+brain, or nervous, molecules as the Geni from the rubbing of
+Aladdin's lamp, to borrow an illustration.</p>
+
+<p>But this element of consciousness is one which it is exceedingly
+difficult to detect in our analysis, and yet upon it our
+classification and the psychic position of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span>an animal must to a
+great extent depend. The am&oelig;ba contracts when pricked,
+jelly-fishes swim toward the light, the earthworm, &quot;alarmed&quot; by the
+tread of your foot, withdraws into its hole. Are these and similar
+actions reflex or instinctive? A grain of consciousness preceding an
+action which before has been reflex changes it into instinct. Mr.
+Romanes, probably correctly, regards them as purely reflex. We must,
+I think, believe that these actions result in consciousness even in
+the lowest forms. The selection and attainment of food certainly
+looks like conscious action. Probably all nerve-cells or nervous
+material were originally, even in the lowest forms, dimly conscious;
+then by division of labor some became purely conductive, others more
+highly perceptive. The important thing for us to remember in our
+present ignorance is not to be dogmatic.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, the gain of a grain of consciousness of the adaptation
+of certain means to special ends changes instinctive action into
+intelligent, and its loss may reverse the process. Fortunately we
+have found that in so far as actions, even instinctive, are modified
+by experience, they are becoming to that extent intelligent. This
+criterion of intelligence seems easily applied. But this profiting
+by experience must manifest itself within the lifetime of the
+individual, or in lines outside of circumstances to which its
+ordinary instincts are adapted, or we may give to individual
+intelligence the credit due really to natural selection. We must be
+cautious in our judgments.</p>
+
+<p>These reflex actions are performed independently of consciousness or
+will. Consciousness may, probably does, attend the selection and
+grasping of food; but <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span>most of the actions of the body will go on
+better without its interference. It is not yet sufficiently
+developed, or, so to speak, wise enough to be intrusted with much
+control of the animal.</p>
+
+<p>Among higher worms cases of instinct seem proven. Traces of it will
+almost certainly be yet found much lower down. Fresh-water mussels
+migrate into deeper water at the approach of cold weather. And if
+the clam has instincts, there is no reason why the turbellaria
+should not also possess them. But all higher powers develop
+gradually, and their beginnings usually elude our search. Along the
+line leading from annelids to insects instinct is becoming dominant.
+A supra&oelig;sophageal ganglion has developed, and has been relieved
+of most of the direct control of the muscles. Very good sense-organs
+are also present. From this time on consciousness becomes clearer,
+and the brain is beginning to assert its right to at least know what
+is going on in the body, and to have something to say about it.
+Still, as long as the actions remain purely instinctive the brain,
+while conscious, is governed by heredity. The animal does as its
+ancestors always have. It does not occur to it to ask why it should
+do thus or otherwise, or whether other means would be better fitted
+to the end in view. It acts exactly like most of the members of our
+great political and theological parties. And until the animal has a
+better brain this is its best course and is favored by natural
+selection.</p>
+
+<p>But the hand of even the best dead ancestors cannot always be
+allowed to hold the helm. The brain is still enlarging, the
+sense-organs bring in fuller and more definite reports of a wider
+environment. Greater <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span>freedom of action by means of a stronger
+locomotive system is bringing continually new and varied
+experiences. And if, as in vertebrates, longer life be added,
+frequent repetition of the experience deepens the impression.
+Slowly, as if tentatively, the animal begins to modify some of its
+instincts, at first only in slight details, or to adopt new lines of
+action not included in its old instincts, but suited to the new
+emergencies. This is the dawn of intelligence. Its beginnings still
+remain undiscovered. Mr. Darwin believes that traces of it can be
+found in earthworms and other annelids. He also tells us that
+oysters taken from a depth never uncovered by the sea, and
+transported inland, open their shells, lose the contained water, and
+die; but that left in reservoirs, where they are occasionally left
+uncovered for a short time, they learn to keep their shells shut,
+and live for a much longer time when removed from the water. If
+oysters can learn by experience, lower worms probably can do the
+same.</p>
+
+<p>Certain experiments made on sea-anemones, actin&aelig; animals a little
+more highly organized than hydra, demand repetition under careful
+observation.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The observer placed on one of the tentacles of a
+sea-anemone a bit of paper which had been dipped in beef-juice. It
+was seized and carried to the mouth and here discarded. This
+tentacle after one or two experiments refused to have anything more
+to do with it. But other tentacles could be successively cheated.
+The nerve-cells governing each tentacle appear to have been able to
+learn by experience, but each group in the diffuse nervous system
+had to learn separately. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span>The dawn of this much of intelligence far
+down in the animal kingdom would not be surprising, for the
+selection and grasping of food has always involved higher mental
+power than most of the actions of these lowest animals. Memory goes
+far down in the animal kingdom. Perhaps, as Professor Haeckel has
+urged, it is an ultimate mental property of protoplasm. And the
+memory of past experience would continually tend to modify habit or
+instinct.</p>
+
+<p>It is unsafe, therefore, to say just where intelligence begins. At a
+certain point we find dim traces of it; below that we have failed to
+find them. But that they will not be found, we dare not affirm. In
+the highest insects instinct predominates, but marks of intelligence
+are fairly abundant. Ants and wasps modify their habits to suit
+emergencies which instinct alone could hardly cope with. Bees learn
+to use grafting wax instead of propolis to stop the chinks in their
+hives, and soon cease to store up honey in a warm climate.</p>
+
+<p>Our knowledge of vertebrate psychology is not yet sufficient to give
+a history of the struggle for supremacy between instinct and
+intelligence, between inherited tendency and the consciousness of
+the individual. But the outcome is evident; intelligence prevails,
+instinct wanes. The actions of the young may be purely instinctive;
+it is better that they should be. But instinct in the adult is more
+and more modified by intelligence gained by experience. There is
+perhaps no more characteristic instinct than the habit of
+nest-building in birds. And yet there are numerous instances where
+the structure and position of nests have been completely changed to
+suit new circumstances. And the view that this habit is a pure
+instinct, unmodified<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>[134]</span> by intelligence, has been disproved by Mr.
+Wallace. But while size of brain, keenness of sense-organs, and
+length of life may be rightly emphasized as the most important
+elements in the development of vertebrate intelligence, the
+importance of the appendages should never be forgotten. Cats seem to
+have acquired certain accomplishments&mdash;opening doors, ringing
+door-bells, etc.&mdash;never attained by the more intelligent dog, mainly
+because of the greater mobility and better powers of grasping of the
+forepaws. The elephant has its trunk and the ape its hand. The power
+of handling and the increased size of the brain aided each other in
+a common advance.</p>
+
+<p>The teachableness of mammals is also a sign of high intelligence.
+The young are often taught by the parent, a dim foreshadowing of the
+human family relation. And we notice this capacity in domestic
+animals because of its practical value to man. And here, too, we
+notice the difference between individuals, which fails in instinct.
+All spiders of the same species build and hunt alike, although
+differences caused by the moulding influence of intelligence will
+probably be here discovered. But among individual dogs and horses we
+find all degrees of intelligence from absolute stupidity to high
+intelligence. And many mammals are slandered grievously by man. The
+pig is not stupid, far from it.</p>
+
+<p>Still only in man does intelligence reign supreme and clearly show
+its innate powers. But even in man certain realms, like those of the
+internal organs, are rarely invaded by consciousness, but are
+normally left to the control of reflex action. These actions go on
+better without the interference of consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>But other lines of action are relegated as rapidly as <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>[135]</span>possible to
+the same control. We learn to walk by a conscious effort to take
+each step; afterward we take each step automatically, and think only
+whither we wish to go. We learn by conscious effort to talk and
+write, to sing, or play the piano. Afterward we frame each letter or
+note automatically, and think only of the idea and its expression.</p>
+
+<p>So also in our moral and spiritual nature.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>There has been therefore in the successive forms and stages of
+animal life a clear sequence of dominant nervous actions. The
+actions of all animals below the annelid are mainly reflex or
+automatic, unconscious and involuntary. But in insects and lower
+vertebrates the highest actions at least are instinctive.
+Consciousness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>[136]</span> plays a continually more important part. Still the
+actions are controlled by hereditary tendency far more than by the
+will of the individual. But in man instinct has been almost entirely
+replaced by conscious, voluntary, intelligent action. And yet in
+man, as rapidly as possible, actions which at first require
+conscious effort become, through repetition and habit, reflex and
+automatic. All our conscious effort and the energy of the will,
+being no longer required for these oft-repeated actions, are set
+free for higher attainments. The territory which had to be conquered
+by hard battles has become an integral part of the realm. It now
+hardly requires even a garrison, but has become a source of supplies
+for a new advance and march of conquest.</p>
+
+<p>But all this time we have been talking about action and have not
+given a thought to the will. And we have spoken as if conscious
+perception and intelligence directly controlled will and action. But
+this is of course incorrect. Will is practically power of choice.
+You ask me whether I prefer this or that, and I answer perhaps that
+I do not care. Until I &quot;care&quot; I shall never choose. The perception
+must arouse some feeling, if it is to result in choice. I see a
+diamond in the road and think it is merely a piece of glass. I do
+not stop. But as I am passing on; I remember that there was a
+remarkable brilliancy in its flash. It must have been, after all, a
+gem. My feelings are aroused. How proud I shall feel to wear it. Or
+how much money I can get for it. Or how glad the owner will be when
+it is returned to her. I turn back and search eagerly. Perception is
+necessary, but it is only the first step. The perception must excite
+some feeling, if choice or exertion of the will is to follow. This
+is a truism.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>[137]</span>Now reflex action takes place independently of consciousness or
+will. Instinctive action may be voluntary, but it is, after all, not
+so much the result of individual purpose as of hereditary tendency.
+Is there then no will in the animal until it has become intelligent?
+I think there has been a sort of voluntary action all the time. Even
+the am&oelig;ba selects or chooses, if I may use the word, its food
+among the sand grains. And the will is stimulated to act by the
+appetite. Hunger is the first teacher. And how did appetite develop?
+Why does the animal hunger for just the food suited to its digestion
+and needs? We do not know. And the reproductive appetite soon
+follows. One of these results from the condition of the digestive,
+the other from that of the reproductive, cells or protoplasm. These
+appetites are due to some condition in a part of the organism and
+can be <i>felt</i>. They are in a sense not of the mind but of the body.
+And the response to them on the part of the mind is in some respects
+almost comparable to reflex action. But the mode of the response is,
+to a certain extent at least, within the control of consciousness.
+They train and spur the will as pure reflex action never could. But
+the will is as yet hardly more than the expression of these
+appetites. It expresses not so much its own decision as that of the
+stomach. It is the body's slave and mouthpiece. And once again it is
+best and safest for the animal that it should be so.</p>
+
+<p>And these appetites are at first comparatively feeble. There is but
+little muscle or nerve and but little food is required. But these
+continually strengthen and spur the will harder and more frequently.
+And the will stirs up the weary and flagging muscles. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>[138]</span>will may
+be a poor slave and the appetites hard taskmasters. But under their
+stern discipline it is growing stronger and more completely
+subjugating the body. Better slavery to hard taskmasters than
+rottenness from inertia. The first requirement is power, activity,
+and then this power can be directed to ever higher ends. You cannot
+steer the vessel until she has sails or an engine; with no &quot;way on&quot;
+she will not mind the helm, she only drifts. But the condition of
+the animal at this stage certainly looks very unpromising. Can the
+will emancipate itself from appetite and control it? Or is it to
+remain the slave of the body?</p>
+
+<p>In time an emotion appears which marks the influence not directly of
+the body but of the individual consciousness. This is fear; it is
+for the body, but not, like hunger, directly of it. It arises in the
+mind. It results from experience and memory. The first animal which
+feared took a long step upward. But when and where was the dawn of
+fear? I touch a sea-anemone and it contracts. Has it felt fear? I
+think not. The action certainly may be purely reflex. Natural
+selection, not mind, deserves the credit of that action. But I am
+sure that the cat fears the dog, or the dog the cat, as the case may
+be. I have little or no doubt that the bird fears the cat. I am
+inclined to believe that the insect fears the bird and the spider
+the wasp. But does the highest worm fear? I do not know. I do not
+see how there can have been any fear until there was a nerve-centre
+highly enough developed to remember past experiences of danger and
+fair sense-organs to report the present risk.</p>
+
+<p>Other emotions soon follow. Anger appears early. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>[139]</span>The order of
+appearance of these emotions or motives I shall not attempt to give
+to you. Indeed this is to us of relatively slight importance. The
+important point to notice is that a host of these have appeared in
+mammals and birds, and that each one of these is a new spur to the
+will. And the will of a horse or dog, to say nothing of a pig, is by
+no means feeble. And these are slowly emancipating the animal from
+the tyranny of appetite. But how slow the progress is! Has the
+emancipation yet become complete in man? I need not answer.</p>
+
+<p>The will has in part, at least, escaped from abject slavery to
+appetite; it sometimes rises superior to fear. But it is evidently
+self-centred. The animal may have forgotten the claims of his dead
+ancestors, he is certainly fully alive to his own interests. Can he
+even partially rise superior to prudential considerations, as he has
+to some extent to the claims of appetite? Is it possible to develop
+the unselfish out of the purely selfish? And if so, how is this to
+be accomplished? It is not accomplished in the animal; it is but
+very incompletely accomplished in man. It will be accomplished one
+day.</p>
+
+<p>In action, at least, the animal is not purely selfish. As Mr.
+Drummond has shown, reproduction, that old function and first to
+gain an organ, is not primarily for the benefit of self, but for the
+species. And not only the storing up of material in the egg, but
+care for the young after birth, is found in some fish and insects,
+and increases from fish upward. I readily grant you that this in its
+beginnings may be purely instinctive, and that not a particle of
+genuine affection for the young may as yet be present in the mind of
+the parent. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a>[140]</span>But beneficial habits may, under the fostering care of
+selection, develop into instincts. The animal may at first be
+unconscious of these, and yet they may grow continually stronger.
+But one day the animal awakens to its actions, and from that time on
+what had been done blindly and unconsciously is continued
+consciously, intelligently, and from set purpose. This story is
+repeated over and over again in the history of the animal-kingdom.
+The care for the young once started as an instinct, affection will
+follow from the very association of parent with young. Certainly in
+birds and mammals there seems to be a very genuine love of the
+parents for their young. This is at first short lived, and the young
+are and have to be driven away, often by harsh treatment, to shift
+for themselves. But while it lasts it certainly seems entirely real
+and genuine. And how strong it is. &quot;A bear robbed of her whelps&quot; is
+no meaningless expression. And even the weak and timid bird or
+mammal becomes strong and fierce in defence of her young. In the
+presence of this emotion appetite and fear are alike forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>But this affection or love once started does not remain limited to
+parent and offspring. Mammals, especially the higher forms, are
+social. They frequently go in herds and troops, and appear to have a
+genuine affection for each other. You all know how in herds of
+cattle or wild horses the males form a circle around the females and
+young at the approach of wolves. A troop of orangs were surprised by
+dogs at a little distance from their shelter. The old male orangs
+formed a ring and beat off the dogs until the females and young
+could escape, and then retreated. But as they were now in
+comparative safety a cry came from one <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>[141]</span>young one, who had been
+unable to keep up in the scramble over the rocks, and was left on a
+bowlder surrounded by the dogs. Then one old orang turned back,
+fought his way through the dogs, tucked the little fellow under one
+arm, fought his way out with the other, and brought the young one to
+safety. I call that old orang a hero, but I am prejudiced and may
+easily be mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>In a cage in a European zo&ouml;logical garden there were kept together a
+little American monkey and a large baboon of which the former was
+greatly afraid. The keeper, to whom the little monkey was strongly
+attached, was one day attacked and thrown down by the baboon and in
+danger of being killed. Then the little monkey ran to his help, and
+bit and beat his tyrant companion until he allowed the keeper to
+escape. We are all proud that the little monkey was an American.</p>
+
+<p>Instances of disinterested actions are so common among dogs and
+horses that farther illustrations are entirely unnecessary. And
+disinterested action is limited to fewer cases because the
+environment is rarely suited to its development in the animal world.
+But do you answer that the affection of the dog is never really
+disinterested, but a very refined form of selfishness. Possibly. But
+it were to be greatly desired that selfishness would more frequently
+take that same refined form among men. But I cannot see how
+selfishness can ever become so refined as to lead an animal to die
+of grief over its master's grave.</p>
+
+<p>And if refined selfishness were all, I for one cannot help believing
+that the dog would long ago have been asleep on a full stomach
+before the kitchen fire. Has <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>[142]</span>no attempt been made to prove that all
+human actions are due to selfishness more or less refined? It is
+very unwise to apply tests and use arguments concerning animals
+which, if applied with equal strictness to human conduct, would
+prove human society irrational and purely selfish.</p>
+
+<p>Mammals may be self-centred. But the highest forms have set their
+faces away from self and toward the non-self; some have at least
+started on the road which leads to unselfishness.</p>
+
+<p>And man is governed to a certain extent by prudential
+considerations. If he entirely disregarded these he would not be
+wise. But the development of the rational faculty has brought before
+his mind a series of motives higher than these, which are slowly but
+surely superseding them. Truth, right, and duty are motives of a
+different order. With regard to these there can be no question of
+profit or loss. Here the mind cannot stop to ask, Will it pay? Self
+must be left out of account.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;When duty whispers low, Thou must,<br /></span>
+<span>The soul replies, I can.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And thus man rises above appetite, above prudential considerations,
+and becomes a free and moral agent. And family and social life bring
+him into new relations, press home upon him new duties and
+responsibilities, every one of which is a new motive compelling him
+to rise above self. And thus the unselfish, altruistic emotions have
+made man what he is, and are in him, ever advancing toward their
+future supremacy. But some one will say, This is a very pretty
+theory; it is not history. But the perception of truth and right <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>[143]</span>is
+certainly a fact, the result of ages of development. And the very
+highest which the intellect can perceive is bound to become the
+controlling motive of the will. It always has been so. It must be
+so, if evolution is not to be purely degeneration. Thus only has man
+become what he is. And the voice of the people demanding truth and
+justice, whenever and wherever they see them, is the voice of God
+promising the future triumph of righteousness. For it is proof
+positive that man's face is resolutely set toward these, as his
+ancestors have always marched steadily toward that which was the
+highest possible attainment.</p>
+
+<p>We find thus that there is a sequence in the motives which control
+the will. The first and lowest motives are the appetites, and here
+the will is the mouthpiece of the bodily organs. Then fear and a
+host of other prudential considerations appear. The lowest of these
+tend purely to the gratification of the senses or to the avoidance
+of bodily discomfort. But they originate in the mind, and that is a
+great gain. But the higher prudential considerations take into
+account something higher than mere bodily comfort or discomfort.
+Approbation and disapprobation are motives which weigh heavily with
+the higher mammals. The lower prudential considerations are purely
+selfish. The higher ones, which stimulate to action for
+fellow-animals or men, show at least the dawn of unselfishness. And
+the altruistic motives, which stimulate to action for the happiness
+and welfare of others, predominate in, and are characteristic of,
+man. The human will is slowly rising above the dominance of
+selfishness. With the dawn of the rational perception of truth,
+right, and duty, the very highest motives begin to gain <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>[144]</span>control.
+And the will becomes more and more powerful as the motives become
+higher. It is almost a mis-use of language to speak of the will of a
+slave of appetite. He is governed by the body, not at all by the
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>The man who is governed by prudential considerations, and is always
+asking, Will it pay? is the incarnation of fickleness, instability,
+and feebleness. The apparent strength of the selfish will is usually
+a hollow sham. But truth, right, and love are motives stronger than
+death. And the will, dominated by these, gives the body to be
+burned. The man of the future will have an iron will, because he
+will keep these highest motives constantly before his mind.</p>
+
+<p>In the preceding lectures we have traced the sequence of functions
+and have found that brain and mind, not digestion and muscle, are
+the goal of animal development. In this lecture we have attempted to
+trace a corresponding series of functions in the realm of mind. We
+have found, I think, that there has been an orderly and logical
+development of perceptions, modes of action, and finally of motives
+in the animal mind. Let us now briefly review this history and see
+whether it throws any light on the path of man's future progress.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the sensory cells of the animal minister at first to reflex
+action, and there is thus little true perception. The stimuli which
+have called forth the reflex action may result afterward in
+consciousness; but until brain and muscle have reached a higher
+grade, this could be of but slight benefit to the animal. Perception
+and consciousness are exercised mainly in the recognition and
+attainment of food. When the animal <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>[145]</span>begins to show fear, we may
+feel tolerably certain that it has been conscious of past experience
+of danger and remembers these experiences. 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 &aelig;sthetic 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. And in this connection it is
+interesting to notice the great results of man's training and
+education in the dog. For the wolf and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>[146]</span>the jackal, the dog's
+nearest relatives, if not his actual ancestors, are not especially
+intelligent mammals. Compared with them the dog is a sage and a
+saint.</p>
+
+<p>The earliest form of action is the reflex. This is independent of
+both consciousness and will. The only conscious voluntary action of
+the animal is limited mainly or entirely to the recognition and
+attainment of food. The motive for the exertion of the will is the
+appetite, and the will is the slave or mouthpiece of the body. Far
+higher than this is the stage of instinct. Here the animal is
+conscious of its actions and new motives begin to appear. But the
+animal is guided by tendencies inherited from its ancestors. The
+will has, so to speak, advisory power; it is by no means supreme.
+But with a wider and deeper knowledge of its environment, with the
+memory of past experiences, carried by the higher locomotive powers
+into new surroundings, brought face to face with new emergencies
+outside of the range of its old instincts, it is compelled to try
+some experiments of its own. It begins to modify these instincts,
+and in time altogether does away with many of them. It has risen a
+little above its old abject slavery to the appetites, it is slowly
+throwing off the bondage to heredity. New emotions or motives have
+arisen appealing directly to the individual will. The heir has been
+long enough under guardians and regents, it assumes the government
+and can rightly say, &quot;L'&eacute;tat, c'est moi.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But a greater problem confronts it; can it rise above self? The
+animal often seems absolutely selfish. Can the unselfish be
+developed out of the selfish? This seems at first sight impossible.
+And the first lessons are so easy, the first steps so short, that we
+do not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>[147]</span>notice them. Reproduction comes to the aid of mind. The
+young are born more and more immature. They begin to receive the
+care of the parent. The love of the parent for the young is at first
+short lived and feeble. But it is the genuine article, and, like the
+mustard-seed planted in good soil, must grow. It strengthens and
+deepens. Soon it begins to widen also. Social life, very rude and
+imperfect, appears. And the members of this social group support,
+help, and defend one another. And doing for one another and helping
+each other, however slightly and imperfectly, strengthens their
+affection for one another. The animal is still selfish, so is man
+frequently, but it is in a fair way to become unselfish, and this is
+all we can reasonably expect of it.</p>
+
+<p>For these are vast revolutions from reflex action to instinct, and
+from instinct to the reign of the individual will, and from appetite
+to selfishness on the ground of higher motives, and from immediate
+gratification to prudential considerations. And the crowning change
+of all is from selfishness to love. And each one of them takes time.
+Remember that the Old Testament history is the record of how God
+taught one little people that there is but one God, Jehovah. Think
+of the struggles, defeats, and captivities which the Israelites had
+to undergo before they learned this lesson, and even then only a
+fraction of the people ever learned it at all. As the prophet
+foretold, so it came to pass. Though Israel was as the sand by the
+sea-shore, but a remnant was saved.</p>
+
+<p>But while we seek to do full justice to the animal, let us not
+underestimate the vast differences between it and man. The true
+evolutionist takes no low view <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>[148]</span>of man's present actual attainments;
+in his possibilities he has a larger faith than that of the
+disbeliever in evolution. In intelligence and thought, in will power
+and freedom of choice, in one word, in all that makes up character
+and personality, man is immeasurably superior to the animal. These
+powers raise him to a new plane of being, give him an indefinitely
+higher and broader life, and his appearance marks a new era. He
+alone is a moral, responsible being, to a certain extent the former
+of his own destiny and recorder of his doom, if he fails. This gives
+to all his actions a peculiar stamp of a dignity only his. What he
+is and is to be we must attempt to trace in another lecture. But to
+one or two characteristic results of his progress we must call
+attention here.</p>
+
+<p>The principal subject of man's study is not so much the things which
+surround him as his relation to them and theirs to each other. His
+environment has become really one, not so much one of tangible and
+visible objects as of invisible relations. And these will demand
+endless investigation. The more he studies them the more wonderful
+do they become. The vein broadens and grows indefinitely richer the
+deeper he searches into it. We find thus the purpose of the
+intellect; it is to study environment.</p>
+
+<p>And now a little about motives. The animal begins with appetite, and
+some animals and men never get any farther. And yet how easily this
+appetite for food is satiated! We all remember our experiences as
+children around the Thanksgiving or Christmas table. What a
+disappointment it was to us to find how soon our appetite had
+forsaken us, and that we had lost the power of enjoying the
+delicacies which we had most <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>[149]</span>anticipated. And over-indulgence often
+brought sad results and was followed by a period of penitential
+fasting. And the appetites for sense gratification must always lead
+to this result. They not only crave things which &quot;perish with the
+using;&quot; temporarily at least, often permanently, the appetite itself
+perishes with the gratification.</p>
+
+<p>But what of the appetite, if you will pardon the expression, for
+truth and right? All attainment only strengthens it; and, instead of
+enslaving, it makes men ever more free. And yet what a power there
+is in the appetite for truth and righteousness? In obedience to it
+man gives his body to be burned, or pours out his life-blood drop by
+drop for its attainment, and rejoices in the sacrifice. There are
+victims to appetite: there are only martyrs to truth. This soul
+hunger for truth and right, growing more intense as the soul is
+filled with the object of desire, is the only one capable of
+indefinite development and dominance of the will. This must be and
+is the mental goal of animal development, if man has a future
+corresponding in length at all to his past. Otherwise the history of
+life becomes a &quot;story told by an idiot.&quot; For its satisfaction is the
+only one which never causes satiety, and of which over-indulgence is
+impossible. All others lead only to a slough of despond, or the
+deeper and more treacherous slough of contentment, beyond which rise
+no delectable mountains or golden city.</p>
+
+<p>And now in closing let me call your attention to one thought of
+practical vital importance.</p>
+
+<p>According to the theory which we have agreed to adopt, higher
+species have arisen through a process of natural selection, those
+species surviving which are <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>[150]</span>best conformed to their environment.
+And this applies to man as well as to lower animals. All knowledge
+is in man, therefore, primarily, a means by which he may conform to
+environment, survive, and progress. But conformity includes more
+than mere knowledge of environment. A man might have all knowledge,
+and yet refuse to conform; and then his knowledge could not save him
+from destruction. For conformity alone gives survival. Conformity in
+man requires an effort of the will. It is intelligent, but it is
+also voluntary action. And knowledge is a necessary means of
+conformity because through it we see how we may conform, and because
+it furnishes the motives which stimulate the will to the necessary
+effort.</p>
+
+<p>Now, that faculty of the intellect which is dominant in man, and
+which has raised him immeasurably above the animal, and made him
+man, is the rational intelligence. If there is any such thing as a
+law of history or as continuity in evolution, man's future progress
+must depend upon his clearer vision and recognition of the
+perceptions of this faculty. Through it man perceives beauty, truth,
+and goodness, and attains knowledge of himself as a person and moral
+agent, and recognizes his rights and duties. Of all this the animal
+is and remains unconscious; indeed he is not yet a moral being and
+person in any proper sense of the word.</p>
+
+<p>Inasmuch as the rational perception is the dominant faculty in man,
+it must perceive the lines along which he is to conform. Truth,
+right, and duty must be his watchwords. These are to be the rules
+and motives of all his actions. He cannot live for the body, but for
+something higher, the mind. This was proven before <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>[151]</span>man appeared on
+the globe. He is to be a mental, intelligent being. But he is not to
+be governed by appetite or mere prudential considerations. These are
+animal, not human motives. These are not to be disregarded any more
+than digestion can be safely disregarded by man. But they are not to
+be his chief motives. He must subordinate these to the higher
+motives furnished by right and duty. Man is not merely a mental but
+a moral being. If he sinks below this plane of life he is not
+following the path marked out for him in all his past development.
+In order to progress, the higher vertebrate had to subordinate
+everything to mental development. In order to become man it had to
+develop the rational intelligence. In order to become higher man,
+present man must subordinate everything to moral development. This
+is the great law of animal and human development clearly revealed in
+the sequence of physical and mental functions.</p>
+
+<p>Must man be a religious being also? This question we must try to
+answer in a future lecture.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4">[4]</a> Romanes: Animal Intelligence, pp. 490, 498.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5">[5]</a> These experiments have been continued with most
+interesting and valuable results by Dr. G.H. Parker, of Harvard
+University.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6">[6]</a>
+Mr. James Freeman Clarke has stated this better than I
+can. &quot;We may state the law thus: 'Any habitual course of conduct
+changes voluntary actions into automatic or involuntary (<i>i.e.</i>,
+reflex) actions.' By practice man forms habits, and habitual action
+is automatic action, requiring no exercise of will except at the
+beginning of the series of acts. The law of association does the
+rest. As voluntary acts are transformed into automatic, the will is
+set free to devote itself to higher efforts and larger attainments.
+After telling the truth a while by an effort, we tell the truth
+naturally, necessarily, automatically. After giving to good objects
+for a while from principle, we give as a matter of course. Honesty
+becomes automatic; self-control becomes automatic. We rule over our
+spirit, repress ill-temper, keep down bad feelings, first by an
+effort, afterwards as a matter of course.<br /><br />
+
+&quot;Possibly these virtues really become incarnate in the bodily
+organization. Possibly goodness is made flesh and becomes
+consolidate in the fibres of the brain. Vices, beginning in the
+soul, seem to become at last bodily diseases; why may not virtues
+follow the same law? If it were not for some such law of
+accumulation as this, the work of life would have to be begun
+forever anew. Formation of character would be impossible. We should
+be incapable of progress, our whole strength being always employed
+in battling with our first enemies, learning evermore anew our
+earliest lessons. But by our present constitution he who has taken
+one step can take another, and life may become a perpetual advance
+from good to better. And the highest graces of all&mdash;Faith, Hope, and
+Love&mdash;obey the same law.&quot; See James Freeman Clarke, Every-Day
+Religion, p. 122.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>[152]</span>I have attempted to show that animal development has not been an
+aimless drifting. Functions developed and organs arose and were
+perfected in a certain order. First the purely vegetative organs
+appeared, and the animal lived for digestion and reproduction; then
+came muscle and it brought with it nerve. But these were not enough;
+the brain had all the time been gradually improving, and now it
+becomes the dominant function to which all others are subordinated.
+The experiment was fairly tried. Mere digestion and reproduction are
+carried to about the highest perfection which can be expected of
+them in worms and mollusks. The bird tried what could be done with
+digestion ministering to locomotion guided by the very keenest
+sense-organs and controlled by no mean brain. Even this experiment
+was not a success. But one organ remained, the brain, and on its
+mental possibilities depend the future of the animal kingdom.
+Vegetative organs and muscle have been tried and found wanting.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have followed hastily the development of mind. The mind began its
+career as the servant of digestion, recognizing and aiding to attain
+food. Action is at first mainly reflex. But conscious perception
+plays an ever more important part. The animal is at first guided by
+natural selection through the survival of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>[153]</span>the most suitable reflex
+actions, then by inherited tendencies, finally by its own conscious
+intelligence and will. The first motives are the appetites, but
+these are succeeded by ever higher motives as the perceptions become
+clearer and more subtile relations in environment are taken into
+account. Governed first purely by appetites, the will is ever more
+influenced by prudential considerations, and finally shows
+well-developed &quot;natural affections.&quot; It has set its face toward
+unselfishness.</p>
+
+<p>Digestion and muscle, as well as mind, have persisted in man. He is
+not, cannot be, disembodied spirit. And in his mental life reflex
+action and instinct, appetite and prudence, are still of great
+importance. But the higher and supreme development of these powers
+could never have resulted in man. They might alone have produced a
+superior animal, never man. His mammalian structure found its
+logical and natural goal in family and social life. And even the
+lowest goal of family life is incompatible with pure selfishness,
+and as family life advanced to an ever higher grade it became the
+school of unselfishness and love. And social life had a similar
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, man as a social being early began to learn that he could
+claim something from his fellows, and that he owed something to
+them. If he refused to help others, they would refuse to help him.
+This was his first, very rude lesson in rights and duties. Love,
+duty, and right have ever since been the watchwords of his
+development and progress. We have not yet considered, and must for
+the present disregard, the value and efficiency of religion in
+aiding his advance. At present we emphasize only the historical
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>[154]</span>fact that man has not become what he is by a higher development of
+the body, nor by giving free rein to appetite, nor yet by making the
+dictates of selfish prudence supreme. And if there is any such thing
+as continuity in history, such modes and aims of life, if now
+followed, would surely only brutalize him and plunge him headlong in
+degeneration. He must live for right, truth, love, and duty. In just
+so far as he makes any other aim in life supreme, or allows it to
+even rival these, he is sinking into brutality. This is the clear,
+unmistakable verdict of history, and we shall do well to heed it.</p>
+
+<p>But granting all that can be claimed for this sequence, have not the
+lower forms whose anatomy we have sketched&mdash;worm, fish, and
+bird&mdash;halted at various points along this line of march? Yet they
+have evidently survived. And if they have found safe resting-places,
+cannot higher forms turn back and join them? In other words, is not
+degeneration easier than advance and just as safe? What is the
+result if an animal tries to return to a lower plane of life or
+refuses to take the next upward step? Generally extermination. The
+very classification of worms in a number of small isolated groups,
+which must once have been connected by a host of intermediate forms,
+is indisputable proof of most terrible extermination. They did not
+go forward, and the survivors are but an infinitesimal fraction of
+those which perished. Let us take an illustration where pal&aelig;ontology
+can help us. The earth was at one time covered with marsupial
+mammals. Some advanced into placental forms. The great mass remained
+behind. And outside of Australia the opossums are the only survivors
+of them all. And this is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>[155]</span>only one example where a thousand could be
+given. Place is not long reserved for mere cumberers of the ground.
+There are so few exceptions to this statement that we might almost
+call it a law of biology.</p>
+
+<p>Let us see how it fares with an animal which retreats to a lower
+plane of life. A worm, rather than seek its own food, becomes a
+parasite. It degenerates, but still is easily recognized as a worm.
+A crustacean tries the same experiment, though living outside of its
+host instead of in it. It sinks to a place even lower, if possible,
+than that of the parasitic worm. A locomotive form becomes sessile.
+It loses most of its muscles and the larger part of its nervous
+system; and even the digestive system, which it has made the goal of
+its existence, is inferior to that of its locomotive ancestors and
+relatives. But to the vertebrate these lowest depths of stagnation
+and degeneration are, as a rule, impossible. From true fish upward
+parasitism and sessile life are practically impossible. Here
+stagnation and degeneration mean, as a rule, extinction. Of all the
+relatives of vertebrates back to worms only the very aberrant lines
+of amphioxus and of the tunicata remain. Of the rest not a single
+survivor has yet been discovered. And yet what hosts of species must
+have peopled the sea. The primitive round-mouthed fishes have
+practically disappeared. The ganoids survive in a few species out of
+thousands. The amphibia of the carboniferous and the next period and
+the reptiles of the mesozoic have disappeared; only a few feeble
+degenerate remnants persist. And this was necessarily so. Each
+advancing form crowded hardest on those which occupied the same
+place and sought the same food, that is, the members of the same
+species. And the first to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>[156]</span>suffer from its competition were its own
+brethren. Death, rarely commuted into life imprisonment, is the
+verdict pronounced on all forms which will not advance. And does not
+the same law of advance or extinction apply to man? What is the
+record of successive civilizations but its verification?</p>
+
+<p>Notice once more that as we ascend in the scale of development
+natural selection selects more unsparingly and the path to life
+narrows. It is a very easy matter for the lowest forms to get food.
+Indeed the plant sits still and its food comes to it. And the battle
+of brute force can be fought in a multitude of ways&mdash;by mere
+strength, by activity, by offensive or defensive armor, or even by
+running into the mud and skulking. It is harder to gain knowledge,
+and yet many roads lead to an education. Colleges are by no means
+the only seats of education. And many totally uneducated men have
+college diplomas. And life is, after all, the great university, and
+here the sluggard fails and the plucky man with the poor &quot;fit&quot; often
+carries off the honors.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;But where shall wisdom be found?<br /></span>
+<span>And where is the place of understanding?<br /></span>
+<span>The gold and the crystal cannot equal it:<br /></span>
+<span>And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.<br /></span>
+<span>No mention shall be made of corals or of pearls:<br /></span>
+<span>For the price of wisdom is above rubies.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And when it comes to righteousness there is only one right, and
+everything else is wrong. &quot;Wide is the gate and broad is the way
+that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat:
+Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>[157]</span>life, and few there be that find it.&quot; Therefore &quot;strive to enter in
+at the strait gate.&quot; And remember that &quot;strive&quot; means wrestle like
+one of the athletes in the old Olympic games.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent">&quot;I saw also that the Interpreter took Christian again by the hand
+and led him into a pleasant place, where was built a stately
+palace beautiful to behold; at the sight of which Christian was
+greatly delighted. He saw also, upon the top thereof, certain
+persons walking, who were clothed all in gold. Then said
+Christian, May we go in thither?</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">&quot;Then the Interpreter took him and led him up toward the door of
+the palace; and, behold, at the door stood a great company of
+men, as desirous to go in, but durst not. There also sat a man at
+a little distance from the door at a table-side, to take the name
+of him that should enter therein; he saw also that in the
+door-way stood many men in armour, to keep it, being resolved to
+do to the men that would enter what hurt and mischief they could.
+Now was Christian somewhat in amaze. At last, when every man
+started back for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man of a
+very stout countenance come up to the man that sat there to
+write, saying, Set down my name, Sir; the which when he had done,
+he saw the man draw his sword, and put an helmet upon his head,
+and rush toward the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him
+with deadly force; but the man, not at all discouraged, fell to
+cutting and hacking most fiercely. So after he had received and
+given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him out, he cut
+his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace, at
+which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that were
+within, even of those that walked upon the top of the palace
+saying:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;'Come in, come in;<br /></span>
+<span>eternal glory thou shalt win.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">&quot;So he went in, and was clothed in such garments as they.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">&quot;Then Christian smiled, and said, I think verily I know the
+meaning of this.&quot;&mdash;Bunyan's, Pilgrim's Progress, p. 44.</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>[158]</span>If you wish to climb the Matterhorn many paths lead up the lower
+slopes, and a stumble here may cost you only a sprain. And I suppose
+that several paths lead to the base of the cone. But thence to the
+summit there is but one path, and a misstep means death. Pardon
+these quotations and illustrations. They are my only means of at all
+adequately presenting to you a scientific man's conception of the
+meaning of the struggle for life. The laws of evolution are written
+in blood and bear the death penalty. For</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i5">&quot;Life is not as idle ore,<br /></span>
+<span>But iron dug from central gloom,<br /></span>
+<span>And heated hot with burning fears,<br /></span>
+<span>And dipt in baths of hissing tears,<br /></span>
+<span>And battered with the shocks of doom<br /></span>
+<span>To shape and use.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">There would seem therefore to be going on a process of natural
+selection. Natural selection seems to select more unsparingly and
+the struggle for life&mdash;or even existence&mdash;to grow fiercer as we
+advance from lower forms to higher in the animal kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>But the theory which we have agreed to accept teaches us that these
+survivors are those which or who have conformed to their environment
+and that they have survived because of their conformity. And what do
+we mean by environment? And does not man modify his environment?
+Certainly he changes by irrigation a desert into a garden. He
+carries water against its tendency to the hill-top. But he has
+learned to do this only by studying the laws which govern the
+motions of fluids and rigorously obeying them. He must carry his
+water in strong pipes and take it from <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>[159]</span>some higher point, or must
+use heat or some means to furnish the force to drive it to the
+higher point. He cannot change a single iota of the law, and gains
+control of the elements only by obedience to their laws. Electricity
+is man's best servant as long as he respects its laws, but it kills
+him who disobeys them. But does not man make his own surroundings in
+social life? He merely enters upon a new mode of life; and if this
+new mode be in conformity with the eternal forces and laws of
+environment man prospers in this new mode of life and conforms still
+more closely.</p>
+
+<p>There is, indeed, but one environment, but the lower animal comes in
+contact with, and is affected by, but a small portion of its
+elements. Form and color were in the world before the animal had
+developed an eye, but up to this time these could have but little
+effect on animal life. Light vibrations were present in ether long
+before the animal by responding to them made them any part of its
+own true environment. There is vastly more in environment than man
+has yet discovered, and he will discover these elements only by
+obedience to their laws.</p>
+
+<p>Environment includes ultimately all the forces and elements which go
+to make up our world or universe. It is an exceedingly general term.
+I might say that under the environment of certain wheels, springs,
+and spindles, which we call a Jacquard loom, silk threads become a
+ribbon worthy of a queen. Is Nature and environment only a huge
+divine loom to weave man and something higher yet? One great
+difference is evident. Under normal conditions the silk must become
+a ribbon. But protoplasm can fail to conform and become waste.
+Environment is a very hard <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>[160]</span>word to define, and our views concerning
+it may differ.</p>
+
+<p>One thing, however, seems to me clear and evident. If each
+successive stage in the ascending series is selected or survives on
+account of its conformity to environment there must be some element
+or power, something or somewhat in environment specially
+corresponding in some way to, or suited to drawing out, the
+characteristic of this ascending stage on account of which it
+survives. The forces and elements of environment make and work
+against those at each stage who wander from the right path, and for
+those who follow it. And thus natural selection arises as the total
+result of the combined working of all these forces. They all unite
+in one resultant working along a certain line, and natural selection
+is the effect of this resultant. In the stage represented by hydra
+the forces of environment combine in a resultant which works for
+digestion and reproduction and the best development of their organs.
+But as the animal changes he comes into a new relation or occupies a
+new position in respect to these forces. New elements in the old
+environment are beginning to press upon him. And the resultant
+changes accordingly. He may be compared to a steamer at sea which
+raises a sail. The wind has been blowing for hours, but the sail
+gives it a new hold on the ship. Steam and wind now combine in a new
+resultant of forces. From worms upward environment manifests itself
+through natural selection as a power working for muscular force and
+brute strength or activity.</p>
+
+<p>But soon natural selection ceases to select on the ground of brute
+force. After a time environment <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>[161]</span>proves to be a power making for
+shrewdness. And when the mammal has appeared the resultant of the
+forces of environment impels more and more toward unselfishness, and
+when man has appeared environment proves to be a &quot;power, not
+ourselves, that makes for righteousness.&quot; But what shall we say of
+an environment which unmasks itself at last as a power making for
+intelligence, unselfishness, and righteousness? Someone may answer
+it is a host of chemical and physical forces bringing about very
+high ends. That is very true, but is it the whole truth? The
+thinking man must ask, How did it come about, and why is it that all
+these forces work together for such high moral and intelligent ends?</p>
+
+<p>We face, therefore, the question, Can an environment which proves
+finally and ultimately to be a power not ourselves making for
+righteousness and unselfishness be purely material and mechanical?
+Or must there be in or behind it something spiritual? Shall we best
+call environment, in its highest manifestation, &quot;it&quot; or &quot;him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old argument of Socrates, as on the last day of his life he sits
+discoursing with his friends, still holds good. He is discussing the
+same old question, whether there is anything more than force,
+material, mechanism in the world. He says that one might assign as
+&quot;the cause why I am sitting here that my body is composed of bones
+and muscles; that the bones are solid and separate, and that the
+muscles can be contracted and extended, and are all inclosed in the
+flesh and skin; and that the bones, being jointed, can be drawn by
+the muscles, and so I can move my legs as you see; and that this is
+the reason why I am sitting here. But by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>[162]</span>the dog, these bones and
+muscles would long ago have carried me to Megara or Bo&oelig;tia, moved
+by my opinion of what was best, if I had not thought it more right
+and honorable to submit to the sentence pronounced by the state than
+to run away from it. To call such things causes is absurd. For there
+is a great difference between the cause and that without which the
+cause would not produce its effect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If there is no intelligence or love of truth in the cause, how can
+there be anything higher in the effect? And if Socrates had been
+only bone and muscle, he ought to have run away.</p>
+
+<p>Our problem stands somewhat as follows: We have given protoplasm, a
+strange substance of marvellous capacities, which we call functions,
+and possessing a power of developing into beings of ever higher
+grades of organization. Environment proves to be a combination of
+forces working for the higher development of functions in a certain
+orderly sequence. And every lower function in the ascending line
+demands the development of the next higher. Digestion demands
+muscle, and muscle nerve, and nerve brain. We shall soon see that
+mammalian structure had to culminate in the family, and the family
+demands unselfishness and obedience. Environment therefore proves
+from the beginning to have been unceasingly working for the highest
+end; never, even temporarily, merely for the lower. For we have seen
+that environment works most unsparingly against those who, having
+taken certain of the steps in the ascending path, fail to continue
+therein.</p>
+
+<p>But in order to attain this highest end for which it has always been
+working, an immense number of subsidiary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>[163]</span> ends have had to be
+attained. These are not merely digestion and brain, but a host of
+others: <i>e.g.</i>, in vertebrates, vertebr&aelig; of the right substance,
+position, form, arrangement, and union. And in the ascending line,
+for whose highest forms it has continually worked, the difficulties
+of attaining each subsidiary end have been successively solved, and
+through this host of subsidiary ends the animal kingdom has advanced
+straight to its goal of intelligence and righteousness. Now the
+whole process is a grand argument for design. But I would not
+emphasize the process so much as the end attained. This especially,
+when attained by conformity to that environment, demands more than
+mere mindless atoms in or behind that environment. Can we call the
+ultimate power which makes for righteousness &quot;it?&quot; Can we call it
+less than &quot;Him, in whom we live and move and have our being?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The history of life is a grand drama. &quot;Paradise Lost&quot; and
+Shakespeare's plays are but fragments of it. But without
+intelligence they could never have been composed; without a choice
+of means and ends they could never have been placed upon the stage.
+Does the plot of this grander drama of evolution demand no
+intelligence in its ultimate cause and producer? Is the succession
+of steps, each succeeding the other in such order as to lead to
+truth and right and continual progress toward a spiritual goal, is
+this plot possible without a great composer who has seen the end
+from the beginning? Could it ever have been executed upon the stage
+of the world, and perhaps of the universe, without an executing
+will?</p>
+
+<p>Now I freely grant you that this is no mathematical <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>[164]</span>demonstration.
+Natural science does not deal in demonstrations, it rests upon the
+doctrine of probabilities; just as we have to order our whole lives
+according to this doctrine. Its solution of a problem is never the
+only conceivable answer, but the one which best fits and explains
+all the facts and meets the fewest objections. The arguments for the
+existence of a personal God are far stronger than those in favor of
+any theory of evolution. But we very rightly test the former
+arguments, indefinitely more rigidly and severely, just because our
+very life hangs on them. On the other hand, we should not reject
+them as useless, because they are not of an entirely different kind
+from those on which all the actions and beliefs of our common daily
+life are based. There is a scepticism which is merely a credulity of
+negations. This also we should avoid.</p>
+
+<p>We have considered a few of the reasons for thinking that, with the
+material, there must be something spiritual in environment, that if
+the woof is material the warp is God. Here we need not delay long.
+Blank atheism seems to be at present unpopular and generally
+regarded as unscientific. The so-called philosophic materialism of
+the present day seems to be in general far nearer to pantheism than
+to the old form of materialism which recognized only atoms and
+mechanism. Atheism as a power to deform the lives of men has, for
+the present, lost its hold, and even agnosticism is respectful. The
+materialism against which we have to struggle is not that of the
+school, but of the shop, of society, of life. There are
+comparatively few now who avow a system of philosophy making
+mindless atoms their first cause.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>[165]</span>But there is a far grosser, more deadly materialism of the heart
+and will. It sits unrebuked in the front pews of our churches and
+controls alike church and parish, caucus and legislature. It calls
+on us all to fall down and worship, promising the world if we obey,
+the cross if we refuse. And we bow to it; and that is all it asks,
+for a nod on our part makes us its slaves. It is the idolatry of
+money, position, shrewdness, learning&mdash;in one word, of success. It
+takes all the strength out of our morality, loyalty and obedience to
+God out of our religion, and makes cowards and liars of us, who
+should be heroes. It makes our religion a byword with honest
+unbelievers. And if they are honest scientific minds, waiting for
+evidence of the practical value of our religion, why should they
+believe, when we live so successfully down to the religion which we
+would scorn to openly profess? Our fathers may have been narrow or
+straight-laced; they were not cross-eyed from trying to keep one eye
+on God and the other on the main chance. What is the use of
+whispering, &quot;Lord, Lord,&quot; Sundays, if we shout, &quot;Oh, Baal, hear us,&quot;
+all the rest of the week. Let us at least be honest, and &quot;if Baal be
+god, follow him,&quot; and avow it. And worst, and most hideous, of all,
+we are not so much hypocrites as self-deceived. Let us not forget
+the old Greek doctrine of Ate, goddess of judicial blindness, sent
+down only upon those who were living the unpardonable sin of
+indifference.</p>
+
+<p>But supposing that there is in environment something more and other
+than material, can we possibly know anything about it?</p>
+
+<p>I am in a boat near the mouth of a river. The boat is tossed by the
+waves, driven by currents of wind, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>[166]</span>and now and then temporarily
+turned by eddies. I seem to look out upon a chaos of apparently
+conflicting forces. But all the time the wind and tide are sweeping
+me homeward. Now the wind, which sometimes indeed does shift, and
+the great tidal wave are steadily bearing me in a certain direction,
+though wave and eddy and gust may often make this appear doubtful to
+me. So, underneath all waves and eddies of environment, there is a
+great tidal wave, bearing man steadily onward; and I gain a certain
+amount of valid knowledge of environment from the direction in which
+it is bearing me.</p>
+
+<p>Let us change the illustration. Man survives as all his ancestors
+have survived before him, through conformity to environment.
+Environment has therefore during ages past been continually making
+impressions upon him. And he can draw valid inferences concerning
+the one power, which must underlie the apparent host of forces of
+environment, from the impressions which these have left upon the
+structure of his mind and character. By studying himself he gains
+valid knowledge of what is deepest in environment. For man is the
+most completely and closely conformed thereto of all living beings.</p>
+
+<p>But man <i>is</i> a religious being. This is a fact which demands
+explanation just as much as bone and muscle. Now no evolutionist
+would believe that the eye could ever have developed without the
+stimulus of light acting upon the cells of the skin. Place the
+animal in darkness and the eye becomes rudimentary and disappears.
+Could a visual organ for seeing moral and religious truth have ever
+originated in the mind of man had there been no corresponding
+pulsation <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>[167]</span>and thrill of a corresponding reality in environment? Is
+not the one development just as improbable or inconceivable as the
+other?</p>
+
+<p>And this is the reason that, when man awakened to himself and his
+own powers, he knew that there was and must be a God. &quot;Pass over the
+earth,&quot; says Plutarch; &quot;you may discover cities without walls,
+without literature, without monarchs, without palaces and wealth;
+where the theatre and the school are not known; but no man ever saw
+a city without temples and gods, where prayers and oaths and oracles
+and sacrifices were not used for obtaining pardon or averting evil.&quot;
+Given man and environment as they are, and a belief in God is a
+necessary result. But you may ask, if we are to worship a personal
+God, why might not a conscious and religious hydra, with equal
+right, worship an infinite stomach, and the annelid a god of mere
+brute force?</p>
+
+<p>There stands in Florence a magnificent statue by Michel Angelo. A
+human figure is only partially hewn out of the stone. He never
+finished it. If you could have seen the master hewing the chips with
+hasty, impatient blows from the shapeless block, you would have been
+tempted to say that he was but a stonecutter, and but a hasty
+workman at that. Even now we do not know exactly what form and
+expression he would have given to the still unfinished head. But no
+one can examine it and hesitate to pronounce it a grand work of a
+master-mind. In any manifestly incomplete work you must judge the
+purpose and character and powers of the workman or artist by its
+highest possibilities, just so far as you have any reason to believe
+that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>[168]</span>these possibilities will be realized. You must look at the
+rudely outlined heroic human figure in the block of stone, not at
+the rough unfinished pedestal, if you would know Michel Angelo. So
+in the hydra and the annelid you must look at the possibilities of
+the nervous system before you or he think that digestion and muscle
+are all.</p>
+
+<p>Once more the highest powers dawn far down in the animal kingdom.
+There are traces of mind in the am&oelig;ba, and of unselfishness in
+the lower mammals. If there were a goal of human development higher
+and other than unselfishness, wisdom, and love, we should have seen
+traces of it before this. But have we found the faintest sign of any
+such? Moreover, remember that a function continues to develop about
+as long as it shows the capacity for development. And during that
+period environment is a power making for its higher development. But
+is there any limit to the possible development of the three mental
+activities mentioned above? I can see none. Then must we not expect
+that environment will always make for these? And will environment
+ever manifest itself to man as the seat or instrument of a power
+possessing higher faculties other than these? Man must worship a
+personal God of wisdom, unselfishness, and love, or cease to
+worship. The latter alternative he never yet has been able to take,
+and society survive under its domination. So I at least am compelled
+to read the finding of biological history.</p>
+
+<p>But let us grant for the sake of argument that man contains still
+undeveloped germs of faculties capable of perceiving and attaining
+something as much higher <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>[169]</span>than wisdom and love as these are higher
+than brute force. You will answer, this is not only inconceivable,
+it is impossible. Still let us grant the possibility. We notice,
+first of all, that it is against the whole course of evolution that
+these faculties should be other than mental, and what we class under
+powers pertaining to our personality. For ages past evidently, and
+no less really from the very beginning, evolution has worked for the
+body only as a perfect vehicle of mind, and for this as leading to
+will and character. And human development has led, and ever more
+tends, as Mr. Drummond has shown, to the arrest, though not the
+degeneration, of the body. It is to remain at the highest possible
+stage of efficiency as the servant of mind. These higher powers will
+thus be mental and personal powers. And how has any and every
+advance to higher capabilities been attained in the animal kingdom?
+Merely by the most active possible exercise of the next lower power.
+This is proven by the sequence of physical and mental functions. We
+shall attain, therefore, any higher mental capacities only by the
+continual practice of wisdom and love. That is our only path to
+something higher, if higher there shall ever be. But if we find that
+the God of our environment is a God of something higher than love
+and righteousness, will these cease to be characteristics of his
+nature and essence? Not at all.</p>
+
+<p>I have learned, perhaps, to know my father as a plain citizen. If I
+later find that he is a king and statesman, with powers and mental
+capacities of which I have never dreamed, do I therefore from that
+time cease to think of him as wise and kind and good? Not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>[170]</span>in the
+least. I only trust his love and wisdom as guide of my little life
+all the more. And shall not the same be true of God though he be
+king of all worlds and ages? It becomes unwise and wrong to worship
+God as the God of might only when we have found that he is a God
+also of something higher and nobler, of love; and after we have
+perceived this fully and worship him as love, we rest in the arms of
+his infinite power.</p>
+
+<p>But now that the work has gone thus far, we can see that all
+development must take place along personal, spiritual lines; and are
+compelled to believe in a spiritual cause who knew the end from the
+beginning. And man's farther progress depends upon his conformity to
+this spiritual environment. And what is conformity to the personal
+element in our environment but likeness to him? This is my only
+possible mode of conformity to a person&mdash;to become like him in word,
+action, thought, and purpose, and finally in all my being. Very far
+from a close resemblance we still are. But we are more like him than
+primitive man was; and our descendants will resemble him far more
+closely than we. And thus man, conscious of his environment, and
+that means capable of knowing something about God, knows at least
+what God requires of him, namely, righteousness, love, and likeness
+to himself; or, as the old heathen seer expressed it, &quot;to do justly,
+love mercy, and walk humbly before God.&quot; Man is and must be a
+religious being. And he conforms consciously. Thus to be more like
+God he must know more about him, and to know more about him he must
+become more like him. The two go hand in hand, and by mutual
+reaction strengthen each other. I will not enter into the most
+important question of all, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>[171]</span>whether we can ever really know a person
+unless we have some love for him. The facts of evolution seem to me
+to admit of but one interpretation, that of Augustine: &quot;Thou hast
+formed me for thee, O Lord, and my restless spirit finds no rest but
+in thee.&quot; Granted, therefore, a personal God in and behind
+environment, however dimly perceived, and conformity to environment
+means god-likeness; for conformity to a person can mean nothing less
+than likeness to him.</p>
+
+<p>Some of you must, all of you should, have read Professor Huxley's
+&quot;Address on Education.&quot; In it he says, &quot;It is a very plain and
+elementary truth that the life, the fortune, and the happiness of
+every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with
+us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game
+infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game
+which has been played for unknown ages, every man and woman of us
+being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The
+chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the
+universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature.
+The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his
+play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our
+cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest
+allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well the highest
+stakes are paid with that sort of overflowing generosity with which
+the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is
+checkmated&mdash;without haste, but without remorse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My metaphor,&quot; he continues, &quot;will remind some of you of the famous
+picture in which Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with
+man for his soul. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a>[172]</span>Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture
+a calm, strong angel, who is playing for love, as we say, and would
+rather lose than win&mdash;and I should accept it as an image of human
+life.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>This is a marvellous illustration, and in general as true as it is
+beautiful and grand. But that &quot;calm, strong angel who is playing for
+love, as we say, and would rather lose than win,&quot; is certainly a
+very strange antagonist. Is it, after all, possible that our
+clear-eyed scientific man has altogether misunderstood the game? Is
+not the &quot;calm, strong angel&quot; more probably our partner? Certainly
+very many things point that way. And who are our antagonists? Look
+within yourself and you will always find at least a pair ready to
+take a hand against you, to say nothing of the possibilities of
+environment. &quot;Rex regis rebellis.&quot; Our partner is trying by every
+method, except perhaps by &quot;talking across the board,&quot; to teach us
+the laws and methods of this great game. And calls and signals are
+always allowable. The game is not finished in one hand; he gives us
+a second and third, and repeats the signals, and never misleads.
+Only when we carelessly or obstinately refuse to learn, and wilfully
+lose the game beyond all hope, does he leave us to meet our losses
+as best we may.</p>
+
+<p>Let us carry the illustration a step farther. Who knows that the
+game was, or could be, at first taught without talking across the
+board? I can find nothing in science to compel such a belief, many
+things render it improbable. Grant a personality in environment to
+which personality in man is to conform and gain likeness.
+Environment can act on the digestive and muscular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>[173]</span> systems through
+mere material. But how can personality in environment act on
+personality in man except by personal contact or by symbols easy of
+comprehension according to its own laws? Some method of attaining
+acquaintance at least we should certainly expect.</p>
+
+<p>But some of you may ask, How can any theory of evolution guarantee
+that anything of the present shall survive in the future? It is
+continually changing and destroying former types. The old order of
+everything changes and passes away, giving place to the new. But is
+this the whole truth? Evolution is a radical process, but we must
+never forget that it is also, and at the same time, exceedingly
+conservative. The cell was the first invention of the animal
+kingdom, and all higher animals are and must be cellular in
+structure. Our tissues were formed ages on ages ago; they have all
+persisted. Most of our organs are as old as worms. All these are
+very old, older than the mountains, and yet I cannot doubt that they
+must last as long as man exists. Indeed, while Nature is wonderfully
+inventive of new structures, her conservatism in holding on to old
+ones is still more remarkable. In the ascending line of development
+she tries an experiment once exceedingly thorough, and then the
+question is solved for all time. For she always takes time enough to
+try the experiment exhaustively. It took ages to find how to build a
+spinal column or brain, but when the experiment was finished she had
+reason to be, and was, satisfied. And if this is true of bodily
+organs we should expect that the same law would hold good when the
+animal development gradually passes over into the spiritual. And
+what is human history but <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>[174]</span>the record of moral and religious
+experiments, and their success or failure according as the
+experimenters conformed to the laws of the spiritual forces with
+which they had to do?</p>
+
+<p>We need not fear that our old fundamental beliefs will be lost.
+Their very age shows that they have been thoroughly tested in the
+great experiment of human history and found sure. Modified they may
+be; they will be used for higher purposes and the building of better
+characters than ours. They will not be lost or discarded. We too
+often think of nature as building like man, with huge scaffoldings,
+which must later be torn down and destroyed. But in the forest the
+only scaffolding is the heart of oak.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that the sequence of functions in animal development
+has culminated in man's rational, moral nature. He alone has the
+clear perception of the reality of right, truth, and duty. The
+pursuit of these has made him what he is. His advance, if there is
+any continuity in history, depends upon his making these the ruling
+motives and aims of his life. He must continually grow in
+righteousness and unselfishness, if he is not to degenerate and give
+place to some other product of evolution. Moreover, as these moral
+faculties are capable of indefinite, if not infinite, development,
+they must dominate his life through a future of indefinite duration.
+For the length of the period of dominance of a function has always
+been proportional to the capacity of that function for future
+development. These can never, so far as we can see, be superseded,
+for no rival to them can be discovered. We have found in them the
+culmination of the sequence of functions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>[175]</span>We have attempted to show in this lecture that reversal of this
+grand sequence has always led to degeneration, or, in higher forms,
+far more frequently, to extinction. As we ascend, natural selection
+works more, rather than less, unsparingly. And as advance depends
+upon conformity to environment, and as the highest forms must be
+regarded as therefore most completely conformed, we gain our most
+adequate knowledge of environment when we study it as working
+especially for these. For these have been from the very beginning
+its far-off, chief aim and goal. Viewed from this standpoint,
+environment proves to be a host of interacting forces uniting in a
+resultant &quot;power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness,&quot; and
+unselfishness.</p>
+
+<p>Inasmuch as man's rational moral nature, his personality, is the
+result of the last and longest step toward and in conformity to
+environment, these powers correspond to that which is at the same
+time highest, and deepest, and most fundamental in that environment.
+This power which makes for righteousness is therefore to be regarded
+as personal and spiritual rather than material. It is God immanent
+in nature. And it is mainly to this personal and spiritual element
+in his environment that man is in the future to more completely
+conform. Conformity to this element in man's environment does not so
+much result in life as it <i>is</i> life; failure to conform is death.
+And the pressure of environment upon man, compelling him to choose
+between life through conformity and non-conformity with death, can
+be most naturally and adequately explained as the expression of his
+will. We know what he requires of us.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>[176]</span>Our knowledge of him is very incomplete, but may be valid as far as
+it extends. And it would seem to be valid, for it has been tested by
+ages of experiment. The results of this grand experiment have been
+summed up in man's fundamental religious beliefs. And farther
+knowledge will be gained by more complete obedience to the
+requirements already known. The evidence, that these fundamental
+religious beliefs will persist, is of the same character as that
+upon which rests our belief in the persistence of cells and tissues.
+The one is rooted in the structure of our minds; the other, in the
+structure of our bodies. But, after all, only will can act upon
+will, and personality upon personality. It remains for us to examine
+how man was compelled by his very structure to develop a new element
+in his environment, conformed indeed to the laws of his old
+environment, but better fitted to draw out the moral and spiritual
+side of his nature. And in connection with this study we may hope to
+gain some new light on the laws of conformity.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7">[7]</a> See chart, p. <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8">[8]</a> Huxley: Lay Sermons and Addresses, p. 31.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>[177]</span>We are too prone to think that soil and climate, hill-side or plain,
+mountain and shore, temperature and rainfall, constitute the sole or
+the most important elements in human environment. Every one of these
+elements is doubtless important. Frost, drought, or barrenness of
+soil may make a region a desert, or dwarf the development of its
+inhabitants. Mountaineer, and the dweller on the plain, and the
+fisherman on the shore of the ocean develop different traits through
+the influence of their surroundings. In too warm a climate the human
+race loses its mental and moral vigor and degenerates. This is
+undeniable.</p>
+
+<p>But, though one soil and climate and set of physical surroundings
+may be more conducive than another to the development of heroism,
+truthfulness, unselfishness, and righteousness, no one is essential
+to their production or sure to give rise to them. Moral and
+religious character is a feature of man's personality, and our
+personality is moulded mainly by the men and women with whom we
+associate. A man is not only &quot;known by the company which he keeps;&quot;
+he is usually fashioned by and conforms to it. As President Seelye
+has well said, &quot;The only motive which can move a will is either a
+will itself, or something into which a will enters. It is not a
+thought, but only a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>[178]</span>sentiment, a deed, or a person, by which we
+become truly inspired. It is not the intellect, but the heart and
+will, through which and by which we are controlled. It is not the
+precepts of life, but life itself, by which alone we are begotten
+and born unto life.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, there are two ways in which living power, personal power, the
+power of a will, may enter a soul and give it life; the one is when
+God's will works upon us, and the other when our wills work upon one
+another. God's will may directly penetrate ours, enabling us to will
+and to do of his good pleasure; and our own wills, thus inspired,
+may be the torch to kindle other wills with the same inspiration. It
+is in only one of these two ways that a human soul can be truly
+inspired; and, without a true inspiration, no amount of instruction,
+whether in duty, or life, or anything else, will change a single
+moral propensity.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>Even though a Lincoln may rise above his hereditary position or his
+surroundings, they are the school in which he is trained; the
+gymnasium in which his mental and moral fibre is strengthened.
+Family and social life form thus the element of man's environment by
+which he is mostly moulded, and to which he most naturally and
+completely conforms. Let us therefore briefly trace the origin of
+this new element of man's environment, and then notice the effect
+upon him of conformity to its laws, and see whither these would lead
+him.</p>
+
+<p>We have already seen that intra-uterine development of the young was
+being carried ever farther by mammals, and we found one explanation
+of this in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>[179]</span>fact that each mammalian egg represented a large
+amount of nutriment, and that the mammal had very little material to
+spare for reproduction. Very possibly, too, the newly hatched
+mammals were exposed to even more numerous and greater dangers than
+the young of birds. Even among lower mammals the young is feeble at
+birth. But the human infant is absolutely helpless. And the centre
+of its helplessness is its brain. Its eyes and ears are
+comparatively perfect, but its perceptions are very dim. Its muscles
+are all present, but it must very slowly and gradually learn to use
+them. Its language is but a cry, its few actions reflex. The
+new-born kitten may be just as helpless, but in a few weeks it will
+run and play and hunt, and after a few months can care for itself.
+Not so the child. It must be cared for during months and years
+before it can be given independence. Its brain is so marvellously
+complex that it is finished as a thinking and willing and
+muscle-controlling mechanism only long after birth. This means a
+period of infancy during which the young clings helplessly to the
+mother, who is its natural protector. And during this period the
+mother and young have to be cared for and protected by the male. And
+the period of infancy and the protection of the female and young are
+just as truly, though in far less degree, characteristic of the
+highest apes as of man.</p>
+
+<p>I can give you only this very condensed and incomplete abstract of
+Mr. John Fiske's argument; you must read it for yourself in his
+&quot;Destiny of Man.&quot; And as he has there shown, this can have but one
+result, and that is the family life of man. And we may yet very
+possibly have to acknowledge that family life of a very low <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>[180]</span>grade
+is just as truly characteristic of the higher apes as of lower man.
+And thus the family life of man is the physiological result of, and
+rooted in, mammalian structure.</p>
+
+<p>And the benefits of family life are too great and numerous to even
+enumerate. First of all the family is the school of unselfishness.
+All the love of the parent is drawn out for the helpless and
+dependent child, and grows as the parent works and thinks for it.
+And the child returns a fraction of his parents' love. Within the
+close bond of the family the struggle for place and opportunity is
+replaced by mutual helpfulness; and this doing and burden-bearing
+with and for each other is a constant exercise in the practice of
+love. And with out this mutual love and helpfulness the family
+cannot exist.</p>
+
+<p>And slowly man begins to apply the lessons learned in the family to
+other relations with partners, neighbors, and friends. Slowly he
+discovers that an entirely selfish life defeats its own ends. A
+voice within him tells him continually that love is better than
+selfishness and ministering better than being ministered unto. It
+dawns upon him that it is against the nature of things that other
+people should be so selfish and grasping; a few begin to apply the
+moral to themselves, and a few of these to act accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>And what a change the few steps which man has taken in this
+direction have wrought in his life. Says Professor Huxley: &quot;In place
+of ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint, in place of
+thrusting aside or treading down all competitors, it requires that
+the individual shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows;
+its influence is directed not so much to the survival<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>[181]</span> of the
+fittest as to the fitting of as many as possible to survive. It
+repudiates the gladiatoral theory of existence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It is a vast change from the &quot;gladiatorial theory&quot; to that of
+&quot;mutual helpfulness.&quot; Call it a revolution, if you will. Revolutions
+are not unheard of in the history of the animal kingdom any more
+than in human history. We have seen, first, digestion and
+reproduction on the throne of animal organization, then muscle, and
+finally brain. Each of these changes is in one sense a revolution.</p>
+
+<p>A little before the summer solstice the earth is whizzing away from
+the sun; a few weeks later it is whizzing with equal rapidity in
+almost the opposite direction. In the very nature of things it could
+not be otherwise. But so silently and gradually does it come about
+that we never feel the reversal of the engine; indeed the engine has
+not been reversed at all. Very similar is the change of the struggle
+of brute against brute to that of man for man. Indeed human
+development seems now to be almost at such a solstice where the
+power that makes for love is almost exhausted in opposing the
+tendency toward selfishness. We shall not always stay at the
+solstice; soon we shall make more rapid progress. And unselfishness
+like the family relation is firmly rooted in mammalian structure.</p>
+
+<p>And man owes almost everything to family life. First the child gains
+the advantage of the parent's experience. He is educated by the
+parent. In a few formative and receptive years he gains from the
+parent the results of centuries of human experience. The process is
+thus cumulative, the investment bears compound interest. And yet
+this is peculiar to man only <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>[182]</span>in degree. Have you never watched a
+cat train her kittens? And the education of the child in the savage
+family is very incomplete.</p>
+
+<p>The family is the first and fundamental of all higher social and
+political unities. And without the persistence of the family the
+larger social unit would become an inert mass. All the individual
+ambition, all desire for family advancement, must be retained as
+still a motive for energetic advance. And all the training which
+social life can give reaches the individual most effectively, or
+solely, through the family. Society without the family would be like
+an army without company or regimental organization. Thus the very
+existence, not only of training in love and mutual helpfulness, but
+even of society itself as a mere organization, depends upon the
+existence and improvement of family life. And as so much depended
+upon and resulted from it, it could not but be fostered and improved
+by natural selection. The tribe or race with the best family life
+has apparently survived. But all social animals have some means of
+communicating very simple thoughts or perceptions. The simplest
+illustrations of this are the calls and warning cries of mammals and
+birds. It is not impossible that the higher mammals have something
+worthy of the name of language. But man alone, with his better brain
+and better anatomical structure of throat and mouth, and the closer
+interdependence with his fellows, has attained to articulate speech.
+And this again has become the bond to a still closer union.</p>
+
+<p>Now our only question is, How does social life enable and aid man to
+conform to environment? We are interested not so much in his
+happiness as in his progress. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>[183]</span>It helps and improves the body by
+giving him a better and more constant supply of more suitable food,
+and better protection from inclemency of the weather, and in many
+other ways. Baths and gymnasia are built, and medical science
+prolongs life. Yet make the items as many as you can, and what a
+long list of disadvantages to man physically you must set over
+against these. Many of these evils will doubtless disappear as
+society becomes better organized, but some will always remain to
+plague us. We pamper or abuse our stomachs, and dyspepsia results.
+We live in hot-houses, and a host of diseases are fostered by them.
+Indeed it would be hard to count up the diseases for which social
+life is directly or indirectly responsible. Social life becomes more
+and more complicated, and our nervous systems cannot bear the
+strain. Medical science saves alive thousands who would otherwise
+die, and these grow up to bear children as weak as themselves. We
+are looking now at the physical side alone; and from this standpoint
+the survival of the invalid is a sore evil. Now society will and
+must become healthier; we shall not always abuse our bodies as
+sinfully as we now do. Still, viewed from the standpoint of the body
+alone, the best, as it seems to me, which we can claim, is that
+social life does no more harm than good.</p>
+
+<p>What has social life done for man intellectually? Much. It gives him
+schools and colleges. But are our systems of education an unmixed
+good? How many of our schools and colleges are places where men are
+stuffed with facts until they have no time nor inclination to think?
+They may turn out learned men; do they produce thinkers? And how
+about the spread of knowledge? Is it not a spread of information?
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>[184]</span>And most of what goes forth from the press is not worthy of even
+that name, or is information which a man had better be without. We
+are proud of being a nation of readers. And reading is good, if a
+man thinks about what he reads; otherwise it is like undigested food
+in the stomach, an injury and a curse. A dyspeptic gourmand is
+helped by &quot;cutting down his rations.&quot; In our mental disease we need
+the same course of treatment. Let us read fewer books and papers and
+think more about what we do read.</p>
+
+<p>Society may foster original thinking; it is none the less opposed to
+it.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look,<br /></span>
+<span>He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This is the motto of all great parties in Church and State. Still
+social life has undoubtedly fostered thought. We think vastly more
+and better than primitive man; still we have much to learn. Society
+puts the experience of centuries at the service of every individual.
+Poor and unsatisfactory as are our modes of education, they are a
+great blessing intellectually and will become more helpful.
+And, after all, the friction of mind against mind in social
+life&mdash;provided social intercourse is this, and not the commingling
+of two vacua&mdash;is a continual education of inestimable advantage. And
+all these advantages would without language have been absolutely
+impossible. Intellectually our debt to society is inestimable.</p>
+
+<p>And how does social life aid man morally? I cannot help believing
+that primitive society was the first school of the human conscience.
+It was a rude school, but it taught man some grand lessons.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>[185]</span>The primitive clan would seem to have existed as a rude army for
+the defence of its members and for offensive operations against
+enemies. Individual responsibility on the part of its members was
+slight for offences against individuals of other clans, or against
+the gods. For any such offence of one of its members the whole clan
+was held, or held itself, largely responsible. If one man sinned,
+the clan suffered. It could not therefore afford to pardon wilful
+disobedience to regulations made by it or its leaders. Its very
+existence depended on this strict discipline. And much the same
+stern discipline has to be maintained in our modern armies or they
+become utterly worthless.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, man, as a social being, is very ready to accept the
+estimate of his actions placed upon them by his fellows. It is not
+easy to resist public opinion now. The tie of class or professional
+feeling is a tremendous power for good and evil. It must have been
+almost irresistible in that primitive army, which summarily outlawed
+or killed the obstinately disobedient. But all obedience was lauded
+and rewarded. It had to be so. And if the tribe was worthy to
+survive, because its regulations were better than those of its
+rivals, or perhaps as nearly just and right as were well possible,
+it was altogether best and right it should be so. The voice of the
+people was, in a very rude, stammering way, the voice of God. And
+those who survived became more and more obedient, and found
+themselves, when disobedient, feeling debased, and mean, and
+unworthy, as their fellows considered them. And all this feeling
+tended to develop a conscience in the individual answering to the
+estimates and regulations of the community.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>[186]</span>And remember that the primitive religion is a tribal religion. The
+gods felt toward a man just as his neighbors did. A public opinion
+of this sort is irresistible, and a man's conscience and estimate of
+himself and his actions must conform to it. But you may say a man
+may grant that this opinion is in a sense irresistible, and find
+himself very miserable and unhappy under its condemnation. But he
+would not feel remorse; this is a very different feeling. Possibly
+it may be. I am not so sure. But what I am interested in maintaining
+is that the condemnation of one's fellow-men puts more vividly
+before one's eyes, and emphasizes, the condemnation of one's own
+self. It may often be a necessary step in self-conviction. And what
+is most important, even in our own case, the condemnation of our
+fellows often brings with it self-condemnation.</p>
+
+<p>Try the experiment, as you will some day, of following a course of
+action which you feel fairly confident is right, but which all your
+neighbors think is foolish and wrong. See if you do not feel twinges
+within you which you must examine very closely to distinguish from
+twinges of conscience. If you do not, I see but one explanation&mdash;you
+are conscious that God is with you, and content with this majority.
+But in the case of primitive man God was always on the side of one's
+tribe.</p>
+
+<p>Now this does not explain the origin of man's conception of right;
+it presupposes such a conception in some dim form. I do not now know
+why right is right or beauty beautiful. I only know they are so.
+Where or when either of these perceptions dawned I do not know. But,
+given some such dim perception, I believe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a>[187]</span> that primitive human
+society gave it its iron grip on every fibre of man's nature.</p>
+
+<p>Before the animal could safely be allowed to govern itself
+intelligently it had to serve a long apprenticeship to reflex action
+and instinct. And man's moral nature had to undergo a similar
+apprenticeship to tribal regulation and tribal conscience. Only
+slowly was instinct modified and replaced by intelligent action. And
+how this old tribal conscience persists. Often for good, although
+there it were better replaced by an individual conscience working
+for right. But how slowly you and I learn that there is a higher
+responsibility than to party or class. How often my vote and action
+are controlled, not by my own conscience, but by the opinion of my
+fellows, or the feeling that, if my party suffers defeat, God's work
+will suffer at the hands of my opponents. And what is all this but
+the survival in a very degenerate form of the old tribal conscience
+of primitive man? And he knew, and could know, nothing better: I can
+and do.</p>
+
+<p>But society slowly works for unselfishness. The love learned in the
+family manifests itself in ever-widening circles; it must do so if
+it is the genuine article. It works for neighbors and friends, then
+for the poor and helpless of the community. Then it spreads to other
+communities and nations. For genuine love recognizes no bounds of
+time or place. Slowly we learn that we are our brother's keepers,
+and that the brotherhood cannot stop short of the human race.
+Goodness and kindness radiate from one, perhaps unknown, member of
+the community to his fellows, and thence all over the world. And the
+world is the better for his one action.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>[188]</span>Primitive society was thus the best possible school of conscience;
+and the family and it are the great school of unselfishness. But
+society is even more and better than this. It is the medium through
+which thought, power, and moral and religious life can spring from
+man to man. This is its last and culminating advantage: it is that
+for which society really exists.</p>
+
+<p>For, in the close bonds of family and social life, a new possibility
+of development has arisen based upon articulate speech. We might
+almost call it a new form of heredity, independent of all
+blood-relationship. Progress in anatomical structure in the animal
+kingdom was slow, because any improvement could be transmitted only
+to the direct descendants of its original possessor. But in all
+matters pertaining to or based upon mind, a new invention, or idea,
+or system becomes the property of him who can best appreciate it.
+The torch is always handed on to the swiftest runner. Thus Socrates
+is the true father of Plato, and Plato of Aristotle. Whoever can
+best understand and appreciate and enter into the spirit of Socrates
+and Plato becomes heir to their thoughts and interprets them to us.
+And the thought of one man enriches all races and times.</p>
+
+<p>But a great teacher like Socrates is not merely an intellectual
+power. &quot;Probe a little deeper, surgeon,&quot; said the French soldier,
+&quot;and you'll find the emperor.&quot; Napoleon may have impressed himself
+on the soldier's intellect; he had enthroned himself in his heart.
+&quot;Slave,&quot; said the old Roman, Marius, to the barbarian who had been
+sent into the dungeon to despatch him, &quot;slave, wouldst thou kill
+Cains Marius?&quot; And the barbarian, though backed by all the power of
+Rome, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>[189]</span>is said to have fled in dismay. Why did he run away? I do not
+know. I only know that I should have done the same. One more
+instance. Some thirty years ago the northern army was fleeing, a
+disorganized mob, toward Winchester. Early had fallen upon them
+suddenly in the gray of the morning, and, while one corps still held
+its ground, the rest of the army was melting away in panic. Then a
+little red-faced trooper came tearing down the line shouting, &quot;Face
+the other way boys; face the other way.&quot; And those panic-stricken
+men turned and rolled an irresistible avalanche of heroes upon the
+Confederate lines. What made them turn about? It was something which
+I can neither define nor analyze&mdash;the personal power of Sheridan. It
+is the secret of every great leader of men. Now Sheridan had
+imparted more than information to these men. Is it too much to say
+that he put himself into them? From such men power streams out like
+electricity from a huge dynamo.</p>
+
+<p>Now society furnishes the medium through which such a man can act.
+You have all met such men, though probably not more than one or two
+of them. But one such man is a host. They may be men of few words.
+But their very presence and look calls out all that is good in you;
+and while you are with them evil loses its power. Says the gay and
+licentious Alcibiades, in Plato's &quot;Banquet&quot; concerning Socrates:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I heard Pericles or any other great orator, I was entertained
+and delighted, and I felt that he had spoken well. But no mortal
+speech has ever excited in my mind such emotions as are excited by
+this magician. Whenever I hear him, I am, as it were, charmed and
+fettered. My heart leaps like an inspired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a>[190]</span> Corybant. My inmost soul
+is stung by his words as by the bite of a serpent. It is indignant
+at its own rude and ignoble character. I often weep tears of regret
+and think how vain and inglorious is the life I lead. Nor am I the
+only one that weeps like a child and despairs of himself. Many
+others are affected in the same way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These men are the real kings. Their power for good, and sometimes
+for evil, is inestimable. And the great advantage of social life, as
+a means of conforming to environment, is the medium which it
+furnishes to conduct the power of such men. Man's last effort toward
+conformity to environment, the struggle for existence in its last
+most real form, is the life and death grapple between good and evil.
+For here good and evil, righteousness and sin, come face to face in
+spiritual form; &quot;we wrestle not with flesh and blood.&quot; Life is more
+than a game of chess or whist; it is a great battle; every man must,
+and does, take sides; he must fight or die. And the real kings of
+society are, as a rule, on the side of truth, and aid its triumph.
+For one essential condition of such leadership is the power to
+inspire confidence in the love of the king for his willing subject.
+A suspicion of selfish aims in the leader breaks this bond. The hero
+must be self-forgetful. This is one reason for man's hero-worship,
+and the magnetic, dominant power of the hero. But evil is
+essentially selfish and can gain and hold this kingship only as long
+as it can deceive. And these kings &quot;live forever.&quot; Dynasties and
+empires disappear, but Socrates and Plato, Luther and Huss, Cromwell
+and Lincoln, rule an ever-widening kingdom of ever more loyal
+subjects.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>[191]</span>And society will have leaders; men may set up whatever form of
+government they will, they are always searching for a king. And this
+is no sign of weakness or credulity. Man's desire for leadership is
+only another proof of the vast future which he knows is before him,
+and into which he longs to be guided. The wiser a man is, the more
+he desires to be taught; the nobler he becomes, the more
+whole-souled is the homage which he pays to the noblest. Is it a
+sign of weakness or ignorance in students, of adult age and ripe
+manhood, to flock to some great university to hear the wisdom and
+catch the inspiration of some great master? When Jackson fell Lee
+exclaimed, &quot;I have lost my right arm.&quot; Was Jackson any the less for
+being the right arm to deal, as only he could, the crushing blows
+planned by the great strategist?</p>
+
+<p>But is not man to be independent and free? Certainly. But he gains
+freedom from the petty tyranny of robber-baron or boss, and from the
+very pettiest tyranny of all, the service of self, only as he finds
+and enlists under the king. Serve self and it will plunge you in,
+and drag you through, the ditch, till your own clothes abhor you.
+You are free to choose your teacher and guide and example. But
+choose you will and must. I am not propounding theories; I am
+telling you facts. Whether for better or worse man always does and
+will choose because he must. Look about you, look into yourselves.
+Have you no hero whom you admire and strive to resemble? no teacher
+to whom you listen? You must and do have your example and teacher.
+Is he teaching you to conform to environment, or leading you to be
+ground in pieces by its forces all arrayed against you?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>[192]</span>The Carpenter of Nazareth stood before Pilate. &quot;And Pilate said
+unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I
+am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into
+the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that
+is of the truth heareth my voice.&quot; And Pilate would not wait for the
+answer to his question, What is truth? and the Jews chose Barabbas.
+Would you and I have acted differently? The answer of our Lord to
+Pilate contains the essence of Christianity. &quot;You a king,&quot; says
+Pilate in astonishment; &quot;where is your power to enforce your
+authority?&quot; And our Lord's answer seems to me to mean substantially
+this: Roman legions shall suffer defeat, rout, and extermination;
+and Roman power shall cease to terrify. All its might must decay.
+But &quot;everyone that is of the truth&quot; shall attach himself to me with
+a love which will brave rack and stake. All your power cannot give a
+grain of new life. I can and will infuse my own divine life, my own
+divine <i>self</i>, into men. And this new life is invincible, immortal,
+all-conquering. I have infused myself into a few fishermen, and they
+will infuse <i>me</i> into a host of other men. Thus I will transfigure
+into my own character every man in the world, who is of the truth,
+and therefore will hear my voice. All the power of Rome cannot
+prevent it, and whatever opposes it must go down before it.</p>
+
+<p>Christianity is the contagion of a divine life. Society is the
+medium through which it could and was to work. Greece had prepared
+the language necessary for its spread. Roman power had built its
+highways and levelled all obstructions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>[193]</span>A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.&quot; &quot;Not by might, nor by
+power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But, you will object, the grandest kings have had, as a rule, the
+fewest loyal subjects. The prophets and seers are stoned. Elijah
+stands alone on Carmel and opposed to him are more than a thousand
+prophets of Baal, with court and king at their head. Heroism does
+not pay, and heroes are few. Right is always in a hopeless minority.
+Let us look into this matter carefully, for the objection, even if
+overstated, certainly contains a large amount of truth.</p>
+
+<p>Let us go back to two forms having much the same grade of
+organization: both worms. One of them sets out to become a
+vertebrate, building an internal skeleton. The other forms an
+external skeleton and becomes a crab. To form its skeleton the crab
+had only to thicken the cuticle already present in the annelid. It
+had to modify the already existing parapodia and their muscles,
+changing them to legs. The external skeleton gave from the start a
+double advantage&mdash;protection and better locomotion. Every grain of
+thickening aided the animal in the struggle for existence in both
+these ways. The very fact that the skeleton was external may have
+rendered it more liable to variation, because it was thus exposed to
+continual stimuli. And the best were rapidly sifted out by Natural
+Selection. The change and development went on with comparative
+rapidity. In the mollusk the change was apparently still more easy
+and the development still more rapid.</p>
+
+<p>But the development of an internal skeleton was more difficult and
+slower. It was of no use for the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>[194]</span>protection of the animal, and only
+gradually did it become of much service in locomotion. Being
+deep-seated it very possibly changed all the more slowly.
+Furthermore, a cartilaginous rod, like the notochord, even fully
+developed, hardly enabled the animal to fight directly with the
+mail-clad crab. The internal skeleton had to become far more highly
+developed before its great advantages, and freedom from
+disadvantages, became apparent. The mollusk and crab were working a
+mine rich in surface deposits although soon exhausted. The
+vertebrate lead was poor at the surface, and only later showed its
+inexhaustible richness. It looked as if the vertebrate were making a
+very poor speculation.</p>
+
+<p>Whether this explanation be true or not, a glance at a chart,
+showing the geological succession of occurrence of the different
+kingdoms, proves that in the oldest pal&aelig;ozoic periods there were
+well-developed cuttlefish and crabs before there were any
+vertebrates worthy of the name. If any were present, their skeleton
+was purely cartilaginous and not preserved.</p>
+
+<p>I think we may go farther, although in this latter consideration we
+may very possibly be mistaken. We have already seen that the
+progress made by any animal may be measured more or less accurately
+by the length of time during which its ancestors maintained a
+swimming life. The ancestors of the c&oelig;lenterates settled to the
+bottom first. Then successively those of flatworms, mollusks,
+annelids, and crabs. All this time the ancestors of vertebrates were
+swimming in the water above. Food was probably more abundant,
+certainly more easily and economically obtained by a creeping life,
+on the bottom. But thither the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>[195]</span>vertebrate could not go. There his
+mail-clad competitors were too strong for him. Those which settled
+and tried to compete in this sort of life perished. We may have to
+except the ascidia, but they paid for their success by the loss of
+nearly all their vertebrate characteristics. The future progress of
+vertebrates depended upon their continual activity in the swimming
+life. And they were forced by their environment to maintain this.
+Otherwise they might, probably would, never have attained their
+present height of organization. Certainly at this time you would
+have found it hard to believe that the victory was to fall to these
+weaker and smaller vertebrates.</p>
+
+<p>Let us come down to a later period. Reptiles, mammals, and birds are
+struggling for supremacy. Of the power and diversity of form of
+these old reptiles we have generally no adequate conception. The
+forms now living are but feeble remnants. There were huge
+sea-serpents, and forms like our present crocodiles, but far more
+powerful. Others apparently resembled in form and habit the
+herbivorous and carnivorous mammals of to-day. Others strode or
+leaped on two legs. And still others flew like bats or birds. They
+were terrible forms, with coats of mail and powerful jaws and teeth.
+And they were active and swift. When we look at them we see that the
+vertebrate, though slow in gaining the lead, is sure to hold it. The
+internal skeleton gave fewer advantages at the start; its greatest
+superiority had lain in future possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>But which vertebrate is heir to the future? It would have been a
+hard choice between reptile and bird. I feel sure that I, for one,
+should not have selected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>[196]</span> the mammal, a small, feeble being, hiding
+in holes and ledges, and continually hard put to it to escape
+becoming a mouthful for some huge reptile. And yet the persecution,
+the impossibility of contending by brute strength, may have forced
+the mammal into the line of brain-building and placental
+development. The early development of mammals appears to have been
+slow. Pal&aelig;ontology proves that they were long surpassed by reptiles
+and birds. But the little mammal had the future. The battle was to
+go against the strong.</p>
+
+<p>Once again. The arboreal life of higher mammals would seem to be
+most easily explained by the view that they were driven to it by
+stronger carnivorous mammals having possession of the ground. Brain
+was good, for it planned escape from enemies. But it did not give
+its possessor immediate victory over muscle, tooth, and claw in the
+tiger. That was to come far later with the invention of traps and
+guns. Brain gave its possessor a sure hold of the future, and just
+enough of the present to enable it to survive by a hard struggle.
+And the same appears to have been true of primitive man.</p>
+
+<p>Thus all man's ancestors have had to lead a life of continual
+struggle against overwhelming odds and of seeming defeat. It was a
+life of hardship, if not of positive suffering. The organ which was
+to give them future supremacy, whether it was backbone, placenta, or
+brain, could in its earlier stages aid them only to a hardly won
+survival. The present apparently, and really as far as freedom from
+discomfort and danger is concerned, always belongs to forms
+hopelessly doomed to degeneration or stagnation. Crabs, not
+primitive <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>[197]</span>vertebrates, were masters of the good things of the sea;
+and, in later times, reptiles, not mammals, of those of the land.
+Any progressive form has to choose between the present and the
+future. It cannot grasp both. I am not propounding to you any
+metaphysical theories, but plain, dry, hard facts of pal&aelig;ontology;
+explain them as you will.</p>
+
+<p>And here we must add our last word about conformity to environment;
+and it is a most important consideration. Conformity to environment
+is not such an adaptation as will confer upon an animal the greatest
+immunity from discomfort or danger, or will enable it to gain the
+greatest amount of food and place, and produce the largest number of
+offspring. Indeed, if you will add one element to those mentioned
+above, namely, that all these shall be attained with the least
+amount of effort, they insure degeneration beyond a doubt. This is
+the conformity of the bivalve mollusk. The clam has abundance of
+food, enormous powers of reproduction, almost perfect protection
+against enemies, and lives a life of almost absolute freedom from
+discomfort, and the clam is really lower than most worms.</p>
+
+<p>If an animal is to progress, it must keep such a conformity ever
+secondary to a still more important element, namely, conformity or
+obedience to the laws of its own structure and being. This second
+element the mollusk and every creeping stage neglected, and the
+result of this neglect was stagnation or degeneration. Activity was
+essential to progress from the very structure and laws of
+development of the animal, while a great abundance of food was not.
+A life of ease, for the same reason, necessarily results in
+degeneration.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>[198]</span>But you will ask, What becomes of Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution,
+if obedience to the laws of individual being is more important than
+conformity to external conditions? Both are evidently necessary, and
+they are not so different as they may seem at first sight. They are
+really one and the same. Bringing out the best and highest there is
+in us, is the only true conformity to that which is deepest and
+surest and most enduring in our environment. That in environment
+which makes for digestion is almost palpable and tangible, that
+which makes for activity less so perhaps; but that which makes for
+brain and truth and right is intangible and invisible. We easily
+fail to notice it; and, unless we take a careful view of the course
+of development in the highest forms of life, we may be inclined to
+deny its existence. But it is surely there, if man is a product of
+evolution.</p>
+
+<p>Each successive stage of animal life is not the preceding stage on a
+higher plane, but the preceding stage modified in conformity to the
+environment of that from which it has just arisen. Says Professor
+Hertwig<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>: &quot;During the process of organic development the external
+is continually becoming an integral part of the individual. The germ
+is continually growing and changing at the expense of surrounding
+conditions.&quot; Every stage thus contains the result of a host of
+reactions to a ruder and older portion of environment. And the
+higher we go the more has the original protoplasm and structure been
+modified as the result of these reactions.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen clearly that environment must be studied through its
+effect upon living beings. Viewed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>[199]</span>from any other standpoint it
+appears to be a myriad, almost a chaos, of interacting, apparently
+conflicting, forces. The resultant of some of these is shown by the
+animal at any stage of its development. And as the animal advances,
+the resultant determining its new line, or stage, of advance,
+includes new forces, to which it has only lately become sensitive.
+And thus the human mind, as the last and highest product of
+evolution, mirrors most adequately the resultant of all its forces.
+If we would know environment we must study ourselves, not atoms
+alone, nor rocks, nor worms.</p>
+
+<p>Extremely sensitive photographic plates, after long exposure, have
+proven the existence of stars so dim and far-off as to be invisible
+to the best telescopes. Man's mind is just such a sensitive plate;
+it is the only valid representation of environment.</p>
+
+<p>The truth would appear to be that the law is present in environment,
+but hard to read; but it is stamped upon our structure and being so
+deeply and plainly that the dullest of us cannot fail to read it. We
+learned the fact of gravitation the first time that we fell down in
+learning to walk, long afterward we learned that its law guided
+earth and moon. And it is the presence of this law within us, and
+our own knowledge that we are conscious of it, that makes man
+without excuse. But conformity to that which is deepest in
+environment often, always, demands non-conformity to some of the
+most palpable of surrounding conditions.</p>
+
+<p>There is no better statement of the ultimate law of conformity than
+the words of Paul: &quot;Be not conformed to this world; but be ye
+transformed by the renewing <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>[200]</span>of your mind, that ye may prove what is
+that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And this difference is exactly what I have been trying to put before
+you. The mollusk conformed, but the vertebrate conformed in a very
+different way, and was transformed, &quot;metamorphosed,&quot; to translate
+the Greek word literally, into something higher. And let us not
+forget that man conforms consciously and voluntarily, if at all; he
+is able to read in himself and environment the law to which lower
+forms have been compelled unconsciously to conform.</p>
+
+<p>These facts merely illustrate a great law of life. No man's eye,
+much less hand, can grasp the whole of the present and at the same
+time the future. Rather what we usually call present advantage is
+not advantage at all, but the first step in degeneration. If one
+will be rich in old age he must deny himself some gratifications in
+youth; his present reward is his self-control. If a man will climb
+higher than his fellows he must expect to be sometimes solitary; his
+reward is the ever-widening view, though the path be rougher and the
+air more biting than in their lower altitude. If he point to heights
+yet to attain, the majority will disbelieve him or say, &quot;Our present
+height was good enough for our ancestors, it is good enough for us.
+Why sacrifice a good thing and make yourself ridiculous scrambling
+after what in the end may prove unattainable?&quot; If you discover new
+truths you will certainly be called a subverter of old ones. And
+this is entirely natural. The upward path was never intended to be
+easy.</p>
+
+<p>Read the &quot;Gorgias&quot; of Plato, and let us listen to the closing words
+of Socrates in that dialogue: &quot;And <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>[201]</span>so, bidding farewell to those
+things which most men account honors, and looking onward to the
+truth, I shall earnestly endeavor to grow, so far as may be, in
+goodness, and thus live, and thus, when the time comes, die. And, to
+the best of my power, I exhort all other men also; and you
+especially, in my turn, I exhort to this life and contest, which is,
+I protest, far above all contests here.&quot; You must remember that
+Callicles has been taunting Socrates with his lack of worldly wisdom
+and the certainty that in any court of justice he would be
+absolutely helpless because of his lack of knowledge of the
+rhetorician's art: &quot;This way then we will follow, and we will call
+upon all other men to do the same, not that which you believe in and
+call upon me to follow; for that way, Callicles, is worth nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Socrates met the end which he expected: death at the hands of
+his fellow-citizens.</p>
+
+<p>And here perhaps a little glimmer of light is thrown into one of the
+darkest corners of human experience. The wise old author of
+Ecclesiastes writes: &quot;There is a just man that perisheth in his
+righteousness; and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in
+his wickedness. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that
+there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of
+the wicked; again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth
+according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is
+vanity.&quot; &quot;I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to
+the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the
+wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men
+of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all&quot; (Eccles. viii.
+14; ix. 11).<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>[202]</span> It is this element of chance that threatens to make a
+mockery of effort, and sometimes seems to make life but a travesty.
+The terrible feature of Tennyson's description of Arthur's last, dim
+battle in the west is not the &quot;crash of battle-axe on shattered
+helm,&quot; but the all-engulfing mist.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps this is all intended to teach us that riches and favor, and
+even bread, are not the essentials of life, and that failure to
+attain these is not such ruin as we often think. But no man ever
+struggled for wisdom, righteousness, unselfishness, and heroism
+without attaining them; even though the more he attained the more
+dissatisfied he became with all previous attainment. And if our
+slight attainments in wisdom and knowledge always brought wealth and
+favor, we might rest satisfied with the latter, instead of clearly
+recognizing that wisdom must be its own reward. Uncertainty and
+deprivation are the best and only training for a hero, not sure
+reward paid in popular plaudits.</p>
+
+<p>Political economists speak of the productiveness and prospectiveness
+of capital. We may well borrow these terms, using them in a somewhat
+modified sense. In our sense capital is productive in so far as it
+gives an immediate return; it is prospective in proportion as the
+return is expected largely in the future. A &quot;pocket&quot; may yield an
+immediate very large return of gold nuggets at a very slight expense
+of labor and appliances, but it is soon exhausted. In a mine the ore
+may be poor near the surface, but grow richer as the shaft deepens;
+the vein is narrow above, but widens below. The returns are at first
+small, its inexhaustible richness becomes apparent only after
+considerable <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>[203]</span>time and labor. The value of the &quot;pocket&quot; is purely
+productive, that of the mine largely or purely prospective. Indeed
+it may be opened at a loss. But even a rich mine may be worked
+purely for its productive value; it may be &quot;skinned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Let us apply this thought to the development of a species; although
+what is true of the species will generally be true of the individual
+also, for the development of the two is, in the main, parallel. In
+the animal all functions are to a certain extent productive, and all
+directly or indirectly prospective. When we examine the sequence of
+functions we cannot but notice how largely their value is
+prospective. As long as a lower function is rising to supremacy in
+the animal, it appears to be retained purely for its productive
+value; thus digestion in hydra or gastr&aelig;a. But after a time animals
+appeared which had some muscle and nerve. And, by the process of
+natural selection, those animals which used digestion as an end for
+its productive value became food for, and gave place to, those using
+it as a means of supporting muscle and nerve of greater prospective
+value. And similarly, those animals which used muscle, or even mind,
+productively gave place to others using these prospectively.</p>
+
+<p>In other words, the functions and capacities of any animal, the
+extent of its conformity to environment, may be regarded as its
+capital. The animal may use this capital productively or
+prospectively. It may spend its income, and more too; it may
+increase its capital. Now social capital will always fall sooner or
+later to those communities whose members use it most prospectively,
+who are willing to forego, to quite an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>[204]</span>extent, present enjoyment,
+and look for future return. The same is true of all development.
+Sessile forms and mollusks, and, in a less degree, crabs and
+reptiles, worked for immediate return. They are like extravagant
+heirs who draw on their capital and sooner or later come to poverty.
+The primitive vertebrate, the mammal, and the other ancestors of man
+used their capital prospectively, and it increased, as if at
+compound interest.</p>
+
+<p>The spendthrift appears at first sight to have the greatest
+enjoyment in life, the rising business man works hard and foregoes
+much. I believe that the latter is really by far the happier of the
+two. But, if you can spend only a day or two in a city, and your
+examination is superficial, you may easily make the mistake of
+considering the spendthrift as the most successful man in the
+community. So, in our brief visit to the world in times past, we
+picked out the crab, the reptile, and the carnivore as its rising
+members.</p>
+
+<p>Once more, capital can be spent very quickly; to use it
+prospectively requires time. This is a truism; but it does no harm
+to call attention to truisms which have been neglected. Organs and
+powers of great prospective value are slow and difficult of
+development. If their increase is to be at all rapid, they must
+start early. If their development and culture is deferred, there
+will be little or no advance, but probably degeneration.
+Extravagance grows rapidly and soon becomes irresistible; habits of
+saving must be formed early. The same is true of the development of
+all other virtues.</p>
+
+<p>There is in the child an orderly sequence of development<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>[205]</span> of mental
+traits. While these powers are in their earlier, so to speak
+embryonic, stages of development, they can be fostered and increased
+or retarded. They are still plastic. Very early in a child's life
+acquisitiveness shows itself; he begins to say &quot;I,&quot; and &quot;mine,&quot; and
+desires things to be his &quot;very own.&quot; And this can be fostered so
+that the child will grow up a &quot;covetous machine.&quot; Or he may be
+taught to share with others.</p>
+
+<p>Not so much later, while the child is still in the lower grades of
+his school life, comes the period of moral development. If, during
+this period, these powers are fostered and cultivated, they may, and
+probably will, be dominant throughout his life. And herein lies the
+dignity and glory of the unappreciated, underpaid, and overworked
+teachers of our &quot;lower&quot; schools, that they have the opportunity to
+cultivate these moral powers of the child during these most critical
+years of his life. Repression or neglect here works life-long and
+irreparable harm. The young man goes out into the world. Here
+&quot;practical&quot; men continually instruct him by precept upon precept,
+line upon line, that he cannot afford to be generous until he has
+acquired wealth; that he must first win success for himself, and
+that he can then help others. And, unless his character is like
+pasture-grown oak, he follows and improves upon their teachings. <i>He
+reverses the sequence of functions.</i> He puts acquisitiveness first
+and right and sterling honesty and unselfishness second. For a score
+or more of years he labors. At first he honestly intends to build up
+a strong character and a generous nature just as soon as he can
+afford to; but for the present he <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>[206]</span>cannot afford it. If he is to
+succeed, he must do as others do and walk in the beaten track. He
+wins wealth and position, or learning and fame. He now has the
+ability and means to help others, but he no longer cares to do so.
+Loyalty to truth, sterling honesty&mdash;the genuine, not the
+conventional counterfeit&mdash;unselfishness, in one word, character,
+these are plants of slow growth. They require cultivation by habit
+through long years. In his case they have become aborted and
+incapable of rejuvenescence. But his rudiment of a moral nature
+feels twinges of remorse. He ought not to have reversed the sequence
+of functions, and he knows it. But he cannot retrace his steps. He
+made the development of character impossible when he made wealth his
+first and chief aim. If he has a million dollars he tries to insure
+his soul by leaving in his will one-tenth to build a church, or,
+possibly, one-half for foreign missions. In the latter case he will
+be held up as a shining example to all the youth of the land, and
+the churches will ring with his praises. But what has been the
+effect of his life on the moral, social capital of the community? Is
+the world better or worse for his life? He has all his life been
+disseminating the germs of a soul-blight more infectious and deadly
+than any bodily disease.</p>
+
+<p>If he has made learning or fame his chief aim, he probably has not
+the money to buy soul-insurance. He takes refuge in agnosticism,
+like an ostrich in a bush. His agnosticism is in his will; he does
+not wish to see. Or its cause is atrophy, through disuse, of moral
+vision. He cannot see. There are agnostics of quite another stamp,
+whom we must respect and honor for their sterling honesty and
+high character, though <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a>[207]</span>we may have little respect for their
+philosophical tenets. But how much has our scholar advanced the
+morality of the community? He has probably done even more harm than
+the business man, who is a mere &quot;covetous machine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The &quot;practical&quot; man has reversed the sequence of functions.
+Character is, and must be, first; and wealth, learning, power, and
+fame are the materials, often exceedingly refractory, which it must
+subjugate to its growth and use. And this subjugation is anything
+but easy. The reversal of the sequence results in a moral
+degradation and poverty indefinitely more dangerous to the community
+than the slums of our great cities. For these may be controlled and
+cleansed; but the moral slum floods our legislatures and positions
+of honor and trust, and invades the churches. The mental and moral
+water-supply of the community is loaded with disease-germs.</p>
+
+<p>The social wealth of a community is the sum total of the wealth of
+its individual members. And a community is truly wealthy only when
+this wealth is, to a certain extent, diffused. If there is any truth
+in our argument that the sequence of functions culminates in
+righteousness and unselfishness, the real social wealth of a
+community consists in its moral character, not in its money, or even
+in its intelligence. We may rest assured that character, resulting
+in industry and economy, will bring sufficient means of subsistence,
+so that all its members will be fed and housed and clothed. And art
+and culture, of the most ennobling and inspiring sort, will surely
+follow. And even if such literature failed as largely composes our
+present <i>fin-de-si&egrave;cle</i> garbage-heap, we would not regret its
+absence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>[208]</span> That community will and must survive in which the largest
+proportion of members make the accumulation of character their chief
+and first aim. And to this community every rival must in time yield
+its place and power, and all its acquisitions. And in every
+advancing community the position of any class or profession will in
+time be determined by its moral wealth.</p>
+
+<p>But this moral wealth is intangible. The rewards and penalties of
+moral law easily escape notice in our hasty and superficial study of
+life. The God immanent in our environment often seems to hide
+himself. The altar of Jehovah is fallen down, and Baal's temples are
+crowded with loud-mouthed worshippers. The bribes of present
+enjoyment and of immediate success loom up before us, and we doubt
+if any other success is possible.</p>
+
+<p>But the law of progress, even now so dimly discernible in
+environment, is written in our minds in letters of fire. For we have
+already seen that environment can be understood only by tracing its
+effects in the development of life. What is best and highest in us
+is the record of the working of what is best and highest in
+environment. And the personal God so dimly seen in environment is
+revealed in man's soul. Man must study himself, if he is to know
+what environment requires of him. And if the knowledge of himself
+and of the laws of his being is the highest knowledge, is not the
+vision of, and struggle toward, higher attainments, not yet realized
+and hence necessarily foreseen, the only mode of farther progress?
+And what is this pursuit of, and devotion to, ideals not yet
+realized and but dimly foreseen, if it is not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>[209]</span>Faith, &quot;the substance
+of things hoped for, and evidence of things not seen?&quot; By it alone
+can man &quot;obtain a good report.&quot; Man must &quot;walk by faith, not by
+sight.&quot; &quot;For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
+which are not seen are eternal.&quot;</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9">[9]</a> Seelye: Christian Missions, p. 154.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10">[10]</a> Hertwig: Zeit- und Streitfragen, p. 82.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>MAN</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>[210]</span>In Kingsley's fascinating historical romance, Raphael Aben-Ezra says
+to Hypatia, &quot;Is it not possible that we have been so busy discussing
+what the philosopher should be, that we have forgotten that he must
+first of all be a man?&quot; This truth we too often forget. No
+statesman, philosopher, least of all teacher, can be truly great who
+is not, first of all, and above all, a great man. And in our study
+of man are we not prone to forget that he stands in certain very
+definite and close relations with surrounding nature?</p>
+
+<p>Man has been the object of so much special study, his position,
+owing to his higher moral and mental power, is so unique that he has
+often been regarded not only as a special creation, but as created
+to occupy a position not only unique, but also exceptional, above
+many of the very laws of nature, and not bound by them. Many speak
+and write of him as if it were his chief glory and prerogative to be
+as far removed as possible, not only from the animal, but even from
+the whole realm of nature. The mistake of making him an exception
+arises, after all, not so much from too high a conception of man, at
+least of his possibilities, as from too low a view of nature.</p>
+
+<p>But however this view may have arisen, it is one-sided and mistaken.
+Man certainly has a place in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a>[211]</span>Nature&mdash;not above it. If he is the
+goal toward which the ascending series of living forms has
+continually tended, he is a part of the series&mdash;the real goal lies
+far above him.</p>
+
+<p>Pascal says, &quot;It is dangerous to show a man too clearly how closely
+he resembles the brute without showing him at the same time his
+greatness. It is equally dangerous to impress upon him his greatness
+without his lowliness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in
+ignorance of both. But it is of great advantage to point out to him
+both characteristics side by side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A great German thinker began his work on the human soul with a
+discussion of the law of gravitation.</p>
+
+<p>All study of man must begin with the study of the atom. Man's life
+we have seen to be the aggregate of the work of all the cells of his
+body. But the protoplasm which composes his cells is a chemical
+compound, and hence subject to all the laws of all the atoms of
+which it is composed. And its molecules, or the smallest
+mechanically separable compounds of these atoms, are arranged and
+related according to the laws of physics, so as to permit or produce
+the play of certain forces which are always the result of atomic or
+molecular combination. Every motive or thought demands the
+combustion of a certain amount of material which has been already
+assimilated in the microscopic cellular laboratories of our body.
+Every vital activity is manifested at least through chemical and
+physical forces. And the elements of the fuel for our engines we
+receive through plants from the inorganic world. For the plant, as
+we have seen, stores up as potential energy in its compounds the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>[212]</span>actual energy of the sun's rays. And thus man lives and thinks by
+energy, obtained originally from the sun. But man not only consumes
+food and fuel. The complicated protoplasm is continually wearing out
+and being replaced. Every cell in our bodies is a centre toward
+which particles of material stream to be assimilated and form for a
+time a part of the living substance, and then to be cast out again
+as dead matter. Our very existence depends upon this continual
+change. There is synthesis of simple substances into more complex
+compounds, and then analysis of these complex compounds into
+simpler, and from this latter process results the energy manifested
+in every vital action. We are all whirlpools on the surface of
+nature; when the whirling ceases we disappear. Man, like every other
+living being, exists in a condition of constant interchange with
+surrounding nature; he is rooted in innumerable ways in the
+inorganic world.</p>
+
+<p>And because of these close relations the great characteristic of
+living beings is the necessity and power of conformity to
+environment. Hence a very common definition of life is the continual
+adjustment of internal relations to external relations or
+conditions. To a very slight extent man can rise superior to certain
+of the ruder elements of his surroundings, but he gains this victory
+only by learning and following the laws of the very environment
+which he succeeds in subjecting to himself. Indeed his higher
+development and finer build bring him into touch with an
+indefinitely wider range of surroundings than even the lower animal.
+Forces, conditions, and relations which never enter the sphere of
+life of lower forms, crowd and press upon him and he cannot escape
+them. His higher <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>[213]</span>position, instead of freeing him from dependence
+upon environment and subjection to law, makes him thus more
+sensitive, as well as more capable of exact conformity to an
+environment of almost infinite complexity; and more sure of absolute
+ruin, if ignorant, negligent, or disobedient. The words of the
+German poet are literally true:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Nach ehernen, eisernen, grossen Gesetzen,<br /></span>
+<span>M&uuml;ssen wir alle unseres Daseins<br /></span>
+<span>Kreise vollenden.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But man is an animal. And the principal characteristic of an animal
+is that it eats a certain amount of solid food. The plant lives on
+fluid nutriment, and this comes to it by the process of diffusion in
+every drop of water and breath of air. The acquisition of food
+requires no effort, and the plant makes none. It has therefore
+always remained stationary and almost insensible. Not taking the
+first step it has never taken any of the higher ones. But solid food
+would not, as a rule, come to the animal&mdash;though stationary and
+sessile animals are not uncommon in the water&mdash;he must go in search
+of it. This called into play the powers of locomotion and
+perception. And in the sequence of function we have seen digestion
+calling for the development of muscle; and muscle, of nerve and
+brain. And the brain became the organ of mind.</p>
+
+<p>Man as a mere animal is necessarily active and energetic; otherwise
+he stagnates and degenerates. Labor is a curse, but work a blessing;
+and man's best work, of every kind, is done in the friction of life,
+not in ease and quiet. Man is, further, a being composed of cells,
+tissues, and organs, which were successively developed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>[214]</span> for him by
+the lower animal kingdoms. The old view, that man was the microcosm,
+had in it a certain amount of every important truth. We need to be
+continually reminded of our indebtedness in a thousand ways to the
+lowest and most insignificant forms of life.</p>
+
+<p>Man is a vertebrate animal. This means that he has a locomotive, not
+protective, skeleton, composed of cartilage&mdash;a tough, elastic,
+organic material, hardened, as a rule, by the deposition of mineral
+salts, mainly phosphate of lime, in exceedingly fine particles, so
+as to form a homogeneous, flawless, elastic, tough, light, and
+unyielding skeleton, held together by firm ligaments.</p>
+
+<p>The skeleton is internal, and this fact, as we have seen, gives the
+possibility of large size. And size is in itself no unimportant
+factor. Professor Lotze maintains that without man's size and
+strength, agriculture and the working of metals, and thus all
+civilization, would have been impossible. But we have already seen
+that there is an extreme of size, <i>e.g.</i>, in the elephant, which
+makes its possessor clumsy, able to exist only where there are large
+amounts of food in limited areas, slow to reproduce, and lacking in
+adaptability. This extreme also is avoided in man; in this, as in
+many other particulars, he holds the golden mean. But we have also
+seen that large size is, as a rule, correlated with long life and
+great opportunity for experience and observation. And these are the
+foundations of intelligence. Hence the deliverance of the higher
+vertebrate, and especially of man, from any iron-bound subjection to
+instinct.</p>
+
+<p>And here another question of vital importance <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>[215]</span>meets us. Is man's
+life at present as long as it should or can be? The question is
+exceedingly difficult, but a negative answer seems more probable. We
+cannot but hope that, with a better knowledge of our physical
+structure, a clearer vision of the dangers to which we are exposed,
+more study of the laws of physiology, heredity, and of our
+environment, and above all, less reckless disregard of these in a
+mad pursuit of pleasure, wealth, and position, man's period of
+mature, healthy, and best activity may be lengthened, perhaps, even
+a score of years. The mitigation of hurry and worry alone, the two
+great curses of our American civilization, might postpone the
+collapse of our nervous systems longer than we even dream. And if we
+could add even five years to the working life of our statesmen,
+scholars, and discoverers, the work of these last five years, with
+the advantage of all previously acquired knowledge and experience,
+might be of more value than that of their whole previous life. Human
+advance could not but be greatly, or even vastly, accelerated.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, we have seen that the history of vertebrates is really the
+history of the development of the cerebrum, forebrain or large
+brain, as we call it in man. This is the seat in man of
+consciousness, thought, and will. This portion as a distinct and new
+lobe first appears in lowest vertebrates, increases steadily in size
+from class to class, reaches its most rapid development by mammals,
+and its culmination in man. During the tertiary period&mdash;the last of
+the great geological periods&mdash;the brain in many groups of mammals
+increased in size, both absolutely and relatively, eight to tenfold.
+Dr. Holmes says, that the education of a child <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>[216]</span>should begin a
+century or two before its birth; man really began his mental
+education at least as early as the appearance of vertebrate life.</p>
+
+<p>But man is a mammal. This means that every organ is at its best. The
+digestive system, while making but a small part of the weight of the
+body, and built mainly on the old plan, is wonderfully perfect in
+its microscopic details. The muscles are heavy and powerful,
+arranged with the weight near the axis of the body, and replaced
+near the ends of the appendages by light, tough sinews. The higher
+mammal is this compact, light, and agile. The skeleton is strong,
+and the levers of the appendages are fitted to give rapidity of
+motion even at the expense of strength. And this again is possible
+only because of the high development and strength of the muscles.
+Moreover, the highest mammals are largely arboreal, and in
+connection with this habit have changed the foreleg into an arm and
+hand. The latter became the servant of the brain and gave the
+possibility of using tools.</p>
+
+<p>But increase in size and activity, and the expense of producing each
+new individual, led to the adoption of placental development. And
+the mammal is so complex, the road from the egg to the fully
+developed young is so long, that a long period of gestation is
+necessary. And even at birth the brain, especially of man, is
+anything but complete. Hence the necessity of the mammalian habit of
+suckling and caring for the young. And this feebleness and
+dependence of the young had begun far below man to draw out maternal
+tenderness and affection. And the mammalian mode of reproduction and
+care of young led to a more marked difference and interdependence
+between the sexes.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>[217]</span>The result of this is man's family life, as Mr. John Fiske has
+shown so beautifully in that fascinating monograph, &quot;The Destiny of
+Man.&quot; And family life once introduced becomes the foundation and
+bulwark of all civilization, morality, and religion. Far down in the
+mammalian series, before the development of the family, maternal
+education has become prominent, and the young begins life, benefited
+by the experiences of the parent. How much more efficient is this in
+family life. But, furthermore, the family is perhaps the first,
+certainly the most important, of those higher unities in which men
+are bound together. Social life of a sort undoubtedly existed,
+before man, among birds, insects, and lower mammals. The community
+was often defective or incomplete in unity, or existed under such
+limitations that it could not show its best results, but that it was
+of vast benefit from an even higher than mere physical standpoint,
+no one will, I think, deny. But with the family a new era of
+education and social life began.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, the struggle for existence is thereby greatly modified
+and mitigated. This crowding out and trampling down of the weaker by
+the stronger is transferred, to a certain extent, from the
+individual to the family and, in great degree, from the family to
+larger and larger social units. For within the limits of the family
+competition tends to be replaced by mutual helpfulness, and not only
+are the loneliness and horror of the struggle between isolated
+individuals banished, but, what is vastly more, the family becomes
+the school of unselfishness and love. And what has thus become true
+of the single family, and groups of nearly related families, is
+slowly being realized in the larger <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>[218]</span>units of communities and
+states. For, as families and communities are just as really
+organisms as are the individual men and women, whose soundness
+depends upon the healthy activity of every organ, so there is a
+survival, first of families, then of communities and rival
+civilizations, in proportion to their unity and soundness in every
+part. For on account of the close bonds of family and social life,
+and in connection with the development of articulate speech, a new
+kind of heredity, so to speak, arises, of vast importance for both
+good and evil. This mental and moral heredity, over-leaping all
+boundaries of blood and natural kinship, spreads light and good
+influence or an immoral contagion through the community. And thus,
+in sheer self-defence, society passes laws setting limits to the
+oppression of the poor and weak, lest, degraded and brutalized, they
+become breeding centres of physical and moral disease in the
+community. The positive lesson that the surest mode of self-defence
+is the elevation of these submerged classes, we are just beginning
+to learn and apply.</p>
+
+<p>By the ever-increasing acceleration of the development the gap
+between man and the lower animal widens with wonderful rapidity. Of
+course it is only in man, and higher man, that these last and
+highest results of mammalian structure appear. But that, far removed
+as they are, they are the results of mammalian and vertebrate
+characteristics cannot, I think, be well denied. And this is only
+one of innumerably possible illustrations of the fact that all our
+most highly prized institutions are rooted far back in our ancestry,
+often ineradicably in the very organs of our bodies. And thus
+evolution, which many view only from its radical <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>[219]</span>side&mdash;and it has a
+radical side&mdash;is really the conservative bulwark of all that is
+essentially worth possessing in the past.</p>
+
+<p>But every factor in man's development tends toward intellectual and
+spiritual development. Man's vast increase of brain; his finely
+balanced body; his upright gait; setting his hands free from the
+work of locomotion that they might become the skilful servants of
+the mind; finally, articulate speech and social, and, above all,
+family, life, all tended in this same direction.</p>
+
+<p>And this makes the great difficulty in assigning man his
+proper place in our systems of classification. Our zo&ouml;logical
+classifications depend upon anatomical characteristics; and
+anatomically man belongs among the order primates. But mental and
+moral values cannot be expressed in terms of anatomy, any more than
+we can speak of an idea of so many horse-power, and hence worth
+three or four ancestral dollars. Hence, while from the zo&ouml;logical
+standpoint man is a primate, and while he is very probably descended
+from one of these, he has gradually risen above them mentally and
+spiritually, so that he stands as far above them as they above the
+lowest worm. And this leads us to the consideration of man, not
+merely as a mammal, but as &quot;Anthropos,&quot; Homo sapiens, although he
+often degenerates into &quot;Simia destructor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>From what has just been said man's pre-eminence cannot consist in
+any anatomical characteristic, even of the brain&mdash;much less of
+thumb, forefinger, hand, or foot. But man's mental and moral
+characteristics (even though germs of these may be present in the
+animal), whether differing in degree or kind from theirs, raise his
+life to a totally different plane. He lives in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>[220]</span>an environment of
+which the lower animal is as unconscious and ignorant as we of a
+fourth dimension of space. He has the knowledge of abstract truth
+and goodness, of certain standards outside of mere appetite and
+desire, and feels and acknowledges, however dimly, the requirement
+and the ability to conform his life to these standards. He alone can
+say &quot;I ought,&quot; and answer &quot;I can and will.&quot; And hence man alone
+actually lives in an environment of the laws of reason,
+responsibility, and personality. Whatever germs of these higher
+powers the animal possesses are means to material ends, to the
+physical life of the animal. In man the long and slow evolution has
+ended in revolution, the material and physical have been dethroned,
+and truth and goodness reign supreme as ends in themselves.</p>
+
+<p>But, you may object, this definition of man may be true ideally,
+certainly it is not true actually. Where are the high ideals of
+truth and goodness in the savage? and are these the supreme ends of
+even the average American of to-day? But allowing all weight to this
+objection, does it not remain true that a being who never says &quot;I
+ought,&quot; who acknowledges and manifests no responsibility, to whom
+goodness does not appeal, and in whom these feelings cannot be
+awakened, is either not yet or no longer man? But far more than
+this, if the character of the individual is to be judged by his
+tendency more than his present condition, by the way in which he is
+going more than his momentary position, is not the race to be judged
+and defined by a tendency, gradually though very slowly becoming
+realized, and a goal, toward which it looks and which it is surely
+attaining, rather than by its <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>[221]</span>present realization? As we rise
+higher in the animal kingdom the characteristics of the successive
+higher groups are more and more slow of attainment and difficult of
+realization, just because of their grander possibilities. And this
+is true and important above all in the case of man. His
+possibilities are beyond our powers of conception, for, if you will,
+man is yet only larval man.</p>
+
+<p>We have followed the sequence of functions to its culmination in a
+mind completely dominated by righteousness and unselfishness,
+however far above our present attainments this goal may be. We have
+found that all attempts to reverse this sequence end in death or
+degeneration. Failure to advance, especially in higher forms,
+results in extinction or retrogression. We cannot stand still. Each
+higher step is longer and more important than any preceding; each
+last step is essential to life. Righteousness in the will is the
+last step essential to man's progress. And if a sound mind in a
+sound body is important or necessary, a sound will, resolutely set
+on right, is absolutely essential. Failure to attain this is ruin.</p>
+
+<p>And man can to a great extent place himself so that his surroundings
+shall aid him to take this last, essential, upward step. He does
+this by the choice of his associates. If he associates himself with
+men who are tending upward, he will rise ever higher. If he choose
+the opposite kind of associates he must sink into ever deeper
+degradation; he has thereby chosen death. For his associates, once
+chosen, make him like themselves. And thus natural selection makes
+for the survival of those men who resolutely choose life. And
+thoughtless or careless <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>[222]</span>failure to choose is ruin. The man has
+preferred degradation; it is only right that he should have it to
+satiety.</p>
+
+<p>But man is not, and never can be, pure spirit. He may &quot;let the ape
+and tiger die,&quot; but he must always retain the animal with its
+natural appetites. Moreover, his higher mental capacities increase
+their power. Memory recalls past gratifications as it never does to
+the animal; imagination paints before him vivid pictures of similar
+future enjoyments, and mental keenness and strength of will tell him
+that they can all be his. But if he yields himself a slave to these
+appetites, if he seeks to be an animal rather than a spiritual
+being, he becomes not an animal but a brute; and the only genuine
+brute is a degenerate man. And thus after conquering the world man's
+very structure compels him to join battle with himself. For here, as
+everywhere else, to attempt to go backward to a plane of life once
+passed is to surely degenerate. The time when the prize of
+pre-eminence could be won by mere physical superiority was passed
+before man had a history. Physical superiority must be maintained,
+and every advance in art and science, considered here as ministering
+to man's physical comfort, is advantageous just so far as these
+allow man freedom and aid to pursue the mental and moral line which
+is the only true path left open to him. But when even these are
+allowed to minister only to the animal, or to tempt to luxurious
+ease and indifference to any higher aims, in a word, in so far as
+they fail to minister to mental and moral advancement, they are in
+great danger of becoming, if they have not already become, a curse
+rather than a blessing. And we all know that this has been proven
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>[223]</span>over and over again in human history. Families, cities, and nations
+rot, mainly because they cannot resist the seductions of an
+overwhelming material prosperity. A man says to his soul, &quot;Take
+thine ease, eat, drink and be merry,&quot; and to that man scripture and
+science say, with equal emphasis, &quot;Thou fool!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Every upward step in attainment of the comforts of life, of art and
+science, brings man into new fields not of careless enjoyment but of
+struggle. They swarm with new enemies and temptations before
+unknown. The new attainments are not unalloyed blessings, they are
+merely opportunities for victory or defeat. The uncertain battle is
+only shifted to a little higher plane. Man has increased the forces
+at his command only to meet stronger opposing hosts. And retreat is
+impossible. Man remains a spiritual being only on condition that he
+resolutely and vigilantly purposes to be so. To lag behind in this
+spiritual path is death.</p>
+
+<p>And the epitaph of nations and individuals is the record of their
+defeat in this struggle to be masters and not slaves of their
+material and intellectual attainments. Greece, the most intellectual
+of all nations of all times, died in mental senility of moral
+paralysis. Of Socrates's and Plato's &quot;following after truth&quot; nothing
+remained but the gossipy curiosity of a second childhood, living
+only to tell or to hear some new thing. And the schools of
+philosophy were closed because they had nothing to tell which was
+worth the knowing or hearing. All the wealth of the world was poured
+into Rome, the home of Stoic philosophy, and it was smothered, and
+died in rottenness under its material prosperity.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>[224]</span>A family, race, or nation starts out fresh in its youthful physical
+and mental vigor and strict obedience to moral law and in its faith
+in God. For these reasons it survives in the struggle for existence.
+It grows in extent and power, in intelligence and wealth. But with
+this increase in wealth and power comes a deadening of the mind to
+the claims of moral law, and an idolatrous worship of material
+prosperity. The new generation looks upon the stern morality and
+industry and self-control of its ancestors as straight-laced and
+narrow. Morality may not be unfashionable, but any stern rebuke of
+immorality is not conventional. Strong moral earnestness and
+whole-souled loyalty to truth are not in good form. Wealth and
+social position become the chief ends of men's efforts, and, to buy
+these, unselfishness and truth and self-respect are bartered away.
+Luxury, enervation, and effeminacy are rife, and snobbery follows
+close behind them. The ancestral vigor, the insight to recognize
+great moral principles, and the power to gladly hazard all in their
+defence have disappeared in a mist of indifference, which beclouds
+the eyes and benumbs all the powers. The race of giants is dwindling
+into dwarfs. They say, when the time comes, we will rouse ourselves
+and be like our fathers. And the crisis comes, but they are not
+equal to it. The nation has long enough cumbered the ground, it has
+already died by suicide and must now give place to a race and
+civilization which has some aim in, and hence right to, existence,
+and which is of some use to itself and others. If we would learn by
+observation, and not by sad experience, we must remember that man is
+above all, and must be a religious being conforming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>[225]</span> to the
+personality of the God manifested in his environment.</p>
+
+<p>Can you find anywhere a more profound or scientific philosophy of
+history than that of Paul in the first chapter of Romans? &quot;For the
+invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly
+seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his
+everlasting power and divinity; so that they are without excuse:
+because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither
+gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings and their senseless
+heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became
+fools. And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God
+gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
+fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> And then follows
+the dark picture, from which we revolt but which the ancient
+historians themselves justify.</p>
+
+<p>On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at Rome is Michel Angelo's
+marvellous painting of the creation of Adam. A human figure of
+magnificent strength is half-rising from its recumbent posture, as
+if just awakening to consciousness, and is reaching out its hand to
+touch the outstretched finger of God. The human being became and
+becomes man when, and in proportion as, he puts himself in touch
+with God, and is inspired with the divine life. The lower animal
+conformed mainly to the material in environment, man conforms
+consciously to the spiritual and personal.</p>
+
+<p>Any science of human history that does not acknowledge man's
+relation to a personal God is fatally <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>[226]</span>incomplete; for it has missed
+the goal of man's development and the chief means of his farther
+advance. And a religion which does not emphasize this is worse than
+a broken reed. It is a mirage of the desert, toward which thirsty
+souls run only to die unsatisfied.</p>
+
+<p>Man can never overcome in this battle with the allurements of
+material prosperity and with the pride and selfishness of intellect,
+except as he is interpenetrated and permeated with God, any more
+than we can move or think, unless our blood is charged with the
+oxygen of the air. It is not enough that man have God in his
+intellectual creed; he must have him in his heart and will, in every
+fibre of his personality, in every thought and action of life.
+Otherwise his defeat and ruin are sure.</p>
+
+<p>Three fatal heresies are abroad to-day: 1. Man's chief end is
+avoidance of pain and discomfort, in one word, happiness; and God is
+somehow bound to surfeit man with this. And this is the chief end of
+a mollusk. 2. Man's chief end is material prosperity and social
+position. 3. Man's chief end is intellect, knowledge. Each one of
+these three ends, while good in a subordinate place, will surely
+ruin man if made his chief end. For they leave out of account
+conformity to environment. &quot;Man's chief end is to glorify God and
+enjoy him for ever.&quot; And just as the plant glorifies the sun by
+turning to, and being permeated and vivified and built up by, the
+warmth and light of its rays, similarly man must glorify God. This
+is the religion of conformity to environment: man working out his
+salvation because God works in him. Thus, and thus only, shall man
+overcome the allurements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a>[227]</span> of these lower endowments and receive the
+rewards of &quot;him that overcometh.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus prosperity and adversity, success and failure, continually test
+a man. If he can rise superior to these, can subjugate them and make
+them subserve his moral progress, he survives; if he is mastered by
+them, he perishes. Through these does natural selection mainly work
+to find and train great souls. They are the threads of the sieve of
+destiny.</p>
+
+<p>In this struggle man must fight against overwhelming odds, and the
+cost of victory is dear. He must be prepared, like Socrates, to &quot;bid
+farewell to those things which most men count honors, and look
+onward to the truth.&quot; He appears to the world at large, often to
+himself, eminently unpractical. The majority against his view and
+vote will usually be overwhelming. Truth is a stern goddess, and she
+will often bid him draw sword and stand against his nearest and
+dearest friends. The issue will often appear to him exceeding
+doubtful. The grander the truth for which he is fighting, the
+greater the need of its defence and enforcement, the greater the
+probability that he will never live to see its triumph. The hero
+must be a man of gigantic faith. But all his ancestors have had to
+make a similar choice and to fight a similar battle. The upward path
+was intended to be exceedingly hard. This is a law of biology.</p>
+
+<p>Why this is so I may not know. I only know that no better and surer
+way could have been discovered to train a race of heroes. For no man
+ever becomes a hero who has not learned to battle with the world and
+himself. Does it not look as if God loved a heroic soul as much as
+men worship one, and as if he <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a>[228]</span>intended that man should attain to
+it? Man was born and bred in hardship that he might be a hero.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Careless seems the great avenger; history's pages but record<br /></span>
+<span>One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the word;<br /></span>
+<span>Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,<br /></span>
+<span>Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown<br /></span>
+<span>Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.<br /></span>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,<br /></span>
+<span>Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just;<br /></span>
+<span>Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,<br /></span>
+<span>Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,<br /></span>
+<span>And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The Crown Prince of Prussia has less spending money than many a
+young fellow in Berlin. He is trained to economy, industry,
+self-control. He is to learn something better than habits of luxury,
+to rule himself, and thus later the German Empire. The children of a
+great captain, themselves to be soldiers, must endure hardness like
+good soldiers. And man is to fight his way to a throne.</p>
+
+<p>But his powers are still in their infancy and the goal far above
+him. What he is to become you and I can hardly appreciate. First of
+all, the body will become finer, fitted for nobler ends. It will not
+be allowed to degenerate. It may become less fitted for the rough
+work, which can be done by machinery; it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>[229]</span>will be all the better for
+higher uses. It is to be transformed, transfigured. The eye may not
+see so far, it will be better fitted for perceiving all the beauties
+of art and nature. It will become a better means of expressing
+personality, as our personality becomes more &quot;fit to be seen.&quot; It is
+continually gaining a speech of its own. And will not the ear become
+more delicate, a better instrument for responding to the finest
+harmonies, and better gateway to our highest feelings? We may not
+have so many molar teeth for chewing food, but may not our mouths
+become ever finer instruments for speech and song? In other words,
+the body is to be transfigured by the mind and become its worthy
+servant and representative.</p>
+
+<p>As we learn to live for something better than food and clothes, and
+cease to pamper the body, it will become better and healthier.
+Science will stamp out many diseases, and we shall learn to prevent
+others by right living. And what a change in our moral and religious
+life will be made by good health. What a cheerful courage and hope
+it will give.</p>
+
+<p>Man will become more intelligent. He will learn the laws of heredity
+and of life in general. He will see deeper into the relations of
+things. He will recognize in himself and his environment the laws of
+progress. He will clearly discern great moral truths, where we but
+dimly see lights and shadows.</p>
+
+<p>But while we would not underestimate the value and necessity of
+growth in knowledge, we must as clearly recognize that the intellect
+is not the centre and essence of man's being. Knowledge, while the
+surest form of wealth of which no one can rob us, and the best as
+the stepping-stone to the highest well-being, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a>[230]</span>is like wealth in one
+respect: it is not character and can be used for good or evil. If my
+neighbor uses his greater knowledge as a means of overreaching us
+all, it injures us and ruins him.</p>
+
+<p>Our emotions, and this is but another word for our motives, stand
+far nearer to the centre of life; for they control our conduct and
+directly determine what we are. Knowledge of environment is good,
+but of what real and permanent use is such knowledge without
+conformity? Our real weakness is not our ignorance; we know the
+good, but lack the will and purpose to live it out. And this is
+because the thought of truth and goodness excites no such strength
+of feeling as that of some lower gratification. We cannot perhaps
+overrate the value of intellect; we certainly underrate the value of
+emotion and feeling. &quot;Knowledge puffeth up, love buildeth.&quot; It does
+not require great intellect, it does require intense feeling to be a
+hero. We slander the emotions by calling people emotional because
+they are always talking about their feelings; but deep feeling is
+always silent. It is not fashionable to feel deeply, and we are
+dwarfed by this conventionality. We have almost ceased to wonder,
+and hence we have almost ceased to learn; for the wise old Greeks
+knew that wonder is the mother of wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>The man of the future will probably be a man of strong appetites,
+for he will be healthy; he will be prudent, because wise; but he
+will hold his appetites well in leash. He will trample upon mere
+prudential considerations at the call of truth or right. For in him
+these highest motives will be absolute monarchs, and they are the
+only motives which can enable a man <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a>[231]</span>to face rack and stake without
+flinching. He will be a hero because he feels intensely. In other
+words, he will be a man of gigantic will, because he has a great
+heart. And in the man of the future all these powers will be not
+only highly developed; they will be rightly proportioned and duly
+subordinated. He will be a well-balanced man. But how few complete
+men we now see.</p>
+
+<p>We see the strong will without the clear intellect to guide it; the
+gush of feeling either directed toward low ends or evaporating in
+sentiment; the clear head with the cold heart. The high development
+of one mental power seems to draw away all strength and vitality
+from the rest. How rarely do we find the strong will guided by the
+keen intellect toward the highest aims clearly discerned. Memory and
+imagination must always play their part in the joy set before us.
+But in addition to all these, the white heat of feeling, of which
+man alone is capable, is necessary for his grandest efforts. Such a
+being would be a man born to be a king. And there will be a race of
+such men. And we must play the man that they may be raised upon our
+buried shoulders. And they will tower above us, as the seers of old
+in Judea, Athens, India, and Rome towered above their indolent,
+luxurious, blind, and material contemporaries. And with all their
+accelerated development, infinite possibilities will still stretch
+beyond the reach of their imagination. For &quot;men follow duty, never
+overtake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But all our analyses are unsatisfactory. In the history of any great
+people there is a period when they seem to rise above themselves.
+They have the strength of giants, and accomplish things before and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>[232]</span>since impossible. We sometimes ascribe these results to the
+exuberant vitality of the race at this time; and their life is large
+and grand. Such was England under Elizabeth. Think of her soldiers
+and explorers, her statesmen and poets. There were giants in those
+days. What a healthy, hearty enjoyment they showed in all their
+work, and with what ease was the impossible accomplished. The
+greater the hardships to be borne or odds to be faced, the greater
+the joy in overcoming them. They sailed out to give battle to the
+superior power of Spain, not at the command, but by the permission,
+of their queen; often without even this.</p>
+
+<p>And what a vigor and vitality there is in the literature of this
+period. Life is worth living, and studying, and describing. They see
+the world directly as it is; not some distorted picture of it, seen
+by an unhealthy mind and drawn by a feeble hand. The world is ever
+new and fresh to them because they see it through young, clear eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Were they giants or are we dwarfed? Which of the two lives is
+normal? They used all their faculties and utilized all their powers.
+Do we? The only force or product which we are willing to see wasted
+is the highest mental and moral power. Our engines and turbine
+wheels utilize the last ounce of pressure of the steam or water. The
+manufacturers pay high wages to hands who can tend machines run at
+the highest possible speed. The profits of modern business come
+largely from the utilization of force or products formerly wasted.
+But how far do we utilize the highest faculties of the mind, which
+have to do with character, the crowning glory of human development?
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>[233]</span>Are we not eminently &quot;penny-wise and pound-foolish?&quot; A ship which
+uses only its donkey-engines, and does nothing but take in and get
+out cargo is a dismantled hulk. A captain who thinks only of cargo,
+and engines, and the length of the daily run, but who takes no
+observations and consults no chart, will make land only to run upon
+rocks. Are we not too much like such dismantled hulks, or ships
+sailing with priceless cargoes but with mad captains?</p>
+
+<p>But we have not yet seen the worst results of this waste of our
+highest powers. The sessile animal, which lives mainly for
+digestion, does not attain as good digestive organs as his more
+active neighbor, who subordinates digestion to muscle. Lower powers
+reach their highest development only in proportion as they are
+strictly subordinated to higher. This may be called a law of
+biology. And our lower mental powers fail of their highest
+development and capacity mainly because of the lack of this
+subordination.</p>
+
+<p>But a disused organ is very likely to become a seat of disease and
+to thus enfeeble or destroy the whole body. And this disease effects
+the most complete ruin when its seat is in the highest organs.
+Dyspepsia is bad enough, but mania or idiocy is infinitely worse.
+And our moral powers are always enfeebled, and often diseased, from
+lack of strong exercise. And some blind guides, seeing only the
+disease, cry out for the extirpation of the whole faculty, as some
+physicians are said to propose the removal of the vermiform
+appendage in children. Similarly might the drunkard argue against
+the value of brain, because it aches after a debauch. Our work is
+hard labor, and we gain no <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>[234]</span>enjoyment in the use of our mental
+powers; for the enjoyment of any activity is proportional to the
+height and glory of the purpose for which it is employed. As long as
+we are content to use only our lower mental faculties and to gain
+low ends, our use of even these will be feeble and ineffectual, and
+our lives will be poor, weak, and unhappy.</p>
+
+<p>But future man will subordinate these lower powers to the higher. He
+will utilize all that there is in him. And his efficiency must be
+vastly greater than ours. And finally, and most important, these men
+will be all-powerful, because they have so conformed to environment
+that all its forces combine to work with them.</p>
+
+<p>England under Elizabeth seemed to rise above itself. Think of
+Holland, under William the Silent, defying all the power of Spain.
+Look at Bohemia, under Ziska, a handful of peasants joining battle
+with and defeating Germany and Austria combined. Think of Cromwell
+and his Ironsides, before whom Europe trembled. These men were not
+merely giants, they were heroes. And the essence of heroism is
+self-forgetfulness. The last thought of William the Silent was not
+for himself, but for his &quot;poor people.&quot; And those rugged Ironsides,
+&quot;fighting with their hands and praying with their hearts,&quot; smote
+with light good-will and irresistibly, because they struck for truth
+and freedom, for right and God. These are motives of incalculable
+strength, and they transfigure a man and raise him above his
+surroundings and even himself. The man becomes heroic and godlike,
+and when possessed by these motives he has clasped hands with God.
+He is inspired and infused with the divine power <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>[235]</span>and life. Such a
+man has no time nor care to think of himself. To him it matters
+little whether he lives to see the triumph of his cause, provided he
+can hasten it. Though victory be in the future, it is sure; and the
+joy of battle for so sure and grand a triumph is present reward
+enough. His very faith removes mountains and turns to night armies
+of the aliens. For heroism begets faith, just as surely as faith
+begets heroism.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where there is no vision the people perish.&quot; When the member of
+Congress can see nothing higher than spoils of office, nothing
+larger than a silver dollar, you should not criticise the poor man
+if his oratorical efforts do not move an audience like the sayings
+of Webster, Lincoln, or Phillips.</p>
+
+<p>Future man will be heroic and divine, because he will live in an
+atmosphere of truth and right and God, and will be consciously
+inspired by these divine, omnipotent motives.</p>
+
+<p>But who will compose this future race? We cannot tell. And yet the
+attempt to answer the question may open our eyes to truth of great
+practical importance.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem to be a fact that the offspring of a cross between
+different races of the same species is as a rule more vigorous than
+that of either pure race. Human history seems to show the same
+result. The English race is a mixture of Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Danes,
+and Normans, with a sprinkling of other races. And a new fusion of a
+great number of most diverse strains is rapidly going on in the
+newly populated portions of America and in Australia. The mixture
+contains thus far almost purely occidental races. It will in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a>[236]</span>future
+almost certainly contain oriental also. For the races of India,
+Japan, and even China, are no farther from us to-day than the
+ancestors of many of our occidental fellow-citizens were a century
+ago. Racial prejudices, however strong, weaken rapidly through
+intercourse and better acquaintance. One of the grandest and least
+perceived results of missionary work is the preparation for this
+great fusion.</p>
+
+<p>Many races will undoubtedly go down before the advance of
+civilization and have no share in the future. Progress seems to be
+limited to the inhabitants of temperate zones; and even here the
+weaker may be crowded out before the stronger rather than absorbed
+by them. But many whom we now despise may have a larger inheritance
+in the future than we. God is clearly showing us that we should not
+count any man, much less any nation, common or unclean. And the laws
+of evolution give us a firm confidence that no good attained by any
+race or civilization will fail to be preserved in the future.</p>
+
+<p>The forms which seem to us at any one time the highest are as a rule
+not the ancestors of the race of the future. These highest forms are
+too much specialized, and thus fitted to a narrow range of space,
+time, and general conditions; when these change they pass away.
+Specialization is doubly dangerous when it follows a wrong line. But
+whenever it is carried far enough to lead to a one-sided
+development, it narrows the possibility of future advance; for it
+neglects or crowds out or prevents the development of other powers
+essential to life. The mollusk neglected nerve and muscle. But the
+scholar may, and often does, cultivate the brain at the expense of
+the rest of the body <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a>[237]</span>until he and his descendants suffer, and the
+family becomes extinct.</p>
+
+<p>The young men of the nobility of wealth, birth, and fashion usually
+marry heiresses, if they can. But only in families of enormous
+wealth can there be more than one or two heiresses in the same
+generation. She has very probably inherited a portion of her wealth
+from one or more extinct branches of the family. Moreover, not to
+speak of other factors, the labor and anxiety which have been
+essential to the accumulation and preservation of these great
+fortunes, or the mode of life which has accompanied their use or
+abuse, tend to diminish the number of children. Heiresses to very
+large fortunes usually therefore belong to families which are
+tending to sterility. And this has very probably been no unimportant
+factor in the extinction of &quot;noble&quot; families.</p>
+
+<p>A sound body contains many organs, all of which must be sound. And
+in a sound mind there is an even greater number of faculties, all of
+which must be kept at a high grade of efficiency. Man is a
+marvellously complex being, and more in danger of a narrow and
+one-sided development than any lower animal. And it is very easy for
+a certain grade or class of society, or for a whole race, to become
+so specialized, by the cultivation of only one set of faculties as
+to altogether prevent its giving birth to a complete humanity. Along
+certain broad lines the Greeks and Romans attained results never
+since equalled. But their neglect of other, even more important,
+powers and attainments, especially the moral and religious, doomed
+them to a speedy decay. The rude northern races were on the whole
+better and nobler, and became heirs <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>[238]</span>to Greek art and letters, and
+to Roman law. And this is another illustration of the advantage or
+necessity of the fusion of races.</p>
+
+<p>To answer the question, &quot;Which stratum or class in the community or
+world at large is heir to the future?&quot; we must seek the one which is
+still to a large extent generalized. It must be maintaining, in a
+sound body, a steady, even if slow, advance of all the mental
+powers. It will not be remarkable for the high development or lack
+of any quality or power; it must have a fair amount of all of them
+well correlated. It must be well balanced, &quot;good all around,&quot; as we
+say. And this class is evidently neither the highest nor the lowest
+in the community, but the &quot;common people, whom God must have loved,
+because he made so many of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They have, as a rule, fair-sized or large families. Their bodies are
+kept sound and vigorous by manual labor. They are compelled to think
+on all sorts of questions and to solve them as best they can. They
+have a healthy balance of mental faculties, even if they are not
+very learned or artistic. They are kept temperate because they
+cannot afford many luxuries. Their healthy life prevents an undue
+craving for them. They help one another and cultivate unselfishness.
+The good old word, neighbor, means something to them. They have a
+sturdy morality, and you can always rely upon them in great moral
+crises. They are patriotic and public-spirited; they have not so
+many, or so enslaving, selfish interests. They have always been
+trained to self-sacrifice and the endurance of hardship; and heroism
+is natural to them. They have a strong will, cultivated by the
+battle of daily life. And among them religion never loses its hold.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>[239]</span>But what of our tendencies to specialization in education and
+business? Are these wrong and injurious? Specialization, like great
+wealth, is a great danger and a fearful test of character. It tends
+to narrowness. If you will know everything about something, you must
+make a great effort to know something about, and have some interest
+in, everything. The great scholar is often anything but the
+large-minded, whole-souled man which he might have become. He has
+allowed himself to become absorbed in, and fettered by, his
+specialty until he can see and enjoy nothing outside of it. There is
+no selfishness like that of learning.</p>
+
+<p>We can accomplish nothing unless we concentrate our efforts upon a
+comparatively narrow line of work. But this does not necessitate
+that our views should be narrow or our aims low. Teufelsdr&ouml;ckh may
+live on a narrow lane; but his thoughts, starting along the narrow
+lane, lead him over the whole world. The narrowness of our horizon
+is due to our near-sightedness.</p>
+
+<p>But the only absolutely safe specialization is the highest possible
+development of our moral and religious powers. For their cultivation
+only enlarges and strengthens all the other powers of body and mind.
+&quot;But,&quot; you will object, &quot;does religion always broaden?&quot; Yes. That
+which narrows is the base alloy of superstition. But a religion
+which finds its goal and end in conformity to environment,
+character, and godlikeness can only broaden.</p>
+
+<p>But there is the so-called &quot;breadth&quot; of the shallow mind which
+attempts to find room at the same time for things which are mutually
+exclusive. God and Baal, right and wrong, honesty and lying,
+selfishness and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a>[240]</span>love, these are mutually exclusive. You cannot find
+room in your mind for both members of the pair at the same time. You
+must choose. And, when you have chosen, abide by your choice. A
+ladleful of thin dough fallen on the floor is very broad. But its
+breadth is due to lack of consistency. Better narrowness than such
+breadth.</p>
+
+<p>But while individual specialization may be safe for the individual,
+and beneficial to the race, the race which is to inherit the future
+must remain unspecialized. It must not sacrifice future
+possibilities to present rapidity of advance. And the common people
+are advancing safely, slowly, but surely. Wealth and learning become
+of permanent prospective and real value only when they are
+invested in the masses. They are the final depositaries of all
+wealth&mdash;material, intellectual, moral, and religious. Whatever, and
+only that which, becomes a part of their life becomes thereby
+endowed with immortality. Will we invest freely or will we wait to
+have that which we call our own wrested from us? If we refuse it to
+our own kin and nation, it will surely fall to foreigners. &quot;God made
+great men to help little ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The city of God on earth is being slowly &quot;builded by the hands of
+selfish men.&quot; But the builders are becoming continually more
+unselfish and righteous, and as they become better and purer its
+walls rise the more rapidly.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11">[11]</a> Romans i. 20-22, 28.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>[241]</span>We have studied the teachings of science concerning man and his
+environment, let us turn now to the teachings of the Bible. And
+though eight chapters have been devoted to the teachings of science,
+and only one to the teachings of the Bible, it is not because I
+underestimate the importance of the latter. It is more difficult to
+clearly discover just what are the teachings of Nature in science.
+The lesson is written in a language foreign to most of us, and one
+requiring careful study; and yet once deciphered it is clear.
+Science attains the laws of Nature by the study of animal and human
+history. But this record is a history of continually closer
+conformity to environment on the part of all advancing forms. The
+animal kingdom is the clay which is turned, as Job says, to the seal
+of environment, and it makes little difference whether we study the
+seal or the impression; we shall read the same sentence. Environment
+has stamped its laws on the very structure of man's body and mind.
+And the old biblical writers read these laws, guided by God's
+Spirit, in their own hearts, and in those of their neighbors, and in
+their national history, as the record of God's working, and gave us
+concrete examples of the results of obedience and disobedience.
+Hence the teaching of the Bible is always clear and unmistakable.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>[242]</span>The Bible treats of three subjects&mdash;Nature, Man, and God&mdash;and the
+relations of each of these to the others. I have tried to present to
+you in the first chapter the biblical conception of Nature and its
+relation to God. In its relation to man it is his manifestation to
+us, and, in its widest sense, the sum of the means and modes through
+which he develops, aids, and educates us. And in this conception I
+find science to be strictly in accord with scripture.</p>
+
+<p>Now what is the scriptural idea of man? Man interests us especially
+in three aspects. He is a corporeal being; he is an intellectual
+being; he is a moral being, with feelings, will, and personality.</p>
+
+<p>Man's body. Plato considered the body as a source of evil and a
+hindrance to all higher life. And Plato was by no means alone in
+this. The Bible takes a very different view. Neglect of the body is
+always rebuked. The only place, so far as I can find, where the body
+is called vile is where it is compared with the glorious body into
+which it is to be transformed. &quot;Your bodies,&quot; writes Paul to the
+Corinthians, &quot;are members of Christ,&quot; &quot;temples of the Holy Ghost.&quot;
+But the Bible teaches that the body is to be the servant, not the
+ruler, of the spirit. &quot;I keep under my body, and bring it into
+subjection,&quot; continues Paul. Here again science is strictly in
+accord with scripture.</p>
+
+<p>Man is an intellectual being. I need not quote the praises of
+knowledge in the Old Testament. They must be fresh in your mind. But
+the practical Peter writes, &quot;giving all diligence add to your faith
+virtue; and to virtue knowledge.&quot; And Paul prays that the love of
+the Ephesians may &quot;abound more and more in knowledge and in all
+judgment.&quot; But the important <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a>[243]</span>knowledge is the knowledge of God, and
+of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. And similarly science
+emphasizes that the chief end of all knowledge is that we should
+know the environment to which we are to conform. Knowledge is useful
+to strengthen and clarify the mind, that it may see and conform to
+truth and God: and if it fails to become a means to conformity, it
+has failed of the chief, and practically the only, end for which it
+was intended. We are to come &quot;in the unity of the faith and of the
+knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of
+the stature of the fulness of Christ.&quot; But knowledge which only
+puffs up and distracts the mind from the great aims and ends which
+it should serve is rebuked with equal emphasis by the Bible and by
+science.</p>
+
+<p>I would not claim that we have set too high a value upon knowledge,
+perhaps we cannot; but there is something far higher on which we are
+inclined to set far too low a value. This is righteousness and love;
+and true wisdom is knowledge permeated, vivified, and transfigured
+by devotion to these higher ends. And in this highest realm of the
+mind feeling and will rule conjointly. Love is a feeling which
+always will and must find its way to activity through the will, and
+it is an activity of the will roused by the very deepest feeling,
+inspired by a worthy object. If you try to divorce them, both die.
+Hence Paul can say, &quot;Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
+angels, and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
+mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I
+could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.&quot; And John
+goes, if possible, even farther and says, &quot;Every one that loveth is
+born of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a>[244]</span>God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God;
+for God is love.&quot; And this sort of love bears and believes and hopes
+and endures, and never fails. And for this reason the Bible lays
+such tremendous emphasis on the heart, not as the centre of emotion
+alone, but as the seat of will as well. And science points to the
+same end, though she sees it afar off.</p>
+
+<p>And what of God? God is a Spirit, Creator, Author, and Finisher of
+all things, and filling all. But while omnipotent, omnipresent, and
+omniscient, these are not the characteristics emphasized in the
+Bible. He is righteous. &quot;Shall not the judge of all the earth do
+right?&quot; is the grand question of the father of the faithful. And
+when Moses prays God to show him his glory, God answers, &quot;I will
+make all my goodness pass before thee.&quot; He is the &quot;refuge of
+Israel,&quot; the &quot;everlasting arms&quot; underneath them, pitying them &quot;as a
+father pitieth his children.&quot; And in the New Testament we are bidden
+to pray to our Father, who <i>is</i> love, and whose temple is the heart
+of whosoever will receive him. Truly a very personal being.</p>
+
+<p>Now the Bible rises here indefinitely above anything that mere
+natural science can describe. But can the ultimate &quot;Power, not
+ourselves, which makes for righteousness&quot; and unselfishness, of
+whose presence in environment science assures us, be ever better
+described than by these words concerning the &quot;Father of our
+spirits?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And an infinitely wise, good, and loving being will have fixed modes
+of working; for &quot;with him is no variableness, neither shadow of
+turning.&quot; Thus only can man trust and know him. The old Stoic
+philosopher tells us &quot;everything has two handles, and can be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a>[245]</span>carried by one of them, but not by the other.&quot; So with God's laws.
+Many seem to look upon them as a hindrance and limitation to him in
+carrying out his righteous and loving will toward man. But they are
+really the modes or means of his working, which he uses with such
+regularity and consistency that we can always rely upon them and
+him. The pure river of the water of life proceedeth from the throne
+of God and of the Lamb.</p>
+
+<p>If I am lying ill waiting anxiously for the physician I can think of
+this great city as a mass of blocks of houses separating him from
+me. But the houses have been arranged in blocks so as to leave free
+streets, along which he can travel the more quickly. And God's laws
+are not blocks, but thoroughfares, planned that the angels of his
+mercy may fly swiftly to our aid. We are prone to forget that these
+laws are expressly made for your and my benefit, as well as that of
+all beings, that we may be righteous and unselfish. And this is one
+ground of the apostle's faith that &quot;all things work together for
+good to them that love God.&quot; And in the Apocalypse the earth helps
+the woman. It must be so.</p>
+
+<p>But what if you or I try to block the thoroughfare? What would
+happen to us if we tried to stop bare-handed the current of a huge
+dynamo, or to hold back the torrent of Niagara? Nothing but death
+can result. And what if I stem myself against the &quot;river of the
+water of life, proceeding from the throne of God,&quot; and try to turn
+it aside or hold it back from men perishing of thirst? And that is
+just what sin is, even if done carelessly or thoughtlessly; for men
+have no right to be careless and thoughtless about <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a>[246]</span>some things.
+&quot;The wages of sin is death;&quot; physical death for breaking physical
+law, and spiritual death for breaking spiritual law. How can it be
+otherwise? The wages are fairly earned. The hardest doctrine for a
+scientific man to believe is that there can be any forgiveness of
+such sin as the heedless, ungrateful breaking of such wise and
+beneficent laws of a loving Father. And yet my earthly father has
+had to forgive me a host of times during my boyhood. Perhaps I can
+hope the same from God; I take his word for it.</p>
+
+<p>But if you or I think that it is safe to trifle with God's laws, we
+are terribly mistaken. The Lord proclaimed himself to Moses as &quot;The
+Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and
+abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
+forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
+means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
+the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and
+to the fourth generation.&quot; But someone will say, This is terrible.
+It is terrible; but the question is, Does the Bible speak the truth
+about nature? Is nature a &quot;fairy godmother,&quot; or does she bring men
+up with sternness and inflict suffering upon the innocent children,
+if necessary, lest they copy after their sinful parents? Do the
+children of the defaulter and drunkard and debauchee suffer because
+of the sins of their father, or do they not? If the blessings won by
+parental virtue go down to the thousandth generation, must not the
+evil consequences of sin go down to the third or fourth?</p>
+
+<p>That we are not under the law, but under grace, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a>[247]</span>does not mean, as
+some seem to think, that it is safe to sin. Otherwise the
+forgiveness of God becomes the lowest form of indulgence
+slanderously attributed to the Church of Rome. We gain freedom from
+law as well as penalty only by obedience. The artist can safely
+forget the laws and rules of his art only when by long obedience and
+practice he obeys them unconsciously. We seem to be threatened with
+a belief that God will never punish sin in one who has professed
+Christianity. This view cheapens sin and makes pardon worthless, it
+takes the iron out of the blood, and the backbone out of all our
+religion and ethics. It ruins Christians and disgraces Christianity.
+We sometimes seem to think that our nation or church or denomination
+is so important to the carrying on of God's work that he cannot
+afford to let any evil befall us, whatever we may do or be.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes
+of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment and pervert all equity.
+They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The
+heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for
+hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean
+upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come
+upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field,
+and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as
+the high places of the forest.&quot; That was plain preaching, and the
+people did not like it. They would not like it any better to-day; it
+would come too near the truth.</p>
+
+<p>But others seem to think that God is too kind, not to say
+good-natured, to allow his children to suffer <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a>[248]</span>for their sins. This
+is part of a creed, unconsciously very widely held to-day, that
+comfort, not character, is the chief end of life. Now if God is too
+kind to allow his children to suffer some of the natural
+consequences of sin, he is not a really kind and loving father, he
+is spoiling his children. Salvation is soundness, sanity, health;
+just as holiness is wholeness, escape from the disease, and not
+merely from the consequences of sin. A physician, unless a quack,
+never promises relief from a deep-seated disease without any pain or
+discomfort. And if the disease is the result of indulgence, he warns
+us that relapse into indulgence will bring a worse recurrence of the
+pain. Perhaps, after all, Socrates was not so far from right when he
+maintained that if a man had sinned the best and only thing for him
+is to suffer for it. &quot;God the Lord will speak peace unto his people,
+and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.&quot; And our
+Lord says, &quot;Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the
+prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say
+unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
+no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. For I say unto you,
+That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
+scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
+heaven.&quot; If we would be great in the kingdom of heaven we must do
+and teach the commandments. One of the best lessons that the clergy
+can learn from science is that law and penalty are not things of the
+past. They are eternal facts; and if so, ought sometimes to be at
+least mentioned from the pulpit as well as remembered in the pew.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a>[249]</span>But if God is a person striving to communicate with man, and if man
+is a person intended to conform to environment by becoming like God,
+what is more probable from the scientific stand-point than that God
+should seek and find some means of making himself clearly known to
+man in some personal way? I do not see how any scientific man who
+believes in a personal God can avoid asking this question. And is
+there any more natural solution of the question than that given in
+the Bible? &quot;God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.&quot;
+&quot;God, who spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath
+in these last days spoken unto us by his son.&quot; Philip says, &quot;Lord,
+show us the Father and it sufficeth us.&quot; Jesus saith unto him, &quot;Have
+I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he
+that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou shew us the
+Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in
+me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the
+Father abiding in me doeth his works.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world,
+and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
+evil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Something more is needed than light. We need more light and
+knowledge of our duty; we need vastly more the will-power to do it.
+I know how I ought to live; I do not live thus. What I need is not a
+teacher, but power to become a son of God. &quot;I delight in the law of
+God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members,
+warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
+under the law of sin which is in my members. O <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a>[250]</span>wretched man that I
+am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This is the terrible question. How is it to be answered? Let us
+remember our illustration of the change wrought in that
+panic-stricken army before Winchester by the appearance of Sheridan.
+What these men needed was not information. No plan of battle
+reported as sure of success by trustworthy and competent witnesses,
+and forwarded from the greatest leader could have stayed that rout.
+What they needed was Sheridan and the magnetic power of his
+personality. This is the strange power of all great leaders of men,
+whether orators, statesmen, or generals. It is intellect acting on
+and through intellect, but it is also vastly more; it is will acting
+on will. The leader does not merely instruct others, he inspires
+them, puts himself into them, and makes them heroes like himself.</p>
+
+<p>Now something like this, but vastly grander and deeper, seems to me
+to have been the work of our Lord. Read John's gospel and see how it
+is interpenetrated with the idea of the new life to be gained by
+contact with our Lord, and how this forms the foundation of his hope
+and claim to give men this new life by drawing them to himself. And
+Peter says that it was impossible for the Prince of Life to be
+holden of death, for he was the centre and source from which not
+only new thoughts and purposes, but new will and life was to stream
+out into the souls of men. This power of our Lord may have been
+miraculous and supernatural in degree; I feel assured that it was
+not unnatural in kind and mode of action.</p>
+
+<p>And here, young men, pardon a personal word <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"></a>[251]</span>about your preaching.
+You will need to preach many sermons of warning against, and
+denunciation of, sin; many of instruction in duty. The Bible is a
+store-house of instruction and men need it, and you must make it
+clear to them. All this is good and necessary, but it is not enough.
+Learn from the experience of the greatest preacher, perhaps, who
+ever lived.</p>
+
+<p>Paul, the greatest philosopher of ancient times, came to Athens. You
+can well imagine how he had waited and longed for the opportunity to
+speak in this home of philosophy and intellectual life. Now he was
+to speak, not to uncultured barbarians, but to men who could
+understand and appreciate his best thoughts. He preached in Athens
+the grandest sermon, as far as argument is concerned, ever uttered.
+I doubt if ever a sermon of Paul's accomplished less. He could not
+even rouse a healthy opposition. The idea of a new god, Jesus, and a
+new goddess, the Resurrection, rather tickled the Athenian fancy. He
+left them, and, in deep dejection, went down to Corinth. There he
+determined to know only &quot;Christ and him crucified,&quot; and thus
+preaching in material, vicious Corinth he founded a church.</p>
+
+<p>Some of you will go through the same experience. You will preach to
+cultured and intelligent audiences, and they will listen courteously
+and eagerly as long as you tell them something new, and do not ask
+them to do anything. The only possible way of reaching Athenian
+intellect or Corinthian materialism and vice is by preaching Christ,
+&quot;the power of God and the wisdom of God.&quot; And you will reach more
+Corinthians than Athenians.</p>
+
+<p>You may preach sermons full of the grandest philosophy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a>[252]</span> and
+theology, and of the highest, most exact, science; you may chain men
+by your logic, thrill them by your rhetoric, and move them to tears
+by your eloquence, and they will go home as dead and cold as they
+came. What they need is power, life. But preach &quot;Christ and him
+crucified&quot;&mdash;not merely dead two thousand years ago&mdash;but risen and
+alive for evermore, and with us to the end of the world, the
+grandest, most heroic, divinest helper who ever stood by a man, one
+all-powerful to help and who never forsakes, and every one of your
+hearers who is not dead to truth will catch the life, and go home
+alive and not alone.</p>
+
+<p>So long as we preach a dead Christ we shall have a dead church, as
+hopeless as the apostles were before the resurrection. &quot;But now is
+Christ risen from the dead,&quot; &quot;alive for evermore.&quot; See how Paul and
+Peter and John, and doubtless all the others, talked with him and he
+with them, after he was taken from them, and you have found the
+secret of their power, and of that of all the great Christian heroes
+and martyrs who could truly say, Lord Jesus, we understand each
+other. Better yet, prove by experience that it is possible for every
+one of us.</p>
+
+<p>And our Lord and Master is the connecting link between God and man,
+through whom God's own Holy Spirit is poured like a mighty flood
+into the hearts and lives of men, transfiguring them and filling
+them with the divine power. This is the biblical idea of
+Christianity; man, through Christ, flooded and permeated and
+interpenetrated with the Holy Spirit of God. And thus Paul is dead
+and yet alive, but fully possessed and dominated by the spirit of
+Christ. Alive as never <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a>[253]</span>before, and yet his every thought, word, and
+deed is really that of his great leader. Can you talk of self-denial
+to such a Christian? He had forgotten that such a man as Saul of
+Tarsus or Paul ever existed; he lives only in his Master's work, and
+is transfigured by it. This, and nothing less, is Christianity, and
+this is the very highest and grandest heroism. Paul conquers Europe
+single-handed, alone he stands before C&aelig;sar's tribunal, and yet he
+is never alone; and from the gloom of the Mammertine dungeon he
+sends back a shout of triumph. And Peter walks steadily, cheerfully,
+and unflinchingly, in the footsteps of his Master to share his
+cross.</p>
+
+<p>Let us, before leaving this topic, notice carefully just what
+religion, and especially Christianity, is not.</p>
+
+<p>1. It is not merely opinion or intellectual belief in a creed. This
+may be good, or even necessary, but it is not religion. &quot;Thou
+believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also
+believe and tremble.&quot; We speak with pride, sometimes, of our
+puissant Christendom, so industrious, so intelligent, so moral, with
+its ubiquitous commerce, its adorning arts, its halls of learning,
+its happy firesides, and its noble charities. And yet what is our
+vaunted Christendom but a vast assemblage of believing but
+disobedient men? Said William Law to John Wesley, &quot;The head can as
+easily amuse itself with a living and justifying faith in the blood
+of Jesus as with any other notion.&quot; The most sacred duty may
+degenerate into a dogma, asking only to be believed. &quot;I go, sir,&quot;
+answered the son in the parable, &quot;but went not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>2. It is not mere feeling. It is neither hope of heaven's joy, nor
+fear of hell's misery. It may rightly <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a>[254]</span>include these, but it is
+vastly more and higher. It is neither ecstasy nor remorse. The most
+resolutely impenitent sinner can shout &quot;Hallelujah,&quot; and &quot;Woe is
+me,&quot; as loudly as any saint. Now feeling is of vast importance. It
+stands close to the will and stimulates it, but it is not
+conformity. The will must be aroused to a robust life.</p>
+
+<p>3. Christianity is these and a great deal more. Mere belief would
+make religion a mere theology. Mere emotion would make it mere
+excitement. The true divine idea of it is a life; doing his will,
+not indolently sighing to do it, and then lamenting that we do it
+not; but the thing itself in actual achievement, from day to day,
+from month to month, from year to year. Thus religion rises on us in
+its own imperial majesty. It is no mere delight of the understanding
+in the doctrines of our faith; no mere excitement of the
+sensibilities, now harrowed by fear, and now jubilant in hope; but a
+warfare and a work, a warfare against sin, and a work with God.
+Religion is not an entertainment, but a service. We are to set
+before us the perfect standard, and then struggle to shape our lives
+to it. Personal sanctity must be made a business of.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>A little more than thirty years ago a regiment was sent home from
+the Army of the Potomac to enforce the draft after the riots in this
+city. Some of you may picture to yourselves a thousand men with silk
+banners and gold lace and bright uniforms, resplendent in the
+sunshine. You could not make a worse mistake.</p>
+
+<p>First in that gray early morning came two old flags, so torn by shot
+and shell that there was hardly enough <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"></a>[255]</span>left of them to tell whether
+the State flag was that of Massachusetts or Virginia. And behind
+these came scant three hundred men. All the rest were sleeping
+between Washington and Richmond, some on almost every battle-field.
+The uniforms were old and faded from sun and rain. Only gun-barrel
+and bayonet were bright. And the men were scarred and tired and
+foot-sore, haggard from hard fighting and long, swift marches. For
+these men had been trained to be hurried back and forth behind the
+long line of battle, that they might be hurled into it wherever the
+need was greatest. I do not suppose that one of them could have
+delivered a fourth-of-July oration on Patriotism. They were trained
+not to talk, but to obey orders. But they had stood in the &quot;bloody
+angle&quot; at Spottsylvania all day and all night; and in the gray dawn
+of the next morning, when strength and courage are always at ebb,
+faint and exhausted, their last cartridge shot away, had sprung
+forward at the command of their colonel to make a last desperate,
+forlorn defence with the bayonet against the advancing enemy.
+Numbers do not count against men like these. What made them such
+invincible heroes? It was mainly the resolute will and long training
+to obey orders. A Christian should never forget that he is a soldier
+in the army of the Lord of Hosts; that enlistment is easy and
+quickly accomplished; but that the training is long, and that he
+must learn, above all, to &quot;endure hardness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so, my brothers, I beg of you to preach a heroic Christianity,
+for if there ever was a heroic religion it is ours. If you offer
+merely free transportation to a future heaven of delight on &quot;flowery
+beds of ease,&quot; you will enlist only the coward and the sluggard. But
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"></a>[256]</span>everyone who has a drop of strong old Norse blood in his veins will
+prefer a heathen Valhalla, though builded in hell, to such a heaven.
+And his Norse instincts will be nearer truth than your counterfeit
+of a debased Christianity. But preach the city of God's
+righteousness on earth and now among men, and call on every heroic
+soul to take sides with God against sin within himself and the evil
+and misery all around him. There is an almost infinite amount of
+strength, endurance, and heroism in this &quot;slow-witted but
+long-winded&quot; human race waiting to leap up at the appeal to fight
+once more and win a victory after repeated defeats before the sun
+goes down. Appeal to this and point to the great &quot;captain of our
+salvation made perfect through sufferings,&quot; and every man that is of
+the truth will hear in your voice the call of the Master and King.
+You will not be disappointed, but among the publicans and fishermen
+of America you will find heroic souls, who will leave all to follow,
+as faithfully and unflinchingly as those from the shores of Galilee.</p>
+
+<p>And what of faith? Faith is the personal attachment of a soul to
+such a leader. Fortunately the Bible contains a scientific monograph
+on this subject. I refer, of course, to the eleventh chapter of the
+epistle to the Hebrews. And the whole result is summed up in a few
+words of the thirteenth verse. The great heroes, like Enoch, Noah,
+and Abraham, &quot;saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them,
+and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
+pilgrims on the earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They saw the promises afar off, dimly, on the horizon of their
+mental vision; as one looks into the distance <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a>[257]</span>and cannot tell
+whether what he sees be cloud or mountain. And until they could make
+up their minds that there was some substance in the vision, they did
+not embrace it. They were not credulous. Neither were they
+carelessly or heedlessly sure that there was and could be nothing in
+the vision but mist and fancy. They recognized that on their
+decision of the question hung the life of which they meant to make
+the very most. They looked again and again, and kept thinking about
+it. Thus they became and were &quot;persuaded of them.&quot; And most people
+stop here with a merely intellectual faith in their heads, and very
+little in their hearts and lives. Not so these old heroes; they were
+not so purely and coldly intellectual that they could not <i>do</i>
+anything. They &quot;embraced them.&quot; They said, that is exactly what I
+want and need, and I'll have it, if it costs me my life.</p>
+
+<p>Now a promise is always conditional; if you want one thing, you must
+give up something else. It involves a choice between alternatives;
+you can have either one freely, you cannot have both. It was to them
+as to Christ on the &quot;exceeding high mountain,&quot; God or the world; God
+with the cross, or the world with Satan thrown in. And the same
+alternative confronts us.</p>
+
+<p>Moses could be a good Jew or a good Egyptian. Most of us, while
+resolved to be excellent Jews at heart, would have said nothing
+about it, but remained sons of Pharaoh's daughter in order to
+benefit the Jews by our influence in our lofty station. We should
+have become miserable hybrids with all the vices and weaknesses of
+both races, but with none of the virtues of either. And for all that
+we should ever have done <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a>[258]</span>the Jews might have rotted in Egyptian
+bondage. Enlargement and deliverance would have arisen to the Jews
+from some other place; but we and our father's house would have been
+destroyed. By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
+daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the children of
+God, etc. And certainly he did suffer for it.</p>
+
+<p>They embraced the promises with their whole hearts. They were stoned
+and sawn asunder rather than give them up. And what was the effect
+on their characters? Having counted the cost, and being perfectly
+willing to accept any loss or pain for the sake of these promises,
+and hence inspired by them, they became sublime heroes. Through
+faith they &quot;subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
+promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of
+fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made
+strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the
+aliens. And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
+moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they wandered about in
+sheepskins and in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
+Of whom the world was not worthy.&quot; That is a faith worth having, and
+it is as sound philosophy as it is scripture.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These all died in faith, not having received the promises.&quot; Did
+they receive nothing? Moses and Elijah, Gideon and Barak gained
+power and heroism greater than we can conceive of. Surely that was
+enough. But they did not get the whole of the promise, or even the
+best of it. And the simple reason was that God cannot make a promise
+small enough to be completely fulfilled to a man in his earthly
+life. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a>[259]</span>He gets enough to make him a king, but this does not begin to
+exhaust the promise. It is inexhaustible. This is the experience of
+anyone who will faithfully try it. And this experience is the
+grandest argument for immortality.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, &quot;giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue (&#945;&#961;&#949;&#964;&#951;, strength),
+and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge
+temperance (&#949;&#947;&#954;&#961;&#945;&#964;&#949;&#953;&#945;, self-control), and to temperance
+patience (&#8017;&#960;&#959;&#956;&#949;&#957;&#951;, endurance), and to patience godliness,
+and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness
+charity&quot; (love).</p>
+
+<p>And what of prayer? How can it be answered in a universe of law? We
+certainly could have no confidence that our prayers could or would
+be answered if ours were not a universe of law. God's laws are, as
+we have seen, his modes of working out his great plan. And the last
+and highest unfolding of God's plan is the development of man. And
+man is to become conformed to his environment, and conformity of
+man's highest powers to his environment is likeness to God.</p>
+
+<p>The laws of nature, then, are in ultimate analysis and highest aim
+the different steps in God's plan of man's salvation from the
+disease of sin, not merely or mainly from its consequences, and his
+attainment of holiness. For this is the only true and sound manhood.
+Salvation is spiritual health, resulting also in health of body and
+of mind. If God's laws are his modes of carrying out his plan for
+godlikeness in man, then they are so thought out as to be the means
+of helping me to every real good.</p>
+
+<p>The Bible declares explicitly that the aim of prayer is not to
+inform God of our needs. For he knows them already. It is not to
+change God's purpose, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a>[260]</span>for he is unchangeable, and we should rejoice
+in this. We are to pray for our daily bread; we are to pray for the
+sick; and, if best for them and consistent with God's plan, they
+shall recover. Elijah prayed for drought and prayed for rain, and
+was answered. And Abraham's prayer would have saved Sodom, had there
+been ten righteous men in the city. &quot;Men ought alway to pray and not
+to faint.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i5">&quot;More things are wrought by prayer<br /></span>
+<span>Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice<br /></span>
+<span>Rise like a fountain for me night and day.<br /></span>
+<span>For what are men better than sheep or goats<br /></span>
+<span>That nourish a blind life within the brain,<br /></span>
+<span>If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer<br /></span>
+<span>Both for themselves and those who call them friend?<br /></span>
+<span>For so the whole round earth is every way<br /></span>
+<span>Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But could not all these things be brought about without a single
+prayer? Not according to the plan of man's education which God has
+adopted. Whether he could well have made a plan by which material
+blessings could have been bestowed upon men who do not ask for them,
+I do not know. The ravens and all animals are fed without a single
+prayer, for they are not fitted or intended to hold communion with
+God. But a prayerless race of men has never been fed long; it has
+soon ceased to exist. God's plan of salvation and ordering of the
+universe involves prayer as a means of blessing and good things as
+an answer to prayer. God says, I make you a co-worker with me. I
+will help you in everything; but you must call on me for help, or
+you will forget that I am the source of your help and strength, and
+thus having lost your <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261"></a>[261]</span>communion with me will die. &quot;When Jeshurun
+waxed fat he kicked.&quot; This is the oft-repeated story of the Old
+Testament and of all history. And thus, while material blessings are
+given in answer to prayer, these are not the chief end for which
+prayer is to be offered.</p>
+
+<p>Prayer is a means of conformity to environment, of godlikeness. How
+do you become like a friend? Of course by associating and talking
+with him. And why does it help you to associate with a hero? Simply
+because you cannot be with him without being inspired with his
+heroism. And so while I may pray for bread and clothes and
+opportunities, and God will give me these or something better; I
+will, if wise, pray for purity, courage, moral power, heroism, and
+holiness. And I know that these will stream from his soul into mine
+like a great river. And so I may pray for bread and be denied; for
+hunger, with some higher good, may be far better for me than a full
+stomach. But if I pray for any spiritual gift, which will make me
+godlike, and on which as an heir of God I have a rightful claim,
+every law and force in God's universe is a means to answer that
+prayer. And best of all, if I pray for the gift of God's Spirit,
+that is the prayer which the whole world of environment has been
+framed to answer.</p>
+
+<p>But this I can never have unless I hunger for it. I can never have
+it to use as a means of gaining some lower good which I worship more
+than God. God will not and cannot lend himself to any such idolatry.
+I must be willing to give up anything and everything else for its
+attainment. Otherwise the answer to the prayer would ruin me.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>[262]</span>I cannot grasp the higher while using both hands to grasp the
+lower.</p>
+
+<p>Thus religion is the interpenetration and permeation of my
+personality by that of God. And prayer is the communion by which
+this permeation becomes possible. And faith is the vision of these
+possibilities, the being persuaded by them, and the resolute purpose
+to attain them. And faith in Christ is confiding communion with him
+and obedience to his commands that his divine life may flow over
+into me and dominate mine. And common-sense, and the more refined
+common-sense which we call science, can show me no other means to
+the attainment of that godlikeness which is the only true conformity
+to environment.</p>
+
+<p>And, holding such a belief and faith, we must be hopeful. And only
+next in importance to faith and love stands hope. The hero must be
+hopeful. And when times look dark about you, and they sometimes
+will, you must still hope.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;O it is hard to work for God,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To rise and take his part<br /></span>
+<span>Upon the battle-field of earth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And not sometimes lose heart!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;O there is less to try our faith<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In our mysterious creed,<br /></span>
+<span>Than in the godless look of earth<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In these our hours of need.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Ill masters good; good seems to change<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To ill with greatest ease;<br /></span>
+<span>And, worst of all, the good with good<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Is at cross purposes.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Workman <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a>[263]</span>of God! O lose not heart,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">But learn what God is like;<br /></span>
+<span>And in the darkest battle-field<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Thou shalt know where to strike.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Muse on his justice, downcast soul!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Muse, and take better heart;<br /></span>
+<span>Back with thine angel to the field,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Good luck shall crown thy part!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;For right is right, since God is God;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And right the day must win;<br /></span>
+<span>To doubt would be disloyalty,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To falter would be sin.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Hope on, be strong and of a good courage. For in the dark hours
+others will lean on you to catch your hope and courage. To many a
+poor discouraged soul you must be &quot;a hiding-place from the wind and
+a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
+shadow of a great rock in a weary land.&quot; Every power and force in
+the universe of environment makes for the ultimate triumph of truth
+and right. Defeat is impossible. &quot;One man with God on his side is
+the majority that carries the day. 'We are but two,' said Abu Bakr
+to Mohammed as they were flying hunted from Mecca to Medina. 'Nay;'
+answered Mohammed, 'we are three; God is with us.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And not only the race will triumph and regain the Paradise lost. The
+city of God shall surely be with men, and God will dwell with them
+and in them. But you and I can and shall triumph too.</p>
+
+<p>We are prone to feel that the individual man is too insignificant a
+being to be the object of God's care and forethought. But we should
+not forget that it is the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a>[264]</span>individual who conforms, and that the
+higher and nobler race is to be attained through the elevation of
+individuals, one after another. God deals with races and nations as
+such. But his laws and promises are made almost entirely for the
+individuals of which these larger units are concerned.</p>
+
+<p>But there is another standpoint from which we may gain a helpful
+view of the matter. I may be the meanest citizen of my native state,
+and my father may leave me heir of only a few acres of rocky land.
+But, if my title is good, every power in the state is pledged to put
+me in possession of my inheritance. They who would rob me may be
+strong; but the state will call out every able-bodied man, and pour
+out every dollar in its treasury before it will allow me to be
+defrauded of my legal rights. And it must do this for me, its
+meanest citizen, else there is no government, but anarchy, and
+oppression, and the rule of the strongest. And we all recognize that
+this is but right and necessary, and would be ashamed of our state
+and government were it not literally true.</p>
+
+<p>If I travel in distant lands, my passport is the sign that all the
+power of these United States is pledged to protect me from
+injustice. Think of the sensitiveness of governments to any wrong
+done to their private citizens. England went to war with Abyssinia
+to protect and deliver two Englishmen. And shall God do less? Can he
+do less? If it is only just and right and necessary for earthly
+governments to thus care for their citizens, shall not the ruler and
+&quot;judge of all the earth do right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now you and I are commanded to be heirs of God, to attain to
+likeness to him. This is therefore our <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a>[265]</span>legal right, guaranteed by
+him, for every command of God is really a promise. And he will
+exhaust every power in the universe before he allows anything to
+prevent us from gaining our legal rights, provided only that we are
+earnest in claiming them.</p>
+
+<p>But if I alienate my rights to my inheritance, the commonwealth
+cannot help me. If I renounce my citizenship, the government of the
+United States can no longer protect me. And so I can alienate my
+&quot;right to the tree of life,&quot; and to entrance into the city, and I
+can forfeit my heirship to all that God would give me. &quot;For I am
+persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
+principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
+nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, shall be able to
+separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
+Lord.&quot; But I can alienate and make void every promise and title, if
+I will or if I do not care. This is the unique glory, and awfulness
+of the human will. And we know that to them that love God all things
+work together for good. &quot;If God is for us who is against us?&quot; It
+must be so if God's laws are his modes of aiding men to conform to
+environment.</p>
+
+<p>And what of the church? Is it anything else or other than a means of
+aiding man to conform to environment? If it fails of this, can it be
+any longer the church of God? The church is a means, not an end. And
+it is a means of godlikeness in man.</p>
+
+<p>Some would make it a social club. The bond of union between its
+members is their common grade of wealth, social position, or
+intellectual attainments. And this idea of the church has deeper
+root in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266"></a>[266]</span>minds of us all than we think. I can imagine a far
+better club than one formed and framed on this principle, but it is
+difficult for me to imagine a worse counterfeit of a church. Others
+make it a source of intellectual delectation, and the means of
+hearing one or two striking sermons each week. Such a church will
+conduce to the intelligence of its members, and may be rather more,
+though probably less, useful than the old New England Lyceum lecture
+system. Such a church is of about as much practical value to the
+world at large as some consultations of physicians are to their
+patients. The doctors have a most interesting discussion, but the
+patient dies, and the nature of the disease is discovered at the
+autopsy. Others still would make of the church a great railroad
+system, over which sleeping-cars run from the City of Destruction,
+with a coupon good to admit one to the Golden City at the other end.
+The coaches are luxurious and the road-bed smooth. The Slough of
+Despond has been filled, the Valley of Humiliation bridged at its
+narrowest point, and the Delectable Mountains tunnelled. But
+scoffers say that most of the passengers make full use of the
+unlimited stop-over privileges allowed at Vanity Fair.</p>
+
+<p>The Bible would seem to give the impression that the church is the
+army of the Lord of Hosts, a disciplined army of hardy, heroic
+souls, each soldier aiding his fellow in working out the salvation
+which God is working in him. And it joins battle fiercely and
+fearlessly with every form of sin and misery, counting not the odds
+against it. And the Salvation Army seems to me to have conceived and
+realized to a great extent just what at least one corps in this
+grand army <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a>[267]</span>can and should be. And you and I can learn many a lesson
+from them.</p>
+
+<p>The church is the body of which Christ is the head, and you and I
+are &quot;members in particular.&quot; Let us see to it that we are not the
+weak spot in the body, crippling and maiming the whole. The church
+is the city of God among men, and we are its citizens, bound by its
+laws, loyal servants of the Great King, sworn to obey his commands
+and enlarge his kingdom, and repel all the assaults of his
+adversaries. Thus the Bible seems to me to depict the church of God.
+But what if the army contains a multitude of men who will not obey
+orders or submit to discipline? or if the city be overwhelmed with a
+mass of aliens, who see in its laws and institutions mainly means of
+selfish individual advantage? Responsibility, not privilege, is the
+foundation of strong character in both men and institutions. There
+was a good grain of truth in the old Scotch minister's remark, that
+they had had a blessed work of grace in his church; they had not
+taken anybody in, but a lot had gone out.</p>
+
+<p>There are plenty of churches of Laodicea to-day. May you be
+delivered from them. But, thank God, there are also churches of
+Philadelphia and Smyrna. May you be pastors of one of the latter. It
+will not pay you a very large salary, for Demas has gone to the
+church of Laodicea, because the minister of the church of Smyrna was
+not orthodox, or not sufficiently spiritually minded&mdash;meaning
+thereby that he rebuked the sins of actual living men in general,
+and of Demas in particular&mdash;or preached politics, and did not mind
+his business. And your church may be small. For <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a>[268]</span>many of the
+congregation have gone to the church around the other corner, which
+is mainly a cluster of associations, having excellent names, and
+useful for almost every purpose except building up a manly, rugged,
+heroic, godlike character. The minister there, they will tell you,
+preaches delightful sermons. They make you &quot;feel so good.&quot; He
+annihilates pantheism, and his denunciations of materialism are
+eloquent in the extreme. But his incarnations of materialism are
+Huxley and Darwin, and to the uncharitable he seems to almost
+carefully avoid any language which might seem to reflect upon the
+dollar- and place-worship of some of the occupants of his front
+pews. Now, I am not here to defend Mr. Huxley or Mr. Darwin.
+Withstand them to the face wherever they are to be blamed. And for
+some utterances they are undoubtedly to be blamed, honest souls as
+they were. But I for one cannot help feeling that there is among the
+&quot;dwellers in Jerusalem&quot; a materialism of the heart which is
+indefinitely worse than any intellectual heresy. When you hit at the
+one heresy strike hard at the other also.</p>
+
+<p>Many will have left your little church of Smyrna. It had to be so.
+For the divine sifting process, which is natural selection on its
+highest plane, has not ceased to work. It must and shall still go
+on; it cannot be otherwise. Has the great principle ceased to be
+true in modern history that &quot;though the number of the children of
+Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But do not be discouraged. Preach Christ and a heroic Christianity.
+Do not be afraid to demand great things of your people. Remember
+that Ananias <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269"></a>[269]</span>was encouraged to go to Paul because the Lord would
+show Paul how great things he should suffer for the name of Jesus.
+This is what appeals to the heroic in every man, and we do not make
+nearly enough use of it. And the heroic Christ and his heroic
+Christianity will draw every heroic soul in the community to
+himself. They may not be very heroic looking. You may be in some
+hill town in old Massachusetts &quot;Nurse of heroes.&quot; Pardon me, I do
+not intend to be invidious. Heroism is cosmopolitan. One of the
+pillars of your church may be the school-teacher of the little red
+school-house at the fork of the roads, in the yard ornamented with
+alders, mulleins, and sumachs. She boards around, and is clad in
+anything but silks and sealskins. But she trains well her band of
+hardy little fellows, who will later fear the multitude as little as
+they now mind the Berkshire winds. And from the pittance she
+receives for training these rebellious urchins into heroic men she
+is supporting an old mother somewhere, or helping a brother to an
+education. And your deacon will be some farmer, perhaps uncouth in
+appearance and rough of dress, and certainly blunt in his scanty
+speech. He'll not flatter you nor your sermons; and until you've
+lived with him for years you will not know what a great heart there
+is in that rugged frame, and what wealth of affection in that silent
+hand-shake. And there is his wife. She is round and ample, and
+certainly does not look especially solemn or pious. She is aunt and
+mother to the whole community, the joy of all the children, nurse of
+the sick, and comfort of the dying. She is doing the work of ten at
+home, and of a host in the village. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270"></a>[270]</span>And your right-hand man is
+great Onesiphorus from the mill down in the valley, fighting an
+uphill battle to keep the wolf from the door, while he and his wife
+deny themselves everything, that their flock of children may have
+better training for fighting God's battles than they ever enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot describe these men and women. If you have lived with
+them, you will need no description, and would resent the
+inadequacy of mine. If you have never had the good fortune to live
+with them, it is impossible to make you see them as they are. When
+you once have thoroughly known them, language will fail you to do
+them justice, and you will prefer to be silent rather than slander
+them by inadequate portrayal. They are at first sight not
+attractive-looking. If you stand outside and look at them from a
+distance their lives will appear to you very humdrum and prosaic.
+But remember that for almost thirty years our Lord lived just such
+a life in Nazareth, making ploughs and yokes; and then, when the
+younger brothers and sisters were able to care for themselves,
+snatched three years from supporting a peasant family in Galilee
+to redeem a world. And who was Peter but a rough, hardy fisherman?</p>
+
+<p>Now a Paul, trained at the feet of Gamaliel, was also needed; and
+the twelve did not come from the lowest ranks of society. But they
+were honest, industrious, practical, courageous, hardy, common
+people. And single-handed they went out to conquer empires. And they
+succeeded through the power of God in them.</p>
+
+<p>Who knows the possibilities of your little church in the hilltown of
+Smyrna? These men and women <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271"></a>[271]</span>are the pickets of God's great host.
+They are scattered up and down our land, fighting alone the great
+battle, unknown of men and sometimes thinking that they must be
+forgotten of God. And the picket's lonely post is what tries a man's
+courage and strength.</p>
+
+<p>Take your example from Paul's epistle. Greet Phebe, the
+schoolmistress, and Aquila and Priscilla on their rocky farm on the
+mountain-side, and greet the burden-bearing Onesiphorus. And give
+them God's greeting and encouragement, for he sends it to them
+through you. Show them the heroism which there is in their &quot;humdrum&quot;
+lives; and cheer them in the efforts, of whose grandeur they are all
+unconscious. Bid them &quot;be strong and of a very good courage.&quot; For in
+the character of these people there is the granite of the eternal
+hills, and in their hearts should be the sunshine of God. Do not be
+ashamed of your congregation. Their dimes or dollars may look
+pitifully small and few on the collector's plate; only God sees the
+real immensity of the gift in the self-denial which it has cost.
+Your people will take sides with the cause of right, while it is
+still unpopular. They have furnished the moral backbone and
+unswerving integrity of many of your great business houses in this
+city to-day. From those families will go forth the men whom the good
+will trust and the evil fear. The power for good proceeding from
+your church will be like the floods which Ezekiel saw pouring out
+from beneath the threshold of the Lord's house.</p>
+
+<p>For these common people, whom &quot;God must have loved because he made
+so many of them,&quot; are the true heirs to the future. And wealth and
+culture, art <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"></a>[272]</span>and learning, are to burn like torches to light their
+march. Finally, my young brothers, do not be bitterly disappointed
+if you are not &quot;popular preachers.&quot; Do not let too many people go to
+sleep under your preaching, even if one young man did go to sleep
+under one of Paul's sermons. But if now and then someone is angry at
+what you have said, do not worry too much over it. Preach the truth
+in love. If Elijah and John the Baptist, and Peter and Paul, were to
+preach to-day I doubt greatly whether they would be popular
+preachers. I cannot find that they ever were so. They would probably
+be peripatetic candidates, until someone supported them as
+independent evangelists. After their death we would rear them great
+monuments, and then devote ourselves to railing at Timothy because
+he was not more like what we imagine Paul was.</p>
+
+<p>Even Socrates found that he must bid farewell to what men count
+honors, if he would follow after truth. You may have the same
+experience. You will have to champion many an unpopular cause, and
+your people will not like it. They will say you lack tact. Now Paul
+was a man of infinite tact. Witness his sermon on Mars' Hill. But if
+his letters to the church in Corinth were addressed to most modern
+churches, they would soon set out in search of a pastor of greater
+adaptability.</p>
+
+<p>If you play the man, and fight the good fight of faith, I do not see
+how you can always avoid hitting somebody on the other side. And he
+will pull you down if he can; and will probably succeed in sometimes
+making your life very uncomfortable. Remember the teaching of
+scripture and science, that the upward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273"></a>[273]</span> path was never intended to
+be easy. The scriptural passages to this effect you can find all
+through the gospels and epistles, and I need not quote them to you.
+I will, however, tell you honestly that many are of the opinion that
+these passages are now obsolete, being applicable only to the first
+centuries, or to especially critical times in the history of
+the church. I cannot share that view, but, lest I seem too
+old-fashioned, will merely quote the ringing words of our own Dr.
+Hitchcock, that &quot;no man ever enters heaven save on his shield.&quot; And
+allow me to quote in the same connection the testimony of that
+prince of scientists, Professor Huxley, in his lecture on &quot;Evolution
+and Ethics:&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If we may permit ourselves a larger hope of abatement of the
+essential evil of the world than was possible to those who, in the
+infancy of exact knowledge, faced the problem of existence more than
+a score of centuries ago, I deem it an essential condition of the
+realization of that hope that we should cast aside the notion that
+the escape from pain and sorrow is the proper object of life.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have long since emerged from the heroic childhood of our race,
+when good and evil could be met with the same 'frolic welcome;' the
+attempts to escape from evil, whether Indian or Greek, have ended in
+flight from the battle-field; it remains to us to throw aside the
+youthful over-confidence and the no less youthful discouragement of
+nonage. We are grown men, and must play the man</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">&quot;... 'strong in will<br /></span>
+<span>To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274"></a>[274]</span>&quot;cherishing
+the good that falls in our way and bearing the evil in
+and around us, with stout heart set on diminishing it. So far we all
+may strive in one faith toward one hope:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;'It may be that the gulfs will wash us down,<br /></span>
+<span>It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i5">&quot;... but something ere the end,<br /></span>
+<span>Some work of noble note may yet be done.'&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We must be strong and of a very good courage. While the avoidance of
+pain and discomfort, or even happiness, cannot be the proper end of
+life, it is not a world of misery or an essentially and hopelessly
+evil world. There is plenty of misery in the world, and we cannot
+deny it. Neither can we deny that God has put us in the world to
+relieve misery, and that until we have made every effort and
+strained every nerve as we have never yet done, we, and not God, are
+largely responsible for it. But behind misery stand selfishness and
+sin as its cause. And here we must not parley but fight. And the
+hosts of evil are organized and mighty. &quot;The sons of this world are
+for their own generation wiser than the sons of light.&quot; And we shall
+never overcome them by adopting their means. But we can and shall
+surely overcome. For he that is with us is more than they that be
+with them. &quot;The skirmishes are frequently disastrous to us, but the
+great battles all go one way.&quot; And we long for the glory of &quot;him
+that overcometh.&quot; But the victor's song can come only after the
+battle, and be sung only by those who have overcome. And we would
+not have it otherwise if we <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"></a>[275]</span>could. The closing words of Dr.
+Hitchcock's last sermon are the following:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is one of the revelations of scripture that we are to judge the
+angels, sitting above them on the shining heights. It may well be
+so. Those angels are the imperial guard, doing easy duty at home. We
+are the tenth legion, marching in from the swamps and forests of the
+far-off frontier, scarred and battered, but victorious over death
+and sin.&quot;</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12">[12]</a> This page is mainly a series of quotations from Dr.
+R.D. Hitchcock's sermon on &quot;Religion, the Doing of God's Will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276"></a>[276]</span>In all our study we have taken for granted the truth of the theory
+of evolution. If you are not already persuaded of this by the
+writings of Darwin, Wallace, and many others, no words or arguments
+of mine would convince you. We have used as the foundation of our
+argument only the fundamental propositions of Mr. Darwin's theory.</p>
+
+<p>But while all evolutionists accept these propositions they differ
+more or less in the weight or efficiency which they assign to each.
+In a sum in multiplication you may gain the same product by using
+different factors; but if the product is to be constant, if you
+halve one factor, you must double another. Evolution is a product of
+many factors. One evolutionist lays more, another less, emphasis on
+natural selection, according as he assigns less or more efficiency
+to other forces or processes. Furthermore, evolutionists differ
+widely in questions of detail, and some of these subsidiary
+questions are of great practical importance and interest. It may be
+useful, therefore, to review these propositions in the light of the
+facts which we have gathered, and to see how they are interpreted,
+and what emphasis is laid on each by different thinkers.</p>
+
+<p>The fundamental fact on which Mr. Darwin's theory rests is the
+&quot;struggle for existence.&quot; Life is not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277"></a>[277]</span>something to be idly enjoyed,
+but a prize to be won; the world is not a play-ground, but an arena.
+And the severity of the struggle can scarcely be overrated. Only one
+or two of a host of runners reach the goal, the others die along the
+course. Concerning this there can be no doubt, and there is little
+room for difference of interpretation.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle may take the form of a literal battle between two
+individuals, or of the individual with inclemency of climate or
+other destructive agents. More usually it is a competition, no more
+noticeable and no less real than that between merchants or
+manufacturers in the same line of trade.</p>
+
+<p>The weeds in our gardens compete with the flowers for food, light,
+and place, and crowd them out unless prevented by man. And when the
+weeds alone remain, they crowd on each other until only a few of the
+hardiest and most vigorous survive. And flowers, by their nectar,
+color, and odor, compete for the visits of insects, which insure
+cross-fertilization. And fruits are frequently or usually the
+inducements by which plants compete for the aid of animals in the
+dissemination of their seeds. So there is everywhere competition and
+struggle; many fail and perish, few succeed and survive.</p>
+
+<p>In a foot-race it is often very difficult to name the winner. Muscle
+alone does not win, not even good heart and lungs. Good judgment,
+patience, coolness, courage, many mental and moral qualities, are
+essential to the successful athlete. So in the struggle for life.
+The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.</p>
+
+<p>The total of &quot;points&quot; which wins this &quot;grand <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278"></a>[278]</span>prize&quot; is the
+aggregate of many items, some of which appear to us very
+insignificant. Hence, when we ask, &quot;Who will survive?&quot; the answer is
+necessarily vague. Mr. Darwin's answer is, Those best conformed to
+their environment; and Mr. Spencer's statement of the survival of
+the fittest means the same thing.</p>
+
+<p>The judges who pronounce and execute the verdict of death, or award
+the prize of life, are the forces and conditions of environment. We
+have already considered the meaning of this word. Many of its forces
+and conditions are still unknown, or but very imperfectly
+understood. But known or unknown, visible or invisible, the result
+of their united action is the extinction or degradation of these
+individuals which deviate from certain fairly well-marked lines of
+development. We must keep clearly before our minds the fact that the
+world of living beings makes up by far the most important part of
+the environment of any individual plant or animal. Two plants may be
+equally well suited to the soil and climate of any region; but if
+one have a scanty development of root or leaf, or is for any reason
+more liable to attacks from insects or germs, other things being
+equal, it will in time be crowded out by its competitor. Worms are
+eaten by lower vertebrates, and these by higher. An animal's
+environment, like that of a merchant or manufacturer, is very
+largely a matter of the ability and methods of its competitors. And
+man, compelled to live in society, makes that part of the
+environment by which he is most largely moulded.</p>
+
+<p>This process of extinction Mr. Darwin has called &quot;natural
+selection.&quot; Natural selection is not a force, but a process,
+resulting from the combined action of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279"></a>[279]</span>the forces of environment. It
+is not a cause in any proper sense of the word, but a result of a
+myriad of interacting forces. The combination of these forces in a
+process of natural selection leading directly to a moral and
+spiritual goal demands an explanation in some ultimate cause. This
+explanation we have already tried to find.</p>
+
+<p>It is a process of extinction. It favors the fittest, but only by
+leaving them to enjoy the food and place formerly claimed, or still
+furnished, by the less fit. In any advancing group, as the less fit
+are crowded out, and the better fitted gain more place and food and
+more rapid increase, the whole species becomes on an average better
+conformed. More abundant nourishment and increased vigor seem also
+to be accompanied by increased variation. And by the extinction of
+the less fit the probability is increased that more fit individuals
+will pair with one another and give rise to even fitter offspring,
+possessing perhaps new and still more valuable variations.</p>
+
+<p>But if, of a group of weaker forms, those alone survive which adopt
+a parasitic life, those which in adult life move the least will
+survive and reproduce; there will result the survival of the least
+muscular and nervous. This degeneration will continue until the
+species has sunken into equilibrium, so to speak, with its
+surroundings. Here natural selection works for degeneration. Sessile
+animals have had a similar history. But these parasitic and sessile
+forms had already been hopelessly distanced in the race for life.
+Their presence cannot impede the leaders; indeed their survival is
+necessary to directly or indirectly furnish food for the better
+conformed. In the animal <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280"></a>[280]</span>and plant world there is abundant room and
+advantage at the top.</p>
+
+<p>Once more, natural selection works as a rule for the survival of
+individuals, only indirectly for that of organs composing, or of
+species including, these individuals. It may work for the
+development of a trait or structure which, while of no immediate
+advantage to the individual, increases the probability of its
+rearing a larger number of fitter offspring. Thus defence of the
+young by birds may be a disadvantage to the parent, but this is more
+than counterbalanced in the life of the species by the number of
+young coming to maturity and inheriting the trait. Even here natural
+selection favors the survival of the trait indirectly by sparing the
+descendants of the individual possessing it. Natural selection may
+always work on and through individuals without always working for
+their sole and selfish advantage.</p>
+
+<p>In human society we find the selection of families, societies,
+nations, and civilizations going on, but mainly as the result of the
+survival of the fittest individuals.</p>
+
+<p>There may very probably be a struggle for existence between organs
+or cells in the body of each individual. The amount of nutriment in
+the body is a more or less fixed quantity; and if one organ seizes
+more than its fair share, others may or must diminish for lack. But
+the limit to this usurpation must apparently be set by the crowding
+out of those individuals in which it is carried too far. Natural
+selection, so to speak, leaves the individual responsible for the
+distribution of the nutriment among the organs, and spares or
+destroys the individual as this usurpation proves for its advantage
+or disadvantage.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281"></a>[281]</span>It makes its verdict much as the judges at a great poultry or dog
+show count the series of points, giving each one of them a certain
+value on a certain scale, and then award the prize to the individual
+having the highest aggregate on the whole series. Any such
+illustration is very liable to mislead; I wish to emphasize that
+fitness to survive is determined by the aggregate of the qualities
+of an individual.</p>
+
+<p>But an animal having one organ of great value or capacity may thus
+carry off the prize, even though its other organs deserve a much
+lower mark. This is the case with man. In almost every respect,
+except in brain and hand, he is surpassed by the carnivora, the cat,
+for example. But muscle may be marked, in making up the aggregate,
+on a scale of 500, and brain on a scale of 5,000, or perhaps of
+50,000. A very slight difference in brain capacity outweighs a great
+superiority in muscle in the struggle between man and the carnivora,
+or between man and man.</p>
+
+<p>The scale on which an organ is marked will be proportional to its
+usefulness under the conditions given at a given time. During the
+period of development of worms and lower vertebrates much muscle
+with a little brain was more useful than more brain with less
+muscle. Hence, as a rule, the more muscular survived; the brain
+increasing slowly, at first apparently largely because of its
+correlation with muscle and sense-organs. At a later date muscle,
+tooth, and claw were more useful on the ground; brain and hand in
+the trees. Hence carnivora ruled the ground, and certain arboreal
+apes became continually more anthropoid. At a later date brain
+became more useful even on the ground, and was marked on a higher
+scale, because it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282"></a>[282]</span>could invent traps and weapons against which
+muscle was of little avail. Just at present brain is of use to, and
+valued by, a large portion of society in proportion to its
+efficiency in making and selfishly spending money. But slowly and
+surely it is becoming of use as an organ of thought, for the sake of
+the truth which it can discover and incarnate.</p>
+
+<p>Natural selection works thus apparently for the survival of the
+individuals possessing in the aggregate the most complete conformity
+to environment. Let us now imagine that an animal is so constructed
+as to be capable of variation along several disadvantageous or
+neutral lines, and along only one which is advantageous. The
+development would of course proceed along the advantageous line. Let
+us farther imagine that to the descendants of this individual two,
+and only two, advantageous lines of variations are allowed by its
+structure. Then natural selection would probably favor the decidedly
+advantageous line, if such there were. But as long as the structure
+of the animal allows variation along only a few lines, the
+two advantageous variations would, according to the law of
+probabilities, frequently occur in the same individual. The eggs and
+spermatozoa of two such individuals might not infrequently unite,
+and thus in time the two characteristics be inherited by a large
+fraction of the species.</p>
+
+<p>And now let me quote from Mr. Spencer:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent">&quot;But in proportion as the life grows complex&mdash;in proportion as a
+healthy existence cannot be secured by a large endowment of some
+one power, but demands many powers; in the same proportion do
+there arise obstacles to the increase of any particular power, by
+'the preservation of favored races in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283"></a>[283]</span>struggle for life.' As
+fast as the faculties are multiplied, so fast does it become
+possible for the several members of a species to have various
+kinds of superiorities over one another. While one saves its life
+by higher speed, another does the like by clearer vision, another
+by keener scent, another by quicker hearing, another by greater
+strength, another by unusual power of enduring cold or hunger,
+another by special sagacity, another by special timidity, another
+by special courage; and others by other bodily and mental
+attributes. Now it is unquestionably true that, other things
+equal, each of these attributes, giving its possessor an extra
+chance of life, is likely to be transmitted to posterity. But
+there seems no reason to suppose that it will be increased in
+subsequent generations by natural selection. That it may be thus
+increased, the individuals not possessing more than average
+endowments of it must be more frequently killed off than
+individuals highly endowed with it; and this can happen only when
+the attribute is one of greater importance, for the time being,
+than most of the other attributes. If those members of the
+species which have but ordinary shares of it, nevertheless
+survive by virtue of other superiorities which they severally
+possess, then it is not easy to see how this particular attribute
+can be developed by natural selection in subsequent generations.
+The probability seems rather to be that, by gamogenesis, this
+extra endowment will, on the average, be diminished in
+posterity&mdash;just serving in the long run to compensate the
+deficient endowments of other individuals whose special powers
+lie in other directions, and so to keep up the normal structure
+of the species. The working out of the process is here somewhat
+difficult to follow; but it appears to me that as fast as the
+number of bodily and mental faculties increases, and as fast as
+the maintenance of life comes to depend less on the amount of any
+one, and more on the combined action of all, so fast does the
+production of specialties of character by natural selection alone
+become difficult. Particularly does this seem to be so with a
+species so multitudinous in its powers as mankind, and above all
+does it seem to be so with such of the human powers as have but
+minor shares in aiding the struggle for life&mdash;the &aelig;sthetic
+faculties for example.&quot;&mdash;Spencer, &quot;Principles of Biology,&quot; &sect; 166.</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284"></a>[284]</span>Can thus natural selection, acting upon fortuitous variations, be
+the sole guiding process concerned in progress? Must there not be
+some combining power to produce the higher individuals which are
+prerequisites to the working of natural selection?</p>
+
+<p>We are considering the efficiency of natural selection in enhancing
+useful variations through a series of generations. Let us return to
+the distinction between productiveness and prospectiveness of social
+capital. Applied to variations productiveness means immediate
+advantage, prospectiveness the greater future and permanent returns.
+Now all persisting variations must, in animals below man, apparently
+be somewhat productive, else they would not continue, much less
+increase. Now the immediate return from prospective variations is
+often smaller than from productive. It looks at first as if
+productive variations would always be preserved by natural
+selection, and that prospective variations would not long advance.
+Yet in the muscular system variations valuable largely for their
+future value are neither few nor unimportant. How can the brain in
+its infancy develop until it gains supremacy over muscle, or muscle
+have done the same with digestion? Now a partial explanation of this
+is to be found in the correlation of organs. This is therefore a
+factor of vast importance in progress through evolution.</p>
+
+<p>Progress in any one line demands correlated changes in many organs.
+Thus in the advance of annelids to insects the muscular system
+increases in relative bulk, and absolutely in complexity. But a
+change or increase in the muscle must be accompanied by
+corresponding changes in the motor-nerve fibrils; and these <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285"></a>[285]</span>again
+would be useless unless accompanied by increased complexity and more
+or less readjustment of the cells and fibrils of the nerve-centres.
+And all these additions to, and readjustments of, the nerve-centres
+must take place without any disturbance of the other necessary
+adjustments already attained. This is no simple problem.</p>
+
+<p>We will here neglect the fact that many other changes are going on
+simultaneously. Legs are being formed or moulded into jaws, the
+anterior segments are fusing into a head, and their ganglia into a
+brain; an external skeleton is developing. Furthermore the increase
+of the muscular and nervous systems must be accompanied by increased
+powers of digestion, respiration, and excretion. Practically the
+whole body is being recast. We insist only on the necessity of
+simultaneous and parallel changes in muscles, nerves, and
+nerve-centres; though what is true of these is true, in greater or
+less degree, of all the other organs.</p>
+
+<p>You may answer that this is to be explained by the law of
+correlation of organs; that when changes in one organ demand
+corresponding changes in another, these two change similarly and
+more or less at the same time and rate. But this is evidently not an
+explanation but a restatement of the fact. The question remains,
+What makes the organs vary simultaneously so as to always correspond
+to each other? The whole series of changes must to some extent be
+effected at once and in the same individual, if it is to be
+preserved by natural selection. Fortuitous variations here and there
+along the line of the series are of little or no avail. That the
+whole series of variations should happen to occur in one animal is
+altogether <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286"></a>[286]</span>against the law of probabilities; if the favorable
+variation occurs in only a part of the series it remains useless
+until the corresponding variation has taken place in the other
+terms. And while the variation is thus awaiting its completion, so
+to speak, it is useless, and cannot be fostered by natural
+selection.</p>
+
+<p>Evolution by means of fortuitous variations, combined and controlled
+only through natural selection, seems to me at least impossible; and
+this view is, I think, steadily gaining ground.</p>
+
+<p>Natural selection, while a real and very important factor in
+evolution, cannot be its sole and exclusive explanation. It
+presupposes other factors, which we as yet but dimly perceive. And
+this does not impeach the validity of Mr. Darwin's theory any more
+than Newton's theory of gravitation is impeached by the fact that it
+offers no explanation as to why the apple falls or how bodies
+attract one another.</p>
+
+<p>For natural selection explains the survival, but not the origin, of
+the fittest. Given a species or other group composed of more and
+less fit individuals and the fittest will survive. How does it come
+about that there are any more and less fit individuals? This brings
+us to the consideration of the subject of variation.</p>
+
+<p>Let us begin with a simple case of change in the adult body. The
+workman grasps his tools day after day, and his hands become horny.
+The skin has evidently thickened, somewhat as on the soles of the
+feet. This is no mere mechanical result of pressure alone.
+Continuous pressure would produce the opposite result. But under the
+stimulus of intermittent pressure the capillaries, or smallest blood
+vessels, furnish <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287"></a>[287]</span>more nutriment to the cells composing the lowest
+layer of the outer skin or epidermis. These cells, being better
+nourished, reproduce by division more rapidly, and the epidermis,
+becoming composed of a greater number of layers of cells, thickens.
+The outer-most layers, being farthest from the blood supply, dry up
+and are packed together into a horny mass.</p>
+
+<p>If I go out into the sunshine I become tanned. This again is not a
+direct and purely chemical or physical result of the sun's rays, but
+these have stimulated the cells of the skin to undergo certain
+modifications. Any change in the living body under changed
+conditions is not passive, but an active reaction to a stimulus
+furnished by the surroundings. The same stimulus may excite very
+different reactions in different individuals or species.</p>
+
+<p>Early in this century a farmer, Seth Wright, found among his lambs a
+young ram with short legs and long body. The farmer kept the ram,
+reasoning that his short legs would prevent him from leading the
+flock over the farm-walls and fences. From this ram was descended
+the breed of ancon, or otter, sheep. Now the stimulus which had
+excited this variation must have been applied early in embryonic
+life, or perhaps during the formation or maturing of the germ-cells
+themselves. Such a variation we call a congenital variation.</p>
+
+<p>These cases are merely illustrations of the general truth that in
+every variation there are two factors concerned: the living being
+with its constitution and inherent tendencies and the external
+stimulus.</p>
+
+<p>The courses of the different balls in a charge of grape-shot, hurled
+from a cannon, are evidently due <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288"></a>[288]</span>to two sets of forces&mdash;1, their
+initial energy and the direction of their aim; 2, the deflecting
+power of resisting objects or forces&mdash;or the different balls might
+roll with great velocity down a precipitous mountain-side. In the
+first case velocity and direction of course would be determined
+largely by initial impulse; in the second, by the attraction of the
+earth and by the inequalities of its surface.</p>
+
+<p>In evolution, environment, roughly speaking, corresponds to these
+deflecting or attracting external objects or forces; inherent
+tendencies to initial impulse. If we lay great weight on initial
+tendencies, inherent in protoplasm from the very beginning, we shall
+probably lay less stress on natural selection as a guiding,
+directing process.</p>
+
+<p>The great botanist, N&auml;geli, has propounded a most ingenious and
+elaborate theory of evolution, as dependent mainly on inherent
+initial tendency. We can notice only one or two of its salient
+points. All development is, according to his view, due to a tendency
+in the primitive living substance toward more complete division of
+labor and greater complexity. This tendency, which he calls
+progression, or the tendency toward perfection, is the result of the
+chemical and molecular structure of the formative controlling
+protoplasm (idioplasm) of the body, and is transmitted with other
+parental traits from generation to generation. And structural
+complexity thus increases like money at compound interest.
+Development is a process of unfolding or of realization of the
+possibilities of this tendency under the stimulus of surrounding
+influences. Environment plays an essential part in his system. But
+only such changes are transmissible to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289"></a>[289]</span>future generations as have
+resulted from modifications arising in the idioplasm. Descendants of
+plants which have varied under changed conditions revert, as a rule,
+to the old type, when returned to the old surroundings. And in the
+animal world effects of use and disuse are, according to his view,
+not transmissible.</p>
+
+<p>Natural selection plays a very subordinate part. It is purely
+destructive. Given an infinity of place and nourishment&mdash;do away,
+that is, with all struggle and selection&mdash;and the living world would
+have advanced, purely by the force of the progressive tendency, just
+as far as it now has; only there would have survived an indefinite
+number of intermediate forms. It would have differed from our
+present living world as the milky way does from the starry
+firmament.</p>
+
+<p>He compares the plant kingdom to a great, luxurious tree, branching
+from its very base, whose twigs would represent the present stage of
+our different species. Left to itself it would put out a chaos of
+innumerable branches. Natural selection, like a gardener, prunes the
+tree into shape. Children might imagine that the gardener caused the
+growth; but the tree would have been broader and have branched more
+luxuriantly if left to itself.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>Every species must vary perpetually. Now this proposition is
+apparently not in accord with fact; for some have remained unchanged
+during immense periods. And natural selection, by removing the less
+fit, certainly appears to contribute to progress by raising the
+average of the species. The theory seems extreme and one-sided. And
+yet it has done great service by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290"></a>[290]</span>calling in question the
+all-sufficiency of natural selection and the modifying power of
+environment, and by emphasizing, probably overmuch, the importance
+of initial inherent tendency, whose value has been entirely
+neglected by many evolutionists.</p>
+
+<p>Lack of space compels us to leave unnoticed most of the exceedingly
+valuable suggestions of N&auml;geli's brilliant work.</p>
+
+<p>It is still less possible to do any justice in a few words to
+Weismann's theory. Into its various modifications, as it has grown
+from year to year, we have no time to enter. And we must confine
+ourselves to his views of variation and heredity.</p>
+
+<p>In studying protozoa we noticed that they reproduced by fission,
+each adult individual dividing into two young ones. There is
+therefore no old parent left to die. Natural death does not occur
+here, only death by violence or unfavorable conditions. The protozoa
+are immortal, not in the sense of the endless persistence of the
+individual, but of the absence of death. Heredity is here easily
+comprehensible, for one-half, or less frequently a smaller fraction,
+of the substance of the parent goes to form the new individual.
+There is direct continuity of substance from generation to
+generation.</p>
+
+<p>But in volvox a change has taken place. The fertilized egg-cell,
+formed by the union of egg and spermatozoon, is a single cell, like
+the individual resulting from the conjugation or fusion of two
+protozoa. But in the many-celled individual, which develops out of
+the fertilized egg, there are two kinds of cells. 1. There are other
+egg-cells, like the first, each one of which can, under favorable
+conditions, develop into a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291"></a>[291]</span>multicellular individual like the
+parent. And the germ-cells (eggs and spermatozoa) of volvox are
+immortal like the protozoa. But, 2, there are nutritive, somatic
+cells, which nourish and transport the germ-cells, and after their
+discharge die. These somatic cells, being mortal, differ altogether
+from the germ-cells and the protozoa. The protoplasm must differ in
+chemical, or molecular, or other structure in the two cases, and we
+distinguish the germ-plasm of the germ-cells, resembling in certain
+respects N&auml;geli's idioplasm, from somatoplasm, which performs most
+of the functions of the cell. The somatoplasm arises from, and hence
+must be regarded as a modification of, the germ-plasm. The
+germ-plasm can increase indefinitely in the lapse of generations,
+increase of the somatoplasm is limited.</p>
+
+<p>When a new individual develops, a certain portion of the germ-plasm
+of the egg is set aside and remains unchanged in structure. This,
+increasing in quantity, forms the reproductive elements for the next
+generation. The germ-plasm, which does not form the whole of each
+reproductive element, but only a part of the nucleus, is thus an
+exceedingly stable substance. And there is a just as real continuity
+of germ-plasm through successive generations of volvox, or of any
+higher plants or animals, as in successive generations of protozoa.</p>
+
+<p>In certain plants there is an underground stem or rootstock, which
+grows perennially, and each year produces a plant from a bud at its
+end. This underground rootstock would represent the continuous
+germ-plasm of successive generations; the plants which yearly arise
+from it would represent the successive generations of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292"></a>[292]</span>adult
+individuals, composed mainly of somatoplasm. Or we may imagine a
+long chain, with a pendant attached to each tenth or one-hundredth
+link. The links of the chain would represent the series of
+generations of germ-cells; the pendants, the adults of successive
+generations.</p>
+
+<p>But any leaf of begonia can be made to develop into a new plant,
+giving rise to germ-cells. Here there must be scattered through the
+leaves of the plant small portions of germ-plasm, which generally
+remain dormant, and only under special conditions increase and give
+rise to germ-cells.</p>
+
+<p>A large part of the germ-plasm of the fertilized egg is used to give
+rise to the somatoplasm composing the different systems of the
+embryo and adult. Weismann's explanation of this change of
+germ-plasm into somatoplasm is very ingenious, and depends upon his
+theory of the structure of the germ-plasm; and this latter theory
+forms the basis of his theory of evolution. It would take too long
+to state his theory of the structure of germ-plasm, but an
+illustration may present fairly clear all that is of special
+importance to us.</p>
+
+<p>The molecules of germ-plasm are grouped in units, and these in an
+ascending series of units of continually increasing complexity,
+until at last we find the highest unit represented in the nucleus of
+the germ-cell. This grouping of molecules in units of increasing
+complexity is like the grouping of the men of an army in companies,
+regiments, brigades, divisions, etc.</p>
+
+<p>To form the somatoplasm of the different tissues of the body, this
+complicated organization breaks up, as the egg divides, into an
+ever-increasing number of cells. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293"></a>[293]</span>First, so to speak, the corps
+separate to preside over the formation of different body regions.
+Then the different divisions, brigades, and regiments, composing
+each next higher unit, separate, being detailed to form ever
+smaller portions of the body. The process of changing germ-plasm
+into somatoplasm is one of disintegration. The germ-plasm
+contains representatives of the whole army; a somatic cell only
+representatives of one special arm of a special training. Germ-plasm
+in the egg is like Humpty-Dumpty on the wall; somatoplasm, like
+Humpty-Dumpty after his great fall.</p>
+
+<p>I use these rude illustrations to make clear one point: Germ-plasm
+can easily change into somatoplasm, but somatoplasm once formed can
+never be reconverted into germ-plasm, any more than the fallen hero
+of the nursery rhyme could ever be restored.</p>
+
+<p>The germ-plasm is, according to Weismann, a very peculiar, complex,
+stable substance, continuous from generation to generation since the
+first appearance of life on the globe. It is in the body of the
+parent, but scarcely of it. Its relation to the body is like that of
+a plant to the soil or of a parasite to its host. It receives from
+the body practically only transport and nourishment. It is like a
+self-perpetuating, close corporation; and the somatoplasm has no
+means of either controlling it or of gaining representation in it.</p>
+
+<p>Says Weismann<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>: &quot;The germ-cells are contained in the organism, and
+the external influences which affect them are intimately connected
+with the state of the organism in which they lie hid. If it be well
+nourished, the germ-cells will have abundant nutriment; and,
+conversely, if it be weak and sickly, the germ-cells will <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294"></a>[294]</span>be
+arrested in their growth. It is even possible that the effects of
+these influences may be more specialized; that is to say, they may
+act only upon certain parts of the germ-cells. But this is indeed
+very different from believing that the changes of the organism which
+result from external stimuli can be transmitted to the germ-cells
+and will redevelop in the next generation at the same time as that
+at which they arose in the parent, and in the same part of the
+organism.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But if the germ-plasm has this constitution and relation to the rest
+of the body, how is any variation possible? Different individuals of
+any species have slightly different congenital tendencies. Hence in
+the act of fertilization two germ-plasms of slightly different
+structure and tendency are mingled. The mingling of the two produces
+a germ-plasm and individual differing from both of the parents.
+Thus, according to Weismann's earlier view, the origin of variation
+was to be sought in sexual reproduction through the mingling of
+slightly different germ-plasms.</p>
+
+<p>But how did these two germ-plasms come to be different? How was the
+variation started? To explain this Weismann went back to the
+unicellular protozoa. These animals are undoubtedly influenced by
+environment and vary under its stimuli. Here the variations were
+stamped upon the germ-plasm, and the commingling of these variously
+stamped germ-plasms has resulted in all the variations of higher
+animals.</p>
+
+<p>Of late Weismann has modified and greatly improved this portion of
+his theory. He now accepts the view that external influences may act
+upon the germ-plasm not only in protozoa but also in all higher
+animals. Variation is thus due to the action or stimulus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"></a>[295]</span> of
+external influences, supplemented by sexual reproduction.</p>
+
+<p>But the very constitution of the germ-plasm and its relation to the
+body absolutely forbids the transmission of acquired somatic
+characteristics and of the special effects of use and disuse.
+Muscular activity promotes general health, and might thus conduce to
+better-nourished germ-cells and to more vigorous and therefore
+athletic descendants. The exercise of the muscles might possibly
+cause such a condition of the blood that the portion of the
+germ-plasm representing the muscular system of the next generation
+might be especially nourished or stimulated. Thus an athletic parent
+might produce more athletic children.</p>
+
+<p>But let us imagine twin brothers of equal muscular development. One
+from childhood on exercises the lower half of his body; the other,
+the upper. Both take the same amount of exercise, and have perhaps
+equal muscular development, but located in different halves of the
+body. Now it is hard to conceive that it can make any difference in
+the nourishing or stimulating influence of the blood, whether the
+muscular activity resides in one half of the body or the other. The
+children might be exactly alike.</p>
+
+<p>One man drives the pen, a second plays the piano, and a third wields
+a light hammer. All three use different muscles of the hand and arm.
+How can this use of special muscles stamp itself upon the germ-cells
+in such a way that the offspring will have these special muscles
+enlarged? Granting that external influences of environment and
+bodily condition may effect the germ-cells; granting even that some
+of the most general effects of use and disuse might be transmitted,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296"></a>[296]</span>what warrant have we for believing that the special acquired
+characteristic can be transmitted? Weismann answers, None at all.
+The somatoplasm can only in the most general way affect the
+self-perpetuating, close corporation of the germ-plasm.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>There is thus, according to Weismann, nothing to direct variation to
+certain organs, or to guide and combine the variations of these
+organs along certain lines, except natural selection. To a certain
+extent variation may be limited by the very structure of the animal.
+But within these limits there are wide ranges where one variation is
+apparently just as likely to occur as another.</p>
+
+<p>Within these wide limits variation appears to be fortuitous. Natural
+selection must wait until the individuals appear in which these
+variations occur already correlated, and then seize upon these
+individuals. It is apparently the only guiding, directing force.
+Linear variation, that is, a variation advancing continuously along
+one or very few straight lines, would appear to be impossible.</p>
+
+<p>In N&auml;geli's theory initial tendency is overwhelmingly dominant; in
+Weismann's, natural selection is almighty.</p>
+
+<p>Weismann's followers have received the name of Neo-Darwinians. The
+so-called Neo-Lamarckian school believes in the transmissibility of
+acquired characteristics, and of at least particular effects of use
+and disuse. The one theory is neither more nor less Darwinian than
+the other. For while Darwin emphasized natural selection, he
+accepted to a certain extent the transmission of special effects of
+use and disuse.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"></a>[297]</span>A special theory of heredity, pangenesis, has been accepted by many
+of the Neo-Lamarckian school. The theory of pangenesis, as
+propounded by Mr. Darwin, may be very briefly stated as follows: The
+cells in all parts of the body are continually throwing off germinal
+particles, or &quot;gemmules.&quot; These become scattered through the body,
+grow, and multiply by division. On account of mutual attraction they
+unite in the reproductive glands to form eggs or spermatozoa. The
+germ-cells are thus the bearers of heredity because they contain
+samples, so to speak, of all the organs of the body.</p>
+
+<p>In heredity, according to Weismann's theory, the egg is the centre
+of control, the continuous germ-plasm the source of all transmitted
+changes; according to Darwin's theory, the body is the source, and
+the egg is derived in great part at least from it. If you put to the
+two the time-honored question, Which is first, the owl or the egg?
+Weismann would announce, with emphasis, The egg; Darwin would say,
+The owl. One proposition is the converse of the other, and most
+facts accord almost equally well with both theories.</p>
+
+<p>In any family, devoted for generations to literary or artistic
+pursuits, the children show, as a rule, an aptitude for such
+pursuits not manifested by those of other families. According to the
+Neo-Lamarckian view, this inherited aptitude is to a certain extent
+the result of the constant exercise of these faculties through a
+series of generations. The active efforts and voluntary disposition
+of the parents have given an increased predisposition to the child.
+&quot;Quite the reverse,&quot; says Weismann, &quot;the increase of an organ in the
+course of generations does not depend upon the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298"></a>[298]</span>summation of
+exercise taken during single lives, but upon the summation of more
+favorable predispositions in the germ.&quot; &quot;An organism cannot acquire
+anything unless it already possesses the predisposition to acquire
+it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>We may accept or deny this last statement, but it is evident
+that facts like these, and indeed the origin of most or all
+characteristics involving use or disuse, may be explained almost
+equally well by either theory.</p>
+
+<p>But as far as the transmission of effects of somatic changes is
+concerned, if protozoa undergo special modifications under the
+influence of external conditions, will not the germ-cells undergo
+special modification under the influence of changes in the
+somatoplasm which forms their immediate environment? We must never
+forget the close relationship between all the cells of the body, and
+how slight a change in the body or its surroundings may conduce to
+sterility or fertility. Such isolation and independence in the body,
+on the part of the germ-cells, is opposed to all that we know of the
+organic unity of the body, whose cells have arisen by the
+differentiation of, and division of labor between, cells primitively
+alike. The facts of bud-variation, of changes in the parent stock
+due to grafting, and others, of which Mr. Darwin has given a summary
+in the eleventh chapter of the first volume of his &quot;Plants and
+Animals under Domestication,&quot; have never been adequately explained
+by Weismann in accordance with his theory. He has perhaps succeeded
+in parrying their force by showing that some such explanation is
+conceivable; they still point strongly against him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299"></a>[299]</span>Wilson has good reason for his &quot;steadily growing conviction that
+the cell is not a self-regulating mechanism in itself, that no cell
+is isolated, and that Weismann's fundamental proposition is false.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But, granting the force of these criticisms, the question still
+remains, Is the special effect of use or disuse transmissible? Would
+the blacksmith's son have a stronger right arm?</p>
+
+<p>1. The isolation and independence of the germ-cells, which Weismann
+postulates as opposing this, can hardly be as great as he thinks. 2.
+It is in his view impossible to conceive how these acquired
+characteristics can in any way reach and affect the germ-cells in
+such a manner as to reappear in the next generation. 3. All
+variations can be explained by his own theory without such
+transmission. Why then believe that acquired characteristics can in
+some inconceivable way affect the germ-cells so as to reappear in
+the next generation, as long as all the facts can be explained in a
+more simple and easily conceivable manner?</p>
+
+<p>As to his second argument, I would readily acknowledge that it is at
+present difficult or impossible for me to conceive how any cell can
+act upon another, except through the nutrient or other fluids which
+it can produce. But though I cannot conceive how one cell can affect
+another, I may be compelled to believe that it does so. And this
+Weismann readily acknowledges.</p>
+
+<p>Driesch changed by pressure the relative position of the cells of a
+very young embryo, so that those which in a normal embryo would have
+produced one organ were now compelled, if used at all, to form quite
+a different one. And yet these displaced cells formed the organ
+required of cells normally occupying this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300"></a>[300]</span>new position, not the one
+for which they were normally intended. And the organ which they
+would have builded in a normal embryo was now formed by other cells
+transferred to their rightful place.</p>
+
+<p>What made them thus change? Not change of substance or structure,
+for the slight pressure could hardly have modified this. Not change
+of nutriment. The only visible or easily conceivable change was in
+position relative to other cells of the embryo.</p>
+
+<p>Let us in imagination simplify Driesch's experiment, for the sake of
+gaining a clearer view of its meaning. In a certain embryo at an
+early stage are certain cells whose descendants should form the
+lining of the intestine and be used in the adult for digestion. A
+second set of cells should form muscle endowed mainly with
+contractility. When these two sets of cells, or some of them,
+exchange positions in the embryo, they exchange lines of
+development. The first set now form muscle, the second digestive
+tissue. The only change has been in their relative positions.
+Driesch maintains, therefore, that the goal of development in any
+embryonic cell is determined not by structure or nutriment but by
+position. And this would seem to be true of the cells of the
+earliest embryonic stages.</p>
+
+<p>Certain other experiments point in the same direction. Cut a hydra
+into equal halves and each half will form a complete animal. The
+lower half forms a new top, with mouth and tentacles; the upper
+half, a new base. Cut the other hydra a hair's-breadth farther up.
+The same layer of cells which in the first animal formed the lower
+exposed surface of the upper half now forms the upper exposed
+surface of the lower half. And with this change of position it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301"></a>[301]</span>has
+changed its line of development; it will now give rise to a new
+upper half, not a base as before. The same experiment can be tried
+on certain worms with similar results, only head and tail differ far
+more than top and base of hydra. Difference in the position of cells
+has made vast difference in their line of development. Now in both
+embryo and adult there must be some directing influence guiding
+these cells. What is it?</p>
+
+<p>An army is more than a mob of individuals; it is individuals plus
+organization, discipline, authority. A republic is not square miles
+of territory and thousands or millions of inhabitants. It is these
+plus organization, central government. Webster claimed that the
+central government was, and had to be, before the states. The
+organism cannot exist without its parts; it has a very real
+existence in and through them. It can coerce them. The state may be
+an abstraction, but it is one against which it is usually fatal to
+rebel, and which can say to a citizen, Go and be hanged, and he
+straightway mounts the scaffold. Now these are analogies and prove
+nothing. But in so far as they throw light on the essential idea of
+an organism, they may aid us in gaining a right view of our &quot;cell
+republic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Says Whitman in a very interesting article on the &quot;Inadequacy of the
+Cell-Theory&quot;: &quot;That organization precedes cell-formation and
+regulates it, rather than the reverse, is a conclusion that forces
+itself upon us from many sides.&quot; &quot;The structure which we see in a
+cell-mosaic is something superadded to organization, not itself the
+foundation of organization. Comparative embryology reminds us at
+every turn that the organism <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302"></a>[302]</span>dominates cell-formation, using for
+the same purpose one, several, or many cells, massing its material
+and directing its movements, and shaping its organs as if cells did
+not exist, or as if they existed only in complete subordination to
+its will, if I may so speak. The organization of the egg is carried
+forward to the adult as an unbroken physiological unity, or
+individuality, through all modifications and transformations.&quot; And
+Wilson, Whitman, Hertwig, and others urge &quot;that the organism as a
+whole controls the formative processes going on in each part&quot; of the
+embryo. And many years ago Huxley wrote, &quot;They (the cells) are no
+more the producers of the vital phenomena than the shells scattered
+along the sea-beach are the instruments by which the gravitative
+force of the moon acts upon the ocean. Like these, the cells mark
+only where the vital tides have been, and how they have acted.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;Interaction of cells&quot; can help us but little. For how can
+neighboring cells direct others placed in a new position? The
+expression, if not positively misleading and untrue, is at the best
+only a restatement of fact. It certainly offers no explanation.
+Flood-tide is not due to the interaction of particles of water,
+though this may influence the form of the waves.</p>
+
+<p>The centre of control is therefore not to be sought in individual
+cells, whether germ-cells or somatic, but in the organism. And it is
+the whole organism, one and indivisible, which controls in germ,
+embryo, and adult, in egg and owl. This individuality, or whatever
+you will call it, impresses itself upon developing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303"></a>[303]</span> somatic cells,
+moulding them into appropriate organs, and upon germ-cells in
+process of formation, moulding them so that they may continue its
+sway. The muscle, modified by use or disuse, is a better expression
+of the individuality of its possessor, and the same individuality
+moulds similarly and simultaneously the germ-cells. Both are
+different expressions or manifestations of the same individuality.
+Only slowly does the individuality mould the muscles and nerves of
+the adult body to its use. Still more slow may be the moulding of
+the still more refractory germ-plasm, if such there be. But the
+moulding process goes on parallel in the two cases.</p>
+
+<p>But Weismann's argument rests not merely upon any difficulty or
+impossibility of the transmissibility of acquired characteristics.
+His argument is rather that all facts can be better explained by his
+theory without postulating or accepting such transmission, cases of
+which have never been absolutely proven. But the question is not
+whether his theory offers a possible explanation of the facts, but
+whether it is the most probable explanation of all the facts. No one
+would deny, I think, that the continuity of the germ-plasm offers
+the best and most natural explanation of heredity; and that
+variations could be produced by the influence on the germ-plasm of
+external conditions seems entirely probable.</p>
+
+<p>But when we consider the aggregation of these variations in a
+process of evolution, his theory seems unsatisfactory. We have
+already seen that what we commonly call a variation involves not one
+change, but a series of changes, each term of which is necessary.
+Muscle, nerve, and ganglion must all vary simultaneously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304"></a>[304]</span> and
+correspondingly. Correlation and combination are just as essential
+as variation. And evolution often demands the disappearance of less
+fit structures just as much as the advance of the fittest. Says
+Osborne, &quot;It is misleading to base our theory of evolution and
+heredity solely upon entire organs; in the hand and foot we have
+numerous cases of muscles in close contiguity, one steadily
+developing, the other degenerating.&quot; Weismann offers the explanation
+that &quot;if the average amount of food which an animal can assimilate
+every day remains constant for a considerable time, it follows that
+a strong influx toward one organ must be accompanied by a drain upon
+others, and this tendency will increase, from generation to
+generation, in proportion to the development of the growing organ,
+which is favored by natural selection in its increased blood-supply,
+etc.; while the operation of natural selection has also determined
+the organ which can bear a corresponding loss without detriment to
+the organism as a whole.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>Here again natural selection of individuals, not the diminished
+supply of nutriment, has to determine which of many muscles shall be
+poorly fed and which favored. But natural selection can favor
+special organs only indirectly through the individuals which possess
+such organs. Variation is fortuitous, and there is nothing, except
+natural selection, to combine or direct them. And, I think, we have
+already seen that any theory which neglects or excludes such
+directing and combining agencies must be unsatisfactory and
+inadequate. Weismann has promised us an explanation of correlation
+of variation in accordance with his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305"></a>[305]</span>theory; and if such an
+explanation can be made, it would remove one of the strongest
+objections. But for the present the objection has very great weight.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, as Osborne has insisted, linear variations, or
+variations proceeding along certain single and well-marked lines,
+would seem inexplicable by, if not fatal to, Weismann's theory. And
+yet Osborne, Cope, and others have shown that the teeth of mammals
+have developed steadily along well-marked lines. They have
+apparently not resulted at all by selection from a host of
+fortuitous variations.</p>
+
+<p>Says Osborne in his &quot;Cartwright Lectures&quot;<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>: &quot;It is evident that
+use and disuse characterize all the centres of evolution; that
+changes of structure are slowly following on changes of function or
+habit. In eight independent regions of evolution in the human body
+there are upward of twenty developing organs, upward of thirty
+degenerating organs.&quot; Now this parallelism, through a long series of
+generations, between the evolution of organs, their advance or
+degeneration, and the use or disuse of these same organs, that is,
+of the habits of the individual, is certainly of great significance.
+It must have an explanation; and the most natural one would seem to
+be the transmission of the effects of use and disuse.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole Osborne's verdict would seem just: The Neo-Lamarckian
+theory fails to explain heredity, Weismann's theory does not explain
+evolution. But, if the effects of use and disuse are transmitted,
+correlation of variation is to be expected. Muscle, nerve, and
+ganglion all vary in correlation because they are all used together
+and in like degree. Evolution and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306"></a>[306]</span>degeneration of muscles in hand
+and foot go on side by side, because some are used and some are
+disused. Centres of use and disuse must be centres of evolution. And
+there would be as many distinct centres of evolution in different
+parts of the body as there were centres of use and disuse. And
+between these centres there might be no correlation except
+that of use and disuse. Brain, muscles, and jaws would develop
+simultaneously in the ancestors of insects. And the effects of use
+and disuse, transmitted through a series of generations, would be
+cumulative. The species advances rapidly because all its members
+have in general the same habits; the same parts are advancing or
+degenerating, although at different rates, in all its individuals.
+An animal having an organ highly developed is far less likely to
+pair with one having a lower development of the same organ. The
+Neo-Lamarckian theory supplies thus what is lacking in the
+Neo-Darwinian.</p>
+
+<p>In lower forms, like hydra, of simple structure and comparatively
+few possibilities of variation, natural selection is dominant. In
+higher forms, like vertebrates, and especially in man, it is of
+decidedly subordinate value as a promoter of evolution. For man, as
+we have seen, is a marvellously complex being. The great difficulty
+in his case is not so much to quickly gain new and favorable
+variations as to keep all the organs and powers of the body steadily
+advancing side by side. Natural selection has in man the important
+but subordinate position of the judge in a criminal court, to
+pronounce the death verdict on the hopeless and incorrigible.</p>
+
+<p>Both Neo-Darwinians and Neo-Lamarckians have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307"></a>[307]</span>erred in being too
+exclusively mechanical in their theories. It is the main business of
+the scientific man to discover and study mechanisms. But he must
+remember that mechanism does not produce force, it only transmits
+it. If he maintains that he has nothing to do with anything outside
+of mechanism, that the invisible and imponderable force lies outside
+of his domain, he has handed over to metaphysics the fairest and
+richest portion of his realm. In our fear of being metaphysical we
+have swung to another extreme, and have lost sight of valuable truth
+which lay at the bottom of the old vitalistic theories. Cells,
+tissues, and organs are but channels along which the flood of
+life-force flows. Boveri has well said, &quot;There is too much
+intelligence (Verstand) in nature for any purely mechanical theory
+to be possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Each theory contains important truth. N&auml;geli's view of the
+importance of initial tendencies, inherent in the original living
+substance, is too often undervalued. My own conviction, at least, is
+steadily strengthening that, without some such original tendency or
+aim, evolution would never have reached its present culmination in
+man. His error lies in emphasizing this factor too exclusively. The
+fundamental proposition of Weismann's theory, that heredity is due
+to continuity of germ-plasm, seems to contain important truth. But
+we need not therefore accept his theory of a germ-plasm so isolated
+and independent as to be beyond control or influence by the
+habits of the body. The importance of use and disuse, and the
+transmissibility of their effects, would seem to supply a factor
+essential to evolution. Weismann has done good service in
+emphasizing the stability of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308"></a>[308]</span>germ-plasm. Evolution is always
+slow, and, for that very reason, sure.</p>
+
+<p>If these conclusions are correct, they have an important practical
+bearing. Struggle and effort are essential to progress. Not inborn
+talent alone, but the use which one makes of it, counts in
+evolution. The effects of use and disuse are cumulative. The
+hard-fought battle of past generations becomes an easy victory in
+the present, just because of the strength acquired and handed down
+from the past struggle. Persistent variation toward evil is in time
+weeded out by natural selection. And, while evil remains in the
+world, we are to lay up stores of strength for ourselves and our
+descendants by sturdily fighting it. But the effects of right living
+through a hundred generations are not overcome by the criminal life
+of one or two. Evil surroundings weigh more in producing criminals
+than heredity, and their children are not irreclaimable.</p>
+
+<p>The struggles and victories of each one of us encourage the rest.
+There is, to borrow Mr. Huxley's language, not only a survival of
+the fittest, but a fitting of as many as possible to survive. And in
+the midst of the hardest struggle there is the peace which comes
+from the assurance of a glorious triumph.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13">[13]</a> See N&auml;geli, &quot;Theorie der Abstammungslehre,&quot; p. 18; also
+pp. 12, 118, 285.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14">[14]</a> Essays upon Heredity, p. 105.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15">[15]</a> Weismann, Essays, p. 286.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16">[16]</a> Weismann, Essays, pp. 85 and 171.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17">[17]</a> See articles by Whitman and Wilson, Journal of
+Morphology, vol. viii., pp. 649, 607, etc.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18">[18]</a> Weismann, Essays, p. 88.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19">[19]</a> American Naturalist, vols. xxv. and xxvi.</p>
+
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309"></a>[309]</span></p>
+<h3>Condensed Chart of Development of the Main Line of the Animal Kingdom leading to Man.</h3>
+
+
+<div class="cdtble">
+  <table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="Chart of Development">
+  <tr>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Phylogenetic <br />Series.
+    </td>
+  <td colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      New Attainments.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Organs <br />Approaching <br />Culmination.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Most <br />Rapidly <br />Advancing <br />Organs.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Dominant <br />Function.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Dominant <br />Mental <br />(Or Nervous) <br />Action.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Sequence Of <br />Perceptions.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Sequence Of <br />Motives.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Environment <br />Makes For.
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Amoeba.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap;">Cell.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Touch. Smell.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hunger.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Volvox.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">
+      Somatic and reproductive cells.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproductive.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproduction.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Touch. Smell.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hunger.
+  </td>
+  <td rowspan="5">Rapid reproduction and good digestion.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Hydra.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">
+      Simple reproductive organs. Gastro vascular cavity. (Tissues).
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproductive.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproduction.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reflex.
+  </td>
+  <td>Touch. Smell.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hunger.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Turbellaria.
+  </td>
+  <td>D<br />e<br />v<br />e<br />l<br />o<br />p.
+  </td>
+  <td>Complex reproductive Organs. Supra-oes. Ganglion and cords. Sense organs. Body Wall.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproductive.
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestive.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproduction.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reflex.
+  </td>
+  <td>Touch. Smell.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hunger.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Annelid.
+  </td>
+  <td>O<br />r<br />g<br />a<br />n<br />s
+  </td>
+  <td>Perivisceral Cavity. Intestine. Circulatory system. Nephridia. Visual eyes.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestion Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reflex.
+  </td>
+  <td>Touch. Smell.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hunger.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Primitive Vertebrate.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Notochord. Fins.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestion Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Instinct.
+  </td>
+  <td>?
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Fish.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Backbone (incomplete). Paired Fins. Jaws from Branchial Arches. Simple heart. Air Bladder. Brain.
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestive.
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscles.
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestion Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Instinct.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hearing. Sight.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td rowspan="4">Strength and activity.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Amphibian.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Legs. Lungs. Cerebrum increases from this form on.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscles.
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestion Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Instinct.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hearing. Sight.
+  </td>
+  <td>Fear and other prudential considerations.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Reptile.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Double heart.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscles and appendages.
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Instinct. ?
+  </td>
+  <td>Hearing. Sight.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Lower Placental Mammals.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Constant high temperature. Placenta.
+  </td>
+  <td rowspan="2">Muscle.
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscles and appendages.
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Instinct ? ?
+  </td>
+  <td>Hearing. Sight.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Ape.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Erect posture. Hand. Large cerebrum.
+  </td>
+  <td>Brain.
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscular. Nervous.
+  </td>
+  <td>Intelligence.
+  </td>
+  <td>Mental perception. Understanding. Association.
+  </td>
+  <td>"
+  </td>
+  <td>" ? (Shrewdness?)
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Man.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Very large cerebrum. Personality.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td style="font-variant: small-caps;">Brain.
+  </td>
+  <td>Mind.*
+  </td>
+  <td>Intelligence.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reason.*
+  </td>
+  <td>Love of man. Truth. Right.*
+  </td>
+  <td>Shrewdness. Righteousness and unselfishness.*
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+    </table>
+
+<p> <small>* Apparently capable of indefinite development.</small></p>
+<p> <a href="images/chart.png">[<small>image</small>]</a></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310"></a>[310]</span></p>
+
+<h3>PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF PRINCIPLE TYPES OF ANIMAL
+LIFE.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/phylo.png" width="420" height="800" alt="PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF PRINCIPLE TYPES OF ANIMAL
+LIFE." title="Phylogenetic Chart" />
+ </div>
+
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h3>INDEX</h3>
+
+
+<div>
+<a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311"></a>[311]</span>
+<p class="index">Am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Annelids, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Apes, anthropoid, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Appetites, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Arthropoda, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Articulata, <a href="#Page_61">61</a> </p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Beauty, perception of, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Bible, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Blastosphere, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p>
+
+<p class="index"><a name="Brain" id="Brain"></a>Brain, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>; of insects, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>; man, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>. See
+also <a href="#Ganglion">Ganglion</a></p><br />
+</div>
+<div>
+<p class="index">Cell, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Child, mental development of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Christianity, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Church, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Circulatory system, worms, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Classification, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">C&oelig;lenterata, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Conformity to environment, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Conscience, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Correlation of organs, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Darwinism, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Degeneration, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Digestion, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>; hydra, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; worms, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;
+vertebrates, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Ear, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Echinoderms, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Ectoderm, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Egg, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Embryology, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Emotions, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Entoderm, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Environment, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; God immanent in, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>; mirrored in human
+mind, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Evolution, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>; conservative, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Excretion, am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>; worms, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Faith, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Family, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>; origin of, Cf. <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>; results of, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Flagellata, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index"><a name="Ganglion" id="Ganglion"></a>Ganglion, supra-&oelig;sophageal, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>; annelids, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>. See <a href="#Brain">Brain</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Gastr&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Gastrula, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">God, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>; knowable, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Head, insect, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>; vertebrate, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Heredity, mental and moral, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Heroism, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">History, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Hope, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Huxley (quoted), <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Hydra, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Insects, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Instinct, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Intellect, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Intelligence, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Intelligent action, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Jaws, insects, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Knowledge, value of, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Law, Divine, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Locomotion and nervous development, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>. See also <a href="#Muscular_system">Muscular System</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Love, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Magosph&aelig;ra, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Mammals, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>; oviparous, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>; marsupial, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>; placental, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;
+temporarily surpassed by reptiles, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Man, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>; anatomical characteristics, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>; mental and moral
+characteristics, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>; relation to nature,
+<a href="#Page_210">210</a>; animal, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>; moral, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>; religious, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>; hero, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>; future, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>,
+<a href="#Page_231">231</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Materialism, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Mesoderm, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Mind, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Mollusks, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Motives, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>; sequence of, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></p>
+
+<p class="index"><a name="Muscular_system" id="Muscular_system"></a>Muscular system, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; hydra, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; worms, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>; vertebrates,
+<a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">N&auml;geli, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Natural selection, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Nature, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Neo-Darwinians and Neo-Lamarckians, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Nervous system, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>; hydra, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; turbellaria, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>; mollusks, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;
+annelids, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Notochord, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Ontogenesis, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Phylogenesis, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Placenta, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Prayer, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Primates, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Productiveness and prospectiveness, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Protoplasm, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Protozoa, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Reflex action, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Religion, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Reproduction, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; hydra, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; magosph&aelig;ra, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;
+volvox, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>; turbellaria, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>; annelids, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; vertebrates,
+<a href="#Page_73">73</a>. See also <a href="#Size">Size</a> and <a href="#Surface_and_mass">Surface and Mass</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Respiration, am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; worms, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; vertebrates,
+<a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Sequence of functions, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; condensed history of, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>,
+<a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>; reversal of, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Sexual reproduction, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Sin, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></p>
+
+<p class="index"><a name="Size" id="Size"></a>Size, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Skeleton, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; mollusks, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>,
+<a href="#Page_82">82</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Social life, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Socrates, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Specialization, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Struggle for existence, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>; mitigation of, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></p>
+
+<p class="index"><a name="Surface_and_mass" id="Surface_and_mass"></a>Surface and mass, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Tissues, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Turbellaria, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Vertebrates, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>; primitive, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Volvox, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Weismann, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Will, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Worms, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>; schematic, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<h4>The Morse Lectures for 1895</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><big>THE WHENCE AND WHITHER OF MAN</big></p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><small>A BRIEF HISTORY OF MAN'S ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT, AND OF THE
+EVOLUTION OF HIS MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CAPACITIES THROUGH CONFORMITY
+TO ENVIRONMENT</small></p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<h4>By JOHN M. TYLER</h4>
+<p class="center"><small> Professor of Biology, Amherst College</small></p>
+
+<h5>12mo, $1.75</h5>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="center">CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p>This work is a solidification of some new matter with the substance
+of the ten Morse Lectures delivered at Union Theological Seminary in
+the spring of 1895. Professor Tyler aims to trace the development of
+man from the simple living substance to his position at present,
+paying attention to incidental facts merely as incidental and
+contributory. He keeps always in view the successive accomplishments
+of life as they appear in the person of accepted general truth,
+rather than in the guise of the facts of progress.</p>
+
+<p>He begins by saying: &quot;We take for granted the probable truth of the
+theory of evolution as stated by Mr. Darwin, and that it applies to
+man as really as to any lower animal.&quot; He assumes that an acceptable
+historian of biology must possess a genealogical tree of the animal
+kingdom, and adds that a knowledge of the sequence of dominant
+functions or &quot;physiological dynasties,&quot; is quite as necessary to his
+inquiry as a history of the development of anatomical details. Since
+the germs of the future are always concealed in the history of the
+present, he claims that &quot;if we can trace this sequence of dominant
+functions, whose evolution has filled past ages, we can safely
+foretell something, at least, of man's future development.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The possibility of making false trails, at times, should not deter
+the investigator; for what he would establish is not the history of
+a single human race, nor of the movements of a century, but an
+understanding of the development of animal life through ages. &quot;And
+only,&quot; says Professor Tyler, &quot;when we have a biological history can
+we have any satisfactory conception of environment.&quot; The book
+concludes with a brief notice of the modern theories of heredity and
+variation advanced by Nageli and Weismann.</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4>The Morse Lectures for 1894</h4>
+
+
+<p class="center"><big>THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN</big></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY TO THE<br /> ERA OF THE M&Eacute;IJI</small></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+<h4>By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D.</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><small>Formerly of the Imperial University of Tokio;<br /> Author of &quot;The
+Mikado's Empire&quot; and &quot;Corea, the Hermit Nation&quot;</small></p>
+
+<h5>12mo, $2.00</h5>
+
+<p>&quot;The book is excellent throughout, and indispensable to the
+religious student.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Atlantic Monthly</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To any one desiring a knowledge of the development and ethical
+status of the East, this book will prove of the utmost assistance,
+and Dr. Griffis may be thanked for throwing a still greater charm
+about the Land of the Rising Sun.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Churchman</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Already an acknowledged authority on Japanese questions, Dr.
+Griffis in this volume gives to an appreciative public, what we risk
+calling his most valuable contribution to the literature this
+profoundly interesting nation has evoked.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Evangelist</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;... The fine quality of Dr. Griffis' works. His book is fresh and
+original, and may be depended on as material for scientific use....
+It may safely be said that it is the best general account of the
+religions of Japan that has appeared in the English language, and
+for any but the special student it is the best we know of in any
+tongue.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Critic</i>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h5>The Morse Lectures for 1893</h5>
+
+<p class="center"><big>THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN MODERN THEOLOGY</big></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+<h4>By A. M. FAIRBAIRN, M.A., D.D.</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><small>Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford; Gifford Lecturer in the
+University<br /> of Aberdeen; Late Morse Lecturer in Union Seminary, New
+York,<br /> and Lyman Beecher Lecturer in Yale University</small></p>
+
+<h5>8vo, $2.50</h5>
+
+<p>&quot;One of the most valuable and comprehensive contributions to
+theology that has been made during this generation.&quot;&mdash;<i>London
+Spectator</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The knowledge, ability, and liberality of the author unite to make
+the work interesting and valuable.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Dial</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is very high, but thoroughly deserved, praise to say that it is
+worthy of its great theme.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Critical Review</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The volume reveals Dr. Fairbairn as a clear and vigorous thinker,
+who knows how to be bold without being too bold.&quot;&mdash;<i>New York
+Tribune</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Suggestive, stimulating, and a harbinger of the future catholic
+theology.&quot;&mdash;<i>Boston Literary World</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a book abounding in fine and philosophical thoughts, and
+deeply sympathetic with the most earnest religious thinking of the
+time.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Critic</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the object of a book of theology is to stir up the heart and
+mind with strong, clear thinking on divine things, no book,
+certainly, of the present season surpasses Dr. Fairbairn's.&quot;&mdash;<i>The
+Outlook</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An important contribution to theological literature.&quot;&mdash;<i>London
+Times</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The work shows a keen insight into the relations of truth combined
+with a rare power of accurate judgment.&quot;&mdash;<i>New York Observer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Beyond question this is one of the most signally valuable books of
+the season.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Advance</i>, Chicago.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4>The Ely Lectures for 1891</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><big>ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY</big></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>A COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF<br /> UNION
+THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK</small></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+<h4>By FRANK F. ELLEWOOD, D.D.</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><small>Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian<br />
+Church, U.S.A.; Lecturer on Comparative Religion in the University
+of the City of New York</small></p>
+
+<h5>12mo, $1.75</h5>
+
+<p>&quot;The volume is not only valuable, it is interesting; it not only
+gives information, but it stimulates thought.&quot;&mdash;<i>Evangelist</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thoroughly Christian in spirit.... There is a compactness about it
+which makes it full of information and suggestion.&quot;&mdash;<i>Christian
+Inquirer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The author has read widely, reflected carefully, and written
+ably.&quot;&mdash;<i>Congregationalist</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a book which we can most heartily commend to every pastor and
+to every intelligent student, of the work which the Church is called
+to do in the world.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Missionary</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An able work.&quot;&mdash;<i>Boston Transcript</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A more instructive book has not been issued for years.&quot;&mdash;<i>New York
+Observer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A noteworthy contribution to Christian polemics.&quot;&mdash;<i>Boston Beacon</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The special value of this volume is in its careful differentiation
+of the schools of religionists in the East and the distinct points
+of antagonism on the very fundamental ideas of Oriental religions
+toward the religion of Jesus.&quot;&mdash;<i>Outlook</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We wish this book might be read by all missionaries and by all
+Christians at home.&quot;&mdash;<i>Presbyterian and Reformed Review</i>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4>The Ely Lectures for 1890</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><big>THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE</big></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+<h4>By LEWIS FRENCH STEARNS</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><small>Professor of Christian Theology in Bangor Theological Seminary</small></p>
+
+<h5>12mo, $2.00</h5>
+
+
+<p>&quot;The tone and spirit which pervade them are worthy of the theme, and
+the style is excellent. There is nothing of either cant or pedantry
+in the treatment. There is simplicity, directness, and freshness of
+manner which strongly win and hold the reader.&quot;&mdash;<i>Chicago Advance</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have read them with a growing admiration for the ability,
+strength, and completeness displayed in the argument. It is a book
+which should be circulated not only in theological circles, but
+among young men of reflective disposition who are beset by the
+so-called 'scientific' attacks upon the foundations of the Christian
+faith.&quot;&mdash;<i>Christian Intelligencer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The style is a model of clearness even where the reasoning is
+deep.&quot;&mdash;<i>Christian Inquirer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His presentation of the certainty, reality, and scientific
+character of the facts in a Christian consciousness is very
+strong.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Lutheran</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An important contribution to the library of apologetics.&quot;&mdash;<i>Living
+Church</i>. (P.E.)</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A good and useful work.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Churchman</i>. (P.E.)</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The work is searching, careful, strong, and sound.&quot;&mdash;<i>Chautauquan</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As thorough and logical as it is spiritual.&quot;&mdash;<i>Congregationalist</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A timely and apropos contribution to the defenses of
+Christianity.&quot;&mdash;<i>Interior</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14834 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
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+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #14834 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14834)
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Whence and the Whither of Man, by John
+Mason Tyler
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Whence and the Whither of Man
+
+Author: John Mason Tyler
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2005  [eBook #14834]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF
+MAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14834-h.htm or 14834-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/3/14834/14834-h/14834-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/3/14834/14834-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN
+
+A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity
+to Environment
+
+Being the Morse Lectures of 1895
+
+by
+
+JOHN M. TYLER
+Professor of Biology, Amherst College
+
+New York
+Charles Scribner's Sons
+
+1896
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+          Morse Lectures
+
+    1893--THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN
+      MODERN THEOLOGY. By Rev. A.M.
+      Fairbairn, D.D. 8vo, $2.50
+
+    1894--THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN. By Rev.
+      William Elliot Griffis, D.D.
+      12mo, $2.00.
+
+    1895--THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF
+      MAN. By Professor John M. Tyler.
+      12mo, $1.75.
+
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE PROBLEM: THE MODE OF ITS SOLUTION
+
+The question.--The two theories of man's origin.--The argument
+purely historical.--Means of tracing man's ancestry and
+history.--Classification.--Ontogenesis and Phylogenesis.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PROTOZOA TO WORMS: CELLS, TISSUES, AND ORGANS
+
+Amoeba: Its anatomy and physiology.--Development of the
+cell.--Hydra: The development of digestive and reproductive organs,
+and of tissues.--Forms intermediate between amoeba and hydra:
+Magosphæra, volvox.--Embryonic development.--Turbellaria: Appearance
+of a body wall, of ganglion, and nerve-cords.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+WORMS TO VERTEBRATES: SKELETON AND HEAD
+
+Worms and the development of organs.--Mollusks: The external
+protective skeleton leads to degeneration or stagnation.--Annelids
+and arthropods: The external locomotive skeleton leads
+to temporary rapid advance, but fails of the goal.--Its
+disadvantages.--Vertebrates: The internal locomotive skeleton leads
+to backbone and brain.--Reasons for their dominance.--The primitive
+vertebrate.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+VERTEBRATES: BACKBONE AND BRAIN
+
+The advance of vertebrates from fish through amphibia and reptiles
+to mammals.--The development of skeleton, appendages, circulatory
+and respiratory systems, and brain.--Mammals: The oviparous
+monotremata.--Marsupials.--Placental mammals.--Development of the
+placenta.--Primates.--Arboreal life and the development of the
+hand.--Comparison of man with the highest apes.--Recapitulation of
+the history of man's origin and development.--The sequence of
+dominant functions.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE HISTORY OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS SEQUENCE OF FUNCTIONS
+
+Mode of investigation.--Intellect.--Sense-perceptions.--Association.
+--Inference and understanding.--Rational intelligence.--Modes of mental
+or nervous action.--Reflex action, unconscious and comparatively
+mechanical.--Instinctive action: The actor is conscious, but guided
+by heredity.--Intelligent action.--The actor is conscious, guided by
+intelligence resulting from experience or observation.--The will
+stimulated by motives.--Appetites.--Fear and other prudential
+considerations.--Care for young and love of mates.--The dawn of
+unselfishness.--Motives furnished by the rational intelligence:
+Truth, right, duty.--Recapitulation: The will, stimulated by ever
+higher motives, is finally to be dominated by unselfishness and love
+of truth and righteousness.--These rouse the only inappeasable
+hunger, and are capable of indefinite development.--Strength of
+these motives.--Their complete dominance the goal of human
+development.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT
+
+The reversal of the sequence of functions leads to extermination,
+degeneration, or, rarely, to stagnation.--Natural selection becomes
+more unsparing as we go higher.--Extinction.--Severity of the
+struggle for life.--Environment one.--But lower animals come into
+vital relation with but a small part of it.--It consists of a myriad
+of forces, which, as acting on a given form, may be considered as
+one grand resultant.--Environment is thus a power making at first
+for digestion and reproduction, then for muscular strength and
+activity, then for shrewdness, finally for unselfishness and
+righteousness.--An ultimate "power, not ourselves, making for
+righteousness," a personality.--Our knowledge of this personality
+may be valid, even though very incomplete.--Religion.--Conformity to
+the spiritual in or behind environment is likeness to God.--The
+conservative tendency in evolution.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT
+
+Human environment.--The development of the family as the school of
+man's training.--The family as the school of unselfishness and
+obedience.--The family as the basis of social life.--Society as an
+aid to conformity to environment by increasing intelligence and
+training conscience.--Mental and moral heredity.--Personal
+magnetism.--Man's search for a king.--The essence of
+Christianity.--Conformity to environment gives future supremacy, but
+often at the cost of present hardship.--Conformity as obedience to
+the laws of our being.--Environment best understood through the
+study of the human mind.--Productiveness and prospectiveness of
+vital capital.--Faith.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MAN
+
+Composed of atoms and molecules, hence subject to chemical and
+physical laws.--As a living being.--As an animal.--As a
+vertebrate.--As a mammal.--As a social being.--As a personal and
+moral being.--The conflict between the higher and the lower in
+man.--As a religious being.--As hero.--He has not yet
+attained.--Future man.--He will utilize all his powers, duly
+subordinating the lower to the higher.--The triumph of the common
+people.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE
+
+Subject of the Bible.--_Man_: Body, intellect, heart.--_God_:
+Law, sin, and penalty.--God manifested in Christ.--Salvation, the divine
+life permeating man--Faith.--Prayer.--Hope.--The Church.--The
+battle.--The victory.--The crown.
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
+
+The struggle for existence.--Natural selection.--Correlation of
+organs.--Fortuitous variation.--Origin of the fittest.--Nägeli's
+theory: Initial tendency supreme.--Weismann and the Neo-Darwinians:
+Natural selection omnipotent.--The Neo-Lamarckians.--Comparison of
+the Neo-Darwinian and the Neo-Lamarckian views.--"Individuality" the
+controlling power throughout the life of the organism.--Transmission
+of special effects of use and disuse.--Summary.
+
+
+CHART SHOWING SEQUENCE OF ATTAINMENTS AND OF DOMINANT FUNCTIONS
+
+
+PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In the year 1865 Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, to whom the
+world is indebted for the application of the principles of
+electro-magnetism to telegraphy, gave the sum of ten thousand
+dollars to Union Theological Seminary to found a lectureship in
+memory of his father, the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., theologian,
+geographer, and gazetteer. The subject of the lectures was to have
+to do with "The relations of the Bible to any of the sciences." The
+ten chapters of this book correspond to ten lectures, eight of which
+were delivered as Morse Lectures at Union Theological Seminary
+during the early spring of 1895. The first nine chapters appear in
+form and substance as they were given in the lectures, except that
+Chapters VI. and VII. were condensed in one lecture. Chapter X. is
+new, and I have not hesitated to add a few paragraphs wherever the
+argument seemed especially to demand further evidence or
+illustration.
+
+One of my friends, reading the title of these lectures, said: "Of
+man's origin you know nothing, of his future you know less." I fear
+that many share his opinion, although they might not express it so
+emphatically.
+
+It would seem, therefore, to be in order to show that science is now
+competent to deal with this question; not that she can give a final
+and conclusive answer, but that we can reach results which are
+probably in the main correct. We may grant very cheerfully that we
+can attain no demonstration; the most that we can claim for our
+results will be a high degree of probability. If our conclusions are
+very probably correct, we shall do well to act according to them;
+for all our actions in life are suited to meet the emergencies of a
+probable but uncertain course of events.
+
+We take for granted the probable truth of the theory of evolution as
+stated by Mr. Darwin, and that it applies to man as really as to any
+lower animal. At the same time it concerns our argument but little
+whether natural selection is "omnipotent" or of only secondary
+importance in evolution, as long as it is a real factor, or which
+theory of heredity or variation is the more probable.
+
+If man has been evolved from simple living substance protoplasm, by
+a process of evolution, it will some day be possible to write a
+history of that process. But have we yet sufficient knowledge to
+justify such an attempt?
+
+Before the history of any period can be written its events must have
+been accurately chronicled. Biological history can be written only
+when the successive stages of development and the attainments of
+each stage have been clearly perceived. In other words, the first
+prerequisite would seem to be a genealogical[A] tree of the animal
+kingdom. The means of tracing this genealogical tree are given in
+the first chapter, and the results in the second, third, and fourth
+chapters of this book.
+
+  [Footnote A: See Phylogenetic Chart, p. 310.]
+
+Now, for some of the ancestral stages of man's development a very
+high degree of probability can be claimed. One of man's earliest
+ancestors was almost certainly a unicellular animal. A little later
+he very probably passed through a gastræa stage. He traversed fish,
+amphibian, and reptilian grades. The oviparous monotreme and the
+marsupial almost certainly represent lower mammalian ancestral
+stages. But what kind of fish, what species of amphibian, what form
+of reptiles most closely resembles the old ancestor? How did each of
+these ancestors look? I do not know. It looks as if our ancestral
+tree were entirely uncertain and we were left without any foundation
+for history or argument.
+
+But the history of the development of anatomical details, however
+important and desirable, is not the only history which can be
+written, nor is it essential. It would be interesting to know the
+size of brain, girth of chest, average stature, and the features of
+the ancient Greeks and Romans. But this is not the most important
+part of their history, nor is it essential. The great question is,
+What did they contribute to human progress?
+
+Even if we cannot accurately portray the anatomical details of a
+single ancestral stage, can we perhaps discover what function
+governed its life and was the aim of its existence? Did it live to
+eat, or to move, or to think? If we cannot tell exactly how it
+looked, can we tell what it lived for and what it contributed to the
+evolution of man?
+
+Now, the sequence of dominant functions or aims in life can be
+traced with far more ease and safety, not to say certainty, than one
+of anatomical details. The latter characterize small groups, genera,
+families, or classes; while the dominant function characterizes all
+animals of a given grade, even those which through degeneration
+have reverted to this grade.
+
+Even if I cannot trace the exact path which leads to the
+mountain-top, I may almost with certainty affirm that it leads from
+meadow and pasture through forest to bare rock, and thence over snow
+and ice to the summit; for each of these forms a zone encircling the
+mountain. Very similarly I find that, whatever genealogical tree I
+adopt, one sequence in the dominance of functions characterizes them
+all; digestion is dominant before locomotion and locomotion before
+thought.
+
+And it is hardly less than a physiological necessity that it should
+be so. The plant can and does exist, living almost purely for
+digestion and reproduction, and the same is true of the lowest and
+most primitive animals. A muscular system cannot develop and do its
+work until some sort of a digestive system has arisen to furnish
+nutriment, any more than a steam-engine can run without fuel. And a
+brain is of no use until muscle and sense-organs have appeared.
+
+This sequence of dominant functions,[A] of physiological dynasties,
+would seem therefore to be a fact. And our series of forms described
+in the second, third, and fourth chapters is merely a concrete
+illustration showing how this sequence may have been evolved. The
+substitution of other terms in the anatomical series there
+described--amoeba, volvox, etc.--would not affect this result. By
+a change in the form of our history we have eliminated to a large
+extent the sources of uncertainty and error. And the dominant
+function of a group throws no little light on the details of its
+anatomy.
+
+  [Footnote A: See condensed Chart of Development, etc., p. 309.]
+
+If we can be satisfied that ever higher functions have risen to
+dominance in the successive stages of animal and human development,
+if we can further be convinced that the sequence is irreversible, we
+shall be convinced that future man will be more and more completely
+controlled by the very highest powers or aims to which this sequence
+points. Otherwise we must disbelieve the continuity of history. But
+the germs of the future are always concealed in the history of the
+present. Hence--pardon the reiteration--if we can once trace this
+sequence of dominant functions, whose evolution has filled past
+ages, we can safely foretell something at least of man's future
+development.
+
+The argument and method is therefore purely historical. Here and
+there we will try to find why and how things had to be so. But all
+such digressions are of small account compared with the fact that
+things were or are thus and so. And a mistaken explanation will not
+invalidate the facts of history.
+
+The subject of our history is the development, not of a single human
+race nor of the movements of a century, but the development of
+animal life through ages. And even if our attempts to decipher a few
+pages here and there in the volumes of this vast biological history
+are not as successful as we could hope, we must not allow ourselves
+to be discouraged from future efforts. Even if our translation is
+here and there at fault, we must never forget the existence of the
+history. Some of the worst errors of biologists are due to their
+having forgotten that in the lower stages the germs of the higher
+must be present, even though invisible to any microscope. Our study
+of the worm is inadequate and likely to mislead us, unless we
+remember that a worm was the ancestor of man. And a biologist who
+can tell us nothing about man is neglecting his fairest field.
+
+Conversely history and social science will rest on a firmer basis
+when their students recognize that many human laws and institutions
+are heirlooms, the attainments, or direct results of attainments, of
+animals far below man. We are just beginning to recognize that the
+study of zoölogy is an essential prerequisite to, and firm
+foundation for, that of history, social science, philosophy, and
+theology, just as really as for medicine. An adequate knowledge of
+any history demands more than the study of its last page. The
+zoölogist has been remiss in not claiming his birthright, and in
+this respect has sadly failed to follow the path pointed out by Mr.
+Darwin.
+
+For palæontology, zoölogy, history, social and political science,
+and philosophy are really only parts of one great science, of
+biology in the widest sense, in distinction from the narrower sense
+in which it is now used to include zoölogy and botany. They form an
+organic unity in which no one part can be adequately understood
+without reference to the others. You know nothing of even a
+constellation, if you have studied only one of its stars. Much less
+can the study of a single organ or function give an adequate idea of
+the human body.
+
+Only when we have attained a biological history can we have any
+satisfactory conception of environment. As we look about us in the
+world, environment often seems to us to be a chaos of forces aiding
+or destroying good and bad, fit and unfit, alike.
+
+But our history of animal and human progress shows us successive
+stages, each a little higher than the preceding, and surviving, for
+a time at least, because more completely conformed to environment.
+If this be true, and it must be true unless our theory of evolution
+be false, higher forms are more completely conformed to their
+environment than lower; and man has attained the most complete
+conformity of all. Our biological history is therefore a record of
+the results of successive efforts, each attaining a little more
+complete conformity than the preceding. From such a history we ought
+to be able to draw certain valid deductions concerning the general
+character and laws of our environment, to discover the direction in
+which its forces are urging us, and how man can more completely
+conform to it.
+
+If man is a product of evolution, his mental and moral, just as
+really as his physical, development must be the result of such a
+conformity. The study of environment from this standpoint should
+throw some light on the validity of our moral and religious creeds
+and theories. It would seem, therefore, not only justifiable, but
+imperative to attempt such a study.
+
+Our argument is not directly concerned with modern theories of
+heredity, or variation, or with the "omnipotence" or secondary
+importance of natural selection. And yet Nägeli, and especially
+Weismann, have had so marked an influence on modern thought that we
+cannot afford to neglect their theories. We will briefly notice
+these in the closing chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE PROBLEM: THE MODE OF ITS SOLUTION
+
+
+The story of a human life can be told in very few words. A youth of
+golden dreams and visions; a few years of struggle or of neglected
+opportunities; then retrospect and the end.
+
+        "We come like water, and like wind we go."
+
+But how few of the visions are realized. Faust sums up the whole of
+life in the twice-repeated word _versagen_, renounce, and history
+tells a similar story. Terah died in Haran; Abraham obtained but a
+grave in the land promised him and his children; Jacob, cheated in
+marriage, bitterly disappointed in his children, died in exile,
+leaving his descendants to become slaves in the land of Egypt; and
+Moses, their heroic deliverer, died in the mountains of Moab in
+sight of the land which he was forbidden to enter. You may answer
+that it is no injury that the promise is too large, the vision too
+grand, to be fulfilled in the span of a single life, but must become
+the heritage of a race. But what has been the history of Abraham's
+descendants? A death-grapple for existence, captivity, and
+dispersion. Their national existence has long been lost.
+
+Was there ever a nation of grander promise than Greece or Rome? But
+Greece died of premature old age, and Rome of rottenness begotten
+of sin. But each of them, you will say, left a priceless heritage to
+the immortal race. But if Greece and Rome and a host of older
+nations, of which History has often forgotten the very name, have
+failed and died, can anything but ultimate failure await the race?
+Is human history to prove a story told by an idiot, or does it
+"signify" something? Is the great march of humanity, which Carlyle
+so vividly depicts, "from the inane to the inane, or from God to
+God?"
+
+This is the sphinx question put to every thinking man, and on his
+answer hangs his life. For according to that answer, he will either
+flinch and turn back, or expend every drop of blood and grain of
+power in urging on the march.
+
+To this question the Bible gives a clear and emphatic answer. "God
+created man in his own image," and then, as if men might refuse to
+believe so astounding a statement, it is repeated, "in the image of
+God created he him." When, and by what mode or process, man was
+created we are not told. His origin is condensed almost into a line,
+his present and future occupy all the rest of the book. Whence we
+came is important only in so far as it teaches us humility and yet
+assures us that we may be Godlike because we are His handiwork and
+children, "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ of a heavenly
+inheritance."
+
+Now has Science any answer to this vital question? Perhaps. But this
+much is certain; it can foretell the future only from the past. Its
+answer to the question _whither_ must be an inference from its
+knowledge as to _whence_ we have come. The Bible looks mainly at the
+present and future; Science must at least begin with the study of
+the past. The deciphering of man's past history is the great aim of
+Biology, and ultimately of all Science. For the question of Man's
+past is only a part of a greater question, the origin of all living
+species.
+
+We may say broadly that concerning the origin of species two
+theories, and only two, seem possible. The first theory is that
+every species is the result of an act of immediate creation. And
+every true species, however slightly it may differ from its nearest
+relative, represents such a creative act, and once created is
+practically unchangeable. This is the theory of immutability of
+species. According to the second theory all higher, probably all
+present existing, species are only mediately the result of a
+creative act. The first living germ, whenever and however created,
+was infused with power to give birth to higher species. Of these and
+their descendants some would continue to advance, others would
+degenerate. Each theory demands equally for its ultimate explanation
+a creative act; the second as much as, if not more than, the first.
+According to the first theory the creative power has been
+distributed over a series of acts, according to the second theory it
+has been concentrated in one primal creation. The second is the
+theory of the mutability of species, or, in general, of evolution,
+but not necessarily of Darwinism alone.
+
+The first theory is considered by many the more attractive and
+hopeful. Now a theory need not be attractive, nor at first sight
+appear hopeful, provided only it is true. But let me call your
+attention to certain conclusions which, as it appears to me, are
+necessarily involved in it. Its central thought is the practical
+immutability of species. Each one of these lives its little span of
+time, for species are usually comparatively short-lived, grows
+possibly a very little better or worse, and dies. Its progress has
+added nothing to the total of life; its degeneration harmed no one,
+hardly even itself; it was doomed from the start. Progress there has
+been, in a sense. The Creator has placed ever higher forms on the
+globe. But all the progress lies in the gaps and distances between
+successive forms, not in any advance made, or victory won, by the
+species or individual. The most "aspiring ape," if ever there was
+such a being, remains but an ape. He must comfort himself with the
+thought that, while he and his descendants can never gain an inch,
+the gap between himself and the next higher form shall be far
+greater than that between himself and the lowest monkey.
+
+And if this has been the history of thousands of other species, why
+should it not be true of man also? Who can wonder that many who
+accept this theory doubt whether the world is growing any better, or
+whether even man will ever be higher and better than he now is?
+Would it not be contrary to the whole course of past history, if you
+can properly call such a record a history, if he could advance at
+all? Now I have no wish to misrepresent this or any honestly
+accepted theory, but it appears to me essentially hopeless, a record
+not of the progress of life on the globe, but of a succession of
+stagnations, of deaths. I can never understand why some very good
+and intelligent people still think that the theory of the immediate
+creation of each species does more honor to the Creator and his
+creation than the theory of evolution. Evolution is a process, not
+a force. The power of the Creator is equally demanded in both cases;
+only it is differently distributed. And evolution is the very
+highest proof of the wisdom and skill of the Creator. It elevates
+our views of the living beings, must it not give a higher conception
+of Him who formed them?
+
+The plant in its first stages shows no trace of flowers, but of
+leaves only. Later a branch or twig, similar in structure to all the
+rest, shortens. The cells and tissues which in other twigs turn into
+green leaves here become the petals and other organs of the rose or
+violet. Let us suppose for a moment that every rose and violet
+required a special act of immediate creation, would the springtime
+be as wonderful as now? Would the rose or violet be any more
+beautiful, or are they any less flowers because developed out of
+that which might have remained a common branch? The plant at least
+is glorified by the power to give rise to such beauty. And is not
+the creation of the seed of a violet or rose something infinitely
+grander than the decking of a flowerless plant with newly created
+roses? The attainment of the highest and most diversified beauty and
+utility with the fewest and simplest means is always the sign of
+what we call in man "creative" genius. Is not the same true of God?
+I think you all feel the force of the argument here.
+
+There were at one time no flowering plants. The time came at last
+for their appearance. Which is the higher, grander mode of producing
+them, immediate creation of every flowering species, or development
+of the flower out of the green leaves of some old club moss or
+similar form? The latter seems to me at least by far the higher
+mode. And to have created a ground-pine which could give rise to a
+rose seems far more difficult and greater than to have created both
+separately. It requires more genius, so to speak. It gives us a far
+higher opinion of the ground-pine; does it disgrace the rose? We can
+look dispassionately at plants. The rose is still and always a rose,
+and the oak an oak, whatever its origin. And I believe that we shall
+all readily admit that evolution is here a theory which does the
+highest honor to the wisdom and power of the Creator. What if the
+animal kingdom is continually blossoming in ever higher forms? Does
+not the same reasoning hold true, only with added force? I firmly
+believe that we should all unhesitatingly answer, yes, could we but
+be assured that all men would everywhere and always believe that we,
+men, were the results of an immediate creative act.
+
+But why do we so strenuously object to the application to ourselves
+of the theory of evolution? One or two reasons are easily seen. We
+have all of us a great deal of innate snobbery, we would rather have
+been born great than to have won greatness by the most heroic
+struggle. But is man any less a man for having arisen from something
+lower, and being in a fair way to become something higher? Certainly
+not, unless I am less a man for having once been a baby. It is only
+when I am unusually cross and irritable that I object to being
+reminded of my infancy. But a young child does not like to be
+reminded of it. He is afraid that some one will take him for a baby
+still. And the snob is always desperately afraid that some one will
+fail to notice what a high-born gentleman he is.
+
+Now man can relapse into something lower than a brute; the only
+genuine brute is a degenerate man. And we all recognize the strength
+of tendencies urging us downward. Is not this the often unrecognized
+kern of our eagerness for some mark or stamp that shall prove to all
+that we are no apes, but men? It is not the pure gold that needs the
+"guinea stamp." If we are men, and as we become men, we shall cease
+to fear the theory of evolution. Now this is not the only, or
+perhaps the greatest, objection which men feel or speak against the
+theory. But I must believe that it has more weight with us than we
+are willing to admit.
+
+But some say that the theory of immediate creation and immutability
+of species is the more natural and has always been accepted, while
+the theory of evolution is new and very likely to be as short-lived
+as many another theory which has for a time fascinated men only to
+be forgotten or ridiculed.
+
+But the idea of evolution is as old as Hindu philosophy. The old
+Ionic natural philosophers were all evolutionists. So Aristophanes,
+quoting from these or Hesiod concerning the origin of things, says:
+"Chaos was and Night, and Erebus black, and wide Tartarus. No earth,
+nor air nor sky was yet; when, in the vast bosom of Erebus (or
+chaotic darkness) winged Night brought forth first of all the egg,
+from which in after revolving periods sprang Eros (Love) the much
+desired, glittering with golden wings; and Eros again, in union with
+Chaos, produced the brood of the human race." Here the formative
+process is a birth, not a creation; it is evolution pure and simple.
+"According to the ancient view," says Professor Lewis, "the present
+world was a growth; it was born, it came from something antecedent,
+not merely as a cause but as its seed, embryo or principium.
+Plato's world was a 'zoon,' a living thing, a natural production."
+
+Furthermore, to the ancient writers of the Bible the idea of origin
+by birth from some antecedent form--and this is the essential idea
+of evolution--was perfectly natural. They speak of the "generations
+of the heavens and the earth" as of the "generations" of the
+patriarchs. The first book of the Bible is still called Genesis, the
+book of births. The writer of the ninetieth Psalm says, "Before the
+mountains were born, or ever thou hadst brought to birth the earth
+and the world." And what satisfactory meaning can you give to the
+words, "Let the earth bring forth," and "the earth brought forth,"
+in immediate proximity to the words, "and God made," unless while
+the ultimate source was God's creative power, the immediate process
+of formation was one of evolution.
+
+The Bible is big and broad enough to include both ideas, the human
+mind is prone to overestimate the one or the other. Traces, at
+least, of a similar mode of thought persisted by the Greek Fathers
+of the Church, and disappeared, if ever, with the predominance of
+Latin theology. To the oriental the idea of evolution is natural.
+The earth is to him no inert, resistant clod; she brings forth of
+herself.
+
+But our ancestors lived on a barren soil beneath a forbidding sky.
+They were frozen in winter and parched in summer. Nature was to them
+no kind foster-mother, but a cruel stepmother, training them by
+stern discipline to battle with her and the world. They peopled the
+earth with gnomes and cobolds and giants, and their nymphs were the
+Valkyre. Their God was Thor, of the thunderbolt and hammer, and who
+yet lived in continual dread of the hostile powers of Nature. A
+Norse prophet or prophetess standing beside Elijah at Horeb would
+have bowed down before the earthquake or the fire; the oriental
+waited for the "still small voice." And we are heirs to a Latin
+theology grafted on to the Thor-worship of our pagan ancestors. The
+idea of a Nature producing beneficently and kindly at the word of a
+loving God is foreign to all our inherited modes of thought. And our
+views of the heart of Nature are about as correct as those of our
+ancestors were of God. A little more of oriental tendencies of
+thought would harm neither our theology nor our life.
+
+What, then, is the biblical idea of Nature? God speaks to the earth,
+in the first chapter of Genesis, and the earth responds by "giving
+birth" to mountains and living beings. It is evidently no mere
+lifeless, inert clod, but pulsating with life and responsive to the
+divine commands. While yet a chaos it had been brooded over by the
+Divine Spirit. It is like the great "wheels within wheels," with
+rings full of eyes round about, which Ezekiel saw in his vision by
+the river Chebar. "When the living creatures went, the wheels went
+by them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the
+earth, the wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever the spirit was to
+go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were
+lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creatures
+(or of life) was in the wheels." And above the living creatures was
+the firmament and the throne of God. So Nature may be material, but
+it is material interpenetrated by the divine; if you call it a
+fabric, the woof may be material but the warp is God. This view
+contains all the truth of materialism and pantheism, and vastly
+more than they, and it avoids their errors and omissions.
+
+To the old metaphysical hypothesis of evolution Mr. Darwin gave a
+scientific basis. It had always been admitted that species were
+capable of slight variation and that this divergence might become
+hereditary and thus perhaps give rise to a variety of the parent
+species. But it was denied that the variation could go on increasing
+indefinitely, it seemed soon to reach a limit and stop. Early in the
+present century Lamarck had attempted to prove that by the use and
+disuse of organs through a series of generations a great divergence
+might arise resulting in new species. But the theory was crude,
+capable at best of but limited application, and fell before the
+arguments and authority of Cuvier. The times were not ripe for such
+a theory. Some fifty years later, Mr. Darwin called attention to the
+struggle for existence as a means of aggregating these slight
+modifications in a divergence sufficient to produce new species,
+genera, or families. His argument may be very briefly stated as
+follows:
+
+1. There is in Nature a law of heredity; like begets like.
+
+2. The offspring is never exactly like the parent; and the members
+of the second generation differ more or less from one another. This
+is especially noticeable in domesticated plants and animals, but no
+less true of wild forms. If the parent is not exactly like the other
+members of the species, some of its descendants will inherit its
+peculiarities enhanced, others diminished.
+
+3. Every species tends to increase in geometrical progression. But
+most species actually increase in number very slowly, if at all. Now
+and then some insect or weed escapes from its enemies, comes under
+favorable food conditions, and multiplies with such rapidity that it
+threatens to ravage the country. But as it multiplies it furnishes
+an abundance of food for the enemies which devour it, or of food and
+place for the parasites in and upon it; and they increase with at
+least equal rapidity. Hence while the vanguard increases
+prodigiously in numbers, because it has outrun these enemies, the
+rear is continually slaughtered. And thus these plagues seem in
+successive generations to march across the continent.
+
+And yet even they give but a faint idea of the reproductive powers
+of plants and animals. The female fish produces often many
+thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of eggs. Insects
+generally from a hundred to a thousand. Even birds, slowly as they
+increase, produce in a lifetime probably at least from twelve to
+twenty eggs. Now let us suppose that all these eggs developed, and
+all the birds lived out their normal period of life, and reproduced
+at the same rate. After not many centuries there would not be
+standing room on the globe for the descendants of a single pair.
+
+Again, of the one hundred eggs of an insect let us suppose that only
+sixty develop into the first larval, caterpillar, stage. Of these
+sixty, the number of members of the species remaining constant, only
+two will survive. The other fifty-eight die--of starvation,
+parasites, or other enemies, or from inclement weather. Now which
+two of all shall survive? Those naturally best able to escape their
+enemies or to resist unfavorable influences; in a word, those best
+suited to their conditions, or, to use Mr. Darwin's words,
+"conformed to their environment."
+
+Now if any individual has varied so as to possess some peculiarity
+which enables it even in slight degree to better escape its enemies
+or to resist unfavorable conditions, those of its descendants who
+inherit most markedly this peculiar quality or variation will be the
+most likely to escape, those without it to perish. If a form varies
+unfavorably, becomes for instance more conspicuous to its enemies,
+it will almost certainly perish. Thus favorable variations tend to
+increase and become more marked from generation to generation.
+
+Now it has always been known that breeders could produce a race of
+markedly peculiar form or characteristics by selecting the
+individuals possessing this quality in the highest degree and
+breeding only from these. The breeder depends upon heredity,
+variation, and his selection of the individuals from which to breed.
+Similarly in nature new species have arisen through heredity,
+variation, and a selection according to the laws of nature of those
+varying in conformity with their environment. And this Mr. Darwin
+called natural, in contrast with the breeder's artificial,
+"selection," arising from the "struggle for existence," and
+resulting in what Mr. Spencer has called the "survival of the
+fittest."
+
+Let us take a single illustration. Many of the species of beetles on
+oceanic islands have very rudimentary wings, or none at all, and yet
+their nearest relatives are winged forms on some neighboring
+continent. Mr. Darwin would explain the origin of these evidently
+distinct wingless species as follows: They are descended from winged
+ancestors blown or otherwise transported thither from the
+neighboring continent. But beetles are slow and clumsy fliers, and
+on these wind-swept islands those which flew most would be blown out
+to sea and drowned. Those which flew the least, and these would
+include the individuals with more poorly developed wings, would
+survive. There would thus be a survival in every generation of a
+larger proportion of those having the poorest wings, and destruction
+of those whose wings were strong, or whose habits most active. We
+have here a natural selection which must in time produce a species
+with rudimentary or aborted wings, just as surely as a human
+breeder, by artificial selection can produce such an animal as a pug
+or a poodle. These, like sin, are a human device; nature should not
+be held responsible for them.
+
+But you may urge that the variation which would take place in a
+single generation would be, as a rule, too slight to be of any
+practical value to the animal, and could not be fostered by natural
+selection until greatly enhanced by some other means. Let us think a
+moment. If ten ordinary men run in a foot-race, the two foremost may
+lead by several feet. But if the number of runners be continually
+increased the finish will be ever closer until finally but an atom
+more wind or muscle or pluck would make all the difference between
+winning and losing the prize.
+
+Similarly the million or more young of any species of insect in a
+given area may be said to run a race of which the prize is life, and
+the losing of which means literally death. The competition is
+inconceivably severe. How indefinitely slight will be the difference
+between the poorest of the 2,000 or 20,000 survivors and the best
+of the more than 900,000 which perish. The very slightest favorable
+variation may make all the difference between life and sure death.
+And yet these indefinitely slight variations continued and
+aggregated through ages would foot up an immense total divergence.
+The chalk cliffs of England have been built up of microscopic
+shells.
+
+I have tried to give you very briefly a sketch of the essential
+points of Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution. But you should all read
+that marvel of patience, industry, clear insight, close reasoning,
+and grand honesty, the "Origin of Species." I have no time to give
+the arguments in its favor or to attempt to meet the objections
+which may arise in your minds. I ask you to believe only this much;
+that the theory is accepted with practical unanimity by scientific
+men because it, and it alone, furnishes an explanation for the facts
+which they discover in their daily work. And this is the strongest
+proof of the truth of any accepted theory.
+
+Inasmuch as it is accepted by all scientists and largely by the
+public, it is certainly worth your while to know whether it has any
+bearing on the great moral and religious questions which you are
+considering. And in these lectures I shall take for granted, what
+some scientists still doubt, that man also is a product of
+evolution. For the weight of evidence in favor of this view is
+constantly increasing, and seems already to strongly preponderate.
+Also I wish in these lectures to grant all that the most ardent
+evolutionist can possibly claim. Not that I would lower man's
+position, but I have a continually increasing respect for the
+so-called "lower animals."
+
+Now if the theory of evolution be true, and really only on this
+condition, life has had a history; and human history began ages
+before man's actual appearance on the globe, just as American
+history began to be fashioned by Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans
+before they set foot even in England. We study history mainly to
+deduce its laws; and that knowing them we may from the past forecast
+the future, prepare for its emergencies, and avoid or wisely meet,
+its dangers. And we rely on these laws of history because they are
+the embodiment of ages of human experience.
+
+Whatever be our system of philosophy we all practically rely on past
+experience and observation. Fire burns and water drowns. This we
+know, and this knowledge governs our daily lives, whatever be our
+theories, or even our ignorance, of the laws of heat and
+respiration. Now human history is the embodiment of the experience
+of the race; and we study it in the full confidence that, if we can
+deduce its laws, we can rely on racial experience certainly as
+safely as on that of the individual. Furthermore, if we can discover
+certain great movements or currents of human action or progress
+moving steadily on through past centuries, we have full confidence
+that these movements will continue in the future. The study of
+history should make us seers.
+
+But the line of human progress is like a mountain road, veering and
+twisting, and often appearing to turn back upon itself, and having
+many by-roads, which lead us astray. If we know but a few miles of
+it we cannot tell whether it leads north or south or due west. But
+if from any mountain-top we can gain a clear bird's-eye view of its
+whole course, we easily distinguish the main road, its turns become
+quite insignificant, we see that it leads as directly as any
+engineering skill could locate it through the mountains to the
+fertile plains and rich harvests beyond.
+
+Now our knowledge of the history of man covers so brief a period
+that we can scarcely more than hazard a guess as to the trend of
+human progress. Many of the most promising social movements are like
+by-roads which, at first less steep and difficult, end sooner or
+later against impassable obstacles. And even if there be a main line
+of march, advance seems to alternate with retreat, progress with
+retrogression. To illustrate further, the great waves rush onward
+only to fall back again, and we can hardly tell whether the tide is
+flowing or ebbing.
+
+Yet already certain tendencies appear fairly clear. Governments tend
+to become democratic, if we define democracy as "any form of
+government in which the will of the people finds sovereign
+expression." The tendency of society seems to be toward furnishing
+all its members equality of opportunity to make the most of their
+natural endowments. But if we are convinced that these statements
+express even vaguely the tendency of human development in all its
+past history, we are confident that these tendencies will continue
+in the future for a period somewhat proportional to their time of
+growth in the past. If we are wise, we try to make our own lives and
+actions, and those of our fellows, conform to and advance them.
+Otherwise our lives will be thrown away.
+
+But if the theory of evolution be true, human history is only the
+last page of the one history of all life. If we are to gain any
+adequate, true, extensive view of human progress, we must read more
+than this. We must take into account the history of man when he was
+not yet man. And if we believe in the future continuance of
+tendencies of a few centuries' growth, we shall rest assured of the
+permanence of tendencies which have grown and strengthened through
+the ages.
+
+Our confidence in the results of historical study is therefore
+proportioned to the extent and thoroughness of the experience which
+they record, and to the time during which these laws can be proven
+to have held good. If I can make it even fairly probable that these
+laws, on obedience to which human progress and success seem to
+depend, are merely quoted from a grander code applicable to all life
+in all times, your confidence in them will be even greater. I trust
+I can prove to you that the animal kingdom has not drifted aimlessly
+at the mercy of every wind and tide and current of circumstance. I
+hope to show that along one line it has from the beginning through
+the ages held a steady course straight onward, and that deviation
+from this course has always led to failure or degeneration. From so
+vast a history we may hope to deduce some of the great laws of true
+success in life. Furthermore, if along this central line, at the
+head of which man stands, there always has been progress, we cannot
+doubt that future progress will be as certain, and perhaps far more
+rapid. In all the struggle of life we shall have the sure hope of
+success and victory; if not for ourselves still for those who shall
+come after us. "We are saved by hope." And we may be confident that
+this hope will never make us ashamed.
+
+Finally, even from our present knowledge of the past progress of
+life we shall hope to catch hints at least that man's only path to
+his destined goal is the straight and narrow road pointed out in the
+Bible. If in this we are even fairly successful we shall find a
+relation and bond between the Bible and Science worthy of all
+consideration. And this is the only agreement which can ever satisfy
+us.
+
+If I wished to bring before you a view of the development of man, I
+should best choose individuals or families from various periods of
+human history from the earliest times down to the present. I should
+try to tell you how they looked and lived. But if anyone should
+attempt to condense into three lectures such a history of even one
+line of the human race, you would probably think him insane. Even if
+he succeeded in giving a fairly clear view of the different stages,
+the successive stages would be so remote from one another, such vast
+changes would necessarily remain unnoticed or unexplained that you
+would hardly believe that they could have any genetic relation or
+belong to one developmental series.
+
+But the history which I must attempt to condense for you is measured
+by ages, and the successive terms of the series will be indefinitely
+more remote from each other than the life and thoughts of Lincoln or
+Washington from those of our most primitive Aryan ancestor or of the
+rudest savage of the Stone Age. The series must appear exceedingly
+disconnected. Systems of organs will apparently spring suddenly into
+existence, and we shall have no time to trace their origin or
+earlier development. Even if we had an abundance of time many gaps
+would still remain; for the forms, which according to our theory
+must have occupied their place, have long since disappeared and
+left no trace nor sign. We have generally no conception at all of
+the amount of extermination and degeneration which have taken place
+in past ages.
+
+I grant frankly that I do not believe that the forms which I have
+selected represent exactly the ancestors of man. They have all been
+more or less modified. I claim only that in the balance and relative
+development of their organic systems--muscular, digestive, nervous,
+etc.--they give us a very fair idea of what our ancestor at each
+stage must have been. But it is on this balance and relative
+development of the different systems, that is, whether an animal is
+more reproductive, digestive, or nervous, that my argument will in
+the main be based.
+
+But if the older ancestors have so generally disappeared, and their
+surviving relatives have been so greatly modified, how can we make
+even a shrewd guess at the ancestry of higher forms? The genealogy
+of the animal kingdom has been really the study of centuries,
+although the earlier zoölogists did not know that this was to be the
+result of their labors. The first work of the naturalist was
+necessarily to classify the plants and animals which he found, and
+catalogue and tabulate them so that they might be easily recognized,
+and that later discovered forms might readily find a place in the
+system. Hypotheses and theories were looked upon with suspicion.
+"Even Linnæus," says Romanes, "was express in his limitations of
+true scientific work in natural history to the collecting and
+arranging of species of plants and animals." The question, "What is
+it?" came first; then, "How did it come to be what it is?" We are
+just awakening to the question, "Why this progressive system of
+forms, and what does it all mean?"
+
+Let us experiment a little in forming our own classification of a
+few vertebrates. We see a bat flying through the air. We mistake it
+for a bird. But a glance at it shows that it is a mammal. It is
+covered with hair. It has fore and hind legs. Its wings are
+membranes stretched between the fingers and along the sides of the
+body. It has teeth. It suckles its young. In all these respects it
+differs from birds. It differs from mammals only in its wings. But
+we remember that flying squirrels have a membrane stretching along
+the sides of the body and serving as a parachute, though not as
+wings. We naturally consider the wings as a sort of after-thought
+superinduced on the mammalian structure. We do not hesitate to call
+it a mammal.
+
+The whale makes us more trouble; it certainly looks remarkably like
+a fish. But the fin of its tail is horizontal, not vertical. Its
+front flippers differ altogether from the corresponding fins of
+fish; their bones are the same as those occurring in the forelegs of
+mammals, only shorter and more crowded together. Later we find that
+it has lungs, and a heart with four chambers instead of only two, as
+in fish. The vertebræ of its backbone are not biconcave, but flat in
+front and behind. And, finally, we discover that it suckles its
+young. It, too, is in all its deep-seated characteristics a mammal.
+It is fish-like only in characteristics which it might easily have
+acquired in adaptation to its aquatic life. And there are other
+aquatic mammals, like the seals, in which these characteristics are
+much less marked. Their adaptation has evidently not gone so far.
+
+Now the first attempts resulted in artificial classifications, much
+like our grouping of bats with birds and whales with fish. All
+animals, like coral animals and starfishes, whose similar parts were
+arranged in lines radiating from a centre, were united as radiates,
+however much they might differ in internal structure and grade of
+organization. But this radiate structure proved again to be largely
+a matter of adaptation.
+
+Practically all animals having a heavy calcareous shell were grouped
+with the snails and oysters as mollusks. But the barnacle did not
+fit well with other mollusks. Its shell was entirely different. It
+had several pairs of legs; and no mollusk has legs. The barnacle is
+evidently a sessile crab or better crustacean. Its molluscan
+characteristics were only skin-deep, evidently an adaptation to a
+mode of life like that of mollusks. The old artificial systems were
+based too much on merely external characteristics, the results of
+adaptation. When the internal anatomy had been thoroughly studied
+their groups had to be rearranged.
+
+Reptiles and amphibia were at first united in one class because of
+their resemblance in external form. Our common salamanders look so
+much like lizards that they generally pass by this name. But the
+young salamander, like all amphibia, breathes by gills, its skeleton
+differs greatly from, and is far weaker than, that of the lizard,
+and there are important differences in the circulatory and other
+systems. Moreover, practically all amphibia differ from all reptiles
+in these respects. Evidently the fact that the alligator and many
+snakes and turtles (of which neither the young nor the embryos ever
+breathe by gills) live almost entirely in the water, is no better
+reason for classifying these with amphibia than to call a whale a
+fish, and not a mammal, because of its form and aquatic life.
+
+When the comparative anatomy of fish, amphibia, and reptiles had
+been carefully studied it was evident that the amphibia stood far
+nearer the fish in general structure, while the higher reptiles
+closely approached birds. Then it was noticed that our common fish
+formed a fairly well-defined group, but that the ganoids, including
+the sturgeons, gar-pikes, and some others, had at least traces of
+amphibian characteristics. Such generalized forms, with the
+characteristics of the class less sharply marked, were usually by
+common consent placed at the bottom of the class. And this suited
+well their general structure, while in particular characteristics
+they were often more highly organized than higher groups of the same
+class.
+
+The palæontologist found that the oldest fossil forms belonged to
+these generalized groups, and that more highly specialized
+forms--that is, those in which the special class distinctions were
+more sharply and universally marked--were of later geological
+origin. Thus the oldest fish were most like our present ganoids and
+sharks, though differing much from both. Our common teleost fish,
+like perch and cod, appeared much later. The oldest bird, the
+archæopteryx, had a long tail like that of a lizard, and teeth; and
+thus stood in many respects almost midway between birds and
+reptiles. And most of the earliest forms were "comprehensive,"
+uniting the characteristics of two or more later groups. Thus as the
+classification became more natural, based on a careful comparison of
+the whole anatomy of the animals, its order was found to coincide in
+general with that of geological succession.
+
+Then the zoölogist began to ask and investigate how the animal grew
+in the egg and attained its definite form. And this study of
+embryology brought to light many new and interesting facts. Agassiz
+especially emphasized and maintained the universality of the fact
+that there was a remarkable parallelism between embryos of later
+forms and adults of old or fossil groups. The embryos of higher
+forms, he said, pass through and beyond certain stages of structure,
+which are permanent in lower and older members of the same group.
+
+You remember that the fin on the tail of a fish is as a rule
+bilobed. Now the backbone of a perch or cod ends at a point in the
+end of the tail opposite the angle between the two lobes, without
+extending out into either of them. In the shark it extends almost to
+the end of the upper lobe. Now we have seen that sharks and ganoids
+are older than cod. In the embryo of the cod or perch the backbone
+has, at an early stage, the same position as in the shark or ganoid;
+only at a later stage does it attain its definite position.
+
+So Agassiz says the young lepidosteus (a ganoid fish), long after it
+is hatched, exhibits in the form of its tail characters thus far
+known only among the fossil fishes of the Devonian period. The
+embryology of turtles throws light upon the fossil chelonians. It is
+already known that the embryonic changes of frogs and toads coincide
+with what is known of their succession in past ages. The
+characteristics of extinct genera of mammals exhibit everywhere
+indications that their living representatives in early life resemble
+them more than they do their own parents. A minute comparison of a
+young elephant with any mastodon will show this most fully, not only
+in the peculiarities of their teeth, but even in the proportion of
+their limbs, their toes, etc. It may therefore be considered as
+a general fact that the phases of development of all living
+animals correspond to the order of succession of their extinct
+representatives in past geological times. The above statements are
+quoted almost word for word from Professor Agassiz's "Essay on
+Classification." The larvæ of barnacles and other more degraded
+parasitic crustacea are almost exactly like those of Crustacea in
+general. The embryos of birds have a long tail containing almost or
+quite as many vertebræ as that of archæopteryx. But most of these
+never reach their full development but are absorbed into the pelvis,
+or into the "ploughshare" bone supporting the tail feathers. Thus
+older forms may be said to have retained throughout life a condition
+only embryonic in their higher relatives. And the natural
+classification gave the order not only of geological succession but
+also of stages of embryonic development. Thus the system of
+classification improved continually, although more and more
+intermediate forms, like archæopteryx, were discovered, and certain
+aberrant groups could find no permanent resting-place.
+
+But why should the generalized comprehensive forms stand at the
+bottom rather than the top of the systematic arrangement of their
+classes? Why should the system of classification coincide with the
+order of geologic occurrence, and this with the series of embryonic
+stages? Above all, why should the embryos of bird and perch form
+their tails by such a roundabout method? Why should the embryo of
+the bird have the tail of a lizard? No one could give any
+satisfactory explanation, although the facts were undoubted.
+
+Mr. Darwin's theory was the one impulse needed to crystallize these
+disconnected facts into one comprehensible whole. The connecting
+link was everywhere common descent, difference was due to the
+continual variation and divergence of their ancestors. The
+classification, which all were seeking, was really the ancestral
+tree of the animal kingdom. Forms more generalized should be placed
+lower down on the ancestral tree, and must have had an earlier
+geological occurrence because they represented more nearly the
+ancestors of the higher. But this explains also the facts of
+embryonic development.
+
+According to Mr. Darwin's theory all the species of higher animals
+have developed from unicellular ancestors. It had long been known
+that all higher forms start in life as single cells, egg and
+spermatozoon. And these, fused in the process of fertilization, form
+still a single cell. And when this single cell proceeds through
+successive embryonic stages to develop into an adult individual it
+naturally, through force of hereditary habit, so to speak, treads
+the same path which its ancestors followed from the unicellular
+condition to their present point of development. Thus higher forms
+should be expected to show traces of their early ancestry in their
+embryonic life. Older and lower adult forms should represent
+persistent embryonic stages of higher. It could not well be
+otherwise.
+
+But the path which the embryo has to follow from the egg to the
+adult form is continually lengthening as life advances ever higher.
+From egg to sponge is, comparatively speaking, but a step; it is a
+long march from the egg to the earthworm; and the vertebrate embryo
+makes a vast journey. But embryonic life is and must remain short.
+Hence in higher forms the ancestral stages will often be slurred
+over and very incompletely represented. And the embryo may, and
+often does, shorten the path by "short-cuts" impossible to its
+original ancestor. Still it will in general hold true, and may be
+recognized as a law of vast importance, that any individual during
+his embryonic life repeats very briefly the different stages through
+which his ancestors have passed in their development since the
+beginning of life. Or, briefly stated, ontogenesis, or the embryonic
+development of the individual, is a brief recapitulation of
+phylogenesis, or the ancestral development of the phylum or group.
+
+The illustration and proof of this law is the work of the
+embryologist. We have time to draw only one or two illustrations
+from the embryonic development of birds. We have already seen that
+the embryonic bird has the long tail of his reptilian ancestor. In
+early embryonic life it has gill-slits leading from the pharynx to
+the outside of the neck like those through which the water passes in
+the respiration of fish. The Eustachian tube and the canal of the
+external ear of man, separated only by the "drum," are nothing but
+such an old persistent gill-slit. No gills ever develop in these,
+but the great arteries run to them, and indeed to all parts of the
+embryo, on almost precisely the same general plan as in the adult
+fish. Only later is the definite avian circulation gradually
+acquired.
+
+This law is even more strikingly illustrated in the embryonic
+development of the vertebral column and skull, if we had time to
+trace their development. And the development of the excretory system
+points to an ancestor far more primitive than even the fish. Our
+embryonic development is one of the very strongest evidences of our
+lowly origin.
+
+Thus we have three sources of information for the study of animal
+genealogy. First, the comparative anatomy of all the different
+groups of animals; second, their comparative embryology; and third,
+their palæontological history. Each source has its difficulties or
+defects. But taken all together they give us a genealogical tree
+which is in the main points correct, though here and there very
+defective and doubtful in detail. The points in which we are left
+most in doubt in regard to each ancestor are its modes of life and
+locomotion, and body form. But these may temporarily vary
+considerably without affecting to any great extent the general plan
+of structure and the line of development of the most important
+deep-seated organs.
+
+I have chosen a line composed of forms taken from the comparative
+anatomical series. All such present existing forms have probably
+been modified during the lapse of ages. But I shall try to tell you
+when they have diverged noticeably from the structure of the
+primitive ancestor of the corresponding stage. It is much safer for
+us to study concrete, actual forms than imaginary ones, however real
+may have been the former existence of the latter. And, after all,
+their lateral divergence is of small account compared with the great
+upward and onward march of life, to the right and left of which they
+have remained stationary or retrograded somewhat, like the tribes
+which remained on the other side of Jordan and never entered the
+Promised Land.
+
+To recapitulate: Our question is the Whence and the Whither of man.
+To this question the Bible gives a clear and definite answer. Can
+Science also give an answer, and is this in the main in accord with
+the answer of Scripture? Science can answer the question only by the
+historical method of tracing the history of life in the past and
+observing the goal toward which it tends. If the evolution theory be
+true, the record of human achievement and progress forms only one
+short chapter in the history of the ages. If from the records of
+man's little span of life on the globe we can deduce laws of history
+on whose truth we can rely, with how much greater confidence and
+certainty may we rely on laws which have governed all life since its
+earliest appearance?--always provided that such can be found.
+
+Our first effort must therefore be to trace the great line of
+development through a few of its most characteristic stages from the
+simplest living beings up to man. This will be our work in the three
+succeeding lectures. And to these I must ask you to bring a large
+store of patience. Anatomical details are at best dry and
+uninteresting. But these dry facts of anatomy form the foundation on
+which all our arguments and hopes must rest.
+
+But if you will think long and carefully even of anatomical facts,
+you will see in and behind them something more and grander than
+they. You will catch glimpses of the divinity of Nature. Most of us
+travel threescore years and ten stone-blind in a world of marvellous
+beauty. Why does the artist see so much more in every fence-corner
+and on every hill-side than we, set face to face with the grandest
+landscapes? Primarily, I believe, because he is sympathetic, and
+looks on Nature as a comrade as near and dear as any human sister
+and companion. As Professor Huxley has said, "they get on rarely
+together." She speaks to the artist; to us she is dumb, and ought to
+be, for we are boorishly careless of her and her teachings.
+
+Nature, to be known, must be loved. And though you have all the
+knowledge of a von Humboldt, and do not love her, you will never
+understand her or her teachings. You will go through life with her,
+and yet parted from her as by an adamantine wall.
+
+I do not suppose that the author of the book of Job had ever studied
+geology, or mineralogy, or biology, but read him, and see whether
+this old prince of scientific heroes had loved, and understood, and
+caught the spirit of Nature. And what a grand, free spirit it was,
+and what a giant it made of him. I do not believe that Paul ever had
+a special course of anatomy or botany. But if he had not pondered
+long and lovingly on the structure of his body, and the germination
+of the seed, he never could have written the twelfth and fifteenth
+chapters of the first letter to the Corinthians. And time fails to
+speak of David and all the writers of the Psalms, and of those
+heroic souls misnamed the "Minor" Prophets.
+
+Study the teachings of our Lord. How he must have considered the
+lilies of the field, and that such a tiny seed as that of the
+mustard could have produced so great an herb, and noticed and
+thought on the thorns and the tares and the wheat, and watched the
+sparrows, and pondered and wondered how the birds were fed. All his
+teaching was drawn from Nature. And all the study in the world could
+never have taught him what he knew, if it had not been a loving and
+appreciative study.
+
+There is one strange and interesting passage in John's Gospel, xv.
+1: "I am the true vine." My father used to tell us that the Greek
+word [Greek: alêthinê], rendered true, is usually employed of the
+genuine in distinction from the counterfeit, the reality in
+distinction from the shadow and image. Is not this perhaps the clew
+to our Lord's use of natural imagery? Nature was always the
+presentation to his senses of the divine thought and purpose. He
+studied the words of the ancient Scripture, he found the same words
+and teachings clearly and concretely embodied in the processes of
+Nature. The interpretation of the Parable of the Sower was no mere
+play of fancy to him; it was the genuine and fundamental truth,
+deeper and more real than the existence of the sower, the soil, and
+the seed. The spiritual truth was the substance; the tangible soil
+and seed really only the shadow. And thus all Nature was to him
+divine.
+
+We all of us need to offer the prayer of the blind man, "Lord, that
+our eyes may be opened." Let us learn, too, from the old heathen
+giant, Antæus, who, after every defeat and fall, rose strengthened
+and vivified from contact with his mother Earth. You will experience
+in life many a desperate struggle, many a hard fall. There is at
+such times nothing in the world so strengthening, healing, and
+life-giving as the thoughts and encouragements which Nature pours
+into the hearts and minds of her loving disciples. She will set you
+on your feet again, infused with new life, filled with an
+unconquerable spirit, with unfaltering courage, and an iron will to
+fight once more and win. In every battle her inspiring words will
+ring in your ears, and she will never fail you. We may not see her
+deepest realities, her rarest treasures of thought and wisdom; but
+if we will listen lovingly for her voice, we may be assured that she
+will speak to us many a word of cheer and encouragement, of warning
+and exhortation. For, to paraphrase the language of the nineteenth
+Psalm, "She has no speech nor language, her voice is not heard. But
+her rule is gone out throughout all the earth, and her words to the
+end of the world."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PROTOZOA TO WORMS: CELLS, TISSUES, AND ORGANS
+
+
+The first and lowest form in our ancestral series is the amoeba, a
+little fresh-water animal from 1/500 to 1/1000 of an inch in
+diameter. Under the microscope it looks like a little drop of
+mucilage. This semifluid, mucilaginous substance is the Protoplasm.
+Its outer portion is clear and transparent, its inner more granular.
+In the inner portion is a little spheroidal body, the nucleus. This
+is certainly of great importance in the life of the animal; but just
+what it does, or what is its relation to the surrounding protoplasm
+we do not yet know. There is also a little cavity around which the
+protoplasm has drawn back, and on which it will soon close in again,
+so that it pulsates like a heart. It is continually taking in water
+from the body, or the outside, and driving it out again, and thus
+aids in respiration and excretion. The animal has no organs in the
+proper sense of the word, and yet it has the rudiments of all the
+functions which we possess.
+
+A little projection of the outer, clearer layer of protoplasm, a
+pseudopodium, appears; into this the whole animal may flow and thus
+advance a step, or the projection may be withdrawn. And this power
+of change of form is a lower grade of the contractility of our
+muscular cells. Prick it with a needle and it contracts. It
+recognizes its food even at a microscopic distance; it appears
+therefore to feel and perceive. Perhaps we might say that it has a
+mind and will of its own. It is safer to say that it is irritable,
+that is, it reacts to stimuli too feeble to be regarded as the cause
+of its reaction. It engulfs microscopic plants, and digests them in
+the internal protoplasm by the aid of an acid secretion. It breathes
+oxygen, and excretes carbonic acid and urea, through its whole body
+surface. Its mode of gaining the energy which it manifests is
+therefore apparently like our own, by combustion of food material.
+
+  [Illustration: 1. AMOEBA PROTEUS. HERTWIG, FROM LEIDY.
+  _ek_, ectosarc; _en_, endosarc; _N_, food particles;
+  _n_, nucleus; _cv_, contractile vesicle.]
+
+It grows and reaches a certain size, then constricts itself in the
+middle and divides into two. The old amoeba has divided into two
+young ones, and there is no parent left to die, and death, except by
+violence, does not occur. But this absence of death in other rather
+distant relatives of the amoeba, and probably in the amoeba
+itself, holds true only provided that, after a series of
+self-divisions, reproduction takes place after another mode. Two
+rather small and weak individuals fuse together in one animal of
+renewed vigor, which soon divides into two larger and stronger
+descendants. We have here evidently a process corresponding to the
+fertilization of the egg in higher animals; yet there is no egg,
+spermatozoon, or sex.
+
+It is a little mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus, and
+corresponds, therefore, to one of the cells, most closely to the
+egg-cell or spermatozoon of higher animals. If every living being is
+descended from a single cell, the fertilized egg, it is not hard to
+believe that all higher animals are descended from an ancestor
+having the general structure or lack of structure of the amoeba.
+
+But is the amoeba really structureless? Probably it has an
+exceedingly complex structure, but our microscopes and technique are
+still too imperfect to show more than traces of it. Says Hertwig:
+"Protoplasm is not a single chemical substance, however complicated,
+but a mixture of many substances, which we must picture to ourselves
+as finest particles united in a wonderfully complicated structure."
+Truly protoplasm is, to borrow Mephistopheles' expression concerning
+blood, a "quite peculiar juice." And the complexity of the nucleus
+is far more evident than that of the protoplasm. Is protoplasm
+itself the result of a long development? If so, out of what and how
+did it develop? We cannot even guess. But the beginning of life may,
+apparently must, have been indefinitely farther back than the
+simplest now existing form. The study of the amoeba cannot fail to
+raise a host of questions in the mind of any thoughtful man.
+
+As we have here the animal reduced, so to speak, to lowest terms, it
+may be well to examine a little more closely into its physiology and
+compare it briefly with our own.
+
+The amoeba eats food as we do, but the food is digested directly
+in the internal protoplasm instead of in a stomach; and once
+digested it diffuses to all parts of the cell; here it is built up
+into compounds of a more complex structure, and forms an integral
+part of the animal body. The dead food particle has been transformed
+into living protoplasm, the continually repeated miracle of life.
+But it does not remain long in this condition. In contact with the
+oxygen from the air it is soon oxidized, burned up to furnish the
+energy necessary for the motion and irritability of the body. We are
+all of us low-temperature engines. The digestive function exists in
+all animals merely to bring the food into a soluble, diffusible
+form, so that it can pass to all parts of the body and be used for
+fuel or growth. In our body a circulatory system is necessary to
+carry food and oxygen to the cells and to remove their waste. For
+most of our cells lie at a distance from the stomach, lungs, and
+kidney. But in a small animal the circulatory system is often
+unnecessary and fails. Breathing and excretion take place through
+the whole surface of the body. The body of the frog is devoid of
+scales, so that the blood is separated from the surrounding water
+only by a thin membrane, and it breathes and excretes to a certain
+extent in the same way.
+
+But another factor has to be considered. If we double each dimension
+of our amoeba, we shall increase its surface four times, its mass
+eight-fold. Now the power of absorbing oxygen and excreting waste is
+evidently proportional to the excretory and respiratory surface, and
+much the same is true of digestion. But the amount of oxygen
+required, and of waste to be removed is proportional to the mass;
+for every particle of protoplasm requires food and oxygen, and
+produces waste. The particles of protoplasm in our new, larger
+amoeba can therefore receive only half as much oxygen as before,
+and rid themselves of their waste only half as fast. There is
+danger of what in our bodies would be called suffocation and
+blood-poisoning. The amoeba having attained a certain size meets
+this emergency by dividing into two small individuals, the division
+is a physical adaptation. But the many-celled animal cannot do this;
+it must keep its cells together. It gains the additional surface by
+folding and plaiting. And the complicated internal structure of
+higher animals is in its last analysis such a folding and plaiting
+in order to maintain the proper ratio between the exposed surface of
+the cells and their mass. And each cell in our bodies lives in one
+sense its own individual life, only bathed in the lymph and
+receiving from it its food and oxygen instead of taking it from the
+water.
+
+But in another sense the cells of our body live an entirely
+different life, for they form a community. Division of labor has
+taken place between them, they are interdependent, correlated with
+one another, subject therefore to the laws of the whole community or
+organism. There are many respects in which it is impossible to
+compare Robinson Crusoe with a workman in a huge watch factory; yet
+they are both men.
+
+Both the amoeba and we live in the closest relation to our
+environment, and conformity to it is evidently necessary: life has
+been defined as the adjustment of internal relations to external
+conditions. We continually take food, use it for energy and growth,
+and return the simpler waste compounds. We are all of us, as
+Professor Huxley has said, "whirlpools on the surface of Nature;"
+when the whirl of exchange of particles ceases we die. We have seen
+that the fusion of two amoebæ results in a new rejuvenated
+individual. Why is a mixture of two protoplasms better than one? We
+can frame hypotheses; we know nothing about it. What of the mind of
+the amoeba? A host of questions throng upon us and we can answer
+no one of them. All the great questions concerning life confront us
+here in the lowest term of the animal series, and appear as
+insoluble as in the highest.
+
+Our second ancestral form is also a fresh-water animal, the hydra.
+This is a little, vase-shaped animal, which usually lives attached
+to grass-stems or sticks, but has the power to free itself and hang
+on the surface of the water or to slowly creep on the bottom. The
+mouth is at the top of the vase, and the simple, undivided cavity
+within the vase is the digestive cavity. Around the mouth is a ring
+of from four to ten hollow tentacles, whose cavities communicate
+freely underneath with the digestive cavity. Not only is food taken
+in at the mouth, but indigestible material is thrown out here. The
+animal may thus be compared to a nearly cylindrical sack with a
+circle of tubes attached to it above. The body consists of two
+layers of cells, the ectoderm on the outside and the entoderm lining
+the digestive cavity. Between these two is a structureless, elastic
+membrane, which tends to keep the body moderately expanded.
+
+The food is captured by the tentacles; but digestion takes place
+only partially in the digestive cavity, for each surrounding cell
+engulfs small particles of food and digests them within itself. The
+entodermal cells behave in this respect much like a colony of
+amoebæ. The cells of both layers have at their bases long muscular
+fibrils, those of the ectodermal cells running longitudinally, those
+of the entoderm transversely. The animal can thus contract its body
+in both directions, or, if the body contain water and the transverse
+muscles are contracted, the pressure of the water lengthens the body
+and tends to extend the tentacles.
+
+On the outside of the elastic membrane, just beneath the ectoderm,
+is a plexus or cobweb of nervous cells and fibrils. As in every
+nervous system, three elements are here to be found. 1. An afferent
+or sensory nerve-fibril, which under adequate stimulus is set in
+vibration by some cell of the epidermis or ectoderm, which is
+therefore called a sensory cell. 2. A central or ganglion
+cell, which receives the sensory impulse, translates it into
+consciousness, and is the seat of whatever powers of perception,
+thought, or will the animal possesses. This also gives rise to the
+efferent or motor impulses, which are conveyed by (3) a motor fibril
+to the corresponding muscle, exciting its contraction. But there are
+also nerve-fibrils connecting the different ganglion cells, so that
+they may act in unison. In the higher animals we shall find these
+central or ganglion cells condensed in one or a few masses or
+ganglia. But here they are scattered over the whole surface of the
+elastic supporting membrane.
+
+The reproductive organs for the production of eggs and spermatozoa
+form little protuberances on the outside of the body below the
+tentacles. But hydra reproduces mostly by budding; new individuals
+growing out of the side of the old one, like branches from the trunk
+of a tree, but afterward breaking free and leading an independent
+life. There are special forms of cells besides those described;
+nettle cells for capturing food, interstitial cells, etc., but these
+do not concern us.
+
+The distance from the single-celled amoeba to hydra is vast,
+probably really greater than that between any other successive terms
+of our series. It may therefore be useful to consider one or two
+intermediate forms and the parallel embryonic stages of higher
+animals, and to see how the higher many-celled animal originates
+from the unicellular stage.
+
+The amoeba is an illustration of a great kingdom of similar,
+practically unicellular forms, which have played no unimportant part
+in the geological history of the globe. These are the protozoa. They
+include, first of all, the foraminifera, which usually have shells
+composed of carbonate of lime. These shells, settling to the bottom
+of the ocean, have accumulated in vast beds, and when compacted and
+raised above the surface, form chalk, limestone, or marble,
+according to the degree and mode of their hardening.
+
+The protozoa include also the flagellata, a great, very poorly
+defined mass of forms occupying the boundary between the plant and
+animal kingdoms. They are usually unicellular, and their protoplasm
+is surrounded by a thin, structureless membrane. This prevents their
+putting out pseudopodia as organs of motion. Instead of these they
+have at one end of the ovoid or pear-shaped body a long,
+whiplash-like process or thread, a flagellum, and by swinging this
+they propel themselves through the water. These flagellata seem to
+have a rather marked tendency to form colonies. The first individual
+gives rise to others by division. But the division is not complete;
+the new individuals remain connected by the undivided rear end of
+the body. And such a colony may come to contain a large number of
+individuals.
+
+  [Illustration: 2. MAGOSPHÆRA PLANULA. LANG, FROM HAECKEL.]
+
+Such a colony is represented by magosphæra. This is a microscopic
+globular form, discovered by Professor Haeckel on the coast of
+Norway. It consists of a large number of conical or pear-shaped
+individual cells, whose apices are turned toward the centre of the
+sphere. The cells are cemented together by a mucilaginous substance.
+Around their exposed larger ends, which form the surface of the
+sphere, are rows of flagella, by whose united action the colony
+rolls through the water. After a time each individual absorbs its
+flagella, the colony is broken up, the different individuals settle
+to the bottom, and each gives rise by division to a new colony. This
+group of cells may be considered as a colony or as an individual.
+Each term is defensible.
+
+Volvox is also a spheroidal organism, composed often of a very large
+number of flagellated cells. But it differs from magosphæra in
+certain important respects. In the first place its cells have
+chlorophyl, the green coloring matter of plants. It lives therefore
+on unorganized fluid nourishment, carbon dioxide, nitrates, etc. It
+is a plant. But certain characteristics render it probable that it
+once lived on solid food and was therefore an animal. For where
+almost the sole difference between plants and animals is in the
+fluid or solid character of their food, a change from the one form
+into the other is not as difficult or improbable as one might
+naturally think. And plants and animals are here so near together,
+and travelling by roads so nearly parallel, that, even if volvox
+never was an animal, it might still serve very well to illustrate a
+stage through which animals must have passed.
+
+The cells of volvox do not form a solid mass, but have arranged
+themselves in a single layer on the outer surface of the sphere. For
+a time, under favorable circumstances, volvox reproduces very much
+like magosphæra, and each cell can give rise to a new, many-celled
+individual. But after a time, especially under unfavorable
+circumstances, a new mode of reproduction appears. Certain cells
+withdraw from the outer layer into the interior of the colony. Here
+they are nourished by the other cells and develop into true
+reproductive elements, eggs and spermatozoa. Fertilization, that is,
+the union of egg and spermatozoon, or mainly of their nuclei, takes
+place; and the fertilized egg develops into a new organism. But the
+other cells, which have been all the time nourishing these, seem now
+to lack nutriment, strength, or vitality to give rise to a new
+colony. They die.
+
+We find thus in volvox division of labor and corresponding
+difference of structure or differentiation; certain cells retain the
+power of fusing with other corresponding cells, and thus of
+rejuvenescence and of giving rise to a new organism. And these
+cells, forming a series through all generations, are evidently
+immortal like the protozoa. Natural death cannot touch them. These
+are the reproductive cells. The other cells nourish and transport
+them and carry on the work of excretion and respiration. These
+latter correspond practically to our whole body. We call them
+somatic cells. In volvox they are entirely subservient to, and exist
+for, the reproductive cells, and die when they have completed their
+service of these. The body is here only a vehicle for ova.
+Furthermore, in volvox there has arisen such an interdependence of
+cells that we can no longer speak of it as a colony. The colony has
+become an individual by division of labor and the resulting
+differentiation in structure.
+
+But hydra gives us but a poor idea of the coelenterata, to which
+kingdom it belongs. The higher coelenterata have nearly or quite
+all the tissues of higher animals--muscular, connective, glandular,
+etc. And by tissues we mean groups of cells modified in form and
+structure for the performance of a special work or function. The
+protozoa developed the cell for all time to come, the coelenterata
+developed the tissues which still compose our bodies. But they had
+them mainly in a diffuse form. A sort of digestive and reproductive
+system they did possess. But the work of arranging these tissues and
+condensing them into compact organs was to be done by the next
+higher group, the worms.
+
+Let us now take a glance at certain stages of embryonic development
+which correspond to these earliest ancestral forms. We should expect
+some such correspondence from the fact already stated that the
+embryonic development of the individual is a brief recapitulation of
+the ancestral development of the species or larger group. The egg of
+the lowest vertebrate, amphioxus, shows these changes in a simple
+and apparently primitive form.
+
+  [Illustration: 3. IMMATURE EGG-SHELL FROM OVARY OF ECHINODERM.
+  HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG.]
+
+The fertilized egg of any animal consists of a single cell, a little
+mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus and surrounded by a
+structureless membrane. The egg is globular. The nucleus undergoes
+certain very peculiar, still but little understood, changes and
+divides into two. The protoplasm also soon divides into two masses
+clustering each around its own nucleus. The plane of division will
+be marked around the outside by a circular furrow, but the cells
+will still remain united by a large part of the membrane which
+bounds their adjacent, newly formed, internal faces.
+
+Let us suppose that the egg lay so that the first plane of division
+was vertical and extending north and south. Each cell or half of the
+egg will divide into two precisely as before. The new plane of
+division will be vertical, but extending east and west. Each plane
+passes through the centre of the egg, and the four cells are of the
+same form and size, like much-rounded quarters of an orange. The
+third plane will lie horizontal or equatorial, and will divide each
+of these quarters into an upper and lower octant. The cells keep on
+dividing rapidly, the eight form sixteen, then thirty-two, etc. The
+sharp angle by which the cells met at the centre has become rounded
+off, and has left a little space, the segmentation cavity, filled
+with fluid in the middle of the embryo. The cells continue to press
+or be crowded away from the centre and form a layer one cell deep on
+the surface of the sphere.
+
+This embryo, resembling a hollow rubber ball filled with fluid, is
+called a blastosphere. It corresponds in structure with the fully
+developed volvox, except, of course, in lacking reproductive cells.
+
+  [Illustration: 4. GASTRULA. HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG.
+  Outer layer is the ectoderm; inner layer, the entoderm; internal
+  cavity, the archenteron; mouth of cavity, blastopore.]
+
+If the rubber ball has a hole in it so that I can squeeze out the
+water, I can thrust the one-half into the other, and change the ball
+into a double-walled cup. A similar change takes place in the
+embryo. The cells of the lower half of the blastosphere are slightly
+larger than those of the upper half. This lower hemisphere flattens
+and then thrusts itself, or is invaginated, into the upper
+hemisphere of smaller cells and forms its lining. This cup-shaped
+embryo is called the gastrula. The cup deepens somewhat and becomes
+ovoid. Take a boiled egg, make a hole in the smaller end and remove
+the yolk, and you have a passable model of a gastrula. The shell
+corresponds to the ectoderm or outer layer of smaller cells; the
+layer of "white" represents the entoderm or lining of larger cells.
+The space occupied by the yolk corresponds to the archenteron or
+primitive digestive cavity; and the opening at the end to the
+primitive mouth or blastopore. Ectoderm and entoderm unite around
+the mouth. Both the blastosphere and gastrula often swim freely by
+flagella.
+
+You can hardly have failed to notice how closely the gastrula
+corresponds to a hydra, and many facts lead us to believe that the
+still earlier ancestor of the hydra was free swimming, and that the
+tentacles are a later development correlated with its adult sessile
+life. Yet we must not forget that the hydra is even now not quite
+sessile, it moves somewhat. And our ancestor was almost certainly a
+free swimming gastræa, or hypothetical form corresponding in form
+and structure to the gastrula. The ancestor of man never settled
+down lazily into a sessile life.
+
+But how is an adult worm or vertebrate formed out of such a
+gastrula? To answer this would require a course of lectures on
+embryology. But certain changes interest us. Between the ectoderm
+and entoderm of the gastrula, in the space occupied by the
+supporting membrane of hydra, a new layer of cells, the mesoderm,
+appears. This has been produced by the rapid growth and reproduction
+of certain cells of the entoderm which have migrated, so to speak,
+into this new position. In higher forms it becomes of continually
+greater importance, until finally nearly all the organs of the body
+develop from it. In our bodies only the lining of the mid-intestine
+and of its glands has arisen from the entoderm. And only the
+epidermis, or outer layer of our skin, and the nervous system and
+parts of our sense-organs have arisen from the ectoderm. But our
+mid-intestine is still the greatly elongated archenteron of the
+gastrula.
+
+We may therefore compare the hydra or gastrula to a little portion
+of the lining of the human mid-intestine covered with a little flake
+of epidermis. This much the hydra has attained. But our bones and
+muscles and blood-vessels all come from the mesoderm by folding,
+plaiting, and channelling, and division of labor resulting in
+differentiation of structure. Of all true mesodermal structures the
+hydra has actually none, but in the ectodermal and entodermal cells
+he has the potentiality of them all. We must now try to discover how
+these potentialities became actualities in higher forms.
+
+The third stage in our ancestral series is the turbellarian. This is
+a little, flat, oval worm, varying greatly in size in different
+species, and found both in fresh and salt water. Some would deny
+that this worm belonged in our series at all. But, while doubtless
+considerably modified, it has still retained many characteristics
+almost certainly possessed by our primitive bilateral ancestor. The
+different parts of hydra were arranged like those of most flowers,
+around one main vertical axis; it was thus radiate in structure,
+having neither front nor rear, right nor left side. But our little
+turbellaria, while still without a head, has one end which goes
+first and can be called the front end. The upper or dorsal surface
+is usually more colored with pigment cells than the lower or ventral
+surface, on which is the mouth. It has also a right and left side.
+It is thus bilateral.
+
+The gastræa swam by cilia, little eyelash-like processes which urge
+the animal forward like a myriad of microscopic oars. In our bodies
+they are sometimes used to keep up a current, _e.g._, to remove
+foreign particles from the lungs. The turbellaria is still covered
+with cilia, probably an inheritance from the gastræa; for, while in
+smaller forms they may still be the principal means of locomotion,
+in larger ones the muscles are beginning to assume this function and
+the animal moves by writhing. The bilateral symmetry has arisen in
+connection with this mode of locomotion and is thus a mark of
+important progress.
+
+In the turbellaria we find for the first time a true body-wall
+distinct from underlying organs. The outer layer of this is a
+ciliated epithelium or layer of cells. Under this an elastic
+membrane may occur. Then come true body muscles, running
+transversely, longitudinally and dorso-ventrally. Between the
+external transverse and the internal longitudinal layers we often
+find two muscular layers whose fibres run diagonally. The body is
+well provided with muscles, but their arrangement is still far from
+economical or effective.
+
+Within the body-wall is the parenchym. This is a spongy mass of
+connectile tissue in which the other organs are embedded. The mouth
+lies in the middle, or near the front of the ventral surface. The
+intestine varies in form, but is provided with its own layers of
+longitudinal and transverse muscles, and usually has paired pouches
+extending out from it into the body parenchym. These seem to
+distribute the dissolved nutriment; hence the whole cavity is still
+often called a gastro-vascular cavity as serving both digestion and
+circulation. There is no anal opening, but indigestible material is
+still cast out through the mouth.
+
+The animal can gain sufficient oxygen to supply its muscles and
+nerves, which are the principal seats of combustion, through the
+external surface. It has, therefore, no special respiratory organs.
+But the waste matter of the muscles cannot escape so easily, for
+these are becoming deeper seated. Hence we find an excretory system
+consisting of two tubes with many branches in the parenchym, and
+discharging at the rear end of the body. This again is a sign that
+the muscles are becoming more important, for the excretory system is
+needed mainly to remove their waste. These tubes maybe only greatly
+enlarged glands of the skin.
+
+  [Illustration: 5. TURBELLARIAN. LANG.
+  _va_ and _ha_, front and rear branches of gastro-vascular cavity;
+  _ph_, pharynx. The dark oval with fine branches represents the
+  nervous system.]
+
+The nervous system consists of a plexus of fibres and cells, the
+cells originating impulses and the fibres conveying them. But this
+much was present in hydra also. Here the front end of the body goes
+foremost and is continually coming in contact with new conditions.
+Here the lookout for food and danger must be kept. Hence, as a
+result of constant exercise, or selection, or both, the
+nerve-plexus has thickened at this point into a little compact mass
+of cells and fibres called a ganglion. And because this ganglion
+throughout higher forms usually lies over the oesophagus, it is
+called the supra-oesophogeal ganglion. This is the first faint and
+dim prophecy of a brain, and it sends its nerves to the front end of
+the body. But there run from it to the rear end of the body four to
+eight nerve-cords, consisting of bundles of nerve-threads like our
+nerves, but overlaid with a coating of ganglion cells capable of
+originating impulses. These cords are, therefore, like the plexus
+from which they have condensed, both nerves and centres;
+differentiation has not gone so far as at the front of the body.
+Sense organs are still very rudimentary. Special cells of the skin
+have been modified into neuro-epithelial cells, having sensory hairs
+protruding from them and nerve-fibrils running from their bases.
+
+  [Illustration: 6. CROSS-SECTION OF TURBELLARIAN. HATSCHEK, FROM
+  JIJIMA.
+  _e_, external skin; _rm_, lateral muscles; _la_ and _li_,
+  longitudinal muscles; _mdv_, dorso-ventral muscles; _pa_,
+  parenchyma; _h_, testicle; _ov_, oviduct; _dt_, yolk-gland; _n_,
+  ventral nerve; _i_, gastro-vascular cavity.]
+
+In a very few turbellaria we find otolith vesicles. These are
+little sacks in the skin, lined with neuro-epithelial cells and
+having in the middle a little concretion of carbonate of lime hung
+on rather a stiffer hair, like a clapper in a bell. Such organs
+serve in higher animals as organs of hearing, for the sensory hairs
+are set in vibration by the sound-waves. It is quite as probable
+that they here serve as organs for feeling the slightest vibrations
+in the surrounding water, and thus giving warning of approaching
+food or danger. The animal has also eyes, and these may be very
+numerous. They are not able to form images of external objects, but
+only of perceiving light and the direction of its source. A little
+group of these eyes lies directly over the brain, near the front end
+of the body; the others are distributed around the front or nearly
+the whole margin of the body.
+
+The turbellaria, doubtless, have the sense of smell, although we can
+discover no special olfactory organ. This sense would seem to be as
+old as protoplasm itself.
+
+This distribution of the eyes around a large portion of the margin,
+and certain other characteristics of the adult structure and of the
+embryonic development, are very interesting, as giving hints of the
+development of the turbellaria from some radiate ancestor. The mouth
+is in a most unfavorable position, in or near the middle of the
+body, rarely at the front end, as the animal has to swim over its
+food before it can grasp it. The animal only slowly rids itself of
+old disadvantageous form and structure and adapts itself completely
+to a higher mode of life.
+
+By far the most highly developed system in the body is the
+reproductive. It is doubtful whether any animal, except, perhaps,
+the mollusk, has as complicated and highly developed reproductive
+organs. By markedly higher forms they certainly grow simpler.
+
+And here we must notice certain general considerations. We found
+that reproduction in the amoeba could be defined as growth beyond
+the limit normal to the individual. This form of growth benefits
+especially the species. The needs and expenses of the individual
+will therefore first be met and then the balance be devoted to
+reproduction. Now the income of the animal is proportional to its
+surface, its expense to its mass, and activity. And the ratio of
+surface to mass is most favorable in the smallest animals.[A] Hence,
+smaller animals, as a rule, increase faster than larger ones; and
+this is only one illustration of the fact that great size in an
+animal is anything but an unmixed advantage to its possessor. But
+muscles and nerves are the most expensive systems; here most of the
+food is burned up. Hence energetic animals have a small balance
+remaining. Now the turbellarian is small and sluggish, with a fair
+digestive system. With a great amount of nutriment at its disposal
+the reproductive system came rapidly to a high development, and
+relatively to other organs stands higher than it almost ever will
+again.
+
+  [Footnote A: Cf. p. 35.]
+
+It is only fair to state that good authorities hold that so
+primitive an animal could not originally have had so highly
+developed a system, and that this characteristic must be acquired,
+not ancestral.
+
+That certain portions of it may be later developments may be not
+only possible but probable. But anyone who has carefully studied the
+different groups of worms, will, I think, readily grant that in the
+stage of these flat worms reproduction was the dominant function,
+which had most nearly attained its possible height of development.
+From this time on the muscular and nervous systems were to claim an
+ever-increasing share of the nutriment, and the balance for
+reproduction is to grow smaller.
+
+At the close of this lecture I wish to describe very briefly a
+hypothetical form. It no longer exists; perhaps it never did. But
+many facts of embryology and comparative anatomy point to such a
+form as a very possible ancestor of all forms higher than flat
+worms, viz., mollusks, arthropods, and vertebrates.
+
+It was probably rather long and cylindrical, resembling a small
+and short earthworm in shape. The skin may have been much like
+that of turbellaria. Within this the muscles run in only
+two-directions--longitudinally and transversely. Between these and
+the intestine is a cavity--the perivisceral cavity--like that of our
+own bodies, but filled with a nutritive fluid like our lymph. This
+cavity seems to have developed by the expansion and cutting off of
+the paired lateral outgrowths of the digestive system of some old
+flat worm. But other modes of development are quite possible. The
+intestine has now an anal opening at or near the rear end of the
+body. The food moves only from front to rear, and reaches each part
+always in a certain condition. Digestion proper and absorption have
+been distributed to different cells, and the work is better done.
+Three portions can be readily distinguished: fore-intestine with the
+mouth, mid-intestine, as the seat of digestion and absorption, and
+hind-intestine, or rectum, with the anal opening. The front and
+hind-intestine are lined with infolded outer skin.
+
+The nervous system consists of a supra-oesophageal ganglion with
+four posterior nerve-cords--one dorsal, two lateral, and one (or
+perhaps two) ventral. There were probably also remains of the old
+plexus, but this is fast disappearing. The excretory system consists
+of a pair of tubes discharging through the sides of the body-wall,
+and having each a ciliated, funnel-shaped opening in the
+perivisceral cavity. These have received the name of nephridia.
+Through these also the eggs and spermatozoa are discharged. The
+reproductive organs are modified patches of the peritoneum, or
+lining of the perivisceral cavity.
+
+The number of muscles or muscular layers has been reduced in this
+animal. But such a reduction in the number of like parts in any
+animal is a sign of progress. And the longitudinal muscles have
+increased in size and strength, and the animal moves by writhing.
+Such a worm has the general plan of the body of the higher forms
+fairly well, though rudely, sketched. Many improvements will come,
+and details be added. But the rudiments of the trunk of even our own
+bodies are already visible. Head, in any proper sense of the term,
+and skeleton are still lacking; they remain to be developed.
+
+And yet, taking the most hopeful view possible concerning the animal
+kingdom, its prospects of attaining anything very lofty seem at this
+point poor. Its highest representative is a headless trunk, without
+skeleton or legs. It has no brain in any proper sense of the word,
+its sense-organs are feeble; it moves by writhing. Its life is
+devoted to digestion and reproduction. Whatever higher organs it has
+are subsidiary to these lower functions. And yet it has taken ages
+on ages to develop this much. If _this_ is the highest visible
+result of ages on ages of development, what hope is there for the
+future? Can such a thing be the ancestor of a thinking, moral,
+religious person, like man? "That is not first which is spiritual,
+but that which is natural (animal, sensuous); and afterward that
+which is spiritual." First, in order of time, must come the body,
+and then the mind and spirit shall be enthroned in it. The little
+knot of nervous material which forms the supra-oesophageal
+ganglion is so small that it might easily escape our notice; but it
+is the promise of an infinite future. The atom of nervous power
+shall increase until it subdues and dominates the whole mass.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+WORMS TO VERTEBRATES: SKELETON AND HEAD
+
+
+In tracing the genealogy of any American family it is often
+difficult or impossible to say whether a certain branch is descended
+from John Oldworthy or his cousin or second cousin. In the latter
+cases to find the common ancestor we must go back to the grandfather
+or great-grandfather. The same difficulty, but greatly enhanced,
+meets us when we try to make a genealogical tree of the animal
+kingdom. Thus it seems altogether probable that all higher forms are
+descended from an ancestor of the same general structure and grade
+of organization as the turbellaria, although probably free swimming,
+and hence with somewhat different form and development, especially
+of the muscular system. It seems to me altogether probable that all,
+except possibly Mollusca, are descended from a common ancestor
+closely resembling the schematic worm last described. Some would,
+however, maintain that they diverged rather earlier than even the
+turbellaria; others after the schematic worm, if such ever existed.
+As far as our argument is concerned it makes little difference which
+of these views we adopt.
+
+From our turbellaria, or possibly from some even more primitive
+ancestor, many lines diverged. And this was to be expected. The
+coelenterata, as we saw in hydra, had developed rude digestive and
+reproductive systems. The higher groups of this kingdom had
+developed all, or nearly all, the tissues used in building the
+bodies of higher animals--muscular, reproductive, connectile,
+glandular, nervous, etc. But these are mostly very diffuse. The
+muscular fibrils of a jelly-fish are mostly isolated or parallel in
+bands, rarely in compact well-defined bundles. The tissues have
+generally not yet been moulded into compact masses of definite form.
+There are as yet very few structures to which we can give the name
+of organs. To form organs and group them in a body of compact
+definite form was the work pre-eminently of worms. The material for
+the building was ready, but the architecture of the bilateral animal
+was not even sketched. And different worms were their own
+architects, untrammelled by convention or heredity, hence they built
+very different, sometimes almost fantastic, structures.
+
+We must remember, too, the great age of this group. They are present
+in highly modified forms in the very oldest palæozoic strata, and
+probably therefore came into existence as the first traces of
+continental areas were beginning to rise above the primeval ocean.
+They are literally "older than the hills." They were exposed to a
+host of rapidly changing conditions, very different in different
+areas. This prepares us for the fact that the worms represent a
+stage in animal life corresponding fairly well to the Tower of Babel
+in biblical history. The animal kingdom seems almost to explode into
+a host of fragments. Our genealogical tree fairly bristles with
+branches, but the branches do not seem to form any regular whorls or
+spirals. Few of them have developed into more than feeble growths.
+They now contain generally but few species. Many of them are
+largely or entirely parasitic, and in connection with this mode of
+life have undergone modifications and degeneration which make it
+exceedingly difficult to decipher their descent or relationships.
+
+Four of these branches have reached great prominence in numbers and
+importance. One or two others were formerly equally numerous and
+have since become almost extinct; so the brachiopoda, which have
+been almost entirely replaced by mollusks. The same may very
+possibly be true of others. For of the amount of extinction of
+larger groups we have generally but an exceedingly faint conception.
+Indeed in this respect the worms have been well compared to the
+relics which fill the shelves of one of our grandmother's
+china-closets.
+
+The four great branches are the echinoderms, mollusks, articulates,
+and vertebrates. The echinoderms, including starfishes, sea-urchins,
+and others straggled early from the great army. We know as yet
+almost nothing of their history; when deciphered it will be as
+strange as any romance. The vertebrates are of course the most
+important line, as including the ancestors of man. But we must take
+a little glance at mollusks, including our clams, snails, and
+cuttle-fishes; and at the articulates, including annelids and
+culminating in insects. The molluscan and articulate lines, though
+divergent, are of great importance to us as throwing a certain
+amount of light on vertebrate development; and still more as showing
+how a certain line of development may seem, and at first really be,
+advantageous, and still lead to degeneration, or at best to but
+partial success.
+
+When we compare the forms which represent fairly well the direction
+of development of these three lines, a snail or a clam with an
+insect and a fish, we find clearly, I think, that the fundamental
+anatomical difference lies in the skeleton; and that this resulted
+from, and almost irrevocably fixed, certain habits of life.
+
+We may picture to ourselves the primitive ancestor of mollusks as a
+worm having the short and broad form of the turbellaria, but much
+thicker or deeper vertically. A fuller description can be found in
+the "Encyclopædia Britannica," Art., Mollusca. It was hemi-ovoid in
+form. It had apparently the perivisceral cavity and nephridia of the
+schematic worm, and a circulatory system. In this latter respect it
+stood higher than any form which we have yet studied. Its nervous
+system also was rather more advanced. It had apparently already
+taken to a creeping mode of life and the muscles of its ventral
+surface were strongly developed, while its exposed and far less
+muscular dorsal surface was protected by a cap-like shell covering
+the most important internal organs. But the integument of the whole
+dorsal surface was, as is not uncommon in invertebrates, hardening
+by the deposition of carbonate of lime in the integument. And this
+in time increased to such an extent as to replace the primitive,
+probably horny, shell.
+
+Into the anatomy of this animal or of its descendants we have no
+time to enter, for here we must be very brief. We have already
+noticed that the most important viscera were lodged safely under the
+shell. And as these increased in size or were crowded upward by the
+muscles of the creeping disk, their portion of the body grew upward
+in the form of a "visceral hump." Apparently the animal could not
+increase much in length and retain the advantage of the protection
+of the shell; and the shell was the dominating structure. It had
+entered upon a defensive campaign. Motion, slow at the outset,
+became more difficult, and the protection of the shell therefore all
+the more necessary. The shell increased in size and weight and
+motion became almost impossible. The snail represents the average
+result of the experiment. It can crawl, but that is about all; it is
+neither swift nor energetic. Even the earthworm can outcrawl it. It
+has feelers and eyes, and is thus better provided with sense-organs
+than almost any worm. It has a supra-oesophageal ganglion of fair
+size.
+
+The clams and oysters show even more clearly what we might call the
+logical results of molluscan structure. They increased the shell
+until it formed two heavy "valves" hanging down on each side of the
+body and completely enclosing it. They became almost sessile, living
+generally buried in the mud and gaining their food, consisting
+mostly of minute particles of organic matter, by means of currents
+created by cilia covering the large curtain-like gills. Their
+muscular system disappeared except in the ploughshare-shaped "foot"
+used mostly for burrowing, and in the muscles for closing the shell.
+That portion of the body which corresponds to the head of the snail
+practically aborted with nearly all the sense-organs. The nervous
+system degenerated and became reduced to a rudiment. They had given
+up locomotion, had withdrawn, so to speak, from the world; all the
+sense they needed was just enough to distinguish the particles of
+food as they swept past the mouth in the current of water. They have
+an abundance of food, and "wax fat." The clam is so completely
+protected by his shell and the mud that he has little to fear from
+enemies. They have increased and multiplied and filled the mud.
+"Requiescat in pace."
+
+But zoölogy has its tragedies as well as human history. Let us turn
+to the development of a third molluscan line terminating in the
+cuttle-fishes. The ancestors of these cephalopods, although still
+possessed of a shell and a high visceral hump, regained the swimming
+life. First, apparently, by means of fins, and then by a simple but
+very effective use of a current of water, they acquired an often
+rapid locomotion. The highest forms gave up the purely defensive
+campaign, developed a powerful beak, led a life like that of the old
+Norse pirates, and were for a time the rulers and terrors of the
+sea. With their more rapid locomotion the supra-oesophageal
+ganglion reached a higher degree of development, and it was served
+by sense-organs of great efficiency. They reduced the external
+shell, and succeeded, in the highest forms, of almost ridding
+themselves of this burden and encumbrance. Traces of it remain in
+the squids, but transformed into an internal quill-like, supporting,
+not defensive, skeleton. They have retraced the downward steps of
+their ancestors as far as they could. And the high development of
+their supra-oesophageal ganglion and sense-organs, and their
+powerful jaws and arms, or tentacles, show to what good purpose they
+have struggled. But the struggle was in vain, as far as the
+supremacy of the animal kingdom was concerned. Their ancestors had
+taken a course which rendered it impossible for their descendants to
+reach the goal. Their progress became ever slower. They were
+entirely and hopelessly beaten by the vertebrates. They struggled
+hard, but too late.
+
+The history of mollusks is full of interest. They show clearly how
+intimately nervous development is connected with the use of the
+locomotive organs. The snail crept, and slightly increased its
+nervous system and sense-organs. The clam almost lost them in
+connection with its stationary life. The cephalopods were
+exceedingly active, developed, therefore, keen sense-organs and a
+very large and complicated supra-oesophagal ganglion, which we
+might almost call a brain.
+
+The articulate series consists of two groups of animals. The higher
+group includes the crabs, spiders, thousand-legs, and finally the
+insects, and forms the kingdom of arthropoda. The lower members are
+still usually reckoned as worms, and are included under the
+annelids. Of these our common earthworm is a good example, and near
+them belong the leeches. But the marine annelids, of which nereis,
+or a clam-worm, is a good example, are more typical. They are often
+quite large, a foot or even more in length. They are composed of
+many, often several hundred, rings or segments. Between these the
+body-wall is thin, so that the segments move easily upon each other,
+and thus the animal can creep or writhe.
+
+These segments are very much alike except the first two and the
+last. If we examine one from the middle of the body we shall find
+its structure very much like that of our schematic worm. Outside we
+find a very thin, horny cuticle, secreted by the layer of cells just
+beneath it, the hypodermis. Beneath the skin we find a thin layer of
+transverse muscles, and then four heavy bands of longitudinal
+muscles. These latter have been grouped in the four quadrants, a
+much more effective arrangement than the cylindrical layer of the
+schematic worm. Furthermore, the animal has on each segment a pair
+of fin-like projections, stiffened with bristles, the parapodia.
+These are moved by special muscles and form effective organs of
+creeping.
+
+  [Illustration: 7. EUNICE LIMOSA (ANNELID). LANG, FROM EHLERS.
+  Front and hind end seen from dorsal surface.
+  _fa, fp, fc_, feelers; _a_, eye; _k_, gill;
+  _p_, parapodia; _ac_, anal cirri.]
+
+Within the muscles is the perivisceral cavity, and in its central
+axis the intestine, segmented like the body-wall. The reproductive
+organs are formed from patches of the lining of the perivisceral
+cavity, and the reproductive elements, when fully developed, fall
+into the perivisceral fluid and are carried out by nephridia, just
+such as we found in the schematic worm. Beside the perivisceral
+cavity and its fluid there is a special circulatory system. This
+consists mainly of one long tube above the intestine and a second
+below, with often several smaller parallel tubes. Transverse
+vessels run from these to all parts of the body. The dorsal tube
+pulsates and thus acts as a heart. The surface of the body no longer
+suffices to gather oxygen, hence we find special feathery gills on
+the parapodia. But these gills are merely expanded portions of the
+body wall, arranged so as to offer the greatest possible amount of
+surface where the capillaries of the blood system can be almost
+immediately in contact with the surrounding water.
+
+  [Illustration: 8. CROSS-SECTION OF BODY SEGMENT OF ANNELID. LANG.
+  _dp_ and _vp_, dorsal and ventral halves of parapodia; _b_ and _ac_,
+  bristles; _k_, gill; _dc_ and _vc_, feelers; _rm_, lateral muscles;
+  _lm_, longitudinal muscles; _vd_, dorsal blood-vessel; _vo_, ventral
+  blood-vessel; _bm_, ventral ganglion; _ov_, ovary; _tr_, opening of
+  nephridium in the perivisceral cavity; _np_, tubular portion of
+  nephridium. The circles containing dots represent eggs floating in
+  the perivisceral fluid.]
+
+The nervous system consists of a large supra-oesophageal ganglion
+in the first segment; then of a chain of ganglia, one to each
+segment, on the ventral side of the body. With one ganglion in each
+segment there is far more controlling, perceptive, ganglionic
+material than in lower worms. Furthermore the supra-oesophageal
+ganglion is relieved of a large part of the direct control of the
+muscles of each segment, and is becoming more a centre of control
+and perception for the body as a whole. It is more like our brain,
+commander-in-chief, the other ganglia constituting its staff. The
+sense-organs have improved greatly. There are tentacles and otolith
+vesicles as very delicate organs of feeling, or possibly of hearing
+also.
+
+But the annelids were probably the first animals to develop an eye
+capable of forming an image of external objects. The importance of
+this organ in the pursuit of food or the escape from enemies can
+scarcely be over-estimated. The lining of the mouth and pharynx can
+be protruded as a proboscis, and drawn back by powerful muscles, and
+is armed with two or more horny claws. Eyes and claws gave them a
+great advantage over their not quite blind but really visionless and
+comparatively defenceless neighbors, and they must have wrought
+terrible extinction of lower and older forms. But while we cannot
+over-estimate the importance of these eyes, we can easily exaggerate
+their perfectness. They were of short range, fitted for seeing
+objects only a few inches distant, and the image was very imperfect
+in detail. But the plan or fundamental scheme of these eyes is
+correct and capable of indefinitely greater development than the
+organs of touch or smell, perhaps greater even than the otolith
+vesicle.
+
+And the reflex influence of the eye on the brain was the greatest
+advantage of all. Hitherto with feeble muscles and sense-organs it
+has hardly paid the animal to devote more material to building a
+larger brain. It was better to build more muscle. But now with
+stronger muscles at its command, and better sense-organs to report
+to it, every grain of added brain material is beginning to be worth
+ten devoted to muscle. The muscular system will still continue to
+develop, but the brain has begun an almost endless march of
+progress. The eye becomes of continually increasing advantage and
+importance because it has a capable brain to use it; and brain is a
+more and more profitable investment, because it is served by an
+ever-improving eye.
+
+  [Illustration: 9. MYRMELEO FORMICARIUS. ANT-LION. HERTWIG, FROM
+  SCHMARDA.
+  1, adult; 2, larva; 3, cocoon.]
+
+The annelid had hit upon a most advantageous line of development,
+which led ultimately to the insect. The study of the insect will
+show us clearly the advantages and defects of the annelid plan.
+First of all, the insect, like the mollusk, has an external
+skeleton. But the skeleton of the mollusk was purely protective, a
+hindrance to locomotion. That of the insect is still somewhat
+protective, but is mainly, almost purely, locomotive. It is never
+allowed to become so heavy as to interfere with locomotion. In the
+second place, the insect has three body regions, having each its own
+special functions or work. And one of these is a head. The annelid
+had two anterior segments differing from those of the rest of the
+body; these may, perhaps, be considered as the foreshadowings of a
+structure not yet realized; they can only by courtesy be called a
+head. Thirdly, the insect has legs. The annelid had fin-like
+parapodia, approaching the legs of insects about as closely as the
+fins of a fish approach the legs of a mammal. The reproductive and
+digestive systems, while somewhat improved, are not very markedly
+higher than those of annelids. The excretory system has more work to
+perform and reaches a rather higher development.
+
+But in these organs there is no great or striking change; the time
+for marked and rapid development of the digestive and reproductive
+systems has gone by. Material can be more profitably invested in
+brain or muscle. Air is carried to all parts of the body by a
+special system of air-sacks and tubes. This is a very advantageous
+structure for small animals with an external skeleton. In very large
+animals, or where the skeleton is internal, it would hardly be
+practicable; the risk of compression of the tubes at some point, and
+of thus cutting off the air-supply of some portion of the body,
+would be altogether too great.
+
+The circulatory system is very poor. It consists practically only of
+a heart, which drives the blood in an irregular circulation between
+the other organs of the body much as with a syringe you might keep
+up a system of currents in a bowl of water. But the rapidity of the
+flow of the blood in our bodies is mainly to furnish a supply of
+oxygen to the organs. A tea-spoonful of blood can carry a fair
+amount of dissolved solid nutriment like sugar, it can carry at each
+round but a very little gas like oxygen. Hence the blood must make
+its rounds rapidly, carrying but a little oxygen at each circuit.
+But in the insect the blood conveys only the dissolved solid
+nutriment, the food; hence a comparatively irregular circulation
+answers all purposes.
+
+The skeleton is a thickening of the horny cuticle of the annelid on
+the surface of each segment. The horny cylinder surrounding each
+segment is composed of several pieces, and on the abdomen these are
+united by flexible, infolded membranes. This allows the increase in
+the size of the segment corresponding to the varying size of the
+digestive and reproductive systems. In this part of the body the
+skeletal ring of each segment is joined to that of the segments
+before and behind it in the same manner. But in other parts of the
+body we shall find the skeletal pieces of each segment and the rings
+of successive segments fused in one plate of mail. The legs are the
+parapodia of annelids carried to a vastly higher development. They
+are slender and jointed, and yet often very powerful. A large
+portion of the muscular system of the body is attached to these
+appendages.
+
+But the insect has also jaws. The annelid had teeth or claws
+attached to the proboscis. But true jaws are something quite
+different. They always develop by modifying some other organ. In the
+insect they are modified legs. This is shown first by their
+embryonic development. But the king- or horseshoe-crab has still no
+true jaws, but uses the upper joints of its legs for chewing. There
+are primitively three pairs of jaws of various forms for the
+different kinds of food of different species or higher groups. But
+some of them may disappear and the others be greatly modified into
+awls for piercing, or a tube for sucking honey. Into the wonderful
+transformations of these modified legs we cannot enter.
+
+The muscles are no longer arranged to form a sack as in annelids.
+Transverse muscles, running parallel to the unyielding plates of
+chitin or horn could accomplish nothing. They have largely
+disappeared. The work of locomotion has been transferred from the
+trunk to the legs.
+
+The abdomen of the insect is as clearly composed of distinct
+segments as the body of the annelid. Of these there are perhaps
+typically eleven. The thorax is composed of three segments, distinct
+in the lowest forms, fused in the highest. This fusion of segments
+in the thorax of the highest forms furnishes a very firm framework
+for the attachment of wings and muscles. These wings are a new
+development, and how they arose is still a question. But they give
+the insect the capability of exceedingly rapid locomotion.
+
+The three pairs of jaws, modified legs, in the rear half of the head
+show that this portion is composed of three segments. For only one
+pair of legs is ever developed on a single segment. Embryology has
+shown that the portion of the head in front of the mouth is also
+composed of three segments. Possibly between the præ- and post-oral
+portions still another segment should be included, making a total of
+seven in the head. The head has thus been formed by drawing forward
+segments from the trunk, and fusing them successively with the first
+or primitive head segment. This is difficult to conceive of in the
+fully developed insect, where the boundary between head and thorax
+is very sharp. But the ancestors of insects looked more like
+thousand-legs or centipedes, and here head and thorax are much less
+distinct. But in the annelid the mouth is on the second segment;
+here it is on the fourth. It has evidently travelled backward. That
+the mouth of an animal can migrate seems at first impossible, but if
+we had time to examine the embryology of annelids and insects, it
+would no longer appear inconceivable or improbable. And its backward
+migration brought it among the legs which were grasping and chewing
+the food. And in vertebrates the mouth has changed its position,
+though not in exactly the same way. Our present mouth is probably
+not at all the mouth of the primitive ancestor of vertebrates. Thus
+in the insect three segments have fused around the mouth, and three,
+possibly four, in front of it. This makes a head worthy of the name.
+The ganglia of the three post-oral segments, which bear the jaws,
+have fused in one compound ganglion innervating the mouth and jaws.
+Those of the three præ-oral segments have fused to form a brain.
+Eyes are well developed, giving images sometimes accurate in detail,
+sometimes very rude. Ears are not uncommon. The sense of smell is
+often keen.
+
+Perhaps the greatest advance of the insect is its adaptation to land
+life. This gives it a larger supply of oxygen than any aquatic
+animal could ever obtain. This itself stimulates every function, and
+all the work of the body goes on more energetically. Then the heat
+produced is conducted off far less rapidly than in aquatic forms.
+Water is a good conductor of heat, and nearly all aquatic animals
+are cold-blooded. The few which are warm-blooded are protected by a
+thick layer of non-conducting fat. In all land animals, even when
+cold-blooded, the work of the different systems is aided by the
+longer retention of the heat in the body.
+
+Let us recapitulate. The schematic worm had a body composed of two
+concentric tubes. The outer was composed of the muscles of the body
+covered by the protective integument. The inner tube was the
+alimentary canal with its special muscles. Between these two was the
+perivisceral cavity, filled with nutritive fluid, lymph, and
+furnishing a safe lodging-place for the more delicate viscera. It
+represented fairly the trunk of higher animals.
+
+The annelid added segmentation, and thus greater freedom of motion
+by the parapodia. But the segments were still practically alike. In
+the insect division of labor took place, that is, each group of
+segments was allotted its own special work; and these groups of
+segments were modified in structure to best suit the performance of
+this part of the work of the body. The abdomen was least modified
+and its eleven segments were devoted to digestion, reproduction, and
+excretion--the old vegetative functions. Three segments were united
+in the thorax; all their energy was turned to locomotion, and the
+insect became thus an exceedingly active, swift animal. The third
+body-region, the head, includes six segments, of which three
+surrounded the mouth and furnished the jaws, while two more were
+crowded or drawn forward in order that their ganglia might be added
+to the old supraoesophageal ganglion and form a brain. It is
+interesting to note that a form, peripatus, still exists which
+stands almost midway between annelids and insects and has only four
+segments in the head. The formation of the head was thus a gradual
+process, one segment being added after another.
+
+In the turbellaria the dominant functions were digestion and
+reproduction, and their organs composed almost the whole body. Here
+only eleven segments at most are devoted to these functions, and
+nine in head and thorax to locomotion and brain. Head and thorax
+have increased steadily in importance, while the abdomen has
+decreased as steadily in number of segments. And the brain is
+increasing thus rapidly because there are now muscles and
+sense-organs of sufficient power to make such a brain of value. And
+this brain perceives not only objects and qualities, but invisible
+relations between these, and this is an advance amounting to a
+revolution. It remembers, and uses its recollections. It is capable
+of learning a little by experience and observation. The A, B, C of
+thinking was probably learned long before the insect's time, and the
+bee shows a fair amount of intelligence.
+
+The line of development which the insect followed was comparatively
+easy and its course probably rapid. Certain crustacea, aquatic
+arthropoda, are among the oldest fossils, and it is possible that
+insects lived on the land before the first fish swam in the sea.
+They had fine structure and powers; and yet during the later
+geologic periods they have scarcely advanced a step, and are now
+apparently at a standstill. They ran splendidly for a time, and then
+fell out of the race. What hindered and stopped them?
+
+One vital defect in their whole plan of organization is evident. The
+external skeleton is admirably suited to animals of small size, but
+only to these. In larger animals living on land it would have to be
+made so heavy as to be unwieldy and no longer economical. Their mode
+of breathing also is fitted only for animals of small size having
+an external skeleton. Whatever may be our explanation the fact
+remains that insects are always small. This is in itself a
+disadvantage. Very small animals cannot keep up a constant high
+temperature unless the surrounding air is warm, for their radiating
+surface is too large in comparison with their heat-producing mass.
+At the first approach of even cool weather they become chilled and
+sluggish, and must hibernate or die. They are conformed to but a
+limited range of environment in temperature.
+
+But small size is, as a rule, accompanied by an even greater
+disadvantage. It seems to be almost always correlated with short
+life. Why this is so, or how, we do not know. There are exceptions;
+a crow lives as long as a man; or would, if allowed to. But, as a
+rule, the length of an animal's days is roughly proportional to the
+size of its body. And the insect is, as a rule, very short-lived. It
+lives for a few days or weeks, or even months, but rarely outlasts
+the year. It has time to learn but little by experience. The same
+experience must be passed, the same emergency arise and be met, over
+and over again during the lifetime of the same individual if the
+animal is to learn thereby. And intelligence is based upon
+experience. Hence insects can and do possess but a low grade of
+intelligence. But instinct is in many cases habit fixed by heredity
+and improved by selection. The rapid recurrence of successive
+generations was exceedingly favorable to the development of
+instincts, but very unfavorable to intelligence. Insects are
+instinctive, the highest vertebrates intelligent. The future can
+never belong to a tiny animal governed by instincts. Mollusks and
+insects have both failed to reach the goal; another plan of
+structure than theirs must be sought if the animal kingdom is to
+have a future.
+
+The future belonged to the vertebrate. To begin with less
+characteristic organs the digestive system is much like that of the
+annelid or schematic worm, but with greatly increased glandular and
+absorptive surfaces. The present mouth of nearly all vertebrates is
+probably not primitive. It is almost certainly one of the gill-slits
+of some old ancestor of fish, such as now are used to discharge the
+water which is used for respiration. The jaws are modified branchial
+arches or the cartilaginous or bony rods which in our present fish
+support the fringe of gills. These have formed a pair of exceedingly
+effective and powerful jaws. The reproductive system holds still to
+the old type and shows little if any improvement. The excretory
+organs, kidneys, are composed primitively of nephridial tubes like
+those of the schematic worm or annelid, but immensely increased in
+number, modified, and improved in certain very important
+particulars. The muscles in simplest forms are composed of heavy
+longitudinal bands, especially developed toward the dorsal surface
+of the body to the right and left of the axial skeleton. Locomotion
+was produced by lashing the tail right and left, as still in fish.
+There is improvement in all these organs, except perhaps the
+reproductive, but nothing very new or striking. The great
+improvement from this time on was not to be sought in the vegetative
+organs, or even directly to any great extent in muscles.
+
+The new and characteristic organ was not the vertebral column, or
+series of vertebræ, or backbone, from which the kingdom has derived
+its name. This was a later production. The primitive skeleton was
+the notochord, still appearing in the embryos of all vertebrates and
+persisting throughout life in fish. This is an elastic rod of
+cartilage, lying just beneath the spinal marrow or nerve-cord, which
+runs backward from the brain. The nerve-centres are therefore here
+all dorsal, and the notochord or skeleton lies between these and the
+digestive or alimentary canal. The skeleton of the clam or snail is
+purely protective and a hindrance to locomotion. That of the insect
+is almost purely locomotive, but external, that of the vertebrate
+purely locomotive and internal. It does not lie outside even of the
+nervous system, although this system especially required, and was
+worthy of, protection. It does not protect even the brain; the skull
+of vertebrates is an after-thought. It is almost the deepest seated
+of all organs. But lying in the central axis of the body it
+furnishes the very best possible attachment for muscles. Around this
+primitive notochord was a layer of connectile tissue which later
+gave rise to the vertebræ forming our backbone.
+
+  [Illustration: 10. CROSS-SECTION OF AXIAL SKELETON OF PETROMYZON.
+  HERTWIG, FROM HIEDERSHEIM.
+  _SS_, skeletogenous layer; _Ob_, _Ub_, dorsal and ventral processes
+  of _SS_; _C_, notochord; _Cs_, sheath of notochord; _Ee_, elastic
+  external layer of sheath; _F_, fatty tissue; _M_, spinal marrow;
+  _P_, sheath of _M_.]
+
+The nervous system on the dorsal surface of the notochord consists
+of the brain in the head and the spinal marrow running down the
+back. The brain of all except the very lowest vertebrates consists
+of four portions: 1. The cerebrum, or cerebral lobes, or simply
+"forebrain," the seat of consciousness, thought, and will, and from
+which no nerves proceed. Whether the primitive vertebrate had any
+cerebrum is still uncertain. 2. The mid-brain, which sends nerves to
+the eyes, and in this respect reminds us of the brain of insects.
+Its anterior portion appears from embryology to be very primitive.
+3. The small brain, or cerebellum, which in all higher forms is the
+centre for co-ordination of the motions of the body. 4. The medulla,
+which controls especially the internal organs. The spinal marrow, or
+that portion of the nervous system which lies outside of the head,
+is at the same time a great nerve-trunk and a centre for reflex
+action of the muscles of the body. But the development of these
+distinct portions and the division of labor between them must have
+been a long and gradual process.
+
+We have every reason to believe that here, as in insects, the head
+has been formed by annexation of segments from the rump and the
+fusion of their nervous matter with that of the brain. But here,
+instead of only three segments, from nine to fourteen have been
+fused in the head to furnish the material for the brain. Notochord
+and backbone may be the most striking and apparent characteristic of
+vertebrates, but their predominant characteristic is brain. On this
+system they lavished material, giving it from three to four times as
+much as any lower or earlier group had done. They very early set
+apart the cerebral lobes to be the commander-in-chief and centre of
+control for all other nerve-centres. To this all report, and from it
+all directly or indirectly receive orders. It can say to every
+other organ in the body, "Starve that I may live." It is the seat of
+thought and will. The other portions of the brain report to it what
+they have gathered of vision or sound; it explains the vision or
+song or parable. It is relieved as far as possible from all lower
+and routine work that it may think and remember and govern. The
+vertebrate built for mind, not neglecting the body.
+
+Every trait of vertebrates is a promise of a great future. Its
+internal skeleton gives it the possibility of large size. This gave
+it in time the victory in the struggle with its competitors, as to
+whether it should eat or be eaten. It is vigorous and powerful, for
+all its organs are at the best. It gives the possibility of later,
+on land, becoming warm-blooded, _i.e._, of maintaining a constant
+high temperature. It is thus resistant to climate and hardship. In
+time its descendants will face the arctic winter as well as the heat
+of the tropics.
+
+But it has started on the road which leads to mind. The greater size
+is correlated with longer life. The lessons of experience come to it
+over and over again, and it can and must learn them. It is the
+intelligent, remembering, thinking type. The insect had begun to
+peer into the world of invisible and intangible relations, the
+vertebrate will some day see them. This much is prophecied in his
+very structure. He must be heir to an indefinite future.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+You have probably noticed that the vertebrate differs greatly from
+all his predecessors. The gulf between him and them is indeed wide
+and deep. His origin and ancestry are yet far from certain. But an
+attempt to decipher his past history, though it may lead to no sure
+conclusions, will yet be of use to us. Practically all aquatic
+vertebrates lead a swimming life, neither sessile nor creeping. The
+embryonic development of our appendages leads to the same
+conclusion. We must never forget that the embryonic development of
+the individual recapitulates briefly the history of the development
+of the race. Now the legs and arms, or fore- and hind-legs, of
+higher vertebrates and the corresponding paired fins of fish develop
+in the embryo as portions of a long ridge extending from front to
+rear of the side of the body.
+
+This justifies the inference that the primitive vertebrate ancestor
+had a pair of long fins running along the sides of the body, but
+bending slightly downward toward the rear so as to meet one another
+and continue as a single caudal fin behind the anal opening. Such
+fins, like the feathers of an arrow, could be useful only to keep
+the animal "on an even keel" as it was forced through the water by
+the lateral sweeps of the tail. They would have been useless for
+creeping.
+
+But there is another piece of evidence that he was a free swimming
+form. All vertebrates breathe by gills or lungs, and these are
+modified portions of the digestive system, of the walls of the
+oesophagus, from which even the lung is an embryonic outgrowth.
+Now practically all invertebrates breathe through modified portions
+of the integument or outer surface of the body, and their gills are
+merely expansions of this. In the annelid they are projections of
+the parapodia, in the mollusk expansions of the skin, where the foot
+or creeping sole joins the body. Why did the vertebrate take a new
+and strange, and, at first sight, disadvantageous mode of
+breathing? There must have been some good reason for this. The most
+natural explanation would seem to be that he had no projections on
+his outer surface which could develop into gills, and farther, that
+he could not afford to have any. Now projections on the lower
+portion of the sides of the body would be an advantage in creeping,
+but a hindrance in any such mode of swimming as we have described,
+or indeed in any mode of writhing through the water.
+
+Furthermore, if he lived, not a creeping life on the bottom, but
+swimming in the water above, he would have to live almost entirely
+on microscopic animals and embryos; and these would be most easily
+captured by a current of water brought in at the mouth. The whole
+branchial apparatus in its simplest forms would seem to be an
+apparatus for sifting out the microscopic particles of food and only
+later a purely respiratory apparatus. Moreover, we have seen that
+the parapodia of annelids naturally point to the development of an
+external skeleton, for their muscles are already a part of the
+external body-wall and attached to the already existing horny
+cuticle. The logical goal of their development was the insect.
+
+Now I do not wish to conceal from you that many good zoölogists
+believe that the vertebrate is descended from annelids; but for this
+and other reasons such a descent appears to me very improbable. It
+would seem far more natural to derive the vertebrate from some free
+swimming form like the schematic worm, whose largest nerve-cord lay
+on the dorsal surface because its branches ran to heavy muscles much
+used in swimming. Later the other nerve-cords degenerated, for such
+a degeneration of nerve-cords is not at all impossible or
+improbable. "No thoroughfare" is often written across paths
+previously followed by blood or nervous impulses, when other paths
+have been found more economical or effective.
+
+But where did the notochord come from? I do not know. It always
+forms in the embryo out of the entoderm or layer which becomes the
+lining of the intestine. Now this is a very peculiar origin for
+cartilage, and the notochord is a very strange cartilage even if we
+have not made a mistake in calling it cartilage at all. My best
+guess would be that it is simply a thickened portion of the upper
+median surface of the intestine to keep the "balls" of digesting
+nutriment or other hard particles in the intestine from "grinding"
+against the nerve-cord as they are crowded along in the process of
+digestion. Once started its elasticity would be a great aid in
+swimming.
+
+Professor Brooks has called attention to the fact that the higher a
+group stands in development, the longer its ancestors have
+maintained a swimming life. Thus we have noticed that the sponges
+were the first to settle; then a little later the mass of the
+coelenterates followed their example. But the etenophora, the
+nearest relatives of bilateral animals, have remained free swimming.
+Then the flat worms and mollusks took to a creeping mode of life,
+while the annelids and vertebrates still swam. Then the annelids
+settled to the bottom and crept, and all their descendants remained
+creeping forms. The vertebrates alone remained swimming, and
+probably neither they nor their descendants ever crept until they
+emerged on the land, or as amphibia were preparing for land
+life. If this be true, it is a fact worthy of our most careful
+consideration. The swimming life would appear to be neither as easy
+nor as economical as the creeping. It is certainly hard to believe
+that food would not have been obtained with less effort and in
+greater abundance at the bottom than in the water above. The
+swimming life gave rise to higher and stronger forms; but did its
+maintenance give immediate advantage in the struggle for existence?
+This is an exceedingly interesting and important question, and
+demands most careful consideration. But we shall be better prepared
+to answer it in a future lecture.
+
+The period of development of mollusks, articulates, and vertebrates,
+is really one. They developed to a certain extent contemporaneously.
+The development of vertebrates was slow, and they were the last to
+appear on the stage of geological history.
+
+You must all have noticed that development, during this period,
+takes on a much more hopeful form than during that described in the
+last chapter. Then digestion and reproduction were dominant. Now
+muscle is of the greatest importance. If this fails of development,
+as in mollusks, the group is doomed to degeneration or at best
+stagnation. But we have seen the dawn of a still higher function. In
+insects and vertebrates the brain is becoming of importance, and
+absorbing more and more material. This is the promise of something
+vastly higher and better. Better sense-organs are appearing, fitted
+to aid in a wider perception of more distant objects. The vertebrate
+has discovered the right path; though a long journey still lies
+before it. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+VERTEBRATES: BACKBONE AND BRAIN
+
+
+In tracing man's ancestry from fish upward we ought properly to
+describe three or four fish, an amphibian, a reptile, and then take
+up the series of mammalian ancestors. But we have not sufficient
+time for so extended a study, and a simpler method may answer our
+purpose fairly well. Let us fix our attention on the few organs
+which still show the capacity of marked development, and follow each
+one of these rapidly in its upward course.
+
+We must remember that there are changes in the vegetative organs.
+The digestive and excretory systems improve. But this improvement is
+not for the sake of these vegetative functions. Brain and muscle
+demand vastly more fuel, and produce vastly more waste which must be
+removed. At almost the close of the series the reproductive system
+undergoes a modification which is almost revolutionary in its
+results. But we shall find that this modification is necessitated by
+the smaller amount of material which can be spared for this
+function; not by its increasing importance, still less its dominance
+for its own worth. The vertebrate is like an old Roman; everything
+is subordinated to mental and physical power. He is the world
+conqueror.
+
+The important changes from fish upward affect the following organs:
+1. The skeleton. A light, solid framework must be developed for the
+body. 2. The appendages start as fins, and end as the legs and arms
+of man. 3. The circulatory and respiratory systems developed so as
+to carry with the utmost rapidity and certainty fuel and oxygen to
+the muscular and nervous high-pressure engines. Or, to change the
+figure, they are the roads along which supplies and munitions can be
+carried to the army suddenly mobilized at any point on the frontier.
+4. Above all, the brain, especially the cerebrum, the crown and goal
+of vertebrate structure. The improvement is now practically
+altogether in the animal organs of locomotion and thought. Still,
+among these animal organs, the lower systems will lead in point of
+time. The brain must to a certain extent wait for the skeleton.
+
+1. The skeleton. The axial skeleton consists, in the lowest fish, of
+the notochord, a cylindrical unsegmented rod of cartilage running
+nearly the length of the body. This is surrounded by a sheath of
+connective tissue, at first merely membranous, later becoming
+cartilaginous or gristly. Pieces of cartilage extend upward over the
+spinal marrow, and downward around the great aortic artery, forming
+the neural and hæmal arches. These unite with the masses of
+cartilage surrounding the notochord to form cartilaginous vertebræ,
+which may be stiffened by an infiltration of carbonate of lime. The
+vertebral column of sharks has reached this stage. Then the
+cartilaginous vertebræ ossify and form a true backbone. I have
+described the process as if it were very simple. But only the
+student of comparative osteology can have any conception of the
+number of experiments which were tried in different groups before
+the definite mode of forming a bony vertebra was attained. At the
+same time the skull was developing in a somewhat similar manner. But
+the skull is far more complex in origin and undergoes far more
+numerous and important changes than the simpler vertebral column.
+Into its history we have no time to enter.
+
+And what shall we say of bone itself as a mere material or tissue,
+with its admirable lightness, compactness, and flawlessness. And
+every bone in our body is a triumph of engineering architecture. No
+engineer could better recognize the direction of strain and stress,
+and arrange his rods and columns, arches and buttresses, to suitably
+meet them, than these problems are solved in the long bone of our
+thigh. And they must be lengthened while the child is leaping upon
+them. An engineer is justly proud if he can rebuild or lengthen a
+bridge without delaying the passage of a single train. But what
+would he say if you asked him to rebuild a locomotive, while it was
+running even twenty miles an hour? And yet a similar problem had to
+be solved in our bodies.
+
+But the vertebral column is not perfected by fish. The vertebræ with
+few exceptions are hollow in front and behind, biconcave; and
+between each two vertebræ there is a large cavity still occupied by
+the notochord. Thus these vertebræ join one another by their edges,
+like two shallow wine-glasses placed rim to rim. Only gradually is
+the notochord crowded out so that the vertebræ join by their whole
+adjacent surfaces. Even in highest forms, for the sake of mobility,
+they are united by washer-like disks of cartilage. Biconcave
+vertebræ persisted through the oldest amphibia, reptiles, and
+birds. But finally a firm backbone and skull were attained.
+
+2. The appendages. Of these we can say but little. The fish has
+oar-like fins, attached to the body by a joint, but themselves
+unjointed. By the amphibia legs, with the same regions as our own
+and with five toes, have already appeared. The development of the
+leg out of the fin is one of the most difficult and least understood
+problems of vertebrate comparative anatomy. The legs are at first
+weak and scarcely capable of supporting the body. Only gradually do
+they strengthen into the fore- and hind-legs of mammals, or into the
+legs and wings of birds and old flying reptiles.
+
+3. Changes in the circulatory and respiratory systems. The fish
+lives altogether in the water and breathes by gills, but the dipnoi
+among fishes breathes by lungs as well as gills. As long as
+respiration takes place by gills alone, the circulation is simple;
+the blood flows from the heart to the gills, and thence directly all
+over the body; the oxygenated blood from the gills does not return
+directly to the heart. But the blood from the lungs does return to
+the heart; and there at first mixes in the ventricle with the impure
+blood which has returned from the rest of the body. Gradually a
+partition arises in the ventricle, dividing it into a right and left
+half. Thus the two circulations of the venous blood to the lungs,
+and of the oxygenated blood over the body, are more and more
+separated until, in higher reptiles, they become entirely distinct.
+
+As the animal came on land and breathed the air, more completely
+oxygenated blood was carried to the organs, and their activity was
+greatly heightened. As more and more heat was produced by the
+combustion in muscular and nervous tissues, and less was lost by
+conduction, the temperature of the body rose, and in birds and
+mammals becomes constant several degrees above the highest summer
+temperature of the surrounding air.
+
+The changes in the brain affect mainly the large and small brain.
+The cerebellum increases with the greater locomotive powers of the
+animal. But its development is evidently limited. The large brain,
+or cerebrum, is in fish hardly as heavy as the mid-brain; in
+amphibia the reverse is true. In higher recent reptiles the cerebrum
+would somewhat outweigh all the other portions of the brain put
+together. In mammals it extends upward and backward, has already in
+lower forms overspread the mid-brain, and is beginning to cover the
+small brain. But this was not so in the earliest mammals. Here the
+cerebrum was small, more like that of reptiles. But during the
+tertiary period the large brain began to increase with marvellous
+rapidity. It was very late in arriving at the period of rapid
+development, but it kept on after all the other organs of the body
+had settled down into comparative rest, perhaps retrogression.
+
+We have given thus a rapid sketch in outline of the changes in the
+most characteristic systems between fish and mammals. Some of the
+changes which took place in mammals were along the same lines, but
+one at least is so new and unexpected that this highest class
+demands more careful and detailed examination.
+
+The mammal is a vertebrate. Hence all its organs are at their best.
+But mammals stand, all things considered, at the head of
+vertebrates. The skeleton is firm and compact. The muscles are
+beautifully moulded and fitted to the skeleton so as to produce the
+greatest effect with the least mass and weight of tissue. The
+sense-organs are keen, and the eye and ear especially delicate, and
+fitted for perception at long range. Yet in all these respects they
+are surpassed by birds. As a mere anatomical machine the bird always
+seems to me superior to the mammal. It is not easy to see why it
+failed, as it has, to reach the goal of possibility of indefinite
+development and dominance in the animal world. Why he stopped short
+of the higher brain development I cannot tell. The fact remains that
+the mammal is pre-eminent in brain power, and that this gave him the
+supremacy.
+
+But mammals came very late to the throne, and the probability of
+their ever gaining it must for ages have appeared very doubtful.
+They seem to have been a fairly old group with a very slow early
+development. Reptiles especially, and even birds, were far more
+precocious than these slower and weaker forms which crept along the
+earth. But reptiles and birds, like many other precocious children,
+soon reached the limit of their development. They had muscle, the
+mammal brain and nerve; the mammal had the staying power and the
+future. Bitter and discouraging must have been the struggle of these
+feeble early mammals with their larger, swifter, and more powerful,
+reptilian relatives. And yet, perhaps, by this very struggle the
+mammal was trained to shrewdness and endurance.
+
+The primitive mammals laid eggs like reptiles or birds. Only two
+genera, echidna and platypus, survive to bear witness of these old
+oviparous groups, and these only in New Zealand. These retain
+several old reptilian characteristics. Their lower position is shown
+also by the fact that the temperature of their bodies is, at least,
+ten degrees Fahrenheit below that of higher mammals. One of these
+carries the egg in a pouch on the ventral surface; the other, living
+largely in water, deposits its eggs in a nest in a burrow in the
+side of the bank of the stream.
+
+After these came the marsupials. In these the eggs develop in a sort
+of uterus; but there is no placenta, in the sense of an organic
+connection between the embryo and the uterus of the mother. The
+young are at birth exceedingly small and feeble. The adult giant
+Kangaroo weighs over one hundred pounds; the young are at birth not
+as large as your thumb. They are placed by the mother in a marsupial
+pouch on her ventral surface, and here nourished till able to care
+for themselves.
+
+Pardon a moment's digression. The marsupials, except the opossum,
+are confined to Australia, and the oviparous mammals, or monotremes,
+to New Zealand. Formerly the marsupials, at least, ranged all over
+Europe and Asia, for we have indisputable evidence in their fossil
+remains. But they have survived only in this isolated area, and here
+apparently only because their isolation preserved them from the
+competition with higher forms. If the Australian continent had not
+been thus early cut off from all the rest of the world, the only
+trace of both these lower groups would have been the opossum in
+America and certain peculiarities in the development of the egg in
+higher mammals. This shows us how much weight should be assigned to
+the formerly popular argument of the "missing links." The wonder is
+not that so many links are missing, but that any of these primitive
+forms have come down to us. For we see here another proof of the
+fearful extermination of lower forms during the progress of life on
+the globe. It seems as if the intermediate forms were less common
+among these most recent animals than among the older types. This may
+not be true, for it is not easy to compare the gap between two
+mammals with that between two worms or insects, and mistakes are
+very easily made. But it seems as if extermination had done its work
+more ruthlessly among these highest forms than among their humbler
+and lower ancestors. I would not lay much weight on such an opinion;
+but, if true, it has a meaning and is worthy of study.
+
+In higher, true, placental mammals the period of pregnancy is much
+longer, and the young are born in a far higher stage of development,
+or rather, growth. The stage of growth at which the young are born
+differs markedly in different groups. A new-born kitten is a much
+feebler, less developed being than a new-born calf. An embryonic
+appendage, the allantois, used in reptiles and birds for
+respiration, has here been turned to another purpose. It lays itself
+against the walls of the uterus, uterine projections interlock with
+those which it puts forth, and the blood of the mother circulates
+through a host of capillaries separated from those of the blood
+system of the embryo only by the thinnest membrane. This is the
+placenta, developed, in part from the allantois of the embryo, in
+part from the uterus of the mother. It is not a new organ, but an
+old one turned to better and fuller use. In these closely
+associated systems of blood-vessels, nutriment and oxygen diffuse
+from the blood of the mother into that of the embryo, and thus rapid
+growth is assured. The importance and far-reaching effect of this
+new modification in the old reproductive system cannot be
+over-estimated. The internal intra-uterine development of the young,
+and the mammalian habit of suckling them, far more than any other
+factors, have made man what he is. Some explanation must be sought
+for such a fact.
+
+We have already seen that any animal devotes to reproduction the
+balance between income and expenditure of nutriment. Now, the
+digestive system is here well developed, and the income is large.
+But we have already noticed that, as animals grow larger, the ratio
+between the digestive surface and the mass to be supported grows
+continually smaller. On account of size alone the mammal has but a
+small balance. But the amount of expenditure is proportional to the
+mass and activity of the muscular and nervous systems. And the
+mammal is, and from the beginning had to be, an exceedingly active,
+energetic, and nervous animal. The income has increased, but the
+expenses have far outrun the increase. The mammal can devote but
+little to reproduction.
+
+Moreover, it requires a large amount of material to form a mammalian
+egg, such as that of the monotreme. It requires indefinitely more
+nutriment to build a mammal than a worm, for the former is not only
+larger and more perfect at birth; it is also vastly more
+complicated. The embryonic journey has, so to speak, lengthened out
+immensely. One monotreme egg represents more economy and saving than
+a thousand eggs of a worm. Moreover, where the individuals are
+longer lived and the generations follow one another at longer
+intervals, the number of favorable variations and the possibility of
+conformity to environment through these is greatly lessened. In such
+a group it is of the utmost importance that every egg should
+develop; the destruction of a single one is a real and important
+loss to the species. It is not enough to produce such an egg; it
+must be most scrupulously guarded. Even the egg of the platypus is
+deposited in a nest in a hole in the bank, and the female Echidna
+carries the egg in a marsupial pouch until it develops.
+
+Notice further that among certain species of fish, amphibia, and
+reptiles, the females carry the eggs in the body until the embryos
+or young are fairly developed. Viviparous forms are unknown by
+birds, probably because this mode of development is incompatible
+with flight, their dominant characteristic. Putting these facts
+together, what more probable than that certain primitive egg-laying
+mammals should have carried the eggs as long as possible in the
+uterus. The embryo under these conditions would be better nourished
+by a secretion of the uterine glands than by a very large amount of
+yolk. The yolk would diminish and the egg decrease in size, and thus
+the marsupial mode of development would have resulted. And, given
+the marsupial mode of development and an embryo possessing an
+allantois, it is almost a physiological necessity that in some forms
+at least a placenta should develop. That the placenta has resulted
+from some such process of evolution is proven by its different
+stages of development in different orders of mammals. And even the
+feeblest attachment of the allantois of the embryo to the wall of
+the uterus would be of the greatest advantage to the species.
+
+This is not the whole explanation; other factors still undiscovered
+were undoubtedly concerned. But even this shows us that the internal
+development of the young and the habit of suckling them was a
+logical result of mammalian structure and position. The grand
+results of this change we shall trace farther on.
+
+The changes from the lower true mammals to the apes are of great
+interest, but we can notice only one or two of the more important.
+The prosimii, or "half apes," including the lemurs, are nearly all
+arboreal forms. Perhaps they were driven to this life by their more
+powerful competitors. The arboreal life developed the fingers and
+toes, and most of these end, not with a claw, but with a nail. The
+little group has much diversity of structure, and at present finds
+its home mainly in Madagascar; though in earlier times apparently
+occurring all over the globe. The brain is more highly developed
+than in the average mammal, but far inferior to that of the apes.
+They have a fairly opposable thumb.
+
+The highest mammals are the primates. Their characteristics are the
+following: Fingers and toes all armed with nails, the eyes
+comparatively near together and fully enclosed in a bony case. The
+cerebrum with well-developed furrows covers the other portions of
+the brain. There is but one pair of milk-glands, and these on the
+breast. The differences between hand and foot become most strongly
+marked by the "anthropoid" apes. These have become accustomed to an
+upright gait in their climbing; hence the feet are used for
+supporting the body and the hands for grasping. Both thumb and
+great toe are opposable; but the foot is a true foot, and the hand a
+true hand, in anatomical structure. The face, hands, and feet have
+mainly lost the covering of hair. They have no tail, or rather its
+rudiments are concealed beneath the skin. These include the gibbon,
+the orang, the gorilla, and the chimpanzee.
+
+We can sum up the few attainments of mammals in a line. The lower
+forms attained the placental mode of embryonic development; the
+higher attained upright gait, hands and feet, and a great increase
+of brain. Anatomically considered these were but trifles, but the
+addition of these trifles revolutionized life on the globe. The
+principal anatomical differences between man and the anthropoid ape
+are the following: Man is a strictly erect animal. The foot of the
+ape is less fitted for walking on the ground, where he usually "goes
+on all fours." The skull is almost balanced on the condyles by which
+it articulates with the neck, and has but slight tendency to tip
+forward. The facial portion, nose and jaws, is less developed and
+retracted beneath the larger cranium or brain-case. This has greatly
+changed the appearance of the head. Protruding jaws and chin, even
+when combined with large cranium and brain, always give man the
+appearance of brutality and low intelligence.
+
+The pelvis is broad and comparatively shallow. The legs, especially
+the thighs, are long. The foot is long and strong, and rests its
+lower surface, not merely the outer margin as in apes, on the
+ground. The elastic arch of the instep must be excepted in the above
+description, and adds lightness and swiftness to his otherwise slow
+gait. The great toe is short and generally not opposable. The
+muscles of the leg are heavy and the knee-joint has a very broad
+articulating surface. But the great result of man's erect posture is
+that the hand is set free from the work of locomotion, and has
+become a delicate tactile and tool-using organ. The importance of
+this change we cannot over-estimate. The hand was the servant of the
+brain for trying all experiments. Had not our arboreal ancestors
+developed the hand for us we could never have invented tools nor
+used them if invented. And its reflex influence in developing the
+brain has been enormous. The arm is shorter and the hand smaller.
+The brain is absolutely and relatively large, and its surface
+greatly convoluted. This gives place for a large amount of "gray
+matter," whose functions are perception, thought, and will. For this
+gray matter forms a layer on the outside of the brain.
+
+Thus, even anatomically, man differs from the anthropoid apes. His
+whole structure is moulded to and by the higher mental powers, so
+that he is the "Anthropos" of the old Greek philosophers, the being
+who "turns his face upward." Yet in all these anatomical respects
+some of the apes differ less from him than from the lower apes or
+"half apes." And every one of these can easily be explained as the
+result of progressive development and modification. Whoever will
+deny the possibility or probability of man's development from some
+lower form must argue on psychological, not on anatomical, grounds;
+and it grows clearer every day that even the former but poorly
+justify such a denial.
+
+But it is interesting to note that no one ape most closely
+approaches man in all anatomical respects. Thus among the
+anthropoids the orang is perhaps most similar to man in cerebral
+structure, the chimpanzee in form of skull, the gorilla in feet and
+hands. No evolutionist would claim that any existing ape represents
+the ancestor of man. The anthropoids represent very probably the
+culmination of at least three distinct lines of development. But we
+must remember that in early tertiary times apes occurred all over
+Europe, and probably Asia, many degrees farther north than now. In
+those days, as later, the fauna and flora of northern climates were
+superior in vigor and height of development to that of Africa or
+Australia. It is thus, to say the least, not at all improbable that
+there existed in those times apes considerably, if not far, superior
+to any surviving forms. Whether the palæontologist will find for us
+remains of such anthropoids is still to be seen.
+
+But you will naturally ask, "Is there not, after all, a vast
+difference between the brain of man and that of the ape?" Let us
+examine this question as fully as our very brief time will allow.
+Considerable emphasis used to be laid on the facial angle between a
+line drawn parallel to the base of the skull and one obliquely
+vertical touching the teeth and most prominent portion of the
+forehead. Now this angle is in man very large--from seventy-five to
+eighty-five degrees, or even more, and rarely falling below
+sixty-five degrees. But this angle depends largely on the protrusion
+of the jaws, and varies greatly in species of animals showing much
+the same grade of intelligence. In some not especially intelligent
+South American monkeys the facial angle amounts to about sixty-five
+degrees. In this respect the skull of a chimpanzee reminds us of a
+human skull of small cranial capacity and large jaws, in which the
+cranium has been pressed back and the jaws crowded forward and
+slightly upward.
+
+The weight of the brain in proportion to that of the body has been
+considered as of great importance, and within certain limits this is
+undoubtedly correct. Thus, according to Leuret, the weight of the
+brain is to that of the whole body: In fish, 1:5,668; in reptiles,
+1:1,320; in birds, 1:212; in mammals, 1:186. These figures give the
+averages of large numbers of observations and have a certain
+amount of value. But within the same class the ratio varies
+extraordinarily. Thus the weight of the brain is to that of the
+whole body: In the elephant, 1:500; in the largest dogs, 1:305; in
+the cat, 1:156; in the rat, 1:76; in the chimpanzee, 1:50; in man,
+1:36; in the field-mouse, 1:31; in the goldfinch, 1:24.
+
+From this series it is evident that the relative weight of the brain
+is no index of the intelligence of the animal. Indeed if the brain
+were purely an organ of mind, there is no reason that it should be
+any larger in an elephant than in a mouse, provided they had the
+same mental capacity. As animals grow larger the weight of the
+brain, relatively to that of the body, decreases, and considering
+the size of man it is remarkable that it should form so large a
+fraction of his weight. Still the fraction in the chimpanzee is not
+so much smaller. It is still possible that this fraction is above
+the normal for the chimpanzee, for some of the observations may have
+been taken on animals which had died of consumption or some other
+wasting disease. I have not been able to find whether this
+possibility of error has been scrupulously avoided.
+
+A fair idea of the size of the brain may be obtained by measuring
+the cranial capacity. This varies in man from almost one-hundred
+cubic inches to less than seventy. In the gorilla its average is
+perhaps thirty, in the orang and chimpanzee rather less, about
+twenty-eight. This is certainly a vast difference, especially when
+we remember that the gorilla far exceeds man in weight.
+
+Le Bon tells us that of a series of skulls forty-five per cent, of
+the Australian had a cranial capacity of 1,200 to 1,300 c.c., while
+46.7 per cent. of modern Parisian skulls showed a capacity of
+between 1,500 and 1,600 c.c. The skull of the gorilla contains about
+five hundred and seventy cubic centimetres. Broca found that the
+cranial capacity of 115 Parisian skulls, of probably the higher
+classes from the twelfth century, averaged about 1,426 cubic
+centimetres, while ninety of those of the poorer classes of the
+nineteenth century averaged about 1,484. His observations seemed to
+prove that there has been a steady increase in Parisian cranial
+capacity from the twelfth to the nineteenth century.
+
+Turning to the actual weight of the brain, that of Cuvier weighed
+64.5 ounces, and a few cases of weights exceeding 65 ounces have
+been recorded. The lowest limit of weight in a normal human brain
+has not yet been accurately determined. From 34 to 31 ounces have
+been assigned by different writers. The brain of a Bush woman was
+computed by Marshall at 31.5 ounces, and weights of even 31 ounces
+have been recorded without any note to show that the possessors were
+especially lacking in intelligence. As Professor Huxley says in his
+"Man's Place in Nature," a little book which I cannot too highly
+recommend to you all, "It may be doubted whether a healthy human
+adult brain ever weighed less than 31 or 32 ounces, or that the
+heaviest gorilla brain has ever exceeded 20 ounces. The difference
+in weight of brain between the highest and the lowest men is far
+greater, both relatively and absolutely, than that between the
+lowest man and the highest ape. The latter, as has been seen, is
+represented by 12 ounces of cerebral substance absolutely, or by
+32:20 relatively. But as the largest recorded human brain weighed
+between 65 and 66 ounces, the former difference is represented by 33
+ounces absolutely, or by 65:32 relatively."
+
+But there is another characteristic of the brain which seems to bear
+a close relation to the degree of intelligence. The surface of the
+human brain is not smooth but covered with convolutions, with
+alternating grooves or sulci, which vastly increase its surface and
+thus make room for more gray matter. Says Gratiolett: "On comparing
+a series of human and simian brains we are immediately struck with
+the analogy exhibited in the cerebral forms in all these creatures.
+There is a cerebral form peculiar to man and the apes; and so in the
+cerebral convolutions, wherever they appear, there is a general
+unity of arrangement, a plan, the type of which is common to all
+these creatures." Professor Huxley says: "It is most remarkable
+that, as soon as all the principal sulci appear, the pattern
+according to which they are arranged is identical with the
+corresponding sulci in man. The surface of the brain of the monkey
+exhibits a sort of skeleton map of man's, and in the man-like apes
+the details become more and more filled in, until it is only in
+minor characters that the chimpanzee's or orang's brain can be
+structurally distinguished from man's."
+
+The facts of anatomy, at least, are all against us. Struggle as we
+may, be as snobbish as we will, we cannot shake off these poor
+relations of ours. Our adult anatomy at once betrays our ancestry,
+if we attempt to deny it. Read the first chapter of that remarkable
+book by Professor Drummond on the "Ascent of Man," the chapter on
+the ascent of the body, and the second chapter on the scaffolding
+left in the body. The tips of our ears and our rudimentary ear
+muscles, the hair on hand and arm, and the little plica semilunaris,
+or rudimentary third eyelid in the inner angle of our eyes, the
+vermiform appendage of the intestine, the coracoid process on our
+shoulder-blades, the atlas vertebra of our necks--to say nothing of
+the coccyx at the other end of the backbone--many malformations, and
+a host of minor characteristics all refute our denial.
+
+If we appeal from adult anatomy to embryology the case becomes all
+the worse for us. Our ear is lodged in the gill-slit of a fish, our
+jaws are branchial arches, our hyoid bone the rudiment of this
+system of bones supporting the gills. Our circulation begins as a
+veritable fish circulation; our earliest skeleton is a notochord;
+Meckel's cartilage, from which our lower jaw and the bones of our
+middle ear develop, is a whole genealogical tree of disagreeable
+ancestors. Our glandula thyreoidea has, according to good
+authorities, an origin so slimy that it should never be mentioned in
+polite society. The origin of our kidneys appears decidedly vermian.
+Time fails me to read merely the name of the witnesses which could
+be summoned from our own bodies to witness against us.
+
+Even if the testimony of some of these witnesses is not as strong
+as many think, and we have misunderstood several of them, they are
+too numerous and their stories hang too well together not to impress
+an intelligent and impartial jury. But what if it is all true? What
+if, as some think, our millionth cousin, the tiger or cat, is
+anatomically a better mammal than I? His teeth and claws and
+magnificent muscles are of small value compared with man's mental
+power.
+
+What a comedy that man should work so hard to prove that his chief
+glory is his opposable thumb, or a few ounces of brain matter! Man's
+glory is his mind and will, his reason and moral powers, his vision
+of, and communion with, God. And supposing it be true, as I believe
+it is true, that the animal has the germ of these also, does that
+cloud my mind or obscure my vision or weaken my action? It bids me
+only strive the harder to be worthy of the noble ancestors who have
+raised me to my higher level and on whose buried shoulders I stand.
+Whatever may have been our origin, whoever our ancestors, we are
+men. Then let us play the man. If we will but play our part as well
+as our old ancestors played theirs, if we will but walk and act
+according to our light one-half as heroically and well as they
+groped in the darkness, we need not worry about the future. That
+will be assured.
+
+Says Professor Huxley: "Man now stands as on a mountain-top far
+above the level of his humble fellows, and transfigured from his
+grosser nature by reflecting here and there a ray from the infinite
+source of truth. And thoughtful man, once escaped from the blinding
+influences of traditional prejudice, will find in the lowly stock
+whence man has sprung the best evidence of the splendor of his
+capacities, and will discern in his long progress through the past a
+reasonable ground of faith in his attainment of a nobler future."
+
+We have sketched hastily and in rude outline the anatomical
+structure of the successive stages of man's ancestry; let us now, in
+a very brief recapitulation, condense this chronicle into a
+historical record of progress.
+
+We began with the amoeba. This could not have been the beginning.
+In all its structure it tells us of something earlier and far
+simpler, but what this earlier ancestor was we do not know. Rather
+more highly organized relatives of the amoeba, the flagellata,
+have produced a membrane, and swim by means of vibratile,
+whiplash-like flagella. We must emphasize that these little animals
+correspond in all essential respects to the cells of our bodies;
+they are unicellular animals. And the cell once developed remains
+essentially the same structure, modified only in details, throughout
+higher animals. And these unicellular animals have the rudiments of
+all our functions. Their protoplasm and functions seem to differ
+from those of higher animals only in degree, not in kind. And the
+more we consider both these facts the more remarkable and suggestive
+do they become.
+
+Cells with membranes can unite in colonies capable of division of
+labor and differentiation. And magosphæra is just such a little
+spheroidal colony. But the cells are still all alike, each one
+performs all functions equally well. But in volvox division of labor
+and differentiation of structure have taken place. Certain cells
+have become purely reproductive, while the rest gather nutriment for
+these, but are at the same time sensitive and locomotive, excretory
+and respiratory. The first function to have cells specially devoted
+to it is the reproductive; this is a function absolutely necessary
+for the maintenance of the species. For the nutritive cells die when
+they have brought the reproductive cells to their full development.
+These few nutritive cells represent the body of all higher animals
+in contrast with the reproductive elements. And with the development
+of a body, death, as a normal process, enters the world. The
+dominant function is here evidently the reproductive, and the whole
+body is subservient to this.
+
+In hydra the union and differentiation of cells is carried further.
+But the cells are still much alike and only slowly lose their own
+individuality in that of the whole animal. This is shown in the fact
+that each entodermal cell digests its own particles of food,
+although the nutriment once digested diffuses to all parts of the
+body. Also almost any part of the animal containing both ectoderm
+and entoderm can be cut off and will develop into a new animal.
+
+But beside the reproductive cells and tissues hydra has developed a
+very simple digestive system, in which the newly caught food at
+least macerates and begins to be dissolved. This is the second
+essential function. The animal can, and the plant as a rule does,
+exist with only the lowest rudiments of anything like nervous or
+muscular power; but no species can exist without good powers of
+digestion and reproduction. These essential organs must first
+develop and the higher must wait. And the inner, digestive, layer of
+cells persists in our bodies as the lining of the mid-intestine. We
+compared hydra therefore to a little patch of the lining of our
+intestine covered with a flake of epidermis; only these layers in
+hydra possess powers lost to the corresponding cells of our bodies
+in the process of differentiation. Notice, please, that when cell or
+organ has once been developed it persists, as a rule, modified, but
+not lost. Nature's experiments are not in vain; her progress is very
+slow but sure. But hydra has also the promise of better things,
+traces of muscular and nervous tissue. There are still no compact
+muscles, like our own, much less ganglion or brain or nerve-centre
+of individuality. The tissues are diffuse, but they are the
+materials out of which the organs of higher animals will
+crystallize, so to speak. Notice also that these higher muscles and
+nerves are here entirely subservient to, and exist for, digestion
+and reproduction.
+
+In the turbellaria the reproductive system has reached a very high
+grade of development. It is a complex and beautifully constructed
+organ. The digestive system has also vastly improved; it has its own
+muscular layers, and often some means of grasping food. But it is
+slower in reaching its full development than the reproductive
+system. But all the muscles are no longer attached to the stomach;
+they are beginning to assert their independence, and, in a rude way,
+to build a body-wall. But they are in many layers, and run in almost
+all directions. Some of these layers will disappear, but the most
+important ones, consisting of longitudinal and transverse fibres,
+will persist in higher forms. Locomotion by means of these muscles
+is slowly coming into prominence. They are no longer merely slaves
+of digestion.
+
+But a muscular fibril contracts only under the stimulus of a nervous
+impulse. More nerve-cells are necessary to control these more
+numerous muscular fibrils. The animal now moves with one end
+foremost, and that end first comes in contact with food, hindrances,
+or injurious surroundings. Here the sensory cells of feeling and
+their nerve fibrils multiply. Remember that these neuro-epithelial
+sensory cells are suited to respond not merely to pressure, but to a
+variety of the stimuli, chemical, molecular, and of vibration, which
+excite our organs of smell, taste, and hearing. Such organs and the
+directive eyes appear mainly at this anterior end. But a ganglion
+cell sends an impulse to a muscle because it has received one along
+a sensory nerve from one or more of these sensory cells. Hence the
+ganglion cells will increase in number. The old cobweb-like plexus
+condenses into a little knot, the supra-oesophageal ganglion. This
+ganglion cannot do much, if any, thinking; it is rather a steering
+organ to control the muscles and guide the animal. It is the servant
+of the locomotive system. Yet it is the beginning of the brain of
+higher animals, and probably still persists as an infinitesimal
+portion of our human brain. And all this is the prophecy of a head
+soon to be developed. An excretory system has appeared to carry off
+the waste of the muscles and nerves.
+
+In the schematic worm and annelid the reproductive system is
+simpler, though perhaps equally effective. It takes the excess of
+nutriment of the body. The muscular system has taken the form of a
+sack composed of longitudinal and transverse fibres. The
+perivisceral cavity, formed perhaps by cutting off and enlarging the
+lateral pouches of the turbellarian digestive system, serves as a
+very simple but serviceable circulatory system. But in the annelid
+and all higher forms a special system of tubes has developed to
+carry the nutriment, and usually oxygen also, needed to keep up the
+combustion required to furnish the energy in these active organs.
+The digestive system has attained its definite form with the
+appearance of an anal opening and the accompanying division of labor
+and differentiation into fore-, mid-, and hind-intestine.
+
+The digestive and reproductive systems have thus nearly attained
+their final form. From the higher worms upward the digestive system
+will improve greatly. Its lining will fold and flex and vastly
+increase the digestive and absorptive surfaces. The layer of cells
+which now secrete the digestive fluids will in part be replaced by
+massive glands. Far better means of grasping food than the horny
+teeth of annelids will yet appear. But all these changes are
+inconsiderable compared with the vast advance made by the muscular
+and nervous systems. Reproduction and digestion are losing their
+supremacy in the animal body. Their advance and improvement will
+require but little further attention.
+
+In the annelid especially, and to some extent in the schematic worm,
+the supra-oesophageal ganglion is relieved in part of the direct
+control of the muscular fibrils and has become an organ of
+perception and the seat of government of lower nervous centres. In
+all higher forms it innervates directly only the principal
+sense-organs of the head. And at this stage the light-perceiving
+directive eye has developed into a form-perceiving, eidoscopic
+organ. The eye was short of range and its images were perhaps rude
+and imperfect, but it was a visual eye and had vast possibilities.
+The animal is taking cognizance of ever more subtle elements in its
+environment. Perhaps it is not too much to say that the eidoscopic
+eye first awakened the slumbering animal mind, for its reflex effect
+upon the supra-oesophageal ganglion cannot be over-estimated. The
+animal will very soon begin to think.
+
+Between the turbellarian and the annelid many aberrant lines
+diverged. Some of these attained a comparatively high level and then
+seemed to meet insuperable obstacles, while others came to an end or
+turned downward very early. Three of these demanded attention, those
+leading to mollusks, insects, and vertebrates. And it is interesting
+to notice that the fundamental difference between these three lines
+was the skeleton, or perhaps we ought to say it was the habit of
+life which led to the development of such a skeleton.
+
+The mollusk took to a sluggish, creeping mode of life, under an
+external purely protective skeleton; the insect to a creeping mode
+of life, with an external but almost purely locomotive skeleton; the
+vertebrate kept on swimming and developed an internal locomotive
+skeleton. And it must already have become clear to you that the
+destiny of these different lines was fixed not so much directly by
+the skeleton itself as by its reflex effect in moulding the
+muscular, and ultimately the nervous, system.
+
+The insects formed their skeleton by thickening the horny cuticle of
+the annelid. They transformed the annelid parapodia into legs and
+developed wings. They attained life in the air. They devoted the
+muscles of the body largely to the extremities and gained swift
+locomotion. They have a fair circulatory and an excellent
+respiratory system. Best of all, they developed a head and a brain
+by fusing the three anterior ganglia of the body. The insect could
+and does think. Such a structure ought to lead to great and high
+results. But actually their possibilities were very limited. They
+have not progressed markedly during the last geological period.
+Their external skeleton was easily attained and brought speedy
+advantages, which for a time placed them far above all competitors.
+But it limited their size and length of life and opportunities, and
+finally their intelligence. They remained largely the slaves of
+instinct. They followed an attractive and exceedingly promising
+path, but it led to the bottom of a cliff, not to the summit.
+
+The mollusks, clams, and snails took an easier, down-hill road. They
+formed a shell, and it developed large enough to cover them. It
+hampered and almost destroyed locomotion and reduced nerve to a
+minimum. But nerves are nothing but a nuisance anyhow. And why
+should they move? Food was plenty down in the mud, and if danger
+threatened, they withdrew into the shell. They stayed down in the
+mud and let the world go its way. If grievously afflicted by a
+parasite they produced a pearl--to save themselves from further
+discomfort. They developed just enough muscle and nervous system to
+close the shell or drag it a little way; that was all. Digestion and
+reproduction retained the supremacy. They were fruitful and
+multiplied, and produced hosts of other clams and snails. The
+present was enough for them and they had that.
+
+For if the winner in the struggle for existence is the one who gains
+the most food, the most entire protection against discomfort, danger
+from enemies or unfavorable surroundings, and the most fruitful and
+rapid reproduction--and these are all good--then the clam is the
+highest product of evolution. It never has been surpassed--I venture
+to say it never can be--except possibly by the tape-worms. I can
+never help thinking with what contempt these primitive oysters, if
+they had had brains enough, would have looked down upon the toiling,
+struggling, discontented, fighting, aspiring primitive vertebrates.
+How they would have wondered why God allowed such disagreeable,
+disturbing, unconventional creatures to exist, and thanked him that
+he had made the world for them, and heaven too, if there be such a
+place for mollusks. Their road led to the Slough of Contentment.
+
+But even in molluscan history there was a tragic chapter. The squids
+and cuttle-fishes regained the swimming life, and in their latest
+forms gave up the protective shell. But its former presence had so
+modified their structure that any great advance was impossible. It
+was too late. The sins of the fathers were visited upon the children
+in the thousandth generation.
+
+The vertebrate developed an internal skeleton. This was necessarily
+a slow growth, and the type came late to supremacy. The longitudinal
+muscles are arranged in heavy bands on each side of the back, and
+the animal swims rapidly. The sense-organs are keen. The brain
+contains the ganglia of several or many segments and is highly
+differentiated. It has a special centre of perception, thought, and
+will; it is an organ of mind. The vertebrate has the physical and
+mental advantages of large size.
+
+First the definite form and mode of developing a vertebra is
+attained. Then the vertebral column is perfected. The fins are
+modified into legs. The lungs increase in size and the heart becomes
+double. The animal emerges on land; and, with a better supply of
+oxygen and less loss of heat, all the functions are performed with
+the highest possible efficiency. First, apparently, amphibia, then
+reptiles, and finally mammals of enormous size and strength
+appeared. It looked as if the earth were to be an arena where
+gigantic beasts fought a never-ending battle of brute force. But
+these great brutes reproduced slowly, had therefore little power of
+adaptation, were fitted to special conditions, and when the
+conditions changed they disappeared. The bird tried once more the
+experiment of developing the locomotive powers to the highest
+possible extent. It became a flying machine, and every organ was
+moulded to suit this life. Every ounce of spare weight was thrown
+aside, the muscles were wonderfully arranged and of the highest
+possible efficiency. The body temperature is higher than that of
+mammals. The whole organization is a physiological high-pressure
+engine. The sense-organs are perhaps the finest and keenest in the
+whole animal kingdom. The brain is inferior only to that of mammals.
+The experiment could not have been tried under more favorable
+conditions; it was not a failure, it certainly was not a success
+when compared with that of mammals.
+
+The possibilities of every system except one had been practically
+exhausted. Only brain development remained as the last hope of
+success. Here was an untried line, and the mammals followed it.
+During the short tertiary period the brain in many of their genera
+seems to have increased tenfold. By the arboreal life of the highest
+forms the hand is developed as the instrument of the thinking brain.
+The battle is beginning to become one of wits, and the crown will
+soon pass from the strongest to the shrewdest. Mind, not muscle,
+much less digestion or reproduction, is the goal of the animal
+kingdom. And we shall see later that the mammalian mode of
+reproduction and of care of the young led to an almost purely mental
+and moral advance. For these could have but one logical outcome,
+family life. And the family is the foundation of society. And family
+and social life have been the school in which man has been compelled
+to learn the moral lessons, the application of which has made him
+what he is.
+
+You must all, I think, have noticed that the different systems of
+organs succeed one another in a certain definite order; and that
+each stage from the lowest to the highest is characterized by the
+predominance of a certain function or group of functions. This
+sequence of functions is not a deduction but a fact. Place side by
+side all possible genealogical trees of the animal kingdom, whether
+founded on comparative anatomy, embryology, palæontology, or all
+combined. They will all disclose this sequence of functions arranged
+in the same order. Let me call your attention to the fact that this
+order is not due to chance, but rests upon a physiological basis. We
+might almost claim that if the evolution of man from the single cell
+be granted, no other order of their occurrence is possible.
+
+The protozoa are mostly, though not purely, nutritive and
+reproductive. These functions are essential to the existence of the
+species. Naturally in the early protozoan colonies, and in forms
+like hydra, these functions predominated. But mere digestive tissue
+is not enough for digestion. Muscles are needed to draw the food to
+the mouth, to keep the digestive sack in contact with it, and for
+other purposes. A little higher they are used to enable the animal
+to go in search of its food. They are still, however, more or less
+entirely subservient to digestion. But in the highest worms we are
+beginning to see signs that muscles are predominating in the body;
+and we feel that, while mutually helpful, the digestive system
+exists for the muscles, and these latter are becoming the aim of
+development. From worms upward there is a marked advance in physical
+activity and strength. The muscles thicken and are arranged in
+heavier bands. Skeleton and locomotive appendages and jaws follow in
+insects and vertebrates. The direct battle of animal against animal,
+and of strength opposed to strength or activity, becomes ever
+sharper. The strongest and most active are selected and survive.
+
+And yet this is not the whole truth. Some power of perception is
+possessed by every animal. But until muscles had developed the
+nervous system could be of but little practical value. Knowledge of
+even a great emergency is of little use, if I can do nothing about
+it. But when the muscles appeared, nerves and ganglion cells were
+necessary to stimulate and control them. And this highest system
+holds for a long time a position subordinate to that of the lower
+muscular organ. Its development seems at first sight extraordinarily
+slow. Only in insects and vertebrates has it become a centre of
+instinct and thought. Through the sense-organs it is gaining an ever
+clearer, deeper, and wider knowledge of its environment. First it is
+affected only by the lower stimuli of touch, taste, and smell. Then
+with the development of ear and eye it takes cognizance of ever
+subtler forces and movements. Memory comes into activity very early.
+The animal begins to learn by experience. The brain is becoming not
+merely a steering but a thinking organ. More and more nervous
+material is crowded into it and detailed for its work. Wits and
+shrewdness are beginning to count for something in the battle. Not
+only the animal with the strongest muscles, but the one with the
+best brain survives. And thus at last the brain began to develop
+with a rapidity as remarkable as its long delay. Thus each higher
+function is called into activity by the next lower, serves this at
+first, and only later attains its supremacy.
+
+And yet the advance of the different functions is not altogether
+successive. Muscle and nerve do not wait for digestion and
+reproduction to show signs of halting before they begin to advance.
+They all advance at once. But the progress of reproduction and
+digestion is most rapid at first, and it appears as if they would
+outrun the others. But in the ascending series the others follow
+after, and soon overtake and pass by them. And these lower
+functions, when out-marched, do not lag behind, but keep in touch
+with the others, forming the rear-guard and supply-train of the
+army. And notice that each organ holds the predominance about as
+long as it shows the power of rapid improvement. The length of its
+reign is pretty closely proportional to its capacity of development.
+The digestive system reaches that limit early, the muscular system
+is capable of indefinitely higher complexity, as we see in our hand.
+But the muscular system has nearly or quite reached its limit. The
+body had seen its day of dominance before man arrived on the globe.
+
+But where is the limit to man's mental or moral powers? Every
+upward step in knowledge, wisdom, and righteousness only opens our
+eyes to greater heights, before unperceived and still to be
+attained. 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
+huge reptiles, or mammals of enormous strength, and by birds of
+exceeding swiftness. This portion of our history covers the era of
+muscular activity.
+
+But these huge brutes are mostly doomed to extinction, and the bird
+fails of supremacy in the animal kingdom. "The race is not to the
+swift, nor the battle to the strong." All the time another system
+has been slowly developing. The complicated nervous system has
+required ages for its construction and arrangement. Only in the
+highest mammals does the brain assert its right to supremacy. But
+once established on its throne the brain reigns supreme; its right
+is challenged by no other organ. The possibilities of all the other
+organs, _as supreme rulers_, have been exhausted. Each one has been
+thoroughly tested, and its inadequacy proven beyond doubt by actual
+experiment. These formerly supreme lower organs must serve the
+higher. The age of man's existence on the globe is, and must remain,
+the era of mind. For the mind alone has an inexhaustible store of
+possibilities.
+
+The development of all these systems is simultaneous. From the very
+beginning all the functions have been represented, all the systems
+have been gradually advancing. Hydra has a nervous system just as
+really as man. It has no brain, but it has the potentiality and
+promise of one, and is taking the necessary steps toward its
+attainment. But while the development of all is simultaneous, their
+culmination and supremacy is successive, first stomach and muscle,
+then brain and mind. That was not first which is spiritual, but that
+which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. But now
+that the mind has once become supreme, man must live and work
+chiefly for its higher development. Thus alone is progress possible.
+
+But the word mind calls up before us a long list of powers. And the
+questions arise, Is one mode and line of mental action just as much
+the goal of man's development as another? Is man to cultivate the
+appetite for food and sense gratification just as much as the hunger
+for righteousness? Or is appetite in the mind like digestion in the
+body, a function, necessary indeed and once dominant, but no longer
+fitted for supreme control? Is there in the development of the
+mental powers or functions just as really a sequence of dominance as
+in that of the bodily functions? Are there older and lower powers
+and modes of action, which, though once supreme, must now be rigidly
+kept down in their proper lower place? Are there lower motives, for
+which the very laws of evolution forbid us to live, just as truly as
+they forbid a man's living for stomach or brute strength instead of
+brain and mind? Are these lower powers merely the foundation
+on which the higher motives and powers are to rise in their
+transcendent glory? This is the question which we now must face,
+and it is of vital importance.
+
+We have come to one of the most important and difficult subjects of
+zoölogy. Let us distinctly recognize that it is not our task to
+explain the origin of mind, or even of a single mental faculty. I
+shall take for granted what many of you will not admit, that the
+germs of all man's highest mental powers are present undeveloped in
+the mind, if you will call it so, of the amoeba. The limits of
+this course of lectures have required us to choose between
+alternatives, either to attempt to prove the truth of the theory of
+evolution, or taking this for granted, to attempt to find its
+bearings on our moral and religious beliefs. I have chosen the
+latter course, and here, as elsewhere, will abide by it. I should
+not have followed such a course if I did not thoroughly believe that
+man also, in mind as well as body, is the product of evolution. But
+this is no reason for your accepting these views. You are asked only
+to judge impartially of the tendencies of the theory. We take for
+granted, I repeat, that all man's mental faculties are germinally,
+potentially, present in protoplasm; we seek the history of their
+development.
+
+We must remember, further, that the science of animal or comparative
+psychology is yet in its infancy. Even reliable facts are only
+slowly being sifted and recorded in sufficient numbers to make
+deductions at all safe. And even of these facts different writers
+give very different explanations. As Mr. Romanes has well said, "All
+our knowledge of mental faculties, other than our own, really
+consists of an inferential interpretation of bodily activities--this
+interpretation being founded on our subjective knowledge of our own
+mental activities. By inference we project, as it were, the human
+pattern of our own mental chromograph on what is to us the otherwise
+blank screen of another mind." The value and clearness of our
+inferences will be proportional to the similarity of the animal to
+ourselves. Thus we can educate many of our higher mammals by a
+system of rewards and punishments, and we seem therefore to have
+good reason to believe that fear and joy, anger and desire, certain
+powers of perception and inference, are in their minds similar to
+our own. But fear in a fish is certainly a much dimmer apprehension
+of danger than in us, even if it deserves the name of apprehension.
+And the mental state which we call "alarm" in a fly or any lower
+animal is very difficult to clearly imagine or at all express in
+terms of our own mind.
+
+Some investigators have made the mistake of projecting into the
+animal mind all our emotions and complicated trains of thought. Thus
+Schwammerdam apparently credits the snail with remorse for the
+commission of excesses. Others go to the other extreme and make
+animals hardly more than mindless automata. We are warned,
+therefore, by our very mode of study, to be cautious, not too
+absolutely sure of our results, nor indignant at others who may take
+a very different view. And yet by moving cautiously and accepting
+only what seems fairly clear and evident we may arrive at very
+valuable and tolerably sure results.
+
+The human mind, and the animal mind apparently, manifests itself in
+three states or functions. These are intelligence, the realm of
+knowledge; susceptibility, the realm or state of feelings or
+emotions; will, the power or state of choice. Let us trace first the
+development of intelligence or the intellect in the animal. Let us
+try to discover what kinds of knowledge are successively attained
+and the mode and sequence of their attainment. Hydra appears to be
+conscious of its food. It recognizes it partially by touch, perhaps
+also by feeling the waves caused by its approach. It seems also to
+recognize food at a little distance by a power comparable to our
+sense of smell. Stronger impacts cause it to contract. It neither
+sees nor hears; it probably does little or no thinking. Its
+knowledge is therefore limited to the recognition of objects either
+in contact with, or but slightly removed from, itself. And its
+recognition of the objects is very dim and incomplete, obtained
+through the sense of touch and smell.
+
+A little higher in the animal world a rude ear has developed, first
+as a very delicate organ for feeling the waves caused by approaching
+food or enemies; only later as an organ of hearing. Meanwhile the
+eye has been developing, to perceive the subtle ether vibrations.
+The eye of the turbellaria distinguishes only light from darkness,
+that of the annelid is a true visual organ. Now the brain can begin
+to perceive the shape of objects at a little distance. Touch and
+smell, hearing, sight; such is sequence of sense perceptions. The
+sense-organs respond to continually more delicate and subtle
+impacts, and cover an ever-widening range of more and more distant
+objects. Up to this point intelligence has hardly included more than
+sense-perceptions.
+
+But these sense-perceptions have been all the time spurring the mind
+to begin a higher work. At first it is conscious merely of objects,
+and its main effort is to gain a clearer and clearer perception of
+these.
+
+Now it is led to undertake, so to speak, the work of a sense-organ
+of a higher grade. It begins to directly see invisible relations
+just as truly as through the eye it has perceived light. First
+perhaps it perceives that certain perceptions and experiences,
+agreeable or disagreeable, occur in a certain sequence. It begins to
+associate these. It learns thus to recognize the premonitory
+symptoms of nature's favor or disfavor, and thus gains food or
+avoids dangers. The bee learns to associate accessible nectar with a
+certain spot on the flower marked by bright dots or lines,
+"honey-guides," and the chimpanzee that when a hen cackles there is
+an egg in the nest. But association is only the first lesson;
+inference and understanding follow.
+
+The child at kindergarten receives a few blocks. It admires and
+plays with them. Then it is taught to notice their form. After a
+time it arranges them in groups and learns the first elements of
+number. But when it has advanced to higher mathematics, the blocks,
+or figures on the blackboard, become only symbols or means of
+illustrating the great theorems and propositions of that science.
+Thus the animal has begun in the kindergarten way to dimly perceive
+that there are real, though intangible and invisible, relations
+between objects. But what is all human science but the clearer
+vision, and farther search into, and tracing of these same
+relations? And what is all advance of knowledge but a perception of
+ever subtler relations? What is even the knowledge of right but the
+perception of the subtlest and deepest and widest relations of man
+to his environment? The animal seems to be steadily advancing along
+the path toward the perception of abstract truth, though man alone
+really attains it.
+
+And the higher power of association and inference which we call
+understanding, aided by memory, results in the power of learning by
+experience, so characteristic of higher vertebrates. The hunted bird
+or mammal very quickly becomes wary. A new trap catches more than a
+better old one until the animals have learned to understand it, and
+young animals are trapped more easily than old. Cases showing the
+limitations of mammalian intelligence are interesting in this
+connection. A cat which wished to look out and find the cause of a
+noise outside, when all the windows were closed by wooden blinds,
+jumped upon a stand and looked into a mirror. Her inference as to
+the general use of glass was correct; all its uses had not yet come
+within the range of her experience. A monkey used to stop a hole in
+the side of a cage with straw. The keeper, to tease him, used to
+pull this out. But one day the monkey tugged at a nail in the side
+of his cage until he had pulled it out, and thrust it into the hole.
+But when it was pushed back he fell into a rage. His inference that
+the nail-head could not be pulled through was entirely correct; he
+had failed to foresee that it could be pushed back. Many such
+instances have probably come within the range of your observation,
+if you have noticed them. But many of the facts which Mr. Romanes
+gives us concerning the intelligence of monkeys, apes, and baboons
+would not disgrace the intelligence of children or men.
+
+Mr. Romanes relates the following account of a little capuchin
+monkey from Brazil:
+
+   "To-day he obtained possession of a hearth-brush, one of the kind
+   which has the handle screwed into the brush. He soon found the
+   way to unscrew the handle, and having done that he immediately
+   began to try to find out the way to screw it in again. This he in
+   time accomplished. At first he put the wrong end of the handle
+   into the hole, but turned it round and round the right way for
+   screwing. Finding it did not hold he turned the other end of the
+   handle and carefully stuck it into the hole, and began again to
+   turn it the right way. It was of course a difficult feat for him
+   to perform, for he required both his hands in order to screw it
+   in, and the long bristles of the brush prevented it from
+   remaining steady or with the right side up. He held the brush
+   with his hind hand, but even so it was very difficult for him to
+   get the first turn of the screw to fit into the thread; he worked
+   at it, however, with the most unwearying perseverance until he
+   got the first turn of the screw to catch, and he then quickly
+   turned it round and round until it was screwed up to the end. The
+   most remarkable thing was, that however often he was disappointed
+   in the beginning, he never was induced to try turning the handle
+   the wrong way; he always screwed it from right to left. As soon
+   as he had accomplished his wish he unscrewed it again, and then
+   screwed it in again the second time rather more easily than the
+   first, and so on many times. When he had become by practice
+   tolerably perfect in screwing and unscrewing, he gave it up and
+   took to some other amusement. One remarkable thing is that he
+   should take so much trouble to do that which is no material
+   benefit to him. The desire to accomplish a chosen task seems a
+   sufficient inducement to lead him to take any amount of trouble.
+   This seems a very human feeling, such as is not shown, I believe,
+   by any other animal. It is not the desire of praise, as he never
+   notices people looking on; it is simply the desire to achieve an
+   object for the sake of achieving an object, and he never rests
+   nor allows his attention to be distracted until it is done....
+
+   "As my sister once observed while we were watching him conducting
+   some of his researches, in oblivion to his food and all his other
+   surroundings--'When a monkey behaves like this it is no wonder
+   that man is a scientific animal!'"[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Romanes: Animal Intelligence, pp. 490, 498.]
+
+In the highest mammals we find also different degrees of attention
+and concentration of thought and observation. This difference can
+easily be noticed in young hunting dogs. A trainer of monkeys said
+that he could easily select those which could most easily be taught,
+by noticing in the first lesson whether he could easily gain and
+hold their attention. This was easy with some, while others were
+diverted by every passing fly; and the latter, like heedless
+students, made but slow progress.
+
+It is interesting to notice that one of the perceptions which we
+class among the highest is apparently developed comparatively early.
+I refer to the æsthetic perception of the beautiful. Now, the
+perception of beauty is generally considered as not very far below
+or removed from the perception of truth and right. But some insects
+and birds apparently possess this perception and the corresponding
+emotion in no low degree. The colors of flowers seem to exist mainly
+for the attraction of insects to insure cross-fertilization, and
+certain insects seem to prefer certain colors. But you may say that
+these afford merely sense gratification like that which green
+affords to our eyes or sugar to our tastes.
+
+But does not the grouping of colors in the flower appeal to some
+æsthetic standard in the mind of the insect? What of the tail of the
+peacock? Its iridescent rings and eyes evidently appeal to something
+in the mind of the female. Do form and grouping minister to pure
+sense gratification? What of the song of the thrush? Does not the
+orderly and harmonious arrangement of notes and cadences appeal to
+some standard of order of arrangement, and hence idea of harmony, in
+the mind of the bird's mate?
+
+Now, I grant you readily that the A B C of this training is mere
+sense gratification at the sight of bright colors. Most insects and
+birds have probably not advanced much beyond this first lesson.
+Savages have generally stopped there or reverted to it. But any
+appreciation of form and harmonious arrangement of cadence and
+colors seems to me at least to demand some perception which we must
+call æsthetic, or dangerously near it. But here you must judge
+carefully for yourselves lest you be misled. For remember, please,
+that those schemes of psychology farthest removed from, and least
+readily reconcilable to, the theory of evolution maintain that
+perception of beauty is the work of the rational faculty, which also
+perceives truth and right in much the same way that it perceives
+and recognizes beauty. If the animal has the æsthetic perception, it
+has the faculty which, at the next higher stage of development, will
+perceive, and recognize as such, both truth and right. We are
+considering no unimportant question; for on our answer to this
+depends our answer to questions of far greater importance.
+
+Does it look as if the animal had begun to learn the first rudiments
+of the great science of rights, of his own rights and those of
+others? This is an exceedingly difficult question, though often
+answered unhesitatingly in the negative. But what of the division of
+territory by the dogs in oriental cities, a division evidently
+depending upon something outside of mere brute strength and power to
+maintain, and their respect of boundaries? The female is allowed, I
+am told by an eye-witness long resident in Constantinople, to
+distribute her puppies in unoccupied spots through the city without
+interference. But when she has once located them, she is not allowed
+to return and visit them, or pass that way again. So the account by
+Dr. Washburn of platoons of dogs coming in turn, and peaceably, to
+feed on a dead donkey in the streets of Constantinople, would seem
+to be most naturally explained by some dim recognition of rights.
+Rook communities have not received the attention and investigation
+which they deserve, but their actions are certainly worthy of
+attention. Concerning the sense of ownership in dogs and other
+mammals opinions differ, and yet many facts are most naturally
+explained on such a supposition.
+
+Just one more question in this connection, for we are in the
+borderland or twilightland where it is much safer to ask questions
+than to attempt to answer them. How do you explain the "instinctive"
+fear of man on the part of wild and fierce animals? They certainly
+do not quail before his brute strength, for a blow at such a time
+breaks the charm and insures an attack. They quail before his eye
+and look. Is not this the answering of a personality in the animal
+to the personality in man; a recognition of something deeper than
+bone and muscle? And may not, as Mr. Darwin has urged, this fear in
+the presence of a higher personality be the dim foreshadowing of an
+awe which promises indefinitely better things? Is, after all, the
+attachment of a dog to his master something far deeper than an
+appetite for bones or pats, or a fear of kicks?
+
+A host of other and similar questions throng upon us here, to no one
+of which we can give a definite answer. We need more investigation,
+more light. We must not rest contented with old prejudices or accept
+with too great certainty new explanations. The questions are worthy
+of careful and patient investigation. The study of comparative
+anatomy has thrown a flood of light on the structure and working of
+the human body in health and disease. We shall never fully
+understand the mind of man until we know more of the working of the
+mind of the animal.
+
+It would seem to be clear that there is a sequence of dominance in
+the faculties of the intellect. First, the only means of acquiring
+knowledge is through sense-perception. But memory dawns far down in
+the animal kingdom. And thus the animal begins to associate past
+experience with present objects. The bee remembers the gaining of
+honey in the past, associated with the color of the flower which she
+now sees, and knows that honey is to be attained again. Thus in time
+association leads to inference, and understanding has dawned. But
+the highest faculty of the intellect is the rational intelligence,
+which perceives beauty, truth, and goodness. This is the last to
+develop. Traces of its working may be perhaps discovered below man,
+but only in man does it become dominant. Through it I perceive my
+rights and duties, and come to the consciousness of my own
+personality as a moral agent. This tells me of the relation of my
+own personality to other persons and things. And these are evidently
+the most important objects of human study. The attainment of this
+knowledge and the development of this faculty are evidently the goal
+of human intellectual development. This it is which has insured
+progress and raised man ever higher above the brutes.
+
+Before we can proceed to the study of the will we must clearly
+recognize and define certain modes of mental and nervous action,
+which sooner or later manifest themselves in muscular activity. For,
+while certain of our bodily activities are clearly voluntary, others
+take place wholly, or in part independently, of the individual will.
+Between these different modes of bodily action we must distinguish
+as clearly as may be possible.
+
+1. Reflex Action. I touch something cold or hot in the dark,
+suddenly and unexpectedly. I draw back my hand involuntarily and
+before I have perceived the sensation of cold or heat. You tell me
+to keep my eyes open while you make a sudden pass at them with your
+hand. I try hard to do so, but my eyes shut for all that. I shut
+them unconsciously and against my own will. I say, "They shut of
+themselves." Now, this is not true, but the explanation is not
+difficult. These and similar actions are entirely possible, although
+the continuity between spinal marrow and brain may have been so
+interrupted by some accident that sensation in the reflexly active
+part fails altogether. A bird flaps its wings after its head is cut
+off, and yet the seat of consciousness and will is certainly in the
+brain. A patient with a "broken back," and paralyzed in his legs,
+will draw up his feet if they are tickled, although he is entirely
+unable to move them by any effort of his will and has no
+consciousness of the irritation.
+
+The physiological action is in this case clear. The vibration of the
+nerve caused by the tickling travels from the foot to the
+appropriate centre in the spinal marrow, and here gives rise to, or
+is switched off as, a motor impulse travelling back to the muscles
+of the leg, causing them to contract. In the injured patient the
+nervous impulse cannot reach the brain, the seat of consciousness,
+and hence this is not awakened. Normally consciousness does result
+in a majority of such cases, but only after the beginning or
+completion of the appropriate action. Yet the movements of our
+internal organs, intestine and heart, go on continually, and in
+health we remain entirely unconscious of their action.
+
+But reflex actions may be anything but simple. We walk and talk, and
+write or play the piano without ever thinking of a single muscle or
+organ. Yet we had once to learn with much effort to take each step
+or frame each letter. Thus actions, originally conscious and
+intended, easily become reflex; often repeated the brain leaves
+their control to the lower centres. We often say, "I did not intend
+to do that; I could not help it." We forget that this excuse is our
+worst condemnation. It is a confession that we have allowed or
+encouraged a habit to wear a groove from which the wheels of our
+life cannot escape. The essential characteristic of reflex action is
+therefore that from beginning to completion it goes on independently
+of consciousness.
+
+2. Instinct. This is a much-abused word. It is frequently applied to
+all the mental actions of animals without much thought or care as to
+its meaning. Let us gain a definition from the study of a typical
+case lest we use the word as a cloak for ignorance or negligent
+thoughtlessness. Watch a spider building its wonderful geometrical
+web. The web is a work of art, and every motion of the spider
+beautifully adapted to its purpose. But the spider is not therefore
+necessarily an artist. Let us see of how much the spider is probably
+conscious, remembering that our best judgment is but an inference.
+We have good reason to believe that she is conscious of the stimulus
+to action, hunger. She may be, probably is, conscious of the end to
+be attained--to catch a fly for her dinner. She seems conscious of
+what she is doing. In all these respects this differs from reflex
+action. But she is probably unconscious of the exact fitness of the
+means to the end. We do not believe that she has adopted the
+geometrical pattern, because she has discovered or calculated that
+this will make the closest and largest net for the smallest outlay
+of labor and material. Furthermore the young spider builds
+practically as good a web as the old one. She has inherited the
+power, not developed or gained it by experience or observation. And
+all the members of the species have inherited it in much the same
+degree of perfection.
+
+Concerning the origin of instincts there are several theories. Some
+instincts would seem to be the result of non-intelligent, perhaps
+unconscious, habits becoming fixed by heredity and improved by
+natural selection; others would appear to be modifications of
+actions originally due to intelligence. Instinct is therefore
+characterized by consciousness of the stimulus to act, of the means
+and end, without the knowledge of the exact adaptation of means to
+end. It is hereditary and characterizes species or large groups.
+
+3. Intelligent Action. You come in cold and sit down before an open
+fire. You push the brands together to make the fire burn. Applying
+once more the criterion of consciousness to this action we notice
+that you are conscious of the stimulus to act, of the steps of the
+action, and of the end to be attained, exactly as in instinctive
+action. But finally, and this is the essential characteristic of
+intelligent action, you are aware to a certain extent of the fitness
+of the means to the attainment of the end. This piece of knowledge
+you had to acquire for yourself. Erasmus Darwin defined a fool as a
+man who had never tried an experiment. Experience and observation,
+not heredity, are the sources of intelligence. Intelligence is power
+to think, and a man may be very learned--for do we not have learned
+pigs?--and yet have very little real intelligence. Hence this is
+possessed by different individuals in very varying degrees.
+
+We may now briefly compare these three kinds of nervous action.
+
+Reflex action is involuntary and unconscious. The actor may, and
+usually does, become conscious of the action after it has been
+commenced or completed, but this is not at all necessary or
+universal.
+
+Instinctive action is to a certain extent voluntary and conscious.
+The actor is conscious of the stimulus, the means and mode, and the
+end or purpose of the action. Of the exact fitness or adaptation of
+the means to the end the actor is unconscious.
+
+Intelligent action is conscious and voluntary. The actor is
+conscious of the stimulus to act, of the means and mode, and to a
+certain extent of the adaptation of the means to the end. This last
+item of knowledge, lacking in instinctive action, is acquired by
+experience or observation.
+
+Reflex action may be regarded as a comparatively mechanical, though
+often very complex, process; the reflex ganglia appear to be hardly
+more than switch-boards. There is stimulus of the sense-organs, and
+thus what Mr. Romanes has called "unfelt sensation," unfelt as far
+as the completion of the action is concerned. But in instinct the
+sensation no longer remains unfelt; perception is necessary,
+consciousness plays a part. And this consciousness is a vastly more
+subtle element, differing as much apparently from the vibration of
+brain, or nervous, molecules as the Geni from the rubbing of
+Aladdin's lamp, to borrow an illustration.
+
+But this element of consciousness is one which it is exceedingly
+difficult to detect in our analysis, and yet upon it our
+classification and the psychic position of an animal must to a
+great extent depend. The amoeba contracts when pricked,
+jelly-fishes swim toward the light, the earthworm, "alarmed" by the
+tread of your foot, withdraws into its hole. Are these and similar
+actions reflex or instinctive? A grain of consciousness preceding an
+action which before has been reflex changes it into instinct. Mr.
+Romanes, probably correctly, regards them as purely reflex. We must,
+I think, believe that these actions result in consciousness even in
+the lowest forms. The selection and attainment of food certainly
+looks like conscious action. Probably all nerve-cells or nervous
+material were originally, even in the lowest forms, dimly conscious;
+then by division of labor some became purely conductive, others more
+highly perceptive. The important thing for us to remember in our
+present ignorance is not to be dogmatic.
+
+Furthermore, the gain of a grain of consciousness of the adaptation
+of certain means to special ends changes instinctive action into
+intelligent, and its loss may reverse the process. Fortunately we
+have found that in so far as actions, even instinctive, are modified
+by experience, they are becoming to that extent intelligent. This
+criterion of intelligence seems easily applied. But this profiting
+by experience must manifest itself within the lifetime of the
+individual, or in lines outside of circumstances to which its
+ordinary instincts are adapted, or we may give to individual
+intelligence the credit due really to natural selection. We must be
+cautious in our judgments.
+
+These reflex actions are performed independently of consciousness or
+will. Consciousness may, probably does, attend the selection and
+grasping of food; but most of the actions of the body will go on
+better without its interference. It is not yet sufficiently
+developed, or, so to speak, wise enough to be intrusted with much
+control of the animal.
+
+Among higher worms cases of instinct seem proven. Traces of it will
+almost certainly be yet found much lower down. Fresh-water mussels
+migrate into deeper water at the approach of cold weather. And if
+the clam has instincts, there is no reason why the turbellaria
+should not also possess them. But all higher powers develop
+gradually, and their beginnings usually elude our search. Along the
+line leading from annelids to insects instinct is becoming dominant.
+A supraoesophageal ganglion has developed, and has been relieved
+of most of the direct control of the muscles. Very good sense-organs
+are also present. From this time on consciousness becomes clearer,
+and the brain is beginning to assert its right to at least know what
+is going on in the body, and to have something to say about it.
+Still, as long as the actions remain purely instinctive the brain,
+while conscious, is governed by heredity. The animal does as its
+ancestors always have. It does not occur to it to ask why it should
+do thus or otherwise, or whether other means would be better fitted
+to the end in view. It acts exactly like most of the members of our
+great political and theological parties. And until the animal has a
+better brain this is its best course and is favored by natural
+selection.
+
+But the hand of even the best dead ancestors cannot always be
+allowed to hold the helm. The brain is still enlarging, the
+sense-organs bring in fuller and more definite reports of a wider
+environment. Greater freedom of action by means of a stronger
+locomotive system is bringing continually new and varied
+experiences. And if, as in vertebrates, longer life be added,
+frequent repetition of the experience deepens the impression.
+Slowly, as if tentatively, the animal begins to modify some of its
+instincts, at first only in slight details, or to adopt new lines of
+action not included in its old instincts, but suited to the new
+emergencies. This is the dawn of intelligence. Its beginnings still
+remain undiscovered. Mr. Darwin believes that traces of it can be
+found in earthworms and other annelids. He also tells us that
+oysters taken from a depth never uncovered by the sea, and
+transported inland, open their shells, lose the contained water, and
+die; but that left in reservoirs, where they are occasionally left
+uncovered for a short time, they learn to keep their shells shut,
+and live for a much longer time when removed from the water. If
+oysters can learn by experience, lower worms probably can do the
+same.
+
+Certain experiments made on sea-anemones, actinæ animals a little
+more highly organized than hydra, demand repetition under careful
+observation.[A] The observer placed on one of the tentacles of a
+sea-anemone a bit of paper which had been dipped in beef-juice. It
+was seized and carried to the mouth and here discarded. This
+tentacle after one or two experiments refused to have anything more
+to do with it. But other tentacles could be successively cheated.
+The nerve-cells governing each tentacle appear to have been able to
+learn by experience, but each group in the diffuse nervous system
+had to learn separately. The dawn of this much of intelligence far
+down in the animal kingdom would not be surprising, for the
+selection and grasping of food has always involved higher mental
+power than most of the actions of these lowest animals. Memory goes
+far down in the animal kingdom. Perhaps, as Professor Haeckel has
+urged, it is an ultimate mental property of protoplasm. And the
+memory of past experience would continually tend to modify habit or
+instinct.
+
+  [Footnote A: These experiments have been continued with most
+  interesting and valuable results by Dr. G.H. Parker, of Harvard
+  University.]
+
+It is unsafe, therefore, to say just where intelligence begins. At a
+certain point we find dim traces of it; below that we have failed to
+find them. But that they will not be found, we dare not affirm. In
+the highest insects instinct predominates, but marks of intelligence
+are fairly abundant. Ants and wasps modify their habits to suit
+emergencies which instinct alone could hardly cope with. Bees learn
+to use grafting wax instead of propolis to stop the chinks in their
+hives, and soon cease to store up honey in a warm climate.
+
+Our knowledge of vertebrate psychology is not yet sufficient to give
+a history of the struggle for supremacy between instinct and
+intelligence, between inherited tendency and the consciousness of
+the individual. But the outcome is evident; intelligence prevails,
+instinct wanes. The actions of the young may be purely instinctive;
+it is better that they should be. But instinct in the adult is more
+and more modified by intelligence gained by experience. There is
+perhaps no more characteristic instinct than the habit of
+nest-building in birds. And yet there are numerous instances where
+the structure and position of nests have been completely changed to
+suit new circumstances. And the view that this habit is a pure
+instinct, unmodified by intelligence, has been disproved by Mr.
+Wallace. But while size of brain, keenness of sense-organs, and
+length of life may be rightly emphasized as the most important
+elements in the development of vertebrate intelligence, the
+importance of the appendages should never be forgotten. Cats seem to
+have acquired certain accomplishments--opening doors, ringing
+door-bells, etc.--never attained by the more intelligent dog, mainly
+because of the greater mobility and better powers of grasping of the
+forepaws. The elephant has its trunk and the ape its hand. The power
+of handling and the increased size of the brain aided each other in
+a common advance.
+
+The teachableness of mammals is also a sign of high intelligence.
+The young are often taught by the parent, a dim foreshadowing of the
+human family relation. And we notice this capacity in domestic
+animals because of its practical value to man. And here, too, we
+notice the difference between individuals, which fails in instinct.
+All spiders of the same species build and hunt alike, although
+differences caused by the moulding influence of intelligence will
+probably be here discovered. But among individual dogs and horses we
+find all degrees of intelligence from absolute stupidity to high
+intelligence. And many mammals are slandered grievously by man. The
+pig is not stupid, far from it.
+
+Still only in man does intelligence reign supreme and clearly show
+its innate powers. But even in man certain realms, like those of the
+internal organs, are rarely invaded by consciousness, but are
+normally left to the control of reflex action. These actions go on
+better without the interference of consciousness.
+
+But other lines of action are relegated as rapidly as possible to
+the same control. We learn to walk by a conscious effort to take
+each step; afterward we take each step automatically, and think only
+whither we wish to go. We learn by conscious effort to talk and
+write, to sing, or play the piano. Afterward we frame each letter or
+note automatically, and think only of the idea and its expression.
+
+So also in our moral and spiritual nature.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Mr. James Freeman Clarke has stated this better than I
+  can. "We may state the law thus: 'Any habitual course of conduct
+  changes voluntary actions into automatic or involuntary (_i.e._,
+  reflex) actions.' By practice man forms habits, and habitual action
+  is automatic action, requiring no exercise of will except at the
+  beginning of the series of acts. The law of association does the
+  rest. As voluntary acts are transformed into automatic, the will is
+  set free to devote itself to higher efforts and larger attainments.
+  After telling the truth a while by an effort, we tell the truth
+  naturally, necessarily, automatically. After giving to good objects
+  for a while from principle, we give as a matter of course. Honesty
+  becomes automatic; self-control becomes automatic. We rule over our
+  spirit, repress ill-temper, keep down bad feelings, first by an
+  effort, afterwards as a matter of course.
+
+  "Possibly these virtues really become incarnate in the bodily
+  organization. Possibly goodness is made flesh and becomes
+  consolidate in the fibres of the brain. Vices, beginning in the
+  soul, seem to become at last bodily diseases; why may not virtues
+  follow the same law? If it were not for some such law of
+  accumulation as this, the work of life would have to be begun
+  forever anew. Formation of character would be impossible. We should
+  be incapable of progress, our whole strength being always employed
+  in battling with our first enemies, learning evermore anew our
+  earliest lessons. But by our present constitution he who has taken
+  one step can take another, and life may become a perpetual advance
+  from good to better. And the highest graces of all--Faith, Hope, and
+  Love--obey the same law." See James Freeman Clarke, Every-Day
+  Religion, p. 122.]
+
+There has been therefore in the successive forms and stages of
+animal life a clear sequence of dominant nervous actions. The
+actions of all animals below the annelid are mainly reflex or
+automatic, unconscious and involuntary. But in insects and lower
+vertebrates the highest actions at least are instinctive.
+Consciousness plays a continually more important part. Still the
+actions are controlled by hereditary tendency far more than by the
+will of the individual. But in man instinct has been almost entirely
+replaced by conscious, voluntary, intelligent action. And yet in
+man, as rapidly as possible, actions which at first require
+conscious effort become, through repetition and habit, reflex and
+automatic. All our conscious effort and the energy of the will,
+being no longer required for these oft-repeated actions, are set
+free for higher attainments. The territory which had to be conquered
+by hard battles has become an integral part of the realm. It now
+hardly requires even a garrison, but has become a source of supplies
+for a new advance and march of conquest.
+
+But all this time we have been talking about action and have not
+given a thought to the will. And we have spoken as if conscious
+perception and intelligence directly controlled will and action. But
+this is of course incorrect. Will is practically power of choice.
+You ask me whether I prefer this or that, and I answer perhaps that
+I do not care. Until I "care" I shall never choose. The perception
+must arouse some feeling, if it is to result in choice. I see a
+diamond in the road and think it is merely a piece of glass. I do
+not stop. But as I am passing on; I remember that there was a
+remarkable brilliancy in its flash. It must have been, after all, a
+gem. My feelings are aroused. How proud I shall feel to wear it. Or
+how much money I can get for it. Or how glad the owner will be when
+it is returned to her. I turn back and search eagerly. Perception is
+necessary, but it is only the first step. The perception must excite
+some feeling, if choice or exertion of the will is to follow. This
+is a truism.
+
+Now reflex action takes place independently of consciousness or
+will. Instinctive action may be voluntary, but it is, after all, not
+so much the result of individual purpose as of hereditary tendency.
+Is there then no will in the animal until it has become intelligent?
+I think there has been a sort of voluntary action all the time. Even
+the amoeba selects or chooses, if I may use the word, its food
+among the sand grains. And the will is stimulated to act by the
+appetite. Hunger is the first teacher. And how did appetite develop?
+Why does the animal hunger for just the food suited to its digestion
+and needs? We do not know. And the reproductive appetite soon
+follows. One of these results from the condition of the digestive,
+the other from that of the reproductive, cells or protoplasm. These
+appetites are due to some condition in a part of the organism and
+can be _felt_. They are in a sense not of the mind but of the body.
+And the response to them on the part of the mind is in some respects
+almost comparable to reflex action. But the mode of the response is,
+to a certain extent at least, within the control of consciousness.
+They train and spur the will as pure reflex action never could. But
+the will is as yet hardly more than the expression of these
+appetites. It expresses not so much its own decision as that of the
+stomach. It is the body's slave and mouthpiece. And once again it is
+best and safest for the animal that it should be so.
+
+And these appetites are at first comparatively feeble. There is but
+little muscle or nerve and but little food is required. But these
+continually strengthen and spur the will harder and more frequently.
+And the will stirs up the weary and flagging muscles. The will may
+be a poor slave and the appetites hard taskmasters. But under their
+stern discipline it is growing stronger and more completely
+subjugating the body. Better slavery to hard taskmasters than
+rottenness from inertia. The first requirement is power, activity,
+and then this power can be directed to ever higher ends. You cannot
+steer the vessel until she has sails or an engine; with no "way on"
+she will not mind the helm, she only drifts. But the condition of
+the animal at this stage certainly looks very unpromising. Can the
+will emancipate itself from appetite and control it? Or is it to
+remain the slave of the body?
+
+In time an emotion appears which marks the influence not directly of
+the body but of the individual consciousness. This is fear; it is
+for the body, but not, like hunger, directly of it. It arises in the
+mind. It results from experience and memory. The first animal which
+feared took a long step upward. But when and where was the dawn of
+fear? I touch a sea-anemone and it contracts. Has it felt fear? I
+think not. The action certainly may be purely reflex. Natural
+selection, not mind, deserves the credit of that action. But I am
+sure that the cat fears the dog, or the dog the cat, as the case may
+be. I have little or no doubt that the bird fears the cat. I am
+inclined to believe that the insect fears the bird and the spider
+the wasp. But does the highest worm fear? I do not know. I do not
+see how there can have been any fear until there was a nerve-centre
+highly enough developed to remember past experiences of danger and
+fair sense-organs to report the present risk.
+
+Other emotions soon follow. Anger appears early. The order of
+appearance of these emotions or motives I shall not attempt to give
+to you. Indeed this is to us of relatively slight importance. The
+important point to notice is that a host of these have appeared in
+mammals and birds, and that each one of these is a new spur to the
+will. And the will of a horse or dog, to say nothing of a pig, is by
+no means feeble. And these are slowly emancipating the animal from
+the tyranny of appetite. But how slow the progress is! Has the
+emancipation yet become complete in man? I need not answer.
+
+The will has in part, at least, escaped from abject slavery to
+appetite; it sometimes rises superior to fear. But it is evidently
+self-centred. The animal may have forgotten the claims of his dead
+ancestors, he is certainly fully alive to his own interests. Can he
+even partially rise superior to prudential considerations, as he has
+to some extent to the claims of appetite? Is it possible to develop
+the unselfish out of the purely selfish? And if so, how is this to
+be accomplished? It is not accomplished in the animal; it is but
+very incompletely accomplished in man. It will be accomplished one
+day.
+
+In action, at least, the animal is not purely selfish. As Mr.
+Drummond has shown, reproduction, that old function and first to
+gain an organ, is not primarily for the benefit of self, but for the
+species. And not only the storing up of material in the egg, but
+care for the young after birth, is found in some fish and insects,
+and increases from fish upward. I readily grant you that this in its
+beginnings may be purely instinctive, and that not a particle of
+genuine affection for the young may as yet be present in the mind of
+the parent. But beneficial habits may, under the fostering care of
+selection, develop into instincts. The animal may at first be
+unconscious of these, and yet they may grow continually stronger.
+But one day the animal awakens to its actions, and from that time on
+what had been done blindly and unconsciously is continued
+consciously, intelligently, and from set purpose. This story is
+repeated over and over again in the history of the animal-kingdom.
+The care for the young once started as an instinct, affection will
+follow from the very association of parent with young. Certainly in
+birds and mammals there seems to be a very genuine love of the
+parents for their young. This is at first short lived, and the young
+are and have to be driven away, often by harsh treatment, to shift
+for themselves. But while it lasts it certainly seems entirely real
+and genuine. And how strong it is. "A bear robbed of her whelps" is
+no meaningless expression. And even the weak and timid bird or
+mammal becomes strong and fierce in defence of her young. In the
+presence of this emotion appetite and fear are alike forgotten.
+
+But this affection or love once started does not remain limited to
+parent and offspring. Mammals, especially the higher forms, are
+social. They frequently go in herds and troops, and appear to have a
+genuine affection for each other. You all know how in herds of
+cattle or wild horses the males form a circle around the females and
+young at the approach of wolves. A troop of orangs were surprised by
+dogs at a little distance from their shelter. The old male orangs
+formed a ring and beat off the dogs until the females and young
+could escape, and then retreated. But as they were now in
+comparative safety a cry came from one young one, who had been
+unable to keep up in the scramble over the rocks, and was left on a
+bowlder surrounded by the dogs. Then one old orang turned back,
+fought his way through the dogs, tucked the little fellow under one
+arm, fought his way out with the other, and brought the young one to
+safety. I call that old orang a hero, but I am prejudiced and may
+easily be mistaken.
+
+In a cage in a European zoölogical garden there were kept together a
+little American monkey and a large baboon of which the former was
+greatly afraid. The keeper, to whom the little monkey was strongly
+attached, was one day attacked and thrown down by the baboon and in
+danger of being killed. Then the little monkey ran to his help, and
+bit and beat his tyrant companion until he allowed the keeper to
+escape. We are all proud that the little monkey was an American.
+
+Instances of disinterested actions are so common among dogs and
+horses that farther illustrations are entirely unnecessary. And
+disinterested action is limited to fewer cases because the
+environment is rarely suited to its development in the animal world.
+But do you answer that the affection of the dog is never really
+disinterested, but a very refined form of selfishness. Possibly. But
+it were to be greatly desired that selfishness would more frequently
+take that same refined form among men. But I cannot see how
+selfishness can ever become so refined as to lead an animal to die
+of grief over its master's grave.
+
+And if refined selfishness were all, I for one cannot help believing
+that the dog would long ago have been asleep on a full stomach
+before the kitchen fire. Has no attempt been made to prove that all
+human actions are due to selfishness more or less refined? It is
+very unwise to apply tests and use arguments concerning animals
+which, if applied with equal strictness to human conduct, would
+prove human society irrational and purely selfish.
+
+Mammals may be self-centred. But the highest forms have set their
+faces away from self and toward the non-self; some have at least
+started on the road which leads to unselfishness.
+
+And man is governed to a certain extent by prudential
+considerations. If he entirely disregarded these he would not be
+wise. But the development of the rational faculty has brought before
+his mind a series of motives higher than these, which are slowly but
+surely superseding them. Truth, right, and duty are motives of a
+different order. With regard to these there can be no question of
+profit or loss. Here the mind cannot stop to ask, Will it pay? Self
+must be left out of account.
+
+        "When duty whispers low, Thou must,
+         The soul replies, I can."
+
+And thus man rises above appetite, above prudential considerations,
+and becomes a free and moral agent. And family and social life bring
+him into new relations, press home upon him new duties and
+responsibilities, every one of which is a new motive compelling him
+to rise above self. And thus the unselfish, altruistic emotions have
+made man what he is, and are in him, ever advancing toward their
+future supremacy. But some one will say, This is a very pretty
+theory; it is not history. But the perception of truth and right is
+certainly a fact, the result of ages of development. And the very
+highest which the intellect can perceive is bound to become the
+controlling motive of the will. It always has been so. It must be
+so, if evolution is not to be purely degeneration. Thus only has man
+become what he is. And the voice of the people demanding truth and
+justice, whenever and wherever they see them, is the voice of God
+promising the future triumph of righteousness. For it is proof
+positive that man's face is resolutely set toward these, as his
+ancestors have always marched steadily toward that which was the
+highest possible attainment.
+
+We find thus that there is a sequence in the motives which control
+the will. The first and lowest motives are the appetites, and here
+the will is the mouthpiece of the bodily organs. Then fear and a
+host of other prudential considerations appear. The lowest of these
+tend purely to the gratification of the senses or to the avoidance
+of bodily discomfort. But they originate in the mind, and that is a
+great gain. But the higher prudential considerations take into
+account something higher than mere bodily comfort or discomfort.
+Approbation and disapprobation are motives which weigh heavily with
+the higher mammals. The lower prudential considerations are purely
+selfish. The higher ones, which stimulate to action for
+fellow-animals or men, show at least the dawn of unselfishness. And
+the altruistic motives, which stimulate to action for the happiness
+and welfare of others, predominate in, and are characteristic of,
+man. The human will is slowly rising above the dominance of
+selfishness. With the dawn of the rational perception of truth,
+right, and duty, the very highest motives begin to gain control.
+And the will becomes more and more powerful as the motives become
+higher. It is almost a mis-use of language to speak of the will of a
+slave of appetite. He is governed by the body, not at all by the
+mind.
+
+The man who is governed by prudential considerations, and is always
+asking, Will it pay? is the incarnation of fickleness, instability,
+and feebleness. The apparent strength of the selfish will is usually
+a hollow sham. But truth, right, and love are motives stronger than
+death. And the will, dominated by these, gives the body to be
+burned. The man of the future will have an iron will, because he
+will keep these highest motives constantly before his mind.
+
+In the preceding lectures we have traced the sequence of functions
+and have found that brain and mind, not digestion and muscle, are
+the goal of animal development. In this lecture we have attempted to
+trace a corresponding series of functions in the realm of mind. We
+have found, I think, that there has been an orderly and logical
+development of perceptions, modes of action, and finally of motives
+in the animal mind. Let us now briefly review this history and see
+whether it throws any light on the path of man's future progress.
+
+Most of the sensory cells of the animal minister at first to reflex
+action, and there is thus little true perception. The stimuli which
+have called forth the reflex action may result afterward in
+consciousness; but until brain and muscle have reached a higher
+grade, this could be of but slight benefit to the animal. Perception
+and consciousness are exercised mainly in the recognition and
+attainment of food. When the animal begins to show fear, we may
+feel tolerably certain that it has been conscious of past experience
+of danger and remembers these experiences. 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 æsthetic 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. And in this connection it is
+interesting to notice the great results of man's training and
+education in the dog. For the wolf and the jackal, the dog's
+nearest relatives, if not his actual ancestors, are not especially
+intelligent mammals. Compared with them the dog is a sage and a
+saint.
+
+The earliest form of action is the reflex. This is independent of
+both consciousness and will. The only conscious voluntary action of
+the animal is limited mainly or entirely to the recognition and
+attainment of food. The motive for the exertion of the will is the
+appetite, and the will is the slave or mouthpiece of the body. Far
+higher than this is the stage of instinct. Here the animal is
+conscious of its actions and new motives begin to appear. But the
+animal is guided by tendencies inherited from its ancestors. The
+will has, so to speak, advisory power; it is by no means supreme.
+But with a wider and deeper knowledge of its environment, with the
+memory of past experiences, carried by the higher locomotive powers
+into new surroundings, brought face to face with new emergencies
+outside of the range of its old instincts, it is compelled to try
+some experiments of its own. It begins to modify these instincts,
+and in time altogether does away with many of them. It has risen a
+little above its old abject slavery to the appetites, it is slowly
+throwing off the bondage to heredity. New emotions or motives have
+arisen appealing directly to the individual will. The heir has been
+long enough under guardians and regents, it assumes the government
+and can rightly say, "L'état, c'est moi."
+
+But a greater problem confronts it; can it rise above self? The
+animal often seems absolutely selfish. Can the unselfish be
+developed out of the selfish? This seems at first sight impossible.
+And the first lessons are so easy, the first steps so short, that we
+do not notice them. Reproduction comes to the aid of mind. The
+young are born more and more immature. They begin to receive the
+care of the parent. The love of the parent for the young is at first
+short lived and feeble. But it is the genuine article, and, like the
+mustard-seed planted in good soil, must grow. It strengthens and
+deepens. Soon it begins to widen also. Social life, very rude and
+imperfect, appears. And the members of this social group support,
+help, and defend one another. And doing for one another and helping
+each other, however slightly and imperfectly, strengthens their
+affection for one another. The animal is still selfish, so is man
+frequently, but it is in a fair way to become unselfish, and this is
+all we can reasonably expect of it.
+
+For these are vast revolutions from reflex action to instinct, and
+from instinct to the reign of the individual will, and from appetite
+to selfishness on the ground of higher motives, and from immediate
+gratification to prudential considerations. And the crowning change
+of all is from selfishness to love. And each one of them takes time.
+Remember that the Old Testament history is the record of how God
+taught one little people that there is but one God, Jehovah. Think
+of the struggles, defeats, and captivities which the Israelites had
+to undergo before they learned this lesson, and even then only a
+fraction of the people ever learned it at all. As the prophet
+foretold, so it came to pass. Though Israel was as the sand by the
+sea-shore, but a remnant was saved.
+
+But while we seek to do full justice to the animal, let us not
+underestimate the vast differences between it and man. The true
+evolutionist takes no low view of man's present actual attainments;
+in his possibilities he has a larger faith than that of the
+disbeliever in evolution. In intelligence and thought, in will power
+and freedom of choice, in one word, in all that makes up character
+and personality, man is immeasurably superior to the animal. These
+powers raise him to a new plane of being, give him an indefinitely
+higher and broader life, and his appearance marks a new era. He
+alone is a moral, responsible being, to a certain extent the former
+of his own destiny and recorder of his doom, if he fails. This gives
+to all his actions a peculiar stamp of a dignity only his. What he
+is and is to be we must attempt to trace in another lecture. But to
+one or two characteristic results of his progress we must call
+attention here.
+
+The principal subject of man's study is not so much the things which
+surround him as his relation to them and theirs to each other. His
+environment has become really one, not so much one of tangible and
+visible objects as of invisible relations. And these will demand
+endless investigation. The more he studies them the more wonderful
+do they become. The vein broadens and grows indefinitely richer the
+deeper he searches into it. We find thus the purpose of the
+intellect; it is to study environment.
+
+And now a little about motives. The animal begins with appetite, and
+some animals and men never get any farther. And yet how easily this
+appetite for food is satiated! We all remember our experiences as
+children around the Thanksgiving or Christmas table. What a
+disappointment it was to us to find how soon our appetite had
+forsaken us, and that we had lost the power of enjoying the
+delicacies which we had most anticipated. And over-indulgence often
+brought sad results and was followed by a period of penitential
+fasting. And the appetites for sense gratification must always lead
+to this result. They not only crave things which "perish with the
+using;" temporarily at least, often permanently, the appetite itself
+perishes with the gratification.
+
+But what of the appetite, if you will pardon the expression, for
+truth and right? All attainment only strengthens it; and, instead of
+enslaving, it makes men ever more free. And yet what a power there
+is in the appetite for truth and righteousness? In obedience to it
+man gives his body to be burned, or pours out his life-blood drop by
+drop for its attainment, and rejoices in the sacrifice. There are
+victims to appetite: there are only martyrs to truth. This soul
+hunger for truth and right, growing more intense as the soul is
+filled with the object of desire, is the only one capable of
+indefinite development and dominance of the will. This must be and
+is the mental goal of animal development, if man has a future
+corresponding in length at all to his past. Otherwise the history of
+life becomes a "story told by an idiot." For its satisfaction is the
+only one which never causes satiety, and of which over-indulgence is
+impossible. All others lead only to a slough of despond, or the
+deeper and more treacherous slough of contentment, beyond which rise
+no delectable mountains or golden city.
+
+And now in closing let me call your attention to one thought of
+practical vital importance.
+
+According to the theory which we have agreed to adopt, higher
+species have arisen through a process of natural selection, those
+species surviving which are best conformed to their environment.
+And this applies to man as well as to lower animals. All knowledge
+is in man, therefore, primarily, a means by which he may conform to
+environment, survive, and progress. But conformity includes more
+than mere knowledge of environment. A man might have all knowledge,
+and yet refuse to conform; and then his knowledge could not save him
+from destruction. For conformity alone gives survival. Conformity in
+man requires an effort of the will. It is intelligent, but it is
+also voluntary action. And knowledge is a necessary means of
+conformity because through it we see how we may conform, and because
+it furnishes the motives which stimulate the will to the necessary
+effort.
+
+Now, that faculty of the intellect which is dominant in man, and
+which has raised him immeasurably above the animal, and made him
+man, is the rational intelligence. If there is any such thing as a
+law of history or as continuity in evolution, man's future progress
+must depend upon his clearer vision and recognition of the
+perceptions of this faculty. Through it man perceives beauty, truth,
+and goodness, and attains knowledge of himself as a person and moral
+agent, and recognizes his rights and duties. Of all this the animal
+is and remains unconscious; indeed he is not yet a moral being and
+person in any proper sense of the word.
+
+Inasmuch as the rational perception is the dominant faculty in man,
+it must perceive the lines along which he is to conform. Truth,
+right, and duty must be his watchwords. These are to be the rules
+and motives of all his actions. He cannot live for the body, but for
+something higher, the mind. This was proven before man appeared on
+the globe. He is to be a mental, intelligent being. But he is not to
+be governed by appetite or mere prudential considerations. These are
+animal, not human motives. These are not to be disregarded any more
+than digestion can be safely disregarded by man. But they are not to
+be his chief motives. He must subordinate these to the higher
+motives furnished by right and duty. Man is not merely a mental but
+a moral being. If he sinks below this plane of life he is not
+following the path marked out for him in all his past development.
+In order to progress, the higher vertebrate had to subordinate
+everything to mental development. In order to become man it had to
+develop the rational intelligence. In order to become higher man,
+present man must subordinate everything to moral development. This
+is the great law of animal and human development clearly revealed in
+the sequence of physical and mental functions.
+
+Must man be a religious being also? This question we must try to
+answer in a future lecture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT
+
+
+I have attempted to show that animal development has not been an
+aimless drifting. Functions developed and organs arose and were
+perfected in a certain order. First the purely vegetative organs
+appeared, and the animal lived for digestion and reproduction; then
+came muscle and it brought with it nerve. But these were not enough;
+the brain had all the time been gradually improving, and now it
+becomes the dominant function to which all others are subordinated.
+The experiment was fairly tried. Mere digestion and reproduction are
+carried to about the highest perfection which can be expected of
+them in worms and mollusks. The bird tried what could be done with
+digestion ministering to locomotion guided by the very keenest
+sense-organs and controlled by no mean brain. Even this experiment
+was not a success. But one organ remained, the brain, and on its
+mental possibilities depend the future of the animal kingdom.
+Vegetative organs and muscle have been tried and found wanting.[1]
+
+  [Footnote 1: See chart, p. 310.]
+
+We have followed hastily the development of mind. The mind began its
+career as the servant of digestion, recognizing and aiding to attain
+food. Action is at first mainly reflex. But conscious perception
+plays an ever more important part. The animal is at first guided by
+natural selection through the survival of the most suitable reflex
+actions, then by inherited tendencies, finally by its own conscious
+intelligence and will. The first motives are the appetites, but
+these are succeeded by ever higher motives as the perceptions become
+clearer and more subtile relations in environment are taken into
+account. Governed first purely by appetites, the will is ever more
+influenced by prudential considerations, and finally shows
+well-developed "natural affections." It has set its face toward
+unselfishness.
+
+Digestion and muscle, as well as mind, have persisted in man. He is
+not, cannot be, disembodied spirit. And in his mental life reflex
+action and instinct, appetite and prudence, are still of great
+importance. But the higher and supreme development of these powers
+could never have resulted in man. They might alone have produced a
+superior animal, never man. His mammalian structure found its
+logical and natural goal in family and social life. And even the
+lowest goal of family life is incompatible with pure selfishness,
+and as family life advanced to an ever higher grade it became the
+school of unselfishness and love. And social life had a similar
+effect.
+
+Moreover, man as a social being early began to learn that he could
+claim something from his fellows, and that he owed something to
+them. If he refused to help others, they would refuse to help him.
+This was his first, very rude lesson in rights and duties. Love,
+duty, and right have ever since been the watchwords of his
+development and progress. We have not yet considered, and must for
+the present disregard, the value and efficiency of religion in
+aiding his advance. At present we emphasize only the historical
+fact that man has not become what he is by a higher development of
+the body, nor by giving free rein to appetite, nor yet by making the
+dictates of selfish prudence supreme. And if there is any such thing
+as continuity in history, such modes and aims of life, if now
+followed, would surely only brutalize him and plunge him headlong in
+degeneration. He must live for right, truth, love, and duty. In just
+so far as he makes any other aim in life supreme, or allows it to
+even rival these, he is sinking into brutality. This is the clear,
+unmistakable verdict of history, and we shall do well to heed it.
+
+But granting all that can be claimed for this sequence, have not the
+lower forms whose anatomy we have sketched--worm, fish, and
+bird--halted at various points along this line of march? Yet they
+have evidently survived. And if they have found safe resting-places,
+cannot higher forms turn back and join them? In other words, is not
+degeneration easier than advance and just as safe? What is the
+result if an animal tries to return to a lower plane of life or
+refuses to take the next upward step? Generally extermination. The
+very classification of worms in a number of small isolated groups,
+which must once have been connected by a host of intermediate forms,
+is indisputable proof of most terrible extermination. They did not
+go forward, and the survivors are but an infinitesimal fraction of
+those which perished. Let us take an illustration where palæontology
+can help us. The earth was at one time covered with marsupial
+mammals. Some advanced into placental forms. The great mass remained
+behind. And outside of Australia the opossums are the only survivors
+of them all. And this is only one example where a thousand could be
+given. Place is not long reserved for mere cumberers of the ground.
+There are so few exceptions to this statement that we might almost
+call it a law of biology.
+
+Let us see how it fares with an animal which retreats to a lower
+plane of life. A worm, rather than seek its own food, becomes a
+parasite. It degenerates, but still is easily recognized as a worm.
+A crustacean tries the same experiment, though living outside of its
+host instead of in it. It sinks to a place even lower, if possible,
+than that of the parasitic worm. A locomotive form becomes sessile.
+It loses most of its muscles and the larger part of its nervous
+system; and even the digestive system, which it has made the goal of
+its existence, is inferior to that of its locomotive ancestors and
+relatives. But to the vertebrate these lowest depths of stagnation
+and degeneration are, as a rule, impossible. From true fish upward
+parasitism and sessile life are practically impossible. Here
+stagnation and degeneration mean, as a rule, extinction. Of all the
+relatives of vertebrates back to worms only the very aberrant lines
+of amphioxus and of the tunicata remain. Of the rest not a single
+survivor has yet been discovered. And yet what hosts of species must
+have peopled the sea. The primitive round-mouthed fishes have
+practically disappeared. The ganoids survive in a few species out of
+thousands. The amphibia of the carboniferous and the next period and
+the reptiles of the mesozoic have disappeared; only a few feeble
+degenerate remnants persist. And this was necessarily so. Each
+advancing form crowded hardest on those which occupied the same
+place and sought the same food, that is, the members of the same
+species. And the first to suffer from its competition were its own
+brethren. Death, rarely commuted into life imprisonment, is the
+verdict pronounced on all forms which will not advance. And does not
+the same law of advance or extinction apply to man? What is the
+record of successive civilizations but its verification?
+
+Notice once more that as we ascend in the scale of development
+natural selection selects more unsparingly and the path to life
+narrows. It is a very easy matter for the lowest forms to get food.
+Indeed the plant sits still and its food comes to it. And the battle
+of brute force can be fought in a multitude of ways--by mere
+strength, by activity, by offensive or defensive armor, or even by
+running into the mud and skulking. It is harder to gain knowledge,
+and yet many roads lead to an education. Colleges are by no means
+the only seats of education. And many totally uneducated men have
+college diplomas. And life is, after all, the great university, and
+here the sluggard fails and the plucky man with the poor "fit" often
+carries off the honors.
+
+  "But where shall wisdom be found?
+   And where is the place of understanding?
+   The gold and the crystal cannot equal it:
+   And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
+   No mention shall be made of corals or of pearls:
+   For the price of wisdom is above rubies."
+
+And when it comes to righteousness there is only one right, and
+everything else is wrong. "Wide is the gate and broad is the way
+that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat:
+Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto
+life, and few there be that find it." Therefore "strive to enter in
+at the strait gate." And remember that "strive" means wrestle like
+one of the athletes in the old Olympic games.
+
+   "I saw also that the Interpreter took Christian again by the hand
+   and led him into a pleasant place, where was built a stately
+   palace beautiful to behold; at the sight of which Christian was
+   greatly delighted. He saw also, upon the top thereof, certain
+   persons walking, who were clothed all in gold. Then said
+   Christian, May we go in thither?
+
+   "Then the Interpreter took him and led him up toward the door of
+   the palace; and, behold, at the door stood a great company of
+   men, as desirous to go in, but durst not. There also sat a man at
+   a little distance from the door at a table-side, to take the name
+   of him that should enter therein; he saw also that in the
+   door-way stood many men in armour, to keep it, being resolved to
+   do to the men that would enter what hurt and mischief they could.
+   Now was Christian somewhat in amaze. At last, when every man
+   started back for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man of a
+   very stout countenance come up to the man that sat there to
+   write, saying, Set down my name, Sir; the which when he had done,
+   he saw the man draw his sword, and put an helmet upon his head,
+   and rush toward the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him
+   with deadly force; but the man, not at all discouraged, fell to
+   cutting and hacking most fiercely. So after he had received and
+   given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him out, he cut
+   his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace, at
+   which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that were
+   within, even of those that walked upon the top of the palace
+   saying:
+
+        "'Come in, come in;
+          Eternal glory thou shalt win.'
+
+   "So he went in, and was clothed in such garments as they.
+
+   "Then Christian smiled, and said, I think verily I know the
+   meaning of this."--Bunyan's, Pilgrim's Progress, p. 44.
+
+If you wish to climb the Matterhorn many paths lead up the lower
+slopes, and a stumble here may cost you only a sprain. And I suppose
+that several paths lead to the base of the cone. But thence to the
+summit there is but one path, and a misstep means death. Pardon
+these quotations and illustrations. They are my only means of at all
+adequately presenting to you a scientific man's conception of the
+meaning of the struggle for life. The laws of evolution are written
+in blood and bear the death penalty. For
+
+              "Life is not as idle ore,
+        But iron dug from central gloom,
+        And heated hot with burning fears,
+        And dipt in baths of hissing tears,
+        And battered with the shocks of doom
+        To shape and use."
+
+There would seem therefore to be going on a process of natural
+selection. Natural selection seems to select more unsparingly and
+the struggle for life--or even existence--to grow fiercer as we
+advance from lower forms to higher in the animal kingdom.
+
+But the theory which we have agreed to accept teaches us that these
+survivors are those which or who have conformed to their environment
+and that they have survived because of their conformity. And what do
+we mean by environment? And does not man modify his environment?
+Certainly he changes by irrigation a desert into a garden. He
+carries water against its tendency to the hill-top. But he has
+learned to do this only by studying the laws which govern the
+motions of fluids and rigorously obeying them. He must carry his
+water in strong pipes and take it from some higher point, or must
+use heat or some means to furnish the force to drive it to the
+higher point. He cannot change a single iota of the law, and gains
+control of the elements only by obedience to their laws. Electricity
+is man's best servant as long as he respects its laws, but it kills
+him who disobeys them. But does not man make his own surroundings in
+social life? He merely enters upon a new mode of life; and if this
+new mode be in conformity with the eternal forces and laws of
+environment man prospers in this new mode of life and conforms still
+more closely.
+
+There is, indeed, but one environment, but the lower animal comes in
+contact with, and is affected by, but a small portion of its
+elements. Form and color were in the world before the animal had
+developed an eye, but up to this time these could have but little
+effect on animal life. Light vibrations were present in ether long
+before the animal by responding to them made them any part of its
+own true environment. There is vastly more in environment than man
+has yet discovered, and he will discover these elements only by
+obedience to their laws.
+
+Environment includes ultimately all the forces and elements which go
+to make up our world or universe. It is an exceedingly general term.
+I might say that under the environment of certain wheels, springs,
+and spindles, which we call a Jacquard loom, silk threads become a
+ribbon worthy of a queen. Is Nature and environment only a huge
+divine loom to weave man and something higher yet? One great
+difference is evident. Under normal conditions the silk must become
+a ribbon. But protoplasm can fail to conform and become waste.
+Environment is a very hard word to define, and our views concerning
+it may differ.
+
+One thing, however, seems to me clear and evident. If each
+successive stage in the ascending series is selected or survives on
+account of its conformity to environment there must be some element
+or power, something or somewhat in environment specially
+corresponding in some way to, or suited to drawing out, the
+characteristic of this ascending stage on account of which it
+survives. The forces and elements of environment make and work
+against those at each stage who wander from the right path, and for
+those who follow it. And thus natural selection arises as the total
+result of the combined working of all these forces. They all unite
+in one resultant working along a certain line, and natural selection
+is the effect of this resultant. In the stage represented by hydra
+the forces of environment combine in a resultant which works for
+digestion and reproduction and the best development of their organs.
+But as the animal changes he comes into a new relation or occupies a
+new position in respect to these forces. New elements in the old
+environment are beginning to press upon him. And the resultant
+changes accordingly. He may be compared to a steamer at sea which
+raises a sail. The wind has been blowing for hours, but the sail
+gives it a new hold on the ship. Steam and wind now combine in a new
+resultant of forces. From worms upward environment manifests itself
+through natural selection as a power working for muscular force and
+brute strength or activity.
+
+But soon natural selection ceases to select on the ground of brute
+force. After a time environment proves to be a power making for
+shrewdness. And when the mammal has appeared the resultant of the
+forces of environment impels more and more toward unselfishness, and
+when man has appeared environment proves to be a "power, not
+ourselves, that makes for righteousness." But what shall we say of
+an environment which unmasks itself at last as a power making for
+intelligence, unselfishness, and righteousness? Someone may answer
+it is a host of chemical and physical forces bringing about very
+high ends. That is very true, but is it the whole truth? The
+thinking man must ask, How did it come about, and why is it that all
+these forces work together for such high moral and intelligent ends?
+
+We face, therefore, the question, Can an environment which proves
+finally and ultimately to be a power not ourselves making for
+righteousness and unselfishness be purely material and mechanical?
+Or must there be in or behind it something spiritual? Shall we best
+call environment, in its highest manifestation, "it" or "him?"
+
+The old argument of Socrates, as on the last day of his life he sits
+discoursing with his friends, still holds good. He is discussing the
+same old question, whether there is anything more than force,
+material, mechanism in the world. He says that one might assign as
+"the cause why I am sitting here that my body is composed of bones
+and muscles; that the bones are solid and separate, and that the
+muscles can be contracted and extended, and are all inclosed in the
+flesh and skin; and that the bones, being jointed, can be drawn by
+the muscles, and so I can move my legs as you see; and that this is
+the reason why I am sitting here. But by the dog, these bones and
+muscles would long ago have carried me to Megara or Booetia, moved
+by my opinion of what was best, if I had not thought it more right
+and honorable to submit to the sentence pronounced by the state than
+to run away from it. To call such things causes is absurd. For there
+is a great difference between the cause and that without which the
+cause would not produce its effect."
+
+If there is no intelligence or love of truth in the cause, how can
+there be anything higher in the effect? And if Socrates had been
+only bone and muscle, he ought to have run away.
+
+Our problem stands somewhat as follows: We have given protoplasm, a
+strange substance of marvellous capacities, which we call functions,
+and possessing a power of developing into beings of ever higher
+grades of organization. Environment proves to be a combination of
+forces working for the higher development of functions in a certain
+orderly sequence. And every lower function in the ascending line
+demands the development of the next higher. Digestion demands
+muscle, and muscle nerve, and nerve brain. We shall soon see that
+mammalian structure had to culminate in the family, and the family
+demands unselfishness and obedience. Environment therefore proves
+from the beginning to have been unceasingly working for the highest
+end; never, even temporarily, merely for the lower. For we have seen
+that environment works most unsparingly against those who, having
+taken certain of the steps in the ascending path, fail to continue
+therein.
+
+But in order to attain this highest end for which it has always been
+working, an immense number of subsidiary ends have had to be
+attained. These are not merely digestion and brain, but a host of
+others: _e.g._, in vertebrates, vertebræ of the right substance,
+position, form, arrangement, and union. And in the ascending line,
+for whose highest forms it has continually worked, the difficulties
+of attaining each subsidiary end have been successively solved, and
+through this host of subsidiary ends the animal kingdom has advanced
+straight to its goal of intelligence and righteousness. Now the
+whole process is a grand argument for design. But I would not
+emphasize the process so much as the end attained. This especially,
+when attained by conformity to that environment, demands more than
+mere mindless atoms in or behind that environment. Can we call the
+ultimate power which makes for righteousness "it?" Can we call it
+less than "Him, in whom we live and move and have our being?"
+
+The history of life is a grand drama. "Paradise Lost" and
+Shakespeare's plays are but fragments of it. But without
+intelligence they could never have been composed; without a choice
+of means and ends they could never have been placed upon the stage.
+Does the plot of this grander drama of evolution demand no
+intelligence in its ultimate cause and producer? Is the succession
+of steps, each succeeding the other in such order as to lead to
+truth and right and continual progress toward a spiritual goal, is
+this plot possible without a great composer who has seen the end
+from the beginning? Could it ever have been executed upon the stage
+of the world, and perhaps of the universe, without an executing
+will?
+
+Now I freely grant you that this is no mathematical demonstration.
+Natural science does not deal in demonstrations, it rests upon the
+doctrine of probabilities; just as we have to order our whole lives
+according to this doctrine. Its solution of a problem is never the
+only conceivable answer, but the one which best fits and explains
+all the facts and meets the fewest objections. The arguments for the
+existence of a personal God are far stronger than those in favor of
+any theory of evolution. But we very rightly test the former
+arguments, indefinitely more rigidly and severely, just because our
+very life hangs on them. On the other hand, we should not reject
+them as useless, because they are not of an entirely different kind
+from those on which all the actions and beliefs of our common daily
+life are based. There is a scepticism which is merely a credulity of
+negations. This also we should avoid.
+
+We have considered a few of the reasons for thinking that, with the
+material, there must be something spiritual in environment, that if
+the woof is material the warp is God. Here we need not delay long.
+Blank atheism seems to be at present unpopular and generally
+regarded as unscientific. The so-called philosophic materialism of
+the present day seems to be in general far nearer to pantheism than
+to the old form of materialism which recognized only atoms and
+mechanism. Atheism as a power to deform the lives of men has, for
+the present, lost its hold, and even agnosticism is respectful. The
+materialism against which we have to struggle is not that of the
+school, but of the shop, of society, of life. There are
+comparatively few now who avow a system of philosophy making
+mindless atoms their first cause.
+
+But there is a far grosser, more deadly materialism of the heart
+and will. It sits unrebuked in the front pews of our churches and
+controls alike church and parish, caucus and legislature. It calls
+on us all to fall down and worship, promising the world if we obey,
+the cross if we refuse. And we bow to it; and that is all it asks,
+for a nod on our part makes us its slaves. It is the idolatry of
+money, position, shrewdness, learning--in one word, of success. It
+takes all the strength out of our morality, loyalty and obedience to
+God out of our religion, and makes cowards and liars of us, who
+should be heroes. It makes our religion a byword with honest
+unbelievers. And if they are honest scientific minds, waiting for
+evidence of the practical value of our religion, why should they
+believe, when we live so successfully down to the religion which we
+would scorn to openly profess? Our fathers may have been narrow or
+straight-laced; they were not cross-eyed from trying to keep one eye
+on God and the other on the main chance. What is the use of
+whispering, "Lord, Lord," Sundays, if we shout, "Oh, Baal, hear us,"
+all the rest of the week. Let us at least be honest, and "if Baal be
+god, follow him," and avow it. And worst, and most hideous, of all,
+we are not so much hypocrites as self-deceived. Let us not forget
+the old Greek doctrine of Ate, goddess of judicial blindness, sent
+down only upon those who were living the unpardonable sin of
+indifference.
+
+But supposing that there is in environment something more and other
+than material, can we possibly know anything about it?
+
+I am in a boat near the mouth of a river. The boat is tossed by the
+waves, driven by currents of wind, and now and then temporarily
+turned by eddies. I seem to look out upon a chaos of apparently
+conflicting forces. But all the time the wind and tide are sweeping
+me homeward. Now the wind, which sometimes indeed does shift, and
+the great tidal wave are steadily bearing me in a certain direction,
+though wave and eddy and gust may often make this appear doubtful to
+me. So, underneath all waves and eddies of environment, there is a
+great tidal wave, bearing man steadily onward; and I gain a certain
+amount of valid knowledge of environment from the direction in which
+it is bearing me.
+
+Let us change the illustration. Man survives as all his ancestors
+have survived before him, through conformity to environment.
+Environment has therefore during ages past been continually making
+impressions upon him. And he can draw valid inferences concerning
+the one power, which must underlie the apparent host of forces of
+environment, from the impressions which these have left upon the
+structure of his mind and character. By studying himself he gains
+valid knowledge of what is deepest in environment. For man is the
+most completely and closely conformed thereto of all living beings.
+
+But man _is_ a religious being. This is a fact which demands
+explanation just as much as bone and muscle. Now no evolutionist
+would believe that the eye could ever have developed without the
+stimulus of light acting upon the cells of the skin. Place the
+animal in darkness and the eye becomes rudimentary and disappears.
+Could a visual organ for seeing moral and religious truth have ever
+originated in the mind of man had there been no corresponding
+pulsation and thrill of a corresponding reality in environment? Is
+not the one development just as improbable or inconceivable as the
+other?
+
+And this is the reason that, when man awakened to himself and his
+own powers, he knew that there was and must be a God. "Pass over the
+earth," says Plutarch; "you may discover cities without walls,
+without literature, without monarchs, without palaces and wealth;
+where the theatre and the school are not known; but no man ever saw
+a city without temples and gods, where prayers and oaths and oracles
+and sacrifices were not used for obtaining pardon or averting evil."
+Given man and environment as they are, and a belief in God is a
+necessary result. But you may ask, if we are to worship a personal
+God, why might not a conscious and religious hydra, with equal
+right, worship an infinite stomach, and the annelid a god of mere
+brute force?
+
+There stands in Florence a magnificent statue by Michel Angelo. A
+human figure is only partially hewn out of the stone. He never
+finished it. If you could have seen the master hewing the chips with
+hasty, impatient blows from the shapeless block, you would have been
+tempted to say that he was but a stonecutter, and but a hasty
+workman at that. Even now we do not know exactly what form and
+expression he would have given to the still unfinished head. But no
+one can examine it and hesitate to pronounce it a grand work of a
+master-mind. In any manifestly incomplete work you must judge the
+purpose and character and powers of the workman or artist by its
+highest possibilities, just so far as you have any reason to believe
+that these possibilities will be realized. You must look at the
+rudely outlined heroic human figure in the block of stone, not at
+the rough unfinished pedestal, if you would know Michel Angelo. So
+in the hydra and the annelid you must look at the possibilities of
+the nervous system before you or he think that digestion and muscle
+are all.
+
+Once more the highest powers dawn far down in the animal kingdom.
+There are traces of mind in the amoeba, and of unselfishness in
+the lower mammals. If there were a goal of human development higher
+and other than unselfishness, wisdom, and love, we should have seen
+traces of it before this. But have we found the faintest sign of any
+such? Moreover, remember that a function continues to develop about
+as long as it shows the capacity for development. And during that
+period environment is a power making for its higher development. But
+is there any limit to the possible development of the three mental
+activities mentioned above? I can see none. Then must we not expect
+that environment will always make for these? And will environment
+ever manifest itself to man as the seat or instrument of a power
+possessing higher faculties other than these? Man must worship a
+personal God of wisdom, unselfishness, and love, or cease to
+worship. The latter alternative he never yet has been able to take,
+and society survive under its domination. So I at least am compelled
+to read the finding of biological history.
+
+But let us grant for the sake of argument that man contains still
+undeveloped germs of faculties capable of perceiving and attaining
+something as much higher than wisdom and love as these are higher
+than brute force. You will answer, this is not only inconceivable,
+it is impossible. Still let us grant the possibility. We notice,
+first of all, that it is against the whole course of evolution that
+these faculties should be other than mental, and what we class under
+powers pertaining to our personality. For ages past evidently, and
+no less really from the very beginning, evolution has worked for the
+body only as a perfect vehicle of mind, and for this as leading to
+will and character. And human development has led, and ever more
+tends, as Mr. Drummond has shown, to the arrest, though not the
+degeneration, of the body. It is to remain at the highest possible
+stage of efficiency as the servant of mind. These higher powers will
+thus be mental and personal powers. And how has any and every
+advance to higher capabilities been attained in the animal kingdom?
+Merely by the most active possible exercise of the next lower power.
+This is proven by the sequence of physical and mental functions. We
+shall attain, therefore, any higher mental capacities only by the
+continual practice of wisdom and love. That is our only path to
+something higher, if higher there shall ever be. But if we find that
+the God of our environment is a God of something higher than love
+and righteousness, will these cease to be characteristics of his
+nature and essence? Not at all.
+
+I have learned, perhaps, to know my father as a plain citizen. If I
+later find that he is a king and statesman, with powers and mental
+capacities of which I have never dreamed, do I therefore from that
+time cease to think of him as wise and kind and good? Not in the
+least. I only trust his love and wisdom as guide of my little life
+all the more. And shall not the same be true of God though he be
+king of all worlds and ages? It becomes unwise and wrong to worship
+God as the God of might only when we have found that he is a God
+also of something higher and nobler, of love; and after we have
+perceived this fully and worship him as love, we rest in the arms of
+his infinite power.
+
+But now that the work has gone thus far, we can see that all
+development must take place along personal, spiritual lines; and are
+compelled to believe in a spiritual cause who knew the end from the
+beginning. And man's farther progress depends upon his conformity to
+this spiritual environment. And what is conformity to the personal
+element in our environment but likeness to him? This is my only
+possible mode of conformity to a person--to become like him in word,
+action, thought, and purpose, and finally in all my being. Very far
+from a close resemblance we still are. But we are more like him than
+primitive man was; and our descendants will resemble him far more
+closely than we. And thus man, conscious of his environment, and
+that means capable of knowing something about God, knows at least
+what God requires of him, namely, righteousness, love, and likeness
+to himself; or, as the old heathen seer expressed it, "to do justly,
+love mercy, and walk humbly before God." Man is and must be a
+religious being. And he conforms consciously. Thus to be more like
+God he must know more about him, and to know more about him he must
+become more like him. The two go hand in hand, and by mutual
+reaction strengthen each other. I will not enter into the most
+important question of all, whether we can ever really know a person
+unless we have some love for him. The facts of evolution seem to me
+to admit of but one interpretation, that of Augustine: "Thou hast
+formed me for thee, O Lord, and my restless spirit finds no rest but
+in thee." Granted, therefore, a personal God in and behind
+environment, however dimly perceived, and conformity to environment
+means god-likeness; for conformity to a person can mean nothing less
+than likeness to him.
+
+Some of you must, all of you should, have read Professor Huxley's
+"Address on Education." In it he says, "It is a very plain and
+elementary truth that the life, the fortune, and the happiness of
+every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with
+us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game
+infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game
+which has been played for unknown ages, every man and woman of us
+being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The
+chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the
+universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature.
+The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his
+play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our
+cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest
+allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well the highest
+stakes are paid with that sort of overflowing generosity with which
+the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is
+checkmated--without haste, but without remorse.
+
+"My metaphor," he continues, "will remind some of you of the famous
+picture in which Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with
+man for his soul. Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture
+a calm, strong angel, who is playing for love, as we say, and would
+rather lose than win--and I should accept it as an image of human
+life."[1]
+
+  [Footnote 1: Huxley: Lay Sermons and Addresses, p. 31.]
+
+This is a marvellous illustration, and in general as true as it is
+beautiful and grand. But that "calm, strong angel who is playing for
+love, as we say, and would rather lose than win," is certainly a
+very strange antagonist. Is it, after all, possible that our
+clear-eyed scientific man has altogether misunderstood the game? Is
+not the "calm, strong angel" more probably our partner? Certainly
+very many things point that way. And who are our antagonists? Look
+within yourself and you will always find at least a pair ready to
+take a hand against you, to say nothing of the possibilities of
+environment. "Rex regis rebellis." Our partner is trying by every
+method, except perhaps by "talking across the board," to teach us
+the laws and methods of this great game. And calls and signals are
+always allowable. The game is not finished in one hand; he gives us
+a second and third, and repeats the signals, and never misleads.
+Only when we carelessly or obstinately refuse to learn, and wilfully
+lose the game beyond all hope, does he leave us to meet our losses
+as best we may.
+
+Let us carry the illustration a step farther. Who knows that the
+game was, or could be, at first taught without talking across the
+board? I can find nothing in science to compel such a belief, many
+things render it improbable. Grant a personality in environment to
+which personality in man is to conform and gain likeness.
+Environment can act on the digestive and muscular systems through
+mere material. But how can personality in environment act on
+personality in man except by personal contact or by symbols easy of
+comprehension according to its own laws? Some method of attaining
+acquaintance at least we should certainly expect.
+
+But some of you may ask, How can any theory of evolution guarantee
+that anything of the present shall survive in the future? It is
+continually changing and destroying former types. The old order of
+everything changes and passes away, giving place to the new. But is
+this the whole truth? Evolution is a radical process, but we must
+never forget that it is also, and at the same time, exceedingly
+conservative. The cell was the first invention of the animal
+kingdom, and all higher animals are and must be cellular in
+structure. Our tissues were formed ages on ages ago; they have all
+persisted. Most of our organs are as old as worms. All these are
+very old, older than the mountains, and yet I cannot doubt that they
+must last as long as man exists. Indeed, while Nature is wonderfully
+inventive of new structures, her conservatism in holding on to old
+ones is still more remarkable. In the ascending line of development
+she tries an experiment once exceedingly thorough, and then the
+question is solved for all time. For she always takes time enough to
+try the experiment exhaustively. It took ages to find how to build a
+spinal column or brain, but when the experiment was finished she had
+reason to be, and was, satisfied. And if this is true of bodily
+organs we should expect that the same law would hold good when the
+animal development gradually passes over into the spiritual. And
+what is human history but the record of moral and religious
+experiments, and their success or failure according as the
+experimenters conformed to the laws of the spiritual forces with
+which they had to do?
+
+We need not fear that our old fundamental beliefs will be lost.
+Their very age shows that they have been thoroughly tested in the
+great experiment of human history and found sure. Modified they may
+be; they will be used for higher purposes and the building of better
+characters than ours. They will not be lost or discarded. We too
+often think of nature as building like man, with huge scaffoldings,
+which must later be torn down and destroyed. But in the forest the
+only scaffolding is the heart of oak.
+
+We have seen that the sequence of functions in animal development
+has culminated in man's rational, moral nature. He alone has the
+clear perception of the reality of right, truth, and duty. The
+pursuit of these has made him what he is. His advance, if there is
+any continuity in history, depends upon his making these the ruling
+motives and aims of his life. He must continually grow in
+righteousness and unselfishness, if he is not to degenerate and give
+place to some other product of evolution. Moreover, as these moral
+faculties are capable of indefinite, if not infinite, development,
+they must dominate his life through a future of indefinite duration.
+For the length of the period of dominance of a function has always
+been proportional to the capacity of that function for future
+development. These can never, so far as we can see, be superseded,
+for no rival to them can be discovered. We have found in them the
+culmination of the sequence of functions.
+
+We have attempted to show in this lecture that reversal of this
+grand sequence has always led to degeneration, or, in higher forms,
+far more frequently, to extinction. As we ascend, natural selection
+works more, rather than less, unsparingly. And as advance depends
+upon conformity to environment, and as the highest forms must be
+regarded as therefore most completely conformed, we gain our most
+adequate knowledge of environment when we study it as working
+especially for these. For these have been from the very beginning
+its far-off, chief aim and goal. Viewed from this standpoint,
+environment proves to be a host of interacting forces uniting in a
+resultant "power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness," and
+unselfishness.
+
+Inasmuch as man's rational moral nature, his personality, is the
+result of the last and longest step toward and in conformity to
+environment, these powers correspond to that which is at the same
+time highest, and deepest, and most fundamental in that environment.
+This power which makes for righteousness is therefore to be regarded
+as personal and spiritual rather than material. It is God immanent
+in nature. And it is mainly to this personal and spiritual element
+in his environment that man is in the future to more completely
+conform. Conformity to this element in man's environment does not so
+much result in life as it _is_ life; failure to conform is death.
+And the pressure of environment upon man, compelling him to choose
+between life through conformity and non-conformity with death, can
+be most naturally and adequately explained as the expression of his
+will. We know what he requires of us.
+
+Our knowledge of him is very incomplete, but may be valid as far as
+it extends. And it would seem to be valid, for it has been tested by
+ages of experiment. The results of this grand experiment have been
+summed up in man's fundamental religious beliefs. And farther
+knowledge will be gained by more complete obedience to the
+requirements already known. The evidence, that these fundamental
+religious beliefs will persist, is of the same character as that
+upon which rests our belief in the persistence of cells and tissues.
+The one is rooted in the structure of our minds; the other, in the
+structure of our bodies. But, after all, only will can act upon
+will, and personality upon personality. It remains for us to examine
+how man was compelled by his very structure to develop a new element
+in his environment, conformed indeed to the laws of his old
+environment, but better fitted to draw out the moral and spiritual
+side of his nature. And in connection with this study we may hope to
+gain some new light on the laws of conformity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT
+
+
+We are too prone to think that soil and climate, hill-side or plain,
+mountain and shore, temperature and rainfall, constitute the sole or
+the most important elements in human environment. Every one of these
+elements is doubtless important. Frost, drought, or barrenness of
+soil may make a region a desert, or dwarf the development of its
+inhabitants. Mountaineer, and the dweller on the plain, and the
+fisherman on the shore of the ocean develop different traits through
+the influence of their surroundings. In too warm a climate the human
+race loses its mental and moral vigor and degenerates. This is
+undeniable.
+
+But, though one soil and climate and set of physical surroundings
+may be more conducive than another to the development of heroism,
+truthfulness, unselfishness, and righteousness, no one is essential
+to their production or sure to give rise to them. Moral and
+religious character is a feature of man's personality, and our
+personality is moulded mainly by the men and women with whom we
+associate. A man is not only "known by the company which he keeps;"
+he is usually fashioned by and conforms to it. As President Seelye
+has well said, "The only motive which can move a will is either a
+will itself, or something into which a will enters. It is not a
+thought, but only a sentiment, a deed, or a person, by which we
+become truly inspired. It is not the intellect, but the heart and
+will, through which and by which we are controlled. It is not the
+precepts of life, but life itself, by which alone we are begotten
+and born unto life.
+
+"Now, there are two ways in which living power, personal power, the
+power of a will, may enter a soul and give it life; the one is when
+God's will works upon us, and the other when our wills work upon one
+another. God's will may directly penetrate ours, enabling us to will
+and to do of his good pleasure; and our own wills, thus inspired,
+may be the torch to kindle other wills with the same inspiration. It
+is in only one of these two ways that a human soul can be truly
+inspired; and, without a true inspiration, no amount of instruction,
+whether in duty, or life, or anything else, will change a single
+moral propensity."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Seelye: Christian Missions, p. 154.]
+
+Even though a Lincoln may rise above his hereditary position or his
+surroundings, they are the school in which he is trained; the
+gymnasium in which his mental and moral fibre is strengthened.
+Family and social life form thus the element of man's environment by
+which he is mostly moulded, and to which he most naturally and
+completely conforms. Let us therefore briefly trace the origin of
+this new element of man's environment, and then notice the effect
+upon him of conformity to its laws, and see whither these would lead
+him.
+
+We have already seen that intra-uterine development of the young was
+being carried ever farther by mammals, and we found one explanation
+of this in the fact that each mammalian egg represented a large
+amount of nutriment, and that the mammal had very little material to
+spare for reproduction. Very possibly, too, the newly hatched
+mammals were exposed to even more numerous and greater dangers than
+the young of birds. Even among lower mammals the young is feeble at
+birth. But the human infant is absolutely helpless. And the centre
+of its helplessness is its brain. Its eyes and ears are
+comparatively perfect, but its perceptions are very dim. Its muscles
+are all present, but it must very slowly and gradually learn to use
+them. Its language is but a cry, its few actions reflex. The
+new-born kitten may be just as helpless, but in a few weeks it will
+run and play and hunt, and after a few months can care for itself.
+Not so the child. It must be cared for during months and years
+before it can be given independence. Its brain is so marvellously
+complex that it is finished as a thinking and willing and
+muscle-controlling mechanism only long after birth. This means a
+period of infancy during which the young clings helplessly to the
+mother, who is its natural protector. And during this period the
+mother and young have to be cared for and protected by the male. And
+the period of infancy and the protection of the female and young are
+just as truly, though in far less degree, characteristic of the
+highest apes as of man.
+
+I can give you only this very condensed and incomplete abstract of
+Mr. John Fiske's argument; you must read it for yourself in his
+"Destiny of Man." And as he has there shown, this can have but one
+result, and that is the family life of man. And we may yet very
+possibly have to acknowledge that family life of a very low grade
+is just as truly characteristic of the higher apes as of lower man.
+And thus the family life of man is the physiological result of, and
+rooted in, mammalian structure.
+
+And the benefits of family life are too great and numerous to even
+enumerate. First of all the family is the school of unselfishness.
+All the love of the parent is drawn out for the helpless and
+dependent child, and grows as the parent works and thinks for it.
+And the child returns a fraction of his parents' love. Within the
+close bond of the family the struggle for place and opportunity is
+replaced by mutual helpfulness; and this doing and burden-bearing
+with and for each other is a constant exercise in the practice of
+love. And with out this mutual love and helpfulness the family
+cannot exist.
+
+And slowly man begins to apply the lessons learned in the family to
+other relations with partners, neighbors, and friends. Slowly he
+discovers that an entirely selfish life defeats its own ends. A
+voice within him tells him continually that love is better than
+selfishness and ministering better than being ministered unto. It
+dawns upon him that it is against the nature of things that other
+people should be so selfish and grasping; a few begin to apply the
+moral to themselves, and a few of these to act accordingly.
+
+And what a change the few steps which man has taken in this
+direction have wrought in his life. Says Professor Huxley: "In place
+of ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint, in place of
+thrusting aside or treading down all competitors, it requires that
+the individual shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows;
+its influence is directed not so much to the survival of the
+fittest as to the fitting of as many as possible to survive. It
+repudiates the gladiatoral theory of existence."
+
+It is a vast change from the "gladiatorial theory" to that of
+"mutual helpfulness." Call it a revolution, if you will. Revolutions
+are not unheard of in the history of the animal kingdom any more
+than in human history. We have seen, first, digestion and
+reproduction on the throne of animal organization, then muscle, and
+finally brain. Each of these changes is in one sense a revolution.
+
+A little before the summer solstice the earth is whizzing away from
+the sun; a few weeks later it is whizzing with equal rapidity in
+almost the opposite direction. In the very nature of things it could
+not be otherwise. But so silently and gradually does it come about
+that we never feel the reversal of the engine; indeed the engine has
+not been reversed at all. Very similar is the change of the struggle
+of brute against brute to that of man for man. Indeed human
+development seems now to be almost at such a solstice where the
+power that makes for love is almost exhausted in opposing the
+tendency toward selfishness. We shall not always stay at the
+solstice; soon we shall make more rapid progress. And unselfishness
+like the family relation is firmly rooted in mammalian structure.
+
+And man owes almost everything to family life. First the child gains
+the advantage of the parent's experience. He is educated by the
+parent. In a few formative and receptive years he gains from the
+parent the results of centuries of human experience. The process is
+thus cumulative, the investment bears compound interest. And yet
+this is peculiar to man only in degree. Have you never watched a
+cat train her kittens? And the education of the child in the savage
+family is very incomplete.
+
+The family is the first and fundamental of all higher social and
+political unities. And without the persistence of the family the
+larger social unit would become an inert mass. All the individual
+ambition, all desire for family advancement, must be retained as
+still a motive for energetic advance. And all the training which
+social life can give reaches the individual most effectively, or
+solely, through the family. Society without the family would be like
+an army without company or regimental organization. Thus the very
+existence, not only of training in love and mutual helpfulness, but
+even of society itself as a mere organization, depends upon the
+existence and improvement of family life. And as so much depended
+upon and resulted from it, it could not but be fostered and improved
+by natural selection. The tribe or race with the best family life
+has apparently survived. But all social animals have some means of
+communicating very simple thoughts or perceptions. The simplest
+illustrations of this are the calls and warning cries of mammals and
+birds. It is not impossible that the higher mammals have something
+worthy of the name of language. But man alone, with his better brain
+and better anatomical structure of throat and mouth, and the closer
+interdependence with his fellows, has attained to articulate speech.
+And this again has become the bond to a still closer union.
+
+Now our only question is, How does social life enable and aid man to
+conform to environment? We are interested not so much in his
+happiness as in his progress. It helps and improves the body by
+giving him a better and more constant supply of more suitable food,
+and better protection from inclemency of the weather, and in many
+other ways. Baths and gymnasia are built, and medical science
+prolongs life. Yet make the items as many as you can, and what a
+long list of disadvantages to man physically you must set over
+against these. Many of these evils will doubtless disappear as
+society becomes better organized, but some will always remain to
+plague us. We pamper or abuse our stomachs, and dyspepsia results.
+We live in hot-houses, and a host of diseases are fostered by them.
+Indeed it would be hard to count up the diseases for which social
+life is directly or indirectly responsible. Social life becomes more
+and more complicated, and our nervous systems cannot bear the
+strain. Medical science saves alive thousands who would otherwise
+die, and these grow up to bear children as weak as themselves. We
+are looking now at the physical side alone; and from this standpoint
+the survival of the invalid is a sore evil. Now society will and
+must become healthier; we shall not always abuse our bodies as
+sinfully as we now do. Still, viewed from the standpoint of the body
+alone, the best, as it seems to me, which we can claim, is that
+social life does no more harm than good.
+
+What has social life done for man intellectually? Much. It gives him
+schools and colleges. But are our systems of education an unmixed
+good? How many of our schools and colleges are places where men are
+stuffed with facts until they have no time nor inclination to think?
+They may turn out learned men; do they produce thinkers? And how
+about the spread of knowledge? Is it not a spread of information?
+And most of what goes forth from the press is not worthy of even
+that name, or is information which a man had better be without. We
+are proud of being a nation of readers. And reading is good, if a
+man thinks about what he reads; otherwise it is like undigested food
+in the stomach, an injury and a curse. A dyspeptic gourmand is
+helped by "cutting down his rations." In our mental disease we need
+the same course of treatment. Let us read fewer books and papers and
+think more about what we do read.
+
+Society may foster original thinking; it is none the less opposed to
+it.
+
+        "Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
+         He thinks too much; such men are dangerous."
+
+This is the motto of all great parties in Church and State. Still
+social life has undoubtedly fostered thought. We think vastly more
+and better than primitive man; still we have much to learn. Society
+puts the experience of centuries at the service of every individual.
+Poor and unsatisfactory as are our modes of education, they are a
+great blessing intellectually and will become more helpful.
+And, after all, the friction of mind against mind in social
+life--provided social intercourse is this, and not the commingling
+of two vacua--is a continual education of inestimable advantage. And
+all these advantages would without language have been absolutely
+impossible. Intellectually our debt to society is inestimable.
+
+And how does social life aid man morally? I cannot help believing
+that primitive society was the first school of the human conscience.
+It was a rude school, but it taught man some grand lessons.
+
+The primitive clan would seem to have existed as a rude army for
+the defence of its members and for offensive operations against
+enemies. Individual responsibility on the part of its members was
+slight for offences against individuals of other clans, or against
+the gods. For any such offence of one of its members the whole clan
+was held, or held itself, largely responsible. If one man sinned,
+the clan suffered. It could not therefore afford to pardon wilful
+disobedience to regulations made by it or its leaders. Its very
+existence depended on this strict discipline. And much the same
+stern discipline has to be maintained in our modern armies or they
+become utterly worthless.
+
+Furthermore, man, as a social being, is very ready to accept the
+estimate of his actions placed upon them by his fellows. It is not
+easy to resist public opinion now. The tie of class or professional
+feeling is a tremendous power for good and evil. It must have been
+almost irresistible in that primitive army, which summarily outlawed
+or killed the obstinately disobedient. But all obedience was lauded
+and rewarded. It had to be so. And if the tribe was worthy to
+survive, because its regulations were better than those of its
+rivals, or perhaps as nearly just and right as were well possible,
+it was altogether best and right it should be so. The voice of the
+people was, in a very rude, stammering way, the voice of God. And
+those who survived became more and more obedient, and found
+themselves, when disobedient, feeling debased, and mean, and
+unworthy, as their fellows considered them. And all this feeling
+tended to develop a conscience in the individual answering to the
+estimates and regulations of the community.
+
+And remember that the primitive religion is a tribal religion. The
+gods felt toward a man just as his neighbors did. A public opinion
+of this sort is irresistible, and a man's conscience and estimate of
+himself and his actions must conform to it. But you may say a man
+may grant that this opinion is in a sense irresistible, and find
+himself very miserable and unhappy under its condemnation. But he
+would not feel remorse; this is a very different feeling. Possibly
+it may be. I am not so sure. But what I am interested in maintaining
+is that the condemnation of one's fellow-men puts more vividly
+before one's eyes, and emphasizes, the condemnation of one's own
+self. It may often be a necessary step in self-conviction. And what
+is most important, even in our own case, the condemnation of our
+fellows often brings with it self-condemnation.
+
+Try the experiment, as you will some day, of following a course of
+action which you feel fairly confident is right, but which all your
+neighbors think is foolish and wrong. See if you do not feel twinges
+within you which you must examine very closely to distinguish from
+twinges of conscience. If you do not, I see but one explanation--you
+are conscious that God is with you, and content with this majority.
+But in the case of primitive man God was always on the side of one's
+tribe.
+
+Now this does not explain the origin of man's conception of right;
+it presupposes such a conception in some dim form. I do not now know
+why right is right or beauty beautiful. I only know they are so.
+Where or when either of these perceptions dawned I do not know. But,
+given some such dim perception, I believe that primitive human
+society gave it its iron grip on every fibre of man's nature.
+
+Before the animal could safely be allowed to govern itself
+intelligently it had to serve a long apprenticeship to reflex action
+and instinct. And man's moral nature had to undergo a similar
+apprenticeship to tribal regulation and tribal conscience. Only
+slowly was instinct modified and replaced by intelligent action. And
+how this old tribal conscience persists. Often for good, although
+there it were better replaced by an individual conscience working
+for right. But how slowly you and I learn that there is a higher
+responsibility than to party or class. How often my vote and action
+are controlled, not by my own conscience, but by the opinion of my
+fellows, or the feeling that, if my party suffers defeat, God's work
+will suffer at the hands of my opponents. And what is all this but
+the survival in a very degenerate form of the old tribal conscience
+of primitive man? And he knew, and could know, nothing better: I can
+and do.
+
+But society slowly works for unselfishness. The love learned in the
+family manifests itself in ever-widening circles; it must do so if
+it is the genuine article. It works for neighbors and friends, then
+for the poor and helpless of the community. Then it spreads to other
+communities and nations. For genuine love recognizes no bounds of
+time or place. Slowly we learn that we are our brother's keepers,
+and that the brotherhood cannot stop short of the human race.
+Goodness and kindness radiate from one, perhaps unknown, member of
+the community to his fellows, and thence all over the world. And the
+world is the better for his one action.
+
+Primitive society was thus the best possible school of conscience;
+and the family and it are the great school of unselfishness. But
+society is even more and better than this. It is the medium through
+which thought, power, and moral and religious life can spring from
+man to man. This is its last and culminating advantage: it is that
+for which society really exists.
+
+For, in the close bonds of family and social life, a new possibility
+of development has arisen based upon articulate speech. We might
+almost call it a new form of heredity, independent of all
+blood-relationship. Progress in anatomical structure in the animal
+kingdom was slow, because any improvement could be transmitted only
+to the direct descendants of its original possessor. But in all
+matters pertaining to or based upon mind, a new invention, or idea,
+or system becomes the property of him who can best appreciate it.
+The torch is always handed on to the swiftest runner. Thus Socrates
+is the true father of Plato, and Plato of Aristotle. Whoever can
+best understand and appreciate and enter into the spirit of Socrates
+and Plato becomes heir to their thoughts and interprets them to us.
+And the thought of one man enriches all races and times.
+
+But a great teacher like Socrates is not merely an intellectual
+power. "Probe a little deeper, surgeon," said the French soldier,
+"and you'll find the emperor." Napoleon may have impressed himself
+on the soldier's intellect; he had enthroned himself in his heart.
+"Slave," said the old Roman, Marius, to the barbarian who had been
+sent into the dungeon to despatch him, "slave, wouldst thou kill
+Cains Marius?" And the barbarian, though backed by all the power of
+Rome, is said to have fled in dismay. Why did he run away? I do not
+know. I only know that I should have done the same. One more
+instance. Some thirty years ago the northern army was fleeing, a
+disorganized mob, toward Winchester. Early had fallen upon them
+suddenly in the gray of the morning, and, while one corps still held
+its ground, the rest of the army was melting away in panic. Then a
+little red-faced trooper came tearing down the line shouting, "Face
+the other way boys; face the other way." And those panic-stricken
+men turned and rolled an irresistible avalanche of heroes upon the
+Confederate lines. What made them turn about? It was something which
+I can neither define nor analyze--the personal power of Sheridan. It
+is the secret of every great leader of men. Now Sheridan had
+imparted more than information to these men. Is it too much to say
+that he put himself into them? From such men power streams out like
+electricity from a huge dynamo.
+
+Now society furnishes the medium through which such a man can act.
+You have all met such men, though probably not more than one or two
+of them. But one such man is a host. They may be men of few words.
+But their very presence and look calls out all that is good in you;
+and while you are with them evil loses its power. Says the gay and
+licentious Alcibiades, in Plato's "Banquet" concerning Socrates:
+
+"When I heard Pericles or any other great orator, I was entertained
+and delighted, and I felt that he had spoken well. But no mortal
+speech has ever excited in my mind such emotions as are excited by
+this magician. Whenever I hear him, I am, as it were, charmed and
+fettered. My heart leaps like an inspired Corybant. My inmost soul
+is stung by his words as by the bite of a serpent. It is indignant
+at its own rude and ignoble character. I often weep tears of regret
+and think how vain and inglorious is the life I lead. Nor am I the
+only one that weeps like a child and despairs of himself. Many
+others are affected in the same way."
+
+These men are the real kings. Their power for good, and sometimes
+for evil, is inestimable. And the great advantage of social life, as
+a means of conforming to environment, is the medium which it
+furnishes to conduct the power of such men. Man's last effort toward
+conformity to environment, the struggle for existence in its last
+most real form, is the life and death grapple between good and evil.
+For here good and evil, righteousness and sin, come face to face in
+spiritual form; "we wrestle not with flesh and blood." Life is more
+than a game of chess or whist; it is a great battle; every man must,
+and does, take sides; he must fight or die. And the real kings of
+society are, as a rule, on the side of truth, and aid its triumph.
+For one essential condition of such leadership is the power to
+inspire confidence in the love of the king for his willing subject.
+A suspicion of selfish aims in the leader breaks this bond. The hero
+must be self-forgetful. This is one reason for man's hero-worship,
+and the magnetic, dominant power of the hero. But evil is
+essentially selfish and can gain and hold this kingship only as long
+as it can deceive. And these kings "live forever." Dynasties and
+empires disappear, but Socrates and Plato, Luther and Huss, Cromwell
+and Lincoln, rule an ever-widening kingdom of ever more loyal
+subjects.
+
+And society will have leaders; men may set up whatever form of
+government they will, they are always searching for a king. And this
+is no sign of weakness or credulity. Man's desire for leadership is
+only another proof of the vast future which he knows is before him,
+and into which he longs to be guided. The wiser a man is, the more
+he desires to be taught; the nobler he becomes, the more
+whole-souled is the homage which he pays to the noblest. Is it a
+sign of weakness or ignorance in students, of adult age and ripe
+manhood, to flock to some great university to hear the wisdom and
+catch the inspiration of some great master? When Jackson fell Lee
+exclaimed, "I have lost my right arm." Was Jackson any the less for
+being the right arm to deal, as only he could, the crushing blows
+planned by the great strategist?
+
+But is not man to be independent and free? Certainly. But he gains
+freedom from the petty tyranny of robber-baron or boss, and from the
+very pettiest tyranny of all, the service of self, only as he finds
+and enlists under the king. Serve self and it will plunge you in,
+and drag you through, the ditch, till your own clothes abhor you.
+You are free to choose your teacher and guide and example. But
+choose you will and must. I am not propounding theories; I am
+telling you facts. Whether for better or worse man always does and
+will choose because he must. Look about you, look into yourselves.
+Have you no hero whom you admire and strive to resemble? no teacher
+to whom you listen? You must and do have your example and teacher.
+Is he teaching you to conform to environment, or leading you to be
+ground in pieces by its forces all arrayed against you?
+
+The Carpenter of Nazareth stood before Pilate. "And Pilate said
+unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I
+am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into
+the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that
+is of the truth heareth my voice." And Pilate would not wait for the
+answer to his question, What is truth? and the Jews chose Barabbas.
+Would you and I have acted differently? The answer of our Lord to
+Pilate contains the essence of Christianity. "You a king," says
+Pilate in astonishment; "where is your power to enforce your
+authority?" And our Lord's answer seems to me to mean substantially
+this: Roman legions shall suffer defeat, rout, and extermination;
+and Roman power shall cease to terrify. All its might must decay.
+But "everyone that is of the truth" shall attach himself to me with
+a love which will brave rack and stake. All your power cannot give a
+grain of new life. I can and will infuse my own divine life, my own
+divine _self_, into men. And this new life is invincible, immortal,
+all-conquering. I have infused myself into a few fishermen, and they
+will infuse _me_ into a host of other men. Thus I will transfigure
+into my own character every man in the world, who is of the truth,
+and therefore will hear my voice. All the power of Rome cannot
+prevent it, and whatever opposes it must go down before it.
+
+Christianity is the contagion of a divine life. Society is the
+medium through which it could and was to work. Greece had prepared
+the language necessary for its spread. Roman power had built its
+highways and levelled all obstructions.
+
+"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." "Not by might, nor by
+power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."
+
+But, you will object, the grandest kings have had, as a rule, the
+fewest loyal subjects. The prophets and seers are stoned. Elijah
+stands alone on Carmel and opposed to him are more than a thousand
+prophets of Baal, with court and king at their head. Heroism does
+not pay, and heroes are few. Right is always in a hopeless minority.
+Let us look into this matter carefully, for the objection, even if
+overstated, certainly contains a large amount of truth.
+
+Let us go back to two forms having much the same grade of
+organization: both worms. One of them sets out to become a
+vertebrate, building an internal skeleton. The other forms an
+external skeleton and becomes a crab. To form its skeleton the crab
+had only to thicken the cuticle already present in the annelid. It
+had to modify the already existing parapodia and their muscles,
+changing them to legs. The external skeleton gave from the start a
+double advantage--protection and better locomotion. Every grain of
+thickening aided the animal in the struggle for existence in both
+these ways. The very fact that the skeleton was external may have
+rendered it more liable to variation, because it was thus exposed to
+continual stimuli. And the best were rapidly sifted out by Natural
+Selection. The change and development went on with comparative
+rapidity. In the mollusk the change was apparently still more easy
+and the development still more rapid.
+
+But the development of an internal skeleton was more difficult and
+slower. It was of no use for the protection of the animal, and only
+gradually did it become of much service in locomotion. Being
+deep-seated it very possibly changed all the more slowly.
+Furthermore, a cartilaginous rod, like the notochord, even fully
+developed, hardly enabled the animal to fight directly with the
+mail-clad crab. The internal skeleton had to become far more highly
+developed before its great advantages, and freedom from
+disadvantages, became apparent. The mollusk and crab were working a
+mine rich in surface deposits although soon exhausted. The
+vertebrate lead was poor at the surface, and only later showed its
+inexhaustible richness. It looked as if the vertebrate were making a
+very poor speculation.
+
+Whether this explanation be true or not, a glance at a chart,
+showing the geological succession of occurrence of the different
+kingdoms, proves that in the oldest palæozoic periods there were
+well-developed cuttlefish and crabs before there were any
+vertebrates worthy of the name. If any were present, their skeleton
+was purely cartilaginous and not preserved.
+
+I think we may go farther, although in this latter consideration we
+may very possibly be mistaken. We have already seen that the
+progress made by any animal may be measured more or less accurately
+by the length of time during which its ancestors maintained a
+swimming life. The ancestors of the coelenterates settled to the
+bottom first. Then successively those of flatworms, mollusks,
+annelids, and crabs. All this time the ancestors of vertebrates were
+swimming in the water above. Food was probably more abundant,
+certainly more easily and economically obtained by a creeping life,
+on the bottom. But thither the vertebrate could not go. There his
+mail-clad competitors were too strong for him. Those which settled
+and tried to compete in this sort of life perished. We may have to
+except the ascidia, but they paid for their success by the loss of
+nearly all their vertebrate characteristics. The future progress of
+vertebrates depended upon their continual activity in the swimming
+life. And they were forced by their environment to maintain this.
+Otherwise they might, probably would, never have attained their
+present height of organization. Certainly at this time you would
+have found it hard to believe that the victory was to fall to these
+weaker and smaller vertebrates.
+
+Let us come down to a later period. Reptiles, mammals, and birds are
+struggling for supremacy. Of the power and diversity of form of
+these old reptiles we have generally no adequate conception. The
+forms now living are but feeble remnants. There were huge
+sea-serpents, and forms like our present crocodiles, but far more
+powerful. Others apparently resembled in form and habit the
+herbivorous and carnivorous mammals of to-day. Others strode or
+leaped on two legs. And still others flew like bats or birds. They
+were terrible forms, with coats of mail and powerful jaws and teeth.
+And they were active and swift. When we look at them we see that the
+vertebrate, though slow in gaining the lead, is sure to hold it. The
+internal skeleton gave fewer advantages at the start; its greatest
+superiority had lain in future possibilities.
+
+But which vertebrate is heir to the future? It would have been a
+hard choice between reptile and bird. I feel sure that I, for one,
+should not have selected the mammal, a small, feeble being, hiding
+in holes and ledges, and continually hard put to it to escape
+becoming a mouthful for some huge reptile. And yet the persecution,
+the impossibility of contending by brute strength, may have forced
+the mammal into the line of brain-building and placental
+development. The early development of mammals appears to have been
+slow. Palæontology proves that they were long surpassed by reptiles
+and birds. But the little mammal had the future. The battle was to
+go against the strong.
+
+Once again. The arboreal life of higher mammals would seem to be
+most easily explained by the view that they were driven to it by
+stronger carnivorous mammals having possession of the ground. Brain
+was good, for it planned escape from enemies. But it did not give
+its possessor immediate victory over muscle, tooth, and claw in the
+tiger. That was to come far later with the invention of traps and
+guns. Brain gave its possessor a sure hold of the future, and just
+enough of the present to enable it to survive by a hard struggle.
+And the same appears to have been true of primitive man.
+
+Thus all man's ancestors have had to lead a life of continual
+struggle against overwhelming odds and of seeming defeat. It was a
+life of hardship, if not of positive suffering. The organ which was
+to give them future supremacy, whether it was backbone, placenta, or
+brain, could in its earlier stages aid them only to a hardly won
+survival. The present apparently, and really as far as freedom from
+discomfort and danger is concerned, always belongs to forms
+hopelessly doomed to degeneration or stagnation. Crabs, not
+primitive vertebrates, were masters of the good things of the sea;
+and, in later times, reptiles, not mammals, of those of the land.
+Any progressive form has to choose between the present and the
+future. It cannot grasp both. I am not propounding to you any
+metaphysical theories, but plain, dry, hard facts of palæontology;
+explain them as you will.
+
+And here we must add our last word about conformity to environment;
+and it is a most important consideration. Conformity to environment
+is not such an adaptation as will confer upon an animal the greatest
+immunity from discomfort or danger, or will enable it to gain the
+greatest amount of food and place, and produce the largest number of
+offspring. Indeed, if you will add one element to those mentioned
+above, namely, that all these shall be attained with the least
+amount of effort, they insure degeneration beyond a doubt. This is
+the conformity of the bivalve mollusk. The clam has abundance of
+food, enormous powers of reproduction, almost perfect protection
+against enemies, and lives a life of almost absolute freedom from
+discomfort, and the clam is really lower than most worms.
+
+If an animal is to progress, it must keep such a conformity ever
+secondary to a still more important element, namely, conformity or
+obedience to the laws of its own structure and being. This second
+element the mollusk and every creeping stage neglected, and the
+result of this neglect was stagnation or degeneration. Activity was
+essential to progress from the very structure and laws of
+development of the animal, while a great abundance of food was not.
+A life of ease, for the same reason, necessarily results in
+degeneration.
+
+But you will ask, What becomes of Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution,
+if obedience to the laws of individual being is more important than
+conformity to external conditions? Both are evidently necessary, and
+they are not so different as they may seem at first sight. They are
+really one and the same. Bringing out the best and highest there is
+in us, is the only true conformity to that which is deepest and
+surest and most enduring in our environment. That in environment
+which makes for digestion is almost palpable and tangible, that
+which makes for activity less so perhaps; but that which makes for
+brain and truth and right is intangible and invisible. We easily
+fail to notice it; and, unless we take a careful view of the course
+of development in the highest forms of life, we may be inclined to
+deny its existence. But it is surely there, if man is a product of
+evolution.
+
+Each successive stage of animal life is not the preceding stage on a
+higher plane, but the preceding stage modified in conformity to the
+environment of that from which it has just arisen. Says Professor
+Hertwig[A]: "During the process of organic development the external
+is continually becoming an integral part of the individual. The germ
+is continually growing and changing at the expense of surrounding
+conditions." Every stage thus contains the result of a host of
+reactions to a ruder and older portion of environment. And the
+higher we go the more has the original protoplasm and structure been
+modified as the result of these reactions.
+
+  [Footnote A: Hertwig: Zeit- und Streitfragen, p. 82.]
+
+We have seen clearly that environment must be studied through its
+effect upon living beings. Viewed from any other standpoint it
+appears to be a myriad, almost a chaos, of interacting, apparently
+conflicting, forces. The resultant of some of these is shown by the
+animal at any stage of its development. And as the animal advances,
+the resultant determining its new line, or stage, of advance,
+includes new forces, to which it has only lately become sensitive.
+And thus the human mind, as the last and highest product of
+evolution, mirrors most adequately the resultant of all its forces.
+If we would know environment we must study ourselves, not atoms
+alone, nor rocks, nor worms.
+
+Extremely sensitive photographic plates, after long exposure, have
+proven the existence of stars so dim and far-off as to be invisible
+to the best telescopes. Man's mind is just such a sensitive plate;
+it is the only valid representation of environment.
+
+The truth would appear to be that the law is present in environment,
+but hard to read; but it is stamped upon our structure and being so
+deeply and plainly that the dullest of us cannot fail to read it. We
+learned the fact of gravitation the first time that we fell down in
+learning to walk, long afterward we learned that its law guided
+earth and moon. And it is the presence of this law within us, and
+our own knowledge that we are conscious of it, that makes man
+without excuse. But conformity to that which is deepest in
+environment often, always, demands non-conformity to some of the
+most palpable of surrounding conditions.
+
+There is no better statement of the ultimate law of conformity than
+the words of Paul: "Be not conformed to this world; but be ye
+transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is
+that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
+
+And this difference is exactly what I have been trying to put before
+you. The mollusk conformed, but the vertebrate conformed in a very
+different way, and was transformed, "metamorphosed," to translate
+the Greek word literally, into something higher. And let us not
+forget that man conforms consciously and voluntarily, if at all; he
+is able to read in himself and environment the law to which lower
+forms have been compelled unconsciously to conform.
+
+These facts merely illustrate a great law of life. No man's eye,
+much less hand, can grasp the whole of the present and at the same
+time the future. Rather what we usually call present advantage is
+not advantage at all, but the first step in degeneration. If one
+will be rich in old age he must deny himself some gratifications in
+youth; his present reward is his self-control. If a man will climb
+higher than his fellows he must expect to be sometimes solitary; his
+reward is the ever-widening view, though the path be rougher and the
+air more biting than in their lower altitude. If he point to heights
+yet to attain, the majority will disbelieve him or say, "Our present
+height was good enough for our ancestors, it is good enough for us.
+Why sacrifice a good thing and make yourself ridiculous scrambling
+after what in the end may prove unattainable?" If you discover new
+truths you will certainly be called a subverter of old ones. And
+this is entirely natural. The upward path was never intended to be
+easy.
+
+Read the "Gorgias" of Plato, and let us listen to the closing words
+of Socrates in that dialogue: "And so, bidding farewell to those
+things which most men account honors, and looking onward to the
+truth, I shall earnestly endeavor to grow, so far as may be, in
+goodness, and thus live, and thus, when the time comes, die. And, to
+the best of my power, I exhort all other men also; and you
+especially, in my turn, I exhort to this life and contest, which is,
+I protest, far above all contests here." You must remember that
+Callicles has been taunting Socrates with his lack of worldly wisdom
+and the certainty that in any court of justice he would be
+absolutely helpless because of his lack of knowledge of the
+rhetorician's art: "This way then we will follow, and we will call
+upon all other men to do the same, not that which you believe in and
+call upon me to follow; for that way, Callicles, is worth nothing."
+
+And Socrates met the end which he expected: death at the hands of
+his fellow-citizens.
+
+And here perhaps a little glimmer of light is thrown into one of the
+darkest corners of human experience. The wise old author of
+Ecclesiastes writes: "There is a just man that perisheth in his
+righteousness; and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in
+his wickedness. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that
+there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of
+the wicked; again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth
+according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is
+vanity." "I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to
+the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the
+wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men
+of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all" (Eccles. viii.
+14; ix. 11). It is this element of chance that threatens to make a
+mockery of effort, and sometimes seems to make life but a travesty.
+The terrible feature of Tennyson's description of Arthur's last, dim
+battle in the west is not the "crash of battle-axe on shattered
+helm," but the all-engulfing mist.
+
+Perhaps this is all intended to teach us that riches and favor, and
+even bread, are not the essentials of life, and that failure to
+attain these is not such ruin as we often think. But no man ever
+struggled for wisdom, righteousness, unselfishness, and heroism
+without attaining them; even though the more he attained the more
+dissatisfied he became with all previous attainment. And if our
+slight attainments in wisdom and knowledge always brought wealth and
+favor, we might rest satisfied with the latter, instead of clearly
+recognizing that wisdom must be its own reward. Uncertainty and
+deprivation are the best and only training for a hero, not sure
+reward paid in popular plaudits.
+
+Political economists speak of the productiveness and prospectiveness
+of capital. We may well borrow these terms, using them in a somewhat
+modified sense. In our sense capital is productive in so far as it
+gives an immediate return; it is prospective in proportion as the
+return is expected largely in the future. A "pocket" may yield an
+immediate very large return of gold nuggets at a very slight expense
+of labor and appliances, but it is soon exhausted. In a mine the ore
+may be poor near the surface, but grow richer as the shaft deepens;
+the vein is narrow above, but widens below. The returns are at first
+small, its inexhaustible richness becomes apparent only after
+considerable time and labor. The value of the "pocket" is purely
+productive, that of the mine largely or purely prospective. Indeed
+it may be opened at a loss. But even a rich mine may be worked
+purely for its productive value; it may be "skinned."
+
+Let us apply this thought to the development of a species; although
+what is true of the species will generally be true of the individual
+also, for the development of the two is, in the main, parallel. In
+the animal all functions are to a certain extent productive, and all
+directly or indirectly prospective. When we examine the sequence of
+functions we cannot but notice how largely their value is
+prospective. As long as a lower function is rising to supremacy in
+the animal, it appears to be retained purely for its productive
+value; thus digestion in hydra or gastræa. But after a time animals
+appeared which had some muscle and nerve. And, by the process of
+natural selection, those animals which used digestion as an end for
+its productive value became food for, and gave place to, those using
+it as a means of supporting muscle and nerve of greater prospective
+value. And similarly, those animals which used muscle, or even mind,
+productively gave place to others using these prospectively.
+
+In other words, the functions and capacities of any animal, the
+extent of its conformity to environment, may be regarded as its
+capital. The animal may use this capital productively or
+prospectively. It may spend its income, and more too; it may
+increase its capital. Now social capital will always fall sooner or
+later to those communities whose members use it most prospectively,
+who are willing to forego, to quite an extent, present enjoyment,
+and look for future return. The same is true of all development.
+Sessile forms and mollusks, and, in a less degree, crabs and
+reptiles, worked for immediate return. They are like extravagant
+heirs who draw on their capital and sooner or later come to poverty.
+The primitive vertebrate, the mammal, and the other ancestors of man
+used their capital prospectively, and it increased, as if at
+compound interest.
+
+The spendthrift appears at first sight to have the greatest
+enjoyment in life, the rising business man works hard and foregoes
+much. I believe that the latter is really by far the happier of the
+two. But, if you can spend only a day or two in a city, and your
+examination is superficial, you may easily make the mistake of
+considering the spendthrift as the most successful man in the
+community. So, in our brief visit to the world in times past, we
+picked out the crab, the reptile, and the carnivore as its rising
+members.
+
+Once more, capital can be spent very quickly; to use it
+prospectively requires time. This is a truism; but it does no harm
+to call attention to truisms which have been neglected. Organs and
+powers of great prospective value are slow and difficult of
+development. If their increase is to be at all rapid, they must
+start early. If their development and culture is deferred, there
+will be little or no advance, but probably degeneration.
+Extravagance grows rapidly and soon becomes irresistible; habits of
+saving must be formed early. The same is true of the development of
+all other virtues.
+
+There is in the child an orderly sequence of development of mental
+traits. While these powers are in their earlier, so to speak
+embryonic, stages of development, they can be fostered and increased
+or retarded. They are still plastic. Very early in a child's life
+acquisitiveness shows itself; he begins to say "I," and "mine," and
+desires things to be his "very own." And this can be fostered so
+that the child will grow up a "covetous machine." Or he may be
+taught to share with others.
+
+Not so much later, while the child is still in the lower grades of
+his school life, comes the period of moral development. If, during
+this period, these powers are fostered and cultivated, they may, and
+probably will, be dominant throughout his life. And herein lies the
+dignity and glory of the unappreciated, underpaid, and overworked
+teachers of our "lower" schools, that they have the opportunity to
+cultivate these moral powers of the child during these most critical
+years of his life. Repression or neglect here works life-long and
+irreparable harm. The young man goes out into the world. Here
+"practical" men continually instruct him by precept upon precept,
+line upon line, that he cannot afford to be generous until he has
+acquired wealth; that he must first win success for himself, and
+that he can then help others. And, unless his character is like
+pasture-grown oak, he follows and improves upon their teachings. _He
+reverses the sequence of functions._ He puts acquisitiveness first
+and right and sterling honesty and unselfishness second. For a score
+or more of years he labors. At first he honestly intends to build up
+a strong character and a generous nature just as soon as he can
+afford to; but for the present he cannot afford it. If he is to
+succeed, he must do as others do and walk in the beaten track. He
+wins wealth and position, or learning and fame. He now has the
+ability and means to help others, but he no longer cares to do so.
+Loyalty to truth, sterling honesty--the genuine, not the
+conventional counterfeit--unselfishness, in one word, character,
+these are plants of slow growth. They require cultivation by habit
+through long years. In his case they have become aborted and
+incapable of rejuvenescence. But his rudiment of a moral nature
+feels twinges of remorse. He ought not to have reversed the sequence
+of functions, and he knows it. But he cannot retrace his steps. He
+made the development of character impossible when he made wealth his
+first and chief aim. If he has a million dollars he tries to insure
+his soul by leaving in his will one-tenth to build a church, or,
+possibly, one-half for foreign missions. In the latter case he will
+be held up as a shining example to all the youth of the land, and
+the churches will ring with his praises. But what has been the
+effect of his life on the moral, social capital of the community? Is
+the world better or worse for his life? He has all his life been
+disseminating the germs of a soul-blight more infectious and deadly
+than any bodily disease.
+
+If he has made learning or fame his chief aim, he probably has not
+the money to buy soul-insurance. He takes refuge in agnosticism,
+like an ostrich in a bush. His agnosticism is in his will; he does
+not wish to see. Or its cause is atrophy, through disuse, of moral
+vision. He cannot see. There are agnostics of quite another stamp,
+whom we must respect and honor for their sterling honesty and
+high character, though we may have little respect for their
+philosophical tenets. But how much has our scholar advanced the
+morality of the community? He has probably done even more harm than
+the business man, who is a mere "covetous machine."
+
+The "practical" man has reversed the sequence of functions.
+Character is, and must be, first; and wealth, learning, power, and
+fame are the materials, often exceedingly refractory, which it must
+subjugate to its growth and use. And this subjugation is anything
+but easy. The reversal of the sequence results in a moral
+degradation and poverty indefinitely more dangerous to the community
+than the slums of our great cities. For these may be controlled and
+cleansed; but the moral slum floods our legislatures and positions
+of honor and trust, and invades the churches. The mental and moral
+water-supply of the community is loaded with disease-germs.
+
+The social wealth of a community is the sum total of the wealth of
+its individual members. And a community is truly wealthy only when
+this wealth is, to a certain extent, diffused. If there is any truth
+in our argument that the sequence of functions culminates in
+righteousness and unselfishness, the real social wealth of a
+community consists in its moral character, not in its money, or even
+in its intelligence. We may rest assured that character, resulting
+in industry and economy, will bring sufficient means of subsistence,
+so that all its members will be fed and housed and clothed. And art
+and culture, of the most ennobling and inspiring sort, will surely
+follow. And even if such literature failed as largely composes our
+present _fin-de-siècle_ garbage-heap, we would not regret its
+absence. That community will and must survive in which the largest
+proportion of members make the accumulation of character their chief
+and first aim. And to this community every rival must in time yield
+its place and power, and all its acquisitions. And in every
+advancing community the position of any class or profession will in
+time be determined by its moral wealth.
+
+But this moral wealth is intangible. The rewards and penalties of
+moral law easily escape notice in our hasty and superficial study of
+life. The God immanent in our environment often seems to hide
+himself. The altar of Jehovah is fallen down, and Baal's temples are
+crowded with loud-mouthed worshippers. The bribes of present
+enjoyment and of immediate success loom up before us, and we doubt
+if any other success is possible.
+
+But the law of progress, even now so dimly discernible in
+environment, is written in our minds in letters of fire. For we have
+already seen that environment can be understood only by tracing its
+effects in the development of life. What is best and highest in us
+is the record of the working of what is best and highest in
+environment. And the personal God so dimly seen in environment is
+revealed in man's soul. Man must study himself, if he is to know
+what environment requires of him. And if the knowledge of himself
+and of the laws of his being is the highest knowledge, is not the
+vision of, and struggle toward, higher attainments, not yet realized
+and hence necessarily foreseen, the only mode of farther progress?
+And what is this pursuit of, and devotion to, ideals not yet
+realized and but dimly foreseen, if it is not Faith, "the substance
+of things hoped for, and evidence of things not seen?" By it alone
+can man "obtain a good report." Man must "walk by faith, not by
+sight." "For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
+which are not seen are eternal."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MAN
+
+
+In Kingsley's fascinating historical romance, Raphael Aben-Ezra says
+to Hypatia, "Is it not possible that we have been so busy discussing
+what the philosopher should be, that we have forgotten that he must
+first of all be a man?" This truth we too often forget. No
+statesman, philosopher, least of all teacher, can be truly great who
+is not, first of all, and above all, a great man. And in our study
+of man are we not prone to forget that he stands in certain very
+definite and close relations with surrounding nature?
+
+Man has been the object of so much special study, his position,
+owing to his higher moral and mental power, is so unique that he has
+often been regarded not only as a special creation, but as created
+to occupy a position not only unique, but also exceptional, above
+many of the very laws of nature, and not bound by them. Many speak
+and write of him as if it were his chief glory and prerogative to be
+as far removed as possible, not only from the animal, but even from
+the whole realm of nature. The mistake of making him an exception
+arises, after all, not so much from too high a conception of man, at
+least of his possibilities, as from too low a view of nature.
+
+But however this view may have arisen, it is one-sided and mistaken.
+Man certainly has a place in Nature--not above it. If he is the
+goal toward which the ascending series of living forms has
+continually tended, he is a part of the series--the real goal lies
+far above him.
+
+Pascal says, "It is dangerous to show a man too clearly how closely
+he resembles the brute without showing him at the same time his
+greatness. It is equally dangerous to impress upon him his greatness
+without his lowliness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in
+ignorance of both. But it is of great advantage to point out to him
+both characteristics side by side."
+
+A great German thinker began his work on the human soul with a
+discussion of the law of gravitation.
+
+All study of man must begin with the study of the atom. Man's life
+we have seen to be the aggregate of the work of all the cells of his
+body. But the protoplasm which composes his cells is a chemical
+compound, and hence subject to all the laws of all the atoms of
+which it is composed. And its molecules, or the smallest
+mechanically separable compounds of these atoms, are arranged and
+related according to the laws of physics, so as to permit or produce
+the play of certain forces which are always the result of atomic or
+molecular combination. Every motive or thought demands the
+combustion of a certain amount of material which has been already
+assimilated in the microscopic cellular laboratories of our body.
+Every vital activity is manifested at least through chemical and
+physical forces. And the elements of the fuel for our engines we
+receive through plants from the inorganic world. For the plant, as
+we have seen, stores up as potential energy in its compounds the
+actual energy of the sun's rays. And thus man lives and thinks by
+energy, obtained originally from the sun. But man not only consumes
+food and fuel. The complicated protoplasm is continually wearing out
+and being replaced. Every cell in our bodies is a centre toward
+which particles of material stream to be assimilated and form for a
+time a part of the living substance, and then to be cast out again
+as dead matter. Our very existence depends upon this continual
+change. There is synthesis of simple substances into more complex
+compounds, and then analysis of these complex compounds into
+simpler, and from this latter process results the energy manifested
+in every vital action. We are all whirlpools on the surface of
+nature; when the whirling ceases we disappear. Man, like every other
+living being, exists in a condition of constant interchange with
+surrounding nature; he is rooted in innumerable ways in the
+inorganic world.
+
+And because of these close relations the great characteristic of
+living beings is the necessity and power of conformity to
+environment. Hence a very common definition of life is the continual
+adjustment of internal relations to external relations or
+conditions. To a very slight extent man can rise superior to certain
+of the ruder elements of his surroundings, but he gains this victory
+only by learning and following the laws of the very environment
+which he succeeds in subjecting to himself. Indeed his higher
+development and finer build bring him into touch with an
+indefinitely wider range of surroundings than even the lower animal.
+Forces, conditions, and relations which never enter the sphere of
+life of lower forms, crowd and press upon him and he cannot escape
+them. His higher position, instead of freeing him from dependence
+upon environment and subjection to law, makes him thus more
+sensitive, as well as more capable of exact conformity to an
+environment of almost infinite complexity; and more sure of absolute
+ruin, if ignorant, negligent, or disobedient. The words of the
+German poet are literally true:
+
+        "Nach ehernen, eisernen, grossen Gesetzen,
+         Müssen wir alle unseres Daseins
+         Kreise vollenden."
+
+But man is an animal. And the principal characteristic of an animal
+is that it eats a certain amount of solid food. The plant lives on
+fluid nutriment, and this comes to it by the process of diffusion in
+every drop of water and breath of air. The acquisition of food
+requires no effort, and the plant makes none. It has therefore
+always remained stationary and almost insensible. Not taking the
+first step it has never taken any of the higher ones. But solid food
+would not, as a rule, come to the animal--though stationary and
+sessile animals are not uncommon in the water--he must go in search
+of it. This called into play the powers of locomotion and
+perception. And in the sequence of function we have seen digestion
+calling for the development of muscle; and muscle, of nerve and
+brain. And the brain became the organ of mind.
+
+Man as a mere animal is necessarily active and energetic; otherwise
+he stagnates and degenerates. Labor is a curse, but work a blessing;
+and man's best work, of every kind, is done in the friction of life,
+not in ease and quiet. Man is, further, a being composed of cells,
+tissues, and organs, which were successively developed for him by
+the lower animal kingdoms. The old view, that man was the microcosm,
+had in it a certain amount of every important truth. We need to be
+continually reminded of our indebtedness in a thousand ways to the
+lowest and most insignificant forms of life.
+
+Man is a vertebrate animal. This means that he has a locomotive, not
+protective, skeleton, composed of cartilage--a tough, elastic,
+organic material, hardened, as a rule, by the deposition of mineral
+salts, mainly phosphate of lime, in exceedingly fine particles, so
+as to form a homogeneous, flawless, elastic, tough, light, and
+unyielding skeleton, held together by firm ligaments.
+
+The skeleton is internal, and this fact, as we have seen, gives the
+possibility of large size. And size is in itself no unimportant
+factor. Professor Lotze maintains that without man's size and
+strength, agriculture and the working of metals, and thus all
+civilization, would have been impossible. But we have already seen
+that there is an extreme of size, _e.g._, in the elephant, which
+makes its possessor clumsy, able to exist only where there are large
+amounts of food in limited areas, slow to reproduce, and lacking in
+adaptability. This extreme also is avoided in man; in this, as in
+many other particulars, he holds the golden mean. But we have also
+seen that large size is, as a rule, correlated with long life and
+great opportunity for experience and observation. And these are the
+foundations of intelligence. Hence the deliverance of the higher
+vertebrate, and especially of man, from any iron-bound subjection to
+instinct.
+
+And here another question of vital importance meets us. Is man's
+life at present as long as it should or can be? The question is
+exceedingly difficult, but a negative answer seems more probable. We
+cannot but hope that, with a better knowledge of our physical
+structure, a clearer vision of the dangers to which we are exposed,
+more study of the laws of physiology, heredity, and of our
+environment, and above all, less reckless disregard of these in a
+mad pursuit of pleasure, wealth, and position, man's period of
+mature, healthy, and best activity may be lengthened, perhaps, even
+a score of years. The mitigation of hurry and worry alone, the two
+great curses of our American civilization, might postpone the
+collapse of our nervous systems longer than we even dream. And if we
+could add even five years to the working life of our statesmen,
+scholars, and discoverers, the work of these last five years, with
+the advantage of all previously acquired knowledge and experience,
+might be of more value than that of their whole previous life. Human
+advance could not but be greatly, or even vastly, accelerated.
+
+Moreover, we have seen that the history of vertebrates is really the
+history of the development of the cerebrum, forebrain or large
+brain, as we call it in man. This is the seat in man of
+consciousness, thought, and will. This portion as a distinct and new
+lobe first appears in lowest vertebrates, increases steadily in size
+from class to class, reaches its most rapid development by mammals,
+and its culmination in man. During the tertiary period--the last of
+the great geological periods--the brain in many groups of mammals
+increased in size, both absolutely and relatively, eight to tenfold.
+Dr. Holmes says, that the education of a child should begin a
+century or two before its birth; man really began his mental
+education at least as early as the appearance of vertebrate life.
+
+But man is a mammal. This means that every organ is at its best. The
+digestive system, while making but a small part of the weight of the
+body, and built mainly on the old plan, is wonderfully perfect in
+its microscopic details. The muscles are heavy and powerful,
+arranged with the weight near the axis of the body, and replaced
+near the ends of the appendages by light, tough sinews. The higher
+mammal is this compact, light, and agile. The skeleton is strong,
+and the levers of the appendages are fitted to give rapidity of
+motion even at the expense of strength. And this again is possible
+only because of the high development and strength of the muscles.
+Moreover, the highest mammals are largely arboreal, and in
+connection with this habit have changed the foreleg into an arm and
+hand. The latter became the servant of the brain and gave the
+possibility of using tools.
+
+But increase in size and activity, and the expense of producing each
+new individual, led to the adoption of placental development. And
+the mammal is so complex, the road from the egg to the fully
+developed young is so long, that a long period of gestation is
+necessary. And even at birth the brain, especially of man, is
+anything but complete. Hence the necessity of the mammalian habit of
+suckling and caring for the young. And this feebleness and
+dependence of the young had begun far below man to draw out maternal
+tenderness and affection. And the mammalian mode of reproduction and
+care of young led to a more marked difference and interdependence
+between the sexes.
+
+The result of this is man's family life, as Mr. John Fiske has
+shown so beautifully in that fascinating monograph, "The Destiny of
+Man." And family life once introduced becomes the foundation and
+bulwark of all civilization, morality, and religion. Far down in the
+mammalian series, before the development of the family, maternal
+education has become prominent, and the young begins life, benefited
+by the experiences of the parent. How much more efficient is this in
+family life. But, furthermore, the family is perhaps the first,
+certainly the most important, of those higher unities in which men
+are bound together. Social life of a sort undoubtedly existed,
+before man, among birds, insects, and lower mammals. The community
+was often defective or incomplete in unity, or existed under such
+limitations that it could not show its best results, but that it was
+of vast benefit from an even higher than mere physical standpoint,
+no one will, I think, deny. But with the family a new era of
+education and social life began.
+
+First of all, the struggle for existence is thereby greatly modified
+and mitigated. This crowding out and trampling down of the weaker by
+the stronger is transferred, to a certain extent, from the
+individual to the family and, in great degree, from the family to
+larger and larger social units. For within the limits of the family
+competition tends to be replaced by mutual helpfulness, and not only
+are the loneliness and horror of the struggle between isolated
+individuals banished, but, what is vastly more, the family becomes
+the school of unselfishness and love. And what has thus become true
+of the single family, and groups of nearly related families, is
+slowly being realized in the larger units of communities and
+states. For, as families and communities are just as really
+organisms as are the individual men and women, whose soundness
+depends upon the healthy activity of every organ, so there is a
+survival, first of families, then of communities and rival
+civilizations, in proportion to their unity and soundness in every
+part. For on account of the close bonds of family and social life,
+and in connection with the development of articulate speech, a new
+kind of heredity, so to speak, arises, of vast importance for both
+good and evil. This mental and moral heredity, over-leaping all
+boundaries of blood and natural kinship, spreads light and good
+influence or an immoral contagion through the community. And thus,
+in sheer self-defence, society passes laws setting limits to the
+oppression of the poor and weak, lest, degraded and brutalized, they
+become breeding centres of physical and moral disease in the
+community. The positive lesson that the surest mode of self-defence
+is the elevation of these submerged classes, we are just beginning
+to learn and apply.
+
+By the ever-increasing acceleration of the development the gap
+between man and the lower animal widens with wonderful rapidity. Of
+course it is only in man, and higher man, that these last and
+highest results of mammalian structure appear. But that, far removed
+as they are, they are the results of mammalian and vertebrate
+characteristics cannot, I think, be well denied. And this is only
+one of innumerably possible illustrations of the fact that all our
+most highly prized institutions are rooted far back in our ancestry,
+often ineradicably in the very organs of our bodies. And thus
+evolution, which many view only from its radical side--and it has a
+radical side--is really the conservative bulwark of all that is
+essentially worth possessing in the past.
+
+But every factor in man's development tends toward intellectual and
+spiritual development. Man's vast increase of brain; his finely
+balanced body; his upright gait; setting his hands free from the
+work of locomotion that they might become the skilful servants of
+the mind; finally, articulate speech and social, and, above all,
+family, life, all tended in this same direction.
+
+And this makes the great difficulty in assigning man his
+proper place in our systems of classification. Our zoölogical
+classifications depend upon anatomical characteristics; and
+anatomically man belongs among the order primates. But mental and
+moral values cannot be expressed in terms of anatomy, any more than
+we can speak of an idea of so many horse-power, and hence worth
+three or four ancestral dollars. Hence, while from the zoölogical
+standpoint man is a primate, and while he is very probably descended
+from one of these, he has gradually risen above them mentally and
+spiritually, so that he stands as far above them as they above the
+lowest worm. And this leads us to the consideration of man, not
+merely as a mammal, but as "Anthropos," Homo sapiens, although he
+often degenerates into "Simia destructor."
+
+From what has just been said man's pre-eminence cannot consist in
+any anatomical characteristic, even of the brain--much less of
+thumb, forefinger, hand, or foot. But man's mental and moral
+characteristics (even though germs of these may be present in the
+animal), whether differing in degree or kind from theirs, raise his
+life to a totally different plane. He lives in an environment of
+which the lower animal is as unconscious and ignorant as we of a
+fourth dimension of space. He has the knowledge of abstract truth
+and goodness, of certain standards outside of mere appetite and
+desire, and feels and acknowledges, however dimly, the requirement
+and the ability to conform his life to these standards. He alone can
+say "I ought," and answer "I can and will." And hence man alone
+actually lives in an environment of the laws of reason,
+responsibility, and personality. Whatever germs of these higher
+powers the animal possesses are means to material ends, to the
+physical life of the animal. In man the long and slow evolution has
+ended in revolution, the material and physical have been dethroned,
+and truth and goodness reign supreme as ends in themselves.
+
+But, you may object, this definition of man may be true ideally,
+certainly it is not true actually. Where are the high ideals of
+truth and goodness in the savage? and are these the supreme ends of
+even the average American of to-day? But allowing all weight to this
+objection, does it not remain true that a being who never says "I
+ought," who acknowledges and manifests no responsibility, to whom
+goodness does not appeal, and in whom these feelings cannot be
+awakened, is either not yet or no longer man? But far more than
+this, if the character of the individual is to be judged by his
+tendency more than his present condition, by the way in which he is
+going more than his momentary position, is not the race to be judged
+and defined by a tendency, gradually though very slowly becoming
+realized, and a goal, toward which it looks and which it is surely
+attaining, rather than by its present realization? As we rise
+higher in the animal kingdom the characteristics of the successive
+higher groups are more and more slow of attainment and difficult of
+realization, just because of their grander possibilities. And this
+is true and important above all in the case of man. His
+possibilities are beyond our powers of conception, for, if you will,
+man is yet only larval man.
+
+We have followed the sequence of functions to its culmination in a
+mind completely dominated by righteousness and unselfishness,
+however far above our present attainments this goal may be. We have
+found that all attempts to reverse this sequence end in death or
+degeneration. Failure to advance, especially in higher forms,
+results in extinction or retrogression. We cannot stand still. Each
+higher step is longer and more important than any preceding; each
+last step is essential to life. Righteousness in the will is the
+last step essential to man's progress. And if a sound mind in a
+sound body is important or necessary, a sound will, resolutely set
+on right, is absolutely essential. Failure to attain this is ruin.
+
+And man can to a great extent place himself so that his surroundings
+shall aid him to take this last, essential, upward step. He does
+this by the choice of his associates. If he associates himself with
+men who are tending upward, he will rise ever higher. If he choose
+the opposite kind of associates he must sink into ever deeper
+degradation; he has thereby chosen death. For his associates, once
+chosen, make him like themselves. And thus natural selection makes
+for the survival of those men who resolutely choose life. And
+thoughtless or careless failure to choose is ruin. The man has
+preferred degradation; it is only right that he should have it to
+satiety.
+
+But man is not, and never can be, pure spirit. He may "let the ape
+and tiger die," but he must always retain the animal with its
+natural appetites. Moreover, his higher mental capacities increase
+their power. Memory recalls past gratifications as it never does to
+the animal; imagination paints before him vivid pictures of similar
+future enjoyments, and mental keenness and strength of will tell him
+that they can all be his. But if he yields himself a slave to these
+appetites, if he seeks to be an animal rather than a spiritual
+being, he becomes not an animal but a brute; and the only genuine
+brute is a degenerate man. And thus after conquering the world man's
+very structure compels him to join battle with himself. For here, as
+everywhere else, to attempt to go backward to a plane of life once
+passed is to surely degenerate. The time when the prize of
+pre-eminence could be won by mere physical superiority was passed
+before man had a history. Physical superiority must be maintained,
+and every advance in art and science, considered here as ministering
+to man's physical comfort, is advantageous just so far as these
+allow man freedom and aid to pursue the mental and moral line which
+is the only true path left open to him. But when even these are
+allowed to minister only to the animal, or to tempt to luxurious
+ease and indifference to any higher aims, in a word, in so far as
+they fail to minister to mental and moral advancement, they are in
+great danger of becoming, if they have not already become, a curse
+rather than a blessing. And we all know that this has been proven
+over and over again in human history. Families, cities, and nations
+rot, mainly because they cannot resist the seductions of an
+overwhelming material prosperity. A man says to his soul, "Take
+thine ease, eat, drink and be merry," and to that man scripture and
+science say, with equal emphasis, "Thou fool!"
+
+Every upward step in attainment of the comforts of life, of art and
+science, brings man into new fields not of careless enjoyment but of
+struggle. They swarm with new enemies and temptations before
+unknown. The new attainments are not unalloyed blessings, they are
+merely opportunities for victory or defeat. The uncertain battle is
+only shifted to a little higher plane. Man has increased the forces
+at his command only to meet stronger opposing hosts. And retreat is
+impossible. Man remains a spiritual being only on condition that he
+resolutely and vigilantly purposes to be so. To lag behind in this
+spiritual path is death.
+
+And the epitaph of nations and individuals is the record of their
+defeat in this struggle to be masters and not slaves of their
+material and intellectual attainments. Greece, the most intellectual
+of all nations of all times, died in mental senility of moral
+paralysis. Of Socrates's and Plato's "following after truth" nothing
+remained but the gossipy curiosity of a second childhood, living
+only to tell or to hear some new thing. And the schools of
+philosophy were closed because they had nothing to tell which was
+worth the knowing or hearing. All the wealth of the world was poured
+into Rome, the home of Stoic philosophy, and it was smothered, and
+died in rottenness under its material prosperity.
+
+A family, race, or nation starts out fresh in its youthful physical
+and mental vigor and strict obedience to moral law and in its faith
+in God. For these reasons it survives in the struggle for existence.
+It grows in extent and power, in intelligence and wealth. But with
+this increase in wealth and power comes a deadening of the mind to
+the claims of moral law, and an idolatrous worship of material
+prosperity. The new generation looks upon the stern morality and
+industry and self-control of its ancestors as straight-laced and
+narrow. Morality may not be unfashionable, but any stern rebuke of
+immorality is not conventional. Strong moral earnestness and
+whole-souled loyalty to truth are not in good form. Wealth and
+social position become the chief ends of men's efforts, and, to buy
+these, unselfishness and truth and self-respect are bartered away.
+Luxury, enervation, and effeminacy are rife, and snobbery follows
+close behind them. The ancestral vigor, the insight to recognize
+great moral principles, and the power to gladly hazard all in their
+defence have disappeared in a mist of indifference, which beclouds
+the eyes and benumbs all the powers. The race of giants is dwindling
+into dwarfs. They say, when the time comes, we will rouse ourselves
+and be like our fathers. And the crisis comes, but they are not
+equal to it. The nation has long enough cumbered the ground, it has
+already died by suicide and must now give place to a race and
+civilization which has some aim in, and hence right to, existence,
+and which is of some use to itself and others. If we would learn by
+observation, and not by sad experience, we must remember that man is
+above all, and must be a religious being conforming to the
+personality of the God manifested in his environment.
+
+Can you find anywhere a more profound or scientific philosophy of
+history than that of Paul in the first chapter of Romans? "For the
+invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly
+seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his
+everlasting power and divinity; so that they are without excuse:
+because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither
+gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings and their senseless
+heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became
+fools. And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God
+gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
+fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness."[A] And then follows
+the dark picture, from which we revolt but which the ancient
+historians themselves justify.
+
+  [Footnote A: Romans i. 20-22, 28.]
+
+On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at Rome is Michel Angelo's
+marvellous painting of the creation of Adam. A human figure of
+magnificent strength is half-rising from its recumbent posture, as
+if just awakening to consciousness, and is reaching out its hand to
+touch the outstretched finger of God. The human being became and
+becomes man when, and in proportion as, he puts himself in touch
+with God, and is inspired with the divine life. The lower animal
+conformed mainly to the material in environment, man conforms
+consciously to the spiritual and personal.
+
+Any science of human history that does not acknowledge man's
+relation to a personal God is fatally incomplete; for it has missed
+the goal of man's development and the chief means of his farther
+advance. And a religion which does not emphasize this is worse than
+a broken reed. It is a mirage of the desert, toward which thirsty
+souls run only to die unsatisfied.
+
+Man can never overcome in this battle with the allurements of
+material prosperity and with the pride and selfishness of intellect,
+except as he is interpenetrated and permeated with God, any more
+than we can move or think, unless our blood is charged with the
+oxygen of the air. It is not enough that man have God in his
+intellectual creed; he must have him in his heart and will, in every
+fibre of his personality, in every thought and action of life.
+Otherwise his defeat and ruin are sure.
+
+Three fatal heresies are abroad to-day: 1. Man's chief end is
+avoidance of pain and discomfort, in one word, happiness; and God is
+somehow bound to surfeit man with this. And this is the chief end of
+a mollusk. 2. Man's chief end is material prosperity and social
+position. 3. Man's chief end is intellect, knowledge. Each one of
+these three ends, while good in a subordinate place, will surely
+ruin man if made his chief end. For they leave out of account
+conformity to environment. "Man's chief end is to glorify God and
+enjoy him for ever." And just as the plant glorifies the sun by
+turning to, and being permeated and vivified and built up by, the
+warmth and light of its rays, similarly man must glorify God. This
+is the religion of conformity to environment: man working out his
+salvation because God works in him. Thus, and thus only, shall man
+overcome the allurements of these lower endowments and receive the
+rewards of "him that overcometh."
+
+Thus prosperity and adversity, success and failure, continually test
+a man. If he can rise superior to these, can subjugate them and make
+them subserve his moral progress, he survives; if he is mastered by
+them, he perishes. Through these does natural selection mainly work
+to find and train great souls. They are the threads of the sieve of
+destiny.
+
+In this struggle man must fight against overwhelming odds, and the
+cost of victory is dear. He must be prepared, like Socrates, to "bid
+farewell to those things which most men count honors, and look
+onward to the truth." He appears to the world at large, often to
+himself, eminently unpractical. The majority against his view and
+vote will usually be overwhelming. Truth is a stern goddess, and she
+will often bid him draw sword and stand against his nearest and
+dearest friends. The issue will often appear to him exceeding
+doubtful. The grander the truth for which he is fighting, the
+greater the need of its defence and enforcement, the greater the
+probability that he will never live to see its triumph. The hero
+must be a man of gigantic faith. But all his ancestors have had to
+make a similar choice and to fight a similar battle. The upward path
+was intended to be exceedingly hard. This is a law of biology.
+
+Why this is so I may not know. I only know that no better and surer
+way could have been discovered to train a race of heroes. For no man
+ever becomes a hero who has not learned to battle with the world and
+himself. Does it not look as if God loved a heroic soul as much as
+men worship one, and as if he intended that man should attain to
+it? Man was born and bred in hardship that he might be a hero.
+
+  "Careless seems the great avenger; history's pages but record
+  One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the word;
+  Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,
+  Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
+  Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
+
+  "Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,
+  Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just;
+  Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,
+  Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,
+  And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied."
+
+The Crown Prince of Prussia has less spending money than many a
+young fellow in Berlin. He is trained to economy, industry,
+self-control. He is to learn something better than habits of luxury,
+to rule himself, and thus later the German Empire. The children of a
+great captain, themselves to be soldiers, must endure hardness like
+good soldiers. And man is to fight his way to a throne.
+
+But his powers are still in their infancy and the goal far above
+him. What he is to become you and I can hardly appreciate. First of
+all, the body will become finer, fitted for nobler ends. It will not
+be allowed to degenerate. It may become less fitted for the rough
+work, which can be done by machinery; it will be all the better for
+higher uses. It is to be transformed, transfigured. The eye may not
+see so far, it will be better fitted for perceiving all the beauties
+of art and nature. It will become a better means of expressing
+personality, as our personality becomes more "fit to be seen." It is
+continually gaining a speech of its own. And will not the ear become
+more delicate, a better instrument for responding to the finest
+harmonies, and better gateway to our highest feelings? We may not
+have so many molar teeth for chewing food, but may not our mouths
+become ever finer instruments for speech and song? In other words,
+the body is to be transfigured by the mind and become its worthy
+servant and representative.
+
+As we learn to live for something better than food and clothes, and
+cease to pamper the body, it will become better and healthier.
+Science will stamp out many diseases, and we shall learn to prevent
+others by right living. And what a change in our moral and religious
+life will be made by good health. What a cheerful courage and hope
+it will give.
+
+Man will become more intelligent. He will learn the laws of heredity
+and of life in general. He will see deeper into the relations of
+things. He will recognize in himself and his environment the laws of
+progress. He will clearly discern great moral truths, where we but
+dimly see lights and shadows.
+
+But while we would not underestimate the value and necessity of
+growth in knowledge, we must as clearly recognize that the intellect
+is not the centre and essence of man's being. Knowledge, while the
+surest form of wealth of which no one can rob us, and the best as
+the stepping-stone to the highest well-being, is like wealth in one
+respect: it is not character and can be used for good or evil. If my
+neighbor uses his greater knowledge as a means of overreaching us
+all, it injures us and ruins him.
+
+Our emotions, and this is but another word for our motives, stand
+far nearer to the centre of life; for they control our conduct and
+directly determine what we are. Knowledge of environment is good,
+but of what real and permanent use is such knowledge without
+conformity? Our real weakness is not our ignorance; we know the
+good, but lack the will and purpose to live it out. And this is
+because the thought of truth and goodness excites no such strength
+of feeling as that of some lower gratification. We cannot perhaps
+overrate the value of intellect; we certainly underrate the value of
+emotion and feeling. "Knowledge puffeth up, love buildeth." It does
+not require great intellect, it does require intense feeling to be a
+hero. We slander the emotions by calling people emotional because
+they are always talking about their feelings; but deep feeling is
+always silent. It is not fashionable to feel deeply, and we are
+dwarfed by this conventionality. We have almost ceased to wonder,
+and hence we have almost ceased to learn; for the wise old Greeks
+knew that wonder is the mother of wisdom.
+
+The man of the future will probably be a man of strong appetites,
+for he will be healthy; he will be prudent, because wise; but he
+will hold his appetites well in leash. He will trample upon mere
+prudential considerations at the call of truth or right. For in him
+these highest motives will be absolute monarchs, and they are the
+only motives which can enable a man to face rack and stake without
+flinching. He will be a hero because he feels intensely. In other
+words, he will be a man of gigantic will, because he has a great
+heart. And in the man of the future all these powers will be not
+only highly developed; they will be rightly proportioned and duly
+subordinated. He will be a well-balanced man. But how few complete
+men we now see.
+
+We see the strong will without the clear intellect to guide it; the
+gush of feeling either directed toward low ends or evaporating in
+sentiment; the clear head with the cold heart. The high development
+of one mental power seems to draw away all strength and vitality
+from the rest. How rarely do we find the strong will guided by the
+keen intellect toward the highest aims clearly discerned. Memory and
+imagination must always play their part in the joy set before us.
+But in addition to all these, the white heat of feeling, of which
+man alone is capable, is necessary for his grandest efforts. Such a
+being would be a man born to be a king. And there will be a race of
+such men. And we must play the man that they may be raised upon our
+buried shoulders. And they will tower above us, as the seers of old
+in Judea, Athens, India, and Rome towered above their indolent,
+luxurious, blind, and material contemporaries. And with all their
+accelerated development, infinite possibilities will still stretch
+beyond the reach of their imagination. For "men follow duty, never
+overtake."
+
+But all our analyses are unsatisfactory. In the history of any great
+people there is a period when they seem to rise above themselves.
+They have the strength of giants, and accomplish things before and
+since impossible. We sometimes ascribe these results to the
+exuberant vitality of the race at this time; and their life is large
+and grand. Such was England under Elizabeth. Think of her soldiers
+and explorers, her statesmen and poets. There were giants in those
+days. What a healthy, hearty enjoyment they showed in all their
+work, and with what ease was the impossible accomplished. The
+greater the hardships to be borne or odds to be faced, the greater
+the joy in overcoming them. They sailed out to give battle to the
+superior power of Spain, not at the command, but by the permission,
+of their queen; often without even this.
+
+And what a vigor and vitality there is in the literature of this
+period. Life is worth living, and studying, and describing. They see
+the world directly as it is; not some distorted picture of it, seen
+by an unhealthy mind and drawn by a feeble hand. The world is ever
+new and fresh to them because they see it through young, clear eyes.
+
+Were they giants or are we dwarfed? Which of the two lives is
+normal? They used all their faculties and utilized all their powers.
+Do we? The only force or product which we are willing to see wasted
+is the highest mental and moral power. Our engines and turbine
+wheels utilize the last ounce of pressure of the steam or water. The
+manufacturers pay high wages to hands who can tend machines run at
+the highest possible speed. The profits of modern business come
+largely from the utilization of force or products formerly wasted.
+But how far do we utilize the highest faculties of the mind, which
+have to do with character, the crowning glory of human development?
+Are we not eminently "penny-wise and pound-foolish?" A ship which
+uses only its donkey-engines, and does nothing but take in and get
+out cargo is a dismantled hulk. A captain who thinks only of cargo,
+and engines, and the length of the daily run, but who takes no
+observations and consults no chart, will make land only to run upon
+rocks. Are we not too much like such dismantled hulks, or ships
+sailing with priceless cargoes but with mad captains?
+
+But we have not yet seen the worst results of this waste of our
+highest powers. The sessile animal, which lives mainly for
+digestion, does not attain as good digestive organs as his more
+active neighbor, who subordinates digestion to muscle. Lower powers
+reach their highest development only in proportion as they are
+strictly subordinated to higher. This may be called a law of
+biology. And our lower mental powers fail of their highest
+development and capacity mainly because of the lack of this
+subordination.
+
+But a disused organ is very likely to become a seat of disease and
+to thus enfeeble or destroy the whole body. And this disease effects
+the most complete ruin when its seat is in the highest organs.
+Dyspepsia is bad enough, but mania or idiocy is infinitely worse.
+And our moral powers are always enfeebled, and often diseased, from
+lack of strong exercise. And some blind guides, seeing only the
+disease, cry out for the extirpation of the whole faculty, as some
+physicians are said to propose the removal of the vermiform
+appendage in children. Similarly might the drunkard argue against
+the value of brain, because it aches after a debauch. Our work is
+hard labor, and we gain no enjoyment in the use of our mental
+powers; for the enjoyment of any activity is proportional to the
+height and glory of the purpose for which it is employed. As long as
+we are content to use only our lower mental faculties and to gain
+low ends, our use of even these will be feeble and ineffectual, and
+our lives will be poor, weak, and unhappy.
+
+But future man will subordinate these lower powers to the higher. He
+will utilize all that there is in him. And his efficiency must be
+vastly greater than ours. And finally, and most important, these men
+will be all-powerful, because they have so conformed to environment
+that all its forces combine to work with them.
+
+England under Elizabeth seemed to rise above itself. Think of
+Holland, under William the Silent, defying all the power of Spain.
+Look at Bohemia, under Ziska, a handful of peasants joining battle
+with and defeating Germany and Austria combined. Think of Cromwell
+and his Ironsides, before whom Europe trembled. These men were not
+merely giants, they were heroes. And the essence of heroism is
+self-forgetfulness. The last thought of William the Silent was not
+for himself, but for his "poor people." And those rugged Ironsides,
+"fighting with their hands and praying with their hearts," smote
+with light good-will and irresistibly, because they struck for truth
+and freedom, for right and God. These are motives of incalculable
+strength, and they transfigure a man and raise him above his
+surroundings and even himself. The man becomes heroic and godlike,
+and when possessed by these motives he has clasped hands with God.
+He is inspired and infused with the divine power and life. Such a
+man has no time nor care to think of himself. To him it matters
+little whether he lives to see the triumph of his cause, provided he
+can hasten it. Though victory be in the future, it is sure; and the
+joy of battle for so sure and grand a triumph is present reward
+enough. His very faith removes mountains and turns to night armies
+of the aliens. For heroism begets faith, just as surely as faith
+begets heroism.
+
+"Where there is no vision the people perish." When the member of
+Congress can see nothing higher than spoils of office, nothing
+larger than a silver dollar, you should not criticise the poor man
+if his oratorical efforts do not move an audience like the sayings
+of Webster, Lincoln, or Phillips.
+
+Future man will be heroic and divine, because he will live in an
+atmosphere of truth and right and God, and will be consciously
+inspired by these divine, omnipotent motives.
+
+But who will compose this future race? We cannot tell. And yet the
+attempt to answer the question may open our eyes to truth of great
+practical importance.
+
+It would seem to be a fact that the offspring of a cross between
+different races of the same species is as a rule more vigorous than
+that of either pure race. Human history seems to show the same
+result. The English race is a mixture of Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Danes,
+and Normans, with a sprinkling of other races. And a new fusion of a
+great number of most diverse strains is rapidly going on in the
+newly populated portions of America and in Australia. The mixture
+contains thus far almost purely occidental races. It will in future
+almost certainly contain oriental also. For the races of India,
+Japan, and even China, are no farther from us to-day than the
+ancestors of many of our occidental fellow-citizens were a century
+ago. Racial prejudices, however strong, weaken rapidly through
+intercourse and better acquaintance. One of the grandest and least
+perceived results of missionary work is the preparation for this
+great fusion.
+
+Many races will undoubtedly go down before the advance of
+civilization and have no share in the future. Progress seems to be
+limited to the inhabitants of temperate zones; and even here the
+weaker may be crowded out before the stronger rather than absorbed
+by them. But many whom we now despise may have a larger inheritance
+in the future than we. God is clearly showing us that we should not
+count any man, much less any nation, common or unclean. And the laws
+of evolution give us a firm confidence that no good attained by any
+race or civilization will fail to be preserved in the future.
+
+The forms which seem to us at any one time the highest are as a rule
+not the ancestors of the race of the future. These highest forms are
+too much specialized, and thus fitted to a narrow range of space,
+time, and general conditions; when these change they pass away.
+Specialization is doubly dangerous when it follows a wrong line. But
+whenever it is carried far enough to lead to a one-sided
+development, it narrows the possibility of future advance; for it
+neglects or crowds out or prevents the development of other powers
+essential to life. The mollusk neglected nerve and muscle. But the
+scholar may, and often does, cultivate the brain at the expense of
+the rest of the body until he and his descendants suffer, and the
+family becomes extinct.
+
+The young men of the nobility of wealth, birth, and fashion usually
+marry heiresses, if they can. But only in families of enormous
+wealth can there be more than one or two heiresses in the same
+generation. She has very probably inherited a portion of her wealth
+from one or more extinct branches of the family. Moreover, not to
+speak of other factors, the labor and anxiety which have been
+essential to the accumulation and preservation of these great
+fortunes, or the mode of life which has accompanied their use or
+abuse, tend to diminish the number of children. Heiresses to very
+large fortunes usually therefore belong to families which are
+tending to sterility. And this has very probably been no unimportant
+factor in the extinction of "noble" families.
+
+A sound body contains many organs, all of which must be sound. And
+in a sound mind there is an even greater number of faculties, all of
+which must be kept at a high grade of efficiency. Man is a
+marvellously complex being, and more in danger of a narrow and
+one-sided development than any lower animal. And it is very easy for
+a certain grade or class of society, or for a whole race, to become
+so specialized, by the cultivation of only one set of faculties as
+to altogether prevent its giving birth to a complete humanity. Along
+certain broad lines the Greeks and Romans attained results never
+since equalled. But their neglect of other, even more important,
+powers and attainments, especially the moral and religious, doomed
+them to a speedy decay. The rude northern races were on the whole
+better and nobler, and became heirs to Greek art and letters, and
+to Roman law. And this is another illustration of the advantage or
+necessity of the fusion of races.
+
+To answer the question, "Which stratum or class in the community or
+world at large is heir to the future?" we must seek the one which is
+still to a large extent generalized. It must be maintaining, in a
+sound body, a steady, even if slow, advance of all the mental
+powers. It will not be remarkable for the high development or lack
+of any quality or power; it must have a fair amount of all of them
+well correlated. It must be well balanced, "good all around," as we
+say. And this class is evidently neither the highest nor the lowest
+in the community, but the "common people, whom God must have loved,
+because he made so many of them."
+
+They have, as a rule, fair-sized or large families. Their bodies are
+kept sound and vigorous by manual labor. They are compelled to think
+on all sorts of questions and to solve them as best they can. They
+have a healthy balance of mental faculties, even if they are not
+very learned or artistic. They are kept temperate because they
+cannot afford many luxuries. Their healthy life prevents an undue
+craving for them. They help one another and cultivate unselfishness.
+The good old word, neighbor, means something to them. They have a
+sturdy morality, and you can always rely upon them in great moral
+crises. They are patriotic and public-spirited; they have not so
+many, or so enslaving, selfish interests. They have always been
+trained to self-sacrifice and the endurance of hardship; and heroism
+is natural to them. They have a strong will, cultivated by the
+battle of daily life. And among them religion never loses its hold.
+
+But what of our tendencies to specialization in education and
+business? Are these wrong and injurious? Specialization, like great
+wealth, is a great danger and a fearful test of character. It tends
+to narrowness. If you will know everything about something, you must
+make a great effort to know something about, and have some interest
+in, everything. The great scholar is often anything but the
+large-minded, whole-souled man which he might have become. He has
+allowed himself to become absorbed in, and fettered by, his
+specialty until he can see and enjoy nothing outside of it. There is
+no selfishness like that of learning.
+
+We can accomplish nothing unless we concentrate our efforts upon a
+comparatively narrow line of work. But this does not necessitate
+that our views should be narrow or our aims low. Teufelsdröckh may
+live on a narrow lane; but his thoughts, starting along the narrow
+lane, lead him over the whole world. The narrowness of our horizon
+is due to our near-sightedness.
+
+But the only absolutely safe specialization is the highest possible
+development of our moral and religious powers. For their cultivation
+only enlarges and strengthens all the other powers of body and mind.
+"But," you will object, "does religion always broaden?" Yes. That
+which narrows is the base alloy of superstition. But a religion
+which finds its goal and end in conformity to environment,
+character, and godlikeness can only broaden.
+
+But there is the so-called "breadth" of the shallow mind which
+attempts to find room at the same time for things which are mutually
+exclusive. God and Baal, right and wrong, honesty and lying,
+selfishness and love, these are mutually exclusive. You cannot find
+room in your mind for both members of the pair at the same time. You
+must choose. And, when you have chosen, abide by your choice. A
+ladleful of thin dough fallen on the floor is very broad. But its
+breadth is due to lack of consistency. Better narrowness than such
+breadth.
+
+But while individual specialization may be safe for the individual,
+and beneficial to the race, the race which is to inherit the future
+must remain unspecialized. It must not sacrifice future
+possibilities to present rapidity of advance. And the common people
+are advancing safely, slowly, but surely. Wealth and learning become
+of permanent prospective and real value only when they are
+invested in the masses. They are the final depositaries of all
+wealth--material, intellectual, moral, and religious. Whatever, and
+only that which, becomes a part of their life becomes thereby
+endowed with immortality. Will we invest freely or will we wait to
+have that which we call our own wrested from us? If we refuse it to
+our own kin and nation, it will surely fall to foreigners. "God made
+great men to help little ones."
+
+The city of God on earth is being slowly "builded by the hands of
+selfish men." But the builders are becoming continually more
+unselfish and righteous, and as they become better and purer its
+walls rise the more rapidly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE
+
+
+We have studied the teachings of science concerning man and his
+environment, let us turn now to the teachings of the Bible. And
+though eight chapters have been devoted to the teachings of science,
+and only one to the teachings of the Bible, it is not because I
+underestimate the importance of the latter. It is more difficult to
+clearly discover just what are the teachings of Nature in science.
+The lesson is written in a language foreign to most of us, and one
+requiring careful study; and yet once deciphered it is clear.
+Science attains the laws of Nature by the study of animal and human
+history. But this record is a history of continually closer
+conformity to environment on the part of all advancing forms. The
+animal kingdom is the clay which is turned, as Job says, to the seal
+of environment, and it makes little difference whether we study the
+seal or the impression; we shall read the same sentence. Environment
+has stamped its laws on the very structure of man's body and mind.
+And the old biblical writers read these laws, guided by God's
+Spirit, in their own hearts, and in those of their neighbors, and in
+their national history, as the record of God's working, and gave us
+concrete examples of the results of obedience and disobedience.
+Hence the teaching of the Bible is always clear and unmistakable.
+
+The Bible treats of three subjects--Nature, Man, and God--and the
+relations of each of these to the others. I have tried to present to
+you in the first chapter the biblical conception of Nature and its
+relation to God. In its relation to man it is his manifestation to
+us, and, in its widest sense, the sum of the means and modes through
+which he develops, aids, and educates us. And in this conception I
+find science to be strictly in accord with scripture.
+
+Now what is the scriptural idea of man? Man interests us especially
+in three aspects. He is a corporeal being; he is an intellectual
+being; he is a moral being, with feelings, will, and personality.
+
+Man's body. Plato considered the body as a source of evil and a
+hindrance to all higher life. And Plato was by no means alone in
+this. The Bible takes a very different view. Neglect of the body is
+always rebuked. The only place, so far as I can find, where the body
+is called vile is where it is compared with the glorious body into
+which it is to be transformed. "Your bodies," writes Paul to the
+Corinthians, "are members of Christ," "temples of the Holy Ghost."
+But the Bible teaches that the body is to be the servant, not the
+ruler, of the spirit. "I keep under my body, and bring it into
+subjection," continues Paul. Here again science is strictly in
+accord with scripture.
+
+Man is an intellectual being. I need not quote the praises of
+knowledge in the Old Testament. They must be fresh in your mind. But
+the practical Peter writes, "giving all diligence add to your faith
+virtue; and to virtue knowledge." And Paul prays that the love of
+the Ephesians may "abound more and more in knowledge and in all
+judgment." But the important knowledge is the knowledge of God, and
+of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. And similarly science
+emphasizes that the chief end of all knowledge is that we should
+know the environment to which we are to conform. Knowledge is useful
+to strengthen and clarify the mind, that it may see and conform to
+truth and God: and if it fails to become a means to conformity, it
+has failed of the chief, and practically the only, end for which it
+was intended. We are to come "in the unity of the faith and of the
+knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of
+the stature of the fulness of Christ." But knowledge which only
+puffs up and distracts the mind from the great aims and ends which
+it should serve is rebuked with equal emphasis by the Bible and by
+science.
+
+I would not claim that we have set too high a value upon knowledge,
+perhaps we cannot; but there is something far higher on which we are
+inclined to set far too low a value. This is righteousness and love;
+and true wisdom is knowledge permeated, vivified, and transfigured
+by devotion to these higher ends. And in this highest realm of the
+mind feeling and will rule conjointly. Love is a feeling which
+always will and must find its way to activity through the will, and
+it is an activity of the will roused by the very deepest feeling,
+inspired by a worthy object. If you try to divorce them, both die.
+Hence Paul can say, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
+angels, and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
+mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I
+could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing." And John
+goes, if possible, even farther and says, "Every one that loveth is
+born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God;
+for God is love." And this sort of love bears and believes and hopes
+and endures, and never fails. And for this reason the Bible lays
+such tremendous emphasis on the heart, not as the centre of emotion
+alone, but as the seat of will as well. And science points to the
+same end, though she sees it afar off.
+
+And what of God? God is a Spirit, Creator, Author, and Finisher of
+all things, and filling all. But while omnipotent, omnipresent, and
+omniscient, these are not the characteristics emphasized in the
+Bible. He is righteous. "Shall not the judge of all the earth do
+right?" is the grand question of the father of the faithful. And
+when Moses prays God to show him his glory, God answers, "I will
+make all my goodness pass before thee." He is the "refuge of
+Israel," the "everlasting arms" underneath them, pitying them "as a
+father pitieth his children." And in the New Testament we are bidden
+to pray to our Father, who _is_ love, and whose temple is the heart
+of whosoever will receive him. Truly a very personal being.
+
+Now the Bible rises here indefinitely above anything that mere
+natural science can describe. But can the ultimate "Power, not
+ourselves, which makes for righteousness" and unselfishness, of
+whose presence in environment science assures us, be ever better
+described than by these words concerning the "Father of our
+spirits?"
+
+And an infinitely wise, good, and loving being will have fixed modes
+of working; for "with him is no variableness, neither shadow of
+turning." Thus only can man trust and know him. The old Stoic
+philosopher tells us "everything has two handles, and can be
+carried by one of them, but not by the other." So with God's laws.
+Many seem to look upon them as a hindrance and limitation to him in
+carrying out his righteous and loving will toward man. But they are
+really the modes or means of his working, which he uses with such
+regularity and consistency that we can always rely upon them and
+him. The pure river of the water of life proceedeth from the throne
+of God and of the Lamb.
+
+If I am lying ill waiting anxiously for the physician I can think of
+this great city as a mass of blocks of houses separating him from
+me. But the houses have been arranged in blocks so as to leave free
+streets, along which he can travel the more quickly. And God's laws
+are not blocks, but thoroughfares, planned that the angels of his
+mercy may fly swiftly to our aid. We are prone to forget that these
+laws are expressly made for your and my benefit, as well as that of
+all beings, that we may be righteous and unselfish. And this is one
+ground of the apostle's faith that "all things work together for
+good to them that love God." And in the Apocalypse the earth helps
+the woman. It must be so.
+
+But what if you or I try to block the thoroughfare? What would
+happen to us if we tried to stop bare-handed the current of a huge
+dynamo, or to hold back the torrent of Niagara? Nothing but death
+can result. And what if I stem myself against the "river of the
+water of life, proceeding from the throne of God," and try to turn
+it aside or hold it back from men perishing of thirst? And that is
+just what sin is, even if done carelessly or thoughtlessly; for men
+have no right to be careless and thoughtless about some things.
+"The wages of sin is death;" physical death for breaking physical
+law, and spiritual death for breaking spiritual law. How can it be
+otherwise? The wages are fairly earned. The hardest doctrine for a
+scientific man to believe is that there can be any forgiveness of
+such sin as the heedless, ungrateful breaking of such wise and
+beneficent laws of a loving Father. And yet my earthly father has
+had to forgive me a host of times during my boyhood. Perhaps I can
+hope the same from God; I take his word for it.
+
+But if you or I think that it is safe to trifle with God's laws, we
+are terribly mistaken. The Lord proclaimed himself to Moses as "The
+Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and
+abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
+forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
+means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
+the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and
+to the fourth generation." But someone will say, This is terrible.
+It is terrible; but the question is, Does the Bible speak the truth
+about nature? Is nature a "fairy godmother," or does she bring men
+up with sternness and inflict suffering upon the innocent children,
+if necessary, lest they copy after their sinful parents? Do the
+children of the defaulter and drunkard and debauchee suffer because
+of the sins of their father, or do they not? If the blessings won by
+parental virtue go down to the thousandth generation, must not the
+evil consequences of sin go down to the third or fourth?
+
+That we are not under the law, but under grace, does not mean, as
+some seem to think, that it is safe to sin. Otherwise the
+forgiveness of God becomes the lowest form of indulgence
+slanderously attributed to the Church of Rome. We gain freedom from
+law as well as penalty only by obedience. The artist can safely
+forget the laws and rules of his art only when by long obedience and
+practice he obeys them unconsciously. We seem to be threatened with
+a belief that God will never punish sin in one who has professed
+Christianity. This view cheapens sin and makes pardon worthless, it
+takes the iron out of the blood, and the backbone out of all our
+religion and ethics. It ruins Christians and disgraces Christianity.
+We sometimes seem to think that our nation or church or denomination
+is so important to the carrying on of God's work that he cannot
+afford to let any evil befall us, whatever we may do or be.
+
+"Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes
+of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment and pervert all equity.
+They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The
+heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for
+hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean
+upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come
+upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field,
+and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as
+the high places of the forest." That was plain preaching, and the
+people did not like it. They would not like it any better to-day; it
+would come too near the truth.
+
+But others seem to think that God is too kind, not to say
+good-natured, to allow his children to suffer for their sins. This
+is part of a creed, unconsciously very widely held to-day, that
+comfort, not character, is the chief end of life. Now if God is too
+kind to allow his children to suffer some of the natural
+consequences of sin, he is not a really kind and loving father, he
+is spoiling his children. Salvation is soundness, sanity, health;
+just as holiness is wholeness, escape from the disease, and not
+merely from the consequences of sin. A physician, unless a quack,
+never promises relief from a deep-seated disease without any pain or
+discomfort. And if the disease is the result of indulgence, he warns
+us that relapse into indulgence will bring a worse recurrence of the
+pain. Perhaps, after all, Socrates was not so far from right when he
+maintained that if a man had sinned the best and only thing for him
+is to suffer for it. "God the Lord will speak peace unto his people,
+and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly." And our
+Lord says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the
+prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say
+unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
+no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. For I say unto you,
+That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
+scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
+heaven." If we would be great in the kingdom of heaven we must do
+and teach the commandments. One of the best lessons that the clergy
+can learn from science is that law and penalty are not things of the
+past. They are eternal facts; and if so, ought sometimes to be at
+least mentioned from the pulpit as well as remembered in the pew.
+
+But if God is a person striving to communicate with man, and if man
+is a person intended to conform to environment by becoming like God,
+what is more probable from the scientific stand-point than that God
+should seek and find some means of making himself clearly known to
+man in some personal way? I do not see how any scientific man who
+believes in a personal God can avoid asking this question. And is
+there any more natural solution of the question than that given in
+the Bible? "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself."
+"God, who spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath
+in these last days spoken unto us by his son." Philip says, "Lord,
+show us the Father and it sufficeth us." Jesus saith unto him, "Have
+I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he
+that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou shew us the
+Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in
+me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the
+Father abiding in me doeth his works."
+
+"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world,
+and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
+evil."
+
+Something more is needed than light. We need more light and
+knowledge of our duty; we need vastly more the will-power to do it.
+I know how I ought to live; I do not live thus. What I need is not a
+teacher, but power to become a son of God. "I delight in the law of
+God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members,
+warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
+under the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I
+am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?"
+
+This is the terrible question. How is it to be answered? Let us
+remember our illustration of the change wrought in that
+panic-stricken army before Winchester by the appearance of Sheridan.
+What these men needed was not information. No plan of battle
+reported as sure of success by trustworthy and competent witnesses,
+and forwarded from the greatest leader could have stayed that rout.
+What they needed was Sheridan and the magnetic power of his
+personality. This is the strange power of all great leaders of men,
+whether orators, statesmen, or generals. It is intellect acting on
+and through intellect, but it is also vastly more; it is will acting
+on will. The leader does not merely instruct others, he inspires
+them, puts himself into them, and makes them heroes like himself.
+
+Now something like this, but vastly grander and deeper, seems to me
+to have been the work of our Lord. Read John's gospel and see how it
+is interpenetrated with the idea of the new life to be gained by
+contact with our Lord, and how this forms the foundation of his hope
+and claim to give men this new life by drawing them to himself. And
+Peter says that it was impossible for the Prince of Life to be
+holden of death, for he was the centre and source from which not
+only new thoughts and purposes, but new will and life was to stream
+out into the souls of men. This power of our Lord may have been
+miraculous and supernatural in degree; I feel assured that it was
+not unnatural in kind and mode of action.
+
+And here, young men, pardon a personal word about your preaching.
+You will need to preach many sermons of warning against, and
+denunciation of, sin; many of instruction in duty. The Bible is a
+store-house of instruction and men need it, and you must make it
+clear to them. All this is good and necessary, but it is not enough.
+Learn from the experience of the greatest preacher, perhaps, who
+ever lived.
+
+Paul, the greatest philosopher of ancient times, came to Athens. You
+can well imagine how he had waited and longed for the opportunity to
+speak in this home of philosophy and intellectual life. Now he was
+to speak, not to uncultured barbarians, but to men who could
+understand and appreciate his best thoughts. He preached in Athens
+the grandest sermon, as far as argument is concerned, ever uttered.
+I doubt if ever a sermon of Paul's accomplished less. He could not
+even rouse a healthy opposition. The idea of a new god, Jesus, and a
+new goddess, the Resurrection, rather tickled the Athenian fancy. He
+left them, and, in deep dejection, went down to Corinth. There he
+determined to know only "Christ and him crucified," and thus
+preaching in material, vicious Corinth he founded a church.
+
+Some of you will go through the same experience. You will preach to
+cultured and intelligent audiences, and they will listen courteously
+and eagerly as long as you tell them something new, and do not ask
+them to do anything. The only possible way of reaching Athenian
+intellect or Corinthian materialism and vice is by preaching Christ,
+"the power of God and the wisdom of God." And you will reach more
+Corinthians than Athenians.
+
+You may preach sermons full of the grandest philosophy and
+theology, and of the highest, most exact, science; you may chain men
+by your logic, thrill them by your rhetoric, and move them to tears
+by your eloquence, and they will go home as dead and cold as they
+came. What they need is power, life. But preach "Christ and him
+crucified"--not merely dead two thousand years ago--but risen and
+alive for evermore, and with us to the end of the world, the
+grandest, most heroic, divinest helper who ever stood by a man, one
+all-powerful to help and who never forsakes, and every one of your
+hearers who is not dead to truth will catch the life, and go home
+alive and not alone.
+
+So long as we preach a dead Christ we shall have a dead church, as
+hopeless as the apostles were before the resurrection. "But now is
+Christ risen from the dead," "alive for evermore." See how Paul and
+Peter and John, and doubtless all the others, talked with him and he
+with them, after he was taken from them, and you have found the
+secret of their power, and of that of all the great Christian heroes
+and martyrs who could truly say, Lord Jesus, we understand each
+other. Better yet, prove by experience that it is possible for every
+one of us.
+
+And our Lord and Master is the connecting link between God and man,
+through whom God's own Holy Spirit is poured like a mighty flood
+into the hearts and lives of men, transfiguring them and filling
+them with the divine power. This is the biblical idea of
+Christianity; man, through Christ, flooded and permeated and
+interpenetrated with the Holy Spirit of God. And thus Paul is dead
+and yet alive, but fully possessed and dominated by the spirit of
+Christ. Alive as never before, and yet his every thought, word, and
+deed is really that of his great leader. Can you talk of self-denial
+to such a Christian? He had forgotten that such a man as Saul of
+Tarsus or Paul ever existed; he lives only in his Master's work, and
+is transfigured by it. This, and nothing less, is Christianity, and
+this is the very highest and grandest heroism. Paul conquers Europe
+single-handed, alone he stands before Cæsar's tribunal, and yet he
+is never alone; and from the gloom of the Mammertine dungeon he
+sends back a shout of triumph. And Peter walks steadily, cheerfully,
+and unflinchingly, in the footsteps of his Master to share his
+cross.
+
+Let us, before leaving this topic, notice carefully just what
+religion, and especially Christianity, is not.
+
+1. It is not merely opinion or intellectual belief in a creed. This
+may be good, or even necessary, but it is not religion. "Thou
+believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also
+believe and tremble." We speak with pride, sometimes, of our
+puissant Christendom, so industrious, so intelligent, so moral, with
+its ubiquitous commerce, its adorning arts, its halls of learning,
+its happy firesides, and its noble charities. And yet what is our
+vaunted Christendom but a vast assemblage of believing but
+disobedient men? Said William Law to John Wesley, "The head can as
+easily amuse itself with a living and justifying faith in the blood
+of Jesus as with any other notion." The most sacred duty may
+degenerate into a dogma, asking only to be believed. "I go, sir,"
+answered the son in the parable, "but went not."
+
+2. It is not mere feeling. It is neither hope of heaven's joy, nor
+fear of hell's misery. It may rightly include these, but it is
+vastly more and higher. It is neither ecstasy nor remorse. The most
+resolutely impenitent sinner can shout "Hallelujah," and "Woe is
+me," as loudly as any saint. Now feeling is of vast importance. It
+stands close to the will and stimulates it, but it is not
+conformity. The will must be aroused to a robust life.
+
+3. Christianity is these and a great deal more. Mere belief would
+make religion a mere theology. Mere emotion would make it mere
+excitement. The true divine idea of it is a life; doing his will,
+not indolently sighing to do it, and then lamenting that we do it
+not; but the thing itself in actual achievement, from day to day,
+from month to month, from year to year. Thus religion rises on us in
+its own imperial majesty. It is no mere delight of the understanding
+in the doctrines of our faith; no mere excitement of the
+sensibilities, now harrowed by fear, and now jubilant in hope; but a
+warfare and a work, a warfare against sin, and a work with God.
+Religion is not an entertainment, but a service. We are to set
+before us the perfect standard, and then struggle to shape our lives
+to it. Personal sanctity must be made a business of.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: This page is mainly a series of quotations from Dr.
+  R.D. Hitchcock's sermon on "Religion, the Doing of God's Will."]
+
+A little more than thirty years ago a regiment was sent home from
+the Army of the Potomac to enforce the draft after the riots in this
+city. Some of you may picture to yourselves a thousand men with silk
+banners and gold lace and bright uniforms, resplendent in the
+sunshine. You could not make a worse mistake.
+
+First in that gray early morning came two old flags, so torn by shot
+and shell that there was hardly enough left of them to tell whether
+the State flag was that of Massachusetts or Virginia. And behind
+these came scant three hundred men. All the rest were sleeping
+between Washington and Richmond, some on almost every battle-field.
+The uniforms were old and faded from sun and rain. Only gun-barrel
+and bayonet were bright. And the men were scarred and tired and
+foot-sore, haggard from hard fighting and long, swift marches. For
+these men had been trained to be hurried back and forth behind the
+long line of battle, that they might be hurled into it wherever the
+need was greatest. I do not suppose that one of them could have
+delivered a fourth-of-July oration on Patriotism. They were trained
+not to talk, but to obey orders. But they had stood in the "bloody
+angle" at Spottsylvania all day and all night; and in the gray dawn
+of the next morning, when strength and courage are always at ebb,
+faint and exhausted, their last cartridge shot away, had sprung
+forward at the command of their colonel to make a last desperate,
+forlorn defence with the bayonet against the advancing enemy.
+Numbers do not count against men like these. What made them such
+invincible heroes? It was mainly the resolute will and long training
+to obey orders. A Christian should never forget that he is a soldier
+in the army of the Lord of Hosts; that enlistment is easy and
+quickly accomplished; but that the training is long, and that he
+must learn, above all, to "endure hardness."
+
+And so, my brothers, I beg of you to preach a heroic Christianity,
+for if there ever was a heroic religion it is ours. If you offer
+merely free transportation to a future heaven of delight on "flowery
+beds of ease," you will enlist only the coward and the sluggard. But
+everyone who has a drop of strong old Norse blood in his veins will
+prefer a heathen Valhalla, though builded in hell, to such a heaven.
+And his Norse instincts will be nearer truth than your counterfeit
+of a debased Christianity. But preach the city of God's
+righteousness on earth and now among men, and call on every heroic
+soul to take sides with God against sin within himself and the evil
+and misery all around him. There is an almost infinite amount of
+strength, endurance, and heroism in this "slow-witted but
+long-winded" human race waiting to leap up at the appeal to fight
+once more and win a victory after repeated defeats before the sun
+goes down. Appeal to this and point to the great "captain of our
+salvation made perfect through sufferings," and every man that is of
+the truth will hear in your voice the call of the Master and King.
+You will not be disappointed, but among the publicans and fishermen
+of America you will find heroic souls, who will leave all to follow,
+as faithfully and unflinchingly as those from the shores of Galilee.
+
+And what of faith? Faith is the personal attachment of a soul to
+such a leader. Fortunately the Bible contains a scientific monograph
+on this subject. I refer, of course, to the eleventh chapter of the
+epistle to the Hebrews. And the whole result is summed up in a few
+words of the thirteenth verse. The great heroes, like Enoch, Noah,
+and Abraham, "saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them,
+and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
+pilgrims on the earth."
+
+They saw the promises afar off, dimly, on the horizon of their
+mental vision; as one looks into the distance and cannot tell
+whether what he sees be cloud or mountain. And until they could make
+up their minds that there was some substance in the vision, they did
+not embrace it. They were not credulous. Neither were they
+carelessly or heedlessly sure that there was and could be nothing in
+the vision but mist and fancy. They recognized that on their
+decision of the question hung the life of which they meant to make
+the very most. They looked again and again, and kept thinking about
+it. Thus they became and were "persuaded of them." And most people
+stop here with a merely intellectual faith in their heads, and very
+little in their hearts and lives. Not so these old heroes; they were
+not so purely and coldly intellectual that they could not _do_
+anything. They "embraced them." They said, that is exactly what I
+want and need, and I'll have it, if it costs me my life.
+
+Now a promise is always conditional; if you want one thing, you must
+give up something else. It involves a choice between alternatives;
+you can have either one freely, you cannot have both. It was to them
+as to Christ on the "exceeding high mountain," God or the world; God
+with the cross, or the world with Satan thrown in. And the same
+alternative confronts us.
+
+Moses could be a good Jew or a good Egyptian. Most of us, while
+resolved to be excellent Jews at heart, would have said nothing
+about it, but remained sons of Pharaoh's daughter in order to
+benefit the Jews by our influence in our lofty station. We should
+have become miserable hybrids with all the vices and weaknesses of
+both races, but with none of the virtues of either. And for all that
+we should ever have done the Jews might have rotted in Egyptian
+bondage. Enlargement and deliverance would have arisen to the Jews
+from some other place; but we and our father's house would have been
+destroyed. By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
+daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the children of
+God, etc. And certainly he did suffer for it.
+
+They embraced the promises with their whole hearts. They were stoned
+and sawn asunder rather than give them up. And what was the effect
+on their characters? Having counted the cost, and being perfectly
+willing to accept any loss or pain for the sake of these promises,
+and hence inspired by them, they became sublime heroes. Through
+faith they "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
+promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of
+fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made
+strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the
+aliens. And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
+moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they wandered about in
+sheepskins and in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
+Of whom the world was not worthy." That is a faith worth having, and
+it is as sound philosophy as it is scripture.
+
+"These all died in faith, not having received the promises." Did
+they receive nothing? Moses and Elijah, Gideon and Barak gained
+power and heroism greater than we can conceive of. Surely that was
+enough. But they did not get the whole of the promise, or even the
+best of it. And the simple reason was that God cannot make a promise
+small enough to be completely fulfilled to a man in his earthly
+life. He gets enough to make him a king, but this does not begin to
+exhaust the promise. It is inexhaustible. This is the experience of
+anyone who will faithfully try it. And this experience is the
+grandest argument for immortality.
+
+Therefore, "giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue ([Greek:
+aretê], strength), and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge
+temperance ([Greek: enkrateia], self-control), and to temperance
+patience ([Greek: hypomenê], endurance), and to patience godliness,
+and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness
+charity" (love).
+
+And what of prayer? How can it be answered in a universe of law? We
+certainly could have no confidence that our prayers could or would
+be answered if ours were not a universe of law. God's laws are, as
+we have seen, his modes of working out his great plan. And the last
+and highest unfolding of God's plan is the development of man. And
+man is to become conformed to his environment, and conformity of
+man's highest powers to his environment is likeness to God.
+
+The laws of nature, then, are in ultimate analysis and highest aim
+the different steps in God's plan of man's salvation from the
+disease of sin, not merely or mainly from its consequences, and his
+attainment of holiness. For this is the only true and sound manhood.
+Salvation is spiritual health, resulting also in health of body and
+of mind. If God's laws are his modes of carrying out his plan for
+godlikeness in man, then they are so thought out as to be the means
+of helping me to every real good.
+
+The Bible declares explicitly that the aim of prayer is not to
+inform God of our needs. For he knows them already. It is not to
+change God's purpose, for he is unchangeable, and we should rejoice
+in this. We are to pray for our daily bread; we are to pray for the
+sick; and, if best for them and consistent with God's plan, they
+shall recover. Elijah prayed for drought and prayed for rain, and
+was answered. And Abraham's prayer would have saved Sodom, had there
+been ten righteous men in the city. "Men ought alway to pray and not
+to faint."
+
+                     "More things are wrought by prayer
+        Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice
+        Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
+        For what are men better than sheep or goats
+        That nourish a blind life within the brain,
+        If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
+        Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
+        For so the whole round earth is every way
+        Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."
+
+But could not all these things be brought about without a single
+prayer? Not according to the plan of man's education which God has
+adopted. Whether he could well have made a plan by which material
+blessings could have been bestowed upon men who do not ask for them,
+I do not know. The ravens and all animals are fed without a single
+prayer, for they are not fitted or intended to hold communion with
+God. But a prayerless race of men has never been fed long; it has
+soon ceased to exist. God's plan of salvation and ordering of the
+universe involves prayer as a means of blessing and good things as
+an answer to prayer. God says, I make you a co-worker with me. I
+will help you in everything; but you must call on me for help, or
+you will forget that I am the source of your help and strength, and
+thus having lost your communion with me will die. "When Jeshurun
+waxed fat he kicked." This is the oft-repeated story of the Old
+Testament and of all history. And thus, while material blessings are
+given in answer to prayer, these are not the chief end for which
+prayer is to be offered.
+
+Prayer is a means of conformity to environment, of godlikeness. How
+do you become like a friend? Of course by associating and talking
+with him. And why does it help you to associate with a hero? Simply
+because you cannot be with him without being inspired with his
+heroism. And so while I may pray for bread and clothes and
+opportunities, and God will give me these or something better; I
+will, if wise, pray for purity, courage, moral power, heroism, and
+holiness. And I know that these will stream from his soul into mine
+like a great river. And so I may pray for bread and be denied; for
+hunger, with some higher good, may be far better for me than a full
+stomach. But if I pray for any spiritual gift, which will make me
+godlike, and on which as an heir of God I have a rightful claim,
+every law and force in God's universe is a means to answer that
+prayer. And best of all, if I pray for the gift of God's Spirit,
+that is the prayer which the whole world of environment has been
+framed to answer.
+
+But this I can never have unless I hunger for it. I can never have
+it to use as a means of gaining some lower good which I worship more
+than God. God will not and cannot lend himself to any such idolatry.
+I must be willing to give up anything and everything else for its
+attainment. Otherwise the answer to the prayer would ruin me.
+
+I cannot grasp the higher while using both hands to grasp the
+lower.
+
+Thus religion is the interpenetration and permeation of my
+personality by that of God. And prayer is the communion by which
+this permeation becomes possible. And faith is the vision of these
+possibilities, the being persuaded by them, and the resolute purpose
+to attain them. And faith in Christ is confiding communion with him
+and obedience to his commands that his divine life may flow over
+into me and dominate mine. And common-sense, and the more refined
+common-sense which we call science, can show me no other means to
+the attainment of that godlikeness which is the only true conformity
+to environment.
+
+And, holding such a belief and faith, we must be hopeful. And only
+next in importance to faith and love stands hope. The hero must be
+hopeful. And when times look dark about you, and they sometimes
+will, you must still hope.
+
+        "O it is hard to work for God,
+           To rise and take his part
+         Upon the battle-field of earth,
+           And not sometimes lose heart!
+
+        "O there is less to try our faith
+           In our mysterious creed,
+         Than in the godless look of earth
+           In these our hours of need.
+
+        "Ill masters good; good seems to change
+           To ill with greatest ease;
+         And, worst of all, the good with good
+           Is at cross purposes.
+
+        "Workman of God! O lose not heart,
+           But learn what God is like;
+         And in the darkest battle-field
+           Thou shalt know where to strike.
+
+        "Muse on his justice, downcast soul!
+           Muse, and take better heart;
+         Back with thine angel to the field,
+           Good luck shall crown thy part!
+
+        "For right is right, since God is God;
+           And right the day must win;
+         To doubt would be disloyalty,
+           To falter would be sin."
+
+Hope on, be strong and of a good courage. For in the dark hours
+others will lean on you to catch your hope and courage. To many a
+poor discouraged soul you must be "a hiding-place from the wind and
+a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
+shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Every power and force in
+the universe of environment makes for the ultimate triumph of truth
+and right. Defeat is impossible. "One man with God on his side is
+the majority that carries the day. 'We are but two,' said Abu Bakr
+to Mohammed as they were flying hunted from Mecca to Medina. 'Nay;'
+answered Mohammed, 'we are three; God is with us.'"
+
+And not only the race will triumph and regain the Paradise lost. The
+city of God shall surely be with men, and God will dwell with them
+and in them. But you and I can and shall triumph too.
+
+We are prone to feel that the individual man is too insignificant a
+being to be the object of God's care and forethought. But we should
+not forget that it is the individual who conforms, and that the
+higher and nobler race is to be attained through the elevation of
+individuals, one after another. God deals with races and nations as
+such. But his laws and promises are made almost entirely for the
+individuals of which these larger units are concerned.
+
+But there is another standpoint from which we may gain a helpful
+view of the matter. I may be the meanest citizen of my native state,
+and my father may leave me heir of only a few acres of rocky land.
+But, if my title is good, every power in the state is pledged to put
+me in possession of my inheritance. They who would rob me may be
+strong; but the state will call out every able-bodied man, and pour
+out every dollar in its treasury before it will allow me to be
+defrauded of my legal rights. And it must do this for me, its
+meanest citizen, else there is no government, but anarchy, and
+oppression, and the rule of the strongest. And we all recognize that
+this is but right and necessary, and would be ashamed of our state
+and government were it not literally true.
+
+If I travel in distant lands, my passport is the sign that all the
+power of these United States is pledged to protect me from
+injustice. Think of the sensitiveness of governments to any wrong
+done to their private citizens. England went to war with Abyssinia
+to protect and deliver two Englishmen. And shall God do less? Can he
+do less? If it is only just and right and necessary for earthly
+governments to thus care for their citizens, shall not the ruler and
+"judge of all the earth do right?"
+
+Now you and I are commanded to be heirs of God, to attain to
+likeness to him. This is therefore our legal right, guaranteed by
+him, for every command of God is really a promise. And he will
+exhaust every power in the universe before he allows anything to
+prevent us from gaining our legal rights, provided only that we are
+earnest in claiming them.
+
+But if I alienate my rights to my inheritance, the commonwealth
+cannot help me. If I renounce my citizenship, the government of the
+United States can no longer protect me. And so I can alienate my
+"right to the tree of life," and to entrance into the city, and I
+can forfeit my heirship to all that God would give me. "For I am
+persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
+principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
+nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, shall be able to
+separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
+Lord." But I can alienate and make void every promise and title, if
+I will or if I do not care. This is the unique glory, and awfulness
+of the human will. And we know that to them that love God all things
+work together for good. "If God is for us who is against us?" It
+must be so if God's laws are his modes of aiding men to conform to
+environment.
+
+And what of the church? Is it anything else or other than a means of
+aiding man to conform to environment? If it fails of this, can it be
+any longer the church of God? The church is a means, not an end. And
+it is a means of godlikeness in man.
+
+Some would make it a social club. The bond of union between its
+members is their common grade of wealth, social position, or
+intellectual attainments. And this idea of the church has deeper
+root in the minds of us all than we think. I can imagine a far
+better club than one formed and framed on this principle, but it is
+difficult for me to imagine a worse counterfeit of a church. Others
+make it a source of intellectual delectation, and the means of
+hearing one or two striking sermons each week. Such a church will
+conduce to the intelligence of its members, and may be rather more,
+though probably less, useful than the old New England Lyceum lecture
+system. Such a church is of about as much practical value to the
+world at large as some consultations of physicians are to their
+patients. The doctors have a most interesting discussion, but the
+patient dies, and the nature of the disease is discovered at the
+autopsy. Others still would make of the church a great railroad
+system, over which sleeping-cars run from the City of Destruction,
+with a coupon good to admit one to the Golden City at the other end.
+The coaches are luxurious and the road-bed smooth. The Slough of
+Despond has been filled, the Valley of Humiliation bridged at its
+narrowest point, and the Delectable Mountains tunnelled. But
+scoffers say that most of the passengers make full use of the
+unlimited stop-over privileges allowed at Vanity Fair.
+
+The Bible would seem to give the impression that the church is the
+army of the Lord of Hosts, a disciplined army of hardy, heroic
+souls, each soldier aiding his fellow in working out the salvation
+which God is working in him. And it joins battle fiercely and
+fearlessly with every form of sin and misery, counting not the odds
+against it. And the Salvation Army seems to me to have conceived and
+realized to a great extent just what at least one corps in this
+grand army can and should be. And you and I can learn many a lesson
+from them.
+
+The church is the body of which Christ is the head, and you and I
+are "members in particular." Let us see to it that we are not the
+weak spot in the body, crippling and maiming the whole. The church
+is the city of God among men, and we are its citizens, bound by its
+laws, loyal servants of the Great King, sworn to obey his commands
+and enlarge his kingdom, and repel all the assaults of his
+adversaries. Thus the Bible seems to me to depict the church of God.
+But what if the army contains a multitude of men who will not obey
+orders or submit to discipline? or if the city be overwhelmed with a
+mass of aliens, who see in its laws and institutions mainly means of
+selfish individual advantage? Responsibility, not privilege, is the
+foundation of strong character in both men and institutions. There
+was a good grain of truth in the old Scotch minister's remark, that
+they had had a blessed work of grace in his church; they had not
+taken anybody in, but a lot had gone out.
+
+There are plenty of churches of Laodicea to-day. May you be
+delivered from them. But, thank God, there are also churches of
+Philadelphia and Smyrna. May you be pastors of one of the latter. It
+will not pay you a very large salary, for Demas has gone to the
+church of Laodicea, because the minister of the church of Smyrna was
+not orthodox, or not sufficiently spiritually minded--meaning
+thereby that he rebuked the sins of actual living men in general,
+and of Demas in particular--or preached politics, and did not mind
+his business. And your church may be small. For many of the
+congregation have gone to the church around the other corner, which
+is mainly a cluster of associations, having excellent names, and
+useful for almost every purpose except building up a manly, rugged,
+heroic, godlike character. The minister there, they will tell you,
+preaches delightful sermons. They make you "feel so good." He
+annihilates pantheism, and his denunciations of materialism are
+eloquent in the extreme. But his incarnations of materialism are
+Huxley and Darwin, and to the uncharitable he seems to almost
+carefully avoid any language which might seem to reflect upon the
+dollar- and place-worship of some of the occupants of his front
+pews. Now, I am not here to defend Mr. Huxley or Mr. Darwin.
+Withstand them to the face wherever they are to be blamed. And for
+some utterances they are undoubtedly to be blamed, honest souls as
+they were. But I for one cannot help feeling that there is among the
+"dwellers in Jerusalem" a materialism of the heart which is
+indefinitely worse than any intellectual heresy. When you hit at the
+one heresy strike hard at the other also.
+
+Many will have left your little church of Smyrna. It had to be so.
+For the divine sifting process, which is natural selection on its
+highest plane, has not ceased to work. It must and shall still go
+on; it cannot be otherwise. Has the great principle ceased to be
+true in modern history that "though the number of the children of
+Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved?"
+
+But do not be discouraged. Preach Christ and a heroic Christianity.
+Do not be afraid to demand great things of your people. Remember
+that Ananias was encouraged to go to Paul because the Lord would
+show Paul how great things he should suffer for the name of Jesus.
+This is what appeals to the heroic in every man, and we do not make
+nearly enough use of it. And the heroic Christ and his heroic
+Christianity will draw every heroic soul in the community to
+himself. They may not be very heroic looking. You may be in some
+hill town in old Massachusetts "Nurse of heroes." Pardon me, I do
+not intend to be invidious. Heroism is cosmopolitan. One of the
+pillars of your church may be the school-teacher of the little red
+school-house at the fork of the roads, in the yard ornamented with
+alders, mulleins, and sumachs. She boards around, and is clad in
+anything but silks and sealskins. But she trains well her band of
+hardy little fellows, who will later fear the multitude as little as
+they now mind the Berkshire winds. And from the pittance she
+receives for training these rebellious urchins into heroic men she
+is supporting an old mother somewhere, or helping a brother to an
+education. And your deacon will be some farmer, perhaps uncouth in
+appearance and rough of dress, and certainly blunt in his scanty
+speech. He'll not flatter you nor your sermons; and until you've
+lived with him for years you will not know what a great heart there
+is in that rugged frame, and what wealth of affection in that silent
+hand-shake. And there is his wife. She is round and ample, and
+certainly does not look especially solemn or pious. She is aunt and
+mother to the whole community, the joy of all the children, nurse of
+the sick, and comfort of the dying. She is doing the work of ten at
+home, and of a host in the village. And your right-hand man is
+great Onesiphorus from the mill down in the valley, fighting an
+uphill battle to keep the wolf from the door, while he and his wife
+deny themselves everything, that their flock of children may have
+better training for fighting God's battles than they ever enjoyed.
+
+I cannot describe these men and women. If you have lived with
+them, you will need no description, and would resent the
+inadequacy of mine. If you have never had the good fortune to live
+with them, it is impossible to make you see them as they are. When
+you once have thoroughly known them, language will fail you to do
+them justice, and you will prefer to be silent rather than slander
+them by inadequate portrayal. They are at first sight not
+attractive-looking. If you stand outside and look at them from a
+distance their lives will appear to you very humdrum and prosaic.
+But remember that for almost thirty years our Lord lived just such
+a life in Nazareth, making ploughs and yokes; and then, when the
+younger brothers and sisters were able to care for themselves,
+snatched three years from supporting a peasant family in Galilee
+to redeem a world. And who was Peter but a rough, hardy fisherman?
+
+Now a Paul, trained at the feet of Gamaliel, was also needed; and
+the twelve did not come from the lowest ranks of society. But they
+were honest, industrious, practical, courageous, hardy, common
+people. And single-handed they went out to conquer empires. And they
+succeeded through the power of God in them.
+
+Who knows the possibilities of your little church in the hilltown of
+Smyrna? These men and women are the pickets of God's great host.
+They are scattered up and down our land, fighting alone the great
+battle, unknown of men and sometimes thinking that they must be
+forgotten of God. And the picket's lonely post is what tries a man's
+courage and strength.
+
+Take your example from Paul's epistle. Greet Phebe, the
+schoolmistress, and Aquila and Priscilla on their rocky farm on the
+mountain-side, and greet the burden-bearing Onesiphorus. And give
+them God's greeting and encouragement, for he sends it to them
+through you. Show them the heroism which there is in their "humdrum"
+lives; and cheer them in the efforts, of whose grandeur they are all
+unconscious. Bid them "be strong and of a very good courage." For in
+the character of these people there is the granite of the eternal
+hills, and in their hearts should be the sunshine of God. Do not be
+ashamed of your congregation. Their dimes or dollars may look
+pitifully small and few on the collector's plate; only God sees the
+real immensity of the gift in the self-denial which it has cost.
+Your people will take sides with the cause of right, while it is
+still unpopular. They have furnished the moral backbone and
+unswerving integrity of many of your great business houses in this
+city to-day. From those families will go forth the men whom the good
+will trust and the evil fear. The power for good proceeding from
+your church will be like the floods which Ezekiel saw pouring out
+from beneath the threshold of the Lord's house.
+
+For these common people, whom "God must have loved because he made
+so many of them," are the true heirs to the future. And wealth and
+culture, art and learning, are to burn like torches to light their
+march. Finally, my young brothers, do not be bitterly disappointed
+if you are not "popular preachers." Do not let too many people go to
+sleep under your preaching, even if one young man did go to sleep
+under one of Paul's sermons. But if now and then someone is angry at
+what you have said, do not worry too much over it. Preach the truth
+in love. If Elijah and John the Baptist, and Peter and Paul, were to
+preach to-day I doubt greatly whether they would be popular
+preachers. I cannot find that they ever were so. They would probably
+be peripatetic candidates, until someone supported them as
+independent evangelists. After their death we would rear them great
+monuments, and then devote ourselves to railing at Timothy because
+he was not more like what we imagine Paul was.
+
+Even Socrates found that he must bid farewell to what men count
+honors, if he would follow after truth. You may have the same
+experience. You will have to champion many an unpopular cause, and
+your people will not like it. They will say you lack tact. Now Paul
+was a man of infinite tact. Witness his sermon on Mars' Hill. But if
+his letters to the church in Corinth were addressed to most modern
+churches, they would soon set out in search of a pastor of greater
+adaptability.
+
+If you play the man, and fight the good fight of faith, I do not see
+how you can always avoid hitting somebody on the other side. And he
+will pull you down if he can; and will probably succeed in sometimes
+making your life very uncomfortable. Remember the teaching of
+scripture and science, that the upward path was never intended to
+be easy. The scriptural passages to this effect you can find all
+through the gospels and epistles, and I need not quote them to you.
+I will, however, tell you honestly that many are of the opinion that
+these passages are now obsolete, being applicable only to the first
+centuries, or to especially critical times in the history of
+the church. I cannot share that view, but, lest I seem too
+old-fashioned, will merely quote the ringing words of our own Dr.
+Hitchcock, that "no man ever enters heaven save on his shield." And
+allow me to quote in the same connection the testimony of that
+prince of scientists, Professor Huxley, in his lecture on "Evolution
+and Ethics:"
+
+"If we may permit ourselves a larger hope of abatement of the
+essential evil of the world than was possible to those who, in the
+infancy of exact knowledge, faced the problem of existence more than
+a score of centuries ago, I deem it an essential condition of the
+realization of that hope that we should cast aside the notion that
+the escape from pain and sorrow is the proper object of life.
+
+"We have long since emerged from the heroic childhood of our race,
+when good and evil could be met with the same 'frolic welcome;' the
+attempts to escape from evil, whether Indian or Greek, have ended in
+flight from the battle-field; it remains to us to throw aside the
+youthful over-confidence and the no less youthful discouragement of
+nonage. We are grown men, and must play the man
+
+                          "... 'strong in will
+        To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,'
+
+"cherishing the good that falls in our way and bearing the evil in
+and around us, with stout heart set on diminishing it. So far we all
+may strive in one faith toward one hope:
+
+        "'It may be that the gulfs will wash us down,
+          It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles.
+
+                 "... but something ere the end,
+           Some work of noble note may yet be done.'"
+
+We must be strong and of a very good courage. While the avoidance of
+pain and discomfort, or even happiness, cannot be the proper end of
+life, it is not a world of misery or an essentially and hopelessly
+evil world. There is plenty of misery in the world, and we cannot
+deny it. Neither can we deny that God has put us in the world to
+relieve misery, and that until we have made every effort and
+strained every nerve as we have never yet done, we, and not God, are
+largely responsible for it. But behind misery stand selfishness and
+sin as its cause. And here we must not parley but fight. And the
+hosts of evil are organized and mighty. "The sons of this world are
+for their own generation wiser than the sons of light." And we shall
+never overcome them by adopting their means. But we can and shall
+surely overcome. For he that is with us is more than they that be
+with them. "The skirmishes are frequently disastrous to us, but the
+great battles all go one way." And we long for the glory of "him
+that overcometh." But the victor's song can come only after the
+battle, and be sung only by those who have overcome. And we would
+not have it otherwise if we could. The closing words of Dr.
+Hitchcock's last sermon are the following:
+
+"It is one of the revelations of scripture that we are to judge the
+angels, sitting above them on the shining heights. It may well be
+so. Those angels are the imperial guard, doing easy duty at home. We
+are the tenth legion, marching in from the swamps and forests of the
+far-off frontier, scarred and battered, but victorious over death
+and sin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
+
+
+In all our study we have taken for granted the truth of the theory
+of evolution. If you are not already persuaded of this by the
+writings of Darwin, Wallace, and many others, no words or arguments
+of mine would convince you. We have used as the foundation of our
+argument only the fundamental propositions of Mr. Darwin's theory.
+
+But while all evolutionists accept these propositions they differ
+more or less in the weight or efficiency which they assign to each.
+In a sum in multiplication you may gain the same product by using
+different factors; but if the product is to be constant, if you
+halve one factor, you must double another. Evolution is a product of
+many factors. One evolutionist lays more, another less, emphasis on
+natural selection, according as he assigns less or more efficiency
+to other forces or processes. Furthermore, evolutionists differ
+widely in questions of detail, and some of these subsidiary
+questions are of great practical importance and interest. It may be
+useful, therefore, to review these propositions in the light of the
+facts which we have gathered, and to see how they are interpreted,
+and what emphasis is laid on each by different thinkers.
+
+The fundamental fact on which Mr. Darwin's theory rests is the
+"struggle for existence." Life is not something to be idly enjoyed,
+but a prize to be won; the world is not a play-ground, but an arena.
+And the severity of the struggle can scarcely be overrated. Only one
+or two of a host of runners reach the goal, the others die along the
+course. Concerning this there can be no doubt, and there is little
+room for difference of interpretation.
+
+The struggle may take the form of a literal battle between two
+individuals, or of the individual with inclemency of climate or
+other destructive agents. More usually it is a competition, no more
+noticeable and no less real than that between merchants or
+manufacturers in the same line of trade.
+
+The weeds in our gardens compete with the flowers for food, light,
+and place, and crowd them out unless prevented by man. And when the
+weeds alone remain, they crowd on each other until only a few of the
+hardiest and most vigorous survive. And flowers, by their nectar,
+color, and odor, compete for the visits of insects, which insure
+cross-fertilization. And fruits are frequently or usually the
+inducements by which plants compete for the aid of animals in the
+dissemination of their seeds. So there is everywhere competition and
+struggle; many fail and perish, few succeed and survive.
+
+In a foot-race it is often very difficult to name the winner. Muscle
+alone does not win, not even good heart and lungs. Good judgment,
+patience, coolness, courage, many mental and moral qualities, are
+essential to the successful athlete. So in the struggle for life.
+The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
+
+The total of "points" which wins this "grand prize" is the
+aggregate of many items, some of which appear to us very
+insignificant. Hence, when we ask, "Who will survive?" the answer is
+necessarily vague. Mr. Darwin's answer is, Those best conformed to
+their environment; and Mr. Spencer's statement of the survival of
+the fittest means the same thing.
+
+The judges who pronounce and execute the verdict of death, or award
+the prize of life, are the forces and conditions of environment. We
+have already considered the meaning of this word. Many of its forces
+and conditions are still unknown, or but very imperfectly
+understood. But known or unknown, visible or invisible, the result
+of their united action is the extinction or degradation of these
+individuals which deviate from certain fairly well-marked lines of
+development. We must keep clearly before our minds the fact that the
+world of living beings makes up by far the most important part of
+the environment of any individual plant or animal. Two plants may be
+equally well suited to the soil and climate of any region; but if
+one have a scanty development of root or leaf, or is for any reason
+more liable to attacks from insects or germs, other things being
+equal, it will in time be crowded out by its competitor. Worms are
+eaten by lower vertebrates, and these by higher. An animal's
+environment, like that of a merchant or manufacturer, is very
+largely a matter of the ability and methods of its competitors. And
+man, compelled to live in society, makes that part of the
+environment by which he is most largely moulded.
+
+This process of extinction Mr. Darwin has called "natural
+selection." Natural selection is not a force, but a process,
+resulting from the combined action of the forces of environment. It
+is not a cause in any proper sense of the word, but a result of a
+myriad of interacting forces. The combination of these forces in a
+process of natural selection leading directly to a moral and
+spiritual goal demands an explanation in some ultimate cause. This
+explanation we have already tried to find.
+
+It is a process of extinction. It favors the fittest, but only by
+leaving them to enjoy the food and place formerly claimed, or still
+furnished, by the less fit. In any advancing group, as the less fit
+are crowded out, and the better fitted gain more place and food and
+more rapid increase, the whole species becomes on an average better
+conformed. More abundant nourishment and increased vigor seem also
+to be accompanied by increased variation. And by the extinction of
+the less fit the probability is increased that more fit individuals
+will pair with one another and give rise to even fitter offspring,
+possessing perhaps new and still more valuable variations.
+
+But if, of a group of weaker forms, those alone survive which adopt
+a parasitic life, those which in adult life move the least will
+survive and reproduce; there will result the survival of the least
+muscular and nervous. This degeneration will continue until the
+species has sunken into equilibrium, so to speak, with its
+surroundings. Here natural selection works for degeneration. Sessile
+animals have had a similar history. But these parasitic and sessile
+forms had already been hopelessly distanced in the race for life.
+Their presence cannot impede the leaders; indeed their survival is
+necessary to directly or indirectly furnish food for the better
+conformed. In the animal and plant world there is abundant room and
+advantage at the top.
+
+Once more, natural selection works as a rule for the survival of
+individuals, only indirectly for that of organs composing, or of
+species including, these individuals. It may work for the
+development of a trait or structure which, while of no immediate
+advantage to the individual, increases the probability of its
+rearing a larger number of fitter offspring. Thus defence of the
+young by birds may be a disadvantage to the parent, but this is more
+than counterbalanced in the life of the species by the number of
+young coming to maturity and inheriting the trait. Even here natural
+selection favors the survival of the trait indirectly by sparing the
+descendants of the individual possessing it. Natural selection may
+always work on and through individuals without always working for
+their sole and selfish advantage.
+
+In human society we find the selection of families, societies,
+nations, and civilizations going on, but mainly as the result of the
+survival of the fittest individuals.
+
+There may very probably be a struggle for existence between organs
+or cells in the body of each individual. The amount of nutriment in
+the body is a more or less fixed quantity; and if one organ seizes
+more than its fair share, others may or must diminish for lack. But
+the limit to this usurpation must apparently be set by the crowding
+out of those individuals in which it is carried too far. Natural
+selection, so to speak, leaves the individual responsible for the
+distribution of the nutriment among the organs, and spares or
+destroys the individual as this usurpation proves for its advantage
+or disadvantage.
+
+It makes its verdict much as the judges at a great poultry or dog
+show count the series of points, giving each one of them a certain
+value on a certain scale, and then award the prize to the individual
+having the highest aggregate on the whole series. Any such
+illustration is very liable to mislead; I wish to emphasize that
+fitness to survive is determined by the aggregate of the qualities
+of an individual.
+
+But an animal having one organ of great value or capacity may thus
+carry off the prize, even though its other organs deserve a much
+lower mark. This is the case with man. In almost every respect,
+except in brain and hand, he is surpassed by the carnivora, the cat,
+for example. But muscle may be marked, in making up the aggregate,
+on a scale of 500, and brain on a scale of 5,000, or perhaps of
+50,000. A very slight difference in brain capacity outweighs a great
+superiority in muscle in the struggle between man and the carnivora,
+or between man and man.
+
+The scale on which an organ is marked will be proportional to its
+usefulness under the conditions given at a given time. During the
+period of development of worms and lower vertebrates much muscle
+with a little brain was more useful than more brain with less
+muscle. Hence, as a rule, the more muscular survived; the brain
+increasing slowly, at first apparently largely because of its
+correlation with muscle and sense-organs. At a later date muscle,
+tooth, and claw were more useful on the ground; brain and hand in
+the trees. Hence carnivora ruled the ground, and certain arboreal
+apes became continually more anthropoid. At a later date brain
+became more useful even on the ground, and was marked on a higher
+scale, because it could invent traps and weapons against which
+muscle was of little avail. Just at present brain is of use to, and
+valued by, a large portion of society in proportion to its
+efficiency in making and selfishly spending money. But slowly and
+surely it is becoming of use as an organ of thought, for the sake of
+the truth which it can discover and incarnate.
+
+Natural selection works thus apparently for the survival of the
+individuals possessing in the aggregate the most complete conformity
+to environment. Let us now imagine that an animal is so constructed
+as to be capable of variation along several disadvantageous or
+neutral lines, and along only one which is advantageous. The
+development would of course proceed along the advantageous line. Let
+us farther imagine that to the descendants of this individual two,
+and only two, advantageous lines of variations are allowed by its
+structure. Then natural selection would probably favor the decidedly
+advantageous line, if such there were. But as long as the structure
+of the animal allows variation along only a few lines, the
+two advantageous variations would, according to the law of
+probabilities, frequently occur in the same individual. The eggs and
+spermatozoa of two such individuals might not infrequently unite,
+and thus in time the two characteristics be inherited by a large
+fraction of the species.
+
+And now let me quote from Mr. Spencer:
+
+   "But in proportion as the life grows complex--in proportion as a
+   healthy existence cannot be secured by a large endowment of some
+   one power, but demands many powers; in the same proportion do
+   there arise obstacles to the increase of any particular power, by
+   'the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life.' As
+   fast as the faculties are multiplied, so fast does it become
+   possible for the several members of a species to have various
+   kinds of superiorities over one another. While one saves its life
+   by higher speed, another does the like by clearer vision, another
+   by keener scent, another by quicker hearing, another by greater
+   strength, another by unusual power of enduring cold or hunger,
+   another by special sagacity, another by special timidity, another
+   by special courage; and others by other bodily and mental
+   attributes. Now it is unquestionably true that, other things
+   equal, each of these attributes, giving its possessor an extra
+   chance of life, is likely to be transmitted to posterity. But
+   there seems no reason to suppose that it will be increased in
+   subsequent generations by natural selection. That it may be thus
+   increased, the individuals not possessing more than average
+   endowments of it must be more frequently killed off than
+   individuals highly endowed with it; and this can happen only when
+   the attribute is one of greater importance, for the time being,
+   than most of the other attributes. If those members of the
+   species which have but ordinary shares of it, nevertheless
+   survive by virtue of other superiorities which they severally
+   possess, then it is not easy to see how this particular attribute
+   can be developed by natural selection in subsequent generations.
+   The probability seems rather to be that, by gamogenesis, this
+   extra endowment will, on the average, be diminished in
+   posterity--just serving in the long run to compensate the
+   deficient endowments of other individuals whose special powers
+   lie in other directions, and so to keep up the normal structure
+   of the species. The working out of the process is here somewhat
+   difficult to follow; but it appears to me that as fast as the
+   number of bodily and mental faculties increases, and as fast as
+   the maintenance of life comes to depend less on the amount of any
+   one, and more on the combined action of all, so fast does the
+   production of specialties of character by natural selection alone
+   become difficult. Particularly does this seem to be so with a
+   species so multitudinous in its powers as mankind, and above all
+   does it seem to be so with such of the human powers as have but
+   minor shares in aiding the struggle for life--the æsthetic
+   faculties for example."--Spencer, "Principles of Biology," § 166.
+
+Can thus natural selection, acting upon fortuitous variations, be
+the sole guiding process concerned in progress? Must there not be
+some combining power to produce the higher individuals which are
+prerequisites to the working of natural selection?
+
+We are considering the efficiency of natural selection in enhancing
+useful variations through a series of generations. Let us return to
+the distinction between productiveness and prospectiveness of social
+capital. Applied to variations productiveness means immediate
+advantage, prospectiveness the greater future and permanent returns.
+Now all persisting variations must, in animals below man, apparently
+be somewhat productive, else they would not continue, much less
+increase. Now the immediate return from prospective variations is
+often smaller than from productive. It looks at first as if
+productive variations would always be preserved by natural
+selection, and that prospective variations would not long advance.
+Yet in the muscular system variations valuable largely for their
+future value are neither few nor unimportant. How can the brain in
+its infancy develop until it gains supremacy over muscle, or muscle
+have done the same with digestion? Now a partial explanation of this
+is to be found in the correlation of organs. This is therefore a
+factor of vast importance in progress through evolution.
+
+Progress in any one line demands correlated changes in many organs.
+Thus in the advance of annelids to insects the muscular system
+increases in relative bulk, and absolutely in complexity. But a
+change or increase in the muscle must be accompanied by
+corresponding changes in the motor-nerve fibrils; and these again
+would be useless unless accompanied by increased complexity and more
+or less readjustment of the cells and fibrils of the nerve-centres.
+And all these additions to, and readjustments of, the nerve-centres
+must take place without any disturbance of the other necessary
+adjustments already attained. This is no simple problem.
+
+We will here neglect the fact that many other changes are going on
+simultaneously. Legs are being formed or moulded into jaws, the
+anterior segments are fusing into a head, and their ganglia into a
+brain; an external skeleton is developing. Furthermore the increase
+of the muscular and nervous systems must be accompanied by increased
+powers of digestion, respiration, and excretion. Practically the
+whole body is being recast. We insist only on the necessity of
+simultaneous and parallel changes in muscles, nerves, and
+nerve-centres; though what is true of these is true, in greater or
+less degree, of all the other organs.
+
+You may answer that this is to be explained by the law of
+correlation of organs; that when changes in one organ demand
+corresponding changes in another, these two change similarly and
+more or less at the same time and rate. But this is evidently not an
+explanation but a restatement of the fact. The question remains,
+What makes the organs vary simultaneously so as to always correspond
+to each other? The whole series of changes must to some extent be
+effected at once and in the same individual, if it is to be
+preserved by natural selection. Fortuitous variations here and there
+along the line of the series are of little or no avail. That the
+whole series of variations should happen to occur in one animal is
+altogether against the law of probabilities; if the favorable
+variation occurs in only a part of the series it remains useless
+until the corresponding variation has taken place in the other
+terms. And while the variation is thus awaiting its completion, so
+to speak, it is useless, and cannot be fostered by natural
+selection.
+
+Evolution by means of fortuitous variations, combined and controlled
+only through natural selection, seems to me at least impossible; and
+this view is, I think, steadily gaining ground.
+
+Natural selection, while a real and very important factor in
+evolution, cannot be its sole and exclusive explanation. It
+presupposes other factors, which we as yet but dimly perceive. And
+this does not impeach the validity of Mr. Darwin's theory any more
+than Newton's theory of gravitation is impeached by the fact that it
+offers no explanation as to why the apple falls or how bodies
+attract one another.
+
+For natural selection explains the survival, but not the origin, of
+the fittest. Given a species or other group composed of more and
+less fit individuals and the fittest will survive. How does it come
+about that there are any more and less fit individuals? This brings
+us to the consideration of the subject of variation.
+
+Let us begin with a simple case of change in the adult body. The
+workman grasps his tools day after day, and his hands become horny.
+The skin has evidently thickened, somewhat as on the soles of the
+feet. This is no mere mechanical result of pressure alone.
+Continuous pressure would produce the opposite result. But under the
+stimulus of intermittent pressure the capillaries, or smallest blood
+vessels, furnish more nutriment to the cells composing the lowest
+layer of the outer skin or epidermis. These cells, being better
+nourished, reproduce by division more rapidly, and the epidermis,
+becoming composed of a greater number of layers of cells, thickens.
+The outer-most layers, being farthest from the blood supply, dry up
+and are packed together into a horny mass.
+
+If I go out into the sunshine I become tanned. This again is not a
+direct and purely chemical or physical result of the sun's rays, but
+these have stimulated the cells of the skin to undergo certain
+modifications. Any change in the living body under changed
+conditions is not passive, but an active reaction to a stimulus
+furnished by the surroundings. The same stimulus may excite very
+different reactions in different individuals or species.
+
+Early in this century a farmer, Seth Wright, found among his lambs a
+young ram with short legs and long body. The farmer kept the ram,
+reasoning that his short legs would prevent him from leading the
+flock over the farm-walls and fences. From this ram was descended
+the breed of ancon, or otter, sheep. Now the stimulus which had
+excited this variation must have been applied early in embryonic
+life, or perhaps during the formation or maturing of the germ-cells
+themselves. Such a variation we call a congenital variation.
+
+These cases are merely illustrations of the general truth that in
+every variation there are two factors concerned: the living being
+with its constitution and inherent tendencies and the external
+stimulus.
+
+The courses of the different balls in a charge of grape-shot, hurled
+from a cannon, are evidently due to two sets of forces--1, their
+initial energy and the direction of their aim; 2, the deflecting
+power of resisting objects or forces--or the different balls might
+roll with great velocity down a precipitous mountain-side. In the
+first case velocity and direction of course would be determined
+largely by initial impulse; in the second, by the attraction of the
+earth and by the inequalities of its surface.
+
+In evolution, environment, roughly speaking, corresponds to these
+deflecting or attracting external objects or forces; inherent
+tendencies to initial impulse. If we lay great weight on initial
+tendencies, inherent in protoplasm from the very beginning, we shall
+probably lay less stress on natural selection as a guiding,
+directing process.
+
+The great botanist, Nägeli, has propounded a most ingenious and
+elaborate theory of evolution, as dependent mainly on inherent
+initial tendency. We can notice only one or two of its salient
+points. All development is, according to his view, due to a tendency
+in the primitive living substance toward more complete division of
+labor and greater complexity. This tendency, which he calls
+progression, or the tendency toward perfection, is the result of the
+chemical and molecular structure of the formative controlling
+protoplasm (idioplasm) of the body, and is transmitted with other
+parental traits from generation to generation. And structural
+complexity thus increases like money at compound interest.
+Development is a process of unfolding or of realization of the
+possibilities of this tendency under the stimulus of surrounding
+influences. Environment plays an essential part in his system. But
+only such changes are transmissible to future generations as have
+resulted from modifications arising in the idioplasm. Descendants of
+plants which have varied under changed conditions revert, as a rule,
+to the old type, when returned to the old surroundings. And in the
+animal world effects of use and disuse are, according to his view,
+not transmissible.
+
+Natural selection plays a very subordinate part. It is purely
+destructive. Given an infinity of place and nourishment--do away,
+that is, with all struggle and selection--and the living world would
+have advanced, purely by the force of the progressive tendency, just
+as far as it now has; only there would have survived an indefinite
+number of intermediate forms. It would have differed from our
+present living world as the milky way does from the starry
+firmament.
+
+He compares the plant kingdom to a great, luxurious tree, branching
+from its very base, whose twigs would represent the present stage of
+our different species. Left to itself it would put out a chaos of
+innumerable branches. Natural selection, like a gardener, prunes the
+tree into shape. Children might imagine that the gardener caused the
+growth; but the tree would have been broader and have branched more
+luxuriantly if left to itself.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: See Nägeli, "Theorie der Abstammungslehre," p. 18;
+  also pp. 12, 118, 285.]
+
+Every species must vary perpetually. Now this proposition is
+apparently not in accord with fact; for some have remained unchanged
+during immense periods. And natural selection, by removing the less
+fit, certainly appears to contribute to progress by raising the
+average of the species. The theory seems extreme and one-sided. And
+yet it has done great service by calling in question the
+all-sufficiency of natural selection and the modifying power of
+environment, and by emphasizing, probably overmuch, the importance
+of initial inherent tendency, whose value has been entirely
+neglected by many evolutionists.
+
+Lack of space compels us to leave unnoticed most of the exceedingly
+valuable suggestions of Nägeli's brilliant work.
+
+It is still less possible to do any justice in a few words to
+Weismann's theory. Into its various modifications, as it has grown
+from year to year, we have no time to enter. And we must confine
+ourselves to his views of variation and heredity.
+
+In studying protozoa we noticed that they reproduced by fission,
+each adult individual dividing into two young ones. There is
+therefore no old parent left to die. Natural death does not occur
+here, only death by violence or unfavorable conditions. The protozoa
+are immortal, not in the sense of the endless persistence of the
+individual, but of the absence of death. Heredity is here easily
+comprehensible, for one-half, or less frequently a smaller fraction,
+of the substance of the parent goes to form the new individual.
+There is direct continuity of substance from generation to
+generation.
+
+But in volvox a change has taken place. The fertilized egg-cell,
+formed by the union of egg and spermatozoon, is a single cell, like
+the individual resulting from the conjugation or fusion of two
+protozoa. But in the many-celled individual, which develops out of
+the fertilized egg, there are two kinds of cells. 1. There are other
+egg-cells, like the first, each one of which can, under favorable
+conditions, develop into a multicellular individual like the
+parent. And the germ-cells (eggs and spermatozoa) of volvox are
+immortal like the protozoa. But, 2, there are nutritive, somatic
+cells, which nourish and transport the germ-cells, and after their
+discharge die. These somatic cells, being mortal, differ altogether
+from the germ-cells and the protozoa. The protoplasm must differ in
+chemical, or molecular, or other structure in the two cases, and we
+distinguish the germ-plasm of the germ-cells, resembling in certain
+respects Nägeli's idioplasm, from somatoplasm, which performs most
+of the functions of the cell. The somatoplasm arises from, and hence
+must be regarded as a modification of, the germ-plasm. The
+germ-plasm can increase indefinitely in the lapse of generations,
+increase of the somatoplasm is limited.
+
+When a new individual develops, a certain portion of the germ-plasm
+of the egg is set aside and remains unchanged in structure. This,
+increasing in quantity, forms the reproductive elements for the next
+generation. The germ-plasm, which does not form the whole of each
+reproductive element, but only a part of the nucleus, is thus an
+exceedingly stable substance. And there is a just as real continuity
+of germ-plasm through successive generations of volvox, or of any
+higher plants or animals, as in successive generations of protozoa.
+
+In certain plants there is an underground stem or rootstock, which
+grows perennially, and each year produces a plant from a bud at its
+end. This underground rootstock would represent the continuous
+germ-plasm of successive generations; the plants which yearly arise
+from it would represent the successive generations of adult
+individuals, composed mainly of somatoplasm. Or we may imagine a
+long chain, with a pendant attached to each tenth or one-hundredth
+link. The links of the chain would represent the series of
+generations of germ-cells; the pendants, the adults of successive
+generations.
+
+But any leaf of begonia can be made to develop into a new plant,
+giving rise to germ-cells. Here there must be scattered through the
+leaves of the plant small portions of germ-plasm, which generally
+remain dormant, and only under special conditions increase and give
+rise to germ-cells.
+
+A large part of the germ-plasm of the fertilized egg is used to give
+rise to the somatoplasm composing the different systems of the
+embryo and adult. Weismann's explanation of this change of
+germ-plasm into somatoplasm is very ingenious, and depends upon his
+theory of the structure of the germ-plasm; and this latter theory
+forms the basis of his theory of evolution. It would take too long
+to state his theory of the structure of germ-plasm, but an
+illustration may present fairly clear all that is of special
+importance to us.
+
+The molecules of germ-plasm are grouped in units, and these in an
+ascending series of units of continually increasing complexity,
+until at last we find the highest unit represented in the nucleus of
+the germ-cell. This grouping of molecules in units of increasing
+complexity is like the grouping of the men of an army in companies,
+regiments, brigades, divisions, etc.
+
+To form the somatoplasm of the different tissues of the body, this
+complicated organization breaks up, as the egg divides, into an
+ever-increasing number of cells. First, so to speak, the corps
+separate to preside over the formation of different body regions.
+Then the different divisions, brigades, and regiments, composing
+each next higher unit, separate, being detailed to form ever
+smaller portions of the body. The process of changing germ-plasm
+into somatoplasm is one of disintegration. The germ-plasm
+contains representatives of the whole army; a somatic cell only
+representatives of one special arm of a special training. Germ-plasm
+in the egg is like Humpty-Dumpty on the wall; somatoplasm, like
+Humpty-Dumpty after his great fall.
+
+I use these rude illustrations to make clear one point: Germ-plasm
+can easily change into somatoplasm, but somatoplasm once formed can
+never be reconverted into germ-plasm, any more than the fallen hero
+of the nursery rhyme could ever be restored.
+
+The germ-plasm is, according to Weismann, a very peculiar, complex,
+stable substance, continuous from generation to generation since the
+first appearance of life on the globe. It is in the body of the
+parent, but scarcely of it. Its relation to the body is like that of
+a plant to the soil or of a parasite to its host. It receives from
+the body practically only transport and nourishment. It is like a
+self-perpetuating, close corporation; and the somatoplasm has no
+means of either controlling it or of gaining representation in it.
+
+Says Weismann[A]: "The germ-cells are contained in the organism, and
+the external influences which affect them are intimately connected
+with the state of the organism in which they lie hid. If it be well
+nourished, the germ-cells will have abundant nutriment; and,
+conversely, if it be weak and sickly, the germ-cells will be
+arrested in their growth. It is even possible that the effects of
+these influences may be more specialized; that is to say, they may
+act only upon certain parts of the germ-cells. But this is indeed
+very different from believing that the changes of the organism which
+result from external stimuli can be transmitted to the germ-cells
+and will redevelop in the next generation at the same time as that
+at which they arose in the parent, and in the same part of the
+organism."
+
+  [Footnote A: Essays upon Heredity, p. 105.]
+
+But if the germ-plasm has this constitution and relation to the rest
+of the body, how is any variation possible? Different individuals of
+any species have slightly different congenital tendencies. Hence in
+the act of fertilization two germ-plasms of slightly different
+structure and tendency are mingled. The mingling of the two produces
+a germ-plasm and individual differing from both of the parents.
+Thus, according to Weismann's earlier view, the origin of variation
+was to be sought in sexual reproduction through the mingling of
+slightly different germ-plasms.
+
+But how did these two germ-plasms come to be different? How was the
+variation started? To explain this Weismann went back to the
+unicellular protozoa. These animals are undoubtedly influenced by
+environment and vary under its stimuli. Here the variations were
+stamped upon the germ-plasm, and the commingling of these variously
+stamped germ-plasms has resulted in all the variations of higher
+animals.
+
+Of late Weismann has modified and greatly improved this portion of
+his theory. He now accepts the view that external influences may act
+upon the germ-plasm not only in protozoa but also in all higher
+animals. Variation is thus due to the action or stimulus of
+external influences, supplemented by sexual reproduction.
+
+But the very constitution of the germ-plasm and its relation to the
+body absolutely forbids the transmission of acquired somatic
+characteristics and of the special effects of use and disuse.
+Muscular activity promotes general health, and might thus conduce to
+better-nourished germ-cells and to more vigorous and therefore
+athletic descendants. The exercise of the muscles might possibly
+cause such a condition of the blood that the portion of the
+germ-plasm representing the muscular system of the next generation
+might be especially nourished or stimulated. Thus an athletic parent
+might produce more athletic children.
+
+But let us imagine twin brothers of equal muscular development. One
+from childhood on exercises the lower half of his body; the other,
+the upper. Both take the same amount of exercise, and have perhaps
+equal muscular development, but located in different halves of the
+body. Now it is hard to conceive that it can make any difference in
+the nourishing or stimulating influence of the blood, whether the
+muscular activity resides in one half of the body or the other. The
+children might be exactly alike.
+
+One man drives the pen, a second plays the piano, and a third wields
+a light hammer. All three use different muscles of the hand and arm.
+How can this use of special muscles stamp itself upon the germ-cells
+in such a way that the offspring will have these special muscles
+enlarged? Granting that external influences of environment and
+bodily condition may effect the germ-cells; granting even that some
+of the most general effects of use and disuse might be transmitted,
+what warrant have we for believing that the special acquired
+characteristic can be transmitted? Weismann answers, None at all.
+The somatoplasm can only in the most general way affect the
+self-perpetuating, close corporation of the germ-plasm.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Weismann, Essays, p. 286.]
+
+There is thus, according to Weismann, nothing to direct variation to
+certain organs, or to guide and combine the variations of these
+organs along certain lines, except natural selection. To a certain
+extent variation may be limited by the very structure of the animal.
+But within these limits there are wide ranges where one variation is
+apparently just as likely to occur as another.
+
+Within these wide limits variation appears to be fortuitous. Natural
+selection must wait until the individuals appear in which these
+variations occur already correlated, and then seize upon these
+individuals. It is apparently the only guiding, directing force.
+Linear variation, that is, a variation advancing continuously along
+one or very few straight lines, would appear to be impossible.
+
+In Nägeli's theory initial tendency is overwhelmingly dominant; in
+Weismann's, natural selection is almighty.
+
+Weismann's followers have received the name of Neo-Darwinians. The
+so-called Neo-Lamarckian school believes in the transmissibility of
+acquired characteristics, and of at least particular effects of use
+and disuse. The one theory is neither more nor less Darwinian than
+the other. For while Darwin emphasized natural selection, he
+accepted to a certain extent the transmission of special effects of
+use and disuse.
+
+A special theory of heredity, pangenesis, has been accepted by many
+of the Neo-Lamarckian school. The theory of pangenesis, as
+propounded by Mr. Darwin, may be very briefly stated as follows: The
+cells in all parts of the body are continually throwing off germinal
+particles, or "gemmules." These become scattered through the body,
+grow, and multiply by division. On account of mutual attraction they
+unite in the reproductive glands to form eggs or spermatozoa. The
+germ-cells are thus the bearers of heredity because they contain
+samples, so to speak, of all the organs of the body.
+
+In heredity, according to Weismann's theory, the egg is the centre
+of control, the continuous germ-plasm the source of all transmitted
+changes; according to Darwin's theory, the body is the source, and
+the egg is derived in great part at least from it. If you put to the
+two the time-honored question, Which is first, the owl or the egg?
+Weismann would announce, with emphasis, The egg; Darwin would say,
+The owl. One proposition is the converse of the other, and most
+facts accord almost equally well with both theories.
+
+In any family, devoted for generations to literary or artistic
+pursuits, the children show, as a rule, an aptitude for such
+pursuits not manifested by those of other families. According to the
+Neo-Lamarckian view, this inherited aptitude is to a certain extent
+the result of the constant exercise of these faculties through a
+series of generations. The active efforts and voluntary disposition
+of the parents have given an increased predisposition to the child.
+"Quite the reverse," says Weismann, "the increase of an organ in the
+course of generations does not depend upon the summation of
+exercise taken during single lives, but upon the summation of more
+favorable predispositions in the germ." "An organism cannot acquire
+anything unless it already possesses the predisposition to acquire
+it."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Weismann, Essays, pp. 85 and 171.]
+
+We may accept or deny this last statement, but it is evident
+that facts like these, and indeed the origin of most or all
+characteristics involving use or disuse, may be explained almost
+equally well by either theory.
+
+But as far as the transmission of effects of somatic changes is
+concerned, if protozoa undergo special modifications under the
+influence of external conditions, will not the germ-cells undergo
+special modification under the influence of changes in the
+somatoplasm which forms their immediate environment? We must never
+forget the close relationship between all the cells of the body, and
+how slight a change in the body or its surroundings may conduce to
+sterility or fertility. Such isolation and independence in the body,
+on the part of the germ-cells, is opposed to all that we know of the
+organic unity of the body, whose cells have arisen by the
+differentiation of, and division of labor between, cells primitively
+alike. The facts of bud-variation, of changes in the parent stock
+due to grafting, and others, of which Mr. Darwin has given a summary
+in the eleventh chapter of the first volume of his "Plants and
+Animals under Domestication," have never been adequately explained
+by Weismann in accordance with his theory. He has perhaps succeeded
+in parrying their force by showing that some such explanation is
+conceivable; they still point strongly against him.
+
+Wilson has good reason for his "steadily growing conviction that
+the cell is not a self-regulating mechanism in itself, that no cell
+is isolated, and that Weismann's fundamental proposition is false."
+
+But, granting the force of these criticisms, the question still
+remains, Is the special effect of use or disuse transmissible? Would
+the blacksmith's son have a stronger right arm?
+
+1. The isolation and independence of the germ-cells, which Weismann
+postulates as opposing this, can hardly be as great as he thinks. 2.
+It is in his view impossible to conceive how these acquired
+characteristics can in any way reach and affect the germ-cells in
+such a manner as to reappear in the next generation. 3. All
+variations can be explained by his own theory without such
+transmission. Why then believe that acquired characteristics can in
+some inconceivable way affect the germ-cells so as to reappear in
+the next generation, as long as all the facts can be explained in a
+more simple and easily conceivable manner?
+
+As to his second argument, I would readily acknowledge that it is at
+present difficult or impossible for me to conceive how any cell can
+act upon another, except through the nutrient or other fluids which
+it can produce. But though I cannot conceive how one cell can affect
+another, I may be compelled to believe that it does so. And this
+Weismann readily acknowledges.
+
+Driesch changed by pressure the relative position of the cells of a
+very young embryo, so that those which in a normal embryo would have
+produced one organ were now compelled, if used at all, to form quite
+a different one. And yet these displaced cells formed the organ
+required of cells normally occupying this new position, not the one
+for which they were normally intended. And the organ which they
+would have builded in a normal embryo was now formed by other cells
+transferred to their rightful place.
+
+What made them thus change? Not change of substance or structure,
+for the slight pressure could hardly have modified this. Not change
+of nutriment. The only visible or easily conceivable change was in
+position relative to other cells of the embryo.
+
+Let us in imagination simplify Driesch's experiment, for the sake of
+gaining a clearer view of its meaning. In a certain embryo at an
+early stage are certain cells whose descendants should form the
+lining of the intestine and be used in the adult for digestion. A
+second set of cells should form muscle endowed mainly with
+contractility. When these two sets of cells, or some of them,
+exchange positions in the embryo, they exchange lines of
+development. The first set now form muscle, the second digestive
+tissue. The only change has been in their relative positions.
+Driesch maintains, therefore, that the goal of development in any
+embryonic cell is determined not by structure or nutriment but by
+position. And this would seem to be true of the cells of the
+earliest embryonic stages.
+
+Certain other experiments point in the same direction. Cut a hydra
+into equal halves and each half will form a complete animal. The
+lower half forms a new top, with mouth and tentacles; the upper
+half, a new base. Cut the other hydra a hair's-breadth farther up.
+The same layer of cells which in the first animal formed the lower
+exposed surface of the upper half now forms the upper exposed
+surface of the lower half. And with this change of position it has
+changed its line of development; it will now give rise to a new
+upper half, not a base as before. The same experiment can be tried
+on certain worms with similar results, only head and tail differ far
+more than top and base of hydra. Difference in the position of cells
+has made vast difference in their line of development. Now in both
+embryo and adult there must be some directing influence guiding
+these cells. What is it?
+
+An army is more than a mob of individuals; it is individuals plus
+organization, discipline, authority. A republic is not square miles
+of territory and thousands or millions of inhabitants. It is these
+plus organization, central government. Webster claimed that the
+central government was, and had to be, before the states. The
+organism cannot exist without its parts; it has a very real
+existence in and through them. It can coerce them. The state may be
+an abstraction, but it is one against which it is usually fatal to
+rebel, and which can say to a citizen, Go and be hanged, and he
+straightway mounts the scaffold. Now these are analogies and prove
+nothing. But in so far as they throw light on the essential idea of
+an organism, they may aid us in gaining a right view of our "cell
+republic."
+
+Says Whitman in a very interesting article on the "Inadequacy of the
+Cell-Theory": "That organization precedes cell-formation and
+regulates it, rather than the reverse, is a conclusion that forces
+itself upon us from many sides." "The structure which we see in a
+cell-mosaic is something superadded to organization, not itself the
+foundation of organization. Comparative embryology reminds us at
+every turn that the organism dominates cell-formation, using for
+the same purpose one, several, or many cells, massing its material
+and directing its movements, and shaping its organs as if cells did
+not exist, or as if they existed only in complete subordination to
+its will, if I may so speak. The organization of the egg is carried
+forward to the adult as an unbroken physiological unity, or
+individuality, through all modifications and transformations." And
+Wilson, Whitman, Hertwig, and others urge "that the organism as a
+whole controls the formative processes going on in each part" of the
+embryo. And many years ago Huxley wrote, "They (the cells) are no
+more the producers of the vital phenomena than the shells scattered
+along the sea-beach are the instruments by which the gravitative
+force of the moon acts upon the ocean. Like these, the cells mark
+only where the vital tides have been, and how they have acted."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: See articles by Whitman and Wilson, Journal of
+  Morphology, vol. viii., pp. 649, 607, etc.]
+
+"Interaction of cells" can help us but little. For how can
+neighboring cells direct others placed in a new position? The
+expression, if not positively misleading and untrue, is at the best
+only a restatement of fact. It certainly offers no explanation.
+Flood-tide is not due to the interaction of particles of water,
+though this may influence the form of the waves.
+
+The centre of control is therefore not to be sought in individual
+cells, whether germ-cells or somatic, but in the organism. And it is
+the whole organism, one and indivisible, which controls in germ,
+embryo, and adult, in egg and owl. This individuality, or whatever
+you will call it, impresses itself upon developing somatic cells,
+moulding them into appropriate organs, and upon germ-cells in
+process of formation, moulding them so that they may continue its
+sway. The muscle, modified by use or disuse, is a better expression
+of the individuality of its possessor, and the same individuality
+moulds similarly and simultaneously the germ-cells. Both are
+different expressions or manifestations of the same individuality.
+Only slowly does the individuality mould the muscles and nerves of
+the adult body to its use. Still more slow may be the moulding of
+the still more refractory germ-plasm, if such there be. But the
+moulding process goes on parallel in the two cases.
+
+But Weismann's argument rests not merely upon any difficulty or
+impossibility of the transmissibility of acquired characteristics.
+His argument is rather that all facts can be better explained by his
+theory without postulating or accepting such transmission, cases of
+which have never been absolutely proven. But the question is not
+whether his theory offers a possible explanation of the facts, but
+whether it is the most probable explanation of all the facts. No one
+would deny, I think, that the continuity of the germ-plasm offers
+the best and most natural explanation of heredity; and that
+variations could be produced by the influence on the germ-plasm of
+external conditions seems entirely probable.
+
+But when we consider the aggregation of these variations in a
+process of evolution, his theory seems unsatisfactory. We have
+already seen that what we commonly call a variation involves not one
+change, but a series of changes, each term of which is necessary.
+Muscle, nerve, and ganglion must all vary simultaneously and
+correspondingly. Correlation and combination are just as essential
+as variation. And evolution often demands the disappearance of less
+fit structures just as much as the advance of the fittest. Says
+Osborne, "It is misleading to base our theory of evolution and
+heredity solely upon entire organs; in the hand and foot we have
+numerous cases of muscles in close contiguity, one steadily
+developing, the other degenerating." Weismann offers the explanation
+that "if the average amount of food which an animal can assimilate
+every day remains constant for a considerable time, it follows that
+a strong influx toward one organ must be accompanied by a drain upon
+others, and this tendency will increase, from generation to
+generation, in proportion to the development of the growing organ,
+which is favored by natural selection in its increased blood-supply,
+etc.; while the operation of natural selection has also determined
+the organ which can bear a corresponding loss without detriment to
+the organism as a whole."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Weismann, Essays, p. 88.]
+
+Here again natural selection of individuals, not the diminished
+supply of nutriment, has to determine which of many muscles shall be
+poorly fed and which favored. But natural selection can favor
+special organs only indirectly through the individuals which possess
+such organs. Variation is fortuitous, and there is nothing, except
+natural selection, to combine or direct them. And, I think, we have
+already seen that any theory which neglects or excludes such
+directing and combining agencies must be unsatisfactory and
+inadequate. Weismann has promised us an explanation of correlation
+of variation in accordance with his theory; and if such an
+explanation can be made, it would remove one of the strongest
+objections. But for the present the objection has very great weight.
+
+Furthermore, as Osborne has insisted, linear variations, or
+variations proceeding along certain single and well-marked lines,
+would seem inexplicable by, if not fatal to, Weismann's theory. And
+yet Osborne, Cope, and others have shown that the teeth of mammals
+have developed steadily along well-marked lines. They have
+apparently not resulted at all by selection from a host of
+fortuitous variations.
+
+Says Osborne in his "Cartwright Lectures"[A]: "It is evident that
+use and disuse characterize all the centres of evolution; that
+changes of structure are slowly following on changes of function or
+habit. In eight independent regions of evolution in the human body
+there are upward of twenty developing organs, upward of thirty
+degenerating organs." Now this parallelism, through a long series of
+generations, between the evolution of organs, their advance or
+degeneration, and the use or disuse of these same organs, that is,
+of the habits of the individual, is certainly of great significance.
+It must have an explanation; and the most natural one would seem to
+be the transmission of the effects of use and disuse.
+
+  [Footnote A: American Naturalist, vols. xxv. and xxvi.]
+
+On the whole Osborne's verdict would seem just: The Neo-Lamarckian
+theory fails to explain heredity, Weismann's theory does not explain
+evolution. But, if the effects of use and disuse are transmitted,
+correlation of variation is to be expected. Muscle, nerve, and
+ganglion all vary in correlation because they are all used together
+and in like degree. Evolution and degeneration of muscles in hand
+and foot go on side by side, because some are used and some are
+disused. Centres of use and disuse must be centres of evolution. And
+there would be as many distinct centres of evolution in different
+parts of the body as there were centres of use and disuse. And
+between these centres there might be no correlation except
+that of use and disuse. Brain, muscles, and jaws would develop
+simultaneously in the ancestors of insects. And the effects of use
+and disuse, transmitted through a series of generations, would be
+cumulative. The species advances rapidly because all its members
+have in general the same habits; the same parts are advancing or
+degenerating, although at different rates, in all its individuals.
+An animal having an organ highly developed is far less likely to
+pair with one having a lower development of the same organ. The
+Neo-Lamarckian theory supplies thus what is lacking in the
+Neo-Darwinian.
+
+In lower forms, like hydra, of simple structure and comparatively
+few possibilities of variation, natural selection is dominant. In
+higher forms, like vertebrates, and especially in man, it is of
+decidedly subordinate value as a promoter of evolution. For man, as
+we have seen, is a marvellously complex being. The great difficulty
+in his case is not so much to quickly gain new and favorable
+variations as to keep all the organs and powers of the body steadily
+advancing side by side. Natural selection has in man the important
+but subordinate position of the judge in a criminal court, to
+pronounce the death verdict on the hopeless and incorrigible.
+
+Both Neo-Darwinians and Neo-Lamarckians have erred in being too
+exclusively mechanical in their theories. It is the main business of
+the scientific man to discover and study mechanisms. But he must
+remember that mechanism does not produce force, it only transmits
+it. If he maintains that he has nothing to do with anything outside
+of mechanism, that the invisible and imponderable force lies outside
+of his domain, he has handed over to metaphysics the fairest and
+richest portion of his realm. In our fear of being metaphysical we
+have swung to another extreme, and have lost sight of valuable truth
+which lay at the bottom of the old vitalistic theories. Cells,
+tissues, and organs are but channels along which the flood of
+life-force flows. Boveri has well said, "There is too much
+intelligence (Verstand) in nature for any purely mechanical theory
+to be possible."
+
+Each theory contains important truth. Nägeli's view of the
+importance of initial tendencies, inherent in the original living
+substance, is too often undervalued. My own conviction, at least, is
+steadily strengthening that, without some such original tendency or
+aim, evolution would never have reached its present culmination in
+man. His error lies in emphasizing this factor too exclusively. The
+fundamental proposition of Weismann's theory, that heredity is due
+to continuity of germ-plasm, seems to contain important truth. But
+we need not therefore accept his theory of a germ-plasm so isolated
+and independent as to be beyond control or influence by the
+habits of the body. The importance of use and disuse, and the
+transmissibility of their effects, would seem to supply a factor
+essential to evolution. Weismann has done good service in
+emphasizing the stability of the germ-plasm. Evolution is always
+slow, and, for that very reason, sure.
+
+If these conclusions are correct, they have an important practical
+bearing. Struggle and effort are essential to progress. Not inborn
+talent alone, but the use which one makes of it, counts in
+evolution. The effects of use and disuse are cumulative. The
+hard-fought battle of past generations becomes an easy victory in
+the present, just because of the strength acquired and handed down
+from the past struggle. Persistent variation toward evil is in time
+weeded out by natural selection. And, while evil remains in the
+world, we are to lay up stores of strength for ourselves and our
+descendants by sturdily fighting it. But the effects of right living
+through a hundred generations are not overcome by the criminal life
+of one or two. Evil surroundings weigh more in producing criminals
+than heredity, and their children are not irreclaimable.
+
+The struggles and victories of each one of us encourage the rest.
+There is, to borrow Mr. Huxley's language, not only a survival of
+the fittest, but a fitting of as many as possible to survive. And in
+the midst of the hardest struggle there is the peace which comes
+from the assurance of a glorious triumph.
+
+
+
+                Condensed Chart of Development of the Main Line
+                    of the Animal Kingdom leading to Man.
+
+               |                            | ORGANS        | MOST RAPIDLY
+  PHYLOGENETIC |                            | APPROACHING   | ADVANCING
+  SERIES.      | NEW ATTAINMENTS.           | CULMINATION.  | ORGANS.
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Amoeba.      | Cell.                      |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Volvox.      | Somatic and reproductive   |               | Reproductive.
+               | cells                      |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Hydra.       | Simple reproductive organs.|               | Reproductive.
+               | Gastro vascular cavity.    |               |
+               | (Tissues).                 |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Turbellaria. | D | Complex reproductive   | Reproductive. | Digestive.
+               | e | Organs. Supra-oes.     |               |
+               | v | Ganglion and cords.    |               |
+               | e | Sense organs.          |               |
+               | l | Body wall.ns.          |               |
+               | o |                        |               |
+               | p |                        |               |
+  -------------+---|------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Annelid.     | O | Perivisceral Cavity.   |               |
+               | r | Intestine. Circulatory |               |
+               | g | system. Nephridia.     |               |
+               | a | Visual eyes.           |               |
+               | n |                        |               |
+               | s |                        |               |
+  -------------+---+------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Primitive    | Notochord. Fins.           |               |
+  Vertebrate.  |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Fish.        | Backbone (incomplete).     | Digestive.    | Muscles.
+               | Paired Fins. Jaws from     |               |
+               | Branchial Arches. Simple   |               |
+               | heart. Air Bladder. Brain. |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Amphibian.   | Legs. Lungs. Cerebrum      |               | Muscles.
+               | increases from this        |               |
+               | form on.                   |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Reptile.     | Double heart.              |               | Muscles and
+               |                            |               | appendages.
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Lower        | Constant high temperature  |               | Muscles and
+  Placental    | Placenta.                  |  Muscle.      | appendages.
+  Mammals.     |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+               +--------------
+  Ape.         | Erect posture. Hand. Large |               | Brain.
+               | cerebrum.                  |               |
+               |                            |               |
+               |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Man.         | Very large cerebrum.       |               | BRAIN.
+               | Personality.               |               |
+               |                            |               |
+               |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+
+                                                   [Table continued below]
+
+
+
+   |             |DOMINANT MENTAL|              |               |
+   | DOMINANT    |(OR NERVOUS)   | SEQUENCE OF  | SEQUENCE OF   | ENVIRONMENT
+   | FUNCTION.   |ACTION.        | PERCEPTIONS. | MOTIVES.      | MAKES FOR.
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+  A|             |               |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+  V|Reproduction.|               |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+
+   |             |               |              |               |
+  H|Reproduction.| Reflex.       |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   |Reproduction.| Reflex.       |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+  T|             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |Rapid
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------|reproduction
+   | Digestion   | Reflex.       | Touch.       | Hunger.       |and good
+  A| Muscular.   |               | Smell.       |               |digestion.
+  n|             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------|
+  P| Digestion   | Instinct.     |  ?           |               |
+  V| Muscular.   |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   | Digestion   | Instinct.     | Hearing.     |               |
+  F| Muscular.   |               | Sight.       |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------|Fear and       |
+  A| Digestion   | Instinct.     | Hearing.     |other          |Strength and
+  m| Muscular.   |               | Sight.       |prudential     |activity.
+   |             |               |              |considerations.|
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------|               |
+  R| Muscular.   | Instinct. ?   | Hearing.     |               |
+   |             |               | Sight.       |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------|               |
+  L| Muscular.   | Instinct ? ?  | Hearing.     |               |
+  P|             |               | Sight.       |               |
+  M|             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   | Muscular.   | Intelligence. |Mental        |      "        |    " ?
+  A| Nervous.    |               |Perception.   |               |(Shrewdness?)
+  p|             |               |Understanding.|               |
+  e|             |               |Association.  |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   | Mind.*      | Intelligence. | Reason.*     | Love of man.  |Shrewdness.
+  M|             |               |              | Truth.        |Righteousness
+  a|             |               |              | Right.*       | and
+  n|             |               |              |               |unelfishness*
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+                               * Apparently capable of indefinite development.
+
+
+
+
+
+    PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF PRINCIPAL TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE.
+    _____________________________________________________
+
+                              Man.
+                              /|\
+                               |
+                               |  Apes.
+                             \ | /
+                              \|/
+                               |
+    Lower Placental Mammals.\  |
+                             \ |
+                              \|
+          Marsupial Mammals.\  |
+                             \ |
+         Oviparous Mammals.\  \|     /Birds.
+                            \  |    /
+                             \ |   /
+                              \|
+                               |  /Reptiles.
+                               | /
+                   Ampibia.\   |/
+                            \  |
+                             \ |
+                              \|
+            Insect.\           |
+                    \          |
+                     \         |
+                      \        |
+                       \       |     /Fish.
+                        \      |    /
+                         \     |   /        /Mollusca.
+                          \    |  /        /
+             Annelid.------\   | /        /
+                            \  |/        /
+                             \ |        /
+                               |       /
+                               |      /
+                               |     /
+                               |    /
+            Schematic Worm.\   |   /
+                            \  |  /
+                             \ | /      /Turbellaria.
+                              \|       /
+                               |      /
+                               |     /
+                               |    /
+                   Hydra.\     |   /
+                          \    |  /
+                           \   | /
+                            \  |/
+                             \ |
+                              \|
+                               |
+                               |    /Volvox.
+                               |   /
+                               |  /
+              Magosphaera.\    | /
+                           \   |/
+                            \  |
+                             \ |
+                              \|    /Amoeba.
+                               |   /
+                               |  /
+                               | /
+                               |/
+                               |
+                               |
+                               |
+    _____________________________________________________
+
+           PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF PRINCIPAL TYPES OF
+                         ANIMAL LIFE.
+    _____________________________________________________
+
+
+
+
+
+  INDEX
+
+
+  Amoeba, 32
+
+  Annelids, 61, 103
+
+  Apes, anthropoid, 91
+
+  Appetites, 137
+
+  Arthropoda, 61
+
+  Articulata, 61
+
+
+  Beauty, perception of, 121
+
+  Bible, 241
+
+  Blastosphere, 44
+
+  Brain, 64, 108;
+    of insects, 69;
+    vertebrates, 75, 85;
+    man, 96.
+    See also Ganglion
+
+
+  Cell, 34, 36
+
+  Child, mental development of, 204
+
+  Christianity, 192, 250, 252
+
+  Church, 265
+
+  Circulatory system,
+    worms, 62;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 84
+
+  Classification, 20
+
+  Coelenterata, 42, 55
+
+  Conformity to environment, 150, 170, 177, 197, 243, 259, 265
+
+  Conscience, 184
+
+  Correlation of organs, 284
+
+
+  Darwinism, 10
+
+  Degeneration, 155, 279
+
+  Digestion, 309;
+    amoeba, 33;
+    hydra, 37;
+    worms, 47, 52;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 73, 81
+
+
+  Ear, 50, 64
+
+  Echinoderms, 57
+
+  Ectoderm, 37, 44
+
+  Egg, 43
+
+  Embryology, 43
+
+  Emotions, 136, 230, 309
+
+  Entoderm, 37, 44
+
+  Environment, 158, 309;
+    God immanent in, 161, 175;
+    mirrored in human mind, 199
+
+  Evolution, 3;
+    conservative, 173
+
+  Excretion,
+    amoeba, 33;
+    worms, 48, 53;
+    vertebrates, 73, 81
+
+
+  Faith, 209, 256
+
+  Family, 180;
+    origin of, Cf. 88, 178, 217;
+    results of, 181
+
+  Flagellata, 39
+
+
+  Ganglion,
+    supra-oesophageal, 49, 54;
+    annelids, 64.
+    See Brain
+
+  Gastræa, 45
+
+  Gastrula, 44
+
+  God, 244;
+    knowable, 167
+
+
+  Head,
+    insect, 68;
+    vertebrate, 75
+
+  Heredity, mental and moral, 188
+
+  Heroism, 193, 200, 227
+
+  History, 15
+
+  Hope, 262
+
+  Huxley (quoted), 99, 171, 273
+
+  Hydra, 37
+
+
+  Insects, 65, 105
+
+  Instinct, 127, 131
+
+  Intellect, 117, 124
+
+  Intelligence, 117
+
+  Intelligent action, 128, 132
+
+
+  Jaws,
+    insects, 67;
+    vertebrates, 73
+
+
+  Knowledge, value of, 150, 229, 242
+
+
+  Law, Divine, 245
+
+  Locomotion and nervous development, 61.
+    See also Muscular System
+
+  Love, 139, 180, 243
+
+
+  Magosphæra, 40
+
+  Mammals, 85, 92;
+    oviparous, 86;
+    marsupial, 87;
+    placental, 88;
+    temporarily surpassed by reptiles, 195
+
+  Man, 210, 219;
+    anatomical characteristics, 92;
+    mental and moral characteristics, 99, 112, 147, 150, 219, 242;
+    relation to nature, 210;
+    animal, 213;
+    moral, 220;
+    religious, 224;
+    hero, 227;
+    future, 228, 231
+
+  Materialism, 165
+
+  Mesoderm, 45
+
+  Mind, 115, 144;
+    amoeba, 33
+
+  Mollusks, 58, 106
+
+  Motives, 136, 148;
+    sequence of, 143
+
+  Muscular system, 309;
+    hydra, 38;
+    worms, 62;
+    insects, 68;
+    vertebrates, 73, 108, 216
+
+
+  Nägeli, 288
+
+  Natural selection, 12, 152, 278
+
+  Nature, 9, 28
+
+  Neo-Darwinians and Neo-Lamarckians, 296
+
+  Nervous system, 102;
+    hydra, 38;
+    turbellaria, 48;
+    mollusks, 59;
+    annelids, 63;
+    insects, 69;
+    vertebrates, 74
+
+  Notochord, 74, 79
+
+
+  Ontogenesis, 26
+
+
+  Phylogenesis, 26, 100, 310
+
+  Placenta, 88
+
+  Prayer, 259
+
+  Primates, 91
+
+  Productiveness and prospectiveness, 193, 200, 202
+
+  Protoplasm, 32, 34
+
+  Protozoa, 39
+
+
+  Reflex action, 125, 135, 146
+
+  Religion, 166, 224, 262
+
+  Reproduction, 309;
+    amoeba, 32, 35;
+    hydra, 38;
+    magosphæra, 40;
+    volvox, 41;
+    turbellaria, 50;
+    annelids, 62;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 73.
+    See also Size and Surface and Mass
+
+  Respiration,
+    amoeba, 35;
+    worms, 48, 63;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 77, 84
+
+
+  Sequence of functions, 80, 109, 174, 309;
+    condensed history of, 100, 152, 221;
+    reversal of, 154, 205
+
+  Sexual reproduction, 33, 37, 41
+
+  Sin, 245
+
+  Size, 35, 51, 72, 76, 89, 214
+
+  Skeleton, 58, 74;
+    mollusks, 59;
+    insects, 65, 67, 71;
+    vertebrates, 74, 82
+
+  Social life, 182, 217
+
+  Socrates, 161, 189, 200
+
+  Specialization, 236, 239
+
+  Struggle for existence, 11, 158, 277;
+    mitigation of, 217
+
+  Surface and mass, 35, 50
+
+
+  Tissues, 42
+
+  Turbellaria, 46, 102
+
+
+  Vertebrates, 73, 81, 107;
+    primitive, 77
+
+  Volvox, 40
+
+
+  Weismann, 290
+
+  Will, 136
+
+  Worms, 56;
+    schematic, 52
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+The Morse Lectures for 1895
+
+THE WHENCE AND WHITHER OF MAN
+
+A BRIEF HISTORY OF MAN'S ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT, AND OF THE
+EVOLUTION OF HIS MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CAPACITIES THROUGH CONFORMITY
+TO ENVIRONMENT
+
+By JOHN M. TYLER Professor of Biology, Amherst College
+
+12mo, $1.75
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This work is a solidification of some new matter with the substance
+of the ten Morse Lectures delivered at Union Theological Seminary in
+the spring of 1895. Professor Tyler aims to trace the development of
+man from the simple living substance to his position at present,
+paying attention to incidental facts merely as incidental and
+contributory. He keeps always in view the successive accomplishments
+of life as they appear in the person of accepted general truth,
+rather than in the guise of the facts of progress.
+
+He begins by saying: "We take for granted the probable truth of the
+theory of evolution as stated by Mr. Darwin, and that it applies to
+man as really as to any lower animal." He assumes that an acceptable
+historian of biology must possess a genealogical tree of the animal
+kingdom, and adds that a knowledge of the sequence of dominant
+functions or "physiological dynasties," is quite as necessary to his
+inquiry as a history of the development of anatomical details. Since
+the germs of the future are always concealed in the history of the
+present, he claims that "if we can trace this sequence of dominant
+functions, whose evolution has filled past ages, we can safely
+foretell something, at least, of man's future development."
+
+The possibility of making false trails, at times, should not deter
+the investigator; for what he would establish is not the history of
+a single human race, nor of the movements of a century, but an
+understanding of the development of animal life through ages. "And
+only," says Professor Tyler, "when we have a biological history can
+we have any satisfactory conception of environment." The book
+concludes with a brief notice of the modern theories of heredity and
+variation advanced by Nageli and Weismann.
+
+
+
+
+The Morse Lectures for 1894
+
+
+THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN
+
+FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY TO THE ERA OF THE MÉIJI
+
+By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D.
+
+Formerly of the Imperial University of Tokio; Author of "The
+Mikado's Empire" and "Corea, the Hermit Nation"
+
+12mo, $2.00
+
+"The book is excellent throughout, and indispensable to the
+religious student."--_The Atlantic Monthly_.
+
+"To any one desiring a knowledge of the development and ethical
+status of the East, this book will prove of the utmost assistance,
+and Dr. Griffis may be thanked for throwing a still greater charm
+about the Land of the Rising Sun."--_The Churchman_.
+
+"Already an acknowledged authority on Japanese questions, Dr.
+Griffis in this volume gives to an appreciative public, what we risk
+calling his most valuable contribution to the literature this
+profoundly interesting nation has evoked."--_The Evangelist_.
+
+"... The fine quality of Dr. Griffis' works. His book is fresh and
+original, and may be depended on as material for scientific use....
+It may safely be said that it is the best general account of the
+religions of Japan that has appeared in the English language, and
+for any but the special student it is the best we know of in any
+tongue."--_The Critic_.
+
+
+
+
+The Morse Lectures for 1893
+
+THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN MODERN THEOLOGY
+
+By A.M. FAIRBAIRN, M.A., D.D.
+
+Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford; Gifford Lecturer in the
+University of Aberdeen; Late Morse Lecturer in Union Seminary, New
+York, and Lyman Beecher Lecturer in Yale University
+
+8vo, $2.50
+
+"One of the most valuable and comprehensive contributions to
+theology that has been made during this generation."--_London
+Spectator_.
+
+"The knowledge, ability, and liberality of the author unite to make
+the work interesting and valuable."--_The Dial_.
+
+"It is very high, but thoroughly deserved, praise to say that it is
+worthy of its great theme."--_The Critical Review_.
+
+"The volume reveals Dr. Fairbairn as a clear and vigorous thinker,
+who knows how to be bold without being too bold."--_New York
+Tribune_.
+
+"Suggestive, stimulating, and a harbinger of the future catholic
+theology."--_Boston Literary World_.
+
+"It is a book abounding in fine and philosophical thoughts, and
+deeply sympathetic with the most earnest religious thinking of the
+time."--_The Critic_.
+
+"If the object of a book of theology is to stir up the heart and
+mind with strong, clear thinking on divine things, no book,
+certainly, of the present season surpasses Dr. Fairbairn's."--_The
+Outlook_.
+
+"An important contribution to theological literature."--_London
+Times_.
+
+"The work shows a keen insight into the relations of truth combined
+with a rare power of accurate judgment."--_New York Observer_.
+
+"Beyond question this is one of the most signally valuable books of
+the season."--_The Advance_, Chicago.
+
+
+
+
+The Ely Lectures for 1891
+
+ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY
+
+A COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF UNION
+THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK
+
+By FRANK F. ELLEWOOD, D.D.
+
+Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian
+Church, U.S.A.; Lecturer on Comparative Religion in the University
+of the City of New York
+
+12mo, $1.75
+
+"The volume is not only valuable, it is interesting; it not only
+gives information, but it stimulates thought."--_Evangelist_.
+
+"Thoroughly Christian in spirit.... There is a compactness about it
+which makes it full of information and suggestion."--_Christian
+Inquirer_.
+
+"The author has read widely, reflected carefully, and written
+ably."--_Congregationalist_.
+
+"It is a book which we can most heartily commend to every pastor and
+to every intelligent student, of the work which the Church is called
+to do in the world."--_The Missionary_.
+
+"An able work."--_Boston Transcript_.
+
+"A more instructive book has not been issued for years."--_New York
+Observer_.
+
+"A noteworthy contribution to Christian polemics."--_Boston Beacon_.
+
+"The special value of this volume is in its careful differentiation
+of the schools of religionists in the East and the distinct points
+of antagonism on the very fundamental ideas of Oriental religions
+toward the religion of Jesus."--_Outlook_.
+
+"We wish this book might be read by all missionaries and by all
+Christians at home."--_Presbyterian and Reformed Review_.
+
+
+
+
+The Ely Lectures for 1890
+
+THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE
+
+By LEWIS FRENCH STEARNS
+
+Professor of Christian Theology in Bangor Theological Seminary
+
+12mo, $2.00
+
+
+"The tone and spirit which pervade them are worthy of the theme, and
+the style is excellent. There is nothing of either cant or pedantry
+in the treatment. There is simplicity, directness, and freshness of
+manner which strongly win and hold the reader."--_Chicago Advance_.
+
+"We have read them with a growing admiration for the ability,
+strength, and completeness displayed in the argument. It is a book
+which should be circulated not only in theological circles, but
+among young men of reflective disposition who are beset by the
+so-called 'scientific' attacks upon the foundations of the Christian
+faith."--_Christian Intelligencer_.
+
+"The style is a model of clearness even where the reasoning is
+deep."--_Christian Inquirer_.
+
+"His presentation of the certainty, reality, and scientific
+character of the facts in a Christian consciousness is very
+strong."--_The Lutheran_.
+
+"An important contribution to the library of apologetics."--_Living
+Church_. (P.E.)
+
+"A good and useful work."--_The Churchman_. (P.E.)
+
+"The work is searching, careful, strong, and sound."--_Chautauquan_.
+
+"As thorough and logical as it is spiritual."--_Congregationalist_.
+
+"A timely and apropos contribution to the defenses of
+Christianity."--_Interior_.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN***
+
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Whence and the Whither of Man, by John
+Mason Tyler</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Whence and the Whither of Man</p>
+<p>Author: John Mason Tyler</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 29, 2005  [eBook #14834]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN***</p>
+<br /><br /><h3>E-text prepared by Janet Kegg<br />
+                and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3><br /><br />
+<hr class="full" />
+
+<h1>THE WHENCE AND THE</h1>
+<h1> WHITHER OF MAN</h1>
+
+
+<h4>A BRIEF HISTORY OF HIS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT<br />
+THROUGH CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT</h4>
+
+
+<p class="center">Being the Morse Lectures of 1895</p>
+
+
+<h5>BY</h5>
+
+<h2>JOHN M. TYLER</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><small>PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY, AMHERST COLLEGE</small></p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<h6>New York<br />
+Charles Scribner's Sons</h6>
+
+<h5>1896</h5>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="notehead">  <b>Morse Lectures</b></p>
+
+<p class="note">1893&mdash;THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN<br />
+      MODERN THEOLOGY. By Rev. A.M.<br />
+      Fairbairn, D.D. 8vo, $2.50</p>
+
+<p class="note">1894&mdash;THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN. By Rev.<br />
+      William Elliot Griffis, D.D.<br />
+      12mo, $2.00.</p>
+
+<p class="note"> 1895&mdash;THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF<br />
+      MAN. By Professor John M. Tyler.<br />
+      12mo, $1.75.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h3><a name="contents" id="contents"></a>TABLE OF CONTENTS</h3>
+
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="table of contents">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a></td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>THE PROBLEM: THE MODE OF ITS SOLUTION</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The question. &mdash; The two theories of man's origin. &mdash; The argument
+purely historical. &mdash; Means of tracing man's ancestry and
+history. &mdash; Classification. &mdash; Ontogenesis and Phylogenesis.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>PROTOZOA TO WORMS: CELLS, TISSUES, AND ORGANS</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Am&oelig;ba: Its anatomy and physiology. &mdash; Development of the
+ cell. &mdash; Hydra: The development of digestive and reproductive organs,
+ and of tissues. &mdash; Forms intermediate between am&oelig;ba and hydra:
+ Magosph&aelig;ra, volvox. &mdash; Embryonic development. &mdash; Turbellaria: Appearance
+ of a body wall, of ganglion, and nerve-cords.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>WORMS TO VERTEBRATES: SKELETON AND HEAD</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_55">55</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td> Worms and the development of organs. &mdash; Mollusks: The external
+protective skeleton leads to degeneration or stagnation. &mdash; Annelids
+and arthropods: The external locomotive skeleton leads
+to temporary rapid advance, but fails of the goal. &mdash; Its
+disadvantages. &mdash; Vertebrates: The internal locomotive skeleton leads
+to backbone and brain. &mdash; Reasons for their dominance. &mdash; The primitive
+vertebrate.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>VERTEBRATES: BACKBONE AND BRAIN</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The advance of vertebrates from fish through amphibia and reptiles
+to mammals. &mdash; The development of skeleton, appendages, circulatory
+and respiratory systems, and brain. &mdash; Mammals: The oviparous
+monotremata. &mdash; Marsupials. &mdash; Placental mammals. &mdash; Development of the
+placenta. &mdash; Primates. &mdash; Arboreal life and the development of the
+hand. &mdash; Comparison of man with the highest apes. &mdash; Recapitulation of
+the history of man's origin and development. &mdash; The sequence of
+dominant functions.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>THE HISTORY OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS
+ SEQUENCE OF FUNCTIONS</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Mode of investigation. &mdash; Intellect. &mdash; Sense-perceptions. &mdash; Association.
+ &mdash; Inference and understanding. &mdash; Rational intelligence. &mdash; Modes of mental
+or nervous action. &mdash; Reflex action, unconscious and comparatively
+mechanical. &mdash; Instinctive action: The actor is conscious, but guided
+by heredity. &mdash; Intelligent action. &mdash; The actor is conscious, guided by
+intelligence resulting from experience or observation. &mdash; The will
+stimulated by motives. &mdash; Appetites. &mdash; Fear and other prudential
+considerations. &mdash; Care for young and love of mates. &mdash; The dawn of
+unselfishness. &mdash; Motives furnished by the rational intelligence:
+Truth, right, duty. &mdash; Recapitulation: The will, stimulated by ever
+higher motives, is finally to be dominated by unselfishness and love
+of truth and righteousness. &mdash; These rouse the only inappeasable
+hunger, and are capable of indefinite development. &mdash; Strength of
+these motives. &mdash; Their complete dominance the goal of human
+ development.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The reversal of the sequence of functions leads to extermination,
+degeneration, or, rarely, to stagnation. &mdash; Natural selection becomes
+more unsparing as we go higher. &mdash; Extinction. &mdash; Severity of the
+struggle for life. &mdash; Environment one. &mdash; But lower animals come into
+vital relation with but a small part of it. &mdash; It consists of a myriad
+of forces, which, as acting on a given form, may be considered as
+one grand resultant. &mdash; Environment is thus a power making at first
+for digestion and reproduction, then for muscular strength and
+activity, then for shrewdness, finally for unselfishness and
+righteousness. &mdash; An ultimate &quot;power, not ourselves, making for
+righteousness,&quot; a personality. &mdash; Our knowledge of this personality
+may be valid, even though very incomplete. &mdash; Religion. &mdash; Conformity to
+the spiritual in or behind environment is likeness to God. &mdash; The
+conservative tendency in evolution.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Human environment. &mdash; The development of the family as the school of
+man's training. &mdash; The family as the school of unselfishness and
+obedience. &mdash; The family as the basis of social life. &mdash; Society as an
+aid to conformity to environment by increasing intelligence and
+training conscience. &mdash; Mental and moral heredity. &mdash; Personal
+magnetism. &mdash; Man's search for a king. &mdash; The essence of
+Christianity. &mdash; Conformity to environment gives future supremacy, but
+often at the cost of present hardship. &mdash; Conformity as obedience to
+the laws of our being. &mdash; Environment best understood through the
+study of the human mind. &mdash; Productiveness and prospectiveness of
+vital capital. &mdash; Faith.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>MAN</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Composed of atoms and molecules, hence subject to chemical and
+physical laws. &mdash; As a living being. &mdash; As an animal. &mdash; As a
+vertebrate. &mdash; As a mammal. &mdash; As a social being. &mdash; As a personal and
+moral being. &mdash; The conflict between the higher and the lower in
+man. &mdash; As a religious being. &mdash; As hero. &mdash; He has not yet
+attained. &mdash; Future man. &mdash; He will utilize all his powers, duly
+subordinating the lower to the higher. &mdash; The triumph of the common
+people.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>Subject of the Bible. &mdash; <i>Man</i>: Body, intellect, heart. &mdash; <i>God</i>:
+Law, sin, and penalty. &mdash; God manifested in Christ. &mdash; Salvation, the divine
+life permeating man &mdash; Faith. &mdash; Prayer. &mdash; Hope. &mdash; The Church. &mdash; The
+battle. &mdash; The victory. &mdash; The crown.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'><b>PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION</b></td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>The struggle for existence. &mdash; Natural selection. &mdash; Correlation of
+organs. &mdash; Fortuitous variation. &mdash; Origin of the fittest. &mdash; N&auml;geli's
+theory: Initial tendency supreme. &mdash; Weismann and the Neo-Darwinians:
+Natural selection omnipotent. &mdash; The Neo-Lamarckians. &mdash; Comparison of
+the Neo-Darwinian and the Neo-Lamarckian views. &mdash; &quot;Individuality&quot; the
+controlling power throughout the life of the organism. &mdash; Transmission
+of special effects of use and disuse. &mdash; Summary.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>CHART SHOWING SEQUENCE OF ATTAINMENTS AND
+ OF DOMINANT FUNCTIONS</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_309">309</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align='left'>PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_310">310</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>INDEX</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_311">311</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center"><small>CHAPTERS</small>: <a href="#INTRODUCTION">Introduction</a>,
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">I</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_II">II</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_III">III</a>,
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_V">V</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI</a>,
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII</a>,
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX</a>, <a href="#CHAPTER_X">X</a>, <a href="#INDEX">Index</a></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>FIGURES</small>: <a href="#Page_33">1</a>, <a href="#Page_40">2</a>, <a href="#Page_43">3</a>,
+<a href="#Page_44">4</a>, <a href="#Page_48">5</a>, <a href="#Page_51">6</a>, <a href="#Page_62">7</a>,
+<a href="#Page_64">8</a>, <a href="#Page_66">9</a>, <a href="#Page_75">10</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+<h2><a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix"></a>[ix]</span>In the year 1865 Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, to whom the
+world is indebted for the application of the principles of
+electro-magnetism to telegraphy, gave the sum of ten thousand
+dollars to Union Theological Seminary to found a lectureship in
+memory of his father, the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., theologian,
+geographer, and gazetteer. The subject of the lectures was to have
+to do with &quot;The relations of the Bible to any of the sciences.&quot; The
+ten chapters of this book correspond to ten lectures, eight of which
+were delivered as Morse Lectures at Union Theological Seminary
+during the early spring of 1895. The first nine chapters appear in
+form and substance as they were given in the lectures, except that
+Chapters VI. and VII. were condensed in one lecture. Chapter X. is
+new, and I have not hesitated to add a few paragraphs wherever the
+argument seemed especially to demand further evidence or
+illustration.</p>
+
+<p>One of my friends, reading the title of these lectures, said: &quot;Of
+man's origin you know nothing, of his future you know less.&quot; I fear
+that many share his opinion, although they might not express it so
+emphatically.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem, therefore, to be in order to show that science is now
+competent to deal with this question; not that she can give a final
+and conclusive answer, but that we can reach results which are
+probably in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x"></a>[x]</span> main correct. We may grant very cheerfully that we
+can attain no demonstration; the most that we can claim for our
+results will be a high degree of probability. If our conclusions are
+very probably correct, we shall do well to act according to them;
+for all our actions in life are suited to meet the emergencies of a
+probable but uncertain course of events.</p>
+
+<p>We take for granted the probable truth of the theory of evolution as
+stated by Mr. Darwin, and that it applies to man as really as to any
+lower animal. At the same time it concerns our argument but little
+whether natural selection is &quot;omnipotent&quot; or of only secondary
+importance in evolution, as long as it is a real factor, or which
+theory of heredity or variation is the more probable.</p>
+
+<p>If man has been evolved from simple living substance protoplasm, by
+a process of evolution, it will some day be possible to write a
+history of that process. But have we yet sufficient knowledge to
+justify such an attempt?</p>
+
+<p>Before the history of any period can be written its events must have
+been accurately chronicled. Biological history can be written only
+when the successive stages of development and the attainments of
+each stage have been clearly perceived. In other words, the first
+prerequisite would seem to be a genealogical<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> tree of the animal
+kingdom. The means of tracing this genealogical tree are given in
+the first chapter, and the results in the second, third, and fourth
+chapters of this book.</p>
+
+<p>Now, for some of the ancestral stages of man's development a very
+high degree of probability can be claimed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi"></a>[xi]</span> One of man's earliest
+ancestors was almost certainly a unicellular animal. A little later
+he very probably passed through a gastr&aelig;a stage. He traversed fish,
+amphibian, and reptilian grades. The oviparous monotreme and the
+marsupial almost certainly represent lower mammalian ancestral
+stages. But what kind of fish, what species of amphibian, what form
+of reptiles most closely resembles the old ancestor? How did each of
+these ancestors look? I do not know. It looks as if our ancestral
+tree were entirely uncertain and we were left without any foundation
+for history or argument.</p>
+
+<p>But the history of the development of anatomical details, however
+important and desirable, is not the only history which can be
+written, nor is it essential. It would be interesting to know the
+size of brain, girth of chest, average stature, and the features of
+the ancient Greeks and Romans. But this is not the most important
+part of their history, nor is it essential. The great question is,
+What did they contribute to human progress?</p>
+
+<p>Even if we cannot accurately portray the anatomical details of a
+single ancestral stage, can we perhaps discover what function
+governed its life and was the aim of its existence? Did it live to
+eat, or to move, or to think? If we cannot tell exactly how it
+looked, can we tell what it lived for and what it contributed to the
+evolution of man?</p>
+
+<p>Now, the sequence of dominant functions or aims in life can be
+traced with far more ease and safety, not to say certainty, than one
+of anatomical details. The latter characterize small groups, genera,
+families, or classes; while the dominant function characterizes all
+animals<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii"  id="Page_xii"></a>[xii]</span> of a given grade, even those which through degeneration
+have reverted to this grade.</p>
+
+<p>Even if I cannot trace the exact path which leads to the
+mountain-top, I may almost with certainty affirm that it leads from
+meadow and pasture through forest to bare rock, and thence over snow
+and ice to the summit; for each of these forms a zone encircling the
+mountain. Very similarly I find that, whatever genealogical tree I
+adopt, one sequence in the dominance of functions characterizes them
+all; digestion is dominant before locomotion and locomotion before
+thought.</p>
+
+<p>And it is hardly less than a physiological necessity that it should
+be so. The plant can and does exist, living almost purely for
+digestion and reproduction, and the same is true of the lowest and
+most primitive animals. A muscular system cannot develop and do its
+work until some sort of a digestive system has arisen to furnish
+nutriment, any more than a steam-engine can run without fuel. And a
+brain is of no use until muscle and sense-organs have appeared.</p>
+
+<p>This sequence of dominant functions,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> of physiological dynasties,
+would seem therefore to be a fact. And our series of forms described
+in the second, third, and fourth chapters is merely a concrete
+illustration showing how this sequence may have been evolved. The
+substitution of other terms in the anatomical series there
+described&mdash;am&oelig;ba, volvox, etc.&mdash;would not affect this result. By
+a change in the form of our history we have eliminated to a large
+extent the sources of uncertainty and error. And the dominant
+function of a group throws no little light on the details of its
+anatomy.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii"></a>[xiii]</span>If we can be satisfied that ever higher functions have risen to
+dominance in the successive stages of animal and human development,
+if we can further be convinced that the sequence is irreversible, we
+shall be convinced that future man will be more and more completely
+controlled by the very highest powers or aims to which this sequence
+points. Otherwise we must disbelieve the continuity of history. But
+the germs of the future are always concealed in the history of the
+present. Hence&mdash;pardon the reiteration&mdash;if we can once trace this
+sequence of dominant functions, whose evolution has filled past
+ages, we can safely foretell something at least of man's future
+development.</p>
+
+<p>The argument and method is therefore purely historical. Here and
+there we will try to find why and how things had to be so. But all
+such digressions are of small account compared with the fact that
+things were or are thus and so. And a mistaken explanation will not
+invalidate the facts of history.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of our history is the development, not of a single human
+race nor of the movements of a century, but the development of
+animal life through ages. And even if our attempts to decipher a few
+pages here and there in the volumes of this vast biological history
+are not as successful as we could hope, we must not allow ourselves
+to be discouraged from future efforts. Even if our translation is
+here and there at fault, we must never forget the existence of the
+history. Some of the worst errors of biologists are due to their
+having forgotten that in the lower stages the germs of the higher
+must be present, even though invisible to any microscope. Our study
+of the worm is inadequate and likely to mislead us, unless we
+remember that a worm was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv"></a>[xiv]</span> the ancestor of man. And a biologist who
+can tell us nothing about man is neglecting his fairest field.</p>
+
+<p>Conversely history and social science will rest on a firmer basis
+when their students recognize that many human laws and institutions
+are heirlooms, the attainments, or direct results of attainments, of
+animals far below man. We are just beginning to recognize that the
+study of zo&ouml;logy is an essential prerequisite to, and firm
+foundation for, that of history, social science, philosophy, and
+theology, just as really as for medicine. An adequate knowledge of
+any history demands more than the study of its last page. The
+zo&ouml;logist has been remiss in not claiming his birthright, and in
+this respect has sadly failed to follow the path pointed out by Mr.
+Darwin.</p>
+
+<p>For pal&aelig;ontology, zo&ouml;logy, history, social and political science,
+and philosophy are really only parts of one great science, of
+biology in the widest sense, in distinction from the narrower sense
+in which it is now used to include zo&ouml;logy and botany. They form an
+organic unity in which no one part can be adequately understood
+without reference to the others. You know nothing of even a
+constellation, if you have studied only one of its stars. Much less
+can the study of a single organ or function give an adequate idea of
+the human body.</p>
+
+<p>Only when we have attained a biological history can we have any
+satisfactory conception of environment. As we look about us in the
+world, environment often seems to us to be a chaos of forces aiding
+or destroying good and bad, fit and unfit, alike.</p>
+
+<p>But our history of animal and human progress shows us successive
+stages, each a little higher than the preceding,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv"></a>[xv]</span> and surviving, for
+a time at least, because more completely conformed to environment.
+If this be true, and it must be true unless our theory of evolution
+be false, higher forms are more completely conformed to their
+environment than lower; and man has attained the most complete
+conformity of all. Our biological history is therefore a record of
+the results of successive efforts, each attaining a little more
+complete conformity than the preceding. From such a history we ought
+to be able to draw certain valid deductions concerning the general
+character and laws of our environment, to discover the direction in
+which its forces are urging us, and how man can more completely
+conform to it.</p>
+
+<p>If man is a product of evolution, his mental and moral, just as
+really as his physical, development must be the result of such a
+conformity. The study of environment from this standpoint should
+throw some light on the validity of our moral and religious creeds
+and theories. It would seem, therefore, not only justifiable, but
+imperative to attempt such a study.</p>
+
+<p>Our argument is not directly concerned with modern theories of
+heredity, or variation, or with the &quot;omnipotence&quot; or secondary
+importance of natural selection. And yet N&auml;geli, and especially
+Weismann, have had so marked an influence on modern thought that we
+cannot afford to neglect their theories. We will briefly notice
+these in the closing chapter.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a> See Phylogenetic Chart, p. <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2">[2]</a> See condensed Chart of Development, etc., p. <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>THE PROBLEM: THE MODE OF ITS SOLUTION</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span>The story of a human life can be told in very few words. A youth of
+golden dreams and visions; a few years of struggle or of neglected
+opportunities; then retrospect and the end.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;We come like water, and like wind we go.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">But how few of the visions are realized. Faust sums up the whole of
+life in the twice-repeated word <i>versagen</i>, renounce, and history
+tells a similar story. Terah died in Haran; Abraham obtained but a
+grave in the land promised him and his children; Jacob, cheated in
+marriage, bitterly disappointed in his children, died in exile,
+leaving his descendants to become slaves in the land of Egypt; and
+Moses, their heroic deliverer, died in the mountains of Moab in
+sight of the land which he was forbidden to enter. You may answer
+that it is no injury that the promise is too large, the vision too
+grand, to be fulfilled in the span of a single life, but must become
+the heritage of a race. But what has been the history of Abraham's
+descendants? A death-grapple for existence, captivity, and
+dispersion. Their national existence has long been lost.</p>
+
+<p>Was there ever a nation of grander promise than Greece or Rome? But
+Greece died of premature old <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a>[2]</span> age, and Rome of rottenness begotten
+of sin. But each of them, you will say, left a priceless heritage to
+the immortal race. But if Greece and Rome and a host of older
+nations, of which History has often forgotten the very name, have
+failed and died, can anything but ultimate failure await the race?
+Is human history to prove a story told by an idiot, or does it
+&quot;signify&quot; something? Is the great march of humanity, which Carlyle
+so vividly depicts, &quot;from the inane to the inane, or from God to
+God?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This is the sphinx question put to every thinking man, and on his
+answer hangs his life. For according to that answer, he will either
+flinch and turn back, or expend every drop of blood and grain of
+power in urging on the march.</p>
+
+<p>To this question the Bible gives a clear and emphatic answer. &quot;God
+created man in his own image,&quot; and then, as if men might refuse to
+believe so astounding a statement, it is repeated, &quot;in the image of
+God created he him.&quot; When, and by what mode or process, man was
+created we are not told. His origin is condensed almost into a line,
+his present and future occupy all the rest of the book. Whence we
+came is important only in so far as it teaches us humility and yet
+assures us that we may be Godlike because we are His handiwork and
+children, &quot;heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ of a heavenly
+inheritance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now has Science any answer to this vital question? Perhaps. But this
+much is certain; it can foretell the future only from the past. Its
+answer to the question <i>whither</i> must be an inference from its
+knowledge as to <i>whence</i> we have come. The Bible looks mainly at the
+present and future; Science must at least begin with <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>[3]</span>the study of
+the past. The deciphering of man's past history is the great aim of
+Biology, and ultimately of all Science. For the question of Man's
+past is only a part of a greater question, the origin of all living
+species.</p>
+
+<p>We may say broadly that concerning the origin of species two
+theories, and only two, seem possible. The first theory is that
+every species is the result of an act of immediate creation. And
+every true species, however slightly it may differ from its nearest
+relative, represents such a creative act, and once created is
+practically unchangeable. This is the theory of immutability of
+species. According to the second theory all higher, probably all
+present existing, species are only mediately the result of a
+creative act. The first living germ, whenever and however created,
+was infused with power to give birth to higher species. Of these and
+their descendants some would continue to advance, others would
+degenerate. Each theory demands equally for its ultimate explanation
+a creative act; the second as much as, if not more than, the first.
+According to the first theory the creative power has been
+distributed over a series of acts, according to the second theory it
+has been concentrated in one primal creation. The second is the
+theory of the mutability of species, or, in general, of evolution,
+but not necessarily of Darwinism alone.</p>
+
+<p>The first theory is considered by many the more attractive and
+hopeful. Now a theory need not be attractive, nor at first sight
+appear hopeful, provided only it is true. But let me call your
+attention to certain conclusions which, as it appears to me, are
+necessarily involved in it. Its central thought is the practical
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>[4]</span>immutability of species. Each one of these lives its little span of
+time, for species are usually comparatively short-lived, grows
+possibly a very little better or worse, and dies. Its progress has
+added nothing to the total of life; its degeneration harmed no one,
+hardly even itself; it was doomed from the start. Progress there has
+been, in a sense. The Creator has placed ever higher forms on the
+globe. But all the progress lies in the gaps and distances between
+successive forms, not in any advance made, or victory won, by the
+species or individual. The most &quot;aspiring ape,&quot; if ever there was
+such a being, remains but an ape. He must comfort himself with the
+thought that, while he and his descendants can never gain an inch,
+the gap between himself and the next higher form shall be far
+greater than that between himself and the lowest monkey.</p>
+
+<p>And if this has been the history of thousands of other species, why
+should it not be true of man also? Who can wonder that many who
+accept this theory doubt whether the world is growing any better, or
+whether even man will ever be higher and better than he now is?
+Would it not be contrary to the whole course of past history, if you
+can properly call such a record a history, if he could advance at
+all? Now I have no wish to misrepresent this or any honestly
+accepted theory, but it appears to me essentially hopeless, a record
+not of the progress of life on the globe, but of a succession of
+stagnations, of deaths. I can never understand why some very good
+and intelligent people still think that the theory of the immediate
+creation of each species does more honor to the Creator and his
+creation than the theory of evolution. Evolution <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>[5]</span>is a process, not
+a force. The power of the Creator is equally demanded in both cases;
+only it is differently distributed. And evolution is the very
+highest proof of the wisdom and skill of the Creator. It elevates
+our views of the living beings, must it not give a higher conception
+of Him who formed them?</p>
+
+<p>The plant in its first stages shows no trace of flowers, but of
+leaves only. Later a branch or twig, similar in structure to all the
+rest, shortens. The cells and tissues which in other twigs turn into
+green leaves here become the petals and other organs of the rose or
+violet. Let us suppose for a moment that every rose and violet
+required a special act of immediate creation, would the springtime
+be as wonderful as now? Would the rose or violet be any more
+beautiful, or are they any less flowers because developed out of
+that which might have remained a common branch? The plant at least
+is glorified by the power to give rise to such beauty. And is not
+the creation of the seed of a violet or rose something infinitely
+grander than the decking of a flowerless plant with newly created
+roses? The attainment of the highest and most diversified beauty and
+utility with the fewest and simplest means is always the sign of
+what we call in man &quot;creative&quot; genius. Is not the same true of God?
+I think you all feel the force of the argument here.</p>
+
+<p>There were at one time no flowering plants. The time came at last
+for their appearance. Which is the higher, grander mode of producing
+them, immediate creation of every flowering species, or development
+of the flower out of the green leaves of some old club moss or
+similar form? The latter seems to me at least by far the higher
+mode. And to have created a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>[6]</span>ground-pine which could give rise to a
+rose seems far more difficult and greater than to have created both
+separately. It requires more genius, so to speak. It gives us a far
+higher opinion of the ground-pine; does it disgrace the rose? We can
+look dispassionately at plants. The rose is still and always a rose,
+and the oak an oak, whatever its origin. And I believe that we shall
+all readily admit that evolution is here a theory which does the
+highest honor to the wisdom and power of the Creator. What if the
+animal kingdom is continually blossoming in ever higher forms? Does
+not the same reasoning hold true, only with added force? I firmly
+believe that we should all unhesitatingly answer, yes, could we but
+be assured that all men would everywhere and always believe that we,
+men, were the results of an immediate creative act.</p>
+
+<p>But why do we so strenuously object to the application to ourselves
+of the theory of evolution? One or two reasons are easily seen. We
+have all of us a great deal of innate snobbery, we would rather have
+been born great than to have won greatness by the most heroic
+struggle. But is man any less a man for having arisen from something
+lower, and being in a fair way to become something higher? Certainly
+not, unless I am less a man for having once been a baby. It is only
+when I am unusually cross and irritable that I object to being
+reminded of my infancy. But a young child does not like to be
+reminded of it. He is afraid that some one will take him for a baby
+still. And the snob is always desperately afraid that some one will
+fail to notice what a high-born gentleman he is.</p>
+
+<p>Now man can relapse into something lower than a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span>brute; the only
+genuine brute is a degenerate man. And we all recognize the strength
+of tendencies urging us downward. Is not this the often unrecognized
+kern of our eagerness for some mark or stamp that shall prove to all
+that we are no apes, but men? It is not the pure gold that needs the
+&quot;guinea stamp.&quot; If we are men, and as we become men, we shall cease
+to fear the theory of evolution. Now this is not the only, or
+perhaps the greatest, objection which men feel or speak against the
+theory. But I must believe that it has more weight with us than we
+are willing to admit.</p>
+
+<p>But some say that the theory of immediate creation and immutability
+of species is the more natural and has always been accepted, while
+the theory of evolution is new and very likely to be as short-lived
+as many another theory which has for a time fascinated men only to
+be forgotten or ridiculed.</p>
+
+<p>But the idea of evolution is as old as Hindu philosophy. The old
+Ionic natural philosophers were all evolutionists. So Aristophanes,
+quoting from these or Hesiod concerning the origin of things, says:
+&quot;Chaos was and Night, and Erebus black, and wide Tartarus. No earth,
+nor air nor sky was yet; when, in the vast bosom of Erebus (or
+chaotic darkness) winged Night brought forth first of all the egg,
+from which in after revolving periods sprang Eros (Love) the much
+desired, glittering with golden wings; and Eros again, in union with
+Chaos, produced the brood of the human race.&quot; Here the formative
+process is a birth, not a creation; it is evolution pure and simple.
+&quot;According to the ancient view,&quot; says Professor Lewis, &quot;the present
+world was a growth; it was born, it came from something antecedent,
+not merely as a cause but as its seed, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span>embryo or principium.
+Plato's world was a 'zoon,' a living thing, a natural production.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, to the ancient writers of the Bible the idea of origin
+by birth from some antecedent form&mdash;and this is the essential idea
+of evolution&mdash;was perfectly natural. They speak of the &quot;generations
+of the heavens and the earth&quot; as of the &quot;generations&quot; of the
+patriarchs. The first book of the Bible is still called Genesis, the
+book of births. The writer of the ninetieth Psalm says, &quot;Before the
+mountains were born, or ever thou hadst brought to birth the earth
+and the world.&quot; And what satisfactory meaning can you give to the
+words, &quot;Let the earth bring forth,&quot; and &quot;the earth brought forth,&quot;
+in immediate proximity to the words, &quot;and God made,&quot; unless while
+the ultimate source was God's creative power, the immediate process
+of formation was one of evolution.</p>
+
+<p>The Bible is big and broad enough to include both ideas, the human
+mind is prone to overestimate the one or the other. Traces, at
+least, of a similar mode of thought persisted by the Greek Fathers
+of the Church, and disappeared, if ever, with the predominance of
+Latin theology. To the oriental the idea of evolution is natural.
+The earth is to him no inert, resistant clod; she brings forth of
+herself.</p>
+
+<p>But our ancestors lived on a barren soil beneath a forbidding sky.
+They were frozen in winter and parched in summer. Nature was to them
+no kind foster-mother, but a cruel stepmother, training them by
+stern discipline to battle with her and the world. They peopled the
+earth with gnomes and cobolds and giants, and their nymphs were the
+Valkyre. Their God was Thor, of the thunderbolt and hammer, and who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span>yet lived in continual dread of the hostile powers of Nature. A
+Norse prophet or prophetess standing beside Elijah at Horeb would
+have bowed down before the earthquake or the fire; the oriental
+waited for the &quot;still small voice.&quot; And we are heirs to a Latin
+theology grafted on to the Thor-worship of our pagan ancestors. The
+idea of a Nature producing beneficently and kindly at the word of a
+loving God is foreign to all our inherited modes of thought. And our
+views of the heart of Nature are about as correct as those of our
+ancestors were of God. A little more of oriental tendencies of
+thought would harm neither our theology nor our life.</p>
+
+<p>What, then, is the biblical idea of Nature? God speaks to the earth,
+in the first chapter of Genesis, and the earth responds by &quot;giving
+birth&quot; to mountains and living beings. It is evidently no mere
+lifeless, inert clod, but pulsating with life and responsive to the
+divine commands. While yet a chaos it had been brooded over by the
+Divine Spirit. It is like the great &quot;wheels within wheels,&quot; with
+rings full of eyes round about, which Ezekiel saw in his vision by
+the river Chebar. &quot;When the living creatures went, the wheels went
+by them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the
+earth, the wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever the spirit was to
+go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were
+lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creatures
+(or of life) was in the wheels.&quot; And above the living creatures was
+the firmament and the throne of God. So Nature may be material, but
+it is material interpenetrated by the divine; if you call it a
+fabric, the woof may be material but the warp is God. This view
+contains all <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span>the truth of materialism and pantheism, and vastly
+more than they, and it avoids their errors and omissions.</p>
+
+<p>To the old metaphysical hypothesis of evolution Mr. Darwin gave a
+scientific basis. It had always been admitted that species were
+capable of slight variation and that this divergence might become
+hereditary and thus perhaps give rise to a variety of the parent
+species. But it was denied that the variation could go on increasing
+indefinitely, it seemed soon to reach a limit and stop. Early in the
+present century Lamarck had attempted to prove that by the use and
+disuse of organs through a series of generations a great divergence
+might arise resulting in new species. But the theory was crude,
+capable at best of but limited application, and fell before the
+arguments and authority of Cuvier. The times were not ripe for such
+a theory. Some fifty years later, Mr. Darwin called attention to the
+struggle for existence as a means of aggregating these slight
+modifications in a divergence sufficient to produce new species,
+genera, or families. His argument may be very briefly stated as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>1. There is in Nature a law of heredity; like begets like.</p>
+
+<p>2. The offspring is never exactly like the parent; and the members
+of the second generation differ more or less from one another. This
+is especially noticeable in domesticated plants and animals, but no
+less true of wild forms. If the parent is not exactly like the other
+members of the species, some of its descendants will inherit its
+peculiarities enhanced, others diminished.</p>
+
+<p>3. Every species tends to increase in geometrical <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span>progression. But
+most species actually increase in number very slowly, if at all. Now
+and then some insect or weed escapes from its enemies, comes under
+favorable food conditions, and multiplies with such rapidity that it
+threatens to ravage the country. But as it multiplies it furnishes
+an abundance of food for the enemies which devour it, or of food and
+place for the parasites in and upon it; and they increase with at
+least equal rapidity. Hence while the vanguard increases
+prodigiously in numbers, because it has outrun these enemies, the
+rear is continually slaughtered. And thus these plagues seem in
+successive generations to march across the continent.</p>
+
+<p>And yet even they give but a faint idea of the reproductive powers
+of plants and animals. The female fish produces often many
+thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of eggs. Insects
+generally from a hundred to a thousand. Even birds, slowly as they
+increase, produce in a lifetime probably at least from twelve to
+twenty eggs. Now let us suppose that all these eggs developed, and
+all the birds lived out their normal period of life, and reproduced
+at the same rate. After not many centuries there would not be
+standing room on the globe for the descendants of a single pair.</p>
+
+<p>Again, of the one hundred eggs of an insect let us suppose that only
+sixty develop into the first larval, caterpillar, stage. Of these
+sixty, the number of members of the species remaining constant, only
+two will survive. The other fifty-eight die&mdash;of starvation,
+parasites, or other enemies, or from inclement weather. Now which
+two of all shall survive? Those naturally best able to escape their
+enemies or to resist unfavorable influences; in a word, those best
+suited to their <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span>conditions, or, to use Mr. Darwin's words,
+&quot;conformed to their environment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now if any individual has varied so as to possess some peculiarity
+which enables it even in slight degree to better escape its enemies
+or to resist unfavorable conditions, those of its descendants who
+inherit most markedly this peculiar quality or variation will be the
+most likely to escape, those without it to perish. If a form varies
+unfavorably, becomes for instance more conspicuous to its enemies,
+it will almost certainly perish. Thus favorable variations tend to
+increase and become more marked from generation to generation.</p>
+
+<p>Now it has always been known that breeders could produce a race of
+markedly peculiar form or characteristics by selecting the
+individuals possessing this quality in the highest degree and
+breeding only from these. The breeder depends upon heredity,
+variation, and his selection of the individuals from which to breed.
+Similarly in nature new species have arisen through heredity,
+variation, and a selection according to the laws of nature of those
+varying in conformity with their environment. And this Mr. Darwin
+called natural, in contrast with the breeder's artificial,
+&quot;selection,&quot; arising from the &quot;struggle for existence,&quot; and
+resulting in what Mr. Spencer has called the &quot;survival of the
+fittest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Let us take a single illustration. Many of the species of beetles on
+oceanic islands have very rudimentary wings, or none at all, and yet
+their nearest relatives are winged forms on some neighboring
+continent. Mr. Darwin would explain the origin of these evidently
+distinct wingless species as follows: They are descended from winged
+ancestors blown or otherwise <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span>transported thither from the
+neighboring continent. But beetles are slow and clumsy fliers, and
+on these wind-swept islands those which flew most would be blown out
+to sea and drowned. Those which flew the least, and these would
+include the individuals with more poorly developed wings, would
+survive. There would thus be a survival in every generation of a
+larger proportion of those having the poorest wings, and destruction
+of those whose wings were strong, or whose habits most active. We
+have here a natural selection which must in time produce a species
+with rudimentary or aborted wings, just as surely as a human
+breeder, by artificial selection can produce such an animal as a pug
+or a poodle. These, like sin, are a human device; nature should not
+be held responsible for them.</p>
+
+<p>But you may urge that the variation which would take place in a
+single generation would be, as a rule, too slight to be of any
+practical value to the animal, and could not be fostered by natural
+selection until greatly enhanced by some other means. Let us think a
+moment. If ten ordinary men run in a foot-race, the two foremost may
+lead by several feet. But if the number of runners be continually
+increased the finish will be ever closer until finally but an atom
+more wind or muscle or pluck would make all the difference between
+winning and losing the prize.</p>
+
+<p>Similarly the million or more young of any species of insect in a
+given area may be said to run a race of which the prize is life, and
+the losing of which means literally death. The competition is
+inconceivably severe. How indefinitely slight will be the difference
+between the poorest of the 2,000 or 20,000 survivors <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span>and the best
+of the more than 900,000 which perish. The very slightest favorable
+variation may make all the difference between life and sure death.
+And yet these indefinitely slight variations continued and
+aggregated through ages would foot up an immense total divergence.
+The chalk cliffs of England have been built up of microscopic
+shells.</p>
+
+<p>I have tried to give you very briefly a sketch of the essential
+points of Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution. But you should all read
+that marvel of patience, industry, clear insight, close reasoning,
+and grand honesty, the &quot;Origin of Species.&quot; I have no time to give
+the arguments in its favor or to attempt to meet the objections
+which may arise in your minds. I ask you to believe only this much;
+that the theory is accepted with practical unanimity by scientific
+men because it, and it alone, furnishes an explanation for the facts
+which they discover in their daily work. And this is the strongest
+proof of the truth of any accepted theory.</p>
+
+<p>Inasmuch as it is accepted by all scientists and largely by the
+public, it is certainly worth your while to know whether it has any
+bearing on the great moral and religious questions which you are
+considering. And in these lectures I shall take for granted, what
+some scientists still doubt, that man also is a product of
+evolution. For the weight of evidence in favor of this view is
+constantly increasing, and seems already to strongly preponderate.
+Also I wish in these lectures to grant all that the most ardent
+evolutionist can possibly claim. Not that I would lower man's
+position, but I have a continually increasing respect for the
+so-called &quot;lower animals.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now if the theory of evolution be true, and really <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span>only on this
+condition, life has had a history; and human history began ages
+before man's actual appearance on the globe, just as American
+history began to be fashioned by Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans
+before they set foot even in England. We study history mainly to
+deduce its laws; and that knowing them we may from the past forecast
+the future, prepare for its emergencies, and avoid or wisely meet,
+its dangers. And we rely on these laws of history because they are
+the embodiment of ages of human experience.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever be our system of philosophy we all practically rely on past
+experience and observation. Fire burns and water drowns. This we
+know, and this knowledge governs our daily lives, whatever be our
+theories, or even our ignorance, of the laws of heat and
+respiration. Now human history is the embodiment of the experience
+of the race; and we study it in the full confidence that, if we can
+deduce its laws, we can rely on racial experience certainly as
+safely as on that of the individual. Furthermore, if we can discover
+certain great movements or currents of human action or progress
+moving steadily on through past centuries, we have full confidence
+that these movements will continue in the future. The study of
+history should make us seers.</p>
+
+<p>But the line of human progress is like a mountain road, veering and
+twisting, and often appearing to turn back upon itself, and having
+many by-roads, which lead us astray. If we know but a few miles of
+it we cannot tell whether it leads north or south or due west. But
+if from any mountain-top we can gain a clear bird's-eye view of its
+whole course, we easily distinguish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span> the main road, its turns become
+quite insignificant, we see that it leads as directly as any
+engineering skill could locate it through the mountains to the
+fertile plains and rich harvests beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Now our knowledge of the history of man covers so brief a period
+that we can scarcely more than hazard a guess as to the trend of
+human progress. Many of the most promising social movements are like
+by-roads which, at first less steep and difficult, end sooner or
+later against impassable obstacles. And even if there be a main line
+of march, advance seems to alternate with retreat, progress with
+retrogression. To illustrate further, the great waves rush onward
+only to fall back again, and we can hardly tell whether the tide is
+flowing or ebbing.</p>
+
+<p>Yet already certain tendencies appear fairly clear. Governments tend
+to become democratic, if we define democracy as &quot;any form of
+government in which the will of the people finds sovereign
+expression.&quot; The tendency of society seems to be toward furnishing
+all its members equality of opportunity to make the most of their
+natural endowments. But if we are convinced that these statements
+express even vaguely the tendency of human development in all its
+past history, we are confident that these tendencies will continue
+in the future for a period somewhat proportional to their time of
+growth in the past. If we are wise, we try to make our own lives and
+actions, and those of our fellows, conform to and advance them.
+Otherwise our lives will be thrown away.</p>
+
+<p>But if the theory of evolution be true, human history is only the
+last page of the one history of all life. If we are to gain any
+adequate, true, extensive view of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span>human progress, we must read more
+than this. We must take into account the history of man when he was
+not yet man. And if we believe in the future continuance of
+tendencies of a few centuries' growth, we shall rest assured of the
+permanence of tendencies which have grown and strengthened through
+the ages.</p>
+
+<p>Our confidence in the results of historical study is therefore
+proportioned to the extent and thoroughness of the experience which
+they record, and to the time during which these laws can be proven
+to have held good. If I can make it even fairly probable that these
+laws, on obedience to which human progress and success seem to
+depend, are merely quoted from a grander code applicable to all life
+in all times, your confidence in them will be even greater. I trust
+I can prove to you that the animal kingdom has not drifted aimlessly
+at the mercy of every wind and tide and current of circumstance. I
+hope to show that along one line it has from the beginning through
+the ages held a steady course straight onward, and that deviation
+from this course has always led to failure or degeneration. From so
+vast a history we may hope to deduce some of the great laws of true
+success in life. Furthermore, if along this central line, at the
+head of which man stands, there always has been progress, we cannot
+doubt that future progress will be as certain, and perhaps far more
+rapid. In all the struggle of life we shall have the sure hope of
+success and victory; if not for ourselves still for those who shall
+come after us. &quot;We are saved by hope.&quot; And we may be confident that
+this hope will never make us ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, even from our present knowledge of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span>past progress of
+life we shall hope to catch hints at least that man's only path to
+his destined goal is the straight and narrow road pointed out in the
+Bible. If in this we are even fairly successful we shall find a
+relation and bond between the Bible and Science worthy of all
+consideration. And this is the only agreement which can ever satisfy
+us.</p>
+
+<p>If I wished to bring before you a view of the development of man, I
+should best choose individuals or families from various periods of
+human history from the earliest times down to the present. I should
+try to tell you how they looked and lived. But if anyone should
+attempt to condense into three lectures such a history of even one
+line of the human race, you would probably think him insane. Even if
+he succeeded in giving a fairly clear view of the different stages,
+the successive stages would be so remote from one another, such vast
+changes would necessarily remain unnoticed or unexplained that you
+would hardly believe that they could have any genetic relation or
+belong to one developmental series.</p>
+
+<p>But the history which I must attempt to condense for you is measured
+by ages, and the successive terms of the series will be indefinitely
+more remote from each other than the life and thoughts of Lincoln or
+Washington from those of our most primitive Aryan ancestor or of the
+rudest savage of the Stone Age. The series must appear exceedingly
+disconnected. Systems of organs will apparently spring suddenly into
+existence, and we shall have no time to trace their origin or
+earlier development. Even if we had an abundance of time many gaps
+would still remain; for the forms, which according to our theory
+must have occupied <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span>their place, have long since disappeared and
+left no trace nor sign. We have generally no conception at all of
+the amount of extermination and degeneration which have taken place
+in past ages.</p>
+
+<p>I grant frankly that I do not believe that the forms which I have
+selected represent exactly the ancestors of man. They have all been
+more or less modified. I claim only that in the balance and relative
+development of their organic systems&mdash;muscular, digestive, nervous,
+etc.&mdash;they give us a very fair idea of what our ancestor at each
+stage must have been. But it is on this balance and relative
+development of the different systems, that is, whether an animal is
+more reproductive, digestive, or nervous, that my argument will in
+the main be based.</p>
+
+<p>But if the older ancestors have so generally disappeared, and their
+surviving relatives have been so greatly modified, how can we make
+even a shrewd guess at the ancestry of higher forms? The genealogy
+of the animal kingdom has been really the study of centuries,
+although the earlier zo&ouml;logists did not know that this was to be the
+result of their labors. The first work of the naturalist was
+necessarily to classify the plants and animals which he found, and
+catalogue and tabulate them so that they might be easily recognized,
+and that later discovered forms might readily find a place in the
+system. Hypotheses and theories were looked upon with suspicion.
+&quot;Even Linn&aelig;us,&quot; says Romanes, &quot;was express in his limitations of
+true scientific work in natural history to the collecting and
+arranging of species of plants and animals.&quot; The question, &quot;What is
+it?&quot; came first; then, &quot;How did it come to be what it is?&quot; We are
+just awakening to the question, &quot;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>[20]</span>Why this progressive system of
+forms, and what does it all mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Let us experiment a little in forming our own classification of a
+few vertebrates. We see a bat flying through the air. We mistake it
+for a bird. But a glance at it shows that it is a mammal. It is
+covered with hair. It has fore and hind legs. Its wings are
+membranes stretched between the fingers and along the sides of the
+body. It has teeth. It suckles its young. In all these respects it
+differs from birds. It differs from mammals only in its wings. But
+we remember that flying squirrels have a membrane stretching along
+the sides of the body and serving as a parachute, though not as
+wings. We naturally consider the wings as a sort of after-thought
+superinduced on the mammalian structure. We do not hesitate to call
+it a mammal.</p>
+
+<p>The whale makes us more trouble; it certainly looks remarkably like
+a fish. But the fin of its tail is horizontal, not vertical. Its
+front flippers differ altogether from the corresponding fins of
+fish; their bones are the same as those occurring in the forelegs of
+mammals, only shorter and more crowded together. Later we find that
+it has lungs, and a heart with four chambers instead of only two, as
+in fish. The vertebr&aelig; of its backbone are not biconcave, but flat in
+front and behind. And, finally, we discover that it suckles its
+young. It, too, is in all its deep-seated characteristics a mammal.
+It is fish-like only in characteristics which it might easily have
+acquired in adaptation to its aquatic life. And there are other
+aquatic mammals, like the seals, in which these characteristics are
+much less marked. Their adaptation has evidently not gone so far.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>[21]</span>Now the first attempts resulted in artificial classifications, much
+like our grouping of bats with birds and whales with fish. All
+animals, like coral animals and starfishes, whose similar parts were
+arranged in lines radiating from a centre, were united as radiates,
+however much they might differ in internal structure and grade of
+organization. But this radiate structure proved again to be largely
+a matter of adaptation.</p>
+
+<p>Practically all animals having a heavy calcareous shell were grouped
+with the snails and oysters as mollusks. But the barnacle did not
+fit well with other mollusks. Its shell was entirely different. It
+had several pairs of legs; and no mollusk has legs. The barnacle is
+evidently a sessile crab or better crustacean. Its molluscan
+characteristics were only skin-deep, evidently an adaptation to a
+mode of life like that of mollusks. The old artificial systems were
+based too much on merely external characteristics, the results of
+adaptation. When the internal anatomy had been thoroughly studied
+their groups had to be rearranged.</p>
+
+<p>Reptiles and amphibia were at first united in one class because of
+their resemblance in external form. Our common salamanders look so
+much like lizards that they generally pass by this name. But the
+young salamander, like all amphibia, breathes by gills, its skeleton
+differs greatly from, and is far weaker than, that of the lizard,
+and there are important differences in the circulatory and other
+systems. Moreover, practically all amphibia differ from all reptiles
+in these respects. Evidently the fact that the alligator and many
+snakes and turtles (of which neither the young nor the embryos ever
+breathe by gills) live almost entirely in the water, is no better
+reason for classifying <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span>these with amphibia than to call a whale a
+fish, and not a mammal, because of its form and aquatic life.</p>
+
+<p>When the comparative anatomy of fish, amphibia, and reptiles had
+been carefully studied it was evident that the amphibia stood far
+nearer the fish in general structure, while the higher reptiles
+closely approached birds. Then it was noticed that our common fish
+formed a fairly well-defined group, but that the ganoids, including
+the sturgeons, gar-pikes, and some others, had at least traces of
+amphibian characteristics. Such generalized forms, with the
+characteristics of the class less sharply marked, were usually by
+common consent placed at the bottom of the class. And this suited
+well their general structure, while in particular characteristics
+they were often more highly organized than higher groups of the same
+class.</p>
+
+<p>The pal&aelig;ontologist found that the oldest fossil forms belonged to
+these generalized groups, and that more highly specialized
+forms&mdash;that is, those in which the special class distinctions were
+more sharply and universally marked&mdash;were of later geological
+origin. Thus the oldest fish were most like our present ganoids and
+sharks, though differing much from both. Our common teleost fish,
+like perch and cod, appeared much later. The oldest bird, the
+arch&aelig;opteryx, had a long tail like that of a lizard, and teeth; and
+thus stood in many respects almost midway between birds and
+reptiles. And most of the earliest forms were &quot;comprehensive,&quot;
+uniting the characteristics of two or more later groups. Thus as the
+classification became more natural, based on a careful comparison of
+the whole anatomy of the animals, its order was found to coincide in
+general with that of geological succession.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span>Then the zo&ouml;logist began to ask and investigate how the animal grew
+in the egg and attained its definite form. And this study of
+embryology brought to light many new and interesting facts. Agassiz
+especially emphasized and maintained the universality of the fact
+that there was a remarkable parallelism between embryos of later
+forms and adults of old or fossil groups. The embryos of higher
+forms, he said, pass through and beyond certain stages of structure,
+which are permanent in lower and older members of the same group.</p>
+
+<p>You remember that the fin on the tail of a fish is as a rule
+bilobed. Now the backbone of a perch or cod ends at a point in the
+end of the tail opposite the angle between the two lobes, without
+extending out into either of them. In the shark it extends almost to
+the end of the upper lobe. Now we have seen that sharks and ganoids
+are older than cod. In the embryo of the cod or perch the backbone
+has, at an early stage, the same position as in the shark or ganoid;
+only at a later stage does it attain its definite position.</p>
+
+<p>So Agassiz says the young lepidosteus (a ganoid fish), long after it
+is hatched, exhibits in the form of its tail characters thus far
+known only among the fossil fishes of the Devonian period. The
+embryology of turtles throws light upon the fossil chelonians. It is
+already known that the embryonic changes of frogs and toads coincide
+with what is known of their succession in past ages. The
+characteristics of extinct genera of mammals exhibit everywhere
+indications that their living representatives in early life resemble
+them more than they do their own parents. A minute comparison of a
+young elephant with any mastodon will show this most fully, not only
+in the peculiarities of their teeth, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span>but even in the proportion of
+their limbs, their toes, etc. It may therefore be considered as
+a general fact that the phases of development of all living
+animals correspond to the order of succession of their extinct
+representatives in past geological times. The above statements are
+quoted almost word for word from Professor Agassiz's &quot;Essay on
+Classification.&quot; The larv&aelig; of barnacles and other more degraded
+parasitic crustacea are almost exactly like those of Crustacea in
+general. The embryos of birds have a long tail containing almost or
+quite as many vertebr&aelig; as that of arch&aelig;opteryx. But most of these
+never reach their full development but are absorbed into the pelvis,
+or into the &quot;ploughshare&quot; bone supporting the tail feathers. Thus
+older forms may be said to have retained throughout life a condition
+only embryonic in their higher relatives. And the natural
+classification gave the order not only of geological succession but
+also of stages of embryonic development. Thus the system of
+classification improved continually, although more and more
+intermediate forms, like arch&aelig;opteryx, were discovered, and certain
+aberrant groups could find no permanent resting-place.</p>
+
+<p>But why should the generalized comprehensive forms stand at the
+bottom rather than the top of the systematic arrangement of their
+classes? Why should the system of classification coincide with the
+order of geologic occurrence, and this with the series of embryonic
+stages? Above all, why should the embryos of bird and perch form
+their tails by such a roundabout method? Why should the embryo of
+the bird have the tail of a lizard? No one could give any
+satisfactory explanation, although the facts were undoubted.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span>Mr. Darwin's theory was the one impulse needed to crystallize these
+disconnected facts into one comprehensible whole. The connecting
+link was everywhere common descent, difference was due to the
+continual variation and divergence of their ancestors. The
+classification, which all were seeking, was really the ancestral
+tree of the animal kingdom. Forms more generalized should be placed
+lower down on the ancestral tree, and must have had an earlier
+geological occurrence because they represented more nearly the
+ancestors of the higher. But this explains also the facts of
+embryonic development.</p>
+
+<p>According to Mr. Darwin's theory all the species of higher animals
+have developed from unicellular ancestors. It had long been known
+that all higher forms start in life as single cells, egg and
+spermatozoon. And these, fused in the process of fertilization, form
+still a single cell. And when this single cell proceeds through
+successive embryonic stages to develop into an adult individual it
+naturally, through force of hereditary habit, so to speak, treads
+the same path which its ancestors followed from the unicellular
+condition to their present point of development. Thus higher forms
+should be expected to show traces of their early ancestry in their
+embryonic life. Older and lower adult forms should represent
+persistent embryonic stages of higher. It could not well be
+otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>But the path which the embryo has to follow from the egg to the
+adult form is continually lengthening as life advances ever higher.
+From egg to sponge is, comparatively speaking, but a step; it is a
+long march from the egg to the earthworm; and the vertebrate embryo
+makes a vast journey. But embryonic life is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span>and must remain short.
+Hence in higher forms the ancestral stages will often be slurred
+over and very incompletely represented. And the embryo may, and
+often does, shorten the path by &quot;short-cuts&quot; impossible to its
+original ancestor. Still it will in general hold true, and may be
+recognized as a law of vast importance, that any individual during
+his embryonic life repeats very briefly the different stages through
+which his ancestors have passed in their development since the
+beginning of life. Or, briefly stated, ontogenesis, or the embryonic
+development of the individual, is a brief recapitulation of
+phylogenesis, or the ancestral development of the phylum or group.</p>
+
+<p>The illustration and proof of this law is the work of the
+embryologist. We have time to draw only one or two illustrations
+from the embryonic development of birds. We have already seen that
+the embryonic bird has the long tail of his reptilian ancestor. In
+early embryonic life it has gill-slits leading from the pharynx to
+the outside of the neck like those through which the water passes in
+the respiration of fish. The Eustachian tube and the canal of the
+external ear of man, separated only by the &quot;drum,&quot; are nothing but
+such an old persistent gill-slit. No gills ever develop in these,
+but the great arteries run to them, and indeed to all parts of the
+embryo, on almost precisely the same general plan as in the adult
+fish. Only later is the definite avian circulation gradually
+acquired.</p>
+
+<p>This law is even more strikingly illustrated in the embryonic
+development of the vertebral column and skull, if we had time to
+trace their development. And the development of the excretory system
+points to an ancestor far more primitive than even the fish. Our
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span>embryonic development is one of the very strongest evidences of our
+lowly origin.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we have three sources of information for the study of animal
+genealogy. First, the comparative anatomy of all the different
+groups of animals; second, their comparative embryology; and third,
+their pal&aelig;ontological history. Each source has its difficulties or
+defects. But taken all together they give us a genealogical tree
+which is in the main points correct, though here and there very
+defective and doubtful in detail. The points in which we are left
+most in doubt in regard to each ancestor are its modes of life and
+locomotion, and body form. But these may temporarily vary
+considerably without affecting to any great extent the general plan
+of structure and the line of development of the most important
+deep-seated organs.</p>
+
+<p>I have chosen a line composed of forms taken from the comparative
+anatomical series. All such present existing forms have probably
+been modified during the lapse of ages. But I shall try to tell you
+when they have diverged noticeably from the structure of the
+primitive ancestor of the corresponding stage. It is much safer for
+us to study concrete, actual forms than imaginary ones, however real
+may have been the former existence of the latter. And, after all,
+their lateral divergence is of small account compared with the great
+upward and onward march of life, to the right and left of which they
+have remained stationary or retrograded somewhat, like the tribes
+which remained on the other side of Jordan and never entered the
+Promised Land.</p>
+
+<p>To recapitulate: Our question is the Whence and the Whither of man.
+To this question the Bible gives <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span>a clear and definite answer. Can
+Science also give an answer, and is this in the main in accord with
+the answer of Scripture? Science can answer the question only by the
+historical method of tracing the history of life in the past and
+observing the goal toward which it tends. If the evolution theory be
+true, the record of human achievement and progress forms only one
+short chapter in the history of the ages. If from the records of
+man's little span of life on the globe we can deduce laws of history
+on whose truth we can rely, with how much greater confidence and
+certainty may we rely on laws which have governed all life since its
+earliest appearance?&mdash;always provided that such can be found.</p>
+
+<p>Our first effort must therefore be to trace the great line of
+development through a few of its most characteristic stages from the
+simplest living beings up to man. This will be our work in the three
+succeeding lectures. And to these I must ask you to bring a large
+store of patience. Anatomical details are at best dry and
+uninteresting. But these dry facts of anatomy form the foundation on
+which all our arguments and hopes must rest.</p>
+
+<p>But if you will think long and carefully even of anatomical facts,
+you will see in and behind them something more and grander than
+they. You will catch glimpses of the divinity of Nature. Most of us
+travel threescore years and ten stone-blind in a world of marvellous
+beauty. Why does the artist see so much more in every fence-corner
+and on every hill-side than we, set face to face with the grandest
+landscapes? Primarily, I believe, because he is sympathetic, and
+looks on Nature as a comrade as near and dear as any <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span>human sister
+and companion. As Professor Huxley has said, &quot;they get on rarely
+together.&quot; She speaks to the artist; to us she is dumb, and ought to
+be, for we are boorishly careless of her and her teachings.</p>
+
+<p>Nature, to be known, must be loved. And though you have all the
+knowledge of a von Humboldt, and do not love her, you will never
+understand her or her teachings. You will go through life with her,
+and yet parted from her as by an adamantine wall.</p>
+
+<p>I do not suppose that the author of the book of Job had ever studied
+geology, or mineralogy, or biology, but read him, and see whether
+this old prince of scientific heroes had loved, and understood, and
+caught the spirit of Nature. And what a grand, free spirit it was,
+and what a giant it made of him. I do not believe that Paul ever had
+a special course of anatomy or botany. But if he had not pondered
+long and lovingly on the structure of his body, and the germination
+of the seed, he never could have written the twelfth and fifteenth
+chapters of the first letter to the Corinthians. And time fails to
+speak of David and all the writers of the Psalms, and of those
+heroic souls misnamed the &quot;Minor&quot; Prophets.</p>
+
+<p>Study the teachings of our Lord. How he must have considered the
+lilies of the field, and that such a tiny seed as that of the
+mustard could have produced so great an herb, and noticed and
+thought on the thorns and the tares and the wheat, and watched the
+sparrows, and pondered and wondered how the birds were fed. All his
+teaching was drawn from Nature. And all the study in the world could
+never have taught him what he knew, if it had not been a loving and
+appreciative study.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span>There is one strange and interesting passage in John's Gospel, xv.
+1: &quot;I am the true vine.&quot; My father used to tell us that the Greek
+word &#945;&#955;&#951;&#952;&#953;&#957;&#951;, rendered true, is usually employed of the
+genuine in distinction from the counterfeit, the reality in
+distinction from the shadow and image. Is not this perhaps the clew
+to our Lord's use of natural imagery? Nature was always the
+presentation to his senses of the divine thought and purpose. He
+studied the words of the ancient Scripture, he found the same words
+and teachings clearly and concretely embodied in the processes of
+Nature. The interpretation of the Parable of the Sower was no mere
+play of fancy to him; it was the genuine and fundamental truth,
+deeper and more real than the existence of the sower, the soil, and
+the seed. The spiritual truth was the substance; the tangible soil
+and seed really only the shadow. And thus all Nature was to him
+divine.</p>
+
+<p>We all of us need to offer the prayer of the blind man, &quot;Lord, that
+our eyes may be opened.&quot; Let us learn, too, from the old heathen
+giant, Ant&aelig;us, who, after every defeat and fall, rose strengthened
+and vivified from contact with his mother Earth. You will experience
+in life many a desperate struggle, many a hard fall. There is at
+such times nothing in the world so strengthening, healing, and
+life-giving as the thoughts and encouragements which Nature pours
+into the hearts and minds of her loving disciples. She will set you
+on your feet again, infused with new life, filled with an
+unconquerable spirit, with unfaltering courage, and an iron will to
+fight once more and win. In every battle her inspiring words will
+ring in your ears, and she will never fail you. We may <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span>not see her
+deepest realities, her rarest treasures of thought and wisdom; but
+if we will listen lovingly for her voice, we may be assured that she
+will speak to us many a word of cheer and encouragement, of warning
+and exhortation. For, to paraphrase the language of the nineteenth
+Psalm, &quot;She has no speech nor language, her voice is not heard. But
+her rule is gone out throughout all the earth, and her words to the
+end of the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>PROTOZOA TO WORMS: CELLS, TISSUES, AND ORGANS</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span>The first and lowest form in our ancestral series is the am&oelig;ba, a
+little fresh-water animal from 1/500 to 1/1000 of an inch in
+diameter. Under the microscope it looks like a little drop of
+mucilage. This semifluid, mucilaginous substance is the Protoplasm.
+Its outer portion is clear and transparent, its inner more granular.
+In the inner portion is a little spheroidal body, the nucleus. This
+is certainly of great importance in the life of the animal; but just
+what it does, or what is its relation to the surrounding protoplasm
+we do not yet know. There is also a little cavity around which the
+protoplasm has drawn back, and on which it will soon close in again,
+so that it pulsates like a heart. It is continually taking in water
+from the body, or the outside, and driving it out again, and thus
+aids in respiration and excretion. The animal has no organs in the
+proper sense of the word, and yet it has the rudiments of all the
+functions which we possess.</p>
+
+<p>A little projection of the outer, clearer layer of protoplasm, a
+pseudopodium, appears; into this the whole animal may flow and thus
+advance a step, or the projection may be withdrawn. And this power
+of change of form is a lower grade of the contractility of our
+muscular cells. Prick it with a needle and it contracts.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span> It
+recognizes its food even at a microscopic distance; it appears
+therefore to feel and perceive. Perhaps we might say that it has a
+mind and will of its own. It is safer to say that it is irritable,
+that is, it reacts to stimuli too feeble to be regarded as the cause
+of its reaction. It engulfs microscopic plants, and digests them in
+the internal protoplasm by the aid of an acid secretion. It breathes
+oxygen, and excretes carbonic acid and urea, through its whole body
+surface. Its mode of gaining the energy which it manifests is
+therefore apparently like our own, by combustion of food material.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;"><img src="images/tyler01.jpg" width="223" height="300" alt="1. AM&OElig;BA PROTEUS. HERTWIG, FROM LEIDY.
+" title="Figure 1" />
+<h5>1. AM&OElig;BA PROTEUS. HERTWIG, FROM LEIDY.</h5>
+<p class="cap"><i>ek</i>, ectosarc; <i>en</i>, endosarc; <i>N</i>, food particles;
+<i>n</i>, nucleus; <i>cv</i>, contractile vesicle.</p> <p class="ar"> <a href="images/tyler01large.jpg">[<small>LARGER</small>]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<p>It grows and reaches a certain size, then constricts itself in the
+middle and divides into two. The old am&oelig;ba has divided into two
+young ones, and there is no parent left to die, and death, except by
+violence, does not occur. But this absence of death in other rather
+distant relatives of the am&oelig;ba, and probably in the am&oelig;ba
+itself, holds true only provided that, after a series of
+self-divisions, reproduction takes place after another mode. Two
+rather small and weak individuals fuse together in one animal of
+renewed vigor, which soon divides into two <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span>larger and stronger
+descendants. We have here evidently a process corresponding to the
+fertilization of the egg in higher animals; yet there is no egg,
+spermatozoon, or sex.</p>
+
+<p>It is a little mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus, and
+corresponds, therefore, to one of the cells, most closely to the
+egg-cell or spermatozoon of higher animals. If every living being is
+descended from a single cell, the fertilized egg, it is not hard to
+believe that all higher animals are descended from an ancestor
+having the general structure or lack of structure of the am&oelig;ba.</p>
+
+<p>But is the am&oelig;ba really structureless? Probably it has an
+exceedingly complex structure, but our microscopes and technique are
+still too imperfect to show more than traces of it. Says Hertwig:
+&quot;Protoplasm is not a single chemical substance, however complicated,
+but a mixture of many substances, which we must picture to ourselves
+as finest particles united in a wonderfully complicated structure.&quot;
+Truly protoplasm is, to borrow Mephistopheles' expression concerning
+blood, a &quot;quite peculiar juice.&quot; And the complexity of the nucleus
+is far more evident than that of the protoplasm. Is protoplasm
+itself the result of a long development? If so, out of what and how
+did it develop? We cannot even guess. But the beginning of life may,
+apparently must, have been indefinitely farther back than the
+simplest now existing form. The study of the am&oelig;ba cannot fail to
+raise a host of questions in the mind of any thoughtful man.</p>
+
+<p>As we have here the animal reduced, so to speak, to lowest terms, it
+may be well to examine a little more closely into its physiology and
+compare it briefly with our own.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span>The am&oelig;ba eats food as we do, but the food is digested directly
+in the internal protoplasm instead of in a stomach; and once
+digested it diffuses to all parts of the cell; here it is built up
+into compounds of a more complex structure, and forms an integral
+part of the animal body. The dead food particle has been transformed
+into living protoplasm, the continually repeated miracle of life.
+But it does not remain long in this condition. In contact with the
+oxygen from the air it is soon oxidized, burned up to furnish the
+energy necessary for the motion and irritability of the body. We are
+all of us low-temperature engines. The digestive function exists in
+all animals merely to bring the food into a soluble, diffusible
+form, so that it can pass to all parts of the body and be used for
+fuel or growth. In our body a circulatory system is necessary to
+carry food and oxygen to the cells and to remove their waste. For
+most of our cells lie at a distance from the stomach, lungs, and
+kidney. But in a small animal the circulatory system is often
+unnecessary and fails. Breathing and excretion take place through
+the whole surface of the body. The body of the frog is devoid of
+scales, so that the blood is separated from the surrounding water
+only by a thin membrane, and it breathes and excretes to a certain
+extent in the same way.</p>
+
+<p>But another factor has to be considered. If we double each dimension
+of our am&oelig;ba, we shall increase its surface four times, its mass
+eight-fold. Now the power of absorbing oxygen and excreting waste is
+evidently proportional to the excretory and respiratory surface, and
+much the same is true of digestion. But the amount of oxygen
+required, and of waste to be removed is proportional to the mass;
+for every particle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span> of protoplasm requires food and oxygen, and
+produces waste. The particles of protoplasm in our new, larger
+am&oelig;ba can therefore receive only half as much oxygen as before,
+and rid themselves of their waste only half as fast. There is
+danger of what in our bodies would be called suffocation and
+blood-poisoning. The am&oelig;ba having attained a certain size meets
+this emergency by dividing into two small individuals, the division
+is a physical adaptation. But the many-celled animal cannot do this;
+it must keep its cells together. It gains the additional surface by
+folding and plaiting. And the complicated internal structure of
+higher animals is in its last analysis such a folding and plaiting
+in order to maintain the proper ratio between the exposed surface of
+the cells and their mass. And each cell in our bodies lives in one
+sense its own individual life, only bathed in the lymph and
+receiving from it its food and oxygen instead of taking it from the
+water.</p>
+
+<p>But in another sense the cells of our body live an entirely
+different life, for they form a community. Division of labor has
+taken place between them, they are interdependent, correlated with
+one another, subject therefore to the laws of the whole community or
+organism. There are many respects in which it is impossible to
+compare Robinson Crusoe with a workman in a huge watch factory; yet
+they are both men.</p>
+
+<p>Both the am&oelig;ba and we live in the closest relation to our
+environment, and conformity to it is evidently necessary: life has
+been defined as the adjustment of internal relations to external
+conditions. We continually take food, use it for energy and growth,
+and return the simpler waste compounds. We are all of us, as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span>Professor Huxley has said, &quot;whirlpools on the surface of Nature;&quot;
+when the whirl of exchange of particles ceases we die. We have seen
+that the fusion of two am&oelig;b&aelig; results in a new rejuvenated
+individual. Why is a mixture of two protoplasms better than one? We
+can frame hypotheses; we know nothing about it. What of the mind of
+the am&oelig;ba? A host of questions throng upon us and we can answer
+no one of them. All the great questions concerning life confront us
+here in the lowest term of the animal series, and appear as
+insoluble as in the highest.</p>
+
+<p>Our second ancestral form is also a fresh-water animal, the hydra.
+This is a little, vase-shaped animal, which usually lives attached
+to grass-stems or sticks, but has the power to free itself and hang
+on the surface of the water or to slowly creep on the bottom. The
+mouth is at the top of the vase, and the simple, undivided cavity
+within the vase is the digestive cavity. Around the mouth is a ring
+of from four to ten hollow tentacles, whose cavities communicate
+freely underneath with the digestive cavity. Not only is food taken
+in at the mouth, but indigestible material is thrown out here. The
+animal may thus be compared to a nearly cylindrical sack with a
+circle of tubes attached to it above. The body consists of two
+layers of cells, the ectoderm on the outside and the entoderm lining
+the digestive cavity. Between these two is a structureless, elastic
+membrane, which tends to keep the body moderately expanded.</p>
+
+<p>The food is captured by the tentacles; but digestion takes place
+only partially in the digestive cavity, for each surrounding cell
+engulfs small particles of food and digests them within itself. The
+entodermal cells <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span>behave in this respect much like a colony of
+am&oelig;b&aelig;. The cells of both layers have at their bases long muscular
+fibrils, those of the ectodermal cells running longitudinally, those
+of the entoderm transversely. The animal can thus contract its body
+in both directions, or, if the body contain water and the transverse
+muscles are contracted, the pressure of the water lengthens the body
+and tends to extend the tentacles.</p>
+
+<p>On the outside of the elastic membrane, just beneath the ectoderm,
+is a plexus or cobweb of nervous cells and fibrils. As in every
+nervous system, three elements are here to be found. 1. An afferent
+or sensory nerve-fibril, which under adequate stimulus is set in
+vibration by some cell of the epidermis or ectoderm, which is
+therefore called a sensory cell. 2. A central or ganglion
+cell, which receives the sensory impulse, translates it into
+consciousness, and is the seat of whatever powers of perception,
+thought, or will the animal possesses. This also gives rise to the
+efferent or motor impulses, which are conveyed by (3) a motor fibril
+to the corresponding muscle, exciting its contraction. But there are
+also nerve-fibrils connecting the different ganglion cells, so that
+they may act in unison. In the higher animals we shall find these
+central or ganglion cells condensed in one or a few masses or
+ganglia. But here they are scattered over the whole surface of the
+elastic supporting membrane.</p>
+
+<p>The reproductive organs for the production of eggs and spermatozoa
+form little protuberances on the outside of the body below the
+tentacles. But hydra reproduces mostly by budding; new individuals
+growing out of the side of the old one, like branches from the trunk
+of a tree, but afterward breaking free and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span>leading an independent
+life. There are special forms of cells besides those described;
+nettle cells for capturing food, interstitial cells, etc., but these
+do not concern us.</p>
+
+<p>The distance from the single-celled am&oelig;ba to hydra is vast,
+probably really greater than that between any other successive terms
+of our series. It may therefore be useful to consider one or two
+intermediate forms and the parallel embryonic stages of higher
+animals, and to see how the higher many-celled animal originates
+from the unicellular stage.</p>
+
+<p>The am&oelig;ba is an illustration of a great kingdom of similar,
+practically unicellular forms, which have played no unimportant part
+in the geological history of the globe. These are the protozoa. They
+include, first of all, the foraminifera, which usually have shells
+composed of carbonate of lime. These shells, settling to the bottom
+of the ocean, have accumulated in vast beds, and when compacted and
+raised above the surface, form chalk, limestone, or marble,
+according to the degree and mode of their hardening.</p>
+
+<p>The protozoa include also the flagellata, a great, very poorly
+defined mass of forms occupying the boundary between the plant and
+animal kingdoms. They are usually unicellular, and their protoplasm
+is surrounded by a thin, structureless membrane. This prevents their
+putting out pseudopodia as organs of motion. Instead of these they
+have at one end of the ovoid or pear-shaped body a long,
+whiplash-like process or thread, a flagellum, and by swinging this
+they propel themselves through the water. These flagellata seem to
+have a rather marked tendency to form colonies. The first individual
+gives rise to others by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span>division. But the division is not complete;
+the new individuals remain connected by the undivided rear end of
+the body. And such a colony may come to contain a large number of
+individuals.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/tyler02.jpg" width="250" height="244" alt="2. MAGOSPH&AElig;RA PLANULA. LANG, FROM HAECKEL."
+title="Figure 2" />
+<h5>2. MAGOSPH&AElig;RA PLANULA. LANG, FROM HAECKEL.</h5>
+</div>
+
+<p>Such a colony is represented by magosph&aelig;ra. This is a microscopic
+globular form, discovered by Professor Haeckel on the coast of
+Norway. It consists of a large number of conical or pear-shaped
+individual cells, whose apices are turned toward the centre of the
+sphere. The cells are cemented together by a mucilaginous substance.
+Around their exposed larger ends, which form the surface of the
+sphere, are rows of flagella, by whose united action the colony
+rolls through the water. After a time each individual absorbs its
+flagella, the colony is broken up, the different individuals settle
+to the bottom, and each gives rise by division to a new colony. This
+group of cells may be considered as a colony or as an individual.
+Each term is defensible.</p>
+
+<p>Volvox is also a spheroidal organism, composed often of a very large
+number of flagellated cells. But it differs from magosph&aelig;ra in
+certain important respects. In the first place its cells have
+chlorophyl, the green <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span>coloring matter of plants. It lives therefore
+on unorganized fluid nourishment, carbon dioxide, nitrates, etc. It
+is a plant. But certain characteristics render it probable that it
+once lived on solid food and was therefore an animal. For where
+almost the sole difference between plants and animals is in the
+fluid or solid character of their food, a change from the one form
+into the other is not as difficult or improbable as one might
+naturally think. And plants and animals are here so near together,
+and travelling by roads so nearly parallel, that, even if volvox
+never was an animal, it might still serve very well to illustrate a
+stage through which animals must have passed.</p>
+
+<p>The cells of volvox do not form a solid mass, but have arranged
+themselves in a single layer on the outer surface of the sphere. For
+a time, under favorable circumstances, volvox reproduces very much
+like magosph&aelig;ra, and each cell can give rise to a new, many-celled
+individual. But after a time, especially under unfavorable
+circumstances, a new mode of reproduction appears. Certain cells
+withdraw from the outer layer into the interior of the colony. Here
+they are nourished by the other cells and develop into true
+reproductive elements, eggs and spermatozoa. Fertilization, that is,
+the union of egg and spermatozoon, or mainly of their nuclei, takes
+place; and the fertilized egg develops into a new organism. But the
+other cells, which have been all the time nourishing these, seem now
+to lack nutriment, strength, or vitality to give rise to a new
+colony. They die.</p>
+
+<p>We find thus in volvox division of labor and corresponding
+difference of structure or differentiation; certain cells retain the
+power of fusing with other corresponding <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span>cells, and thus of
+rejuvenescence and of giving rise to a new organism. And these
+cells, forming a series through all generations, are evidently
+immortal like the protozoa. Natural death cannot touch them. These
+are the reproductive cells. The other cells nourish and transport
+them and carry on the work of excretion and respiration. These
+latter correspond practically to our whole body. We call them
+somatic cells. In volvox they are entirely subservient to, and exist
+for, the reproductive cells, and die when they have completed their
+service of these. The body is here only a vehicle for ova.
+Furthermore, in volvox there has arisen such an interdependence of
+cells that we can no longer speak of it as a colony. The colony has
+become an individual by division of labor and the resulting
+differentiation in structure.</p>
+
+<p>But hydra gives us but a poor idea of the c&oelig;lenterata, to which
+kingdom it belongs. The higher c&oelig;lenterata have nearly or quite
+all the tissues of higher animals&mdash;muscular, connective, glandular,
+etc. And by tissues we mean groups of cells modified in form and
+structure for the performance of a special work or function. The
+protozoa developed the cell for all time to come, the c&oelig;lenterata
+developed the tissues which still compose our bodies. But they had
+them mainly in a diffuse form. A sort of digestive and reproductive
+system they did possess. But the work of arranging these tissues and
+condensing them into compact organs was to be done by the next
+higher group, the worms.</p>
+
+<p>Let us now take a glance at certain stages of embryonic development
+which correspond to these earliest ancestral forms. We should expect
+some such <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span>correspondence from the fact already stated that the
+embryonic development of the individual is a brief recapitulation of
+the ancestral development of the species or larger group. The egg of
+the lowest vertebrate, amphioxus, shows these changes in a simple
+and apparently primitive form.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 246px;">
+<img src="images/tyler03.jpg" width="246" height="250" alt="3. IMMATURE EGG-SHELL FROM OVARY OF ECHINODERM.
+HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG." title="Figure 3" />
+<h5>3. IMMATURE EGG-SHELL FROM OVARY OF ECHINODERM.
+HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG.</h5>
+</div>
+
+<p>The fertilized egg of any animal consists of a single cell, a little
+mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus and surrounded by a
+structureless membrane. The egg is globular. The nucleus undergoes
+certain very peculiar, still but little understood, changes and
+divides into two. The protoplasm also soon divides into two masses
+clustering each around its own nucleus. The plane of division will
+be marked around the outside by a circular furrow, but the cells
+will still remain united by a large part of the membrane which
+bounds their adjacent, newly formed, internal faces.</p>
+
+<p>Let us suppose that the egg lay so that the first plane of division
+was vertical and extending north and south. Each cell or half of the
+egg will divide into two precisely as before. The new plane of
+division will be vertical, but extending east and west. Each plane
+passes through the centre of the egg, and the four cells are of the
+same form and size, like much-rounded quarters of an orange. The
+third plane will lie horizontal or equatorial, and will divide each
+of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>[44]</span>these quarters into an upper and lower octant. The cells keep on
+dividing rapidly, the eight form sixteen, then thirty-two, etc. The
+sharp angle by which the cells met at the centre has become rounded
+off, and has left a little space, the segmentation cavity, filled
+with fluid in the middle of the embryo. The cells continue to press
+or be crowded away from the centre and form a layer one cell deep on
+the surface of the sphere.</p>
+
+<p>This embryo, resembling a hollow rubber ball filled with fluid, is
+called a blastosphere. It corresponds in structure with the fully
+developed volvox, except, of course, in lacking reproductive cells.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 245px;">
+<img src="images/tyler04.jpg" width="245" height="250" alt="4. GASTRULA. HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG."
+title="Figure 4" />
+<h5>4. GASTRULA. HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG.</h5>
+<p class="cap">Outer layer is the ectoderm; inner layer, the entoderm; internal
+cavity, the archenteron; mouth of cavity, blastopore.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p>If the rubber ball has a hole in it so that I can squeeze out the
+water, I can thrust the one-half into the other, and change the ball
+into a double-walled cup. A similar change takes place in the
+embryo. The cells of the lower half of the blastosphere are slightly
+larger than those of the upper half. This lower hemisphere flattens
+and then thrusts itself, or is invaginated, into the upper
+hemisphere of smaller cells and forms its lining. This cup-shaped
+embryo is called the gastrula. The cup deepens somewhat and becomes
+ovoid. Take a boiled egg, make a hole in the smaller end and remove
+the yolk, and you have a passable model of a gastrula. The shell
+corresponds to the ectoderm or outer layer of smaller cells; the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>[45]</span>layer of &quot;white&quot; represents the entoderm or lining of larger cells.
+The space occupied by the yolk corresponds to the archenteron or
+primitive digestive cavity; and the opening at the end to the
+primitive mouth or blastopore. Ectoderm and entoderm unite around
+the mouth. Both the blastosphere and gastrula often swim freely by
+flagella.</p>
+
+<p>You can hardly have failed to notice how closely the gastrula
+corresponds to a hydra, and many facts lead us to believe that the
+still earlier ancestor of the hydra was free swimming, and that the
+tentacles are a later development correlated with its adult sessile
+life. Yet we must not forget that the hydra is even now not quite
+sessile, it moves somewhat. And our ancestor was almost certainly a
+free swimming gastr&aelig;a, or hypothetical form corresponding in form
+and structure to the gastrula. The ancestor of man never settled
+down lazily into a sessile life.</p>
+
+<p>But how is an adult worm or vertebrate formed out of such a
+gastrula? To answer this would require a course of lectures on
+embryology. But certain changes interest us. Between the ectoderm
+and entoderm of the gastrula, in the space occupied by the
+supporting membrane of hydra, a new layer of cells, the mesoderm,
+appears. This has been produced by the rapid growth and reproduction
+of certain cells of the entoderm which have migrated, so to speak,
+into this new position. In higher forms it becomes of continually
+greater importance, until finally nearly all the organs of the body
+develop from it. In our bodies only the lining of the mid-intestine
+and of its glands has arisen from the entoderm. And only the
+epidermis, or outer layer of our skin, and the nervous system and
+parts of our <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span>sense-organs have arisen from the ectoderm. But our
+mid-intestine is still the greatly elongated archenteron of the
+gastrula.</p>
+
+<p>We may therefore compare the hydra or gastrula to a little portion
+of the lining of the human mid-intestine covered with a little flake
+of epidermis. This much the hydra has attained. But our bones and
+muscles and blood-vessels all come from the mesoderm by folding,
+plaiting, and channelling, and division of labor resulting in
+differentiation of structure. Of all true mesodermal structures the
+hydra has actually none, but in the ectodermal and entodermal cells
+he has the potentiality of them all. We must now try to discover how
+these potentialities became actualities in higher forms.</p>
+
+<p>The third stage in our ancestral series is the turbellarian. This is
+a little, flat, oval worm, varying greatly in size in different
+species, and found both in fresh and salt water. Some would deny
+that this worm belonged in our series at all. But, while doubtless
+considerably modified, it has still retained many characteristics
+almost certainly possessed by our primitive bilateral ancestor. The
+different parts of hydra were arranged like those of most flowers,
+around one main vertical axis; it was thus radiate in structure,
+having neither front nor rear, right nor left side. But our little
+turbellaria, while still without a head, has one end which goes
+first and can be called the front end. The upper or dorsal surface
+is usually more colored with pigment cells than the lower or ventral
+surface, on which is the mouth. It has also a right and left side.
+It is thus bilateral.</p>
+
+<p>The gastr&aelig;a swam by cilia, little eyelash-like <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span>processes which urge
+the animal forward like a myriad of microscopic oars. In our bodies
+they are sometimes used to keep up a current, <i>e.g.</i>, to remove
+foreign particles from the lungs. The turbellaria is still covered
+with cilia, probably an inheritance from the gastr&aelig;a; for, while in
+smaller forms they may still be the principal means of locomotion,
+in larger ones the muscles are beginning to assume this function and
+the animal moves by writhing. The bilateral symmetry has arisen in
+connection with this mode of locomotion and is thus a mark of
+important progress.</p>
+
+<p>In the turbellaria we find for the first time a true body-wall
+distinct from underlying organs. The outer layer of this is a
+ciliated epithelium or layer of cells. Under this an elastic
+membrane may occur. Then come true body muscles, running
+transversely, longitudinally and dorso-ventrally. Between the
+external transverse and the internal longitudinal layers we often
+find two muscular layers whose fibres run diagonally. The body is
+well provided with muscles, but their arrangement is still far from
+economical or effective.</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 180px;">
+<img src="images/tyler05.jpg" width="180" height="400" alt="5. TURBELLARIAN. LANG."
+title="Figure 5" />
+<h5>5. TURBELLARIAN. LANG.</h5>
+<p class="cap"><i>va</i> and <i>ha</i>, front and rear branches of gastro-vascular cavity;
+<i>ph</i>, pharynx. The dark oval with fine branches represents the
+nervous system.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Within the body-wall is the parenchym. This is a spongy mass of
+connectile tissue in which the other organs are embedded. The mouth
+lies in the middle, or near the front of the ventral surface. The
+intestine varies in form, but is provided with its own layers of
+longitudinal and transverse muscles, and usually has paired pouches
+extending out from it into the body parenchym. These seem to
+distribute the dissolved nutriment; hence the whole cavity is still
+often called a gastro-vascular cavity as serving both digestion and
+circulation. There is no anal opening, but indigestible material is
+still cast out through the mouth.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span>The animal can gain sufficient oxygen to supply its muscles and
+nerves, which are the principal seats of combustion, through the
+external surface. It has, therefore, no special respiratory organs.
+But the waste matter of the muscles cannot escape so easily, for
+these are becoming deeper seated. Hence we find an excretory system
+consisting of two tubes with many branches in the parenchym, and
+discharging at the rear end of the body. This again is a sign that
+the muscles are becoming more important, for the excretory system is
+needed mainly to remove their waste. These tubes maybe only greatly
+enlarged glands of the skin.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>The nervous system consists of a plexus of fibres and cells, the
+cells originating impulses and the fibres conveying them. But this
+much was present in hydra also. Here the front end of the body goes
+foremost and is continually coming in contact with new conditions.
+Here the lookout for food and danger must be kept. Hence, as a
+result of constant exercise, or selection, or both, the
+nerve-plexus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span> has thickened at this point into a little compact mass
+of cells and fibres called a ganglion. And because this ganglion
+throughout higher forms usually lies over the &oelig;sophagus, it is
+called the supra-&oelig;sophogeal ganglion. This is the first faint and
+dim prophecy of a brain, and it sends its nerves to the front end of
+the body. But there run from it to the rear end of the body four to
+eight nerve-cords, consisting of bundles of nerve-threads like our
+nerves, but overlaid with a coating of ganglion cells capable of
+originating impulses. These cords are, therefore, like the plexus
+from which they have condensed, both nerves and centres;
+differentiation has not gone so far as at the front of the body.
+Sense organs are still very rudimentary. Special cells of the skin
+have been modified into neuro-epithelial cells, having sensory hairs
+protruding from them and nerve-fibrils running from their bases.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>In a very few turbellaria we find otolith vesicles. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span>These are
+little sacks in the skin, lined with neuro-epithelial cells and
+having in the middle a little concretion of carbonate of lime hung
+on rather a stiffer hair, like a clapper in a bell. Such organs
+serve in higher animals as organs of hearing, for the sensory hairs
+are set in vibration by the sound-waves. It is quite as probable
+that they here serve as organs for feeling the slightest vibrations
+in the surrounding water, and thus giving warning of approaching
+food or danger. The animal has also eyes, and these may be very
+numerous. They are not able to form images of external objects, but
+only of perceiving light and the direction of its source. A little
+group of these eyes lies directly over the brain, near the front end
+of the body; the others are distributed around the front or nearly
+the whole margin of the body.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 180px;">
+<img src="images/tyler06.jpg" width="174" height="450"
+alt="6. CROSS-SECTION OF TURBELLARIAN. HATSCHEK, FROM
+JIJIMA." title="Figure 6" />
+<h5>6. CROSS-SECTION OF TURBELLARIAN. HATSCHEK, FROM
+JIJIMA.</h5>
+<p class="cap"><i>e</i>, external skin; <i>rm</i>, lateral muscles; <i>la</i> and <i>li</i>,
+longitudinal muscles; <i>mdv</i>, dorso-ventral muscles; <i>pa</i>,
+parenchyma; <i>h</i>, testicle; <i>ov</i>, oviduct; <i>dt</i>, yolk-gland; <i>n</i>,
+ventral nerve; <i>i</i>, gastro-vascular cavity.</p> <p class="ar">
+<a href="images/tyler06large.jpg">[<small>LARGER</small>]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The turbellaria, doubtless, have the sense of smell, although we can
+discover no special olfactory organ. This sense would seem to be as
+old as protoplasm itself.</p>
+
+<p>This distribution of the eyes around a large portion of the margin,
+and certain other characteristics of the adult structure and of the
+embryonic development, are very interesting, as giving hints of the
+development of the turbellaria from some radiate ancestor. The mouth
+is in a most unfavorable position, in or near the middle of the
+body, rarely at the front end, as the animal has to swim over its
+food before it can grasp it. The animal only slowly rids itself of
+old disadvantageous form and structure and adapts itself completely
+to a higher mode of life.</p>
+
+<p>By far the most highly developed system in the body is the
+reproductive. It is doubtful whether any animal, except, perhaps,
+the mollusk, has as complicated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span> and highly developed reproductive
+organs. By markedly higher forms they certainly grow simpler.</p>
+
+<p>And here we must notice certain general considerations. We found
+that reproduction in the am&oelig;ba could be defined as growth beyond
+the limit normal to the individual. This form of growth benefits
+especially the species. The needs and expenses of the individual
+will therefore first be met and then the balance be devoted to
+reproduction. Now the income of the animal is proportional to its
+surface, its expense to its mass, and activity. And the ratio of
+surface to mass is most favorable in the smallest animals.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Hence,
+smaller animals, as a rule, increase faster than larger ones; and
+this is only one illustration of the fact that great size in an
+animal is anything but an unmixed advantage to its possessor. But
+muscles and nerves are the most expensive systems; here most of the
+food is burned up. Hence energetic animals have a small balance
+remaining. Now the turbellarian is small and sluggish, with a fair
+digestive system. With a great amount of nutriment at its disposal
+the reproductive system came rapidly to a high development, and
+relatively to other organs stands higher than it almost ever will
+again.</p>
+
+<p>It is only fair to state that good authorities hold that so
+primitive an animal could not originally have had so highly
+developed a system, and that this characteristic must be acquired,
+not ancestral.</p>
+
+<p>That certain portions of it may be later developments may be not
+only possible but probable. But anyone who has carefully studied the
+different groups of worms, will, I think, readily grant that in the
+stage <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span>of these flat worms reproduction was the dominant function,
+which had most nearly attained its possible height of development.
+From this time on the muscular and nervous systems were to claim an
+ever-increasing share of the nutriment, and the balance for
+reproduction is to grow smaller.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of this lecture I wish to describe very briefly a
+hypothetical form. It no longer exists; perhaps it never did. But
+many facts of embryology and comparative anatomy point to such a
+form as a very possible ancestor of all forms higher than flat
+worms, viz., mollusks, arthropods, and vertebrates.</p>
+
+<p>It was probably rather long and cylindrical, resembling a small
+and short earthworm in shape. The skin may have been much like
+that of turbellaria. Within this the muscles run in only
+two-directions&mdash;longitudinally and transversely. Between these and
+the intestine is a cavity&mdash;the perivisceral cavity&mdash;like that of our
+own bodies, but filled with a nutritive fluid like our lymph. This
+cavity seems to have developed by the expansion and cutting off of
+the paired lateral outgrowths of the digestive system of some old
+flat worm. But other modes of development are quite possible. The
+intestine has now an anal opening at or near the rear end of the
+body. The food moves only from front to rear, and reaches each part
+always in a certain condition. Digestion proper and absorption have
+been distributed to different cells, and the work is better done.
+Three portions can be readily distinguished: fore-intestine with the
+mouth, mid-intestine, as the seat of digestion and absorption, and
+hind-intestine, or rectum, with the anal opening. The front and
+hind-intestine are lined with infolded outer skin.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span>The nervous system consists of a supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion with
+four posterior nerve-cords&mdash;one dorsal, two lateral, and one (or
+perhaps two) ventral. There were probably also remains of the old
+plexus, but this is fast disappearing. The excretory system consists
+of a pair of tubes discharging through the sides of the body-wall,
+and having each a ciliated, funnel-shaped opening in the
+perivisceral cavity. These have received the name of nephridia.
+Through these also the eggs and spermatozoa are discharged. The
+reproductive organs are modified patches of the peritoneum, or
+lining of the perivisceral cavity.</p>
+
+<p>The number of muscles or muscular layers has been reduced in this
+animal. But such a reduction in the number of like parts in any
+animal is a sign of progress. And the longitudinal muscles have
+increased in size and strength, and the animal moves by writhing.
+Such a worm has the general plan of the body of the higher forms
+fairly well, though rudely, sketched. Many improvements will come,
+and details be added. But the rudiments of the trunk of even our own
+bodies are already visible. Head, in any proper sense of the term,
+and skeleton are still lacking; they remain to be developed.</p>
+
+<p>And yet, taking the most hopeful view possible concerning the animal
+kingdom, its prospects of attaining anything very lofty seem at this
+point poor. Its highest representative is a headless trunk, without
+skeleton or legs. It has no brain in any proper sense of the word,
+its sense-organs are feeble; it moves by writhing. Its life is
+devoted to digestion and reproduction. Whatever higher organs it has
+are subsidiary to these lower functions. And yet it has taken <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span>ages
+on ages to develop this much. If <i>this</i> is the highest visible
+result of ages on ages of development, what hope is there for the
+future? Can such a thing be the ancestor of a thinking, moral,
+religious person, like man? &quot;That is not first which is spiritual,
+but that which is natural (animal, sensuous); and afterward that
+which is spiritual.&quot; First, in order of time, must come the body,
+and then the mind and spirit shall be enthroned in it. The little
+knot of nervous material which forms the supra-&oelig;sophageal
+ganglion is so small that it might easily escape our notice; but it
+is the promise of an infinite future. The atom of nervous power
+shall increase until it subdues and dominates the whole mass.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3">[3]</a> Cf. p. <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>WORMS TO VERTEBRATES: SKELETON AND HEAD</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span>In tracing the genealogy of any American family it is often
+difficult or impossible to say whether a certain branch is descended
+from John Oldworthy or his cousin or second cousin. In the latter
+cases to find the common ancestor we must go back to the grandfather
+or great-grandfather. The same difficulty, but greatly enhanced,
+meets us when we try to make a genealogical tree of the animal
+kingdom. Thus it seems altogether probable that all higher forms are
+descended from an ancestor of the same general structure and grade
+of organization as the turbellaria, although probably free swimming,
+and hence with somewhat different form and development, especially
+of the muscular system. It seems to me altogether probable that all,
+except possibly Mollusca, are descended from a common ancestor
+closely resembling the schematic worm last described. Some would,
+however, maintain that they diverged rather earlier than even the
+turbellaria; others after the schematic worm, if such ever existed.
+As far as our argument is concerned it makes little difference which
+of these views we adopt.</p>
+
+<p>From our turbellaria, or possibly from some even more primitive
+ancestor, many lines diverged. And this was to be expected. The
+c&oelig;lenterata, as we saw in hydra, had developed rude digestive and
+reproductive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span> systems. The higher groups of this kingdom had
+developed all, or nearly all, the tissues used in building the
+bodies of higher animals&mdash;muscular, reproductive, connectile,
+glandular, nervous, etc. But these are mostly very diffuse. The
+muscular fibrils of a jelly-fish are mostly isolated or parallel in
+bands, rarely in compact well-defined bundles. The tissues have
+generally not yet been moulded into compact masses of definite form.
+There are as yet very few structures to which we can give the name
+of organs. To form organs and group them in a body of compact
+definite form was the work pre-eminently of worms. The material for
+the building was ready, but the architecture of the bilateral animal
+was not even sketched. And different worms were their own
+architects, untrammelled by convention or heredity, hence they built
+very different, sometimes almost fantastic, structures.</p>
+
+<p>We must remember, too, the great age of this group. They are present
+in highly modified forms in the very oldest pal&aelig;ozoic strata, and
+probably therefore came into existence as the first traces of
+continental areas were beginning to rise above the primeval ocean.
+They are literally &quot;older than the hills.&quot; They were exposed to a
+host of rapidly changing conditions, very different in different
+areas. This prepares us for the fact that the worms represent a
+stage in animal life corresponding fairly well to the Tower of Babel
+in biblical history. The animal kingdom seems almost to explode into
+a host of fragments. Our genealogical tree fairly bristles with
+branches, but the branches do not seem to form any regular whorls or
+spirals. Few of them have developed into more than feeble growths.
+They now contain generally but few species. Many of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span>them are
+largely or entirely parasitic, and in connection with this mode of
+life have undergone modifications and degeneration which make it
+exceedingly difficult to decipher their descent or relationships.</p>
+
+<p>Four of these branches have reached great prominence in numbers and
+importance. One or two others were formerly equally numerous and
+have since become almost extinct; so the brachiopoda, which have
+been almost entirely replaced by mollusks. The same may very
+possibly be true of others. For of the amount of extinction of
+larger groups we have generally but an exceedingly faint conception.
+Indeed in this respect the worms have been well compared to the
+relics which fill the shelves of one of our grandmother's
+china-closets.</p>
+
+<p>The four great branches are the echinoderms, mollusks, articulates,
+and vertebrates. The echinoderms, including starfishes, sea-urchins,
+and others straggled early from the great army. We know as yet
+almost nothing of their history; when deciphered it will be as
+strange as any romance. The vertebrates are of course the most
+important line, as including the ancestors of man. But we must take
+a little glance at mollusks, including our clams, snails, and
+cuttle-fishes; and at the articulates, including annelids and
+culminating in insects. The molluscan and articulate lines, though
+divergent, are of great importance to us as throwing a certain
+amount of light on vertebrate development; and still more as showing
+how a certain line of development may seem, and at first really be,
+advantageous, and still lead to degeneration, or at best to but
+partial success.</p>
+
+<p>When we compare the forms which represent fairly well the direction
+of development of these three lines, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>[58]</span>a snail or a clam with an
+insect and a fish, we find clearly, I think, that the fundamental
+anatomical difference lies in the skeleton; and that this resulted
+from, and almost irrevocably fixed, certain habits of life.</p>
+
+<p>We may picture to ourselves the primitive ancestor of mollusks as a
+worm having the short and broad form of the turbellaria, but much
+thicker or deeper vertically. A fuller description can be found in
+the &quot;Encyclop&aelig;dia Britannica,&quot; Art., Mollusca. It was hemi-ovoid in
+form. It had apparently the perivisceral cavity and nephridia of the
+schematic worm, and a circulatory system. In this latter respect it
+stood higher than any form which we have yet studied. Its nervous
+system also was rather more advanced. It had apparently already
+taken to a creeping mode of life and the muscles of its ventral
+surface were strongly developed, while its exposed and far less
+muscular dorsal surface was protected by a cap-like shell covering
+the most important internal organs. But the integument of the whole
+dorsal surface was, as is not uncommon in invertebrates, hardening
+by the deposition of carbonate of lime in the integument. And this
+in time increased to such an extent as to replace the primitive,
+probably horny, shell.</p>
+
+<p>Into the anatomy of this animal or of its descendants we have no
+time to enter, for here we must be very brief. We have already
+noticed that the most important viscera were lodged safely under the
+shell. And as these increased in size or were crowded upward by the
+muscles of the creeping disk, their portion of the body grew upward
+in the form of a &quot;visceral hump.&quot; Apparently the animal could not
+increase <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>[59]</span>much in length and retain the advantage of the protection
+of the shell; and the shell was the dominating structure. It had
+entered upon a defensive campaign. Motion, slow at the outset,
+became more difficult, and the protection of the shell therefore all
+the more necessary. The shell increased in size and weight and
+motion became almost impossible. The snail represents the average
+result of the experiment. It can crawl, but that is about all; it is
+neither swift nor energetic. Even the earthworm can outcrawl it. It
+has feelers and eyes, and is thus better provided with sense-organs
+than almost any worm. It has a supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion of fair
+size.</p>
+
+<p>The clams and oysters show even more clearly what we might call the
+logical results of molluscan structure. They increased the shell
+until it formed two heavy &quot;valves&quot; hanging down on each side of the
+body and completely enclosing it. They became almost sessile, living
+generally buried in the mud and gaining their food, consisting
+mostly of minute particles of organic matter, by means of currents
+created by cilia covering the large curtain-like gills. Their
+muscular system disappeared except in the ploughshare-shaped &quot;foot&quot;
+used mostly for burrowing, and in the muscles for closing the shell.
+That portion of the body which corresponds to the head of the snail
+practically aborted with nearly all the sense-organs. The nervous
+system degenerated and became reduced to a rudiment. They had given
+up locomotion, had withdrawn, so to speak, from the world; all the
+sense they needed was just enough to distinguish the particles of
+food as they swept past the mouth in the current of water. They have
+an abundance of food, and &quot;wax fat.&quot; <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span>The clam is so completely
+protected by his shell and the mud that he has little to fear from
+enemies. They have increased and multiplied and filled the mud.
+&quot;Requiescat in pace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But zo&ouml;logy has its tragedies as well as human history. Let us turn
+to the development of a third molluscan line terminating in the
+cuttle-fishes. The ancestors of these cephalopods, although still
+possessed of a shell and a high visceral hump, regained the swimming
+life. First, apparently, by means of fins, and then by a simple but
+very effective use of a current of water, they acquired an often
+rapid locomotion. The highest forms gave up the purely defensive
+campaign, developed a powerful beak, led a life like that of the old
+Norse pirates, and were for a time the rulers and terrors of the
+sea. With their more rapid locomotion the supra-&oelig;sophageal
+ganglion reached a higher degree of development, and it was served
+by sense-organs of great efficiency. They reduced the external
+shell, and succeeded, in the highest forms, of almost ridding
+themselves of this burden and encumbrance. Traces of it remain in
+the squids, but transformed into an internal quill-like, supporting,
+not defensive, skeleton. They have retraced the downward steps of
+their ancestors as far as they could. And the high development of
+their supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion and sense-organs, and their
+powerful jaws and arms, or tentacles, show to what good purpose they
+have struggled. But the struggle was in vain, as far as the
+supremacy of the animal kingdom was concerned. Their ancestors had
+taken a course which rendered it impossible for their descendants to
+reach the goal. Their progress became ever slower. They were
+entirely and hopelessly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span> beaten by the vertebrates. They struggled
+hard, but too late.</p>
+
+<p>The history of mollusks is full of interest. They show clearly how
+intimately nervous development is connected with the use of the
+locomotive organs. The snail crept, and slightly increased its
+nervous system and sense-organs. The clam almost lost them in
+connection with its stationary life. The cephalopods were
+exceedingly active, developed, therefore, keen sense-organs and a
+very large and complicated supra-&oelig;sophagal ganglion, which we
+might almost call a brain.</p>
+
+<p>The articulate series consists of two groups of animals. The higher
+group includes the crabs, spiders, thousand-legs, and finally the
+insects, and forms the kingdom of arthropoda. The lower members are
+still usually reckoned as worms, and are included under the
+annelids. Of these our common earthworm is a good example, and near
+them belong the leeches. But the marine annelids, of which nereis,
+or a clam-worm, is a good example, are more typical. They are often
+quite large, a foot or even more in length. They are composed of
+many, often several hundred, rings or segments. Between these the
+body-wall is thin, so that the segments move easily upon each other,
+and thus the animal can creep or writhe.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 160px;">
+<img src="images/tyler07.jpg" width="149" height="400"
+alt="7. EUNICE LIMOSA (ANNELID). LANG, FROM EHLERS." title="Figure 7" />
+<h5>7. EUNICE LIMOSA (ANNELID). LANG, FROM EHLERS.</h5>
+<p class="cap">Front and hind end seen from dorsal surface.
+<i>fa, fp, fc</i>, feelers; <i>a</i>, eye; <i>k</i>, gill;
+<i>p</i>, parapodia; <i>ac</i>, anal cirri.</p>
+<p class="ar">
+<a href="images/tyler07large.jpg">[<small>LARGER</small>]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>These segments are very much alike except the first two and the
+last. If we examine one from the middle of the body we shall find
+its structure very much like that of our schematic worm. Outside we
+find a very thin, horny cuticle, secreted by the layer of cells just
+beneath it, the hypodermis. Beneath the skin we find a thin layer of
+transverse muscles, and then four heavy <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span>bands of longitudinal
+muscles. These latter have been grouped in the four quadrants, a
+much more effective arrangement than the cylindrical layer of the
+schematic worm. Furthermore, the animal has on each segment a pair
+of fin-like projections, stiffened with bristles, the parapodia.
+These are moved by special muscles and form effective organs of
+creeping.</p>
+
+
+<p>Within the muscles is the perivisceral cavity, and in its central
+axis the intestine, segmented like the body-wall. The reproductive
+organs are formed from patches of the lining of the perivisceral
+cavity, and the reproductive elements, when fully developed, fall
+into the perivisceral fluid and are carried out by nephridia, just
+such as we found in the schematic worm. Beside the perivisceral
+cavity and its fluid there is a special circulatory system. This
+consists mainly of one long tube above the intestine and a second
+below, with often several smaller parallel <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span>tubes. Transverse
+vessels run from these to all parts of the body. The dorsal tube
+pulsates and thus acts as a heart. The surface of the body no longer
+suffices to gather oxygen, hence we find special feathery gills on
+the parapodia. But these gills are merely expanded portions of the
+body wall, arranged so as to offer the greatest possible amount of
+surface where the capillaries of the blood system can be almost
+immediately in contact with the surrounding water.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>The nervous system consists of a large supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion
+in the first segment; then of a chain of ganglia, one to each
+segment, on the ventral side of the body. With one ganglion in each
+segment there is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span>far more controlling, perceptive, ganglionic
+material than in lower worms. Furthermore the supra-&oelig;sophageal
+ganglion is relieved of a large part of the direct control of the
+muscles of each segment, and is becoming more a centre of control
+and perception for the body as a whole. It is more like our brain,
+commander-in-chief, the other ganglia constituting its staff. The
+sense-organs have improved greatly. There are tentacles and otolith
+vesicles as very delicate organs of feeling, or possibly of hearing
+also.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>But the annelids were probably the first animals to develop an eye
+capable of forming an image of external objects. The importance of
+this organ in the pursuit of food or the escape from enemies can
+scarcely be over-estimated. The lining of the mouth and pharynx can
+be protruded as a proboscis, and drawn back by powerful muscles, and
+is armed with two or more horny claws. Eyes and claws gave them a
+great advantage over their not quite blind but really visionless and
+comparatively defenceless neighbors, and they must have wrought
+terrible extinction of lower and older forms. But while we cannot
+over-estimate the importance of these eyes, we can easily exaggerate
+their perfectness. They were of short range, fitted for seeing
+objects only a few inches distant, and the image was very imperfect
+in detail. But the plan or fundamental scheme of these eyes is
+correct and capable of indefinitely greater development than the
+organs of touch or smell, perhaps greater even than the otolith
+vesicle.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/tyler08.jpg" width="400" height="293"
+alt="8. CROSS-SECTION OF BODY SEGMENT OF ANNELID. LANG." title="Figure 8" />
+<h5>8. CROSS-SECTION OF BODY SEGMENT OF ANNELID. LANG.</h5>
+<p class="cap"><i>dp</i> and <i>vp</i>, dorsal and ventral halves of parapodia; <i>b</i> and <i>ac</i>,
+bristles; <i>k</i>, gill; <i>dc</i> and <i>vc</i>, feelers; <i>rm</i>, lateral muscles;
+<i>lm</i>, longitudinal muscles; <i>vd</i>, dorsal blood-vessel; <i>vo</i>, ventral
+blood-vessel; <i>bm</i>, ventral ganglion; <i>ov</i>, ovary; <i>tr</i>, opening of
+nephridium in the perivisceral cavity; <i>np</i>, tubular portion of
+nephridium. The circles containing dots represent eggs floating in
+the perivisceral fluid.</p><p class="ar">
+<a href="images/tyler08large.jpg">[<small>LARGER</small>]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And the reflex influence of the eye on the brain was the greatest
+advantage of all. Hitherto with feeble muscles and sense-organs it
+has hardly paid the animal <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span>to devote more material to building a
+larger brain. It was better to build more muscle. But now with
+stronger muscles at its command, and better sense-organs to report
+to it, every grain of added brain material is beginning to be worth
+ten devoted to muscle. The muscular system will still continue to
+develop, but the brain has begun an almost endless march of
+progress. The eye becomes of continually increasing advantage and
+importance because it has a capable brain to use it; and brain is a
+more and more profitable investment, because it is served by an
+ever-improving eye.</p>
+
+
+<p>The annelid had hit upon a most advantageous line of development,
+which led ultimately to the insect. The study of the insect will
+show us clearly the advantages and defects of the annelid plan.
+First of all, the insect, like the mollusk, has an external
+skeleton. But the skeleton of the mollusk was purely protective, a
+hindrance to locomotion. That of the insect is still somewhat
+protective, but is mainly, almost purely, locomotive. It is never
+allowed to become so heavy as to interfere with locomotion. In the
+second place, the insect has three body regions, having each its own
+special functions or work. And one of these is a head. The annelid
+had two anterior segments differing from those of the rest of the
+body; these may, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span>perhaps, be considered as the foreshadowings of a
+structure not yet realized; they can only by courtesy be called a
+head. Thirdly, the insect has legs. The annelid had fin-like
+parapodia, approaching the legs of insects about as closely as the
+fins of a fish approach the legs of a mammal. The reproductive and
+digestive systems, while somewhat improved, are not very markedly
+higher than those of annelids. The excretory system has more work to
+perform and reaches a rather higher development.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/tyler09.jpg" width="400" height="266" alt="9. MYRMELEO FORMICARIUS. ANT-LION. HERTWIG, FROM
+SCHMARDA." title="Figure 9" />
+<h5>9. MYRMELEO FORMICARIUS. ANT-LION. HERTWIG, FROM
+SCHMARDA.</h5>
+<p class="cap2">
+1, adult; 2, larva; 3, cocoon.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>But in these organs there is no great or striking change; the time
+for marked and rapid development of the digestive and reproductive
+systems has gone by. Material can be more profitably invested in
+brain or muscle. Air is carried to all parts of the body by a
+special system of air-sacks and tubes. This is a very advantageous
+structure for small animals with an external skeleton. In very large
+animals, or where the skeleton is internal, it would hardly be
+practicable; the risk of compression of the tubes at some point, and
+of thus cutting off the air-supply of some portion of the body,
+would be altogether too great.</p>
+
+<p>The circulatory system is very poor. It consists practically only of
+a heart, which drives the blood in an irregular circulation between
+the other organs of the body much as with a syringe you might keep
+up a system of currents in a bowl of water. But the rapidity of the
+flow of the blood in our bodies is mainly to furnish a supply of
+oxygen to the organs. A tea-spoonful of blood can carry a fair
+amount of dissolved solid nutriment like sugar, it can carry at each
+round but a very little gas like oxygen. Hence the blood must make
+its rounds rapidly, carrying but a little <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span>oxygen at each circuit.
+But in the insect the blood conveys only the dissolved solid
+nutriment, the food; hence a comparatively irregular circulation
+answers all purposes.</p>
+
+<p>The skeleton is a thickening of the horny cuticle of the annelid on
+the surface of each segment. The horny cylinder surrounding each
+segment is composed of several pieces, and on the abdomen these are
+united by flexible, infolded membranes. This allows the increase in
+the size of the segment corresponding to the varying size of the
+digestive and reproductive systems. In this part of the body the
+skeletal ring of each segment is joined to that of the segments
+before and behind it in the same manner. But in other parts of the
+body we shall find the skeletal pieces of each segment and the rings
+of successive segments fused in one plate of mail. The legs are the
+parapodia of annelids carried to a vastly higher development. They
+are slender and jointed, and yet often very powerful. A large
+portion of the muscular system of the body is attached to these
+appendages.</p>
+
+<p>But the insect has also jaws. The annelid had teeth or claws
+attached to the proboscis. But true jaws are something quite
+different. They always develop by modifying some other organ. In the
+insect they are modified legs. This is shown first by their
+embryonic development. But the king- or horseshoe-crab has still no
+true jaws, but uses the upper joints of its legs for chewing. There
+are primitively three pairs of jaws of various forms for the
+different kinds of food of different species or higher groups. But
+some of them may disappear and the others be greatly modified into
+awls for piercing, or a tube for sucking honey. Into the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span>wonderful
+transformations of these modified legs we cannot enter.</p>
+
+<p>The muscles are no longer arranged to form a sack as in annelids.
+Transverse muscles, running parallel to the unyielding plates of
+chitin or horn could accomplish nothing. They have largely
+disappeared. The work of locomotion has been transferred from the
+trunk to the legs.</p>
+
+<p>The abdomen of the insect is as clearly composed of distinct
+segments as the body of the annelid. Of these there are perhaps
+typically eleven. The thorax is composed of three segments, distinct
+in the lowest forms, fused in the highest. This fusion of segments
+in the thorax of the highest forms furnishes a very firm framework
+for the attachment of wings and muscles. These wings are a new
+development, and how they arose is still a question. But they give
+the insect the capability of exceedingly rapid locomotion.</p>
+
+<p>The three pairs of jaws, modified legs, in the rear half of the head
+show that this portion is composed of three segments. For only one
+pair of legs is ever developed on a single segment. Embryology has
+shown that the portion of the head in front of the mouth is also
+composed of three segments. Possibly between the pr&aelig;- and post-oral
+portions still another segment should be included, making a total of
+seven in the head. The head has thus been formed by drawing forward
+segments from the trunk, and fusing them successively with the first
+or primitive head segment. This is difficult to conceive of in the
+fully developed insect, where the boundary between head and thorax
+is very sharp. But the ancestors of insects looked more like
+thousand-legs or centipedes, and here head and thorax <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span>are much less
+distinct. But in the annelid the mouth is on the second segment;
+here it is on the fourth. It has evidently travelled backward. That
+the mouth of an animal can migrate seems at first impossible, but if
+we had time to examine the embryology of annelids and insects, it
+would no longer appear inconceivable or improbable. And its backward
+migration brought it among the legs which were grasping and chewing
+the food. And in vertebrates the mouth has changed its position,
+though not in exactly the same way. Our present mouth is probably
+not at all the mouth of the primitive ancestor of vertebrates. Thus
+in the insect three segments have fused around the mouth, and three,
+possibly four, in front of it. This makes a head worthy of the name.
+The ganglia of the three post-oral segments, which bear the jaws,
+have fused in one compound ganglion innervating the mouth and jaws.
+Those of the three pr&aelig;-oral segments have fused to form a brain.
+Eyes are well developed, giving images sometimes accurate in detail,
+sometimes very rude. Ears are not uncommon. The sense of smell is
+often keen.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the greatest advance of the insect is its adaptation to land
+life. This gives it a larger supply of oxygen than any aquatic
+animal could ever obtain. This itself stimulates every function, and
+all the work of the body goes on more energetically. Then the heat
+produced is conducted off far less rapidly than in aquatic forms.
+Water is a good conductor of heat, and nearly all aquatic animals
+are cold-blooded. The few which are warm-blooded are protected by a
+thick layer of non-conducting fat. In all land animals, even when
+cold-blooded, the work of the different systems<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span> is aided by the
+longer retention of the heat in the body.</p>
+
+<p>Let us recapitulate. The schematic worm had a body composed of two
+concentric tubes. The outer was composed of the muscles of the body
+covered by the protective integument. The inner tube was the
+alimentary canal with its special muscles. Between these two was the
+perivisceral cavity, filled with nutritive fluid, lymph, and
+furnishing a safe lodging-place for the more delicate viscera. It
+represented fairly the trunk of higher animals.</p>
+
+<p>The annelid added segmentation, and thus greater freedom of motion
+by the parapodia. But the segments were still practically alike. In
+the insect division of labor took place, that is, each group of
+segments was allotted its own special work; and these groups of
+segments were modified in structure to best suit the performance of
+this part of the work of the body. The abdomen was least modified
+and its eleven segments were devoted to digestion, reproduction, and
+excretion&mdash;the old vegetative functions. Three segments were united
+in the thorax; all their energy was turned to locomotion, and the
+insect became thus an exceedingly active, swift animal. The third
+body-region, the head, includes six segments, of which three
+surrounded the mouth and furnished the jaws, while two more were
+crowded or drawn forward in order that their ganglia might be added
+to the old supra&oelig;sophageal ganglion and form a brain. It is
+interesting to note that a form, peripatus, still exists which
+stands almost midway between annelids and insects and has only four
+segments in the head. The formation of the head was thus a gradual
+process, one segment being added after another.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span>In the turbellaria the dominant functions were digestion and
+reproduction, and their organs composed almost the whole body. Here
+only eleven segments at most are devoted to these functions, and
+nine in head and thorax to locomotion and brain. Head and thorax
+have increased steadily in importance, while the abdomen has
+decreased as steadily in number of segments. And the brain is
+increasing thus rapidly because there are now muscles and
+sense-organs of sufficient power to make such a brain of value. And
+this brain perceives not only objects and qualities, but invisible
+relations between these, and this is an advance amounting to a
+revolution. It remembers, and uses its recollections. It is capable
+of learning a little by experience and observation. The A, B, C of
+thinking was probably learned long before the insect's time, and the
+bee shows a fair amount of intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>The line of development which the insect followed was comparatively
+easy and its course probably rapid. Certain crustacea, aquatic
+arthropoda, are among the oldest fossils, and it is possible that
+insects lived on the land before the first fish swam in the sea.
+They had fine structure and powers; and yet during the later
+geologic periods they have scarcely advanced a step, and are now
+apparently at a standstill. They ran splendidly for a time, and then
+fell out of the race. What hindered and stopped them?</p>
+
+<p>One vital defect in their whole plan of organization is evident. The
+external skeleton is admirably suited to animals of small size, but
+only to these. In larger animals living on land it would have to be
+made so heavy as to be unwieldy and no longer economical. Their mode
+of breathing also is fitted only for animals <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span>of small size having
+an external skeleton. Whatever may be our explanation the fact
+remains that insects are always small. This is in itself a
+disadvantage. Very small animals cannot keep up a constant high
+temperature unless the surrounding air is warm, for their radiating
+surface is too large in comparison with their heat-producing mass.
+At the first approach of even cool weather they become chilled and
+sluggish, and must hibernate or die. They are conformed to but a
+limited range of environment in temperature.</p>
+
+<p>But small size is, as a rule, accompanied by an even greater
+disadvantage. It seems to be almost always correlated with short
+life. Why this is so, or how, we do not know. There are exceptions;
+a crow lives as long as a man; or would, if allowed to. But, as a
+rule, the length of an animal's days is roughly proportional to the
+size of its body. And the insect is, as a rule, very short-lived. It
+lives for a few days or weeks, or even months, but rarely outlasts
+the year. It has time to learn but little by experience. The same
+experience must be passed, the same emergency arise and be met, over
+and over again during the lifetime of the same individual if the
+animal is to learn thereby. And intelligence is based upon
+experience. Hence insects can and do possess but a low grade of
+intelligence. But instinct is in many cases habit fixed by heredity
+and improved by selection. The rapid recurrence of successive
+generations was exceedingly favorable to the development of
+instincts, but very unfavorable to intelligence. Insects are
+instinctive, the highest vertebrates intelligent. The future can
+never belong to a tiny animal governed by instincts. Mollusks and
+insects have both failed to reach the goal; another <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span>plan of
+structure than theirs must be sought if the animal kingdom is to
+have a future.</p>
+
+<p>The future belonged to the vertebrate. To begin with less
+characteristic organs the digestive system is much like that of the
+annelid or schematic worm, but with greatly increased glandular and
+absorptive surfaces. The present mouth of nearly all vertebrates is
+probably not primitive. It is almost certainly one of the gill-slits
+of some old ancestor of fish, such as now are used to discharge the
+water which is used for respiration. The jaws are modified branchial
+arches or the cartilaginous or bony rods which in our present fish
+support the fringe of gills. These have formed a pair of exceedingly
+effective and powerful jaws. The reproductive system holds still to
+the old type and shows little if any improvement. The excretory
+organs, kidneys, are composed primitively of nephridial tubes like
+those of the schematic worm or annelid, but immensely increased in
+number, modified, and improved in certain very important
+particulars. The muscles in simplest forms are composed of heavy
+longitudinal bands, especially developed toward the dorsal surface
+of the body to the right and left of the axial skeleton. Locomotion
+was produced by lashing the tail right and left, as still in fish.
+There is improvement in all these organs, except perhaps the
+reproductive, but nothing very new or striking. The great
+improvement from this time on was not to be sought in the vegetative
+organs, or even directly to any great extent in muscles.</p>
+
+<p>The new and characteristic organ was not the vertebral column, or
+series of vertebr&aelig;, or backbone, from which the kingdom has derived
+its name. This was a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span>later production. The primitive skeleton was
+the notochord, still appearing in the embryos of all vertebrates and
+persisting throughout life in fish. This is an elastic rod of
+cartilage, lying just beneath the spinal marrow or nerve-cord, which
+runs backward from the brain. The nerve-centres are therefore here
+all dorsal, and the notochord or skeleton lies between these and the
+digestive or alimentary canal. The skeleton of the clam or snail is
+purely protective and a hindrance to locomotion. That of the insect
+is almost purely locomotive, but external, that of the vertebrate
+purely locomotive and internal. It does not lie outside even of the
+nervous system, although this system especially required, and was
+worthy of, protection. It does not protect even the brain; the skull
+of vertebrates is an after-thought. It is almost the deepest seated
+of all organs. But lying in the central axis of the body it
+furnishes the very best possible attachment for muscles. Around this
+primitive notochord was a layer of connectile tissue which later
+gave rise to the vertebr&aelig; forming our backbone.</p>
+
+<div class="figleft" style="width: 189px;">
+<img src="images/tyler10.jpg" width="189" height="300" alt="10. CROSS-SECTION OF AXIAL SKELETON OF PETROMYZON.
+HERTWIG, FROM HIEDERSHEIM." title="Figure 10" />
+<h5>10. CROSS-SECTION OF AXIAL SKELETON OF PETROMYZON.
+HERTWIG, FROM HIEDERSHEIM.</h5>
+<p class="cap"><i>SS</i>, skeletogenous layer; <i>Ob</i>, <i>Ub</i>, dorsal and ventral processes
+of <i>SS</i>; <i>C</i>, notochord; <i>Cs</i>, sheath of notochord; <i>Ee</i>, elastic
+external layer of sheath; <i>F</i>, fatty tissue; <i>M</i>, spinal marrow;
+<i>P</i>, sheath of <i>M</i>.</p><p class="ar">
+<a href="images/tyler10large.jpg">[<small>LARGER</small>]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The nervous system on the dorsal surface of the notochord consists
+of the brain in the head and the spinal <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span>marrow running down the
+back. The brain of all except the very lowest vertebrates consists
+of four portions: 1. The cerebrum, or cerebral lobes, or simply
+&quot;forebrain,&quot; the seat of consciousness, thought, and will, and from
+which no nerves proceed. Whether the primitive vertebrate had any
+cerebrum is still uncertain. 2. The mid-brain, which sends nerves to
+the eyes, and in this respect reminds us of the brain of insects.
+Its anterior portion appears from embryology to be very primitive.
+3. The small brain, or cerebellum, which in all higher forms is the
+centre for co-ordination of the motions of the body. 4. The medulla,
+which controls especially the internal organs. The spinal marrow, or
+that portion of the nervous system which lies outside of the head,
+is at the same time a great nerve-trunk and a centre for reflex
+action of the muscles of the body. But the development of these
+distinct portions and the division of labor between them must have
+been a long and gradual process.</p>
+
+<p>We have every reason to believe that here, as in insects, the head
+has been formed by annexation of segments from the rump and the
+fusion of their nervous matter with that of the brain. But here,
+instead of only three segments, from nine to fourteen have been
+fused in the head to furnish the material for the brain. Notochord
+and backbone may be the most striking and apparent characteristic of
+vertebrates, but their predominant characteristic is brain. On this
+system they lavished material, giving it from three to four times as
+much as any lower or earlier group had done. They very early set
+apart the cerebral lobes to be the commander-in-chief and centre of
+control for all other nerve-centres. To this all report, and from it
+all directly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span> or indirectly receive orders. It can say to every
+other organ in the body, &quot;Starve that I may live.&quot; It is the seat of
+thought and will. The other portions of the brain report to it what
+they have gathered of vision or sound; it explains the vision or
+song or parable. It is relieved as far as possible from all lower
+and routine work that it may think and remember and govern. The
+vertebrate built for mind, not neglecting the body.</p>
+
+<p>Every trait of vertebrates is a promise of a great future. Its
+internal skeleton gives it the possibility of large size. This gave
+it in time the victory in the struggle with its competitors, as to
+whether it should eat or be eaten. It is vigorous and powerful, for
+all its organs are at the best. It gives the possibility of later,
+on land, becoming warm-blooded, <i>i.e.</i>, of maintaining a constant
+high temperature. It is thus resistant to climate and hardship. In
+time its descendants will face the arctic winter as well as the heat
+of the tropics.</p>
+
+<p>But it has started on the road which leads to mind. The greater size
+is correlated with longer life. The lessons of experience come to it
+over and over again, and it can and must learn them. It is the
+intelligent, remembering, thinking type. The insect had begun to
+peer into the world of invisible and intangible relations, the
+vertebrate will some day see them. This much is prophecied in his
+very structure. He must be heir to an indefinite future.</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p>You have probably noticed that the vertebrate differs greatly from
+all his predecessors. The gulf between him and them is indeed wide
+and deep. His origin and ancestry are yet far from certain. But an
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span>attempt to decipher his past history, though it may lead to no sure
+conclusions, will yet be of use to us. Practically all aquatic
+vertebrates lead a swimming life, neither sessile nor creeping. The
+embryonic development of our appendages leads to the same
+conclusion. We must never forget that the embryonic development of
+the individual recapitulates briefly the history of the development
+of the race. Now the legs and arms, or fore- and hind-legs, of
+higher vertebrates and the corresponding paired fins of fish develop
+in the embryo as portions of a long ridge extending from front to
+rear of the side of the body.</p>
+
+<p>This justifies the inference that the primitive vertebrate ancestor
+had a pair of long fins running along the sides of the body, but
+bending slightly downward toward the rear so as to meet one another
+and continue as a single caudal fin behind the anal opening. Such
+fins, like the feathers of an arrow, could be useful only to keep
+the animal &quot;on an even keel&quot; as it was forced through the water by
+the lateral sweeps of the tail. They would have been useless for
+creeping.</p>
+
+<p>But there is another piece of evidence that he was a free swimming
+form. All vertebrates breathe by gills or lungs, and these are
+modified portions of the digestive system, of the walls of the
+&oelig;sophagus, from which even the lung is an embryonic outgrowth.
+Now practically all invertebrates breathe through modified portions
+of the integument or outer surface of the body, and their gills are
+merely expansions of this. In the annelid they are projections of
+the parapodia, in the mollusk expansions of the skin, where the foot
+or creeping sole joins the body. Why did the vertebrate take a new
+and strange, and, at first sight, disadvantageous <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span>mode of
+breathing? There must have been some good reason for this. The most
+natural explanation would seem to be that he had no projections on
+his outer surface which could develop into gills, and farther, that
+he could not afford to have any. Now projections on the lower
+portion of the sides of the body would be an advantage in creeping,
+but a hindrance in any such mode of swimming as we have described,
+or indeed in any mode of writhing through the water.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, if he lived, not a creeping life on the bottom, but
+swimming in the water above, he would have to live almost entirely
+on microscopic animals and embryos; and these would be most easily
+captured by a current of water brought in at the mouth. The whole
+branchial apparatus in its simplest forms would seem to be an
+apparatus for sifting out the microscopic particles of food and only
+later a purely respiratory apparatus. Moreover, we have seen that
+the parapodia of annelids naturally point to the development of an
+external skeleton, for their muscles are already a part of the
+external body-wall and attached to the already existing horny
+cuticle. The logical goal of their development was the insect.</p>
+
+<p>Now I do not wish to conceal from you that many good zo&ouml;logists
+believe that the vertebrate is descended from annelids; but for this
+and other reasons such a descent appears to me very improbable. It
+would seem far more natural to derive the vertebrate from some free
+swimming form like the schematic worm, whose largest nerve-cord lay
+on the dorsal surface because its branches ran to heavy muscles much
+used in swimming. Later the other nerve-cords degenerated, for such
+a degeneration of nerve-cords is not at all impossible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span> or
+improbable. &quot;No thoroughfare&quot; is often written across paths
+previously followed by blood or nervous impulses, when other paths
+have been found more economical or effective.</p>
+
+<p>But where did the notochord come from? I do not know. It always
+forms in the embryo out of the entoderm or layer which becomes the
+lining of the intestine. Now this is a very peculiar origin for
+cartilage, and the notochord is a very strange cartilage even if we
+have not made a mistake in calling it cartilage at all. My best
+guess would be that it is simply a thickened portion of the upper
+median surface of the intestine to keep the &quot;balls&quot; of digesting
+nutriment or other hard particles in the intestine from &quot;grinding&quot;
+against the nerve-cord as they are crowded along in the process of
+digestion. Once started its elasticity would be a great aid in
+swimming.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Brooks has called attention to the fact that the higher a
+group stands in development, the longer its ancestors have
+maintained a swimming life. Thus we have noticed that the sponges
+were the first to settle; then a little later the mass of the
+c&oelig;lenterates followed their example. But the etenophora, the
+nearest relatives of bilateral animals, have remained free swimming.
+Then the flat worms and mollusks took to a creeping mode of life,
+while the annelids and vertebrates still swam. Then the annelids
+settled to the bottom and crept, and all their descendants remained
+creeping forms. The vertebrates alone remained swimming, and
+probably neither they nor their descendants ever crept until they
+emerged on the land, or as amphibia were preparing for land
+life. If this be true, it is a fact worthy of our most <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span>careful
+consideration. The swimming life would appear to be neither as easy
+nor as economical as the creeping. It is certainly hard to believe
+that food would not have been obtained with less effort and in
+greater abundance at the bottom than in the water above. The
+swimming life gave rise to higher and stronger forms; but did its
+maintenance give immediate advantage in the struggle for existence?
+This is an exceedingly interesting and important question, and
+demands most careful consideration. But we shall be better prepared
+to answer it in a future lecture.</p>
+
+<p>The period of development of mollusks, articulates, and vertebrates,
+is really one. They developed to a certain extent contemporaneously.
+The development of vertebrates was slow, and they were the last to
+appear on the stage of geological history.</p>
+
+<p>You must all have noticed that development, during this period,
+takes on a much more hopeful form than during that described in the
+last chapter. Then digestion and reproduction were dominant. Now
+muscle is of the greatest importance. If this fails of development,
+as in mollusks, the group is doomed to degeneration or at best
+stagnation. But we have seen the dawn of a still higher function. In
+insects and vertebrates the brain is becoming of importance, and
+absorbing more and more material. This is the promise of something
+vastly higher and better. Better sense-organs are appearing, fitted
+to aid in a wider perception of more distant objects. The vertebrate
+has discovered the right path; though a long journey still lies
+before it. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>VERTEBRATES: BACKBONE AND BRAIN</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span>In tracing man's ancestry from fish upward we ought properly to
+describe three or four fish, an amphibian, a reptile, and then take
+up the series of mammalian ancestors. But we have not sufficient
+time for so extended a study, and a simpler method may answer our
+purpose fairly well. Let us fix our attention on the few organs
+which still show the capacity of marked development, and follow each
+one of these rapidly in its upward course.</p>
+
+<p>We must remember that there are changes in the vegetative organs.
+The digestive and excretory systems improve. But this improvement is
+not for the sake of these vegetative functions. Brain and muscle
+demand vastly more fuel, and produce vastly more waste which must be
+removed. At almost the close of the series the reproductive system
+undergoes a modification which is almost revolutionary in its
+results. But we shall find that this modification is necessitated by
+the smaller amount of material which can be spared for this
+function; not by its increasing importance, still less its dominance
+for its own worth. The vertebrate is like an old Roman; everything
+is subordinated to mental and physical power. He is the world
+conqueror.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span>The important changes from fish upward affect the following organs:
+1. The skeleton. A light, solid framework must be developed for the
+body. 2. The appendages start as fins, and end as the legs and arms
+of man. 3. The circulatory and respiratory systems developed so as
+to carry with the utmost rapidity and certainty fuel and oxygen to
+the muscular and nervous high-pressure engines. Or, to change the
+figure, they are the roads along which supplies and munitions can be
+carried to the army suddenly mobilized at any point on the frontier.
+4. Above all, the brain, especially the cerebrum, the crown and goal
+of vertebrate structure. The improvement is now practically
+altogether in the animal organs of locomotion and thought. Still,
+among these animal organs, the lower systems will lead in point of
+time. The brain must to a certain extent wait for the skeleton.</p>
+
+<p>1. The skeleton. The axial skeleton consists, in the lowest fish, of
+the notochord, a cylindrical unsegmented rod of cartilage running
+nearly the length of the body. This is surrounded by a sheath of
+connective tissue, at first merely membranous, later becoming
+cartilaginous or gristly. Pieces of cartilage extend upward over the
+spinal marrow, and downward around the great aortic artery, forming
+the neural and h&aelig;mal arches. These unite with the masses of
+cartilage surrounding the notochord to form cartilaginous vertebr&aelig;,
+which may be stiffened by an infiltration of carbonate of lime. The
+vertebral column of sharks has reached this stage. Then the
+cartilaginous vertebr&aelig; ossify and form a true backbone. I have
+described the process as if it were very simple. But only the
+student of comparative osteology can have any conception<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span> of the
+number of experiments which were tried in different groups before
+the definite mode of forming a bony vertebra was attained. At the
+same time the skull was developing in a somewhat similar manner. But
+the skull is far more complex in origin and undergoes far more
+numerous and important changes than the simpler vertebral column.
+Into its history we have no time to enter.</p>
+
+<p>And what shall we say of bone itself as a mere material or tissue,
+with its admirable lightness, compactness, and flawlessness. And
+every bone in our body is a triumph of engineering architecture. No
+engineer could better recognize the direction of strain and stress,
+and arrange his rods and columns, arches and buttresses, to suitably
+meet them, than these problems are solved in the long bone of our
+thigh. And they must be lengthened while the child is leaping upon
+them. An engineer is justly proud if he can rebuild or lengthen a
+bridge without delaying the passage of a single train. But what
+would he say if you asked him to rebuild a locomotive, while it was
+running even twenty miles an hour? And yet a similar problem had to
+be solved in our bodies.</p>
+
+<p>But the vertebral column is not perfected by fish. The vertebr&aelig; with
+few exceptions are hollow in front and behind, biconcave; and
+between each two vertebr&aelig; there is a large cavity still occupied by
+the notochord. Thus these vertebr&aelig; join one another by their edges,
+like two shallow wine-glasses placed rim to rim. Only gradually is
+the notochord crowded out so that the vertebr&aelig; join by their whole
+adjacent surfaces. Even in highest forms, for the sake of mobility,
+they are united by washer-like disks of cartilage. Biconcave
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>[84]</span>vertebr&aelig; persisted through the oldest amphibia, reptiles, and
+birds. But finally a firm backbone and skull were attained.</p>
+
+<p>2. The appendages. Of these we can say but little. The fish has
+oar-like fins, attached to the body by a joint, but themselves
+unjointed. By the amphibia legs, with the same regions as our own
+and with five toes, have already appeared. The development of the
+leg out of the fin is one of the most difficult and least understood
+problems of vertebrate comparative anatomy. The legs are at first
+weak and scarcely capable of supporting the body. Only gradually do
+they strengthen into the fore- and hind-legs of mammals, or into the
+legs and wings of birds and old flying reptiles.</p>
+
+<p>3. Changes in the circulatory and respiratory systems. The fish
+lives altogether in the water and breathes by gills, but the dipnoi
+among fishes breathes by lungs as well as gills. As long as
+respiration takes place by gills alone, the circulation is simple;
+the blood flows from the heart to the gills, and thence directly all
+over the body; the oxygenated blood from the gills does not return
+directly to the heart. But the blood from the lungs does return to
+the heart; and there at first mixes in the ventricle with the impure
+blood which has returned from the rest of the body. Gradually a
+partition arises in the ventricle, dividing it into a right and left
+half. Thus the two circulations of the venous blood to the lungs,
+and of the oxygenated blood over the body, are more and more
+separated until, in higher reptiles, they become entirely distinct.</p>
+
+<p>As the animal came on land and breathed the air, more completely
+oxygenated blood was carried to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>[85]</span>organs, and their activity was
+greatly heightened. As more and more heat was produced by the
+combustion in muscular and nervous tissues, and less was lost by
+conduction, the temperature of the body rose, and in birds and
+mammals becomes constant several degrees above the highest summer
+temperature of the surrounding air.</p>
+
+<p>The changes in the brain affect mainly the large and small brain.
+The cerebellum increases with the greater locomotive powers of the
+animal. But its development is evidently limited. The large brain,
+or cerebrum, is in fish hardly as heavy as the mid-brain; in
+amphibia the reverse is true. In higher recent reptiles the cerebrum
+would somewhat outweigh all the other portions of the brain put
+together. In mammals it extends upward and backward, has already in
+lower forms overspread the mid-brain, and is beginning to cover the
+small brain. But this was not so in the earliest mammals. Here the
+cerebrum was small, more like that of reptiles. But during the
+tertiary period the large brain began to increase with marvellous
+rapidity. It was very late in arriving at the period of rapid
+development, but it kept on after all the other organs of the body
+had settled down into comparative rest, perhaps retrogression.</p>
+
+<p>We have given thus a rapid sketch in outline of the changes in the
+most characteristic systems between fish and mammals. Some of the
+changes which took place in mammals were along the same lines, but
+one at least is so new and unexpected that this highest class
+demands more careful and detailed examination.</p>
+
+<p>The mammal is a vertebrate. Hence all its organs are at their best.
+But mammals stand, all things <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span>considered, at the head of
+vertebrates. The skeleton is firm and compact. The muscles are
+beautifully moulded and fitted to the skeleton so as to produce the
+greatest effect with the least mass and weight of tissue. The
+sense-organs are keen, and the eye and ear especially delicate, and
+fitted for perception at long range. Yet in all these respects they
+are surpassed by birds. As a mere anatomical machine the bird always
+seems to me superior to the mammal. It is not easy to see why it
+failed, as it has, to reach the goal of possibility of indefinite
+development and dominance in the animal world. Why he stopped short
+of the higher brain development I cannot tell. The fact remains that
+the mammal is pre-eminent in brain power, and that this gave him the
+supremacy.</p>
+
+<p>But mammals came very late to the throne, and the probability of
+their ever gaining it must for ages have appeared very doubtful.
+They seem to have been a fairly old group with a very slow early
+development. Reptiles especially, and even birds, were far more
+precocious than these slower and weaker forms which crept along the
+earth. But reptiles and birds, like many other precocious children,
+soon reached the limit of their development. They had muscle, the
+mammal brain and nerve; the mammal had the staying power and the
+future. Bitter and discouraging must have been the struggle of these
+feeble early mammals with their larger, swifter, and more powerful,
+reptilian relatives. And yet, perhaps, by this very struggle the
+mammal was trained to shrewdness and endurance.</p>
+
+<p>The primitive mammals laid eggs like reptiles or birds. Only two
+genera, echidna and platypus, survive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span> to bear witness of these old
+oviparous groups, and these only in New Zealand. These retain
+several old reptilian characteristics. Their lower position is shown
+also by the fact that the temperature of their bodies is, at least,
+ten degrees Fahrenheit below that of higher mammals. One of these
+carries the egg in a pouch on the ventral surface; the other, living
+largely in water, deposits its eggs in a nest in a burrow in the
+side of the bank of the stream.</p>
+
+<p>After these came the marsupials. In these the eggs develop in a sort
+of uterus; but there is no placenta, in the sense of an organic
+connection between the embryo and the uterus of the mother. The
+young are at birth exceedingly small and feeble. The adult giant
+Kangaroo weighs over one hundred pounds; the young are at birth not
+as large as your thumb. They are placed by the mother in a marsupial
+pouch on her ventral surface, and here nourished till able to care
+for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Pardon a moment's digression. The marsupials, except the opossum,
+are confined to Australia, and the oviparous mammals, or monotremes,
+to New Zealand. Formerly the marsupials, at least, ranged all over
+Europe and Asia, for we have indisputable evidence in their fossil
+remains. But they have survived only in this isolated area, and here
+apparently only because their isolation preserved them from the
+competition with higher forms. If the Australian continent had not
+been thus early cut off from all the rest of the world, the only
+trace of both these lower groups would have been the opossum in
+America and certain peculiarities in the development of the egg in
+higher mammals. This shows us how much weight should be <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span>assigned to
+the formerly popular argument of the &quot;missing links.&quot; The wonder is
+not that so many links are missing, but that any of these primitive
+forms have come down to us. For we see here another proof of the
+fearful extermination of lower forms during the progress of life on
+the globe. It seems as if the intermediate forms were less common
+among these most recent animals than among the older types. This may
+not be true, for it is not easy to compare the gap between two
+mammals with that between two worms or insects, and mistakes are
+very easily made. But it seems as if extermination had done its work
+more ruthlessly among these highest forms than among their humbler
+and lower ancestors. I would not lay much weight on such an opinion;
+but, if true, it has a meaning and is worthy of study.</p>
+
+<p>In higher, true, placental mammals the period of pregnancy is much
+longer, and the young are born in a far higher stage of development,
+or rather, growth. The stage of growth at which the young are born
+differs markedly in different groups. A new-born kitten is a much
+feebler, less developed being than a new-born calf. An embryonic
+appendage, the allantois, used in reptiles and birds for
+respiration, has here been turned to another purpose. It lays itself
+against the walls of the uterus, uterine projections interlock with
+those which it puts forth, and the blood of the mother circulates
+through a host of capillaries separated from those of the blood
+system of the embryo only by the thinnest membrane. This is the
+placenta, developed, in part from the allantois of the embryo, in
+part from the uterus of the mother. It is not a new organ, but an
+old one turned to better and fuller use. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span>In these closely
+associated systems of blood-vessels, nutriment and oxygen diffuse
+from the blood of the mother into that of the embryo, and thus rapid
+growth is assured. The importance and far-reaching effect of this
+new modification in the old reproductive system cannot be
+over-estimated. The internal intra-uterine development of the young,
+and the mammalian habit of suckling them, far more than any other
+factors, have made man what he is. Some explanation must be sought
+for such a fact.</p>
+
+<p>We have already seen that any animal devotes to reproduction the
+balance between income and expenditure of nutriment. Now, the
+digestive system is here well developed, and the income is large.
+But we have already noticed that, as animals grow larger, the ratio
+between the digestive surface and the mass to be supported grows
+continually smaller. On account of size alone the mammal has but a
+small balance. But the amount of expenditure is proportional to the
+mass and activity of the muscular and nervous systems. And the
+mammal is, and from the beginning had to be, an exceedingly active,
+energetic, and nervous animal. The income has increased, but the
+expenses have far outrun the increase. The mammal can devote but
+little to reproduction.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, it requires a large amount of material to form a mammalian
+egg, such as that of the monotreme. It requires indefinitely more
+nutriment to build a mammal than a worm, for the former is not only
+larger and more perfect at birth; it is also vastly more
+complicated. The embryonic journey has, so to speak, lengthened out
+immensely. One monotreme egg represents more economy and saving than
+a thousand <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span>eggs of a worm. Moreover, where the individuals are
+longer lived and the generations follow one another at longer
+intervals, the number of favorable variations and the possibility of
+conformity to environment through these is greatly lessened. In such
+a group it is of the utmost importance that every egg should
+develop; the destruction of a single one is a real and important
+loss to the species. It is not enough to produce such an egg; it
+must be most scrupulously guarded. Even the egg of the platypus is
+deposited in a nest in a hole in the bank, and the female Echidna
+carries the egg in a marsupial pouch until it develops.</p>
+
+<p>Notice further that among certain species of fish, amphibia, and
+reptiles, the females carry the eggs in the body until the embryos
+or young are fairly developed. Viviparous forms are unknown by
+birds, probably because this mode of development is incompatible
+with flight, their dominant characteristic. Putting these facts
+together, what more probable than that certain primitive egg-laying
+mammals should have carried the eggs as long as possible in the
+uterus. The embryo under these conditions would be better nourished
+by a secretion of the uterine glands than by a very large amount of
+yolk. The yolk would diminish and the egg decrease in size, and thus
+the marsupial mode of development would have resulted. And, given
+the marsupial mode of development and an embryo possessing an
+allantois, it is almost a physiological necessity that in some forms
+at least a placenta should develop. That the placenta has resulted
+from some such process of evolution is proven by its different
+stages of development in different orders of mammals. And even the
+feeblest attachment of the allantois of the embryo to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span>the wall of
+the uterus would be of the greatest advantage to the species.</p>
+
+<p>This is not the whole explanation; other factors still undiscovered
+were undoubtedly concerned. But even this shows us that the internal
+development of the young and the habit of suckling them was a
+logical result of mammalian structure and position. The grand
+results of this change we shall trace farther on.</p>
+
+<p>The changes from the lower true mammals to the apes are of great
+interest, but we can notice only one or two of the more important.
+The prosimii, or &quot;half apes,&quot; including the lemurs, are nearly all
+arboreal forms. Perhaps they were driven to this life by their more
+powerful competitors. The arboreal life developed the fingers and
+toes, and most of these end, not with a claw, but with a nail. The
+little group has much diversity of structure, and at present finds
+its home mainly in Madagascar; though in earlier times apparently
+occurring all over the globe. The brain is more highly developed
+than in the average mammal, but far inferior to that of the apes.
+They have a fairly opposable thumb.</p>
+
+<p>The highest mammals are the primates. Their characteristics are the
+following: Fingers and toes all armed with nails, the eyes
+comparatively near together and fully enclosed in a bony case. The
+cerebrum with well-developed furrows covers the other portions of
+the brain. There is but one pair of milk-glands, and these on the
+breast. The differences between hand and foot become most strongly
+marked by the &quot;anthropoid&quot; apes. These have become accustomed to an
+upright gait in their climbing; hence the feet are used for
+supporting the body and the hands for grasping. Both <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span>thumb and
+great toe are opposable; but the foot is a true foot, and the hand a
+true hand, in anatomical structure. The face, hands, and feet have
+mainly lost the covering of hair. They have no tail, or rather its
+rudiments are concealed beneath the skin. These include the gibbon,
+the orang, the gorilla, and the chimpanzee.</p>
+
+<p>We can sum up the few attainments of mammals in a line. The lower
+forms attained the placental mode of embryonic development; the
+higher attained upright gait, hands and feet, and a great increase
+of brain. Anatomically considered these were but trifles, but the
+addition of these trifles revolutionized life on the globe. The
+principal anatomical differences between man and the anthropoid ape
+are the following: Man is a strictly erect animal. The foot of the
+ape is less fitted for walking on the ground, where he usually &quot;goes
+on all fours.&quot; The skull is almost balanced on the condyles by which
+it articulates with the neck, and has but slight tendency to tip
+forward. The facial portion, nose and jaws, is less developed and
+retracted beneath the larger cranium or brain-case. This has greatly
+changed the appearance of the head. Protruding jaws and chin, even
+when combined with large cranium and brain, always give man the
+appearance of brutality and low intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>The pelvis is broad and comparatively shallow. The legs, especially
+the thighs, are long. The foot is long and strong, and rests its
+lower surface, not merely the outer margin as in apes, on the
+ground. The elastic arch of the instep must be excepted in the above
+description, and adds lightness and swiftness to his otherwise slow
+gait. The great toe is short and generally <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span>not opposable. The
+muscles of the leg are heavy and the knee-joint has a very broad
+articulating surface. But the great result of man's erect posture is
+that the hand is set free from the work of locomotion, and has
+become a delicate tactile and tool-using organ. The importance of
+this change we cannot over-estimate. The hand was the servant of the
+brain for trying all experiments. Had not our arboreal ancestors
+developed the hand for us we could never have invented tools nor
+used them if invented. And its reflex influence in developing the
+brain has been enormous. The arm is shorter and the hand smaller.
+The brain is absolutely and relatively large, and its surface
+greatly convoluted. This gives place for a large amount of &quot;gray
+matter,&quot; whose functions are perception, thought, and will. For this
+gray matter forms a layer on the outside of the brain.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, even anatomically, man differs from the anthropoid apes. His
+whole structure is moulded to and by the higher mental powers, so
+that he is the &quot;Anthropos&quot; of the old Greek philosophers, the being
+who &quot;turns his face upward.&quot; Yet in all these anatomical respects
+some of the apes differ less from him than from the lower apes or
+&quot;half apes.&quot; And every one of these can easily be explained as the
+result of progressive development and modification. Whoever will
+deny the possibility or probability of man's development from some
+lower form must argue on psychological, not on anatomical, grounds;
+and it grows clearer every day that even the former but poorly
+justify such a denial.</p>
+
+<p>But it is interesting to note that no one ape most closely
+approaches man in all anatomical respects. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span>Thus among the
+anthropoids the orang is perhaps most similar to man in cerebral
+structure, the chimpanzee in form of skull, the gorilla in feet and
+hands. No evolutionist would claim that any existing ape represents
+the ancestor of man. The anthropoids represent very probably the
+culmination of at least three distinct lines of development. But we
+must remember that in early tertiary times apes occurred all over
+Europe, and probably Asia, many degrees farther north than now. In
+those days, as later, the fauna and flora of northern climates were
+superior in vigor and height of development to that of Africa or
+Australia. It is thus, to say the least, not at all improbable that
+there existed in those times apes considerably, if not far, superior
+to any surviving forms. Whether the pal&aelig;ontologist will find for us
+remains of such anthropoids is still to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>But you will naturally ask, &quot;Is there not, after all, a vast
+difference between the brain of man and that of the ape?&quot; Let us
+examine this question as fully as our very brief time will allow.
+Considerable emphasis used to be laid on the facial angle between a
+line drawn parallel to the base of the skull and one obliquely
+vertical touching the teeth and most prominent portion of the
+forehead. Now this angle is in man very large&mdash;from seventy-five to
+eighty-five degrees, or even more, and rarely falling below
+sixty-five degrees. But this angle depends largely on the protrusion
+of the jaws, and varies greatly in species of animals showing much
+the same grade of intelligence. In some not especially intelligent
+South American monkeys the facial angle amounts to about sixty-five
+degrees. In this respect the skull of a chimpanzee reminds us of a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span>human skull of small cranial capacity and large jaws, in which the
+cranium has been pressed back and the jaws crowded forward and
+slightly upward.</p>
+
+<p>The weight of the brain in proportion to that of the body has been
+considered as of great importance, and within certain limits this is
+undoubtedly correct. Thus, according to Leuret, the weight of the
+brain is to that of the whole body: In fish, 1:5,668; in reptiles,
+1:1,320; in birds, 1:212; in mammals, 1:186. These figures give the
+averages of large numbers of observations and have a certain
+amount of value. But within the same class the ratio varies
+extraordinarily. Thus the weight of the brain is to that of the
+whole body: In the elephant, 1:500; in the largest dogs, 1:305; in
+the cat, 1:156; in the rat, 1:76; in the chimpanzee, 1:50; in man,
+1:36; in the field-mouse, 1:31; in the goldfinch, 1:24.</p>
+
+<p>From this series it is evident that the relative weight of the brain
+is no index of the intelligence of the animal. Indeed if the brain
+were purely an organ of mind, there is no reason that it should be
+any larger in an elephant than in a mouse, provided they had the
+same mental capacity. As animals grow larger the weight of the
+brain, relatively to that of the body, decreases, and considering
+the size of man it is remarkable that it should form so large a
+fraction of his weight. Still the fraction in the chimpanzee is not
+so much smaller. It is still possible that this fraction is above
+the normal for the chimpanzee, for some of the observations may have
+been taken on animals which had died of consumption or some other
+wasting disease. I have not been able to find whether this
+possibility of error has been scrupulously avoided.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span>A fair idea of the size of the brain may be obtained by measuring
+the cranial capacity. This varies in man from almost one-hundred
+cubic inches to less than seventy. In the gorilla its average is
+perhaps thirty, in the orang and chimpanzee rather less, about
+twenty-eight. This is certainly a vast difference, especially when
+we remember that the gorilla far exceeds man in weight.</p>
+
+<p>Le Bon tells us that of a series of skulls forty-five per cent, of
+the Australian had a cranial capacity of 1,200 to 1,300 c.c., while
+46.7 per cent. of modern Parisian skulls showed a capacity of
+between 1,500 and 1,600 c.c. The skull of the gorilla contains about
+five hundred and seventy cubic centimetres. Broca found that the
+cranial capacity of 115 Parisian skulls, of probably the higher
+classes from the twelfth century, averaged about 1,426 cubic
+centimetres, while ninety of those of the poorer classes of the
+nineteenth century averaged about 1,484. His observations seemed to
+prove that there has been a steady increase in Parisian cranial
+capacity from the twelfth to the nineteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>Turning to the actual weight of the brain, that of Cuvier weighed
+64.5 ounces, and a few cases of weights exceeding 65 ounces have
+been recorded. The lowest limit of weight in a normal human brain
+has not yet been accurately determined. From 34 to 31 ounces have
+been assigned by different writers. The brain of a Bush woman was
+computed by Marshall at 31.5 ounces, and weights of even 31 ounces
+have been recorded without any note to show that the possessors were
+especially lacking in intelligence. As Professor Huxley says in his
+&quot;Man's Place in Nature,&quot; a little <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span>book which I cannot too highly
+recommend to you all, &quot;It may be doubted whether a healthy human
+adult brain ever weighed less than 31 or 32 ounces, or that the
+heaviest gorilla brain has ever exceeded 20 ounces. The difference
+in weight of brain between the highest and the lowest men is far
+greater, both relatively and absolutely, than that between the
+lowest man and the highest ape. The latter, as has been seen, is
+represented by 12 ounces of cerebral substance absolutely, or by
+32:20 relatively. But as the largest recorded human brain weighed
+between 65 and 66 ounces, the former difference is represented by 33
+ounces absolutely, or by 65:32 relatively.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But there is another characteristic of the brain which seems to bear
+a close relation to the degree of intelligence. The surface of the
+human brain is not smooth but covered with convolutions, with
+alternating grooves or sulci, which vastly increase its surface and
+thus make room for more gray matter. Says Gratiolett: &quot;On comparing
+a series of human and simian brains we are immediately struck with
+the analogy exhibited in the cerebral forms in all these creatures.
+There is a cerebral form peculiar to man and the apes; and so in the
+cerebral convolutions, wherever they appear, there is a general
+unity of arrangement, a plan, the type of which is common to all
+these creatures.&quot; Professor Huxley says: &quot;It is most remarkable
+that, as soon as all the principal sulci appear, the pattern
+according to which they are arranged is identical with the
+corresponding sulci in man. The surface of the brain of the monkey
+exhibits a sort of skeleton map of man's, and in the man-like apes
+the details become more and more filled in, until it is only in
+minor <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span>characters that the chimpanzee's or orang's brain can be
+structurally distinguished from man's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The facts of anatomy, at least, are all against us. Struggle as we
+may, be as snobbish as we will, we cannot shake off these poor
+relations of ours. Our adult anatomy at once betrays our ancestry,
+if we attempt to deny it. Read the first chapter of that remarkable
+book by Professor Drummond on the &quot;Ascent of Man,&quot; the chapter on
+the ascent of the body, and the second chapter on the scaffolding
+left in the body. The tips of our ears and our rudimentary ear
+muscles, the hair on hand and arm, and the little plica semilunaris,
+or rudimentary third eyelid in the inner angle of our eyes, the
+vermiform appendage of the intestine, the coracoid process on our
+shoulder-blades, the atlas vertebra of our necks&mdash;to say nothing of
+the coccyx at the other end of the backbone&mdash;many malformations, and
+a host of minor characteristics all refute our denial.</p>
+
+<p>If we appeal from adult anatomy to embryology the case becomes all
+the worse for us. Our ear is lodged in the gill-slit of a fish, our
+jaws are branchial arches, our hyoid bone the rudiment of this
+system of bones supporting the gills. Our circulation begins as a
+veritable fish circulation; our earliest skeleton is a notochord;
+Meckel's cartilage, from which our lower jaw and the bones of our
+middle ear develop, is a whole genealogical tree of disagreeable
+ancestors. Our glandula thyreoidea has, according to good
+authorities, an origin so slimy that it should never be mentioned in
+polite society. The origin of our kidneys appears decidedly vermian.
+Time fails me to read merely the name of the witnesses which could
+be summoned from our own bodies to witness against us.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span>Even if the testimony of some of these witnesses is not as strong
+as many think, and we have misunderstood several of them, they are
+too numerous and their stories hang too well together not to impress
+an intelligent and impartial jury. But what if it is all true? What
+if, as some think, our millionth cousin, the tiger or cat, is
+anatomically a better mammal than I? His teeth and claws and
+magnificent muscles are of small value compared with man's mental
+power.</p>
+
+<p>What a comedy that man should work so hard to prove that his chief
+glory is his opposable thumb, or a few ounces of brain matter! Man's
+glory is his mind and will, his reason and moral powers, his vision
+of, and communion with, God. And supposing it be true, as I believe
+it is true, that the animal has the germ of these also, does that
+cloud my mind or obscure my vision or weaken my action? It bids me
+only strive the harder to be worthy of the noble ancestors who have
+raised me to my higher level and on whose buried shoulders I stand.
+Whatever may have been our origin, whoever our ancestors, we are
+men. Then let us play the man. If we will but play our part as well
+as our old ancestors played theirs, if we will but walk and act
+according to our light one-half as heroically and well as they
+groped in the darkness, we need not worry about the future. That
+will be assured.</p>
+
+<p>Says Professor Huxley: &quot;Man now stands as on a mountain-top far
+above the level of his humble fellows, and transfigured from his
+grosser nature by reflecting here and there a ray from the infinite
+source of truth. And thoughtful man, once escaped from the blinding
+influences of traditional prejudice, will find in the lowly stock
+whence man has sprung the best evidence of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>[100]</span>splendor of his
+capacities, and will discern in his long progress through the past a
+reasonable ground of faith in his attainment of a nobler future.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>We have sketched hastily and in rude outline the anatomical
+structure of the successive stages of man's ancestry; let us now, in
+a very brief recapitulation, condense this chronicle into a
+historical record of progress.</p>
+
+<p>We began with the am&oelig;ba. This could not have been the beginning.
+In all its structure it tells us of something earlier and far
+simpler, but what this earlier ancestor was we do not know. Rather
+more highly organized relatives of the am&oelig;ba, the flagellata,
+have produced a membrane, and swim by means of vibratile,
+whiplash-like flagella. We must emphasize that these little animals
+correspond in all essential respects to the cells of our bodies;
+they are unicellular animals. And the cell once developed remains
+essentially the same structure, modified only in details, throughout
+higher animals. And these unicellular animals have the rudiments of
+all our functions. Their protoplasm and functions seem to differ
+from those of higher animals only in degree, not in kind. And the
+more we consider both these facts the more remarkable and suggestive
+do they become.</p>
+
+<p>Cells with membranes can unite in colonies capable of division of
+labor and differentiation. And magosph&aelig;ra is just such a little
+spheroidal colony. But the cells are still all alike, each one
+performs all functions equally well. But in volvox division of labor
+and differentiation of structure have taken place. Certain cells
+have become purely reproductive, while the rest gather nutriment for
+these, but are at the same time sensitive and locomotive, excretory
+and respiratory. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>[101]</span>The first function to have cells specially devoted
+to it is the reproductive; this is a function absolutely necessary
+for the maintenance of the species. For the nutritive cells die when
+they have brought the reproductive cells to their full development.
+These few nutritive cells represent the body of all higher animals
+in contrast with the reproductive elements. And with the development
+of a body, death, as a normal process, enters the world. The
+dominant function is here evidently the reproductive, and the whole
+body is subservient to this.</p>
+
+<p>In hydra the union and differentiation of cells is carried further.
+But the cells are still much alike and only slowly lose their own
+individuality in that of the whole animal. This is shown in the fact
+that each entodermal cell digests its own particles of food,
+although the nutriment once digested diffuses to all parts of the
+body. Also almost any part of the animal containing both ectoderm
+and entoderm can be cut off and will develop into a new animal.</p>
+
+<p>But beside the reproductive cells and tissues hydra has developed a
+very simple digestive system, in which the newly caught food at
+least macerates and begins to be dissolved. This is the second
+essential function. The animal can, and the plant as a rule does,
+exist with only the lowest rudiments of anything like nervous or
+muscular power; but no species can exist without good powers of
+digestion and reproduction. These essential organs must first
+develop and the higher must wait. And the inner, digestive, layer of
+cells persists in our bodies as the lining of the mid-intestine. We
+compared hydra therefore to a little patch of the lining of our
+intestine covered with a flake <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span>of epidermis; only these layers in
+hydra possess powers lost to the corresponding cells of our bodies
+in the process of differentiation. Notice, please, that when cell or
+organ has once been developed it persists, as a rule, modified, but
+not lost. Nature's experiments are not in vain; her progress is very
+slow but sure. But hydra has also the promise of better things,
+traces of muscular and nervous tissue. There are still no compact
+muscles, like our own, much less ganglion or brain or nerve-centre
+of individuality. The tissues are diffuse, but they are the
+materials out of which the organs of higher animals will
+crystallize, so to speak. Notice also that these higher muscles and
+nerves are here entirely subservient to, and exist for, digestion
+and reproduction.</p>
+
+<p>In the turbellaria the reproductive system has reached a very high
+grade of development. It is a complex and beautifully constructed
+organ. The digestive system has also vastly improved; it has its own
+muscular layers, and often some means of grasping food. But it is
+slower in reaching its full development than the reproductive
+system. But all the muscles are no longer attached to the stomach;
+they are beginning to assert their independence, and, in a rude way,
+to build a body-wall. But they are in many layers, and run in almost
+all directions. Some of these layers will disappear, but the most
+important ones, consisting of longitudinal and transverse fibres,
+will persist in higher forms. Locomotion by means of these muscles
+is slowly coming into prominence. They are no longer merely slaves
+of digestion.</p>
+
+<p>But a muscular fibril contracts only under the stimulus of a nervous
+impulse. More nerve-cells are necessary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span> to control these more
+numerous muscular fibrils. The animal now moves with one end
+foremost, and that end first comes in contact with food, hindrances,
+or injurious surroundings. Here the sensory cells of feeling and
+their nerve fibrils multiply. Remember that these neuro-epithelial
+sensory cells are suited to respond not merely to pressure, but to a
+variety of the stimuli, chemical, molecular, and of vibration, which
+excite our organs of smell, taste, and hearing. Such organs and the
+directive eyes appear mainly at this anterior end. But a ganglion
+cell sends an impulse to a muscle because it has received one along
+a sensory nerve from one or more of these sensory cells. Hence the
+ganglion cells will increase in number. The old cobweb-like plexus
+condenses into a little knot, the supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion. This
+ganglion cannot do much, if any, thinking; it is rather a steering
+organ to control the muscles and guide the animal. It is the servant
+of the locomotive system. Yet it is the beginning of the brain of
+higher animals, and probably still persists as an infinitesimal
+portion of our human brain. And all this is the prophecy of a head
+soon to be developed. An excretory system has appeared to carry off
+the waste of the muscles and nerves.</p>
+
+<p>In the schematic worm and annelid the reproductive system is
+simpler, though perhaps equally effective. It takes the excess of
+nutriment of the body. The muscular system has taken the form of a
+sack composed of longitudinal and transverse fibres. The
+perivisceral cavity, formed perhaps by cutting off and enlarging the
+lateral pouches of the turbellarian digestive system, serves as a
+very simple but serviceable circulatory system. But in the annelid
+and all higher forms a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span>special system of tubes has developed to
+carry the nutriment, and usually oxygen also, needed to keep up the
+combustion required to furnish the energy in these active organs.
+The digestive system has attained its definite form with the
+appearance of an anal opening and the accompanying division of labor
+and differentiation into fore-, mid-, and hind-intestine.</p>
+
+<p>The digestive and reproductive systems have thus nearly attained
+their final form. From the higher worms upward the digestive system
+will improve greatly. Its lining will fold and flex and vastly
+increase the digestive and absorptive surfaces. The layer of cells
+which now secrete the digestive fluids will in part be replaced by
+massive glands. Far better means of grasping food than the horny
+teeth of annelids will yet appear. But all these changes are
+inconsiderable compared with the vast advance made by the muscular
+and nervous systems. Reproduction and digestion are losing their
+supremacy in the animal body. Their advance and improvement will
+require but little further attention.</p>
+
+<p>In the annelid especially, and to some extent in the schematic worm,
+the supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion is relieved in part of the direct
+control of the muscular fibrils and has become an organ of
+perception and the seat of government of lower nervous centres. In
+all higher forms it innervates directly only the principal
+sense-organs of the head. And at this stage the light-perceiving
+directive eye has developed into a form-perceiving, eidoscopic
+organ. The eye was short of range and its images were perhaps rude
+and imperfect, but it was a visual eye and had vast possibilities.
+The animal is taking cognizance of ever more subtle elements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span> in its
+environment. Perhaps it is not too much to say that the eidoscopic
+eye first awakened the slumbering animal mind, for its reflex effect
+upon the supra-&oelig;sophageal ganglion cannot be over-estimated. The
+animal will very soon begin to think.</p>
+
+<p>Between the turbellarian and the annelid many aberrant lines
+diverged. Some of these attained a comparatively high level and then
+seemed to meet insuperable obstacles, while others came to an end or
+turned downward very early. Three of these demanded attention, those
+leading to mollusks, insects, and vertebrates. And it is interesting
+to notice that the fundamental difference between these three lines
+was the skeleton, or perhaps we ought to say it was the habit of
+life which led to the development of such a skeleton.</p>
+
+<p>The mollusk took to a sluggish, creeping mode of life, under an
+external purely protective skeleton; the insect to a creeping mode
+of life, with an external but almost purely locomotive skeleton; the
+vertebrate kept on swimming and developed an internal locomotive
+skeleton. And it must already have become clear to you that the
+destiny of these different lines was fixed not so much directly by
+the skeleton itself as by its reflex effect in moulding the
+muscular, and ultimately the nervous, system.</p>
+
+<p>The insects formed their skeleton by thickening the horny cuticle of
+the annelid. They transformed the annelid parapodia into legs and
+developed wings. They attained life in the air. They devoted the
+muscles of the body largely to the extremities and gained swift
+locomotion. They have a fair circulatory and an excellent
+respiratory system. Best of all, they developed a head and a brain
+by fusing the three anterior <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span>ganglia of the body. The insect could
+and does think. Such a structure ought to lead to great and high
+results. But actually their possibilities were very limited. They
+have not progressed markedly during the last geological period.
+Their external skeleton was easily attained and brought speedy
+advantages, which for a time placed them far above all competitors.
+But it limited their size and length of life and opportunities, and
+finally their intelligence. They remained largely the slaves of
+instinct. They followed an attractive and exceedingly promising
+path, but it led to the bottom of a cliff, not to the summit.</p>
+
+<p>The mollusks, clams, and snails took an easier, down-hill road. They
+formed a shell, and it developed large enough to cover them. It
+hampered and almost destroyed locomotion and reduced nerve to a
+minimum. But nerves are nothing but a nuisance anyhow. And why
+should they move? Food was plenty down in the mud, and if danger
+threatened, they withdrew into the shell. They stayed down in the
+mud and let the world go its way. If grievously afflicted by a
+parasite they produced a pearl&mdash;to save themselves from further
+discomfort. They developed just enough muscle and nervous system to
+close the shell or drag it a little way; that was all. Digestion and
+reproduction retained the supremacy. They were fruitful and
+multiplied, and produced hosts of other clams and snails. The
+present was enough for them and they had that.</p>
+
+<p>For if the winner in the struggle for existence is the one who gains
+the most food, the most entire protection against discomfort, danger
+from enemies or unfavorable surroundings, and the most fruitful and
+rapid reproduction&mdash;and these are all good&mdash;then the clam <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span>is the
+highest product of evolution. It never has been surpassed&mdash;I venture
+to say it never can be&mdash;except possibly by the tape-worms. I can
+never help thinking with what contempt these primitive oysters, if
+they had had brains enough, would have looked down upon the toiling,
+struggling, discontented, fighting, aspiring primitive vertebrates.
+How they would have wondered why God allowed such disagreeable,
+disturbing, unconventional creatures to exist, and thanked him that
+he had made the world for them, and heaven too, if there be such a
+place for mollusks. Their road led to the Slough of Contentment.</p>
+
+<p>But even in molluscan history there was a tragic chapter. The squids
+and cuttle-fishes regained the swimming life, and in their latest
+forms gave up the protective shell. But its former presence had so
+modified their structure that any great advance was impossible. It
+was too late. The sins of the fathers were visited upon the children
+in the thousandth generation.</p>
+
+<p>The vertebrate developed an internal skeleton. This was necessarily
+a slow growth, and the type came late to supremacy. The longitudinal
+muscles are arranged in heavy bands on each side of the back, and
+the animal swims rapidly. The sense-organs are keen. The brain
+contains the ganglia of several or many segments and is highly
+differentiated. It has a special centre of perception, thought, and
+will; it is an organ of mind. The vertebrate has the physical and
+mental advantages of large size.</p>
+
+<p>First the definite form and mode of developing a vertebra is
+attained. Then the vertebral column is perfected. The fins are
+modified into legs. The lungs increase in size and the heart becomes
+double. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span>The animal emerges on land; and, with a better supply of
+oxygen and less loss of heat, all the functions are performed with
+the highest possible efficiency. First, apparently, amphibia, then
+reptiles, and finally mammals of enormous size and strength
+appeared. It looked as if the earth were to be an arena where
+gigantic beasts fought a never-ending battle of brute force. But
+these great brutes reproduced slowly, had therefore little power of
+adaptation, were fitted to special conditions, and when the
+conditions changed they disappeared. The bird tried once more the
+experiment of developing the locomotive powers to the highest
+possible extent. It became a flying machine, and every organ was
+moulded to suit this life. Every ounce of spare weight was thrown
+aside, the muscles were wonderfully arranged and of the highest
+possible efficiency. The body temperature is higher than that of
+mammals. The whole organization is a physiological high-pressure
+engine. The sense-organs are perhaps the finest and keenest in the
+whole animal kingdom. The brain is inferior only to that of mammals.
+The experiment could not have been tried under more favorable
+conditions; it was not a failure, it certainly was not a success
+when compared with that of mammals.</p>
+
+<p>The possibilities of every system except one had been practically
+exhausted. Only brain development remained as the last hope of
+success. Here was an untried line, and the mammals followed it.
+During the short tertiary period the brain in many of their genera
+seems to have increased tenfold. By the arboreal life of the highest
+forms the hand is developed as the instrument of the thinking brain.
+The battle is beginning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span> to become one of wits, and the crown will
+soon pass from the strongest to the shrewdest. Mind, not muscle,
+much less digestion or reproduction, is the goal of the animal
+kingdom. And we shall see later that the mammalian mode of
+reproduction and of care of the young led to an almost purely mental
+and moral advance. For these could have but one logical outcome,
+family life. And the family is the foundation of society. And family
+and social life have been the school in which man has been compelled
+to learn the moral lessons, the application of which has made him
+what he is.</p>
+
+<p>You must all, I think, have noticed that the different systems of
+organs succeed one another in a certain definite order; and that
+each stage from the lowest to the highest is characterized by the
+predominance of a certain function or group of functions. This
+sequence of functions is not a deduction but a fact. Place side by
+side all possible genealogical trees of the animal kingdom, whether
+founded on comparative anatomy, embryology, pal&aelig;ontology, or all
+combined. They will all disclose this sequence of functions arranged
+in the same order. Let me call your attention to the fact that this
+order is not due to chance, but rests upon a physiological basis. We
+might almost claim that if the evolution of man from the single cell
+be granted, no other order of their occurrence is possible.</p>
+
+<p>The protozoa are mostly, though not purely, nutritive and
+reproductive. These functions are essential to the existence of the
+species. Naturally in the early protozoan colonies, and in forms
+like hydra, these functions predominated. But mere digestive tissue
+is not enough for digestion. Muscles are needed to draw the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span>food to
+the mouth, to keep the digestive sack in contact with it, and for
+other purposes. A little higher they are used to enable the animal
+to go in search of its food. They are still, however, more or less
+entirely subservient to digestion. But in the highest worms we are
+beginning to see signs that muscles are predominating in the body;
+and we feel that, while mutually helpful, the digestive system
+exists for the muscles, and these latter are becoming the aim of
+development. From worms upward there is a marked advance in physical
+activity and strength. The muscles thicken and are arranged in
+heavier bands. Skeleton and locomotive appendages and jaws follow in
+insects and vertebrates. The direct battle of animal against animal,
+and of strength opposed to strength or activity, becomes ever
+sharper. The strongest and most active are selected and survive.</p>
+
+<p>And yet this is not the whole truth. Some power of perception is
+possessed by every animal. But until muscles had developed the
+nervous system could be of but little practical value. Knowledge of
+even a great emergency is of little use, if I can do nothing about
+it. But when the muscles appeared, nerves and ganglion cells were
+necessary to stimulate and control them. And this highest system
+holds for a long time a position subordinate to that of the lower
+muscular organ. Its development seems at first sight extraordinarily
+slow. Only in insects and vertebrates has it become a centre of
+instinct and thought. Through the sense-organs it is gaining an ever
+clearer, deeper, and wider knowledge of its environment. First it is
+affected only by the lower stimuli of touch, taste, and smell. Then
+with the development of ear and eye it takes <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span>cognizance of ever
+subtler forces and movements. Memory comes into activity very early.
+The animal begins to learn by experience. The brain is becoming not
+merely a steering but a thinking organ. More and more nervous
+material is crowded into it and detailed for its work. Wits and
+shrewdness are beginning to count for something in the battle. Not
+only the animal with the strongest muscles, but the one with the
+best brain survives. And thus at last the brain began to develop
+with a rapidity as remarkable as its long delay. Thus each higher
+function is called into activity by the next lower, serves this at
+first, and only later attains its supremacy.</p>
+
+<p>And yet the advance of the different functions is not altogether
+successive. Muscle and nerve do not wait for digestion and
+reproduction to show signs of halting before they begin to advance.
+They all advance at once. But the progress of reproduction and
+digestion is most rapid at first, and it appears as if they would
+outrun the others. But in the ascending series the others follow
+after, and soon overtake and pass by them. And these lower
+functions, when out-marched, do not lag behind, but keep in touch
+with the others, forming the rear-guard and supply-train of the
+army. And notice that each organ holds the predominance about as
+long as it shows the power of rapid improvement. The length of its
+reign is pretty closely proportional to its capacity of development.
+The digestive system reaches that limit early, the muscular system
+is capable of indefinitely higher complexity, as we see in our hand.
+But the muscular system has nearly or quite reached its limit. The
+body had seen its day of dominance before man arrived on the globe.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span>But where is the limit to man's mental or moral powers? Every
+upward step in knowledge, wisdom, and righteousness only opens our
+eyes to greater heights, before unperceived and still to be
+attained. 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, <i>must</i> 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HISTORY OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS SEQUENCE OF FUNCTIONS</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span>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
+huge reptiles, or mammals of enormous strength, and by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span>birds of
+exceeding swiftness. This portion of our history covers the era of
+muscular activity.</p>
+
+<p>But these huge brutes are mostly doomed to extinction, and the bird
+fails of supremacy in the animal kingdom. &quot;The race is not to the
+swift, nor the battle to the strong.&quot; All the time another system
+has been slowly developing. The complicated nervous system has
+required ages for its construction and arrangement. Only in the
+highest mammals does the brain assert its right to supremacy. But
+once established on its throne the brain reigns supreme; its right
+is challenged by no other organ. The possibilities of all the other
+organs, <i>as supreme rulers</i>, have been exhausted. Each one has been
+thoroughly tested, and its inadequacy proven beyond doubt by actual
+experiment. These formerly supreme lower organs must serve the
+higher. The age of man's existence on the globe is, and must remain,
+the era of mind. For the mind alone has an inexhaustible store of
+possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>The development of all these systems is simultaneous. From the very
+beginning all the functions have been represented, all the systems
+have been gradually advancing. Hydra has a nervous system just as
+really as man. It has no brain, but it has the potentiality and
+promise of one, and is taking the necessary steps toward its
+attainment. But while the development of all is simultaneous, their
+culmination and supremacy is successive, first stomach and muscle,
+then brain and mind. That was not first which is spiritual, but that
+which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. But now
+that the mind has once become supreme, man must live and work
+chiefly for its higher development. Thus alone is progress possible.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span>But the word mind calls up before us a long list of powers. And the
+questions arise, Is one mode and line of mental action just as much
+the goal of man's development as another? Is man to cultivate the
+appetite for food and sense gratification just as much as the hunger
+for righteousness? Or is appetite in the mind like digestion in the
+body, a function, necessary indeed and once dominant, but no longer
+fitted for supreme control? Is there in the development of the
+mental powers or functions just as really a sequence of dominance as
+in that of the bodily functions? Are there older and lower powers
+and modes of action, which, though once supreme, must now be rigidly
+kept down in their proper lower place? Are there lower motives, for
+which the very laws of evolution forbid us to live, just as truly as
+they forbid a man's living for stomach or brute strength instead of
+brain and mind? Are these lower powers merely the foundation
+on which the higher motives and powers are to rise in their
+transcendent glory? This is the question which we now must face,
+and it is of vital importance.</p>
+
+<p>We have come to one of the most important and difficult subjects of
+zo&ouml;logy. Let us distinctly recognize that it is not our task to
+explain the origin of mind, or even of a single mental faculty. I
+shall take for granted what many of you will not admit, that the
+germs of all man's highest mental powers are present undeveloped in
+the mind, if you will call it so, of the am&oelig;ba. The limits of
+this course of lectures have required us to choose between
+alternatives, either to attempt to prove the truth of the theory of
+evolution, or taking this for granted, to attempt to find its
+bearings on our moral and religious beliefs. I have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>[116]</span>chosen the
+latter course, and here, as elsewhere, will abide by it. I should
+not have followed such a course if I did not thoroughly believe that
+man also, in mind as well as body, is the product of evolution. But
+this is no reason for your accepting these views. You are asked only
+to judge impartially of the tendencies of the theory. We take for
+granted, I repeat, that all man's mental faculties are germinally,
+potentially, present in protoplasm; we seek the history of their
+development.</p>
+
+<p>We must remember, further, that the science of animal or comparative
+psychology is yet in its infancy. Even reliable facts are only
+slowly being sifted and recorded in sufficient numbers to make
+deductions at all safe. And even of these facts different writers
+give very different explanations. As Mr. Romanes has well said, &quot;All
+our knowledge of mental faculties, other than our own, really
+consists of an inferential interpretation of bodily activities&mdash;this
+interpretation being founded on our subjective knowledge of our own
+mental activities. By inference we project, as it were, the human
+pattern of our own mental chromograph on what is to us the otherwise
+blank screen of another mind.&quot; The value and clearness of our
+inferences will be proportional to the similarity of the animal to
+ourselves. Thus we can educate many of our higher mammals by a
+system of rewards and punishments, and we seem therefore to have
+good reason to believe that fear and joy, anger and desire, certain
+powers of perception and inference, are in their minds similar to
+our own. But fear in a fish is certainly a much dimmer apprehension
+of danger than in us, even if it deserves the name of apprehension.
+And the mental state which we call &quot;alarm&quot; in a fly or any lower
+animal is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>[117]</span>very difficult to clearly imagine or at all express in
+terms of our own mind.</p>
+
+<p>Some investigators have made the mistake of projecting into the
+animal mind all our emotions and complicated trains of thought. Thus
+Schwammerdam apparently credits the snail with remorse for the
+commission of excesses. Others go to the other extreme and make
+animals hardly more than mindless automata. We are warned,
+therefore, by our very mode of study, to be cautious, not too
+absolutely sure of our results, nor indignant at others who may take
+a very different view. And yet by moving cautiously and accepting
+only what seems fairly clear and evident we may arrive at very
+valuable and tolerably sure results.</p>
+
+<p>The human mind, and the animal mind apparently, manifests itself in
+three states or functions. These are intelligence, the realm of
+knowledge; susceptibility, the realm or state of feelings or
+emotions; will, the power or state of choice. Let us trace first the
+development of intelligence or the intellect in the animal. Let us
+try to discover what kinds of knowledge are successively attained
+and the mode and sequence of their attainment. Hydra appears to be
+conscious of its food. It recognizes it partially by touch, perhaps
+also by feeling the waves caused by its approach. It seems also to
+recognize food at a little distance by a power comparable to our
+sense of smell. Stronger impacts cause it to contract. It neither
+sees nor hears; it probably does little or no thinking. Its
+knowledge is therefore limited to the recognition of objects either
+in contact with, or but slightly removed from, itself. And its
+recognition of the objects is very dim and incomplete, obtained
+through the sense of touch and smell.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span>A little higher in the animal world a rude ear has developed, first
+as a very delicate organ for feeling the waves caused by approaching
+food or enemies; only later as an organ of hearing. Meanwhile the
+eye has been developing, to perceive the subtle ether vibrations.
+The eye of the turbellaria distinguishes only light from darkness,
+that of the annelid is a true visual organ. Now the brain can begin
+to perceive the shape of objects at a little distance. Touch and
+smell, hearing, sight; such is sequence of sense perceptions. The
+sense-organs respond to continually more delicate and subtle
+impacts, and cover an ever-widening range of more and more distant
+objects. Up to this point intelligence has hardly included more than
+sense-perceptions.</p>
+
+<p>But these sense-perceptions have been all the time spurring the mind
+to begin a higher work. At first it is conscious merely of objects,
+and its main effort is to gain a clearer and clearer perception of
+these.</p>
+
+<p>Now it is led to undertake, so to speak, the work of a sense-organ
+of a higher grade. It begins to directly see invisible relations
+just as truly as through the eye it has perceived light. First
+perhaps it perceives that certain perceptions and experiences,
+agreeable or disagreeable, occur in a certain sequence. It begins to
+associate these. It learns thus to recognize the premonitory
+symptoms of nature's favor or disfavor, and thus gains food or
+avoids dangers. The bee learns to associate accessible nectar with a
+certain spot on the flower marked by bright dots or lines,
+&quot;honey-guides,&quot; and the chimpanzee that when a hen cackles there is
+an egg in the nest. But association is only the first lesson;
+inference and understanding follow.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span>The child at kindergarten receives a few blocks. It admires and
+plays with them. Then it is taught to notice their form. After a
+time it arranges them in groups and learns the first elements of
+number. But when it has advanced to higher mathematics, the blocks,
+or figures on the blackboard, become only symbols or means of
+illustrating the great theorems and propositions of that science.
+Thus the animal has begun in the kindergarten way to dimly perceive
+that there are real, though intangible and invisible, relations
+between objects. But what is all human science but the clearer
+vision, and farther search into, and tracing of these same
+relations? And what is all advance of knowledge but a perception of
+ever subtler relations? What is even the knowledge of right but the
+perception of the subtlest and deepest and widest relations of man
+to his environment? The animal seems to be steadily advancing along
+the path toward the perception of abstract truth, though man alone
+really attains it.</p>
+
+<p>And the higher power of association and inference which we call
+understanding, aided by memory, results in the power of learning by
+experience, so characteristic of higher vertebrates. The hunted bird
+or mammal very quickly becomes wary. A new trap catches more than a
+better old one until the animals have learned to understand it, and
+young animals are trapped more easily than old. Cases showing the
+limitations of mammalian intelligence are interesting in this
+connection. A cat which wished to look out and find the cause of a
+noise outside, when all the windows were closed by wooden blinds,
+jumped upon a stand and looked into a mirror. Her inference as to
+the general use of glass was correct; all its uses had not yet come
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span>within the range of her experience. A monkey used to stop a hole in
+the side of a cage with straw. The keeper, to tease him, used to
+pull this out. But one day the monkey tugged at a nail in the side
+of his cage until he had pulled it out, and thrust it into the hole.
+But when it was pushed back he fell into a rage. His inference that
+the nail-head could not be pulled through was entirely correct; he
+had failed to foresee that it could be pushed back. Many such
+instances have probably come within the range of your observation,
+if you have noticed them. But many of the facts which Mr. Romanes
+gives us concerning the intelligence of monkeys, apes, and baboons
+would not disgrace the intelligence of children or men.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Romanes relates the following account of a little capuchin
+monkey from Brazil:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent">&quot;To-day he obtained possession of a hearth-brush, one of the kind
+which has the handle screwed into the brush. He soon found the
+way to unscrew the handle, and having done that he immediately
+began to try to find out the way to screw it in again. This he in
+time accomplished. At first he put the wrong end of the handle
+into the hole, but turned it round and round the right way for
+screwing. Finding it did not hold he turned the other end of the
+handle and carefully stuck it into the hole, and began again to
+turn it the right way. It was of course a difficult feat for him
+to perform, for he required both his hands in order to screw it
+in, and the long bristles of the brush prevented it from
+remaining steady or with the right side up. He held the brush
+with his hind hand, but even so it was very difficult for him to
+get the first turn of the screw to fit into the thread; he worked
+at it, however, with the most unwearying perseverance until he
+got the first turn of the screw to catch, and he then quickly
+turned it round and round until it was screwed up to the end. The
+most remarkable thing was, that however often he was disappointed
+in the beginning, he never <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>[121]</span>was induced to try turning the handle
+the wrong way; he always screwed it from right to left. As soon
+as he had accomplished his wish he unscrewed it again, and then
+screwed it in again the second time rather more easily than the
+first, and so on many times. When he had become by practice
+tolerably perfect in screwing and unscrewing, he gave it up and
+took to some other amusement. One remarkable thing is that he
+should take so much trouble to do that which is no material
+benefit to him. The desire to accomplish a chosen task seems a
+sufficient inducement to lead him to take any amount of trouble.
+This seems a very human feeling, such as is not shown, I believe,
+by any other animal. It is not the desire of praise, as he never
+notices people looking on; it is simply the desire to achieve an
+object for the sake of achieving an object, and he never rests
+nor allows his attention to be distracted until it is done....</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">&quot;As my sister once observed while we were watching him conducting
+some of his researches, in oblivion to his food and all his other
+surroundings&mdash;'When a monkey behaves like this it is no wonder
+that man is a scientific animal!'&quot;<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>In the highest mammals we find also different degrees of attention
+and concentration of thought and observation. This difference can
+easily be noticed in young hunting dogs. A trainer of monkeys said
+that he could easily select those which could most easily be taught,
+by noticing in the first lesson whether he could easily gain and
+hold their attention. This was easy with some, while others were
+diverted by every passing fly; and the latter, like heedless
+students, made but slow progress.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to notice that one of the perceptions which we
+class among the highest is apparently developed comparatively early.
+I refer to the &aelig;sthetic perception of the beautiful. Now, the
+perception of beauty is generally considered as not very far below
+or <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>[122]</span>removed from the perception of truth and right. But some insects
+and birds apparently possess this perception and the corresponding
+emotion in no low degree. The colors of flowers seem to exist mainly
+for the attraction of insects to insure cross-fertilization, and
+certain insects seem to prefer certain colors. But you may say that
+these afford merely sense gratification like that which green
+affords to our eyes or sugar to our tastes.</p>
+
+<p>But does not the grouping of colors in the flower appeal to some
+&aelig;sthetic standard in the mind of the insect? What of the tail of the
+peacock? Its iridescent rings and eyes evidently appeal to something
+in the mind of the female. Do form and grouping minister to pure
+sense gratification? What of the song of the thrush? Does not the
+orderly and harmonious arrangement of notes and cadences appeal to
+some standard of order of arrangement, and hence idea of harmony, in
+the mind of the bird's mate?</p>
+
+<p>Now, I grant you readily that the A B C of this training is mere
+sense gratification at the sight of bright colors. Most insects and
+birds have probably not advanced much beyond this first lesson.
+Savages have generally stopped there or reverted to it. But any
+appreciation of form and harmonious arrangement of cadence and
+colors seems to me at least to demand some perception which we must
+call &aelig;sthetic, or dangerously near it. But here you must judge
+carefully for yourselves lest you be misled. For remember, please,
+that those schemes of psychology farthest removed from, and least
+readily reconcilable to, the theory of evolution maintain that
+perception of beauty is the work of the rational faculty, which also
+perceives truth <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>[123]</span>and right in much the same way that it perceives
+and recognizes beauty. If the animal has the &aelig;sthetic perception, it
+has the faculty which, at the next higher stage of development, will
+perceive, and recognize as such, both truth and right. We are
+considering no unimportant question; for on our answer to this
+depends our answer to questions of far greater importance.</p>
+
+<p>Does it look as if the animal had begun to learn the first rudiments
+of the great science of rights, of his own rights and those of
+others? This is an exceedingly difficult question, though often
+answered unhesitatingly in the negative. But what of the division of
+territory by the dogs in oriental cities, a division evidently
+depending upon something outside of mere brute strength and power to
+maintain, and their respect of boundaries? The female is allowed, I
+am told by an eye-witness long resident in Constantinople, to
+distribute her puppies in unoccupied spots through the city without
+interference. But when she has once located them, she is not allowed
+to return and visit them, or pass that way again. So the account by
+Dr. Washburn of platoons of dogs coming in turn, and peaceably, to
+feed on a dead donkey in the streets of Constantinople, would seem
+to be most naturally explained by some dim recognition of rights.
+Rook communities have not received the attention and investigation
+which they deserve, but their actions are certainly worthy of
+attention. Concerning the sense of ownership in dogs and other
+mammals opinions differ, and yet many facts are most naturally
+explained on such a supposition.</p>
+
+<p>Just one more question in this connection, for we <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>[124]</span>are in the
+borderland or twilightland where it is much safer to ask questions
+than to attempt to answer them. How do you explain the &quot;instinctive&quot;
+fear of man on the part of wild and fierce animals? They certainly
+do not quail before his brute strength, for a blow at such a time
+breaks the charm and insures an attack. They quail before his eye
+and look. Is not this the answering of a personality in the animal
+to the personality in man; a recognition of something deeper than
+bone and muscle? And may not, as Mr. Darwin has urged, this fear in
+the presence of a higher personality be the dim foreshadowing of an
+awe which promises indefinitely better things? Is, after all, the
+attachment of a dog to his master something far deeper than an
+appetite for bones or pats, or a fear of kicks?</p>
+
+<p>A host of other and similar questions throng upon us here, to no one
+of which we can give a definite answer. We need more investigation,
+more light. We must not rest contented with old prejudices or accept
+with too great certainty new explanations. The questions are worthy
+of careful and patient investigation. The study of comparative
+anatomy has thrown a flood of light on the structure and working of
+the human body in health and disease. We shall never fully
+understand the mind of man until we know more of the working of the
+mind of the animal.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem to be clear that there is a sequence of dominance in
+the faculties of the intellect. First, the only means of acquiring
+knowledge is through sense-perception. But memory dawns far down in
+the animal kingdom. And thus the animal begins to associate past
+experience with present objects. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>[125]</span>bee remembers the gaining of
+honey in the past, associated with the color of the flower which she
+now sees, and knows that honey is to be attained again. Thus in time
+association leads to inference, and understanding has dawned. But
+the highest faculty of the intellect is the rational intelligence,
+which perceives beauty, truth, and goodness. This is the last to
+develop. Traces of its working may be perhaps discovered below man,
+but only in man does it become dominant. Through it I perceive my
+rights and duties, and come to the consciousness of my own
+personality as a moral agent. This tells me of the relation of my
+own personality to other persons and things. And these are evidently
+the most important objects of human study. The attainment of this
+knowledge and the development of this faculty are evidently the goal
+of human intellectual development. This it is which has insured
+progress and raised man ever higher above the brutes.</p>
+
+<p>Before we can proceed to the study of the will we must clearly
+recognize and define certain modes of mental and nervous action,
+which sooner or later manifest themselves in muscular activity. For,
+while certain of our bodily activities are clearly voluntary, others
+take place wholly, or in part independently, of the individual will.
+Between these different modes of bodily action we must distinguish
+as clearly as may be possible.</p>
+
+<p>1. Reflex Action. I touch something cold or hot in the dark,
+suddenly and unexpectedly. I draw back my hand involuntarily and
+before I have perceived the sensation of cold or heat. You tell me
+to keep my eyes open while you make a sudden pass at them <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>[126]</span>with your
+hand. I try hard to do so, but my eyes shut for all that. I shut
+them unconsciously and against my own will. I say, &quot;They shut of
+themselves.&quot; Now, this is not true, but the explanation is not
+difficult. These and similar actions are entirely possible, although
+the continuity between spinal marrow and brain may have been so
+interrupted by some accident that sensation in the reflexly active
+part fails altogether. A bird flaps its wings after its head is cut
+off, and yet the seat of consciousness and will is certainly in the
+brain. A patient with a &quot;broken back,&quot; and paralyzed in his legs,
+will draw up his feet if they are tickled, although he is entirely
+unable to move them by any effort of his will and has no
+consciousness of the irritation.</p>
+
+<p>The physiological action is in this case clear. The vibration of the
+nerve caused by the tickling travels from the foot to the
+appropriate centre in the spinal marrow, and here gives rise to, or
+is switched off as, a motor impulse travelling back to the muscles
+of the leg, causing them to contract. In the injured patient the
+nervous impulse cannot reach the brain, the seat of consciousness,
+and hence this is not awakened. Normally consciousness does result
+in a majority of such cases, but only after the beginning or
+completion of the appropriate action. Yet the movements of our
+internal organs, intestine and heart, go on continually, and in
+health we remain entirely unconscious of their action.</p>
+
+<p>But reflex actions may be anything but simple. We walk and talk, and
+write or play the piano without ever thinking of a single muscle or
+organ. Yet we had once to learn with much effort to take each step
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>[127]</span>or frame each letter. Thus actions, originally conscious and
+intended, easily become reflex; often repeated the brain leaves
+their control to the lower centres. We often say, &quot;I did not intend
+to do that; I could not help it.&quot; We forget that this excuse is our
+worst condemnation. It is a confession that we have allowed or
+encouraged a habit to wear a groove from which the wheels of our
+life cannot escape. The essential characteristic of reflex action is
+therefore that from beginning to completion it goes on independently
+of consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>2. Instinct. This is a much-abused word. It is frequently applied to
+all the mental actions of animals without much thought or care as to
+its meaning. Let us gain a definition from the study of a typical
+case lest we use the word as a cloak for ignorance or negligent
+thoughtlessness. Watch a spider building its wonderful geometrical
+web. The web is a work of art, and every motion of the spider
+beautifully adapted to its purpose. But the spider is not therefore
+necessarily an artist. Let us see of how much the spider is probably
+conscious, remembering that our best judgment is but an inference.
+We have good reason to believe that she is conscious of the stimulus
+to action, hunger. She may be, probably is, conscious of the end to
+be attained&mdash;to catch a fly for her dinner. She seems conscious of
+what she is doing. In all these respects this differs from reflex
+action. But she is probably unconscious of the exact fitness of the
+means to the end. We do not believe that she has adopted the
+geometrical pattern, because she has discovered or calculated that
+this will make the closest and largest net for the smallest outlay
+of labor and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>[128]</span>material. Furthermore the young spider builds
+practically as good a web as the old one. She has inherited the
+power, not developed or gained it by experience or observation. And
+all the members of the species have inherited it in much the same
+degree of perfection.</p>
+
+<p>Concerning the origin of instincts there are several theories. Some
+instincts would seem to be the result of non-intelligent, perhaps
+unconscious, habits becoming fixed by heredity and improved by
+natural selection; others would appear to be modifications of
+actions originally due to intelligence. Instinct is therefore
+characterized by consciousness of the stimulus to act, of the means
+and end, without the knowledge of the exact adaptation of means to
+end. It is hereditary and characterizes species or large groups.</p>
+
+<p>3. Intelligent Action. You come in cold and sit down before an open
+fire. You push the brands together to make the fire burn. Applying
+once more the criterion of consciousness to this action we notice
+that you are conscious of the stimulus to act, of the steps of the
+action, and of the end to be attained, exactly as in instinctive
+action. But finally, and this is the essential characteristic of
+intelligent action, you are aware to a certain extent of the fitness
+of the means to the attainment of the end. This piece of knowledge
+you had to acquire for yourself. Erasmus Darwin defined a fool as a
+man who had never tried an experiment. Experience and observation,
+not heredity, are the sources of intelligence. Intelligence is power
+to think, and a man may be very learned&mdash;for do we not have learned
+pigs?&mdash;and yet have very little real intelligence. Hence this is
+possessed by different individuals in very varying degrees.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>[129]</span>We may now briefly compare these three kinds of nervous action.</p>
+
+<p>Reflex action is involuntary and unconscious. The actor may, and
+usually does, become conscious of the action after it has been
+commenced or completed, but this is not at all necessary or
+universal.</p>
+
+<p>Instinctive action is to a certain extent voluntary and conscious.
+The actor is conscious of the stimulus, the means and mode, and the
+end or purpose of the action. Of the exact fitness or adaptation of
+the means to the end the actor is unconscious.</p>
+
+<p>Intelligent action is conscious and voluntary. The actor is
+conscious of the stimulus to act, of the means and mode, and to a
+certain extent of the adaptation of the means to the end. This last
+item of knowledge, lacking in instinctive action, is acquired by
+experience or observation.</p>
+
+<p>Reflex action may be regarded as a comparatively mechanical, though
+often very complex, process; the reflex ganglia appear to be hardly
+more than switch-boards. There is stimulus of the sense-organs, and
+thus what Mr. Romanes has called &quot;unfelt sensation,&quot; unfelt as far
+as the completion of the action is concerned. But in instinct the
+sensation no longer remains unfelt; perception is necessary,
+consciousness plays a part. And this consciousness is a vastly more
+subtle element, differing as much apparently from the vibration of
+brain, or nervous, molecules as the Geni from the rubbing of
+Aladdin's lamp, to borrow an illustration.</p>
+
+<p>But this element of consciousness is one which it is exceedingly
+difficult to detect in our analysis, and yet upon it our
+classification and the psychic position of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>[130]</span>an animal must to a
+great extent depend. The am&oelig;ba contracts when pricked,
+jelly-fishes swim toward the light, the earthworm, &quot;alarmed&quot; by the
+tread of your foot, withdraws into its hole. Are these and similar
+actions reflex or instinctive? A grain of consciousness preceding an
+action which before has been reflex changes it into instinct. Mr.
+Romanes, probably correctly, regards them as purely reflex. We must,
+I think, believe that these actions result in consciousness even in
+the lowest forms. The selection and attainment of food certainly
+looks like conscious action. Probably all nerve-cells or nervous
+material were originally, even in the lowest forms, dimly conscious;
+then by division of labor some became purely conductive, others more
+highly perceptive. The important thing for us to remember in our
+present ignorance is not to be dogmatic.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, the gain of a grain of consciousness of the adaptation
+of certain means to special ends changes instinctive action into
+intelligent, and its loss may reverse the process. Fortunately we
+have found that in so far as actions, even instinctive, are modified
+by experience, they are becoming to that extent intelligent. This
+criterion of intelligence seems easily applied. But this profiting
+by experience must manifest itself within the lifetime of the
+individual, or in lines outside of circumstances to which its
+ordinary instincts are adapted, or we may give to individual
+intelligence the credit due really to natural selection. We must be
+cautious in our judgments.</p>
+
+<p>These reflex actions are performed independently of consciousness or
+will. Consciousness may, probably does, attend the selection and
+grasping of food; but <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>[131]</span>most of the actions of the body will go on
+better without its interference. It is not yet sufficiently
+developed, or, so to speak, wise enough to be intrusted with much
+control of the animal.</p>
+
+<p>Among higher worms cases of instinct seem proven. Traces of it will
+almost certainly be yet found much lower down. Fresh-water mussels
+migrate into deeper water at the approach of cold weather. And if
+the clam has instincts, there is no reason why the turbellaria
+should not also possess them. But all higher powers develop
+gradually, and their beginnings usually elude our search. Along the
+line leading from annelids to insects instinct is becoming dominant.
+A supra&oelig;sophageal ganglion has developed, and has been relieved
+of most of the direct control of the muscles. Very good sense-organs
+are also present. From this time on consciousness becomes clearer,
+and the brain is beginning to assert its right to at least know what
+is going on in the body, and to have something to say about it.
+Still, as long as the actions remain purely instinctive the brain,
+while conscious, is governed by heredity. The animal does as its
+ancestors always have. It does not occur to it to ask why it should
+do thus or otherwise, or whether other means would be better fitted
+to the end in view. It acts exactly like most of the members of our
+great political and theological parties. And until the animal has a
+better brain this is its best course and is favored by natural
+selection.</p>
+
+<p>But the hand of even the best dead ancestors cannot always be
+allowed to hold the helm. The brain is still enlarging, the
+sense-organs bring in fuller and more definite reports of a wider
+environment. Greater <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>[132]</span>freedom of action by means of a stronger
+locomotive system is bringing continually new and varied
+experiences. And if, as in vertebrates, longer life be added,
+frequent repetition of the experience deepens the impression.
+Slowly, as if tentatively, the animal begins to modify some of its
+instincts, at first only in slight details, or to adopt new lines of
+action not included in its old instincts, but suited to the new
+emergencies. This is the dawn of intelligence. Its beginnings still
+remain undiscovered. Mr. Darwin believes that traces of it can be
+found in earthworms and other annelids. He also tells us that
+oysters taken from a depth never uncovered by the sea, and
+transported inland, open their shells, lose the contained water, and
+die; but that left in reservoirs, where they are occasionally left
+uncovered for a short time, they learn to keep their shells shut,
+and live for a much longer time when removed from the water. If
+oysters can learn by experience, lower worms probably can do the
+same.</p>
+
+<p>Certain experiments made on sea-anemones, actin&aelig; animals a little
+more highly organized than hydra, demand repetition under careful
+observation.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The observer placed on one of the tentacles of a
+sea-anemone a bit of paper which had been dipped in beef-juice. It
+was seized and carried to the mouth and here discarded. This
+tentacle after one or two experiments refused to have anything more
+to do with it. But other tentacles could be successively cheated.
+The nerve-cells governing each tentacle appear to have been able to
+learn by experience, but each group in the diffuse nervous system
+had to learn separately. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>[133]</span>The dawn of this much of intelligence far
+down in the animal kingdom would not be surprising, for the
+selection and grasping of food has always involved higher mental
+power than most of the actions of these lowest animals. Memory goes
+far down in the animal kingdom. Perhaps, as Professor Haeckel has
+urged, it is an ultimate mental property of protoplasm. And the
+memory of past experience would continually tend to modify habit or
+instinct.</p>
+
+<p>It is unsafe, therefore, to say just where intelligence begins. At a
+certain point we find dim traces of it; below that we have failed to
+find them. But that they will not be found, we dare not affirm. In
+the highest insects instinct predominates, but marks of intelligence
+are fairly abundant. Ants and wasps modify their habits to suit
+emergencies which instinct alone could hardly cope with. Bees learn
+to use grafting wax instead of propolis to stop the chinks in their
+hives, and soon cease to store up honey in a warm climate.</p>
+
+<p>Our knowledge of vertebrate psychology is not yet sufficient to give
+a history of the struggle for supremacy between instinct and
+intelligence, between inherited tendency and the consciousness of
+the individual. But the outcome is evident; intelligence prevails,
+instinct wanes. The actions of the young may be purely instinctive;
+it is better that they should be. But instinct in the adult is more
+and more modified by intelligence gained by experience. There is
+perhaps no more characteristic instinct than the habit of
+nest-building in birds. And yet there are numerous instances where
+the structure and position of nests have been completely changed to
+suit new circumstances. And the view that this habit is a pure
+instinct, unmodified<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>[134]</span> by intelligence, has been disproved by Mr.
+Wallace. But while size of brain, keenness of sense-organs, and
+length of life may be rightly emphasized as the most important
+elements in the development of vertebrate intelligence, the
+importance of the appendages should never be forgotten. Cats seem to
+have acquired certain accomplishments&mdash;opening doors, ringing
+door-bells, etc.&mdash;never attained by the more intelligent dog, mainly
+because of the greater mobility and better powers of grasping of the
+forepaws. The elephant has its trunk and the ape its hand. The power
+of handling and the increased size of the brain aided each other in
+a common advance.</p>
+
+<p>The teachableness of mammals is also a sign of high intelligence.
+The young are often taught by the parent, a dim foreshadowing of the
+human family relation. And we notice this capacity in domestic
+animals because of its practical value to man. And here, too, we
+notice the difference between individuals, which fails in instinct.
+All spiders of the same species build and hunt alike, although
+differences caused by the moulding influence of intelligence will
+probably be here discovered. But among individual dogs and horses we
+find all degrees of intelligence from absolute stupidity to high
+intelligence. And many mammals are slandered grievously by man. The
+pig is not stupid, far from it.</p>
+
+<p>Still only in man does intelligence reign supreme and clearly show
+its innate powers. But even in man certain realms, like those of the
+internal organs, are rarely invaded by consciousness, but are
+normally left to the control of reflex action. These actions go on
+better without the interference of consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>But other lines of action are relegated as rapidly as <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>[135]</span>possible to
+the same control. We learn to walk by a conscious effort to take
+each step; afterward we take each step automatically, and think only
+whither we wish to go. We learn by conscious effort to talk and
+write, to sing, or play the piano. Afterward we frame each letter or
+note automatically, and think only of the idea and its expression.</p>
+
+<p>So also in our moral and spiritual nature.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>There has been therefore in the successive forms and stages of
+animal life a clear sequence of dominant nervous actions. The
+actions of all animals below the annelid are mainly reflex or
+automatic, unconscious and involuntary. But in insects and lower
+vertebrates the highest actions at least are instinctive.
+Consciousness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>[136]</span> plays a continually more important part. Still the
+actions are controlled by hereditary tendency far more than by the
+will of the individual. But in man instinct has been almost entirely
+replaced by conscious, voluntary, intelligent action. And yet in
+man, as rapidly as possible, actions which at first require
+conscious effort become, through repetition and habit, reflex and
+automatic. All our conscious effort and the energy of the will,
+being no longer required for these oft-repeated actions, are set
+free for higher attainments. The territory which had to be conquered
+by hard battles has become an integral part of the realm. It now
+hardly requires even a garrison, but has become a source of supplies
+for a new advance and march of conquest.</p>
+
+<p>But all this time we have been talking about action and have not
+given a thought to the will. And we have spoken as if conscious
+perception and intelligence directly controlled will and action. But
+this is of course incorrect. Will is practically power of choice.
+You ask me whether I prefer this or that, and I answer perhaps that
+I do not care. Until I &quot;care&quot; I shall never choose. The perception
+must arouse some feeling, if it is to result in choice. I see a
+diamond in the road and think it is merely a piece of glass. I do
+not stop. But as I am passing on; I remember that there was a
+remarkable brilliancy in its flash. It must have been, after all, a
+gem. My feelings are aroused. How proud I shall feel to wear it. Or
+how much money I can get for it. Or how glad the owner will be when
+it is returned to her. I turn back and search eagerly. Perception is
+necessary, but it is only the first step. The perception must excite
+some feeling, if choice or exertion of the will is to follow. This
+is a truism.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>[137]</span>Now reflex action takes place independently of consciousness or
+will. Instinctive action may be voluntary, but it is, after all, not
+so much the result of individual purpose as of hereditary tendency.
+Is there then no will in the animal until it has become intelligent?
+I think there has been a sort of voluntary action all the time. Even
+the am&oelig;ba selects or chooses, if I may use the word, its food
+among the sand grains. And the will is stimulated to act by the
+appetite. Hunger is the first teacher. And how did appetite develop?
+Why does the animal hunger for just the food suited to its digestion
+and needs? We do not know. And the reproductive appetite soon
+follows. One of these results from the condition of the digestive,
+the other from that of the reproductive, cells or protoplasm. These
+appetites are due to some condition in a part of the organism and
+can be <i>felt</i>. They are in a sense not of the mind but of the body.
+And the response to them on the part of the mind is in some respects
+almost comparable to reflex action. But the mode of the response is,
+to a certain extent at least, within the control of consciousness.
+They train and spur the will as pure reflex action never could. But
+the will is as yet hardly more than the expression of these
+appetites. It expresses not so much its own decision as that of the
+stomach. It is the body's slave and mouthpiece. And once again it is
+best and safest for the animal that it should be so.</p>
+
+<p>And these appetites are at first comparatively feeble. There is but
+little muscle or nerve and but little food is required. But these
+continually strengthen and spur the will harder and more frequently.
+And the will stirs up the weary and flagging muscles. The <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>[138]</span>will may
+be a poor slave and the appetites hard taskmasters. But under their
+stern discipline it is growing stronger and more completely
+subjugating the body. Better slavery to hard taskmasters than
+rottenness from inertia. The first requirement is power, activity,
+and then this power can be directed to ever higher ends. You cannot
+steer the vessel until she has sails or an engine; with no &quot;way on&quot;
+she will not mind the helm, she only drifts. But the condition of
+the animal at this stage certainly looks very unpromising. Can the
+will emancipate itself from appetite and control it? Or is it to
+remain the slave of the body?</p>
+
+<p>In time an emotion appears which marks the influence not directly of
+the body but of the individual consciousness. This is fear; it is
+for the body, but not, like hunger, directly of it. It arises in the
+mind. It results from experience and memory. The first animal which
+feared took a long step upward. But when and where was the dawn of
+fear? I touch a sea-anemone and it contracts. Has it felt fear? I
+think not. The action certainly may be purely reflex. Natural
+selection, not mind, deserves the credit of that action. But I am
+sure that the cat fears the dog, or the dog the cat, as the case may
+be. I have little or no doubt that the bird fears the cat. I am
+inclined to believe that the insect fears the bird and the spider
+the wasp. But does the highest worm fear? I do not know. I do not
+see how there can have been any fear until there was a nerve-centre
+highly enough developed to remember past experiences of danger and
+fair sense-organs to report the present risk.</p>
+
+<p>Other emotions soon follow. Anger appears early. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>[139]</span>The order of
+appearance of these emotions or motives I shall not attempt to give
+to you. Indeed this is to us of relatively slight importance. The
+important point to notice is that a host of these have appeared in
+mammals and birds, and that each one of these is a new spur to the
+will. And the will of a horse or dog, to say nothing of a pig, is by
+no means feeble. And these are slowly emancipating the animal from
+the tyranny of appetite. But how slow the progress is! Has the
+emancipation yet become complete in man? I need not answer.</p>
+
+<p>The will has in part, at least, escaped from abject slavery to
+appetite; it sometimes rises superior to fear. But it is evidently
+self-centred. The animal may have forgotten the claims of his dead
+ancestors, he is certainly fully alive to his own interests. Can he
+even partially rise superior to prudential considerations, as he has
+to some extent to the claims of appetite? Is it possible to develop
+the unselfish out of the purely selfish? And if so, how is this to
+be accomplished? It is not accomplished in the animal; it is but
+very incompletely accomplished in man. It will be accomplished one
+day.</p>
+
+<p>In action, at least, the animal is not purely selfish. As Mr.
+Drummond has shown, reproduction, that old function and first to
+gain an organ, is not primarily for the benefit of self, but for the
+species. And not only the storing up of material in the egg, but
+care for the young after birth, is found in some fish and insects,
+and increases from fish upward. I readily grant you that this in its
+beginnings may be purely instinctive, and that not a particle of
+genuine affection for the young may as yet be present in the mind of
+the parent. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a>[140]</span>But beneficial habits may, under the fostering care of
+selection, develop into instincts. The animal may at first be
+unconscious of these, and yet they may grow continually stronger.
+But one day the animal awakens to its actions, and from that time on
+what had been done blindly and unconsciously is continued
+consciously, intelligently, and from set purpose. This story is
+repeated over and over again in the history of the animal-kingdom.
+The care for the young once started as an instinct, affection will
+follow from the very association of parent with young. Certainly in
+birds and mammals there seems to be a very genuine love of the
+parents for their young. This is at first short lived, and the young
+are and have to be driven away, often by harsh treatment, to shift
+for themselves. But while it lasts it certainly seems entirely real
+and genuine. And how strong it is. &quot;A bear robbed of her whelps&quot; is
+no meaningless expression. And even the weak and timid bird or
+mammal becomes strong and fierce in defence of her young. In the
+presence of this emotion appetite and fear are alike forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>But this affection or love once started does not remain limited to
+parent and offspring. Mammals, especially the higher forms, are
+social. They frequently go in herds and troops, and appear to have a
+genuine affection for each other. You all know how in herds of
+cattle or wild horses the males form a circle around the females and
+young at the approach of wolves. A troop of orangs were surprised by
+dogs at a little distance from their shelter. The old male orangs
+formed a ring and beat off the dogs until the females and young
+could escape, and then retreated. But as they were now in
+comparative safety a cry came from one <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>[141]</span>young one, who had been
+unable to keep up in the scramble over the rocks, and was left on a
+bowlder surrounded by the dogs. Then one old orang turned back,
+fought his way through the dogs, tucked the little fellow under one
+arm, fought his way out with the other, and brought the young one to
+safety. I call that old orang a hero, but I am prejudiced and may
+easily be mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>In a cage in a European zo&ouml;logical garden there were kept together a
+little American monkey and a large baboon of which the former was
+greatly afraid. The keeper, to whom the little monkey was strongly
+attached, was one day attacked and thrown down by the baboon and in
+danger of being killed. Then the little monkey ran to his help, and
+bit and beat his tyrant companion until he allowed the keeper to
+escape. We are all proud that the little monkey was an American.</p>
+
+<p>Instances of disinterested actions are so common among dogs and
+horses that farther illustrations are entirely unnecessary. And
+disinterested action is limited to fewer cases because the
+environment is rarely suited to its development in the animal world.
+But do you answer that the affection of the dog is never really
+disinterested, but a very refined form of selfishness. Possibly. But
+it were to be greatly desired that selfishness would more frequently
+take that same refined form among men. But I cannot see how
+selfishness can ever become so refined as to lead an animal to die
+of grief over its master's grave.</p>
+
+<p>And if refined selfishness were all, I for one cannot help believing
+that the dog would long ago have been asleep on a full stomach
+before the kitchen fire. Has <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>[142]</span>no attempt been made to prove that all
+human actions are due to selfishness more or less refined? It is
+very unwise to apply tests and use arguments concerning animals
+which, if applied with equal strictness to human conduct, would
+prove human society irrational and purely selfish.</p>
+
+<p>Mammals may be self-centred. But the highest forms have set their
+faces away from self and toward the non-self; some have at least
+started on the road which leads to unselfishness.</p>
+
+<p>And man is governed to a certain extent by prudential
+considerations. If he entirely disregarded these he would not be
+wise. But the development of the rational faculty has brought before
+his mind a series of motives higher than these, which are slowly but
+surely superseding them. Truth, right, and duty are motives of a
+different order. With regard to these there can be no question of
+profit or loss. Here the mind cannot stop to ask, Will it pay? Self
+must be left out of account.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;When duty whispers low, Thou must,<br /></span>
+<span>The soul replies, I can.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And thus man rises above appetite, above prudential considerations,
+and becomes a free and moral agent. And family and social life bring
+him into new relations, press home upon him new duties and
+responsibilities, every one of which is a new motive compelling him
+to rise above self. And thus the unselfish, altruistic emotions have
+made man what he is, and are in him, ever advancing toward their
+future supremacy. But some one will say, This is a very pretty
+theory; it is not history. But the perception of truth and right <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>[143]</span>is
+certainly a fact, the result of ages of development. And the very
+highest which the intellect can perceive is bound to become the
+controlling motive of the will. It always has been so. It must be
+so, if evolution is not to be purely degeneration. Thus only has man
+become what he is. And the voice of the people demanding truth and
+justice, whenever and wherever they see them, is the voice of God
+promising the future triumph of righteousness. For it is proof
+positive that man's face is resolutely set toward these, as his
+ancestors have always marched steadily toward that which was the
+highest possible attainment.</p>
+
+<p>We find thus that there is a sequence in the motives which control
+the will. The first and lowest motives are the appetites, and here
+the will is the mouthpiece of the bodily organs. Then fear and a
+host of other prudential considerations appear. The lowest of these
+tend purely to the gratification of the senses or to the avoidance
+of bodily discomfort. But they originate in the mind, and that is a
+great gain. But the higher prudential considerations take into
+account something higher than mere bodily comfort or discomfort.
+Approbation and disapprobation are motives which weigh heavily with
+the higher mammals. The lower prudential considerations are purely
+selfish. The higher ones, which stimulate to action for
+fellow-animals or men, show at least the dawn of unselfishness. And
+the altruistic motives, which stimulate to action for the happiness
+and welfare of others, predominate in, and are characteristic of,
+man. The human will is slowly rising above the dominance of
+selfishness. With the dawn of the rational perception of truth,
+right, and duty, the very highest motives begin to gain <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>[144]</span>control.
+And the will becomes more and more powerful as the motives become
+higher. It is almost a mis-use of language to speak of the will of a
+slave of appetite. He is governed by the body, not at all by the
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>The man who is governed by prudential considerations, and is always
+asking, Will it pay? is the incarnation of fickleness, instability,
+and feebleness. The apparent strength of the selfish will is usually
+a hollow sham. But truth, right, and love are motives stronger than
+death. And the will, dominated by these, gives the body to be
+burned. The man of the future will have an iron will, because he
+will keep these highest motives constantly before his mind.</p>
+
+<p>In the preceding lectures we have traced the sequence of functions
+and have found that brain and mind, not digestion and muscle, are
+the goal of animal development. In this lecture we have attempted to
+trace a corresponding series of functions in the realm of mind. We
+have found, I think, that there has been an orderly and logical
+development of perceptions, modes of action, and finally of motives
+in the animal mind. Let us now briefly review this history and see
+whether it throws any light on the path of man's future progress.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the sensory cells of the animal minister at first to reflex
+action, and there is thus little true perception. The stimuli which
+have called forth the reflex action may result afterward in
+consciousness; but until brain and muscle have reached a higher
+grade, this could be of but slight benefit to the animal. Perception
+and consciousness are exercised mainly in the recognition and
+attainment of food. When the animal <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>[145]</span>begins to show fear, we may
+feel tolerably certain that it has been conscious of past experience
+of danger and remembers these experiences. 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 &aelig;sthetic 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. And in this connection it is
+interesting to notice the great results of man's training and
+education in the dog. For the wolf and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>[146]</span>the jackal, the dog's
+nearest relatives, if not his actual ancestors, are not especially
+intelligent mammals. Compared with them the dog is a sage and a
+saint.</p>
+
+<p>The earliest form of action is the reflex. This is independent of
+both consciousness and will. The only conscious voluntary action of
+the animal is limited mainly or entirely to the recognition and
+attainment of food. The motive for the exertion of the will is the
+appetite, and the will is the slave or mouthpiece of the body. Far
+higher than this is the stage of instinct. Here the animal is
+conscious of its actions and new motives begin to appear. But the
+animal is guided by tendencies inherited from its ancestors. The
+will has, so to speak, advisory power; it is by no means supreme.
+But with a wider and deeper knowledge of its environment, with the
+memory of past experiences, carried by the higher locomotive powers
+into new surroundings, brought face to face with new emergencies
+outside of the range of its old instincts, it is compelled to try
+some experiments of its own. It begins to modify these instincts,
+and in time altogether does away with many of them. It has risen a
+little above its old abject slavery to the appetites, it is slowly
+throwing off the bondage to heredity. New emotions or motives have
+arisen appealing directly to the individual will. The heir has been
+long enough under guardians and regents, it assumes the government
+and can rightly say, &quot;L'&eacute;tat, c'est moi.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But a greater problem confronts it; can it rise above self? The
+animal often seems absolutely selfish. Can the unselfish be
+developed out of the selfish? This seems at first sight impossible.
+And the first lessons are so easy, the first steps so short, that we
+do not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>[147]</span>notice them. Reproduction comes to the aid of mind. The
+young are born more and more immature. They begin to receive the
+care of the parent. The love of the parent for the young is at first
+short lived and feeble. But it is the genuine article, and, like the
+mustard-seed planted in good soil, must grow. It strengthens and
+deepens. Soon it begins to widen also. Social life, very rude and
+imperfect, appears. And the members of this social group support,
+help, and defend one another. And doing for one another and helping
+each other, however slightly and imperfectly, strengthens their
+affection for one another. The animal is still selfish, so is man
+frequently, but it is in a fair way to become unselfish, and this is
+all we can reasonably expect of it.</p>
+
+<p>For these are vast revolutions from reflex action to instinct, and
+from instinct to the reign of the individual will, and from appetite
+to selfishness on the ground of higher motives, and from immediate
+gratification to prudential considerations. And the crowning change
+of all is from selfishness to love. And each one of them takes time.
+Remember that the Old Testament history is the record of how God
+taught one little people that there is but one God, Jehovah. Think
+of the struggles, defeats, and captivities which the Israelites had
+to undergo before they learned this lesson, and even then only a
+fraction of the people ever learned it at all. As the prophet
+foretold, so it came to pass. Though Israel was as the sand by the
+sea-shore, but a remnant was saved.</p>
+
+<p>But while we seek to do full justice to the animal, let us not
+underestimate the vast differences between it and man. The true
+evolutionist takes no low view <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>[148]</span>of man's present actual attainments;
+in his possibilities he has a larger faith than that of the
+disbeliever in evolution. In intelligence and thought, in will power
+and freedom of choice, in one word, in all that makes up character
+and personality, man is immeasurably superior to the animal. These
+powers raise him to a new plane of being, give him an indefinitely
+higher and broader life, and his appearance marks a new era. He
+alone is a moral, responsible being, to a certain extent the former
+of his own destiny and recorder of his doom, if he fails. This gives
+to all his actions a peculiar stamp of a dignity only his. What he
+is and is to be we must attempt to trace in another lecture. But to
+one or two characteristic results of his progress we must call
+attention here.</p>
+
+<p>The principal subject of man's study is not so much the things which
+surround him as his relation to them and theirs to each other. His
+environment has become really one, not so much one of tangible and
+visible objects as of invisible relations. And these will demand
+endless investigation. The more he studies them the more wonderful
+do they become. The vein broadens and grows indefinitely richer the
+deeper he searches into it. We find thus the purpose of the
+intellect; it is to study environment.</p>
+
+<p>And now a little about motives. The animal begins with appetite, and
+some animals and men never get any farther. And yet how easily this
+appetite for food is satiated! We all remember our experiences as
+children around the Thanksgiving or Christmas table. What a
+disappointment it was to us to find how soon our appetite had
+forsaken us, and that we had lost the power of enjoying the
+delicacies which we had most <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>[149]</span>anticipated. And over-indulgence often
+brought sad results and was followed by a period of penitential
+fasting. And the appetites for sense gratification must always lead
+to this result. They not only crave things which &quot;perish with the
+using;&quot; temporarily at least, often permanently, the appetite itself
+perishes with the gratification.</p>
+
+<p>But what of the appetite, if you will pardon the expression, for
+truth and right? All attainment only strengthens it; and, instead of
+enslaving, it makes men ever more free. And yet what a power there
+is in the appetite for truth and righteousness? In obedience to it
+man gives his body to be burned, or pours out his life-blood drop by
+drop for its attainment, and rejoices in the sacrifice. There are
+victims to appetite: there are only martyrs to truth. This soul
+hunger for truth and right, growing more intense as the soul is
+filled with the object of desire, is the only one capable of
+indefinite development and dominance of the will. This must be and
+is the mental goal of animal development, if man has a future
+corresponding in length at all to his past. Otherwise the history of
+life becomes a &quot;story told by an idiot.&quot; For its satisfaction is the
+only one which never causes satiety, and of which over-indulgence is
+impossible. All others lead only to a slough of despond, or the
+deeper and more treacherous slough of contentment, beyond which rise
+no delectable mountains or golden city.</p>
+
+<p>And now in closing let me call your attention to one thought of
+practical vital importance.</p>
+
+<p>According to the theory which we have agreed to adopt, higher
+species have arisen through a process of natural selection, those
+species surviving which are <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>[150]</span>best conformed to their environment.
+And this applies to man as well as to lower animals. All knowledge
+is in man, therefore, primarily, a means by which he may conform to
+environment, survive, and progress. But conformity includes more
+than mere knowledge of environment. A man might have all knowledge,
+and yet refuse to conform; and then his knowledge could not save him
+from destruction. For conformity alone gives survival. Conformity in
+man requires an effort of the will. It is intelligent, but it is
+also voluntary action. And knowledge is a necessary means of
+conformity because through it we see how we may conform, and because
+it furnishes the motives which stimulate the will to the necessary
+effort.</p>
+
+<p>Now, that faculty of the intellect which is dominant in man, and
+which has raised him immeasurably above the animal, and made him
+man, is the rational intelligence. If there is any such thing as a
+law of history or as continuity in evolution, man's future progress
+must depend upon his clearer vision and recognition of the
+perceptions of this faculty. Through it man perceives beauty, truth,
+and goodness, and attains knowledge of himself as a person and moral
+agent, and recognizes his rights and duties. Of all this the animal
+is and remains unconscious; indeed he is not yet a moral being and
+person in any proper sense of the word.</p>
+
+<p>Inasmuch as the rational perception is the dominant faculty in man,
+it must perceive the lines along which he is to conform. Truth,
+right, and duty must be his watchwords. These are to be the rules
+and motives of all his actions. He cannot live for the body, but for
+something higher, the mind. This was proven before <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>[151]</span>man appeared on
+the globe. He is to be a mental, intelligent being. But he is not to
+be governed by appetite or mere prudential considerations. These are
+animal, not human motives. These are not to be disregarded any more
+than digestion can be safely disregarded by man. But they are not to
+be his chief motives. He must subordinate these to the higher
+motives furnished by right and duty. Man is not merely a mental but
+a moral being. If he sinks below this plane of life he is not
+following the path marked out for him in all his past development.
+In order to progress, the higher vertebrate had to subordinate
+everything to mental development. In order to become man it had to
+develop the rational intelligence. In order to become higher man,
+present man must subordinate everything to moral development. This
+is the great law of animal and human development clearly revealed in
+the sequence of physical and mental functions.</p>
+
+<p>Must man be a religious being also? This question we must try to
+answer in a future lecture.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4">[4]</a> Romanes: Animal Intelligence, pp. 490, 498.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5">[5]</a> These experiments have been continued with most
+interesting and valuable results by Dr. G.H. Parker, of Harvard
+University.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6">[6]</a>
+Mr. James Freeman Clarke has stated this better than I
+can. &quot;We may state the law thus: 'Any habitual course of conduct
+changes voluntary actions into automatic or involuntary (<i>i.e.</i>,
+reflex) actions.' By practice man forms habits, and habitual action
+is automatic action, requiring no exercise of will except at the
+beginning of the series of acts. The law of association does the
+rest. As voluntary acts are transformed into automatic, the will is
+set free to devote itself to higher efforts and larger attainments.
+After telling the truth a while by an effort, we tell the truth
+naturally, necessarily, automatically. After giving to good objects
+for a while from principle, we give as a matter of course. Honesty
+becomes automatic; self-control becomes automatic. We rule over our
+spirit, repress ill-temper, keep down bad feelings, first by an
+effort, afterwards as a matter of course.<br /><br />
+
+&quot;Possibly these virtues really become incarnate in the bodily
+organization. Possibly goodness is made flesh and becomes
+consolidate in the fibres of the brain. Vices, beginning in the
+soul, seem to become at last bodily diseases; why may not virtues
+follow the same law? If it were not for some such law of
+accumulation as this, the work of life would have to be begun
+forever anew. Formation of character would be impossible. We should
+be incapable of progress, our whole strength being always employed
+in battling with our first enemies, learning evermore anew our
+earliest lessons. But by our present constitution he who has taken
+one step can take another, and life may become a perpetual advance
+from good to better. And the highest graces of all&mdash;Faith, Hope, and
+Love&mdash;obey the same law.&quot; See James Freeman Clarke, Every-Day
+Religion, p. 122.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>[152]</span>I have attempted to show that animal development has not been an
+aimless drifting. Functions developed and organs arose and were
+perfected in a certain order. First the purely vegetative organs
+appeared, and the animal lived for digestion and reproduction; then
+came muscle and it brought with it nerve. But these were not enough;
+the brain had all the time been gradually improving, and now it
+becomes the dominant function to which all others are subordinated.
+The experiment was fairly tried. Mere digestion and reproduction are
+carried to about the highest perfection which can be expected of
+them in worms and mollusks. The bird tried what could be done with
+digestion ministering to locomotion guided by the very keenest
+sense-organs and controlled by no mean brain. Even this experiment
+was not a success. But one organ remained, the brain, and on its
+mental possibilities depend the future of the animal kingdom.
+Vegetative organs and muscle have been tried and found wanting.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>We have followed hastily the development of mind. The mind began its
+career as the servant of digestion, recognizing and aiding to attain
+food. Action is at first mainly reflex. But conscious perception
+plays an ever more important part. The animal is at first guided by
+natural selection through the survival of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>[153]</span>the most suitable reflex
+actions, then by inherited tendencies, finally by its own conscious
+intelligence and will. The first motives are the appetites, but
+these are succeeded by ever higher motives as the perceptions become
+clearer and more subtile relations in environment are taken into
+account. Governed first purely by appetites, the will is ever more
+influenced by prudential considerations, and finally shows
+well-developed &quot;natural affections.&quot; It has set its face toward
+unselfishness.</p>
+
+<p>Digestion and muscle, as well as mind, have persisted in man. He is
+not, cannot be, disembodied spirit. And in his mental life reflex
+action and instinct, appetite and prudence, are still of great
+importance. But the higher and supreme development of these powers
+could never have resulted in man. They might alone have produced a
+superior animal, never man. His mammalian structure found its
+logical and natural goal in family and social life. And even the
+lowest goal of family life is incompatible with pure selfishness,
+and as family life advanced to an ever higher grade it became the
+school of unselfishness and love. And social life had a similar
+effect.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, man as a social being early began to learn that he could
+claim something from his fellows, and that he owed something to
+them. If he refused to help others, they would refuse to help him.
+This was his first, very rude lesson in rights and duties. Love,
+duty, and right have ever since been the watchwords of his
+development and progress. We have not yet considered, and must for
+the present disregard, the value and efficiency of religion in
+aiding his advance. At present we emphasize only the historical
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>[154]</span>fact that man has not become what he is by a higher development of
+the body, nor by giving free rein to appetite, nor yet by making the
+dictates of selfish prudence supreme. And if there is any such thing
+as continuity in history, such modes and aims of life, if now
+followed, would surely only brutalize him and plunge him headlong in
+degeneration. He must live for right, truth, love, and duty. In just
+so far as he makes any other aim in life supreme, or allows it to
+even rival these, he is sinking into brutality. This is the clear,
+unmistakable verdict of history, and we shall do well to heed it.</p>
+
+<p>But granting all that can be claimed for this sequence, have not the
+lower forms whose anatomy we have sketched&mdash;worm, fish, and
+bird&mdash;halted at various points along this line of march? Yet they
+have evidently survived. And if they have found safe resting-places,
+cannot higher forms turn back and join them? In other words, is not
+degeneration easier than advance and just as safe? What is the
+result if an animal tries to return to a lower plane of life or
+refuses to take the next upward step? Generally extermination. The
+very classification of worms in a number of small isolated groups,
+which must once have been connected by a host of intermediate forms,
+is indisputable proof of most terrible extermination. They did not
+go forward, and the survivors are but an infinitesimal fraction of
+those which perished. Let us take an illustration where pal&aelig;ontology
+can help us. The earth was at one time covered with marsupial
+mammals. Some advanced into placental forms. The great mass remained
+behind. And outside of Australia the opossums are the only survivors
+of them all. And this is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>[155]</span>only one example where a thousand could be
+given. Place is not long reserved for mere cumberers of the ground.
+There are so few exceptions to this statement that we might almost
+call it a law of biology.</p>
+
+<p>Let us see how it fares with an animal which retreats to a lower
+plane of life. A worm, rather than seek its own food, becomes a
+parasite. It degenerates, but still is easily recognized as a worm.
+A crustacean tries the same experiment, though living outside of its
+host instead of in it. It sinks to a place even lower, if possible,
+than that of the parasitic worm. A locomotive form becomes sessile.
+It loses most of its muscles and the larger part of its nervous
+system; and even the digestive system, which it has made the goal of
+its existence, is inferior to that of its locomotive ancestors and
+relatives. But to the vertebrate these lowest depths of stagnation
+and degeneration are, as a rule, impossible. From true fish upward
+parasitism and sessile life are practically impossible. Here
+stagnation and degeneration mean, as a rule, extinction. Of all the
+relatives of vertebrates back to worms only the very aberrant lines
+of amphioxus and of the tunicata remain. Of the rest not a single
+survivor has yet been discovered. And yet what hosts of species must
+have peopled the sea. The primitive round-mouthed fishes have
+practically disappeared. The ganoids survive in a few species out of
+thousands. The amphibia of the carboniferous and the next period and
+the reptiles of the mesozoic have disappeared; only a few feeble
+degenerate remnants persist. And this was necessarily so. Each
+advancing form crowded hardest on those which occupied the same
+place and sought the same food, that is, the members of the same
+species. And the first to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>[156]</span>suffer from its competition were its own
+brethren. Death, rarely commuted into life imprisonment, is the
+verdict pronounced on all forms which will not advance. And does not
+the same law of advance or extinction apply to man? What is the
+record of successive civilizations but its verification?</p>
+
+<p>Notice once more that as we ascend in the scale of development
+natural selection selects more unsparingly and the path to life
+narrows. It is a very easy matter for the lowest forms to get food.
+Indeed the plant sits still and its food comes to it. And the battle
+of brute force can be fought in a multitude of ways&mdash;by mere
+strength, by activity, by offensive or defensive armor, or even by
+running into the mud and skulking. It is harder to gain knowledge,
+and yet many roads lead to an education. Colleges are by no means
+the only seats of education. And many totally uneducated men have
+college diplomas. And life is, after all, the great university, and
+here the sluggard fails and the plucky man with the poor &quot;fit&quot; often
+carries off the honors.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;But where shall wisdom be found?<br /></span>
+<span>And where is the place of understanding?<br /></span>
+<span>The gold and the crystal cannot equal it:<br /></span>
+<span>And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.<br /></span>
+<span>No mention shall be made of corals or of pearls:<br /></span>
+<span>For the price of wisdom is above rubies.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And when it comes to righteousness there is only one right, and
+everything else is wrong. &quot;Wide is the gate and broad is the way
+that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat:
+Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>[157]</span>life, and few there be that find it.&quot; Therefore &quot;strive to enter in
+at the strait gate.&quot; And remember that &quot;strive&quot; means wrestle like
+one of the athletes in the old Olympic games.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent">&quot;I saw also that the Interpreter took Christian again by the hand
+and led him into a pleasant place, where was built a stately
+palace beautiful to behold; at the sight of which Christian was
+greatly delighted. He saw also, upon the top thereof, certain
+persons walking, who were clothed all in gold. Then said
+Christian, May we go in thither?</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">&quot;Then the Interpreter took him and led him up toward the door of
+the palace; and, behold, at the door stood a great company of
+men, as desirous to go in, but durst not. There also sat a man at
+a little distance from the door at a table-side, to take the name
+of him that should enter therein; he saw also that in the
+door-way stood many men in armour, to keep it, being resolved to
+do to the men that would enter what hurt and mischief they could.
+Now was Christian somewhat in amaze. At last, when every man
+started back for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man of a
+very stout countenance come up to the man that sat there to
+write, saying, Set down my name, Sir; the which when he had done,
+he saw the man draw his sword, and put an helmet upon his head,
+and rush toward the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him
+with deadly force; but the man, not at all discouraged, fell to
+cutting and hacking most fiercely. So after he had received and
+given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him out, he cut
+his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace, at
+which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that were
+within, even of those that walked upon the top of the palace
+saying:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;'Come in, come in;<br /></span>
+<span>eternal glory thou shalt win.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">&quot;So he went in, and was clothed in such garments as they.</p>
+
+<p class="noindent">&quot;Then Christian smiled, and said, I think verily I know the
+meaning of this.&quot;&mdash;Bunyan's, Pilgrim's Progress, p. 44.</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>[158]</span>If you wish to climb the Matterhorn many paths lead up the lower
+slopes, and a stumble here may cost you only a sprain. And I suppose
+that several paths lead to the base of the cone. But thence to the
+summit there is but one path, and a misstep means death. Pardon
+these quotations and illustrations. They are my only means of at all
+adequately presenting to you a scientific man's conception of the
+meaning of the struggle for life. The laws of evolution are written
+in blood and bear the death penalty. For</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i5">&quot;Life is not as idle ore,<br /></span>
+<span>But iron dug from central gloom,<br /></span>
+<span>And heated hot with burning fears,<br /></span>
+<span>And dipt in baths of hissing tears,<br /></span>
+<span>And battered with the shocks of doom<br /></span>
+<span>To shape and use.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent">There would seem therefore to be going on a process of natural
+selection. Natural selection seems to select more unsparingly and
+the struggle for life&mdash;or even existence&mdash;to grow fiercer as we
+advance from lower forms to higher in the animal kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>But the theory which we have agreed to accept teaches us that these
+survivors are those which or who have conformed to their environment
+and that they have survived because of their conformity. And what do
+we mean by environment? And does not man modify his environment?
+Certainly he changes by irrigation a desert into a garden. He
+carries water against its tendency to the hill-top. But he has
+learned to do this only by studying the laws which govern the
+motions of fluids and rigorously obeying them. He must carry his
+water in strong pipes and take it from <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>[159]</span>some higher point, or must
+use heat or some means to furnish the force to drive it to the
+higher point. He cannot change a single iota of the law, and gains
+control of the elements only by obedience to their laws. Electricity
+is man's best servant as long as he respects its laws, but it kills
+him who disobeys them. But does not man make his own surroundings in
+social life? He merely enters upon a new mode of life; and if this
+new mode be in conformity with the eternal forces and laws of
+environment man prospers in this new mode of life and conforms still
+more closely.</p>
+
+<p>There is, indeed, but one environment, but the lower animal comes in
+contact with, and is affected by, but a small portion of its
+elements. Form and color were in the world before the animal had
+developed an eye, but up to this time these could have but little
+effect on animal life. Light vibrations were present in ether long
+before the animal by responding to them made them any part of its
+own true environment. There is vastly more in environment than man
+has yet discovered, and he will discover these elements only by
+obedience to their laws.</p>
+
+<p>Environment includes ultimately all the forces and elements which go
+to make up our world or universe. It is an exceedingly general term.
+I might say that under the environment of certain wheels, springs,
+and spindles, which we call a Jacquard loom, silk threads become a
+ribbon worthy of a queen. Is Nature and environment only a huge
+divine loom to weave man and something higher yet? One great
+difference is evident. Under normal conditions the silk must become
+a ribbon. But protoplasm can fail to conform and become waste.
+Environment is a very hard <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>[160]</span>word to define, and our views concerning
+it may differ.</p>
+
+<p>One thing, however, seems to me clear and evident. If each
+successive stage in the ascending series is selected or survives on
+account of its conformity to environment there must be some element
+or power, something or somewhat in environment specially
+corresponding in some way to, or suited to drawing out, the
+characteristic of this ascending stage on account of which it
+survives. The forces and elements of environment make and work
+against those at each stage who wander from the right path, and for
+those who follow it. And thus natural selection arises as the total
+result of the combined working of all these forces. They all unite
+in one resultant working along a certain line, and natural selection
+is the effect of this resultant. In the stage represented by hydra
+the forces of environment combine in a resultant which works for
+digestion and reproduction and the best development of their organs.
+But as the animal changes he comes into a new relation or occupies a
+new position in respect to these forces. New elements in the old
+environment are beginning to press upon him. And the resultant
+changes accordingly. He may be compared to a steamer at sea which
+raises a sail. The wind has been blowing for hours, but the sail
+gives it a new hold on the ship. Steam and wind now combine in a new
+resultant of forces. From worms upward environment manifests itself
+through natural selection as a power working for muscular force and
+brute strength or activity.</p>
+
+<p>But soon natural selection ceases to select on the ground of brute
+force. After a time environment <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>[161]</span>proves to be a power making for
+shrewdness. And when the mammal has appeared the resultant of the
+forces of environment impels more and more toward unselfishness, and
+when man has appeared environment proves to be a &quot;power, not
+ourselves, that makes for righteousness.&quot; But what shall we say of
+an environment which unmasks itself at last as a power making for
+intelligence, unselfishness, and righteousness? Someone may answer
+it is a host of chemical and physical forces bringing about very
+high ends. That is very true, but is it the whole truth? The
+thinking man must ask, How did it come about, and why is it that all
+these forces work together for such high moral and intelligent ends?</p>
+
+<p>We face, therefore, the question, Can an environment which proves
+finally and ultimately to be a power not ourselves making for
+righteousness and unselfishness be purely material and mechanical?
+Or must there be in or behind it something spiritual? Shall we best
+call environment, in its highest manifestation, &quot;it&quot; or &quot;him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The old argument of Socrates, as on the last day of his life he sits
+discoursing with his friends, still holds good. He is discussing the
+same old question, whether there is anything more than force,
+material, mechanism in the world. He says that one might assign as
+&quot;the cause why I am sitting here that my body is composed of bones
+and muscles; that the bones are solid and separate, and that the
+muscles can be contracted and extended, and are all inclosed in the
+flesh and skin; and that the bones, being jointed, can be drawn by
+the muscles, and so I can move my legs as you see; and that this is
+the reason why I am sitting here. But by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>[162]</span>the dog, these bones and
+muscles would long ago have carried me to Megara or Bo&oelig;tia, moved
+by my opinion of what was best, if I had not thought it more right
+and honorable to submit to the sentence pronounced by the state than
+to run away from it. To call such things causes is absurd. For there
+is a great difference between the cause and that without which the
+cause would not produce its effect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If there is no intelligence or love of truth in the cause, how can
+there be anything higher in the effect? And if Socrates had been
+only bone and muscle, he ought to have run away.</p>
+
+<p>Our problem stands somewhat as follows: We have given protoplasm, a
+strange substance of marvellous capacities, which we call functions,
+and possessing a power of developing into beings of ever higher
+grades of organization. Environment proves to be a combination of
+forces working for the higher development of functions in a certain
+orderly sequence. And every lower function in the ascending line
+demands the development of the next higher. Digestion demands
+muscle, and muscle nerve, and nerve brain. We shall soon see that
+mammalian structure had to culminate in the family, and the family
+demands unselfishness and obedience. Environment therefore proves
+from the beginning to have been unceasingly working for the highest
+end; never, even temporarily, merely for the lower. For we have seen
+that environment works most unsparingly against those who, having
+taken certain of the steps in the ascending path, fail to continue
+therein.</p>
+
+<p>But in order to attain this highest end for which it has always been
+working, an immense number of subsidiary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>[163]</span> ends have had to be
+attained. These are not merely digestion and brain, but a host of
+others: <i>e.g.</i>, in vertebrates, vertebr&aelig; of the right substance,
+position, form, arrangement, and union. And in the ascending line,
+for whose highest forms it has continually worked, the difficulties
+of attaining each subsidiary end have been successively solved, and
+through this host of subsidiary ends the animal kingdom has advanced
+straight to its goal of intelligence and righteousness. Now the
+whole process is a grand argument for design. But I would not
+emphasize the process so much as the end attained. This especially,
+when attained by conformity to that environment, demands more than
+mere mindless atoms in or behind that environment. Can we call the
+ultimate power which makes for righteousness &quot;it?&quot; Can we call it
+less than &quot;Him, in whom we live and move and have our being?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The history of life is a grand drama. &quot;Paradise Lost&quot; and
+Shakespeare's plays are but fragments of it. But without
+intelligence they could never have been composed; without a choice
+of means and ends they could never have been placed upon the stage.
+Does the plot of this grander drama of evolution demand no
+intelligence in its ultimate cause and producer? Is the succession
+of steps, each succeeding the other in such order as to lead to
+truth and right and continual progress toward a spiritual goal, is
+this plot possible without a great composer who has seen the end
+from the beginning? Could it ever have been executed upon the stage
+of the world, and perhaps of the universe, without an executing
+will?</p>
+
+<p>Now I freely grant you that this is no mathematical <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>[164]</span>demonstration.
+Natural science does not deal in demonstrations, it rests upon the
+doctrine of probabilities; just as we have to order our whole lives
+according to this doctrine. Its solution of a problem is never the
+only conceivable answer, but the one which best fits and explains
+all the facts and meets the fewest objections. The arguments for the
+existence of a personal God are far stronger than those in favor of
+any theory of evolution. But we very rightly test the former
+arguments, indefinitely more rigidly and severely, just because our
+very life hangs on them. On the other hand, we should not reject
+them as useless, because they are not of an entirely different kind
+from those on which all the actions and beliefs of our common daily
+life are based. There is a scepticism which is merely a credulity of
+negations. This also we should avoid.</p>
+
+<p>We have considered a few of the reasons for thinking that, with the
+material, there must be something spiritual in environment, that if
+the woof is material the warp is God. Here we need not delay long.
+Blank atheism seems to be at present unpopular and generally
+regarded as unscientific. The so-called philosophic materialism of
+the present day seems to be in general far nearer to pantheism than
+to the old form of materialism which recognized only atoms and
+mechanism. Atheism as a power to deform the lives of men has, for
+the present, lost its hold, and even agnosticism is respectful. The
+materialism against which we have to struggle is not that of the
+school, but of the shop, of society, of life. There are
+comparatively few now who avow a system of philosophy making
+mindless atoms their first cause.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>[165]</span>But there is a far grosser, more deadly materialism of the heart
+and will. It sits unrebuked in the front pews of our churches and
+controls alike church and parish, caucus and legislature. It calls
+on us all to fall down and worship, promising the world if we obey,
+the cross if we refuse. And we bow to it; and that is all it asks,
+for a nod on our part makes us its slaves. It is the idolatry of
+money, position, shrewdness, learning&mdash;in one word, of success. It
+takes all the strength out of our morality, loyalty and obedience to
+God out of our religion, and makes cowards and liars of us, who
+should be heroes. It makes our religion a byword with honest
+unbelievers. And if they are honest scientific minds, waiting for
+evidence of the practical value of our religion, why should they
+believe, when we live so successfully down to the religion which we
+would scorn to openly profess? Our fathers may have been narrow or
+straight-laced; they were not cross-eyed from trying to keep one eye
+on God and the other on the main chance. What is the use of
+whispering, &quot;Lord, Lord,&quot; Sundays, if we shout, &quot;Oh, Baal, hear us,&quot;
+all the rest of the week. Let us at least be honest, and &quot;if Baal be
+god, follow him,&quot; and avow it. And worst, and most hideous, of all,
+we are not so much hypocrites as self-deceived. Let us not forget
+the old Greek doctrine of Ate, goddess of judicial blindness, sent
+down only upon those who were living the unpardonable sin of
+indifference.</p>
+
+<p>But supposing that there is in environment something more and other
+than material, can we possibly know anything about it?</p>
+
+<p>I am in a boat near the mouth of a river. The boat is tossed by the
+waves, driven by currents of wind, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>[166]</span>and now and then temporarily
+turned by eddies. I seem to look out upon a chaos of apparently
+conflicting forces. But all the time the wind and tide are sweeping
+me homeward. Now the wind, which sometimes indeed does shift, and
+the great tidal wave are steadily bearing me in a certain direction,
+though wave and eddy and gust may often make this appear doubtful to
+me. So, underneath all waves and eddies of environment, there is a
+great tidal wave, bearing man steadily onward; and I gain a certain
+amount of valid knowledge of environment from the direction in which
+it is bearing me.</p>
+
+<p>Let us change the illustration. Man survives as all his ancestors
+have survived before him, through conformity to environment.
+Environment has therefore during ages past been continually making
+impressions upon him. And he can draw valid inferences concerning
+the one power, which must underlie the apparent host of forces of
+environment, from the impressions which these have left upon the
+structure of his mind and character. By studying himself he gains
+valid knowledge of what is deepest in environment. For man is the
+most completely and closely conformed thereto of all living beings.</p>
+
+<p>But man <i>is</i> a religious being. This is a fact which demands
+explanation just as much as bone and muscle. Now no evolutionist
+would believe that the eye could ever have developed without the
+stimulus of light acting upon the cells of the skin. Place the
+animal in darkness and the eye becomes rudimentary and disappears.
+Could a visual organ for seeing moral and religious truth have ever
+originated in the mind of man had there been no corresponding
+pulsation <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>[167]</span>and thrill of a corresponding reality in environment? Is
+not the one development just as improbable or inconceivable as the
+other?</p>
+
+<p>And this is the reason that, when man awakened to himself and his
+own powers, he knew that there was and must be a God. &quot;Pass over the
+earth,&quot; says Plutarch; &quot;you may discover cities without walls,
+without literature, without monarchs, without palaces and wealth;
+where the theatre and the school are not known; but no man ever saw
+a city without temples and gods, where prayers and oaths and oracles
+and sacrifices were not used for obtaining pardon or averting evil.&quot;
+Given man and environment as they are, and a belief in God is a
+necessary result. But you may ask, if we are to worship a personal
+God, why might not a conscious and religious hydra, with equal
+right, worship an infinite stomach, and the annelid a god of mere
+brute force?</p>
+
+<p>There stands in Florence a magnificent statue by Michel Angelo. A
+human figure is only partially hewn out of the stone. He never
+finished it. If you could have seen the master hewing the chips with
+hasty, impatient blows from the shapeless block, you would have been
+tempted to say that he was but a stonecutter, and but a hasty
+workman at that. Even now we do not know exactly what form and
+expression he would have given to the still unfinished head. But no
+one can examine it and hesitate to pronounce it a grand work of a
+master-mind. In any manifestly incomplete work you must judge the
+purpose and character and powers of the workman or artist by its
+highest possibilities, just so far as you have any reason to believe
+that <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>[168]</span>these possibilities will be realized. You must look at the
+rudely outlined heroic human figure in the block of stone, not at
+the rough unfinished pedestal, if you would know Michel Angelo. So
+in the hydra and the annelid you must look at the possibilities of
+the nervous system before you or he think that digestion and muscle
+are all.</p>
+
+<p>Once more the highest powers dawn far down in the animal kingdom.
+There are traces of mind in the am&oelig;ba, and of unselfishness in
+the lower mammals. If there were a goal of human development higher
+and other than unselfishness, wisdom, and love, we should have seen
+traces of it before this. But have we found the faintest sign of any
+such? Moreover, remember that a function continues to develop about
+as long as it shows the capacity for development. And during that
+period environment is a power making for its higher development. But
+is there any limit to the possible development of the three mental
+activities mentioned above? I can see none. Then must we not expect
+that environment will always make for these? And will environment
+ever manifest itself to man as the seat or instrument of a power
+possessing higher faculties other than these? Man must worship a
+personal God of wisdom, unselfishness, and love, or cease to
+worship. The latter alternative he never yet has been able to take,
+and society survive under its domination. So I at least am compelled
+to read the finding of biological history.</p>
+
+<p>But let us grant for the sake of argument that man contains still
+undeveloped germs of faculties capable of perceiving and attaining
+something as much higher <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>[169]</span>than wisdom and love as these are higher
+than brute force. You will answer, this is not only inconceivable,
+it is impossible. Still let us grant the possibility. We notice,
+first of all, that it is against the whole course of evolution that
+these faculties should be other than mental, and what we class under
+powers pertaining to our personality. For ages past evidently, and
+no less really from the very beginning, evolution has worked for the
+body only as a perfect vehicle of mind, and for this as leading to
+will and character. And human development has led, and ever more
+tends, as Mr. Drummond has shown, to the arrest, though not the
+degeneration, of the body. It is to remain at the highest possible
+stage of efficiency as the servant of mind. These higher powers will
+thus be mental and personal powers. And how has any and every
+advance to higher capabilities been attained in the animal kingdom?
+Merely by the most active possible exercise of the next lower power.
+This is proven by the sequence of physical and mental functions. We
+shall attain, therefore, any higher mental capacities only by the
+continual practice of wisdom and love. That is our only path to
+something higher, if higher there shall ever be. But if we find that
+the God of our environment is a God of something higher than love
+and righteousness, will these cease to be characteristics of his
+nature and essence? Not at all.</p>
+
+<p>I have learned, perhaps, to know my father as a plain citizen. If I
+later find that he is a king and statesman, with powers and mental
+capacities of which I have never dreamed, do I therefore from that
+time cease to think of him as wise and kind and good? Not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>[170]</span>in the
+least. I only trust his love and wisdom as guide of my little life
+all the more. And shall not the same be true of God though he be
+king of all worlds and ages? It becomes unwise and wrong to worship
+God as the God of might only when we have found that he is a God
+also of something higher and nobler, of love; and after we have
+perceived this fully and worship him as love, we rest in the arms of
+his infinite power.</p>
+
+<p>But now that the work has gone thus far, we can see that all
+development must take place along personal, spiritual lines; and are
+compelled to believe in a spiritual cause who knew the end from the
+beginning. And man's farther progress depends upon his conformity to
+this spiritual environment. And what is conformity to the personal
+element in our environment but likeness to him? This is my only
+possible mode of conformity to a person&mdash;to become like him in word,
+action, thought, and purpose, and finally in all my being. Very far
+from a close resemblance we still are. But we are more like him than
+primitive man was; and our descendants will resemble him far more
+closely than we. And thus man, conscious of his environment, and
+that means capable of knowing something about God, knows at least
+what God requires of him, namely, righteousness, love, and likeness
+to himself; or, as the old heathen seer expressed it, &quot;to do justly,
+love mercy, and walk humbly before God.&quot; Man is and must be a
+religious being. And he conforms consciously. Thus to be more like
+God he must know more about him, and to know more about him he must
+become more like him. The two go hand in hand, and by mutual
+reaction strengthen each other. I will not enter into the most
+important question of all, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>[171]</span>whether we can ever really know a person
+unless we have some love for him. The facts of evolution seem to me
+to admit of but one interpretation, that of Augustine: &quot;Thou hast
+formed me for thee, O Lord, and my restless spirit finds no rest but
+in thee.&quot; Granted, therefore, a personal God in and behind
+environment, however dimly perceived, and conformity to environment
+means god-likeness; for conformity to a person can mean nothing less
+than likeness to him.</p>
+
+<p>Some of you must, all of you should, have read Professor Huxley's
+&quot;Address on Education.&quot; In it he says, &quot;It is a very plain and
+elementary truth that the life, the fortune, and the happiness of
+every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with
+us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game
+infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game
+which has been played for unknown ages, every man and woman of us
+being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The
+chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the
+universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature.
+The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his
+play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our
+cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest
+allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well the highest
+stakes are paid with that sort of overflowing generosity with which
+the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is
+checkmated&mdash;without haste, but without remorse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My metaphor,&quot; he continues, &quot;will remind some of you of the famous
+picture in which Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with
+man for his soul. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a>[172]</span>Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture
+a calm, strong angel, who is playing for love, as we say, and would
+rather lose than win&mdash;and I should accept it as an image of human
+life.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>This is a marvellous illustration, and in general as true as it is
+beautiful and grand. But that &quot;calm, strong angel who is playing for
+love, as we say, and would rather lose than win,&quot; is certainly a
+very strange antagonist. Is it, after all, possible that our
+clear-eyed scientific man has altogether misunderstood the game? Is
+not the &quot;calm, strong angel&quot; more probably our partner? Certainly
+very many things point that way. And who are our antagonists? Look
+within yourself and you will always find at least a pair ready to
+take a hand against you, to say nothing of the possibilities of
+environment. &quot;Rex regis rebellis.&quot; Our partner is trying by every
+method, except perhaps by &quot;talking across the board,&quot; to teach us
+the laws and methods of this great game. And calls and signals are
+always allowable. The game is not finished in one hand; he gives us
+a second and third, and repeats the signals, and never misleads.
+Only when we carelessly or obstinately refuse to learn, and wilfully
+lose the game beyond all hope, does he leave us to meet our losses
+as best we may.</p>
+
+<p>Let us carry the illustration a step farther. Who knows that the
+game was, or could be, at first taught without talking across the
+board? I can find nothing in science to compel such a belief, many
+things render it improbable. Grant a personality in environment to
+which personality in man is to conform and gain likeness.
+Environment can act on the digestive and muscular<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>[173]</span> systems through
+mere material. But how can personality in environment act on
+personality in man except by personal contact or by symbols easy of
+comprehension according to its own laws? Some method of attaining
+acquaintance at least we should certainly expect.</p>
+
+<p>But some of you may ask, How can any theory of evolution guarantee
+that anything of the present shall survive in the future? It is
+continually changing and destroying former types. The old order of
+everything changes and passes away, giving place to the new. But is
+this the whole truth? Evolution is a radical process, but we must
+never forget that it is also, and at the same time, exceedingly
+conservative. The cell was the first invention of the animal
+kingdom, and all higher animals are and must be cellular in
+structure. Our tissues were formed ages on ages ago; they have all
+persisted. Most of our organs are as old as worms. All these are
+very old, older than the mountains, and yet I cannot doubt that they
+must last as long as man exists. Indeed, while Nature is wonderfully
+inventive of new structures, her conservatism in holding on to old
+ones is still more remarkable. In the ascending line of development
+she tries an experiment once exceedingly thorough, and then the
+question is solved for all time. For she always takes time enough to
+try the experiment exhaustively. It took ages to find how to build a
+spinal column or brain, but when the experiment was finished she had
+reason to be, and was, satisfied. And if this is true of bodily
+organs we should expect that the same law would hold good when the
+animal development gradually passes over into the spiritual. And
+what is human history but <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>[174]</span>the record of moral and religious
+experiments, and their success or failure according as the
+experimenters conformed to the laws of the spiritual forces with
+which they had to do?</p>
+
+<p>We need not fear that our old fundamental beliefs will be lost.
+Their very age shows that they have been thoroughly tested in the
+great experiment of human history and found sure. Modified they may
+be; they will be used for higher purposes and the building of better
+characters than ours. They will not be lost or discarded. We too
+often think of nature as building like man, with huge scaffoldings,
+which must later be torn down and destroyed. But in the forest the
+only scaffolding is the heart of oak.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that the sequence of functions in animal development
+has culminated in man's rational, moral nature. He alone has the
+clear perception of the reality of right, truth, and duty. The
+pursuit of these has made him what he is. His advance, if there is
+any continuity in history, depends upon his making these the ruling
+motives and aims of his life. He must continually grow in
+righteousness and unselfishness, if he is not to degenerate and give
+place to some other product of evolution. Moreover, as these moral
+faculties are capable of indefinite, if not infinite, development,
+they must dominate his life through a future of indefinite duration.
+For the length of the period of dominance of a function has always
+been proportional to the capacity of that function for future
+development. These can never, so far as we can see, be superseded,
+for no rival to them can be discovered. We have found in them the
+culmination of the sequence of functions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>[175]</span>We have attempted to show in this lecture that reversal of this
+grand sequence has always led to degeneration, or, in higher forms,
+far more frequently, to extinction. As we ascend, natural selection
+works more, rather than less, unsparingly. And as advance depends
+upon conformity to environment, and as the highest forms must be
+regarded as therefore most completely conformed, we gain our most
+adequate knowledge of environment when we study it as working
+especially for these. For these have been from the very beginning
+its far-off, chief aim and goal. Viewed from this standpoint,
+environment proves to be a host of interacting forces uniting in a
+resultant &quot;power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness,&quot; and
+unselfishness.</p>
+
+<p>Inasmuch as man's rational moral nature, his personality, is the
+result of the last and longest step toward and in conformity to
+environment, these powers correspond to that which is at the same
+time highest, and deepest, and most fundamental in that environment.
+This power which makes for righteousness is therefore to be regarded
+as personal and spiritual rather than material. It is God immanent
+in nature. And it is mainly to this personal and spiritual element
+in his environment that man is in the future to more completely
+conform. Conformity to this element in man's environment does not so
+much result in life as it <i>is</i> life; failure to conform is death.
+And the pressure of environment upon man, compelling him to choose
+between life through conformity and non-conformity with death, can
+be most naturally and adequately explained as the expression of his
+will. We know what he requires of us.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>[176]</span>Our knowledge of him is very incomplete, but may be valid as far as
+it extends. And it would seem to be valid, for it has been tested by
+ages of experiment. The results of this grand experiment have been
+summed up in man's fundamental religious beliefs. And farther
+knowledge will be gained by more complete obedience to the
+requirements already known. The evidence, that these fundamental
+religious beliefs will persist, is of the same character as that
+upon which rests our belief in the persistence of cells and tissues.
+The one is rooted in the structure of our minds; the other, in the
+structure of our bodies. But, after all, only will can act upon
+will, and personality upon personality. It remains for us to examine
+how man was compelled by his very structure to develop a new element
+in his environment, conformed indeed to the laws of his old
+environment, but better fitted to draw out the moral and spiritual
+side of his nature. And in connection with this study we may hope to
+gain some new light on the laws of conformity.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7">[7]</a> See chart, p. <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8">[8]</a> Huxley: Lay Sermons and Addresses, p. 31.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>[177]</span>We are too prone to think that soil and climate, hill-side or plain,
+mountain and shore, temperature and rainfall, constitute the sole or
+the most important elements in human environment. Every one of these
+elements is doubtless important. Frost, drought, or barrenness of
+soil may make a region a desert, or dwarf the development of its
+inhabitants. Mountaineer, and the dweller on the plain, and the
+fisherman on the shore of the ocean develop different traits through
+the influence of their surroundings. In too warm a climate the human
+race loses its mental and moral vigor and degenerates. This is
+undeniable.</p>
+
+<p>But, though one soil and climate and set of physical surroundings
+may be more conducive than another to the development of heroism,
+truthfulness, unselfishness, and righteousness, no one is essential
+to their production or sure to give rise to them. Moral and
+religious character is a feature of man's personality, and our
+personality is moulded mainly by the men and women with whom we
+associate. A man is not only &quot;known by the company which he keeps;&quot;
+he is usually fashioned by and conforms to it. As President Seelye
+has well said, &quot;The only motive which can move a will is either a
+will itself, or something into which a will enters. It is not a
+thought, but only a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>[178]</span>sentiment, a deed, or a person, by which we
+become truly inspired. It is not the intellect, but the heart and
+will, through which and by which we are controlled. It is not the
+precepts of life, but life itself, by which alone we are begotten
+and born unto life.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, there are two ways in which living power, personal power, the
+power of a will, may enter a soul and give it life; the one is when
+God's will works upon us, and the other when our wills work upon one
+another. God's will may directly penetrate ours, enabling us to will
+and to do of his good pleasure; and our own wills, thus inspired,
+may be the torch to kindle other wills with the same inspiration. It
+is in only one of these two ways that a human soul can be truly
+inspired; and, without a true inspiration, no amount of instruction,
+whether in duty, or life, or anything else, will change a single
+moral propensity.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>Even though a Lincoln may rise above his hereditary position or his
+surroundings, they are the school in which he is trained; the
+gymnasium in which his mental and moral fibre is strengthened.
+Family and social life form thus the element of man's environment by
+which he is mostly moulded, and to which he most naturally and
+completely conforms. Let us therefore briefly trace the origin of
+this new element of man's environment, and then notice the effect
+upon him of conformity to its laws, and see whither these would lead
+him.</p>
+
+<p>We have already seen that intra-uterine development of the young was
+being carried ever farther by mammals, and we found one explanation
+of this in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>[179]</span>fact that each mammalian egg represented a large
+amount of nutriment, and that the mammal had very little material to
+spare for reproduction. Very possibly, too, the newly hatched
+mammals were exposed to even more numerous and greater dangers than
+the young of birds. Even among lower mammals the young is feeble at
+birth. But the human infant is absolutely helpless. And the centre
+of its helplessness is its brain. Its eyes and ears are
+comparatively perfect, but its perceptions are very dim. Its muscles
+are all present, but it must very slowly and gradually learn to use
+them. Its language is but a cry, its few actions reflex. The
+new-born kitten may be just as helpless, but in a few weeks it will
+run and play and hunt, and after a few months can care for itself.
+Not so the child. It must be cared for during months and years
+before it can be given independence. Its brain is so marvellously
+complex that it is finished as a thinking and willing and
+muscle-controlling mechanism only long after birth. This means a
+period of infancy during which the young clings helplessly to the
+mother, who is its natural protector. And during this period the
+mother and young have to be cared for and protected by the male. And
+the period of infancy and the protection of the female and young are
+just as truly, though in far less degree, characteristic of the
+highest apes as of man.</p>
+
+<p>I can give you only this very condensed and incomplete abstract of
+Mr. John Fiske's argument; you must read it for yourself in his
+&quot;Destiny of Man.&quot; And as he has there shown, this can have but one
+result, and that is the family life of man. And we may yet very
+possibly have to acknowledge that family life of a very low <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>[180]</span>grade
+is just as truly characteristic of the higher apes as of lower man.
+And thus the family life of man is the physiological result of, and
+rooted in, mammalian structure.</p>
+
+<p>And the benefits of family life are too great and numerous to even
+enumerate. First of all the family is the school of unselfishness.
+All the love of the parent is drawn out for the helpless and
+dependent child, and grows as the parent works and thinks for it.
+And the child returns a fraction of his parents' love. Within the
+close bond of the family the struggle for place and opportunity is
+replaced by mutual helpfulness; and this doing and burden-bearing
+with and for each other is a constant exercise in the practice of
+love. And with out this mutual love and helpfulness the family
+cannot exist.</p>
+
+<p>And slowly man begins to apply the lessons learned in the family to
+other relations with partners, neighbors, and friends. Slowly he
+discovers that an entirely selfish life defeats its own ends. A
+voice within him tells him continually that love is better than
+selfishness and ministering better than being ministered unto. It
+dawns upon him that it is against the nature of things that other
+people should be so selfish and grasping; a few begin to apply the
+moral to themselves, and a few of these to act accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>And what a change the few steps which man has taken in this
+direction have wrought in his life. Says Professor Huxley: &quot;In place
+of ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint, in place of
+thrusting aside or treading down all competitors, it requires that
+the individual shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows;
+its influence is directed not so much to the survival<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>[181]</span> of the
+fittest as to the fitting of as many as possible to survive. It
+repudiates the gladiatoral theory of existence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It is a vast change from the &quot;gladiatorial theory&quot; to that of
+&quot;mutual helpfulness.&quot; Call it a revolution, if you will. Revolutions
+are not unheard of in the history of the animal kingdom any more
+than in human history. We have seen, first, digestion and
+reproduction on the throne of animal organization, then muscle, and
+finally brain. Each of these changes is in one sense a revolution.</p>
+
+<p>A little before the summer solstice the earth is whizzing away from
+the sun; a few weeks later it is whizzing with equal rapidity in
+almost the opposite direction. In the very nature of things it could
+not be otherwise. But so silently and gradually does it come about
+that we never feel the reversal of the engine; indeed the engine has
+not been reversed at all. Very similar is the change of the struggle
+of brute against brute to that of man for man. Indeed human
+development seems now to be almost at such a solstice where the
+power that makes for love is almost exhausted in opposing the
+tendency toward selfishness. We shall not always stay at the
+solstice; soon we shall make more rapid progress. And unselfishness
+like the family relation is firmly rooted in mammalian structure.</p>
+
+<p>And man owes almost everything to family life. First the child gains
+the advantage of the parent's experience. He is educated by the
+parent. In a few formative and receptive years he gains from the
+parent the results of centuries of human experience. The process is
+thus cumulative, the investment bears compound interest. And yet
+this is peculiar to man only <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>[182]</span>in degree. Have you never watched a
+cat train her kittens? And the education of the child in the savage
+family is very incomplete.</p>
+
+<p>The family is the first and fundamental of all higher social and
+political unities. And without the persistence of the family the
+larger social unit would become an inert mass. All the individual
+ambition, all desire for family advancement, must be retained as
+still a motive for energetic advance. And all the training which
+social life can give reaches the individual most effectively, or
+solely, through the family. Society without the family would be like
+an army without company or regimental organization. Thus the very
+existence, not only of training in love and mutual helpfulness, but
+even of society itself as a mere organization, depends upon the
+existence and improvement of family life. And as so much depended
+upon and resulted from it, it could not but be fostered and improved
+by natural selection. The tribe or race with the best family life
+has apparently survived. But all social animals have some means of
+communicating very simple thoughts or perceptions. The simplest
+illustrations of this are the calls and warning cries of mammals and
+birds. It is not impossible that the higher mammals have something
+worthy of the name of language. But man alone, with his better brain
+and better anatomical structure of throat and mouth, and the closer
+interdependence with his fellows, has attained to articulate speech.
+And this again has become the bond to a still closer union.</p>
+
+<p>Now our only question is, How does social life enable and aid man to
+conform to environment? We are interested not so much in his
+happiness as in his progress. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>[183]</span>It helps and improves the body by
+giving him a better and more constant supply of more suitable food,
+and better protection from inclemency of the weather, and in many
+other ways. Baths and gymnasia are built, and medical science
+prolongs life. Yet make the items as many as you can, and what a
+long list of disadvantages to man physically you must set over
+against these. Many of these evils will doubtless disappear as
+society becomes better organized, but some will always remain to
+plague us. We pamper or abuse our stomachs, and dyspepsia results.
+We live in hot-houses, and a host of diseases are fostered by them.
+Indeed it would be hard to count up the diseases for which social
+life is directly or indirectly responsible. Social life becomes more
+and more complicated, and our nervous systems cannot bear the
+strain. Medical science saves alive thousands who would otherwise
+die, and these grow up to bear children as weak as themselves. We
+are looking now at the physical side alone; and from this standpoint
+the survival of the invalid is a sore evil. Now society will and
+must become healthier; we shall not always abuse our bodies as
+sinfully as we now do. Still, viewed from the standpoint of the body
+alone, the best, as it seems to me, which we can claim, is that
+social life does no more harm than good.</p>
+
+<p>What has social life done for man intellectually? Much. It gives him
+schools and colleges. But are our systems of education an unmixed
+good? How many of our schools and colleges are places where men are
+stuffed with facts until they have no time nor inclination to think?
+They may turn out learned men; do they produce thinkers? And how
+about the spread of knowledge? Is it not a spread of information?
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>[184]</span>And most of what goes forth from the press is not worthy of even
+that name, or is information which a man had better be without. We
+are proud of being a nation of readers. And reading is good, if a
+man thinks about what he reads; otherwise it is like undigested food
+in the stomach, an injury and a curse. A dyspeptic gourmand is
+helped by &quot;cutting down his rations.&quot; In our mental disease we need
+the same course of treatment. Let us read fewer books and papers and
+think more about what we do read.</p>
+
+<p>Society may foster original thinking; it is none the less opposed to
+it.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look,<br /></span>
+<span>He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This is the motto of all great parties in Church and State. Still
+social life has undoubtedly fostered thought. We think vastly more
+and better than primitive man; still we have much to learn. Society
+puts the experience of centuries at the service of every individual.
+Poor and unsatisfactory as are our modes of education, they are a
+great blessing intellectually and will become more helpful.
+And, after all, the friction of mind against mind in social
+life&mdash;provided social intercourse is this, and not the commingling
+of two vacua&mdash;is a continual education of inestimable advantage. And
+all these advantages would without language have been absolutely
+impossible. Intellectually our debt to society is inestimable.</p>
+
+<p>And how does social life aid man morally? I cannot help believing
+that primitive society was the first school of the human conscience.
+It was a rude school, but it taught man some grand lessons.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>[185]</span>The primitive clan would seem to have existed as a rude army for
+the defence of its members and for offensive operations against
+enemies. Individual responsibility on the part of its members was
+slight for offences against individuals of other clans, or against
+the gods. For any such offence of one of its members the whole clan
+was held, or held itself, largely responsible. If one man sinned,
+the clan suffered. It could not therefore afford to pardon wilful
+disobedience to regulations made by it or its leaders. Its very
+existence depended on this strict discipline. And much the same
+stern discipline has to be maintained in our modern armies or they
+become utterly worthless.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, man, as a social being, is very ready to accept the
+estimate of his actions placed upon them by his fellows. It is not
+easy to resist public opinion now. The tie of class or professional
+feeling is a tremendous power for good and evil. It must have been
+almost irresistible in that primitive army, which summarily outlawed
+or killed the obstinately disobedient. But all obedience was lauded
+and rewarded. It had to be so. And if the tribe was worthy to
+survive, because its regulations were better than those of its
+rivals, or perhaps as nearly just and right as were well possible,
+it was altogether best and right it should be so. The voice of the
+people was, in a very rude, stammering way, the voice of God. And
+those who survived became more and more obedient, and found
+themselves, when disobedient, feeling debased, and mean, and
+unworthy, as their fellows considered them. And all this feeling
+tended to develop a conscience in the individual answering to the
+estimates and regulations of the community.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>[186]</span>And remember that the primitive religion is a tribal religion. The
+gods felt toward a man just as his neighbors did. A public opinion
+of this sort is irresistible, and a man's conscience and estimate of
+himself and his actions must conform to it. But you may say a man
+may grant that this opinion is in a sense irresistible, and find
+himself very miserable and unhappy under its condemnation. But he
+would not feel remorse; this is a very different feeling. Possibly
+it may be. I am not so sure. But what I am interested in maintaining
+is that the condemnation of one's fellow-men puts more vividly
+before one's eyes, and emphasizes, the condemnation of one's own
+self. It may often be a necessary step in self-conviction. And what
+is most important, even in our own case, the condemnation of our
+fellows often brings with it self-condemnation.</p>
+
+<p>Try the experiment, as you will some day, of following a course of
+action which you feel fairly confident is right, but which all your
+neighbors think is foolish and wrong. See if you do not feel twinges
+within you which you must examine very closely to distinguish from
+twinges of conscience. If you do not, I see but one explanation&mdash;you
+are conscious that God is with you, and content with this majority.
+But in the case of primitive man God was always on the side of one's
+tribe.</p>
+
+<p>Now this does not explain the origin of man's conception of right;
+it presupposes such a conception in some dim form. I do not now know
+why right is right or beauty beautiful. I only know they are so.
+Where or when either of these perceptions dawned I do not know. But,
+given some such dim perception, I believe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a>[187]</span> that primitive human
+society gave it its iron grip on every fibre of man's nature.</p>
+
+<p>Before the animal could safely be allowed to govern itself
+intelligently it had to serve a long apprenticeship to reflex action
+and instinct. And man's moral nature had to undergo a similar
+apprenticeship to tribal regulation and tribal conscience. Only
+slowly was instinct modified and replaced by intelligent action. And
+how this old tribal conscience persists. Often for good, although
+there it were better replaced by an individual conscience working
+for right. But how slowly you and I learn that there is a higher
+responsibility than to party or class. How often my vote and action
+are controlled, not by my own conscience, but by the opinion of my
+fellows, or the feeling that, if my party suffers defeat, God's work
+will suffer at the hands of my opponents. And what is all this but
+the survival in a very degenerate form of the old tribal conscience
+of primitive man? And he knew, and could know, nothing better: I can
+and do.</p>
+
+<p>But society slowly works for unselfishness. The love learned in the
+family manifests itself in ever-widening circles; it must do so if
+it is the genuine article. It works for neighbors and friends, then
+for the poor and helpless of the community. Then it spreads to other
+communities and nations. For genuine love recognizes no bounds of
+time or place. Slowly we learn that we are our brother's keepers,
+and that the brotherhood cannot stop short of the human race.
+Goodness and kindness radiate from one, perhaps unknown, member of
+the community to his fellows, and thence all over the world. And the
+world is the better for his one action.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>[188]</span>Primitive society was thus the best possible school of conscience;
+and the family and it are the great school of unselfishness. But
+society is even more and better than this. It is the medium through
+which thought, power, and moral and religious life can spring from
+man to man. This is its last and culminating advantage: it is that
+for which society really exists.</p>
+
+<p>For, in the close bonds of family and social life, a new possibility
+of development has arisen based upon articulate speech. We might
+almost call it a new form of heredity, independent of all
+blood-relationship. Progress in anatomical structure in the animal
+kingdom was slow, because any improvement could be transmitted only
+to the direct descendants of its original possessor. But in all
+matters pertaining to or based upon mind, a new invention, or idea,
+or system becomes the property of him who can best appreciate it.
+The torch is always handed on to the swiftest runner. Thus Socrates
+is the true father of Plato, and Plato of Aristotle. Whoever can
+best understand and appreciate and enter into the spirit of Socrates
+and Plato becomes heir to their thoughts and interprets them to us.
+And the thought of one man enriches all races and times.</p>
+
+<p>But a great teacher like Socrates is not merely an intellectual
+power. &quot;Probe a little deeper, surgeon,&quot; said the French soldier,
+&quot;and you'll find the emperor.&quot; Napoleon may have impressed himself
+on the soldier's intellect; he had enthroned himself in his heart.
+&quot;Slave,&quot; said the old Roman, Marius, to the barbarian who had been
+sent into the dungeon to despatch him, &quot;slave, wouldst thou kill
+Cains Marius?&quot; And the barbarian, though backed by all the power of
+Rome, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>[189]</span>is said to have fled in dismay. Why did he run away? I do not
+know. I only know that I should have done the same. One more
+instance. Some thirty years ago the northern army was fleeing, a
+disorganized mob, toward Winchester. Early had fallen upon them
+suddenly in the gray of the morning, and, while one corps still held
+its ground, the rest of the army was melting away in panic. Then a
+little red-faced trooper came tearing down the line shouting, &quot;Face
+the other way boys; face the other way.&quot; And those panic-stricken
+men turned and rolled an irresistible avalanche of heroes upon the
+Confederate lines. What made them turn about? It was something which
+I can neither define nor analyze&mdash;the personal power of Sheridan. It
+is the secret of every great leader of men. Now Sheridan had
+imparted more than information to these men. Is it too much to say
+that he put himself into them? From such men power streams out like
+electricity from a huge dynamo.</p>
+
+<p>Now society furnishes the medium through which such a man can act.
+You have all met such men, though probably not more than one or two
+of them. But one such man is a host. They may be men of few words.
+But their very presence and look calls out all that is good in you;
+and while you are with them evil loses its power. Says the gay and
+licentious Alcibiades, in Plato's &quot;Banquet&quot; concerning Socrates:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I heard Pericles or any other great orator, I was entertained
+and delighted, and I felt that he had spoken well. But no mortal
+speech has ever excited in my mind such emotions as are excited by
+this magician. Whenever I hear him, I am, as it were, charmed and
+fettered. My heart leaps like an inspired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a>[190]</span> Corybant. My inmost soul
+is stung by his words as by the bite of a serpent. It is indignant
+at its own rude and ignoble character. I often weep tears of regret
+and think how vain and inglorious is the life I lead. Nor am I the
+only one that weeps like a child and despairs of himself. Many
+others are affected in the same way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These men are the real kings. Their power for good, and sometimes
+for evil, is inestimable. And the great advantage of social life, as
+a means of conforming to environment, is the medium which it
+furnishes to conduct the power of such men. Man's last effort toward
+conformity to environment, the struggle for existence in its last
+most real form, is the life and death grapple between good and evil.
+For here good and evil, righteousness and sin, come face to face in
+spiritual form; &quot;we wrestle not with flesh and blood.&quot; Life is more
+than a game of chess or whist; it is a great battle; every man must,
+and does, take sides; he must fight or die. And the real kings of
+society are, as a rule, on the side of truth, and aid its triumph.
+For one essential condition of such leadership is the power to
+inspire confidence in the love of the king for his willing subject.
+A suspicion of selfish aims in the leader breaks this bond. The hero
+must be self-forgetful. This is one reason for man's hero-worship,
+and the magnetic, dominant power of the hero. But evil is
+essentially selfish and can gain and hold this kingship only as long
+as it can deceive. And these kings &quot;live forever.&quot; Dynasties and
+empires disappear, but Socrates and Plato, Luther and Huss, Cromwell
+and Lincoln, rule an ever-widening kingdom of ever more loyal
+subjects.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>[191]</span>And society will have leaders; men may set up whatever form of
+government they will, they are always searching for a king. And this
+is no sign of weakness or credulity. Man's desire for leadership is
+only another proof of the vast future which he knows is before him,
+and into which he longs to be guided. The wiser a man is, the more
+he desires to be taught; the nobler he becomes, the more
+whole-souled is the homage which he pays to the noblest. Is it a
+sign of weakness or ignorance in students, of adult age and ripe
+manhood, to flock to some great university to hear the wisdom and
+catch the inspiration of some great master? When Jackson fell Lee
+exclaimed, &quot;I have lost my right arm.&quot; Was Jackson any the less for
+being the right arm to deal, as only he could, the crushing blows
+planned by the great strategist?</p>
+
+<p>But is not man to be independent and free? Certainly. But he gains
+freedom from the petty tyranny of robber-baron or boss, and from the
+very pettiest tyranny of all, the service of self, only as he finds
+and enlists under the king. Serve self and it will plunge you in,
+and drag you through, the ditch, till your own clothes abhor you.
+You are free to choose your teacher and guide and example. But
+choose you will and must. I am not propounding theories; I am
+telling you facts. Whether for better or worse man always does and
+will choose because he must. Look about you, look into yourselves.
+Have you no hero whom you admire and strive to resemble? no teacher
+to whom you listen? You must and do have your example and teacher.
+Is he teaching you to conform to environment, or leading you to be
+ground in pieces by its forces all arrayed against you?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>[192]</span>The Carpenter of Nazareth stood before Pilate. &quot;And Pilate said
+unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I
+am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into
+the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that
+is of the truth heareth my voice.&quot; And Pilate would not wait for the
+answer to his question, What is truth? and the Jews chose Barabbas.
+Would you and I have acted differently? The answer of our Lord to
+Pilate contains the essence of Christianity. &quot;You a king,&quot; says
+Pilate in astonishment; &quot;where is your power to enforce your
+authority?&quot; And our Lord's answer seems to me to mean substantially
+this: Roman legions shall suffer defeat, rout, and extermination;
+and Roman power shall cease to terrify. All its might must decay.
+But &quot;everyone that is of the truth&quot; shall attach himself to me with
+a love which will brave rack and stake. All your power cannot give a
+grain of new life. I can and will infuse my own divine life, my own
+divine <i>self</i>, into men. And this new life is invincible, immortal,
+all-conquering. I have infused myself into a few fishermen, and they
+will infuse <i>me</i> into a host of other men. Thus I will transfigure
+into my own character every man in the world, who is of the truth,
+and therefore will hear my voice. All the power of Rome cannot
+prevent it, and whatever opposes it must go down before it.</p>
+
+<p>Christianity is the contagion of a divine life. Society is the
+medium through which it could and was to work. Greece had prepared
+the language necessary for its spread. Roman power had built its
+highways and levelled all obstructions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>[193]</span>A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.&quot; &quot;Not by might, nor by
+power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But, you will object, the grandest kings have had, as a rule, the
+fewest loyal subjects. The prophets and seers are stoned. Elijah
+stands alone on Carmel and opposed to him are more than a thousand
+prophets of Baal, with court and king at their head. Heroism does
+not pay, and heroes are few. Right is always in a hopeless minority.
+Let us look into this matter carefully, for the objection, even if
+overstated, certainly contains a large amount of truth.</p>
+
+<p>Let us go back to two forms having much the same grade of
+organization: both worms. One of them sets out to become a
+vertebrate, building an internal skeleton. The other forms an
+external skeleton and becomes a crab. To form its skeleton the crab
+had only to thicken the cuticle already present in the annelid. It
+had to modify the already existing parapodia and their muscles,
+changing them to legs. The external skeleton gave from the start a
+double advantage&mdash;protection and better locomotion. Every grain of
+thickening aided the animal in the struggle for existence in both
+these ways. The very fact that the skeleton was external may have
+rendered it more liable to variation, because it was thus exposed to
+continual stimuli. And the best were rapidly sifted out by Natural
+Selection. The change and development went on with comparative
+rapidity. In the mollusk the change was apparently still more easy
+and the development still more rapid.</p>
+
+<p>But the development of an internal skeleton was more difficult and
+slower. It was of no use for the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>[194]</span>protection of the animal, and only
+gradually did it become of much service in locomotion. Being
+deep-seated it very possibly changed all the more slowly.
+Furthermore, a cartilaginous rod, like the notochord, even fully
+developed, hardly enabled the animal to fight directly with the
+mail-clad crab. The internal skeleton had to become far more highly
+developed before its great advantages, and freedom from
+disadvantages, became apparent. The mollusk and crab were working a
+mine rich in surface deposits although soon exhausted. The
+vertebrate lead was poor at the surface, and only later showed its
+inexhaustible richness. It looked as if the vertebrate were making a
+very poor speculation.</p>
+
+<p>Whether this explanation be true or not, a glance at a chart,
+showing the geological succession of occurrence of the different
+kingdoms, proves that in the oldest pal&aelig;ozoic periods there were
+well-developed cuttlefish and crabs before there were any
+vertebrates worthy of the name. If any were present, their skeleton
+was purely cartilaginous and not preserved.</p>
+
+<p>I think we may go farther, although in this latter consideration we
+may very possibly be mistaken. We have already seen that the
+progress made by any animal may be measured more or less accurately
+by the length of time during which its ancestors maintained a
+swimming life. The ancestors of the c&oelig;lenterates settled to the
+bottom first. Then successively those of flatworms, mollusks,
+annelids, and crabs. All this time the ancestors of vertebrates were
+swimming in the water above. Food was probably more abundant,
+certainly more easily and economically obtained by a creeping life,
+on the bottom. But thither the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>[195]</span>vertebrate could not go. There his
+mail-clad competitors were too strong for him. Those which settled
+and tried to compete in this sort of life perished. We may have to
+except the ascidia, but they paid for their success by the loss of
+nearly all their vertebrate characteristics. The future progress of
+vertebrates depended upon their continual activity in the swimming
+life. And they were forced by their environment to maintain this.
+Otherwise they might, probably would, never have attained their
+present height of organization. Certainly at this time you would
+have found it hard to believe that the victory was to fall to these
+weaker and smaller vertebrates.</p>
+
+<p>Let us come down to a later period. Reptiles, mammals, and birds are
+struggling for supremacy. Of the power and diversity of form of
+these old reptiles we have generally no adequate conception. The
+forms now living are but feeble remnants. There were huge
+sea-serpents, and forms like our present crocodiles, but far more
+powerful. Others apparently resembled in form and habit the
+herbivorous and carnivorous mammals of to-day. Others strode or
+leaped on two legs. And still others flew like bats or birds. They
+were terrible forms, with coats of mail and powerful jaws and teeth.
+And they were active and swift. When we look at them we see that the
+vertebrate, though slow in gaining the lead, is sure to hold it. The
+internal skeleton gave fewer advantages at the start; its greatest
+superiority had lain in future possibilities.</p>
+
+<p>But which vertebrate is heir to the future? It would have been a
+hard choice between reptile and bird. I feel sure that I, for one,
+should not have selected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>[196]</span> the mammal, a small, feeble being, hiding
+in holes and ledges, and continually hard put to it to escape
+becoming a mouthful for some huge reptile. And yet the persecution,
+the impossibility of contending by brute strength, may have forced
+the mammal into the line of brain-building and placental
+development. The early development of mammals appears to have been
+slow. Pal&aelig;ontology proves that they were long surpassed by reptiles
+and birds. But the little mammal had the future. The battle was to
+go against the strong.</p>
+
+<p>Once again. The arboreal life of higher mammals would seem to be
+most easily explained by the view that they were driven to it by
+stronger carnivorous mammals having possession of the ground. Brain
+was good, for it planned escape from enemies. But it did not give
+its possessor immediate victory over muscle, tooth, and claw in the
+tiger. That was to come far later with the invention of traps and
+guns. Brain gave its possessor a sure hold of the future, and just
+enough of the present to enable it to survive by a hard struggle.
+And the same appears to have been true of primitive man.</p>
+
+<p>Thus all man's ancestors have had to lead a life of continual
+struggle against overwhelming odds and of seeming defeat. It was a
+life of hardship, if not of positive suffering. The organ which was
+to give them future supremacy, whether it was backbone, placenta, or
+brain, could in its earlier stages aid them only to a hardly won
+survival. The present apparently, and really as far as freedom from
+discomfort and danger is concerned, always belongs to forms
+hopelessly doomed to degeneration or stagnation. Crabs, not
+primitive <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>[197]</span>vertebrates, were masters of the good things of the sea;
+and, in later times, reptiles, not mammals, of those of the land.
+Any progressive form has to choose between the present and the
+future. It cannot grasp both. I am not propounding to you any
+metaphysical theories, but plain, dry, hard facts of pal&aelig;ontology;
+explain them as you will.</p>
+
+<p>And here we must add our last word about conformity to environment;
+and it is a most important consideration. Conformity to environment
+is not such an adaptation as will confer upon an animal the greatest
+immunity from discomfort or danger, or will enable it to gain the
+greatest amount of food and place, and produce the largest number of
+offspring. Indeed, if you will add one element to those mentioned
+above, namely, that all these shall be attained with the least
+amount of effort, they insure degeneration beyond a doubt. This is
+the conformity of the bivalve mollusk. The clam has abundance of
+food, enormous powers of reproduction, almost perfect protection
+against enemies, and lives a life of almost absolute freedom from
+discomfort, and the clam is really lower than most worms.</p>
+
+<p>If an animal is to progress, it must keep such a conformity ever
+secondary to a still more important element, namely, conformity or
+obedience to the laws of its own structure and being. This second
+element the mollusk and every creeping stage neglected, and the
+result of this neglect was stagnation or degeneration. Activity was
+essential to progress from the very structure and laws of
+development of the animal, while a great abundance of food was not.
+A life of ease, for the same reason, necessarily results in
+degeneration.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>[198]</span>But you will ask, What becomes of Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution,
+if obedience to the laws of individual being is more important than
+conformity to external conditions? Both are evidently necessary, and
+they are not so different as they may seem at first sight. They are
+really one and the same. Bringing out the best and highest there is
+in us, is the only true conformity to that which is deepest and
+surest and most enduring in our environment. That in environment
+which makes for digestion is almost palpable and tangible, that
+which makes for activity less so perhaps; but that which makes for
+brain and truth and right is intangible and invisible. We easily
+fail to notice it; and, unless we take a careful view of the course
+of development in the highest forms of life, we may be inclined to
+deny its existence. But it is surely there, if man is a product of
+evolution.</p>
+
+<p>Each successive stage of animal life is not the preceding stage on a
+higher plane, but the preceding stage modified in conformity to the
+environment of that from which it has just arisen. Says Professor
+Hertwig<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>: &quot;During the process of organic development the external
+is continually becoming an integral part of the individual. The germ
+is continually growing and changing at the expense of surrounding
+conditions.&quot; Every stage thus contains the result of a host of
+reactions to a ruder and older portion of environment. And the
+higher we go the more has the original protoplasm and structure been
+modified as the result of these reactions.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen clearly that environment must be studied through its
+effect upon living beings. Viewed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>[199]</span>from any other standpoint it
+appears to be a myriad, almost a chaos, of interacting, apparently
+conflicting, forces. The resultant of some of these is shown by the
+animal at any stage of its development. And as the animal advances,
+the resultant determining its new line, or stage, of advance,
+includes new forces, to which it has only lately become sensitive.
+And thus the human mind, as the last and highest product of
+evolution, mirrors most adequately the resultant of all its forces.
+If we would know environment we must study ourselves, not atoms
+alone, nor rocks, nor worms.</p>
+
+<p>Extremely sensitive photographic plates, after long exposure, have
+proven the existence of stars so dim and far-off as to be invisible
+to the best telescopes. Man's mind is just such a sensitive plate;
+it is the only valid representation of environment.</p>
+
+<p>The truth would appear to be that the law is present in environment,
+but hard to read; but it is stamped upon our structure and being so
+deeply and plainly that the dullest of us cannot fail to read it. We
+learned the fact of gravitation the first time that we fell down in
+learning to walk, long afterward we learned that its law guided
+earth and moon. And it is the presence of this law within us, and
+our own knowledge that we are conscious of it, that makes man
+without excuse. But conformity to that which is deepest in
+environment often, always, demands non-conformity to some of the
+most palpable of surrounding conditions.</p>
+
+<p>There is no better statement of the ultimate law of conformity than
+the words of Paul: &quot;Be not conformed to this world; but be ye
+transformed by the renewing <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>[200]</span>of your mind, that ye may prove what is
+that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And this difference is exactly what I have been trying to put before
+you. The mollusk conformed, but the vertebrate conformed in a very
+different way, and was transformed, &quot;metamorphosed,&quot; to translate
+the Greek word literally, into something higher. And let us not
+forget that man conforms consciously and voluntarily, if at all; he
+is able to read in himself and environment the law to which lower
+forms have been compelled unconsciously to conform.</p>
+
+<p>These facts merely illustrate a great law of life. No man's eye,
+much less hand, can grasp the whole of the present and at the same
+time the future. Rather what we usually call present advantage is
+not advantage at all, but the first step in degeneration. If one
+will be rich in old age he must deny himself some gratifications in
+youth; his present reward is his self-control. If a man will climb
+higher than his fellows he must expect to be sometimes solitary; his
+reward is the ever-widening view, though the path be rougher and the
+air more biting than in their lower altitude. If he point to heights
+yet to attain, the majority will disbelieve him or say, &quot;Our present
+height was good enough for our ancestors, it is good enough for us.
+Why sacrifice a good thing and make yourself ridiculous scrambling
+after what in the end may prove unattainable?&quot; If you discover new
+truths you will certainly be called a subverter of old ones. And
+this is entirely natural. The upward path was never intended to be
+easy.</p>
+
+<p>Read the &quot;Gorgias&quot; of Plato, and let us listen to the closing words
+of Socrates in that dialogue: &quot;And <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>[201]</span>so, bidding farewell to those
+things which most men account honors, and looking onward to the
+truth, I shall earnestly endeavor to grow, so far as may be, in
+goodness, and thus live, and thus, when the time comes, die. And, to
+the best of my power, I exhort all other men also; and you
+especially, in my turn, I exhort to this life and contest, which is,
+I protest, far above all contests here.&quot; You must remember that
+Callicles has been taunting Socrates with his lack of worldly wisdom
+and the certainty that in any court of justice he would be
+absolutely helpless because of his lack of knowledge of the
+rhetorician's art: &quot;This way then we will follow, and we will call
+upon all other men to do the same, not that which you believe in and
+call upon me to follow; for that way, Callicles, is worth nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Socrates met the end which he expected: death at the hands of
+his fellow-citizens.</p>
+
+<p>And here perhaps a little glimmer of light is thrown into one of the
+darkest corners of human experience. The wise old author of
+Ecclesiastes writes: &quot;There is a just man that perisheth in his
+righteousness; and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in
+his wickedness. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that
+there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of
+the wicked; again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth
+according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is
+vanity.&quot; &quot;I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to
+the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the
+wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men
+of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all&quot; (Eccles. viii.
+14; ix. 11).<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>[202]</span> It is this element of chance that threatens to make a
+mockery of effort, and sometimes seems to make life but a travesty.
+The terrible feature of Tennyson's description of Arthur's last, dim
+battle in the west is not the &quot;crash of battle-axe on shattered
+helm,&quot; but the all-engulfing mist.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps this is all intended to teach us that riches and favor, and
+even bread, are not the essentials of life, and that failure to
+attain these is not such ruin as we often think. But no man ever
+struggled for wisdom, righteousness, unselfishness, and heroism
+without attaining them; even though the more he attained the more
+dissatisfied he became with all previous attainment. And if our
+slight attainments in wisdom and knowledge always brought wealth and
+favor, we might rest satisfied with the latter, instead of clearly
+recognizing that wisdom must be its own reward. Uncertainty and
+deprivation are the best and only training for a hero, not sure
+reward paid in popular plaudits.</p>
+
+<p>Political economists speak of the productiveness and prospectiveness
+of capital. We may well borrow these terms, using them in a somewhat
+modified sense. In our sense capital is productive in so far as it
+gives an immediate return; it is prospective in proportion as the
+return is expected largely in the future. A &quot;pocket&quot; may yield an
+immediate very large return of gold nuggets at a very slight expense
+of labor and appliances, but it is soon exhausted. In a mine the ore
+may be poor near the surface, but grow richer as the shaft deepens;
+the vein is narrow above, but widens below. The returns are at first
+small, its inexhaustible richness becomes apparent only after
+considerable <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>[203]</span>time and labor. The value of the &quot;pocket&quot; is purely
+productive, that of the mine largely or purely prospective. Indeed
+it may be opened at a loss. But even a rich mine may be worked
+purely for its productive value; it may be &quot;skinned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Let us apply this thought to the development of a species; although
+what is true of the species will generally be true of the individual
+also, for the development of the two is, in the main, parallel. In
+the animal all functions are to a certain extent productive, and all
+directly or indirectly prospective. When we examine the sequence of
+functions we cannot but notice how largely their value is
+prospective. As long as a lower function is rising to supremacy in
+the animal, it appears to be retained purely for its productive
+value; thus digestion in hydra or gastr&aelig;a. But after a time animals
+appeared which had some muscle and nerve. And, by the process of
+natural selection, those animals which used digestion as an end for
+its productive value became food for, and gave place to, those using
+it as a means of supporting muscle and nerve of greater prospective
+value. And similarly, those animals which used muscle, or even mind,
+productively gave place to others using these prospectively.</p>
+
+<p>In other words, the functions and capacities of any animal, the
+extent of its conformity to environment, may be regarded as its
+capital. The animal may use this capital productively or
+prospectively. It may spend its income, and more too; it may
+increase its capital. Now social capital will always fall sooner or
+later to those communities whose members use it most prospectively,
+who are willing to forego, to quite an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>[204]</span>extent, present enjoyment,
+and look for future return. The same is true of all development.
+Sessile forms and mollusks, and, in a less degree, crabs and
+reptiles, worked for immediate return. They are like extravagant
+heirs who draw on their capital and sooner or later come to poverty.
+The primitive vertebrate, the mammal, and the other ancestors of man
+used their capital prospectively, and it increased, as if at
+compound interest.</p>
+
+<p>The spendthrift appears at first sight to have the greatest
+enjoyment in life, the rising business man works hard and foregoes
+much. I believe that the latter is really by far the happier of the
+two. But, if you can spend only a day or two in a city, and your
+examination is superficial, you may easily make the mistake of
+considering the spendthrift as the most successful man in the
+community. So, in our brief visit to the world in times past, we
+picked out the crab, the reptile, and the carnivore as its rising
+members.</p>
+
+<p>Once more, capital can be spent very quickly; to use it
+prospectively requires time. This is a truism; but it does no harm
+to call attention to truisms which have been neglected. Organs and
+powers of great prospective value are slow and difficult of
+development. If their increase is to be at all rapid, they must
+start early. If their development and culture is deferred, there
+will be little or no advance, but probably degeneration.
+Extravagance grows rapidly and soon becomes irresistible; habits of
+saving must be formed early. The same is true of the development of
+all other virtues.</p>
+
+<p>There is in the child an orderly sequence of development<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>[205]</span> of mental
+traits. While these powers are in their earlier, so to speak
+embryonic, stages of development, they can be fostered and increased
+or retarded. They are still plastic. Very early in a child's life
+acquisitiveness shows itself; he begins to say &quot;I,&quot; and &quot;mine,&quot; and
+desires things to be his &quot;very own.&quot; And this can be fostered so
+that the child will grow up a &quot;covetous machine.&quot; Or he may be
+taught to share with others.</p>
+
+<p>Not so much later, while the child is still in the lower grades of
+his school life, comes the period of moral development. If, during
+this period, these powers are fostered and cultivated, they may, and
+probably will, be dominant throughout his life. And herein lies the
+dignity and glory of the unappreciated, underpaid, and overworked
+teachers of our &quot;lower&quot; schools, that they have the opportunity to
+cultivate these moral powers of the child during these most critical
+years of his life. Repression or neglect here works life-long and
+irreparable harm. The young man goes out into the world. Here
+&quot;practical&quot; men continually instruct him by precept upon precept,
+line upon line, that he cannot afford to be generous until he has
+acquired wealth; that he must first win success for himself, and
+that he can then help others. And, unless his character is like
+pasture-grown oak, he follows and improves upon their teachings. <i>He
+reverses the sequence of functions.</i> He puts acquisitiveness first
+and right and sterling honesty and unselfishness second. For a score
+or more of years he labors. At first he honestly intends to build up
+a strong character and a generous nature just as soon as he can
+afford to; but for the present he <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>[206]</span>cannot afford it. If he is to
+succeed, he must do as others do and walk in the beaten track. He
+wins wealth and position, or learning and fame. He now has the
+ability and means to help others, but he no longer cares to do so.
+Loyalty to truth, sterling honesty&mdash;the genuine, not the
+conventional counterfeit&mdash;unselfishness, in one word, character,
+these are plants of slow growth. They require cultivation by habit
+through long years. In his case they have become aborted and
+incapable of rejuvenescence. But his rudiment of a moral nature
+feels twinges of remorse. He ought not to have reversed the sequence
+of functions, and he knows it. But he cannot retrace his steps. He
+made the development of character impossible when he made wealth his
+first and chief aim. If he has a million dollars he tries to insure
+his soul by leaving in his will one-tenth to build a church, or,
+possibly, one-half for foreign missions. In the latter case he will
+be held up as a shining example to all the youth of the land, and
+the churches will ring with his praises. But what has been the
+effect of his life on the moral, social capital of the community? Is
+the world better or worse for his life? He has all his life been
+disseminating the germs of a soul-blight more infectious and deadly
+than any bodily disease.</p>
+
+<p>If he has made learning or fame his chief aim, he probably has not
+the money to buy soul-insurance. He takes refuge in agnosticism,
+like an ostrich in a bush. His agnosticism is in his will; he does
+not wish to see. Or its cause is atrophy, through disuse, of moral
+vision. He cannot see. There are agnostics of quite another stamp,
+whom we must respect and honor for their sterling honesty and
+high character, though <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a>[207]</span>we may have little respect for their
+philosophical tenets. But how much has our scholar advanced the
+morality of the community? He has probably done even more harm than
+the business man, who is a mere &quot;covetous machine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The &quot;practical&quot; man has reversed the sequence of functions.
+Character is, and must be, first; and wealth, learning, power, and
+fame are the materials, often exceedingly refractory, which it must
+subjugate to its growth and use. And this subjugation is anything
+but easy. The reversal of the sequence results in a moral
+degradation and poverty indefinitely more dangerous to the community
+than the slums of our great cities. For these may be controlled and
+cleansed; but the moral slum floods our legislatures and positions
+of honor and trust, and invades the churches. The mental and moral
+water-supply of the community is loaded with disease-germs.</p>
+
+<p>The social wealth of a community is the sum total of the wealth of
+its individual members. And a community is truly wealthy only when
+this wealth is, to a certain extent, diffused. If there is any truth
+in our argument that the sequence of functions culminates in
+righteousness and unselfishness, the real social wealth of a
+community consists in its moral character, not in its money, or even
+in its intelligence. We may rest assured that character, resulting
+in industry and economy, will bring sufficient means of subsistence,
+so that all its members will be fed and housed and clothed. And art
+and culture, of the most ennobling and inspiring sort, will surely
+follow. And even if such literature failed as largely composes our
+present <i>fin-de-si&egrave;cle</i> garbage-heap, we would not regret its
+absence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>[208]</span> That community will and must survive in which the largest
+proportion of members make the accumulation of character their chief
+and first aim. And to this community every rival must in time yield
+its place and power, and all its acquisitions. And in every
+advancing community the position of any class or profession will in
+time be determined by its moral wealth.</p>
+
+<p>But this moral wealth is intangible. The rewards and penalties of
+moral law easily escape notice in our hasty and superficial study of
+life. The God immanent in our environment often seems to hide
+himself. The altar of Jehovah is fallen down, and Baal's temples are
+crowded with loud-mouthed worshippers. The bribes of present
+enjoyment and of immediate success loom up before us, and we doubt
+if any other success is possible.</p>
+
+<p>But the law of progress, even now so dimly discernible in
+environment, is written in our minds in letters of fire. For we have
+already seen that environment can be understood only by tracing its
+effects in the development of life. What is best and highest in us
+is the record of the working of what is best and highest in
+environment. And the personal God so dimly seen in environment is
+revealed in man's soul. Man must study himself, if he is to know
+what environment requires of him. And if the knowledge of himself
+and of the laws of his being is the highest knowledge, is not the
+vision of, and struggle toward, higher attainments, not yet realized
+and hence necessarily foreseen, the only mode of farther progress?
+And what is this pursuit of, and devotion to, ideals not yet
+realized and but dimly foreseen, if it is not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>[209]</span>Faith, &quot;the substance
+of things hoped for, and evidence of things not seen?&quot; By it alone
+can man &quot;obtain a good report.&quot; Man must &quot;walk by faith, not by
+sight.&quot; &quot;For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
+which are not seen are eternal.&quot;</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9">[9]</a> Seelye: Christian Missions, p. 154.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10">[10]</a> Hertwig: Zeit- und Streitfragen, p. 82.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>MAN</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>[210]</span>In Kingsley's fascinating historical romance, Raphael Aben-Ezra says
+to Hypatia, &quot;Is it not possible that we have been so busy discussing
+what the philosopher should be, that we have forgotten that he must
+first of all be a man?&quot; This truth we too often forget. No
+statesman, philosopher, least of all teacher, can be truly great who
+is not, first of all, and above all, a great man. And in our study
+of man are we not prone to forget that he stands in certain very
+definite and close relations with surrounding nature?</p>
+
+<p>Man has been the object of so much special study, his position,
+owing to his higher moral and mental power, is so unique that he has
+often been regarded not only as a special creation, but as created
+to occupy a position not only unique, but also exceptional, above
+many of the very laws of nature, and not bound by them. Many speak
+and write of him as if it were his chief glory and prerogative to be
+as far removed as possible, not only from the animal, but even from
+the whole realm of nature. The mistake of making him an exception
+arises, after all, not so much from too high a conception of man, at
+least of his possibilities, as from too low a view of nature.</p>
+
+<p>But however this view may have arisen, it is one-sided and mistaken.
+Man certainly has a place in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a>[211]</span>Nature&mdash;not above it. If he is the
+goal toward which the ascending series of living forms has
+continually tended, he is a part of the series&mdash;the real goal lies
+far above him.</p>
+
+<p>Pascal says, &quot;It is dangerous to show a man too clearly how closely
+he resembles the brute without showing him at the same time his
+greatness. It is equally dangerous to impress upon him his greatness
+without his lowliness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in
+ignorance of both. But it is of great advantage to point out to him
+both characteristics side by side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A great German thinker began his work on the human soul with a
+discussion of the law of gravitation.</p>
+
+<p>All study of man must begin with the study of the atom. Man's life
+we have seen to be the aggregate of the work of all the cells of his
+body. But the protoplasm which composes his cells is a chemical
+compound, and hence subject to all the laws of all the atoms of
+which it is composed. And its molecules, or the smallest
+mechanically separable compounds of these atoms, are arranged and
+related according to the laws of physics, so as to permit or produce
+the play of certain forces which are always the result of atomic or
+molecular combination. Every motive or thought demands the
+combustion of a certain amount of material which has been already
+assimilated in the microscopic cellular laboratories of our body.
+Every vital activity is manifested at least through chemical and
+physical forces. And the elements of the fuel for our engines we
+receive through plants from the inorganic world. For the plant, as
+we have seen, stores up as potential energy in its compounds the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>[212]</span>actual energy of the sun's rays. And thus man lives and thinks by
+energy, obtained originally from the sun. But man not only consumes
+food and fuel. The complicated protoplasm is continually wearing out
+and being replaced. Every cell in our bodies is a centre toward
+which particles of material stream to be assimilated and form for a
+time a part of the living substance, and then to be cast out again
+as dead matter. Our very existence depends upon this continual
+change. There is synthesis of simple substances into more complex
+compounds, and then analysis of these complex compounds into
+simpler, and from this latter process results the energy manifested
+in every vital action. We are all whirlpools on the surface of
+nature; when the whirling ceases we disappear. Man, like every other
+living being, exists in a condition of constant interchange with
+surrounding nature; he is rooted in innumerable ways in the
+inorganic world.</p>
+
+<p>And because of these close relations the great characteristic of
+living beings is the necessity and power of conformity to
+environment. Hence a very common definition of life is the continual
+adjustment of internal relations to external relations or
+conditions. To a very slight extent man can rise superior to certain
+of the ruder elements of his surroundings, but he gains this victory
+only by learning and following the laws of the very environment
+which he succeeds in subjecting to himself. Indeed his higher
+development and finer build bring him into touch with an
+indefinitely wider range of surroundings than even the lower animal.
+Forces, conditions, and relations which never enter the sphere of
+life of lower forms, crowd and press upon him and he cannot escape
+them. His higher <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>[213]</span>position, instead of freeing him from dependence
+upon environment and subjection to law, makes him thus more
+sensitive, as well as more capable of exact conformity to an
+environment of almost infinite complexity; and more sure of absolute
+ruin, if ignorant, negligent, or disobedient. The words of the
+German poet are literally true:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Nach ehernen, eisernen, grossen Gesetzen,<br /></span>
+<span>M&uuml;ssen wir alle unseres Daseins<br /></span>
+<span>Kreise vollenden.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But man is an animal. And the principal characteristic of an animal
+is that it eats a certain amount of solid food. The plant lives on
+fluid nutriment, and this comes to it by the process of diffusion in
+every drop of water and breath of air. The acquisition of food
+requires no effort, and the plant makes none. It has therefore
+always remained stationary and almost insensible. Not taking the
+first step it has never taken any of the higher ones. But solid food
+would not, as a rule, come to the animal&mdash;though stationary and
+sessile animals are not uncommon in the water&mdash;he must go in search
+of it. This called into play the powers of locomotion and
+perception. And in the sequence of function we have seen digestion
+calling for the development of muscle; and muscle, of nerve and
+brain. And the brain became the organ of mind.</p>
+
+<p>Man as a mere animal is necessarily active and energetic; otherwise
+he stagnates and degenerates. Labor is a curse, but work a blessing;
+and man's best work, of every kind, is done in the friction of life,
+not in ease and quiet. Man is, further, a being composed of cells,
+tissues, and organs, which were successively developed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>[214]</span> for him by
+the lower animal kingdoms. The old view, that man was the microcosm,
+had in it a certain amount of every important truth. We need to be
+continually reminded of our indebtedness in a thousand ways to the
+lowest and most insignificant forms of life.</p>
+
+<p>Man is a vertebrate animal. This means that he has a locomotive, not
+protective, skeleton, composed of cartilage&mdash;a tough, elastic,
+organic material, hardened, as a rule, by the deposition of mineral
+salts, mainly phosphate of lime, in exceedingly fine particles, so
+as to form a homogeneous, flawless, elastic, tough, light, and
+unyielding skeleton, held together by firm ligaments.</p>
+
+<p>The skeleton is internal, and this fact, as we have seen, gives the
+possibility of large size. And size is in itself no unimportant
+factor. Professor Lotze maintains that without man's size and
+strength, agriculture and the working of metals, and thus all
+civilization, would have been impossible. But we have already seen
+that there is an extreme of size, <i>e.g.</i>, in the elephant, which
+makes its possessor clumsy, able to exist only where there are large
+amounts of food in limited areas, slow to reproduce, and lacking in
+adaptability. This extreme also is avoided in man; in this, as in
+many other particulars, he holds the golden mean. But we have also
+seen that large size is, as a rule, correlated with long life and
+great opportunity for experience and observation. And these are the
+foundations of intelligence. Hence the deliverance of the higher
+vertebrate, and especially of man, from any iron-bound subjection to
+instinct.</p>
+
+<p>And here another question of vital importance <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>[215]</span>meets us. Is man's
+life at present as long as it should or can be? The question is
+exceedingly difficult, but a negative answer seems more probable. We
+cannot but hope that, with a better knowledge of our physical
+structure, a clearer vision of the dangers to which we are exposed,
+more study of the laws of physiology, heredity, and of our
+environment, and above all, less reckless disregard of these in a
+mad pursuit of pleasure, wealth, and position, man's period of
+mature, healthy, and best activity may be lengthened, perhaps, even
+a score of years. The mitigation of hurry and worry alone, the two
+great curses of our American civilization, might postpone the
+collapse of our nervous systems longer than we even dream. And if we
+could add even five years to the working life of our statesmen,
+scholars, and discoverers, the work of these last five years, with
+the advantage of all previously acquired knowledge and experience,
+might be of more value than that of their whole previous life. Human
+advance could not but be greatly, or even vastly, accelerated.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, we have seen that the history of vertebrates is really the
+history of the development of the cerebrum, forebrain or large
+brain, as we call it in man. This is the seat in man of
+consciousness, thought, and will. This portion as a distinct and new
+lobe first appears in lowest vertebrates, increases steadily in size
+from class to class, reaches its most rapid development by mammals,
+and its culmination in man. During the tertiary period&mdash;the last of
+the great geological periods&mdash;the brain in many groups of mammals
+increased in size, both absolutely and relatively, eight to tenfold.
+Dr. Holmes says, that the education of a child <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>[216]</span>should begin a
+century or two before its birth; man really began his mental
+education at least as early as the appearance of vertebrate life.</p>
+
+<p>But man is a mammal. This means that every organ is at its best. The
+digestive system, while making but a small part of the weight of the
+body, and built mainly on the old plan, is wonderfully perfect in
+its microscopic details. The muscles are heavy and powerful,
+arranged with the weight near the axis of the body, and replaced
+near the ends of the appendages by light, tough sinews. The higher
+mammal is this compact, light, and agile. The skeleton is strong,
+and the levers of the appendages are fitted to give rapidity of
+motion even at the expense of strength. And this again is possible
+only because of the high development and strength of the muscles.
+Moreover, the highest mammals are largely arboreal, and in
+connection with this habit have changed the foreleg into an arm and
+hand. The latter became the servant of the brain and gave the
+possibility of using tools.</p>
+
+<p>But increase in size and activity, and the expense of producing each
+new individual, led to the adoption of placental development. And
+the mammal is so complex, the road from the egg to the fully
+developed young is so long, that a long period of gestation is
+necessary. And even at birth the brain, especially of man, is
+anything but complete. Hence the necessity of the mammalian habit of
+suckling and caring for the young. And this feebleness and
+dependence of the young had begun far below man to draw out maternal
+tenderness and affection. And the mammalian mode of reproduction and
+care of young led to a more marked difference and interdependence
+between the sexes.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>[217]</span>The result of this is man's family life, as Mr. John Fiske has
+shown so beautifully in that fascinating monograph, &quot;The Destiny of
+Man.&quot; And family life once introduced becomes the foundation and
+bulwark of all civilization, morality, and religion. Far down in the
+mammalian series, before the development of the family, maternal
+education has become prominent, and the young begins life, benefited
+by the experiences of the parent. How much more efficient is this in
+family life. But, furthermore, the family is perhaps the first,
+certainly the most important, of those higher unities in which men
+are bound together. Social life of a sort undoubtedly existed,
+before man, among birds, insects, and lower mammals. The community
+was often defective or incomplete in unity, or existed under such
+limitations that it could not show its best results, but that it was
+of vast benefit from an even higher than mere physical standpoint,
+no one will, I think, deny. But with the family a new era of
+education and social life began.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, the struggle for existence is thereby greatly modified
+and mitigated. This crowding out and trampling down of the weaker by
+the stronger is transferred, to a certain extent, from the
+individual to the family and, in great degree, from the family to
+larger and larger social units. For within the limits of the family
+competition tends to be replaced by mutual helpfulness, and not only
+are the loneliness and horror of the struggle between isolated
+individuals banished, but, what is vastly more, the family becomes
+the school of unselfishness and love. And what has thus become true
+of the single family, and groups of nearly related families, is
+slowly being realized in the larger <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>[218]</span>units of communities and
+states. For, as families and communities are just as really
+organisms as are the individual men and women, whose soundness
+depends upon the healthy activity of every organ, so there is a
+survival, first of families, then of communities and rival
+civilizations, in proportion to their unity and soundness in every
+part. For on account of the close bonds of family and social life,
+and in connection with the development of articulate speech, a new
+kind of heredity, so to speak, arises, of vast importance for both
+good and evil. This mental and moral heredity, over-leaping all
+boundaries of blood and natural kinship, spreads light and good
+influence or an immoral contagion through the community. And thus,
+in sheer self-defence, society passes laws setting limits to the
+oppression of the poor and weak, lest, degraded and brutalized, they
+become breeding centres of physical and moral disease in the
+community. The positive lesson that the surest mode of self-defence
+is the elevation of these submerged classes, we are just beginning
+to learn and apply.</p>
+
+<p>By the ever-increasing acceleration of the development the gap
+between man and the lower animal widens with wonderful rapidity. Of
+course it is only in man, and higher man, that these last and
+highest results of mammalian structure appear. But that, far removed
+as they are, they are the results of mammalian and vertebrate
+characteristics cannot, I think, be well denied. And this is only
+one of innumerably possible illustrations of the fact that all our
+most highly prized institutions are rooted far back in our ancestry,
+often ineradicably in the very organs of our bodies. And thus
+evolution, which many view only from its radical <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>[219]</span>side&mdash;and it has a
+radical side&mdash;is really the conservative bulwark of all that is
+essentially worth possessing in the past.</p>
+
+<p>But every factor in man's development tends toward intellectual and
+spiritual development. Man's vast increase of brain; his finely
+balanced body; his upright gait; setting his hands free from the
+work of locomotion that they might become the skilful servants of
+the mind; finally, articulate speech and social, and, above all,
+family, life, all tended in this same direction.</p>
+
+<p>And this makes the great difficulty in assigning man his
+proper place in our systems of classification. Our zo&ouml;logical
+classifications depend upon anatomical characteristics; and
+anatomically man belongs among the order primates. But mental and
+moral values cannot be expressed in terms of anatomy, any more than
+we can speak of an idea of so many horse-power, and hence worth
+three or four ancestral dollars. Hence, while from the zo&ouml;logical
+standpoint man is a primate, and while he is very probably descended
+from one of these, he has gradually risen above them mentally and
+spiritually, so that he stands as far above them as they above the
+lowest worm. And this leads us to the consideration of man, not
+merely as a mammal, but as &quot;Anthropos,&quot; Homo sapiens, although he
+often degenerates into &quot;Simia destructor.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>From what has just been said man's pre-eminence cannot consist in
+any anatomical characteristic, even of the brain&mdash;much less of
+thumb, forefinger, hand, or foot. But man's mental and moral
+characteristics (even though germs of these may be present in the
+animal), whether differing in degree or kind from theirs, raise his
+life to a totally different plane. He lives in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>[220]</span>an environment of
+which the lower animal is as unconscious and ignorant as we of a
+fourth dimension of space. He has the knowledge of abstract truth
+and goodness, of certain standards outside of mere appetite and
+desire, and feels and acknowledges, however dimly, the requirement
+and the ability to conform his life to these standards. He alone can
+say &quot;I ought,&quot; and answer &quot;I can and will.&quot; And hence man alone
+actually lives in an environment of the laws of reason,
+responsibility, and personality. Whatever germs of these higher
+powers the animal possesses are means to material ends, to the
+physical life of the animal. In man the long and slow evolution has
+ended in revolution, the material and physical have been dethroned,
+and truth and goodness reign supreme as ends in themselves.</p>
+
+<p>But, you may object, this definition of man may be true ideally,
+certainly it is not true actually. Where are the high ideals of
+truth and goodness in the savage? and are these the supreme ends of
+even the average American of to-day? But allowing all weight to this
+objection, does it not remain true that a being who never says &quot;I
+ought,&quot; who acknowledges and manifests no responsibility, to whom
+goodness does not appeal, and in whom these feelings cannot be
+awakened, is either not yet or no longer man? But far more than
+this, if the character of the individual is to be judged by his
+tendency more than his present condition, by the way in which he is
+going more than his momentary position, is not the race to be judged
+and defined by a tendency, gradually though very slowly becoming
+realized, and a goal, toward which it looks and which it is surely
+attaining, rather than by its <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>[221]</span>present realization? As we rise
+higher in the animal kingdom the characteristics of the successive
+higher groups are more and more slow of attainment and difficult of
+realization, just because of their grander possibilities. And this
+is true and important above all in the case of man. His
+possibilities are beyond our powers of conception, for, if you will,
+man is yet only larval man.</p>
+
+<p>We have followed the sequence of functions to its culmination in a
+mind completely dominated by righteousness and unselfishness,
+however far above our present attainments this goal may be. We have
+found that all attempts to reverse this sequence end in death or
+degeneration. Failure to advance, especially in higher forms,
+results in extinction or retrogression. We cannot stand still. Each
+higher step is longer and more important than any preceding; each
+last step is essential to life. Righteousness in the will is the
+last step essential to man's progress. And if a sound mind in a
+sound body is important or necessary, a sound will, resolutely set
+on right, is absolutely essential. Failure to attain this is ruin.</p>
+
+<p>And man can to a great extent place himself so that his surroundings
+shall aid him to take this last, essential, upward step. He does
+this by the choice of his associates. If he associates himself with
+men who are tending upward, he will rise ever higher. If he choose
+the opposite kind of associates he must sink into ever deeper
+degradation; he has thereby chosen death. For his associates, once
+chosen, make him like themselves. And thus natural selection makes
+for the survival of those men who resolutely choose life. And
+thoughtless or careless <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>[222]</span>failure to choose is ruin. The man has
+preferred degradation; it is only right that he should have it to
+satiety.</p>
+
+<p>But man is not, and never can be, pure spirit. He may &quot;let the ape
+and tiger die,&quot; but he must always retain the animal with its
+natural appetites. Moreover, his higher mental capacities increase
+their power. Memory recalls past gratifications as it never does to
+the animal; imagination paints before him vivid pictures of similar
+future enjoyments, and mental keenness and strength of will tell him
+that they can all be his. But if he yields himself a slave to these
+appetites, if he seeks to be an animal rather than a spiritual
+being, he becomes not an animal but a brute; and the only genuine
+brute is a degenerate man. And thus after conquering the world man's
+very structure compels him to join battle with himself. For here, as
+everywhere else, to attempt to go backward to a plane of life once
+passed is to surely degenerate. The time when the prize of
+pre-eminence could be won by mere physical superiority was passed
+before man had a history. Physical superiority must be maintained,
+and every advance in art and science, considered here as ministering
+to man's physical comfort, is advantageous just so far as these
+allow man freedom and aid to pursue the mental and moral line which
+is the only true path left open to him. But when even these are
+allowed to minister only to the animal, or to tempt to luxurious
+ease and indifference to any higher aims, in a word, in so far as
+they fail to minister to mental and moral advancement, they are in
+great danger of becoming, if they have not already become, a curse
+rather than a blessing. And we all know that this has been proven
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>[223]</span>over and over again in human history. Families, cities, and nations
+rot, mainly because they cannot resist the seductions of an
+overwhelming material prosperity. A man says to his soul, &quot;Take
+thine ease, eat, drink and be merry,&quot; and to that man scripture and
+science say, with equal emphasis, &quot;Thou fool!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Every upward step in attainment of the comforts of life, of art and
+science, brings man into new fields not of careless enjoyment but of
+struggle. They swarm with new enemies and temptations before
+unknown. The new attainments are not unalloyed blessings, they are
+merely opportunities for victory or defeat. The uncertain battle is
+only shifted to a little higher plane. Man has increased the forces
+at his command only to meet stronger opposing hosts. And retreat is
+impossible. Man remains a spiritual being only on condition that he
+resolutely and vigilantly purposes to be so. To lag behind in this
+spiritual path is death.</p>
+
+<p>And the epitaph of nations and individuals is the record of their
+defeat in this struggle to be masters and not slaves of their
+material and intellectual attainments. Greece, the most intellectual
+of all nations of all times, died in mental senility of moral
+paralysis. Of Socrates's and Plato's &quot;following after truth&quot; nothing
+remained but the gossipy curiosity of a second childhood, living
+only to tell or to hear some new thing. And the schools of
+philosophy were closed because they had nothing to tell which was
+worth the knowing or hearing. All the wealth of the world was poured
+into Rome, the home of Stoic philosophy, and it was smothered, and
+died in rottenness under its material prosperity.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>[224]</span>A family, race, or nation starts out fresh in its youthful physical
+and mental vigor and strict obedience to moral law and in its faith
+in God. For these reasons it survives in the struggle for existence.
+It grows in extent and power, in intelligence and wealth. But with
+this increase in wealth and power comes a deadening of the mind to
+the claims of moral law, and an idolatrous worship of material
+prosperity. The new generation looks upon the stern morality and
+industry and self-control of its ancestors as straight-laced and
+narrow. Morality may not be unfashionable, but any stern rebuke of
+immorality is not conventional. Strong moral earnestness and
+whole-souled loyalty to truth are not in good form. Wealth and
+social position become the chief ends of men's efforts, and, to buy
+these, unselfishness and truth and self-respect are bartered away.
+Luxury, enervation, and effeminacy are rife, and snobbery follows
+close behind them. The ancestral vigor, the insight to recognize
+great moral principles, and the power to gladly hazard all in their
+defence have disappeared in a mist of indifference, which beclouds
+the eyes and benumbs all the powers. The race of giants is dwindling
+into dwarfs. They say, when the time comes, we will rouse ourselves
+and be like our fathers. And the crisis comes, but they are not
+equal to it. The nation has long enough cumbered the ground, it has
+already died by suicide and must now give place to a race and
+civilization which has some aim in, and hence right to, existence,
+and which is of some use to itself and others. If we would learn by
+observation, and not by sad experience, we must remember that man is
+above all, and must be a religious being conforming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>[225]</span> to the
+personality of the God manifested in his environment.</p>
+
+<p>Can you find anywhere a more profound or scientific philosophy of
+history than that of Paul in the first chapter of Romans? &quot;For the
+invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly
+seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his
+everlasting power and divinity; so that they are without excuse:
+because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither
+gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings and their senseless
+heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became
+fools. And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God
+gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
+fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> And then follows
+the dark picture, from which we revolt but which the ancient
+historians themselves justify.</p>
+
+<p>On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at Rome is Michel Angelo's
+marvellous painting of the creation of Adam. A human figure of
+magnificent strength is half-rising from its recumbent posture, as
+if just awakening to consciousness, and is reaching out its hand to
+touch the outstretched finger of God. The human being became and
+becomes man when, and in proportion as, he puts himself in touch
+with God, and is inspired with the divine life. The lower animal
+conformed mainly to the material in environment, man conforms
+consciously to the spiritual and personal.</p>
+
+<p>Any science of human history that does not acknowledge man's
+relation to a personal God is fatally <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>[226]</span>incomplete; for it has missed
+the goal of man's development and the chief means of his farther
+advance. And a religion which does not emphasize this is worse than
+a broken reed. It is a mirage of the desert, toward which thirsty
+souls run only to die unsatisfied.</p>
+
+<p>Man can never overcome in this battle with the allurements of
+material prosperity and with the pride and selfishness of intellect,
+except as he is interpenetrated and permeated with God, any more
+than we can move or think, unless our blood is charged with the
+oxygen of the air. It is not enough that man have God in his
+intellectual creed; he must have him in his heart and will, in every
+fibre of his personality, in every thought and action of life.
+Otherwise his defeat and ruin are sure.</p>
+
+<p>Three fatal heresies are abroad to-day: 1. Man's chief end is
+avoidance of pain and discomfort, in one word, happiness; and God is
+somehow bound to surfeit man with this. And this is the chief end of
+a mollusk. 2. Man's chief end is material prosperity and social
+position. 3. Man's chief end is intellect, knowledge. Each one of
+these three ends, while good in a subordinate place, will surely
+ruin man if made his chief end. For they leave out of account
+conformity to environment. &quot;Man's chief end is to glorify God and
+enjoy him for ever.&quot; And just as the plant glorifies the sun by
+turning to, and being permeated and vivified and built up by, the
+warmth and light of its rays, similarly man must glorify God. This
+is the religion of conformity to environment: man working out his
+salvation because God works in him. Thus, and thus only, shall man
+overcome the allurements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a>[227]</span> of these lower endowments and receive the
+rewards of &quot;him that overcometh.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thus prosperity and adversity, success and failure, continually test
+a man. If he can rise superior to these, can subjugate them and make
+them subserve his moral progress, he survives; if he is mastered by
+them, he perishes. Through these does natural selection mainly work
+to find and train great souls. They are the threads of the sieve of
+destiny.</p>
+
+<p>In this struggle man must fight against overwhelming odds, and the
+cost of victory is dear. He must be prepared, like Socrates, to &quot;bid
+farewell to those things which most men count honors, and look
+onward to the truth.&quot; He appears to the world at large, often to
+himself, eminently unpractical. The majority against his view and
+vote will usually be overwhelming. Truth is a stern goddess, and she
+will often bid him draw sword and stand against his nearest and
+dearest friends. The issue will often appear to him exceeding
+doubtful. The grander the truth for which he is fighting, the
+greater the need of its defence and enforcement, the greater the
+probability that he will never live to see its triumph. The hero
+must be a man of gigantic faith. But all his ancestors have had to
+make a similar choice and to fight a similar battle. The upward path
+was intended to be exceedingly hard. This is a law of biology.</p>
+
+<p>Why this is so I may not know. I only know that no better and surer
+way could have been discovered to train a race of heroes. For no man
+ever becomes a hero who has not learned to battle with the world and
+himself. Does it not look as if God loved a heroic soul as much as
+men worship one, and as if he <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a>[228]</span>intended that man should attain to
+it? Man was born and bred in hardship that he might be a hero.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Careless seems the great avenger; history's pages but record<br /></span>
+<span>One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the word;<br /></span>
+<span>Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,<br /></span>
+<span>Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown<br /></span>
+<span>Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.<br /></span>
+</div>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,<br /></span>
+<span>Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just;<br /></span>
+<span>Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,<br /></span>
+<span>Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,<br /></span>
+<span>And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The Crown Prince of Prussia has less spending money than many a
+young fellow in Berlin. He is trained to economy, industry,
+self-control. He is to learn something better than habits of luxury,
+to rule himself, and thus later the German Empire. The children of a
+great captain, themselves to be soldiers, must endure hardness like
+good soldiers. And man is to fight his way to a throne.</p>
+
+<p>But his powers are still in their infancy and the goal far above
+him. What he is to become you and I can hardly appreciate. First of
+all, the body will become finer, fitted for nobler ends. It will not
+be allowed to degenerate. It may become less fitted for the rough
+work, which can be done by machinery; it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>[229]</span>will be all the better for
+higher uses. It is to be transformed, transfigured. The eye may not
+see so far, it will be better fitted for perceiving all the beauties
+of art and nature. It will become a better means of expressing
+personality, as our personality becomes more &quot;fit to be seen.&quot; It is
+continually gaining a speech of its own. And will not the ear become
+more delicate, a better instrument for responding to the finest
+harmonies, and better gateway to our highest feelings? We may not
+have so many molar teeth for chewing food, but may not our mouths
+become ever finer instruments for speech and song? In other words,
+the body is to be transfigured by the mind and become its worthy
+servant and representative.</p>
+
+<p>As we learn to live for something better than food and clothes, and
+cease to pamper the body, it will become better and healthier.
+Science will stamp out many diseases, and we shall learn to prevent
+others by right living. And what a change in our moral and religious
+life will be made by good health. What a cheerful courage and hope
+it will give.</p>
+
+<p>Man will become more intelligent. He will learn the laws of heredity
+and of life in general. He will see deeper into the relations of
+things. He will recognize in himself and his environment the laws of
+progress. He will clearly discern great moral truths, where we but
+dimly see lights and shadows.</p>
+
+<p>But while we would not underestimate the value and necessity of
+growth in knowledge, we must as clearly recognize that the intellect
+is not the centre and essence of man's being. Knowledge, while the
+surest form of wealth of which no one can rob us, and the best as
+the stepping-stone to the highest well-being, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a>[230]</span>is like wealth in one
+respect: it is not character and can be used for good or evil. If my
+neighbor uses his greater knowledge as a means of overreaching us
+all, it injures us and ruins him.</p>
+
+<p>Our emotions, and this is but another word for our motives, stand
+far nearer to the centre of life; for they control our conduct and
+directly determine what we are. Knowledge of environment is good,
+but of what real and permanent use is such knowledge without
+conformity? Our real weakness is not our ignorance; we know the
+good, but lack the will and purpose to live it out. And this is
+because the thought of truth and goodness excites no such strength
+of feeling as that of some lower gratification. We cannot perhaps
+overrate the value of intellect; we certainly underrate the value of
+emotion and feeling. &quot;Knowledge puffeth up, love buildeth.&quot; It does
+not require great intellect, it does require intense feeling to be a
+hero. We slander the emotions by calling people emotional because
+they are always talking about their feelings; but deep feeling is
+always silent. It is not fashionable to feel deeply, and we are
+dwarfed by this conventionality. We have almost ceased to wonder,
+and hence we have almost ceased to learn; for the wise old Greeks
+knew that wonder is the mother of wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>The man of the future will probably be a man of strong appetites,
+for he will be healthy; he will be prudent, because wise; but he
+will hold his appetites well in leash. He will trample upon mere
+prudential considerations at the call of truth or right. For in him
+these highest motives will be absolute monarchs, and they are the
+only motives which can enable a man <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a>[231]</span>to face rack and stake without
+flinching. He will be a hero because he feels intensely. In other
+words, he will be a man of gigantic will, because he has a great
+heart. And in the man of the future all these powers will be not
+only highly developed; they will be rightly proportioned and duly
+subordinated. He will be a well-balanced man. But how few complete
+men we now see.</p>
+
+<p>We see the strong will without the clear intellect to guide it; the
+gush of feeling either directed toward low ends or evaporating in
+sentiment; the clear head with the cold heart. The high development
+of one mental power seems to draw away all strength and vitality
+from the rest. How rarely do we find the strong will guided by the
+keen intellect toward the highest aims clearly discerned. Memory and
+imagination must always play their part in the joy set before us.
+But in addition to all these, the white heat of feeling, of which
+man alone is capable, is necessary for his grandest efforts. Such a
+being would be a man born to be a king. And there will be a race of
+such men. And we must play the man that they may be raised upon our
+buried shoulders. And they will tower above us, as the seers of old
+in Judea, Athens, India, and Rome towered above their indolent,
+luxurious, blind, and material contemporaries. And with all their
+accelerated development, infinite possibilities will still stretch
+beyond the reach of their imagination. For &quot;men follow duty, never
+overtake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But all our analyses are unsatisfactory. In the history of any great
+people there is a period when they seem to rise above themselves.
+They have the strength of giants, and accomplish things before and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>[232]</span>since impossible. We sometimes ascribe these results to the
+exuberant vitality of the race at this time; and their life is large
+and grand. Such was England under Elizabeth. Think of her soldiers
+and explorers, her statesmen and poets. There were giants in those
+days. What a healthy, hearty enjoyment they showed in all their
+work, and with what ease was the impossible accomplished. The
+greater the hardships to be borne or odds to be faced, the greater
+the joy in overcoming them. They sailed out to give battle to the
+superior power of Spain, not at the command, but by the permission,
+of their queen; often without even this.</p>
+
+<p>And what a vigor and vitality there is in the literature of this
+period. Life is worth living, and studying, and describing. They see
+the world directly as it is; not some distorted picture of it, seen
+by an unhealthy mind and drawn by a feeble hand. The world is ever
+new and fresh to them because they see it through young, clear eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Were they giants or are we dwarfed? Which of the two lives is
+normal? They used all their faculties and utilized all their powers.
+Do we? The only force or product which we are willing to see wasted
+is the highest mental and moral power. Our engines and turbine
+wheels utilize the last ounce of pressure of the steam or water. The
+manufacturers pay high wages to hands who can tend machines run at
+the highest possible speed. The profits of modern business come
+largely from the utilization of force or products formerly wasted.
+But how far do we utilize the highest faculties of the mind, which
+have to do with character, the crowning glory of human development?
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>[233]</span>Are we not eminently &quot;penny-wise and pound-foolish?&quot; A ship which
+uses only its donkey-engines, and does nothing but take in and get
+out cargo is a dismantled hulk. A captain who thinks only of cargo,
+and engines, and the length of the daily run, but who takes no
+observations and consults no chart, will make land only to run upon
+rocks. Are we not too much like such dismantled hulks, or ships
+sailing with priceless cargoes but with mad captains?</p>
+
+<p>But we have not yet seen the worst results of this waste of our
+highest powers. The sessile animal, which lives mainly for
+digestion, does not attain as good digestive organs as his more
+active neighbor, who subordinates digestion to muscle. Lower powers
+reach their highest development only in proportion as they are
+strictly subordinated to higher. This may be called a law of
+biology. And our lower mental powers fail of their highest
+development and capacity mainly because of the lack of this
+subordination.</p>
+
+<p>But a disused organ is very likely to become a seat of disease and
+to thus enfeeble or destroy the whole body. And this disease effects
+the most complete ruin when its seat is in the highest organs.
+Dyspepsia is bad enough, but mania or idiocy is infinitely worse.
+And our moral powers are always enfeebled, and often diseased, from
+lack of strong exercise. And some blind guides, seeing only the
+disease, cry out for the extirpation of the whole faculty, as some
+physicians are said to propose the removal of the vermiform
+appendage in children. Similarly might the drunkard argue against
+the value of brain, because it aches after a debauch. Our work is
+hard labor, and we gain no <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>[234]</span>enjoyment in the use of our mental
+powers; for the enjoyment of any activity is proportional to the
+height and glory of the purpose for which it is employed. As long as
+we are content to use only our lower mental faculties and to gain
+low ends, our use of even these will be feeble and ineffectual, and
+our lives will be poor, weak, and unhappy.</p>
+
+<p>But future man will subordinate these lower powers to the higher. He
+will utilize all that there is in him. And his efficiency must be
+vastly greater than ours. And finally, and most important, these men
+will be all-powerful, because they have so conformed to environment
+that all its forces combine to work with them.</p>
+
+<p>England under Elizabeth seemed to rise above itself. Think of
+Holland, under William the Silent, defying all the power of Spain.
+Look at Bohemia, under Ziska, a handful of peasants joining battle
+with and defeating Germany and Austria combined. Think of Cromwell
+and his Ironsides, before whom Europe trembled. These men were not
+merely giants, they were heroes. And the essence of heroism is
+self-forgetfulness. The last thought of William the Silent was not
+for himself, but for his &quot;poor people.&quot; And those rugged Ironsides,
+&quot;fighting with their hands and praying with their hearts,&quot; smote
+with light good-will and irresistibly, because they struck for truth
+and freedom, for right and God. These are motives of incalculable
+strength, and they transfigure a man and raise him above his
+surroundings and even himself. The man becomes heroic and godlike,
+and when possessed by these motives he has clasped hands with God.
+He is inspired and infused with the divine power <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>[235]</span>and life. Such a
+man has no time nor care to think of himself. To him it matters
+little whether he lives to see the triumph of his cause, provided he
+can hasten it. Though victory be in the future, it is sure; and the
+joy of battle for so sure and grand a triumph is present reward
+enough. His very faith removes mountains and turns to night armies
+of the aliens. For heroism begets faith, just as surely as faith
+begets heroism.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where there is no vision the people perish.&quot; When the member of
+Congress can see nothing higher than spoils of office, nothing
+larger than a silver dollar, you should not criticise the poor man
+if his oratorical efforts do not move an audience like the sayings
+of Webster, Lincoln, or Phillips.</p>
+
+<p>Future man will be heroic and divine, because he will live in an
+atmosphere of truth and right and God, and will be consciously
+inspired by these divine, omnipotent motives.</p>
+
+<p>But who will compose this future race? We cannot tell. And yet the
+attempt to answer the question may open our eyes to truth of great
+practical importance.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem to be a fact that the offspring of a cross between
+different races of the same species is as a rule more vigorous than
+that of either pure race. Human history seems to show the same
+result. The English race is a mixture of Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Danes,
+and Normans, with a sprinkling of other races. And a new fusion of a
+great number of most diverse strains is rapidly going on in the
+newly populated portions of America and in Australia. The mixture
+contains thus far almost purely occidental races. It will in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a>[236]</span>future
+almost certainly contain oriental also. For the races of India,
+Japan, and even China, are no farther from us to-day than the
+ancestors of many of our occidental fellow-citizens were a century
+ago. Racial prejudices, however strong, weaken rapidly through
+intercourse and better acquaintance. One of the grandest and least
+perceived results of missionary work is the preparation for this
+great fusion.</p>
+
+<p>Many races will undoubtedly go down before the advance of
+civilization and have no share in the future. Progress seems to be
+limited to the inhabitants of temperate zones; and even here the
+weaker may be crowded out before the stronger rather than absorbed
+by them. But many whom we now despise may have a larger inheritance
+in the future than we. God is clearly showing us that we should not
+count any man, much less any nation, common or unclean. And the laws
+of evolution give us a firm confidence that no good attained by any
+race or civilization will fail to be preserved in the future.</p>
+
+<p>The forms which seem to us at any one time the highest are as a rule
+not the ancestors of the race of the future. These highest forms are
+too much specialized, and thus fitted to a narrow range of space,
+time, and general conditions; when these change they pass away.
+Specialization is doubly dangerous when it follows a wrong line. But
+whenever it is carried far enough to lead to a one-sided
+development, it narrows the possibility of future advance; for it
+neglects or crowds out or prevents the development of other powers
+essential to life. The mollusk neglected nerve and muscle. But the
+scholar may, and often does, cultivate the brain at the expense of
+the rest of the body <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a>[237]</span>until he and his descendants suffer, and the
+family becomes extinct.</p>
+
+<p>The young men of the nobility of wealth, birth, and fashion usually
+marry heiresses, if they can. But only in families of enormous
+wealth can there be more than one or two heiresses in the same
+generation. She has very probably inherited a portion of her wealth
+from one or more extinct branches of the family. Moreover, not to
+speak of other factors, the labor and anxiety which have been
+essential to the accumulation and preservation of these great
+fortunes, or the mode of life which has accompanied their use or
+abuse, tend to diminish the number of children. Heiresses to very
+large fortunes usually therefore belong to families which are
+tending to sterility. And this has very probably been no unimportant
+factor in the extinction of &quot;noble&quot; families.</p>
+
+<p>A sound body contains many organs, all of which must be sound. And
+in a sound mind there is an even greater number of faculties, all of
+which must be kept at a high grade of efficiency. Man is a
+marvellously complex being, and more in danger of a narrow and
+one-sided development than any lower animal. And it is very easy for
+a certain grade or class of society, or for a whole race, to become
+so specialized, by the cultivation of only one set of faculties as
+to altogether prevent its giving birth to a complete humanity. Along
+certain broad lines the Greeks and Romans attained results never
+since equalled. But their neglect of other, even more important,
+powers and attainments, especially the moral and religious, doomed
+them to a speedy decay. The rude northern races were on the whole
+better and nobler, and became heirs <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>[238]</span>to Greek art and letters, and
+to Roman law. And this is another illustration of the advantage or
+necessity of the fusion of races.</p>
+
+<p>To answer the question, &quot;Which stratum or class in the community or
+world at large is heir to the future?&quot; we must seek the one which is
+still to a large extent generalized. It must be maintaining, in a
+sound body, a steady, even if slow, advance of all the mental
+powers. It will not be remarkable for the high development or lack
+of any quality or power; it must have a fair amount of all of them
+well correlated. It must be well balanced, &quot;good all around,&quot; as we
+say. And this class is evidently neither the highest nor the lowest
+in the community, but the &quot;common people, whom God must have loved,
+because he made so many of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They have, as a rule, fair-sized or large families. Their bodies are
+kept sound and vigorous by manual labor. They are compelled to think
+on all sorts of questions and to solve them as best they can. They
+have a healthy balance of mental faculties, even if they are not
+very learned or artistic. They are kept temperate because they
+cannot afford many luxuries. Their healthy life prevents an undue
+craving for them. They help one another and cultivate unselfishness.
+The good old word, neighbor, means something to them. They have a
+sturdy morality, and you can always rely upon them in great moral
+crises. They are patriotic and public-spirited; they have not so
+many, or so enslaving, selfish interests. They have always been
+trained to self-sacrifice and the endurance of hardship; and heroism
+is natural to them. They have a strong will, cultivated by the
+battle of daily life. And among them religion never loses its hold.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>[239]</span>But what of our tendencies to specialization in education and
+business? Are these wrong and injurious? Specialization, like great
+wealth, is a great danger and a fearful test of character. It tends
+to narrowness. If you will know everything about something, you must
+make a great effort to know something about, and have some interest
+in, everything. The great scholar is often anything but the
+large-minded, whole-souled man which he might have become. He has
+allowed himself to become absorbed in, and fettered by, his
+specialty until he can see and enjoy nothing outside of it. There is
+no selfishness like that of learning.</p>
+
+<p>We can accomplish nothing unless we concentrate our efforts upon a
+comparatively narrow line of work. But this does not necessitate
+that our views should be narrow or our aims low. Teufelsdr&ouml;ckh may
+live on a narrow lane; but his thoughts, starting along the narrow
+lane, lead him over the whole world. The narrowness of our horizon
+is due to our near-sightedness.</p>
+
+<p>But the only absolutely safe specialization is the highest possible
+development of our moral and religious powers. For their cultivation
+only enlarges and strengthens all the other powers of body and mind.
+&quot;But,&quot; you will object, &quot;does religion always broaden?&quot; Yes. That
+which narrows is the base alloy of superstition. But a religion
+which finds its goal and end in conformity to environment,
+character, and godlikeness can only broaden.</p>
+
+<p>But there is the so-called &quot;breadth&quot; of the shallow mind which
+attempts to find room at the same time for things which are mutually
+exclusive. God and Baal, right and wrong, honesty and lying,
+selfishness and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a>[240]</span>love, these are mutually exclusive. You cannot find
+room in your mind for both members of the pair at the same time. You
+must choose. And, when you have chosen, abide by your choice. A
+ladleful of thin dough fallen on the floor is very broad. But its
+breadth is due to lack of consistency. Better narrowness than such
+breadth.</p>
+
+<p>But while individual specialization may be safe for the individual,
+and beneficial to the race, the race which is to inherit the future
+must remain unspecialized. It must not sacrifice future
+possibilities to present rapidity of advance. And the common people
+are advancing safely, slowly, but surely. Wealth and learning become
+of permanent prospective and real value only when they are
+invested in the masses. They are the final depositaries of all
+wealth&mdash;material, intellectual, moral, and religious. Whatever, and
+only that which, becomes a part of their life becomes thereby
+endowed with immortality. Will we invest freely or will we wait to
+have that which we call our own wrested from us? If we refuse it to
+our own kin and nation, it will surely fall to foreigners. &quot;God made
+great men to help little ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The city of God on earth is being slowly &quot;builded by the hands of
+selfish men.&quot; But the builders are becoming continually more
+unselfish and righteous, and as they become better and purer its
+walls rise the more rapidly.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11">[11]</a> Romans i. 20-22, 28.</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>[241]</span>We have studied the teachings of science concerning man and his
+environment, let us turn now to the teachings of the Bible. And
+though eight chapters have been devoted to the teachings of science,
+and only one to the teachings of the Bible, it is not because I
+underestimate the importance of the latter. It is more difficult to
+clearly discover just what are the teachings of Nature in science.
+The lesson is written in a language foreign to most of us, and one
+requiring careful study; and yet once deciphered it is clear.
+Science attains the laws of Nature by the study of animal and human
+history. But this record is a history of continually closer
+conformity to environment on the part of all advancing forms. The
+animal kingdom is the clay which is turned, as Job says, to the seal
+of environment, and it makes little difference whether we study the
+seal or the impression; we shall read the same sentence. Environment
+has stamped its laws on the very structure of man's body and mind.
+And the old biblical writers read these laws, guided by God's
+Spirit, in their own hearts, and in those of their neighbors, and in
+their national history, as the record of God's working, and gave us
+concrete examples of the results of obedience and disobedience.
+Hence the teaching of the Bible is always clear and unmistakable.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>[242]</span>The Bible treats of three subjects&mdash;Nature, Man, and God&mdash;and the
+relations of each of these to the others. I have tried to present to
+you in the first chapter the biblical conception of Nature and its
+relation to God. In its relation to man it is his manifestation to
+us, and, in its widest sense, the sum of the means and modes through
+which he develops, aids, and educates us. And in this conception I
+find science to be strictly in accord with scripture.</p>
+
+<p>Now what is the scriptural idea of man? Man interests us especially
+in three aspects. He is a corporeal being; he is an intellectual
+being; he is a moral being, with feelings, will, and personality.</p>
+
+<p>Man's body. Plato considered the body as a source of evil and a
+hindrance to all higher life. And Plato was by no means alone in
+this. The Bible takes a very different view. Neglect of the body is
+always rebuked. The only place, so far as I can find, where the body
+is called vile is where it is compared with the glorious body into
+which it is to be transformed. &quot;Your bodies,&quot; writes Paul to the
+Corinthians, &quot;are members of Christ,&quot; &quot;temples of the Holy Ghost.&quot;
+But the Bible teaches that the body is to be the servant, not the
+ruler, of the spirit. &quot;I keep under my body, and bring it into
+subjection,&quot; continues Paul. Here again science is strictly in
+accord with scripture.</p>
+
+<p>Man is an intellectual being. I need not quote the praises of
+knowledge in the Old Testament. They must be fresh in your mind. But
+the practical Peter writes, &quot;giving all diligence add to your faith
+virtue; and to virtue knowledge.&quot; And Paul prays that the love of
+the Ephesians may &quot;abound more and more in knowledge and in all
+judgment.&quot; But the important <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a>[243]</span>knowledge is the knowledge of God, and
+of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. And similarly science
+emphasizes that the chief end of all knowledge is that we should
+know the environment to which we are to conform. Knowledge is useful
+to strengthen and clarify the mind, that it may see and conform to
+truth and God: and if it fails to become a means to conformity, it
+has failed of the chief, and practically the only, end for which it
+was intended. We are to come &quot;in the unity of the faith and of the
+knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of
+the stature of the fulness of Christ.&quot; But knowledge which only
+puffs up and distracts the mind from the great aims and ends which
+it should serve is rebuked with equal emphasis by the Bible and by
+science.</p>
+
+<p>I would not claim that we have set too high a value upon knowledge,
+perhaps we cannot; but there is something far higher on which we are
+inclined to set far too low a value. This is righteousness and love;
+and true wisdom is knowledge permeated, vivified, and transfigured
+by devotion to these higher ends. And in this highest realm of the
+mind feeling and will rule conjointly. Love is a feeling which
+always will and must find its way to activity through the will, and
+it is an activity of the will roused by the very deepest feeling,
+inspired by a worthy object. If you try to divorce them, both die.
+Hence Paul can say, &quot;Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
+angels, and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
+mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I
+could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.&quot; And John
+goes, if possible, even farther and says, &quot;Every one that loveth is
+born of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a>[244]</span>God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God;
+for God is love.&quot; And this sort of love bears and believes and hopes
+and endures, and never fails. And for this reason the Bible lays
+such tremendous emphasis on the heart, not as the centre of emotion
+alone, but as the seat of will as well. And science points to the
+same end, though she sees it afar off.</p>
+
+<p>And what of God? God is a Spirit, Creator, Author, and Finisher of
+all things, and filling all. But while omnipotent, omnipresent, and
+omniscient, these are not the characteristics emphasized in the
+Bible. He is righteous. &quot;Shall not the judge of all the earth do
+right?&quot; is the grand question of the father of the faithful. And
+when Moses prays God to show him his glory, God answers, &quot;I will
+make all my goodness pass before thee.&quot; He is the &quot;refuge of
+Israel,&quot; the &quot;everlasting arms&quot; underneath them, pitying them &quot;as a
+father pitieth his children.&quot; And in the New Testament we are bidden
+to pray to our Father, who <i>is</i> love, and whose temple is the heart
+of whosoever will receive him. Truly a very personal being.</p>
+
+<p>Now the Bible rises here indefinitely above anything that mere
+natural science can describe. But can the ultimate &quot;Power, not
+ourselves, which makes for righteousness&quot; and unselfishness, of
+whose presence in environment science assures us, be ever better
+described than by these words concerning the &quot;Father of our
+spirits?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And an infinitely wise, good, and loving being will have fixed modes
+of working; for &quot;with him is no variableness, neither shadow of
+turning.&quot; Thus only can man trust and know him. The old Stoic
+philosopher tells us &quot;everything has two handles, and can be
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a>[245]</span>carried by one of them, but not by the other.&quot; So with God's laws.
+Many seem to look upon them as a hindrance and limitation to him in
+carrying out his righteous and loving will toward man. But they are
+really the modes or means of his working, which he uses with such
+regularity and consistency that we can always rely upon them and
+him. The pure river of the water of life proceedeth from the throne
+of God and of the Lamb.</p>
+
+<p>If I am lying ill waiting anxiously for the physician I can think of
+this great city as a mass of blocks of houses separating him from
+me. But the houses have been arranged in blocks so as to leave free
+streets, along which he can travel the more quickly. And God's laws
+are not blocks, but thoroughfares, planned that the angels of his
+mercy may fly swiftly to our aid. We are prone to forget that these
+laws are expressly made for your and my benefit, as well as that of
+all beings, that we may be righteous and unselfish. And this is one
+ground of the apostle's faith that &quot;all things work together for
+good to them that love God.&quot; And in the Apocalypse the earth helps
+the woman. It must be so.</p>
+
+<p>But what if you or I try to block the thoroughfare? What would
+happen to us if we tried to stop bare-handed the current of a huge
+dynamo, or to hold back the torrent of Niagara? Nothing but death
+can result. And what if I stem myself against the &quot;river of the
+water of life, proceeding from the throne of God,&quot; and try to turn
+it aside or hold it back from men perishing of thirst? And that is
+just what sin is, even if done carelessly or thoughtlessly; for men
+have no right to be careless and thoughtless about <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a>[246]</span>some things.
+&quot;The wages of sin is death;&quot; physical death for breaking physical
+law, and spiritual death for breaking spiritual law. How can it be
+otherwise? The wages are fairly earned. The hardest doctrine for a
+scientific man to believe is that there can be any forgiveness of
+such sin as the heedless, ungrateful breaking of such wise and
+beneficent laws of a loving Father. And yet my earthly father has
+had to forgive me a host of times during my boyhood. Perhaps I can
+hope the same from God; I take his word for it.</p>
+
+<p>But if you or I think that it is safe to trifle with God's laws, we
+are terribly mistaken. The Lord proclaimed himself to Moses as &quot;The
+Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and
+abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
+forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
+means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
+the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and
+to the fourth generation.&quot; But someone will say, This is terrible.
+It is terrible; but the question is, Does the Bible speak the truth
+about nature? Is nature a &quot;fairy godmother,&quot; or does she bring men
+up with sternness and inflict suffering upon the innocent children,
+if necessary, lest they copy after their sinful parents? Do the
+children of the defaulter and drunkard and debauchee suffer because
+of the sins of their father, or do they not? If the blessings won by
+parental virtue go down to the thousandth generation, must not the
+evil consequences of sin go down to the third or fourth?</p>
+
+<p>That we are not under the law, but under grace, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a>[247]</span>does not mean, as
+some seem to think, that it is safe to sin. Otherwise the
+forgiveness of God becomes the lowest form of indulgence
+slanderously attributed to the Church of Rome. We gain freedom from
+law as well as penalty only by obedience. The artist can safely
+forget the laws and rules of his art only when by long obedience and
+practice he obeys them unconsciously. We seem to be threatened with
+a belief that God will never punish sin in one who has professed
+Christianity. This view cheapens sin and makes pardon worthless, it
+takes the iron out of the blood, and the backbone out of all our
+religion and ethics. It ruins Christians and disgraces Christianity.
+We sometimes seem to think that our nation or church or denomination
+is so important to the carrying on of God's work that he cannot
+afford to let any evil befall us, whatever we may do or be.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes
+of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment and pervert all equity.
+They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The
+heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for
+hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean
+upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come
+upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field,
+and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as
+the high places of the forest.&quot; That was plain preaching, and the
+people did not like it. They would not like it any better to-day; it
+would come too near the truth.</p>
+
+<p>But others seem to think that God is too kind, not to say
+good-natured, to allow his children to suffer <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a>[248]</span>for their sins. This
+is part of a creed, unconsciously very widely held to-day, that
+comfort, not character, is the chief end of life. Now if God is too
+kind to allow his children to suffer some of the natural
+consequences of sin, he is not a really kind and loving father, he
+is spoiling his children. Salvation is soundness, sanity, health;
+just as holiness is wholeness, escape from the disease, and not
+merely from the consequences of sin. A physician, unless a quack,
+never promises relief from a deep-seated disease without any pain or
+discomfort. And if the disease is the result of indulgence, he warns
+us that relapse into indulgence will bring a worse recurrence of the
+pain. Perhaps, after all, Socrates was not so far from right when he
+maintained that if a man had sinned the best and only thing for him
+is to suffer for it. &quot;God the Lord will speak peace unto his people,
+and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.&quot; And our
+Lord says, &quot;Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the
+prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say
+unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
+no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. For I say unto you,
+That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
+scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
+heaven.&quot; If we would be great in the kingdom of heaven we must do
+and teach the commandments. One of the best lessons that the clergy
+can learn from science is that law and penalty are not things of the
+past. They are eternal facts; and if so, ought sometimes to be at
+least mentioned from the pulpit as well as remembered in the pew.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a>[249]</span>But if God is a person striving to communicate with man, and if man
+is a person intended to conform to environment by becoming like God,
+what is more probable from the scientific stand-point than that God
+should seek and find some means of making himself clearly known to
+man in some personal way? I do not see how any scientific man who
+believes in a personal God can avoid asking this question. And is
+there any more natural solution of the question than that given in
+the Bible? &quot;God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.&quot;
+&quot;God, who spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath
+in these last days spoken unto us by his son.&quot; Philip says, &quot;Lord,
+show us the Father and it sufficeth us.&quot; Jesus saith unto him, &quot;Have
+I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he
+that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou shew us the
+Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in
+me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the
+Father abiding in me doeth his works.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world,
+and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
+evil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Something more is needed than light. We need more light and
+knowledge of our duty; we need vastly more the will-power to do it.
+I know how I ought to live; I do not live thus. What I need is not a
+teacher, but power to become a son of God. &quot;I delight in the law of
+God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members,
+warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
+under the law of sin which is in my members. O <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a>[250]</span>wretched man that I
+am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This is the terrible question. How is it to be answered? Let us
+remember our illustration of the change wrought in that
+panic-stricken army before Winchester by the appearance of Sheridan.
+What these men needed was not information. No plan of battle
+reported as sure of success by trustworthy and competent witnesses,
+and forwarded from the greatest leader could have stayed that rout.
+What they needed was Sheridan and the magnetic power of his
+personality. This is the strange power of all great leaders of men,
+whether orators, statesmen, or generals. It is intellect acting on
+and through intellect, but it is also vastly more; it is will acting
+on will. The leader does not merely instruct others, he inspires
+them, puts himself into them, and makes them heroes like himself.</p>
+
+<p>Now something like this, but vastly grander and deeper, seems to me
+to have been the work of our Lord. Read John's gospel and see how it
+is interpenetrated with the idea of the new life to be gained by
+contact with our Lord, and how this forms the foundation of his hope
+and claim to give men this new life by drawing them to himself. And
+Peter says that it was impossible for the Prince of Life to be
+holden of death, for he was the centre and source from which not
+only new thoughts and purposes, but new will and life was to stream
+out into the souls of men. This power of our Lord may have been
+miraculous and supernatural in degree; I feel assured that it was
+not unnatural in kind and mode of action.</p>
+
+<p>And here, young men, pardon a personal word <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"></a>[251]</span>about your preaching.
+You will need to preach many sermons of warning against, and
+denunciation of, sin; many of instruction in duty. The Bible is a
+store-house of instruction and men need it, and you must make it
+clear to them. All this is good and necessary, but it is not enough.
+Learn from the experience of the greatest preacher, perhaps, who
+ever lived.</p>
+
+<p>Paul, the greatest philosopher of ancient times, came to Athens. You
+can well imagine how he had waited and longed for the opportunity to
+speak in this home of philosophy and intellectual life. Now he was
+to speak, not to uncultured barbarians, but to men who could
+understand and appreciate his best thoughts. He preached in Athens
+the grandest sermon, as far as argument is concerned, ever uttered.
+I doubt if ever a sermon of Paul's accomplished less. He could not
+even rouse a healthy opposition. The idea of a new god, Jesus, and a
+new goddess, the Resurrection, rather tickled the Athenian fancy. He
+left them, and, in deep dejection, went down to Corinth. There he
+determined to know only &quot;Christ and him crucified,&quot; and thus
+preaching in material, vicious Corinth he founded a church.</p>
+
+<p>Some of you will go through the same experience. You will preach to
+cultured and intelligent audiences, and they will listen courteously
+and eagerly as long as you tell them something new, and do not ask
+them to do anything. The only possible way of reaching Athenian
+intellect or Corinthian materialism and vice is by preaching Christ,
+&quot;the power of God and the wisdom of God.&quot; And you will reach more
+Corinthians than Athenians.</p>
+
+<p>You may preach sermons full of the grandest philosophy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a>[252]</span> and
+theology, and of the highest, most exact, science; you may chain men
+by your logic, thrill them by your rhetoric, and move them to tears
+by your eloquence, and they will go home as dead and cold as they
+came. What they need is power, life. But preach &quot;Christ and him
+crucified&quot;&mdash;not merely dead two thousand years ago&mdash;but risen and
+alive for evermore, and with us to the end of the world, the
+grandest, most heroic, divinest helper who ever stood by a man, one
+all-powerful to help and who never forsakes, and every one of your
+hearers who is not dead to truth will catch the life, and go home
+alive and not alone.</p>
+
+<p>So long as we preach a dead Christ we shall have a dead church, as
+hopeless as the apostles were before the resurrection. &quot;But now is
+Christ risen from the dead,&quot; &quot;alive for evermore.&quot; See how Paul and
+Peter and John, and doubtless all the others, talked with him and he
+with them, after he was taken from them, and you have found the
+secret of their power, and of that of all the great Christian heroes
+and martyrs who could truly say, Lord Jesus, we understand each
+other. Better yet, prove by experience that it is possible for every
+one of us.</p>
+
+<p>And our Lord and Master is the connecting link between God and man,
+through whom God's own Holy Spirit is poured like a mighty flood
+into the hearts and lives of men, transfiguring them and filling
+them with the divine power. This is the biblical idea of
+Christianity; man, through Christ, flooded and permeated and
+interpenetrated with the Holy Spirit of God. And thus Paul is dead
+and yet alive, but fully possessed and dominated by the spirit of
+Christ. Alive as never <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a>[253]</span>before, and yet his every thought, word, and
+deed is really that of his great leader. Can you talk of self-denial
+to such a Christian? He had forgotten that such a man as Saul of
+Tarsus or Paul ever existed; he lives only in his Master's work, and
+is transfigured by it. This, and nothing less, is Christianity, and
+this is the very highest and grandest heroism. Paul conquers Europe
+single-handed, alone he stands before C&aelig;sar's tribunal, and yet he
+is never alone; and from the gloom of the Mammertine dungeon he
+sends back a shout of triumph. And Peter walks steadily, cheerfully,
+and unflinchingly, in the footsteps of his Master to share his
+cross.</p>
+
+<p>Let us, before leaving this topic, notice carefully just what
+religion, and especially Christianity, is not.</p>
+
+<p>1. It is not merely opinion or intellectual belief in a creed. This
+may be good, or even necessary, but it is not religion. &quot;Thou
+believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also
+believe and tremble.&quot; We speak with pride, sometimes, of our
+puissant Christendom, so industrious, so intelligent, so moral, with
+its ubiquitous commerce, its adorning arts, its halls of learning,
+its happy firesides, and its noble charities. And yet what is our
+vaunted Christendom but a vast assemblage of believing but
+disobedient men? Said William Law to John Wesley, &quot;The head can as
+easily amuse itself with a living and justifying faith in the blood
+of Jesus as with any other notion.&quot; The most sacred duty may
+degenerate into a dogma, asking only to be believed. &quot;I go, sir,&quot;
+answered the son in the parable, &quot;but went not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>2. It is not mere feeling. It is neither hope of heaven's joy, nor
+fear of hell's misery. It may rightly <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a>[254]</span>include these, but it is
+vastly more and higher. It is neither ecstasy nor remorse. The most
+resolutely impenitent sinner can shout &quot;Hallelujah,&quot; and &quot;Woe is
+me,&quot; as loudly as any saint. Now feeling is of vast importance. It
+stands close to the will and stimulates it, but it is not
+conformity. The will must be aroused to a robust life.</p>
+
+<p>3. Christianity is these and a great deal more. Mere belief would
+make religion a mere theology. Mere emotion would make it mere
+excitement. The true divine idea of it is a life; doing his will,
+not indolently sighing to do it, and then lamenting that we do it
+not; but the thing itself in actual achievement, from day to day,
+from month to month, from year to year. Thus religion rises on us in
+its own imperial majesty. It is no mere delight of the understanding
+in the doctrines of our faith; no mere excitement of the
+sensibilities, now harrowed by fear, and now jubilant in hope; but a
+warfare and a work, a warfare against sin, and a work with God.
+Religion is not an entertainment, but a service. We are to set
+before us the perfect standard, and then struggle to shape our lives
+to it. Personal sanctity must be made a business of.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>A little more than thirty years ago a regiment was sent home from
+the Army of the Potomac to enforce the draft after the riots in this
+city. Some of you may picture to yourselves a thousand men with silk
+banners and gold lace and bright uniforms, resplendent in the
+sunshine. You could not make a worse mistake.</p>
+
+<p>First in that gray early morning came two old flags, so torn by shot
+and shell that there was hardly enough <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"></a>[255]</span>left of them to tell whether
+the State flag was that of Massachusetts or Virginia. And behind
+these came scant three hundred men. All the rest were sleeping
+between Washington and Richmond, some on almost every battle-field.
+The uniforms were old and faded from sun and rain. Only gun-barrel
+and bayonet were bright. And the men were scarred and tired and
+foot-sore, haggard from hard fighting and long, swift marches. For
+these men had been trained to be hurried back and forth behind the
+long line of battle, that they might be hurled into it wherever the
+need was greatest. I do not suppose that one of them could have
+delivered a fourth-of-July oration on Patriotism. They were trained
+not to talk, but to obey orders. But they had stood in the &quot;bloody
+angle&quot; at Spottsylvania all day and all night; and in the gray dawn
+of the next morning, when strength and courage are always at ebb,
+faint and exhausted, their last cartridge shot away, had sprung
+forward at the command of their colonel to make a last desperate,
+forlorn defence with the bayonet against the advancing enemy.
+Numbers do not count against men like these. What made them such
+invincible heroes? It was mainly the resolute will and long training
+to obey orders. A Christian should never forget that he is a soldier
+in the army of the Lord of Hosts; that enlistment is easy and
+quickly accomplished; but that the training is long, and that he
+must learn, above all, to &quot;endure hardness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so, my brothers, I beg of you to preach a heroic Christianity,
+for if there ever was a heroic religion it is ours. If you offer
+merely free transportation to a future heaven of delight on &quot;flowery
+beds of ease,&quot; you will enlist only the coward and the sluggard. But
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"></a>[256]</span>everyone who has a drop of strong old Norse blood in his veins will
+prefer a heathen Valhalla, though builded in hell, to such a heaven.
+And his Norse instincts will be nearer truth than your counterfeit
+of a debased Christianity. But preach the city of God's
+righteousness on earth and now among men, and call on every heroic
+soul to take sides with God against sin within himself and the evil
+and misery all around him. There is an almost infinite amount of
+strength, endurance, and heroism in this &quot;slow-witted but
+long-winded&quot; human race waiting to leap up at the appeal to fight
+once more and win a victory after repeated defeats before the sun
+goes down. Appeal to this and point to the great &quot;captain of our
+salvation made perfect through sufferings,&quot; and every man that is of
+the truth will hear in your voice the call of the Master and King.
+You will not be disappointed, but among the publicans and fishermen
+of America you will find heroic souls, who will leave all to follow,
+as faithfully and unflinchingly as those from the shores of Galilee.</p>
+
+<p>And what of faith? Faith is the personal attachment of a soul to
+such a leader. Fortunately the Bible contains a scientific monograph
+on this subject. I refer, of course, to the eleventh chapter of the
+epistle to the Hebrews. And the whole result is summed up in a few
+words of the thirteenth verse. The great heroes, like Enoch, Noah,
+and Abraham, &quot;saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them,
+and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
+pilgrims on the earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They saw the promises afar off, dimly, on the horizon of their
+mental vision; as one looks into the distance <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a>[257]</span>and cannot tell
+whether what he sees be cloud or mountain. And until they could make
+up their minds that there was some substance in the vision, they did
+not embrace it. They were not credulous. Neither were they
+carelessly or heedlessly sure that there was and could be nothing in
+the vision but mist and fancy. They recognized that on their
+decision of the question hung the life of which they meant to make
+the very most. They looked again and again, and kept thinking about
+it. Thus they became and were &quot;persuaded of them.&quot; And most people
+stop here with a merely intellectual faith in their heads, and very
+little in their hearts and lives. Not so these old heroes; they were
+not so purely and coldly intellectual that they could not <i>do</i>
+anything. They &quot;embraced them.&quot; They said, that is exactly what I
+want and need, and I'll have it, if it costs me my life.</p>
+
+<p>Now a promise is always conditional; if you want one thing, you must
+give up something else. It involves a choice between alternatives;
+you can have either one freely, you cannot have both. It was to them
+as to Christ on the &quot;exceeding high mountain,&quot; God or the world; God
+with the cross, or the world with Satan thrown in. And the same
+alternative confronts us.</p>
+
+<p>Moses could be a good Jew or a good Egyptian. Most of us, while
+resolved to be excellent Jews at heart, would have said nothing
+about it, but remained sons of Pharaoh's daughter in order to
+benefit the Jews by our influence in our lofty station. We should
+have become miserable hybrids with all the vices and weaknesses of
+both races, but with none of the virtues of either. And for all that
+we should ever have done <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a>[258]</span>the Jews might have rotted in Egyptian
+bondage. Enlargement and deliverance would have arisen to the Jews
+from some other place; but we and our father's house would have been
+destroyed. By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
+daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the children of
+God, etc. And certainly he did suffer for it.</p>
+
+<p>They embraced the promises with their whole hearts. They were stoned
+and sawn asunder rather than give them up. And what was the effect
+on their characters? Having counted the cost, and being perfectly
+willing to accept any loss or pain for the sake of these promises,
+and hence inspired by them, they became sublime heroes. Through
+faith they &quot;subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
+promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of
+fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made
+strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the
+aliens. And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
+moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they wandered about in
+sheepskins and in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
+Of whom the world was not worthy.&quot; That is a faith worth having, and
+it is as sound philosophy as it is scripture.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These all died in faith, not having received the promises.&quot; Did
+they receive nothing? Moses and Elijah, Gideon and Barak gained
+power and heroism greater than we can conceive of. Surely that was
+enough. But they did not get the whole of the promise, or even the
+best of it. And the simple reason was that God cannot make a promise
+small enough to be completely fulfilled to a man in his earthly
+life. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a>[259]</span>He gets enough to make him a king, but this does not begin to
+exhaust the promise. It is inexhaustible. This is the experience of
+anyone who will faithfully try it. And this experience is the
+grandest argument for immortality.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, &quot;giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue (&#945;&#961;&#949;&#964;&#951;, strength),
+and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge
+temperance (&#949;&#947;&#954;&#961;&#945;&#964;&#949;&#953;&#945;, self-control), and to temperance
+patience (&#8017;&#960;&#959;&#956;&#949;&#957;&#951;, endurance), and to patience godliness,
+and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness
+charity&quot; (love).</p>
+
+<p>And what of prayer? How can it be answered in a universe of law? We
+certainly could have no confidence that our prayers could or would
+be answered if ours were not a universe of law. God's laws are, as
+we have seen, his modes of working out his great plan. And the last
+and highest unfolding of God's plan is the development of man. And
+man is to become conformed to his environment, and conformity of
+man's highest powers to his environment is likeness to God.</p>
+
+<p>The laws of nature, then, are in ultimate analysis and highest aim
+the different steps in God's plan of man's salvation from the
+disease of sin, not merely or mainly from its consequences, and his
+attainment of holiness. For this is the only true and sound manhood.
+Salvation is spiritual health, resulting also in health of body and
+of mind. If God's laws are his modes of carrying out his plan for
+godlikeness in man, then they are so thought out as to be the means
+of helping me to every real good.</p>
+
+<p>The Bible declares explicitly that the aim of prayer is not to
+inform God of our needs. For he knows them already. It is not to
+change God's purpose, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a>[260]</span>for he is unchangeable, and we should rejoice
+in this. We are to pray for our daily bread; we are to pray for the
+sick; and, if best for them and consistent with God's plan, they
+shall recover. Elijah prayed for drought and prayed for rain, and
+was answered. And Abraham's prayer would have saved Sodom, had there
+been ten righteous men in the city. &quot;Men ought alway to pray and not
+to faint.&quot;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i5">&quot;More things are wrought by prayer<br /></span>
+<span>Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice<br /></span>
+<span>Rise like a fountain for me night and day.<br /></span>
+<span>For what are men better than sheep or goats<br /></span>
+<span>That nourish a blind life within the brain,<br /></span>
+<span>If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer<br /></span>
+<span>Both for themselves and those who call them friend?<br /></span>
+<span>For so the whole round earth is every way<br /></span>
+<span>Bound by gold chains about the feet of God.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But could not all these things be brought about without a single
+prayer? Not according to the plan of man's education which God has
+adopted. Whether he could well have made a plan by which material
+blessings could have been bestowed upon men who do not ask for them,
+I do not know. The ravens and all animals are fed without a single
+prayer, for they are not fitted or intended to hold communion with
+God. But a prayerless race of men has never been fed long; it has
+soon ceased to exist. God's plan of salvation and ordering of the
+universe involves prayer as a means of blessing and good things as
+an answer to prayer. God says, I make you a co-worker with me. I
+will help you in everything; but you must call on me for help, or
+you will forget that I am the source of your help and strength, and
+thus having lost your <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261"></a>[261]</span>communion with me will die. &quot;When Jeshurun
+waxed fat he kicked.&quot; This is the oft-repeated story of the Old
+Testament and of all history. And thus, while material blessings are
+given in answer to prayer, these are not the chief end for which
+prayer is to be offered.</p>
+
+<p>Prayer is a means of conformity to environment, of godlikeness. How
+do you become like a friend? Of course by associating and talking
+with him. And why does it help you to associate with a hero? Simply
+because you cannot be with him without being inspired with his
+heroism. And so while I may pray for bread and clothes and
+opportunities, and God will give me these or something better; I
+will, if wise, pray for purity, courage, moral power, heroism, and
+holiness. And I know that these will stream from his soul into mine
+like a great river. And so I may pray for bread and be denied; for
+hunger, with some higher good, may be far better for me than a full
+stomach. But if I pray for any spiritual gift, which will make me
+godlike, and on which as an heir of God I have a rightful claim,
+every law and force in God's universe is a means to answer that
+prayer. And best of all, if I pray for the gift of God's Spirit,
+that is the prayer which the whole world of environment has been
+framed to answer.</p>
+
+<p>But this I can never have unless I hunger for it. I can never have
+it to use as a means of gaining some lower good which I worship more
+than God. God will not and cannot lend himself to any such idolatry.
+I must be willing to give up anything and everything else for its
+attainment. Otherwise the answer to the prayer would ruin me.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>[262]</span>I cannot grasp the higher while using both hands to grasp the
+lower.</p>
+
+<p>Thus religion is the interpenetration and permeation of my
+personality by that of God. And prayer is the communion by which
+this permeation becomes possible. And faith is the vision of these
+possibilities, the being persuaded by them, and the resolute purpose
+to attain them. And faith in Christ is confiding communion with him
+and obedience to his commands that his divine life may flow over
+into me and dominate mine. And common-sense, and the more refined
+common-sense which we call science, can show me no other means to
+the attainment of that godlikeness which is the only true conformity
+to environment.</p>
+
+<p>And, holding such a belief and faith, we must be hopeful. And only
+next in importance to faith and love stands hope. The hero must be
+hopeful. And when times look dark about you, and they sometimes
+will, you must still hope.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;O it is hard to work for God,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To rise and take his part<br /></span>
+<span>Upon the battle-field of earth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And not sometimes lose heart!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;O there is less to try our faith<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In our mysterious creed,<br /></span>
+<span>Than in the godless look of earth<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">In these our hours of need.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Ill masters good; good seems to change<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To ill with greatest ease;<br /></span>
+<span>And, worst of all, the good with good<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Is at cross purposes.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Workman <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a>[263]</span>of God! O lose not heart,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">But learn what God is like;<br /></span>
+<span>And in the darkest battle-field<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Thou shalt know where to strike.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;Muse on his justice, downcast soul!<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Muse, and take better heart;<br /></span>
+<span>Back with thine angel to the field,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Good luck shall crown thy part!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;For right is right, since God is God;<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">And right the day must win;<br /></span>
+<span>To doubt would be disloyalty,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">To falter would be sin.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Hope on, be strong and of a good courage. For in the dark hours
+others will lean on you to catch your hope and courage. To many a
+poor discouraged soul you must be &quot;a hiding-place from the wind and
+a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
+shadow of a great rock in a weary land.&quot; Every power and force in
+the universe of environment makes for the ultimate triumph of truth
+and right. Defeat is impossible. &quot;One man with God on his side is
+the majority that carries the day. 'We are but two,' said Abu Bakr
+to Mohammed as they were flying hunted from Mecca to Medina. 'Nay;'
+answered Mohammed, 'we are three; God is with us.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And not only the race will triumph and regain the Paradise lost. The
+city of God shall surely be with men, and God will dwell with them
+and in them. But you and I can and shall triumph too.</p>
+
+<p>We are prone to feel that the individual man is too insignificant a
+being to be the object of God's care and forethought. But we should
+not forget that it is the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a>[264]</span>individual who conforms, and that the
+higher and nobler race is to be attained through the elevation of
+individuals, one after another. God deals with races and nations as
+such. But his laws and promises are made almost entirely for the
+individuals of which these larger units are concerned.</p>
+
+<p>But there is another standpoint from which we may gain a helpful
+view of the matter. I may be the meanest citizen of my native state,
+and my father may leave me heir of only a few acres of rocky land.
+But, if my title is good, every power in the state is pledged to put
+me in possession of my inheritance. They who would rob me may be
+strong; but the state will call out every able-bodied man, and pour
+out every dollar in its treasury before it will allow me to be
+defrauded of my legal rights. And it must do this for me, its
+meanest citizen, else there is no government, but anarchy, and
+oppression, and the rule of the strongest. And we all recognize that
+this is but right and necessary, and would be ashamed of our state
+and government were it not literally true.</p>
+
+<p>If I travel in distant lands, my passport is the sign that all the
+power of these United States is pledged to protect me from
+injustice. Think of the sensitiveness of governments to any wrong
+done to their private citizens. England went to war with Abyssinia
+to protect and deliver two Englishmen. And shall God do less? Can he
+do less? If it is only just and right and necessary for earthly
+governments to thus care for their citizens, shall not the ruler and
+&quot;judge of all the earth do right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now you and I are commanded to be heirs of God, to attain to
+likeness to him. This is therefore our <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a>[265]</span>legal right, guaranteed by
+him, for every command of God is really a promise. And he will
+exhaust every power in the universe before he allows anything to
+prevent us from gaining our legal rights, provided only that we are
+earnest in claiming them.</p>
+
+<p>But if I alienate my rights to my inheritance, the commonwealth
+cannot help me. If I renounce my citizenship, the government of the
+United States can no longer protect me. And so I can alienate my
+&quot;right to the tree of life,&quot; and to entrance into the city, and I
+can forfeit my heirship to all that God would give me. &quot;For I am
+persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
+principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
+nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, shall be able to
+separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
+Lord.&quot; But I can alienate and make void every promise and title, if
+I will or if I do not care. This is the unique glory, and awfulness
+of the human will. And we know that to them that love God all things
+work together for good. &quot;If God is for us who is against us?&quot; It
+must be so if God's laws are his modes of aiding men to conform to
+environment.</p>
+
+<p>And what of the church? Is it anything else or other than a means of
+aiding man to conform to environment? If it fails of this, can it be
+any longer the church of God? The church is a means, not an end. And
+it is a means of godlikeness in man.</p>
+
+<p>Some would make it a social club. The bond of union between its
+members is their common grade of wealth, social position, or
+intellectual attainments. And this idea of the church has deeper
+root in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266"></a>[266]</span>minds of us all than we think. I can imagine a far
+better club than one formed and framed on this principle, but it is
+difficult for me to imagine a worse counterfeit of a church. Others
+make it a source of intellectual delectation, and the means of
+hearing one or two striking sermons each week. Such a church will
+conduce to the intelligence of its members, and may be rather more,
+though probably less, useful than the old New England Lyceum lecture
+system. Such a church is of about as much practical value to the
+world at large as some consultations of physicians are to their
+patients. The doctors have a most interesting discussion, but the
+patient dies, and the nature of the disease is discovered at the
+autopsy. Others still would make of the church a great railroad
+system, over which sleeping-cars run from the City of Destruction,
+with a coupon good to admit one to the Golden City at the other end.
+The coaches are luxurious and the road-bed smooth. The Slough of
+Despond has been filled, the Valley of Humiliation bridged at its
+narrowest point, and the Delectable Mountains tunnelled. But
+scoffers say that most of the passengers make full use of the
+unlimited stop-over privileges allowed at Vanity Fair.</p>
+
+<p>The Bible would seem to give the impression that the church is the
+army of the Lord of Hosts, a disciplined army of hardy, heroic
+souls, each soldier aiding his fellow in working out the salvation
+which God is working in him. And it joins battle fiercely and
+fearlessly with every form of sin and misery, counting not the odds
+against it. And the Salvation Army seems to me to have conceived and
+realized to a great extent just what at least one corps in this
+grand army <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a>[267]</span>can and should be. And you and I can learn many a lesson
+from them.</p>
+
+<p>The church is the body of which Christ is the head, and you and I
+are &quot;members in particular.&quot; Let us see to it that we are not the
+weak spot in the body, crippling and maiming the whole. The church
+is the city of God among men, and we are its citizens, bound by its
+laws, loyal servants of the Great King, sworn to obey his commands
+and enlarge his kingdom, and repel all the assaults of his
+adversaries. Thus the Bible seems to me to depict the church of God.
+But what if the army contains a multitude of men who will not obey
+orders or submit to discipline? or if the city be overwhelmed with a
+mass of aliens, who see in its laws and institutions mainly means of
+selfish individual advantage? Responsibility, not privilege, is the
+foundation of strong character in both men and institutions. There
+was a good grain of truth in the old Scotch minister's remark, that
+they had had a blessed work of grace in his church; they had not
+taken anybody in, but a lot had gone out.</p>
+
+<p>There are plenty of churches of Laodicea to-day. May you be
+delivered from them. But, thank God, there are also churches of
+Philadelphia and Smyrna. May you be pastors of one of the latter. It
+will not pay you a very large salary, for Demas has gone to the
+church of Laodicea, because the minister of the church of Smyrna was
+not orthodox, or not sufficiently spiritually minded&mdash;meaning
+thereby that he rebuked the sins of actual living men in general,
+and of Demas in particular&mdash;or preached politics, and did not mind
+his business. And your church may be small. For <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a>[268]</span>many of the
+congregation have gone to the church around the other corner, which
+is mainly a cluster of associations, having excellent names, and
+useful for almost every purpose except building up a manly, rugged,
+heroic, godlike character. The minister there, they will tell you,
+preaches delightful sermons. They make you &quot;feel so good.&quot; He
+annihilates pantheism, and his denunciations of materialism are
+eloquent in the extreme. But his incarnations of materialism are
+Huxley and Darwin, and to the uncharitable he seems to almost
+carefully avoid any language which might seem to reflect upon the
+dollar- and place-worship of some of the occupants of his front
+pews. Now, I am not here to defend Mr. Huxley or Mr. Darwin.
+Withstand them to the face wherever they are to be blamed. And for
+some utterances they are undoubtedly to be blamed, honest souls as
+they were. But I for one cannot help feeling that there is among the
+&quot;dwellers in Jerusalem&quot; a materialism of the heart which is
+indefinitely worse than any intellectual heresy. When you hit at the
+one heresy strike hard at the other also.</p>
+
+<p>Many will have left your little church of Smyrna. It had to be so.
+For the divine sifting process, which is natural selection on its
+highest plane, has not ceased to work. It must and shall still go
+on; it cannot be otherwise. Has the great principle ceased to be
+true in modern history that &quot;though the number of the children of
+Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But do not be discouraged. Preach Christ and a heroic Christianity.
+Do not be afraid to demand great things of your people. Remember
+that Ananias <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269"></a>[269]</span>was encouraged to go to Paul because the Lord would
+show Paul how great things he should suffer for the name of Jesus.
+This is what appeals to the heroic in every man, and we do not make
+nearly enough use of it. And the heroic Christ and his heroic
+Christianity will draw every heroic soul in the community to
+himself. They may not be very heroic looking. You may be in some
+hill town in old Massachusetts &quot;Nurse of heroes.&quot; Pardon me, I do
+not intend to be invidious. Heroism is cosmopolitan. One of the
+pillars of your church may be the school-teacher of the little red
+school-house at the fork of the roads, in the yard ornamented with
+alders, mulleins, and sumachs. She boards around, and is clad in
+anything but silks and sealskins. But she trains well her band of
+hardy little fellows, who will later fear the multitude as little as
+they now mind the Berkshire winds. And from the pittance she
+receives for training these rebellious urchins into heroic men she
+is supporting an old mother somewhere, or helping a brother to an
+education. And your deacon will be some farmer, perhaps uncouth in
+appearance and rough of dress, and certainly blunt in his scanty
+speech. He'll not flatter you nor your sermons; and until you've
+lived with him for years you will not know what a great heart there
+is in that rugged frame, and what wealth of affection in that silent
+hand-shake. And there is his wife. She is round and ample, and
+certainly does not look especially solemn or pious. She is aunt and
+mother to the whole community, the joy of all the children, nurse of
+the sick, and comfort of the dying. She is doing the work of ten at
+home, and of a host in the village. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270"></a>[270]</span>And your right-hand man is
+great Onesiphorus from the mill down in the valley, fighting an
+uphill battle to keep the wolf from the door, while he and his wife
+deny themselves everything, that their flock of children may have
+better training for fighting God's battles than they ever enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot describe these men and women. If you have lived with
+them, you will need no description, and would resent the
+inadequacy of mine. If you have never had the good fortune to live
+with them, it is impossible to make you see them as they are. When
+you once have thoroughly known them, language will fail you to do
+them justice, and you will prefer to be silent rather than slander
+them by inadequate portrayal. They are at first sight not
+attractive-looking. If you stand outside and look at them from a
+distance their lives will appear to you very humdrum and prosaic.
+But remember that for almost thirty years our Lord lived just such
+a life in Nazareth, making ploughs and yokes; and then, when the
+younger brothers and sisters were able to care for themselves,
+snatched three years from supporting a peasant family in Galilee
+to redeem a world. And who was Peter but a rough, hardy fisherman?</p>
+
+<p>Now a Paul, trained at the feet of Gamaliel, was also needed; and
+the twelve did not come from the lowest ranks of society. But they
+were honest, industrious, practical, courageous, hardy, common
+people. And single-handed they went out to conquer empires. And they
+succeeded through the power of God in them.</p>
+
+<p>Who knows the possibilities of your little church in the hilltown of
+Smyrna? These men and women <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271"></a>[271]</span>are the pickets of God's great host.
+They are scattered up and down our land, fighting alone the great
+battle, unknown of men and sometimes thinking that they must be
+forgotten of God. And the picket's lonely post is what tries a man's
+courage and strength.</p>
+
+<p>Take your example from Paul's epistle. Greet Phebe, the
+schoolmistress, and Aquila and Priscilla on their rocky farm on the
+mountain-side, and greet the burden-bearing Onesiphorus. And give
+them God's greeting and encouragement, for he sends it to them
+through you. Show them the heroism which there is in their &quot;humdrum&quot;
+lives; and cheer them in the efforts, of whose grandeur they are all
+unconscious. Bid them &quot;be strong and of a very good courage.&quot; For in
+the character of these people there is the granite of the eternal
+hills, and in their hearts should be the sunshine of God. Do not be
+ashamed of your congregation. Their dimes or dollars may look
+pitifully small and few on the collector's plate; only God sees the
+real immensity of the gift in the self-denial which it has cost.
+Your people will take sides with the cause of right, while it is
+still unpopular. They have furnished the moral backbone and
+unswerving integrity of many of your great business houses in this
+city to-day. From those families will go forth the men whom the good
+will trust and the evil fear. The power for good proceeding from
+your church will be like the floods which Ezekiel saw pouring out
+from beneath the threshold of the Lord's house.</p>
+
+<p>For these common people, whom &quot;God must have loved because he made
+so many of them,&quot; are the true heirs to the future. And wealth and
+culture, art <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"></a>[272]</span>and learning, are to burn like torches to light their
+march. Finally, my young brothers, do not be bitterly disappointed
+if you are not &quot;popular preachers.&quot; Do not let too many people go to
+sleep under your preaching, even if one young man did go to sleep
+under one of Paul's sermons. But if now and then someone is angry at
+what you have said, do not worry too much over it. Preach the truth
+in love. If Elijah and John the Baptist, and Peter and Paul, were to
+preach to-day I doubt greatly whether they would be popular
+preachers. I cannot find that they ever were so. They would probably
+be peripatetic candidates, until someone supported them as
+independent evangelists. After their death we would rear them great
+monuments, and then devote ourselves to railing at Timothy because
+he was not more like what we imagine Paul was.</p>
+
+<p>Even Socrates found that he must bid farewell to what men count
+honors, if he would follow after truth. You may have the same
+experience. You will have to champion many an unpopular cause, and
+your people will not like it. They will say you lack tact. Now Paul
+was a man of infinite tact. Witness his sermon on Mars' Hill. But if
+his letters to the church in Corinth were addressed to most modern
+churches, they would soon set out in search of a pastor of greater
+adaptability.</p>
+
+<p>If you play the man, and fight the good fight of faith, I do not see
+how you can always avoid hitting somebody on the other side. And he
+will pull you down if he can; and will probably succeed in sometimes
+making your life very uncomfortable. Remember the teaching of
+scripture and science, that the upward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273"></a>[273]</span> path was never intended to
+be easy. The scriptural passages to this effect you can find all
+through the gospels and epistles, and I need not quote them to you.
+I will, however, tell you honestly that many are of the opinion that
+these passages are now obsolete, being applicable only to the first
+centuries, or to especially critical times in the history of
+the church. I cannot share that view, but, lest I seem too
+old-fashioned, will merely quote the ringing words of our own Dr.
+Hitchcock, that &quot;no man ever enters heaven save on his shield.&quot; And
+allow me to quote in the same connection the testimony of that
+prince of scientists, Professor Huxley, in his lecture on &quot;Evolution
+and Ethics:&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If we may permit ourselves a larger hope of abatement of the
+essential evil of the world than was possible to those who, in the
+infancy of exact knowledge, faced the problem of existence more than
+a score of centuries ago, I deem it an essential condition of the
+realization of that hope that we should cast aside the notion that
+the escape from pain and sorrow is the proper object of life.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have long since emerged from the heroic childhood of our race,
+when good and evil could be met with the same 'frolic welcome;' the
+attempts to escape from evil, whether Indian or Greek, have ended in
+flight from the battle-field; it remains to us to throw aside the
+youthful over-confidence and the no less youthful discouragement of
+nonage. We are grown men, and must play the man</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i9">&quot;... 'strong in will<br /></span>
+<span>To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noindent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274"></a>[274]</span>&quot;cherishing
+the good that falls in our way and bearing the evil in
+and around us, with stout heart set on diminishing it. So far we all
+may strive in one faith toward one hope:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="ih">&quot;'It may be that the gulfs will wash us down,<br /></span>
+<span>It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i5">&quot;... but something ere the end,<br /></span>
+<span>Some work of noble note may yet be done.'&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We must be strong and of a very good courage. While the avoidance of
+pain and discomfort, or even happiness, cannot be the proper end of
+life, it is not a world of misery or an essentially and hopelessly
+evil world. There is plenty of misery in the world, and we cannot
+deny it. Neither can we deny that God has put us in the world to
+relieve misery, and that until we have made every effort and
+strained every nerve as we have never yet done, we, and not God, are
+largely responsible for it. But behind misery stand selfishness and
+sin as its cause. And here we must not parley but fight. And the
+hosts of evil are organized and mighty. &quot;The sons of this world are
+for their own generation wiser than the sons of light.&quot; And we shall
+never overcome them by adopting their means. But we can and shall
+surely overcome. For he that is with us is more than they that be
+with them. &quot;The skirmishes are frequently disastrous to us, but the
+great battles all go one way.&quot; And we long for the glory of &quot;him
+that overcometh.&quot; But the victor's song can come only after the
+battle, and be sung only by those who have overcome. And we would
+not have it otherwise if we <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"></a>[275]</span>could. The closing words of Dr.
+Hitchcock's last sermon are the following:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is one of the revelations of scripture that we are to judge the
+angels, sitting above them on the shining heights. It may well be
+so. Those angels are the imperial guard, doing easy duty at home. We
+are the tenth legion, marching in from the swamps and forests of the
+far-off frontier, scarred and battered, but victorious over death
+and sin.&quot;</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12">[12]</a> This page is mainly a series of quotations from Dr.
+R.D. Hitchcock's sermon on &quot;Religion, the Doing of God's Will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION</h3>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276"></a>[276]</span>In all our study we have taken for granted the truth of the theory
+of evolution. If you are not already persuaded of this by the
+writings of Darwin, Wallace, and many others, no words or arguments
+of mine would convince you. We have used as the foundation of our
+argument only the fundamental propositions of Mr. Darwin's theory.</p>
+
+<p>But while all evolutionists accept these propositions they differ
+more or less in the weight or efficiency which they assign to each.
+In a sum in multiplication you may gain the same product by using
+different factors; but if the product is to be constant, if you
+halve one factor, you must double another. Evolution is a product of
+many factors. One evolutionist lays more, another less, emphasis on
+natural selection, according as he assigns less or more efficiency
+to other forces or processes. Furthermore, evolutionists differ
+widely in questions of detail, and some of these subsidiary
+questions are of great practical importance and interest. It may be
+useful, therefore, to review these propositions in the light of the
+facts which we have gathered, and to see how they are interpreted,
+and what emphasis is laid on each by different thinkers.</p>
+
+<p>The fundamental fact on which Mr. Darwin's theory rests is the
+&quot;struggle for existence.&quot; Life is not <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277"></a>[277]</span>something to be idly enjoyed,
+but a prize to be won; the world is not a play-ground, but an arena.
+And the severity of the struggle can scarcely be overrated. Only one
+or two of a host of runners reach the goal, the others die along the
+course. Concerning this there can be no doubt, and there is little
+room for difference of interpretation.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle may take the form of a literal battle between two
+individuals, or of the individual with inclemency of climate or
+other destructive agents. More usually it is a competition, no more
+noticeable and no less real than that between merchants or
+manufacturers in the same line of trade.</p>
+
+<p>The weeds in our gardens compete with the flowers for food, light,
+and place, and crowd them out unless prevented by man. And when the
+weeds alone remain, they crowd on each other until only a few of the
+hardiest and most vigorous survive. And flowers, by their nectar,
+color, and odor, compete for the visits of insects, which insure
+cross-fertilization. And fruits are frequently or usually the
+inducements by which plants compete for the aid of animals in the
+dissemination of their seeds. So there is everywhere competition and
+struggle; many fail and perish, few succeed and survive.</p>
+
+<p>In a foot-race it is often very difficult to name the winner. Muscle
+alone does not win, not even good heart and lungs. Good judgment,
+patience, coolness, courage, many mental and moral qualities, are
+essential to the successful athlete. So in the struggle for life.
+The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.</p>
+
+<p>The total of &quot;points&quot; which wins this &quot;grand <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278"></a>[278]</span>prize&quot; is the
+aggregate of many items, some of which appear to us very
+insignificant. Hence, when we ask, &quot;Who will survive?&quot; the answer is
+necessarily vague. Mr. Darwin's answer is, Those best conformed to
+their environment; and Mr. Spencer's statement of the survival of
+the fittest means the same thing.</p>
+
+<p>The judges who pronounce and execute the verdict of death, or award
+the prize of life, are the forces and conditions of environment. We
+have already considered the meaning of this word. Many of its forces
+and conditions are still unknown, or but very imperfectly
+understood. But known or unknown, visible or invisible, the result
+of their united action is the extinction or degradation of these
+individuals which deviate from certain fairly well-marked lines of
+development. We must keep clearly before our minds the fact that the
+world of living beings makes up by far the most important part of
+the environment of any individual plant or animal. Two plants may be
+equally well suited to the soil and climate of any region; but if
+one have a scanty development of root or leaf, or is for any reason
+more liable to attacks from insects or germs, other things being
+equal, it will in time be crowded out by its competitor. Worms are
+eaten by lower vertebrates, and these by higher. An animal's
+environment, like that of a merchant or manufacturer, is very
+largely a matter of the ability and methods of its competitors. And
+man, compelled to live in society, makes that part of the
+environment by which he is most largely moulded.</p>
+
+<p>This process of extinction Mr. Darwin has called &quot;natural
+selection.&quot; Natural selection is not a force, but a process,
+resulting from the combined action of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279"></a>[279]</span>the forces of environment. It
+is not a cause in any proper sense of the word, but a result of a
+myriad of interacting forces. The combination of these forces in a
+process of natural selection leading directly to a moral and
+spiritual goal demands an explanation in some ultimate cause. This
+explanation we have already tried to find.</p>
+
+<p>It is a process of extinction. It favors the fittest, but only by
+leaving them to enjoy the food and place formerly claimed, or still
+furnished, by the less fit. In any advancing group, as the less fit
+are crowded out, and the better fitted gain more place and food and
+more rapid increase, the whole species becomes on an average better
+conformed. More abundant nourishment and increased vigor seem also
+to be accompanied by increased variation. And by the extinction of
+the less fit the probability is increased that more fit individuals
+will pair with one another and give rise to even fitter offspring,
+possessing perhaps new and still more valuable variations.</p>
+
+<p>But if, of a group of weaker forms, those alone survive which adopt
+a parasitic life, those which in adult life move the least will
+survive and reproduce; there will result the survival of the least
+muscular and nervous. This degeneration will continue until the
+species has sunken into equilibrium, so to speak, with its
+surroundings. Here natural selection works for degeneration. Sessile
+animals have had a similar history. But these parasitic and sessile
+forms had already been hopelessly distanced in the race for life.
+Their presence cannot impede the leaders; indeed their survival is
+necessary to directly or indirectly furnish food for the better
+conformed. In the animal <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280"></a>[280]</span>and plant world there is abundant room and
+advantage at the top.</p>
+
+<p>Once more, natural selection works as a rule for the survival of
+individuals, only indirectly for that of organs composing, or of
+species including, these individuals. It may work for the
+development of a trait or structure which, while of no immediate
+advantage to the individual, increases the probability of its
+rearing a larger number of fitter offspring. Thus defence of the
+young by birds may be a disadvantage to the parent, but this is more
+than counterbalanced in the life of the species by the number of
+young coming to maturity and inheriting the trait. Even here natural
+selection favors the survival of the trait indirectly by sparing the
+descendants of the individual possessing it. Natural selection may
+always work on and through individuals without always working for
+their sole and selfish advantage.</p>
+
+<p>In human society we find the selection of families, societies,
+nations, and civilizations going on, but mainly as the result of the
+survival of the fittest individuals.</p>
+
+<p>There may very probably be a struggle for existence between organs
+or cells in the body of each individual. The amount of nutriment in
+the body is a more or less fixed quantity; and if one organ seizes
+more than its fair share, others may or must diminish for lack. But
+the limit to this usurpation must apparently be set by the crowding
+out of those individuals in which it is carried too far. Natural
+selection, so to speak, leaves the individual responsible for the
+distribution of the nutriment among the organs, and spares or
+destroys the individual as this usurpation proves for its advantage
+or disadvantage.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281"></a>[281]</span>It makes its verdict much as the judges at a great poultry or dog
+show count the series of points, giving each one of them a certain
+value on a certain scale, and then award the prize to the individual
+having the highest aggregate on the whole series. Any such
+illustration is very liable to mislead; I wish to emphasize that
+fitness to survive is determined by the aggregate of the qualities
+of an individual.</p>
+
+<p>But an animal having one organ of great value or capacity may thus
+carry off the prize, even though its other organs deserve a much
+lower mark. This is the case with man. In almost every respect,
+except in brain and hand, he is surpassed by the carnivora, the cat,
+for example. But muscle may be marked, in making up the aggregate,
+on a scale of 500, and brain on a scale of 5,000, or perhaps of
+50,000. A very slight difference in brain capacity outweighs a great
+superiority in muscle in the struggle between man and the carnivora,
+or between man and man.</p>
+
+<p>The scale on which an organ is marked will be proportional to its
+usefulness under the conditions given at a given time. During the
+period of development of worms and lower vertebrates much muscle
+with a little brain was more useful than more brain with less
+muscle. Hence, as a rule, the more muscular survived; the brain
+increasing slowly, at first apparently largely because of its
+correlation with muscle and sense-organs. At a later date muscle,
+tooth, and claw were more useful on the ground; brain and hand in
+the trees. Hence carnivora ruled the ground, and certain arboreal
+apes became continually more anthropoid. At a later date brain
+became more useful even on the ground, and was marked on a higher
+scale, because it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282"></a>[282]</span>could invent traps and weapons against which
+muscle was of little avail. Just at present brain is of use to, and
+valued by, a large portion of society in proportion to its
+efficiency in making and selfishly spending money. But slowly and
+surely it is becoming of use as an organ of thought, for the sake of
+the truth which it can discover and incarnate.</p>
+
+<p>Natural selection works thus apparently for the survival of the
+individuals possessing in the aggregate the most complete conformity
+to environment. Let us now imagine that an animal is so constructed
+as to be capable of variation along several disadvantageous or
+neutral lines, and along only one which is advantageous. The
+development would of course proceed along the advantageous line. Let
+us farther imagine that to the descendants of this individual two,
+and only two, advantageous lines of variations are allowed by its
+structure. Then natural selection would probably favor the decidedly
+advantageous line, if such there were. But as long as the structure
+of the animal allows variation along only a few lines, the
+two advantageous variations would, according to the law of
+probabilities, frequently occur in the same individual. The eggs and
+spermatozoa of two such individuals might not infrequently unite,
+and thus in time the two characteristics be inherited by a large
+fraction of the species.</p>
+
+<p>And now let me quote from Mr. Spencer:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p class="noindent">&quot;But in proportion as the life grows complex&mdash;in proportion as a
+healthy existence cannot be secured by a large endowment of some
+one power, but demands many powers; in the same proportion do
+there arise obstacles to the increase of any particular power, by
+'the preservation of favored races in the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283"></a>[283]</span>struggle for life.' As
+fast as the faculties are multiplied, so fast does it become
+possible for the several members of a species to have various
+kinds of superiorities over one another. While one saves its life
+by higher speed, another does the like by clearer vision, another
+by keener scent, another by quicker hearing, another by greater
+strength, another by unusual power of enduring cold or hunger,
+another by special sagacity, another by special timidity, another
+by special courage; and others by other bodily and mental
+attributes. Now it is unquestionably true that, other things
+equal, each of these attributes, giving its possessor an extra
+chance of life, is likely to be transmitted to posterity. But
+there seems no reason to suppose that it will be increased in
+subsequent generations by natural selection. That it may be thus
+increased, the individuals not possessing more than average
+endowments of it must be more frequently killed off than
+individuals highly endowed with it; and this can happen only when
+the attribute is one of greater importance, for the time being,
+than most of the other attributes. If those members of the
+species which have but ordinary shares of it, nevertheless
+survive by virtue of other superiorities which they severally
+possess, then it is not easy to see how this particular attribute
+can be developed by natural selection in subsequent generations.
+The probability seems rather to be that, by gamogenesis, this
+extra endowment will, on the average, be diminished in
+posterity&mdash;just serving in the long run to compensate the
+deficient endowments of other individuals whose special powers
+lie in other directions, and so to keep up the normal structure
+of the species. The working out of the process is here somewhat
+difficult to follow; but it appears to me that as fast as the
+number of bodily and mental faculties increases, and as fast as
+the maintenance of life comes to depend less on the amount of any
+one, and more on the combined action of all, so fast does the
+production of specialties of character by natural selection alone
+become difficult. Particularly does this seem to be so with a
+species so multitudinous in its powers as mankind, and above all
+does it seem to be so with such of the human powers as have but
+minor shares in aiding the struggle for life&mdash;the &aelig;sthetic
+faculties for example.&quot;&mdash;Spencer, &quot;Principles of Biology,&quot; &sect; 166.</p></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284"></a>[284]</span>Can thus natural selection, acting upon fortuitous variations, be
+the sole guiding process concerned in progress? Must there not be
+some combining power to produce the higher individuals which are
+prerequisites to the working of natural selection?</p>
+
+<p>We are considering the efficiency of natural selection in enhancing
+useful variations through a series of generations. Let us return to
+the distinction between productiveness and prospectiveness of social
+capital. Applied to variations productiveness means immediate
+advantage, prospectiveness the greater future and permanent returns.
+Now all persisting variations must, in animals below man, apparently
+be somewhat productive, else they would not continue, much less
+increase. Now the immediate return from prospective variations is
+often smaller than from productive. It looks at first as if
+productive variations would always be preserved by natural
+selection, and that prospective variations would not long advance.
+Yet in the muscular system variations valuable largely for their
+future value are neither few nor unimportant. How can the brain in
+its infancy develop until it gains supremacy over muscle, or muscle
+have done the same with digestion? Now a partial explanation of this
+is to be found in the correlation of organs. This is therefore a
+factor of vast importance in progress through evolution.</p>
+
+<p>Progress in any one line demands correlated changes in many organs.
+Thus in the advance of annelids to insects the muscular system
+increases in relative bulk, and absolutely in complexity. But a
+change or increase in the muscle must be accompanied by
+corresponding changes in the motor-nerve fibrils; and these <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285"></a>[285]</span>again
+would be useless unless accompanied by increased complexity and more
+or less readjustment of the cells and fibrils of the nerve-centres.
+And all these additions to, and readjustments of, the nerve-centres
+must take place without any disturbance of the other necessary
+adjustments already attained. This is no simple problem.</p>
+
+<p>We will here neglect the fact that many other changes are going on
+simultaneously. Legs are being formed or moulded into jaws, the
+anterior segments are fusing into a head, and their ganglia into a
+brain; an external skeleton is developing. Furthermore the increase
+of the muscular and nervous systems must be accompanied by increased
+powers of digestion, respiration, and excretion. Practically the
+whole body is being recast. We insist only on the necessity of
+simultaneous and parallel changes in muscles, nerves, and
+nerve-centres; though what is true of these is true, in greater or
+less degree, of all the other organs.</p>
+
+<p>You may answer that this is to be explained by the law of
+correlation of organs; that when changes in one organ demand
+corresponding changes in another, these two change similarly and
+more or less at the same time and rate. But this is evidently not an
+explanation but a restatement of the fact. The question remains,
+What makes the organs vary simultaneously so as to always correspond
+to each other? The whole series of changes must to some extent be
+effected at once and in the same individual, if it is to be
+preserved by natural selection. Fortuitous variations here and there
+along the line of the series are of little or no avail. That the
+whole series of variations should happen to occur in one animal is
+altogether <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286"></a>[286]</span>against the law of probabilities; if the favorable
+variation occurs in only a part of the series it remains useless
+until the corresponding variation has taken place in the other
+terms. And while the variation is thus awaiting its completion, so
+to speak, it is useless, and cannot be fostered by natural
+selection.</p>
+
+<p>Evolution by means of fortuitous variations, combined and controlled
+only through natural selection, seems to me at least impossible; and
+this view is, I think, steadily gaining ground.</p>
+
+<p>Natural selection, while a real and very important factor in
+evolution, cannot be its sole and exclusive explanation. It
+presupposes other factors, which we as yet but dimly perceive. And
+this does not impeach the validity of Mr. Darwin's theory any more
+than Newton's theory of gravitation is impeached by the fact that it
+offers no explanation as to why the apple falls or how bodies
+attract one another.</p>
+
+<p>For natural selection explains the survival, but not the origin, of
+the fittest. Given a species or other group composed of more and
+less fit individuals and the fittest will survive. How does it come
+about that there are any more and less fit individuals? This brings
+us to the consideration of the subject of variation.</p>
+
+<p>Let us begin with a simple case of change in the adult body. The
+workman grasps his tools day after day, and his hands become horny.
+The skin has evidently thickened, somewhat as on the soles of the
+feet. This is no mere mechanical result of pressure alone.
+Continuous pressure would produce the opposite result. But under the
+stimulus of intermittent pressure the capillaries, or smallest blood
+vessels, furnish <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287"></a>[287]</span>more nutriment to the cells composing the lowest
+layer of the outer skin or epidermis. These cells, being better
+nourished, reproduce by division more rapidly, and the epidermis,
+becoming composed of a greater number of layers of cells, thickens.
+The outer-most layers, being farthest from the blood supply, dry up
+and are packed together into a horny mass.</p>
+
+<p>If I go out into the sunshine I become tanned. This again is not a
+direct and purely chemical or physical result of the sun's rays, but
+these have stimulated the cells of the skin to undergo certain
+modifications. Any change in the living body under changed
+conditions is not passive, but an active reaction to a stimulus
+furnished by the surroundings. The same stimulus may excite very
+different reactions in different individuals or species.</p>
+
+<p>Early in this century a farmer, Seth Wright, found among his lambs a
+young ram with short legs and long body. The farmer kept the ram,
+reasoning that his short legs would prevent him from leading the
+flock over the farm-walls and fences. From this ram was descended
+the breed of ancon, or otter, sheep. Now the stimulus which had
+excited this variation must have been applied early in embryonic
+life, or perhaps during the formation or maturing of the germ-cells
+themselves. Such a variation we call a congenital variation.</p>
+
+<p>These cases are merely illustrations of the general truth that in
+every variation there are two factors concerned: the living being
+with its constitution and inherent tendencies and the external
+stimulus.</p>
+
+<p>The courses of the different balls in a charge of grape-shot, hurled
+from a cannon, are evidently due <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288"></a>[288]</span>to two sets of forces&mdash;1, their
+initial energy and the direction of their aim; 2, the deflecting
+power of resisting objects or forces&mdash;or the different balls might
+roll with great velocity down a precipitous mountain-side. In the
+first case velocity and direction of course would be determined
+largely by initial impulse; in the second, by the attraction of the
+earth and by the inequalities of its surface.</p>
+
+<p>In evolution, environment, roughly speaking, corresponds to these
+deflecting or attracting external objects or forces; inherent
+tendencies to initial impulse. If we lay great weight on initial
+tendencies, inherent in protoplasm from the very beginning, we shall
+probably lay less stress on natural selection as a guiding,
+directing process.</p>
+
+<p>The great botanist, N&auml;geli, has propounded a most ingenious and
+elaborate theory of evolution, as dependent mainly on inherent
+initial tendency. We can notice only one or two of its salient
+points. All development is, according to his view, due to a tendency
+in the primitive living substance toward more complete division of
+labor and greater complexity. This tendency, which he calls
+progression, or the tendency toward perfection, is the result of the
+chemical and molecular structure of the formative controlling
+protoplasm (idioplasm) of the body, and is transmitted with other
+parental traits from generation to generation. And structural
+complexity thus increases like money at compound interest.
+Development is a process of unfolding or of realization of the
+possibilities of this tendency under the stimulus of surrounding
+influences. Environment plays an essential part in his system. But
+only such changes are transmissible to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289"></a>[289]</span>future generations as have
+resulted from modifications arising in the idioplasm. Descendants of
+plants which have varied under changed conditions revert, as a rule,
+to the old type, when returned to the old surroundings. And in the
+animal world effects of use and disuse are, according to his view,
+not transmissible.</p>
+
+<p>Natural selection plays a very subordinate part. It is purely
+destructive. Given an infinity of place and nourishment&mdash;do away,
+that is, with all struggle and selection&mdash;and the living world would
+have advanced, purely by the force of the progressive tendency, just
+as far as it now has; only there would have survived an indefinite
+number of intermediate forms. It would have differed from our
+present living world as the milky way does from the starry
+firmament.</p>
+
+<p>He compares the plant kingdom to a great, luxurious tree, branching
+from its very base, whose twigs would represent the present stage of
+our different species. Left to itself it would put out a chaos of
+innumerable branches. Natural selection, like a gardener, prunes the
+tree into shape. Children might imagine that the gardener caused the
+growth; but the tree would have been broader and have branched more
+luxuriantly if left to itself.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>Every species must vary perpetually. Now this proposition is
+apparently not in accord with fact; for some have remained unchanged
+during immense periods. And natural selection, by removing the less
+fit, certainly appears to contribute to progress by raising the
+average of the species. The theory seems extreme and one-sided. And
+yet it has done great service by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290"></a>[290]</span>calling in question the
+all-sufficiency of natural selection and the modifying power of
+environment, and by emphasizing, probably overmuch, the importance
+of initial inherent tendency, whose value has been entirely
+neglected by many evolutionists.</p>
+
+<p>Lack of space compels us to leave unnoticed most of the exceedingly
+valuable suggestions of N&auml;geli's brilliant work.</p>
+
+<p>It is still less possible to do any justice in a few words to
+Weismann's theory. Into its various modifications, as it has grown
+from year to year, we have no time to enter. And we must confine
+ourselves to his views of variation and heredity.</p>
+
+<p>In studying protozoa we noticed that they reproduced by fission,
+each adult individual dividing into two young ones. There is
+therefore no old parent left to die. Natural death does not occur
+here, only death by violence or unfavorable conditions. The protozoa
+are immortal, not in the sense of the endless persistence of the
+individual, but of the absence of death. Heredity is here easily
+comprehensible, for one-half, or less frequently a smaller fraction,
+of the substance of the parent goes to form the new individual.
+There is direct continuity of substance from generation to
+generation.</p>
+
+<p>But in volvox a change has taken place. The fertilized egg-cell,
+formed by the union of egg and spermatozoon, is a single cell, like
+the individual resulting from the conjugation or fusion of two
+protozoa. But in the many-celled individual, which develops out of
+the fertilized egg, there are two kinds of cells. 1. There are other
+egg-cells, like the first, each one of which can, under favorable
+conditions, develop into a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291"></a>[291]</span>multicellular individual like the
+parent. And the germ-cells (eggs and spermatozoa) of volvox are
+immortal like the protozoa. But, 2, there are nutritive, somatic
+cells, which nourish and transport the germ-cells, and after their
+discharge die. These somatic cells, being mortal, differ altogether
+from the germ-cells and the protozoa. The protoplasm must differ in
+chemical, or molecular, or other structure in the two cases, and we
+distinguish the germ-plasm of the germ-cells, resembling in certain
+respects N&auml;geli's idioplasm, from somatoplasm, which performs most
+of the functions of the cell. The somatoplasm arises from, and hence
+must be regarded as a modification of, the germ-plasm. The
+germ-plasm can increase indefinitely in the lapse of generations,
+increase of the somatoplasm is limited.</p>
+
+<p>When a new individual develops, a certain portion of the germ-plasm
+of the egg is set aside and remains unchanged in structure. This,
+increasing in quantity, forms the reproductive elements for the next
+generation. The germ-plasm, which does not form the whole of each
+reproductive element, but only a part of the nucleus, is thus an
+exceedingly stable substance. And there is a just as real continuity
+of germ-plasm through successive generations of volvox, or of any
+higher plants or animals, as in successive generations of protozoa.</p>
+
+<p>In certain plants there is an underground stem or rootstock, which
+grows perennially, and each year produces a plant from a bud at its
+end. This underground rootstock would represent the continuous
+germ-plasm of successive generations; the plants which yearly arise
+from it would represent the successive generations of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292"></a>[292]</span>adult
+individuals, composed mainly of somatoplasm. Or we may imagine a
+long chain, with a pendant attached to each tenth or one-hundredth
+link. The links of the chain would represent the series of
+generations of germ-cells; the pendants, the adults of successive
+generations.</p>
+
+<p>But any leaf of begonia can be made to develop into a new plant,
+giving rise to germ-cells. Here there must be scattered through the
+leaves of the plant small portions of germ-plasm, which generally
+remain dormant, and only under special conditions increase and give
+rise to germ-cells.</p>
+
+<p>A large part of the germ-plasm of the fertilized egg is used to give
+rise to the somatoplasm composing the different systems of the
+embryo and adult. Weismann's explanation of this change of
+germ-plasm into somatoplasm is very ingenious, and depends upon his
+theory of the structure of the germ-plasm; and this latter theory
+forms the basis of his theory of evolution. It would take too long
+to state his theory of the structure of germ-plasm, but an
+illustration may present fairly clear all that is of special
+importance to us.</p>
+
+<p>The molecules of germ-plasm are grouped in units, and these in an
+ascending series of units of continually increasing complexity,
+until at last we find the highest unit represented in the nucleus of
+the germ-cell. This grouping of molecules in units of increasing
+complexity is like the grouping of the men of an army in companies,
+regiments, brigades, divisions, etc.</p>
+
+<p>To form the somatoplasm of the different tissues of the body, this
+complicated organization breaks up, as the egg divides, into an
+ever-increasing number of cells. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293"></a>[293]</span>First, so to speak, the corps
+separate to preside over the formation of different body regions.
+Then the different divisions, brigades, and regiments, composing
+each next higher unit, separate, being detailed to form ever
+smaller portions of the body. The process of changing germ-plasm
+into somatoplasm is one of disintegration. The germ-plasm
+contains representatives of the whole army; a somatic cell only
+representatives of one special arm of a special training. Germ-plasm
+in the egg is like Humpty-Dumpty on the wall; somatoplasm, like
+Humpty-Dumpty after his great fall.</p>
+
+<p>I use these rude illustrations to make clear one point: Germ-plasm
+can easily change into somatoplasm, but somatoplasm once formed can
+never be reconverted into germ-plasm, any more than the fallen hero
+of the nursery rhyme could ever be restored.</p>
+
+<p>The germ-plasm is, according to Weismann, a very peculiar, complex,
+stable substance, continuous from generation to generation since the
+first appearance of life on the globe. It is in the body of the
+parent, but scarcely of it. Its relation to the body is like that of
+a plant to the soil or of a parasite to its host. It receives from
+the body practically only transport and nourishment. It is like a
+self-perpetuating, close corporation; and the somatoplasm has no
+means of either controlling it or of gaining representation in it.</p>
+
+<p>Says Weismann<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>: &quot;The germ-cells are contained in the organism, and
+the external influences which affect them are intimately connected
+with the state of the organism in which they lie hid. If it be well
+nourished, the germ-cells will have abundant nutriment; and,
+conversely, if it be weak and sickly, the germ-cells will <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294"></a>[294]</span>be
+arrested in their growth. It is even possible that the effects of
+these influences may be more specialized; that is to say, they may
+act only upon certain parts of the germ-cells. But this is indeed
+very different from believing that the changes of the organism which
+result from external stimuli can be transmitted to the germ-cells
+and will redevelop in the next generation at the same time as that
+at which they arose in the parent, and in the same part of the
+organism.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But if the germ-plasm has this constitution and relation to the rest
+of the body, how is any variation possible? Different individuals of
+any species have slightly different congenital tendencies. Hence in
+the act of fertilization two germ-plasms of slightly different
+structure and tendency are mingled. The mingling of the two produces
+a germ-plasm and individual differing from both of the parents.
+Thus, according to Weismann's earlier view, the origin of variation
+was to be sought in sexual reproduction through the mingling of
+slightly different germ-plasms.</p>
+
+<p>But how did these two germ-plasms come to be different? How was the
+variation started? To explain this Weismann went back to the
+unicellular protozoa. These animals are undoubtedly influenced by
+environment and vary under its stimuli. Here the variations were
+stamped upon the germ-plasm, and the commingling of these variously
+stamped germ-plasms has resulted in all the variations of higher
+animals.</p>
+
+<p>Of late Weismann has modified and greatly improved this portion of
+his theory. He now accepts the view that external influences may act
+upon the germ-plasm not only in protozoa but also in all higher
+animals. Variation is thus due to the action or stimulus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"></a>[295]</span> of
+external influences, supplemented by sexual reproduction.</p>
+
+<p>But the very constitution of the germ-plasm and its relation to the
+body absolutely forbids the transmission of acquired somatic
+characteristics and of the special effects of use and disuse.
+Muscular activity promotes general health, and might thus conduce to
+better-nourished germ-cells and to more vigorous and therefore
+athletic descendants. The exercise of the muscles might possibly
+cause such a condition of the blood that the portion of the
+germ-plasm representing the muscular system of the next generation
+might be especially nourished or stimulated. Thus an athletic parent
+might produce more athletic children.</p>
+
+<p>But let us imagine twin brothers of equal muscular development. One
+from childhood on exercises the lower half of his body; the other,
+the upper. Both take the same amount of exercise, and have perhaps
+equal muscular development, but located in different halves of the
+body. Now it is hard to conceive that it can make any difference in
+the nourishing or stimulating influence of the blood, whether the
+muscular activity resides in one half of the body or the other. The
+children might be exactly alike.</p>
+
+<p>One man drives the pen, a second plays the piano, and a third wields
+a light hammer. All three use different muscles of the hand and arm.
+How can this use of special muscles stamp itself upon the germ-cells
+in such a way that the offspring will have these special muscles
+enlarged? Granting that external influences of environment and
+bodily condition may effect the germ-cells; granting even that some
+of the most general effects of use and disuse might be transmitted,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296"></a>[296]</span>what warrant have we for believing that the special acquired
+characteristic can be transmitted? Weismann answers, None at all.
+The somatoplasm can only in the most general way affect the
+self-perpetuating, close corporation of the germ-plasm.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>There is thus, according to Weismann, nothing to direct variation to
+certain organs, or to guide and combine the variations of these
+organs along certain lines, except natural selection. To a certain
+extent variation may be limited by the very structure of the animal.
+But within these limits there are wide ranges where one variation is
+apparently just as likely to occur as another.</p>
+
+<p>Within these wide limits variation appears to be fortuitous. Natural
+selection must wait until the individuals appear in which these
+variations occur already correlated, and then seize upon these
+individuals. It is apparently the only guiding, directing force.
+Linear variation, that is, a variation advancing continuously along
+one or very few straight lines, would appear to be impossible.</p>
+
+<p>In N&auml;geli's theory initial tendency is overwhelmingly dominant; in
+Weismann's, natural selection is almighty.</p>
+
+<p>Weismann's followers have received the name of Neo-Darwinians. The
+so-called Neo-Lamarckian school believes in the transmissibility of
+acquired characteristics, and of at least particular effects of use
+and disuse. The one theory is neither more nor less Darwinian than
+the other. For while Darwin emphasized natural selection, he
+accepted to a certain extent the transmission of special effects of
+use and disuse.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"></a>[297]</span>A special theory of heredity, pangenesis, has been accepted by many
+of the Neo-Lamarckian school. The theory of pangenesis, as
+propounded by Mr. Darwin, may be very briefly stated as follows: The
+cells in all parts of the body are continually throwing off germinal
+particles, or &quot;gemmules.&quot; These become scattered through the body,
+grow, and multiply by division. On account of mutual attraction they
+unite in the reproductive glands to form eggs or spermatozoa. The
+germ-cells are thus the bearers of heredity because they contain
+samples, so to speak, of all the organs of the body.</p>
+
+<p>In heredity, according to Weismann's theory, the egg is the centre
+of control, the continuous germ-plasm the source of all transmitted
+changes; according to Darwin's theory, the body is the source, and
+the egg is derived in great part at least from it. If you put to the
+two the time-honored question, Which is first, the owl or the egg?
+Weismann would announce, with emphasis, The egg; Darwin would say,
+The owl. One proposition is the converse of the other, and most
+facts accord almost equally well with both theories.</p>
+
+<p>In any family, devoted for generations to literary or artistic
+pursuits, the children show, as a rule, an aptitude for such
+pursuits not manifested by those of other families. According to the
+Neo-Lamarckian view, this inherited aptitude is to a certain extent
+the result of the constant exercise of these faculties through a
+series of generations. The active efforts and voluntary disposition
+of the parents have given an increased predisposition to the child.
+&quot;Quite the reverse,&quot; says Weismann, &quot;the increase of an organ in the
+course of generations does not depend upon the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298"></a>[298]</span>summation of
+exercise taken during single lives, but upon the summation of more
+favorable predispositions in the germ.&quot; &quot;An organism cannot acquire
+anything unless it already possesses the predisposition to acquire
+it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>We may accept or deny this last statement, but it is evident
+that facts like these, and indeed the origin of most or all
+characteristics involving use or disuse, may be explained almost
+equally well by either theory.</p>
+
+<p>But as far as the transmission of effects of somatic changes is
+concerned, if protozoa undergo special modifications under the
+influence of external conditions, will not the germ-cells undergo
+special modification under the influence of changes in the
+somatoplasm which forms their immediate environment? We must never
+forget the close relationship between all the cells of the body, and
+how slight a change in the body or its surroundings may conduce to
+sterility or fertility. Such isolation and independence in the body,
+on the part of the germ-cells, is opposed to all that we know of the
+organic unity of the body, whose cells have arisen by the
+differentiation of, and division of labor between, cells primitively
+alike. The facts of bud-variation, of changes in the parent stock
+due to grafting, and others, of which Mr. Darwin has given a summary
+in the eleventh chapter of the first volume of his &quot;Plants and
+Animals under Domestication,&quot; have never been adequately explained
+by Weismann in accordance with his theory. He has perhaps succeeded
+in parrying their force by showing that some such explanation is
+conceivable; they still point strongly against him.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299"></a>[299]</span>Wilson has good reason for his &quot;steadily growing conviction that
+the cell is not a self-regulating mechanism in itself, that no cell
+is isolated, and that Weismann's fundamental proposition is false.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But, granting the force of these criticisms, the question still
+remains, Is the special effect of use or disuse transmissible? Would
+the blacksmith's son have a stronger right arm?</p>
+
+<p>1. The isolation and independence of the germ-cells, which Weismann
+postulates as opposing this, can hardly be as great as he thinks. 2.
+It is in his view impossible to conceive how these acquired
+characteristics can in any way reach and affect the germ-cells in
+such a manner as to reappear in the next generation. 3. All
+variations can be explained by his own theory without such
+transmission. Why then believe that acquired characteristics can in
+some inconceivable way affect the germ-cells so as to reappear in
+the next generation, as long as all the facts can be explained in a
+more simple and easily conceivable manner?</p>
+
+<p>As to his second argument, I would readily acknowledge that it is at
+present difficult or impossible for me to conceive how any cell can
+act upon another, except through the nutrient or other fluids which
+it can produce. But though I cannot conceive how one cell can affect
+another, I may be compelled to believe that it does so. And this
+Weismann readily acknowledges.</p>
+
+<p>Driesch changed by pressure the relative position of the cells of a
+very young embryo, so that those which in a normal embryo would have
+produced one organ were now compelled, if used at all, to form quite
+a different one. And yet these displaced cells formed the organ
+required of cells normally occupying this <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300"></a>[300]</span>new position, not the one
+for which they were normally intended. And the organ which they
+would have builded in a normal embryo was now formed by other cells
+transferred to their rightful place.</p>
+
+<p>What made them thus change? Not change of substance or structure,
+for the slight pressure could hardly have modified this. Not change
+of nutriment. The only visible or easily conceivable change was in
+position relative to other cells of the embryo.</p>
+
+<p>Let us in imagination simplify Driesch's experiment, for the sake of
+gaining a clearer view of its meaning. In a certain embryo at an
+early stage are certain cells whose descendants should form the
+lining of the intestine and be used in the adult for digestion. A
+second set of cells should form muscle endowed mainly with
+contractility. When these two sets of cells, or some of them,
+exchange positions in the embryo, they exchange lines of
+development. The first set now form muscle, the second digestive
+tissue. The only change has been in their relative positions.
+Driesch maintains, therefore, that the goal of development in any
+embryonic cell is determined not by structure or nutriment but by
+position. And this would seem to be true of the cells of the
+earliest embryonic stages.</p>
+
+<p>Certain other experiments point in the same direction. Cut a hydra
+into equal halves and each half will form a complete animal. The
+lower half forms a new top, with mouth and tentacles; the upper
+half, a new base. Cut the other hydra a hair's-breadth farther up.
+The same layer of cells which in the first animal formed the lower
+exposed surface of the upper half now forms the upper exposed
+surface of the lower half. And with this change of position it <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301"></a>[301]</span>has
+changed its line of development; it will now give rise to a new
+upper half, not a base as before. The same experiment can be tried
+on certain worms with similar results, only head and tail differ far
+more than top and base of hydra. Difference in the position of cells
+has made vast difference in their line of development. Now in both
+embryo and adult there must be some directing influence guiding
+these cells. What is it?</p>
+
+<p>An army is more than a mob of individuals; it is individuals plus
+organization, discipline, authority. A republic is not square miles
+of territory and thousands or millions of inhabitants. It is these
+plus organization, central government. Webster claimed that the
+central government was, and had to be, before the states. The
+organism cannot exist without its parts; it has a very real
+existence in and through them. It can coerce them. The state may be
+an abstraction, but it is one against which it is usually fatal to
+rebel, and which can say to a citizen, Go and be hanged, and he
+straightway mounts the scaffold. Now these are analogies and prove
+nothing. But in so far as they throw light on the essential idea of
+an organism, they may aid us in gaining a right view of our &quot;cell
+republic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Says Whitman in a very interesting article on the &quot;Inadequacy of the
+Cell-Theory&quot;: &quot;That organization precedes cell-formation and
+regulates it, rather than the reverse, is a conclusion that forces
+itself upon us from many sides.&quot; &quot;The structure which we see in a
+cell-mosaic is something superadded to organization, not itself the
+foundation of organization. Comparative embryology reminds us at
+every turn that the organism <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302"></a>[302]</span>dominates cell-formation, using for
+the same purpose one, several, or many cells, massing its material
+and directing its movements, and shaping its organs as if cells did
+not exist, or as if they existed only in complete subordination to
+its will, if I may so speak. The organization of the egg is carried
+forward to the adult as an unbroken physiological unity, or
+individuality, through all modifications and transformations.&quot; And
+Wilson, Whitman, Hertwig, and others urge &quot;that the organism as a
+whole controls the formative processes going on in each part&quot; of the
+embryo. And many years ago Huxley wrote, &quot;They (the cells) are no
+more the producers of the vital phenomena than the shells scattered
+along the sea-beach are the instruments by which the gravitative
+force of the moon acts upon the ocean. Like these, the cells mark
+only where the vital tides have been, and how they have acted.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;Interaction of cells&quot; can help us but little. For how can
+neighboring cells direct others placed in a new position? The
+expression, if not positively misleading and untrue, is at the best
+only a restatement of fact. It certainly offers no explanation.
+Flood-tide is not due to the interaction of particles of water,
+though this may influence the form of the waves.</p>
+
+<p>The centre of control is therefore not to be sought in individual
+cells, whether germ-cells or somatic, but in the organism. And it is
+the whole organism, one and indivisible, which controls in germ,
+embryo, and adult, in egg and owl. This individuality, or whatever
+you will call it, impresses itself upon developing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303"></a>[303]</span> somatic cells,
+moulding them into appropriate organs, and upon germ-cells in
+process of formation, moulding them so that they may continue its
+sway. The muscle, modified by use or disuse, is a better expression
+of the individuality of its possessor, and the same individuality
+moulds similarly and simultaneously the germ-cells. Both are
+different expressions or manifestations of the same individuality.
+Only slowly does the individuality mould the muscles and nerves of
+the adult body to its use. Still more slow may be the moulding of
+the still more refractory germ-plasm, if such there be. But the
+moulding process goes on parallel in the two cases.</p>
+
+<p>But Weismann's argument rests not merely upon any difficulty or
+impossibility of the transmissibility of acquired characteristics.
+His argument is rather that all facts can be better explained by his
+theory without postulating or accepting such transmission, cases of
+which have never been absolutely proven. But the question is not
+whether his theory offers a possible explanation of the facts, but
+whether it is the most probable explanation of all the facts. No one
+would deny, I think, that the continuity of the germ-plasm offers
+the best and most natural explanation of heredity; and that
+variations could be produced by the influence on the germ-plasm of
+external conditions seems entirely probable.</p>
+
+<p>But when we consider the aggregation of these variations in a
+process of evolution, his theory seems unsatisfactory. We have
+already seen that what we commonly call a variation involves not one
+change, but a series of changes, each term of which is necessary.
+Muscle, nerve, and ganglion must all vary simultaneously<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304"></a>[304]</span> and
+correspondingly. Correlation and combination are just as essential
+as variation. And evolution often demands the disappearance of less
+fit structures just as much as the advance of the fittest. Says
+Osborne, &quot;It is misleading to base our theory of evolution and
+heredity solely upon entire organs; in the hand and foot we have
+numerous cases of muscles in close contiguity, one steadily
+developing, the other degenerating.&quot; Weismann offers the explanation
+that &quot;if the average amount of food which an animal can assimilate
+every day remains constant for a considerable time, it follows that
+a strong influx toward one organ must be accompanied by a drain upon
+others, and this tendency will increase, from generation to
+generation, in proportion to the development of the growing organ,
+which is favored by natural selection in its increased blood-supply,
+etc.; while the operation of natural selection has also determined
+the organ which can bear a corresponding loss without detriment to
+the organism as a whole.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>Here again natural selection of individuals, not the diminished
+supply of nutriment, has to determine which of many muscles shall be
+poorly fed and which favored. But natural selection can favor
+special organs only indirectly through the individuals which possess
+such organs. Variation is fortuitous, and there is nothing, except
+natural selection, to combine or direct them. And, I think, we have
+already seen that any theory which neglects or excludes such
+directing and combining agencies must be unsatisfactory and
+inadequate. Weismann has promised us an explanation of correlation
+of variation in accordance with his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305"></a>[305]</span>theory; and if such an
+explanation can be made, it would remove one of the strongest
+objections. But for the present the objection has very great weight.</p>
+
+<p>Furthermore, as Osborne has insisted, linear variations, or
+variations proceeding along certain single and well-marked lines,
+would seem inexplicable by, if not fatal to, Weismann's theory. And
+yet Osborne, Cope, and others have shown that the teeth of mammals
+have developed steadily along well-marked lines. They have
+apparently not resulted at all by selection from a host of
+fortuitous variations.</p>
+
+<p>Says Osborne in his &quot;Cartwright Lectures&quot;<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>: &quot;It is evident that
+use and disuse characterize all the centres of evolution; that
+changes of structure are slowly following on changes of function or
+habit. In eight independent regions of evolution in the human body
+there are upward of twenty developing organs, upward of thirty
+degenerating organs.&quot; Now this parallelism, through a long series of
+generations, between the evolution of organs, their advance or
+degeneration, and the use or disuse of these same organs, that is,
+of the habits of the individual, is certainly of great significance.
+It must have an explanation; and the most natural one would seem to
+be the transmission of the effects of use and disuse.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole Osborne's verdict would seem just: The Neo-Lamarckian
+theory fails to explain heredity, Weismann's theory does not explain
+evolution. But, if the effects of use and disuse are transmitted,
+correlation of variation is to be expected. Muscle, nerve, and
+ganglion all vary in correlation because they are all used together
+and in like degree. Evolution and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306"></a>[306]</span>degeneration of muscles in hand
+and foot go on side by side, because some are used and some are
+disused. Centres of use and disuse must be centres of evolution. And
+there would be as many distinct centres of evolution in different
+parts of the body as there were centres of use and disuse. And
+between these centres there might be no correlation except
+that of use and disuse. Brain, muscles, and jaws would develop
+simultaneously in the ancestors of insects. And the effects of use
+and disuse, transmitted through a series of generations, would be
+cumulative. The species advances rapidly because all its members
+have in general the same habits; the same parts are advancing or
+degenerating, although at different rates, in all its individuals.
+An animal having an organ highly developed is far less likely to
+pair with one having a lower development of the same organ. The
+Neo-Lamarckian theory supplies thus what is lacking in the
+Neo-Darwinian.</p>
+
+<p>In lower forms, like hydra, of simple structure and comparatively
+few possibilities of variation, natural selection is dominant. In
+higher forms, like vertebrates, and especially in man, it is of
+decidedly subordinate value as a promoter of evolution. For man, as
+we have seen, is a marvellously complex being. The great difficulty
+in his case is not so much to quickly gain new and favorable
+variations as to keep all the organs and powers of the body steadily
+advancing side by side. Natural selection has in man the important
+but subordinate position of the judge in a criminal court, to
+pronounce the death verdict on the hopeless and incorrigible.</p>
+
+<p>Both Neo-Darwinians and Neo-Lamarckians have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307"></a>[307]</span>erred in being too
+exclusively mechanical in their theories. It is the main business of
+the scientific man to discover and study mechanisms. But he must
+remember that mechanism does not produce force, it only transmits
+it. If he maintains that he has nothing to do with anything outside
+of mechanism, that the invisible and imponderable force lies outside
+of his domain, he has handed over to metaphysics the fairest and
+richest portion of his realm. In our fear of being metaphysical we
+have swung to another extreme, and have lost sight of valuable truth
+which lay at the bottom of the old vitalistic theories. Cells,
+tissues, and organs are but channels along which the flood of
+life-force flows. Boveri has well said, &quot;There is too much
+intelligence (Verstand) in nature for any purely mechanical theory
+to be possible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Each theory contains important truth. N&auml;geli's view of the
+importance of initial tendencies, inherent in the original living
+substance, is too often undervalued. My own conviction, at least, is
+steadily strengthening that, without some such original tendency or
+aim, evolution would never have reached its present culmination in
+man. His error lies in emphasizing this factor too exclusively. The
+fundamental proposition of Weismann's theory, that heredity is due
+to continuity of germ-plasm, seems to contain important truth. But
+we need not therefore accept his theory of a germ-plasm so isolated
+and independent as to be beyond control or influence by the
+habits of the body. The importance of use and disuse, and the
+transmissibility of their effects, would seem to supply a factor
+essential to evolution. Weismann has done good service in
+emphasizing the stability of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308"></a>[308]</span>germ-plasm. Evolution is always
+slow, and, for that very reason, sure.</p>
+
+<p>If these conclusions are correct, they have an important practical
+bearing. Struggle and effort are essential to progress. Not inborn
+talent alone, but the use which one makes of it, counts in
+evolution. The effects of use and disuse are cumulative. The
+hard-fought battle of past generations becomes an easy victory in
+the present, just because of the strength acquired and handed down
+from the past struggle. Persistent variation toward evil is in time
+weeded out by natural selection. And, while evil remains in the
+world, we are to lay up stores of strength for ourselves and our
+descendants by sturdily fighting it. But the effects of right living
+through a hundred generations are not overcome by the criminal life
+of one or two. Evil surroundings weigh more in producing criminals
+than heredity, and their children are not irreclaimable.</p>
+
+<p>The struggles and victories of each one of us encourage the rest.
+There is, to borrow Mr. Huxley's language, not only a survival of
+the fittest, but a fitting of as many as possible to survive. And in
+the midst of the hardest struggle there is the peace which comes
+from the assurance of a glorious triumph.</p>
+
+ <h5>FOOTNOTES:</h5>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13">[13]</a> See N&auml;geli, &quot;Theorie der Abstammungslehre,&quot; p. 18; also
+pp. 12, 118, 285.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14">[14]</a> Essays upon Heredity, p. 105.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15">[15]</a> Weismann, Essays, p. 286.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16">[16]</a> Weismann, Essays, pp. 85 and 171.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17">[17]</a> See articles by Whitman and Wilson, Journal of
+Morphology, vol. viii., pp. 649, 607, etc.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18">[18]</a> Weismann, Essays, p. 88.</p>
+
+<p class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19">[19]</a> American Naturalist, vols. xxv. and xxvi.</p>
+
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309"></a>[309]</span></p>
+<h3>Condensed Chart of Development of the Main Line of the Animal Kingdom leading to Man.</h3>
+
+
+<div class="cdtble">
+  <table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="Chart of Development">
+  <tr>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Phylogenetic <br />Series.
+    </td>
+  <td colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      New Attainments.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Organs <br />Approaching <br />Culmination.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Most <br />Rapidly <br />Advancing <br />Organs.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Dominant <br />Function.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Dominant <br />Mental <br />(Or Nervous) <br />Action.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Sequence Of <br />Perceptions.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Sequence Of <br />Motives.
+    </td>
+  <td width="10%" style="white-space: nowrap; font-variant: small-caps;">
+      Environment <br />Makes For.
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Amoeba.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2" style="white-space: nowrap;">Cell.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Touch. Smell.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hunger.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Volvox.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">
+      Somatic and reproductive cells.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproductive.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproduction.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Touch. Smell.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hunger.
+  </td>
+  <td rowspan="5">Rapid reproduction and good digestion.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Hydra.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">
+      Simple reproductive organs. Gastro vascular cavity. (Tissues).
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproductive.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproduction.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reflex.
+  </td>
+  <td>Touch. Smell.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hunger.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Turbellaria.
+  </td>
+  <td>D<br />e<br />v<br />e<br />l<br />o<br />p.
+  </td>
+  <td>Complex reproductive Organs. Supra-oes. Ganglion and cords. Sense organs. Body Wall.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproductive.
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestive.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reproduction.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reflex.
+  </td>
+  <td>Touch. Smell.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hunger.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Annelid.
+  </td>
+  <td>O<br />r<br />g<br />a<br />n<br />s
+  </td>
+  <td>Perivisceral Cavity. Intestine. Circulatory system. Nephridia. Visual eyes.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestion Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reflex.
+  </td>
+  <td>Touch. Smell.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hunger.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Primitive Vertebrate.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Notochord. Fins.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestion Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Instinct.
+  </td>
+  <td>?
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Fish.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Backbone (incomplete). Paired Fins. Jaws from Branchial Arches. Simple heart. Air Bladder. Brain.
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestive.
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscles.
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestion Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Instinct.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hearing. Sight.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td rowspan="4">Strength and activity.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Amphibian.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Legs. Lungs. Cerebrum increases from this form on.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscles.
+  </td>
+  <td>Digestion Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Instinct.
+  </td>
+  <td>Hearing. Sight.
+  </td>
+  <td>Fear and other prudential considerations.
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Reptile.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Double heart.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscles and appendages.
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Instinct. ?
+  </td>
+  <td>Hearing. Sight.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Lower Placental Mammals.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Constant high temperature. Placenta.
+  </td>
+  <td rowspan="2">Muscle.
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscles and appendages.
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscular.
+  </td>
+  <td>Instinct ? ?
+  </td>
+  <td>Hearing. Sight.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Ape.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Erect posture. Hand. Large cerebrum.
+  </td>
+  <td>Brain.
+  </td>
+  <td>Muscular. Nervous.
+  </td>
+  <td>Intelligence.
+  </td>
+  <td>Mental perception. Understanding. Association.
+  </td>
+  <td>"
+  </td>
+  <td>" ? (Shrewdness?)
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>Man.
+  </td>
+  <td colspan="2">Very large cerebrum. Personality.
+  </td>
+  <td>&nbsp;
+  </td>
+  <td style="font-variant: small-caps;">Brain.
+  </td>
+  <td>Mind.*
+  </td>
+  <td>Intelligence.
+  </td>
+  <td>Reason.*
+  </td>
+  <td>Love of man. Truth. Right.*
+  </td>
+  <td>Shrewdness. Righteousness and unselfishness.*
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+    </table>
+
+<p> <small>* Apparently capable of indefinite development.</small></p>
+<p> <a href="images/chart.png">[<small>image</small>]</a></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310"></a>[310]</span></p>
+
+<h3>PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF PRINCIPLE TYPES OF ANIMAL
+LIFE.</h3>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;">
+<img src="images/phylo.png" width="420" height="800" alt="PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF PRINCIPLE TYPES OF ANIMAL
+LIFE." title="Phylogenetic Chart" />
+ </div>
+
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+
+<hr />
+<h3>INDEX</h3>
+
+
+<div>
+<a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311"></a>[311]</span>
+<p class="index">Am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Annelids, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Apes, anthropoid, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Appetites, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Arthropoda, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Articulata, <a href="#Page_61">61</a> </p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Beauty, perception of, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Bible, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Blastosphere, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p>
+
+<p class="index"><a name="Brain" id="Brain"></a>Brain, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>; of insects, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>; man, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>. See
+also <a href="#Ganglion">Ganglion</a></p><br />
+</div>
+<div>
+<p class="index">Cell, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Child, mental development of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Christianity, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Church, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Circulatory system, worms, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Classification, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">C&oelig;lenterata, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Conformity to environment, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Conscience, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Correlation of organs, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Darwinism, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Degeneration, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Digestion, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>; hydra, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>; worms, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>;
+vertebrates, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Ear, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Echinoderms, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Ectoderm, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Egg, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Embryology, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Emotions, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Entoderm, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Environment, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; God immanent in, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>; mirrored in human
+mind, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Evolution, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>; conservative, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Excretion, am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>; worms, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Faith, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Family, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>; origin of, Cf. <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>; results of, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Flagellata, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index"><a name="Ganglion" id="Ganglion"></a>Ganglion, supra-&oelig;sophageal, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>; annelids, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>. See <a href="#Brain">Brain</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Gastr&aelig;a, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Gastrula, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">God, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>; knowable, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Head, insect, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>; vertebrate, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Heredity, mental and moral, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Heroism, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">History, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Hope, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Huxley (quoted), <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Hydra, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Insects, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Instinct, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Intellect, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Intelligence, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Intelligent action, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Jaws, insects, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Knowledge, value of, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Law, Divine, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Locomotion and nervous development, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>. See also <a href="#Muscular_system">Muscular System</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Love, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Magosph&aelig;ra, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Mammals, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>; oviparous, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>; marsupial, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>; placental, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>;
+temporarily surpassed by reptiles, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Man, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>; anatomical characteristics, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>; mental and moral
+characteristics, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>; relation to nature,
+<a href="#Page_210">210</a>; animal, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>; moral, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>; religious, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>; hero, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>; future, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>,
+<a href="#Page_231">231</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Materialism, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Mesoderm, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Mind, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>; am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Mollusks, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Motives, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>; sequence of, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></p>
+
+<p class="index"><a name="Muscular_system" id="Muscular_system"></a>Muscular system, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; hydra, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; worms, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>; vertebrates,
+<a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">N&auml;geli, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Natural selection, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Nature, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Neo-Darwinians and Neo-Lamarckians, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Nervous system, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>; hydra, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; turbellaria, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>; mollusks, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>;
+annelids, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Notochord, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Ontogenesis, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Phylogenesis, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Placenta, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Prayer, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Primates, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Productiveness and prospectiveness, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Protoplasm, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Protozoa, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Reflex action, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Religion, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Reproduction, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; hydra, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>; magosph&aelig;ra, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>;
+volvox, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>; turbellaria, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>; annelids, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; vertebrates,
+<a href="#Page_73">73</a>. See also <a href="#Size">Size</a> and <a href="#Surface_and_mass">Surface and Mass</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Respiration, am&oelig;ba, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>; worms, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>; vertebrates,
+<a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Sequence of functions, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>; condensed history of, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>,
+<a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>; reversal of, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Sexual reproduction, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Sin, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></p>
+
+<p class="index"><a name="Size" id="Size"></a>Size, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Skeleton, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>; mollusks, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>; insects, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>; vertebrates, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>,
+<a href="#Page_82">82</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Social life, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Socrates, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Specialization, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Struggle for existence, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>; mitigation of, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></p>
+
+<p class="index"><a name="Surface_and_mass" id="Surface_and_mass"></a>Surface and mass, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Tissues, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Turbellaria, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Vertebrates, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>; primitive, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Volvox, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p class="index">Weismann, <a href="#Page_290">290</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Will, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></p>
+
+<p class="index">Worms, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>; schematic, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></p><br />
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="return"><a href="#contents">[TABLE OF CONTENTS]</a></p>
+
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<h4>The Morse Lectures for 1895</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><big>THE WHENCE AND WHITHER OF MAN</big></p>
+
+<p class="noindent"><small>A BRIEF HISTORY OF MAN'S ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT, AND OF THE
+EVOLUTION OF HIS MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CAPACITIES THROUGH CONFORMITY
+TO ENVIRONMENT</small></p>
+
+<p><br /></p>
+
+<h4>By JOHN M. TYLER</h4>
+<p class="center"><small> Professor of Biology, Amherst College</small></p>
+
+<h5>12mo, $1.75</h5>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+<p class="center">CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS</p>
+
+<hr class="short" />
+
+<p>This work is a solidification of some new matter with the substance
+of the ten Morse Lectures delivered at Union Theological Seminary in
+the spring of 1895. Professor Tyler aims to trace the development of
+man from the simple living substance to his position at present,
+paying attention to incidental facts merely as incidental and
+contributory. He keeps always in view the successive accomplishments
+of life as they appear in the person of accepted general truth,
+rather than in the guise of the facts of progress.</p>
+
+<p>He begins by saying: &quot;We take for granted the probable truth of the
+theory of evolution as stated by Mr. Darwin, and that it applies to
+man as really as to any lower animal.&quot; He assumes that an acceptable
+historian of biology must possess a genealogical tree of the animal
+kingdom, and adds that a knowledge of the sequence of dominant
+functions or &quot;physiological dynasties,&quot; is quite as necessary to his
+inquiry as a history of the development of anatomical details. Since
+the germs of the future are always concealed in the history of the
+present, he claims that &quot;if we can trace this sequence of dominant
+functions, whose evolution has filled past ages, we can safely
+foretell something, at least, of man's future development.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The possibility of making false trails, at times, should not deter
+the investigator; for what he would establish is not the history of
+a single human race, nor of the movements of a century, but an
+understanding of the development of animal life through ages. &quot;And
+only,&quot; says Professor Tyler, &quot;when we have a biological history can
+we have any satisfactory conception of environment.&quot; The book
+concludes with a brief notice of the modern theories of heredity and
+variation advanced by Nageli and Weismann.</p>
+
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4>The Morse Lectures for 1894</h4>
+
+
+<p class="center"><big>THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN</big></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY TO THE<br /> ERA OF THE M&Eacute;IJI</small></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+<h4>By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D.</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><small>Formerly of the Imperial University of Tokio;<br /> Author of &quot;The
+Mikado's Empire&quot; and &quot;Corea, the Hermit Nation&quot;</small></p>
+
+<h5>12mo, $2.00</h5>
+
+<p>&quot;The book is excellent throughout, and indispensable to the
+religious student.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Atlantic Monthly</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To any one desiring a knowledge of the development and ethical
+status of the East, this book will prove of the utmost assistance,
+and Dr. Griffis may be thanked for throwing a still greater charm
+about the Land of the Rising Sun.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Churchman</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Already an acknowledged authority on Japanese questions, Dr.
+Griffis in this volume gives to an appreciative public, what we risk
+calling his most valuable contribution to the literature this
+profoundly interesting nation has evoked.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Evangelist</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;... The fine quality of Dr. Griffis' works. His book is fresh and
+original, and may be depended on as material for scientific use....
+It may safely be said that it is the best general account of the
+religions of Japan that has appeared in the English language, and
+for any but the special student it is the best we know of in any
+tongue.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Critic</i>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h5>The Morse Lectures for 1893</h5>
+
+<p class="center"><big>THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN MODERN THEOLOGY</big></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+<h4>By A. M. FAIRBAIRN, M.A., D.D.</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><small>Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford; Gifford Lecturer in the
+University<br /> of Aberdeen; Late Morse Lecturer in Union Seminary, New
+York,<br /> and Lyman Beecher Lecturer in Yale University</small></p>
+
+<h5>8vo, $2.50</h5>
+
+<p>&quot;One of the most valuable and comprehensive contributions to
+theology that has been made during this generation.&quot;&mdash;<i>London
+Spectator</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The knowledge, ability, and liberality of the author unite to make
+the work interesting and valuable.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Dial</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is very high, but thoroughly deserved, praise to say that it is
+worthy of its great theme.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Critical Review</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The volume reveals Dr. Fairbairn as a clear and vigorous thinker,
+who knows how to be bold without being too bold.&quot;&mdash;<i>New York
+Tribune</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Suggestive, stimulating, and a harbinger of the future catholic
+theology.&quot;&mdash;<i>Boston Literary World</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a book abounding in fine and philosophical thoughts, and
+deeply sympathetic with the most earnest religious thinking of the
+time.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Critic</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If the object of a book of theology is to stir up the heart and
+mind with strong, clear thinking on divine things, no book,
+certainly, of the present season surpasses Dr. Fairbairn's.&quot;&mdash;<i>The
+Outlook</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An important contribution to theological literature.&quot;&mdash;<i>London
+Times</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The work shows a keen insight into the relations of truth combined
+with a rare power of accurate judgment.&quot;&mdash;<i>New York Observer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Beyond question this is one of the most signally valuable books of
+the season.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Advance</i>, Chicago.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4>The Ely Lectures for 1891</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><big>ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY</big></p>
+
+<p class="center"><small>A COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF<br /> UNION
+THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK</small></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+<h4>By FRANK F. ELLEWOOD, D.D.</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><small>Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian<br />
+Church, U.S.A.; Lecturer on Comparative Religion in the University
+of the City of New York</small></p>
+
+<h5>12mo, $1.75</h5>
+
+<p>&quot;The volume is not only valuable, it is interesting; it not only
+gives information, but it stimulates thought.&quot;&mdash;<i>Evangelist</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thoroughly Christian in spirit.... There is a compactness about it
+which makes it full of information and suggestion.&quot;&mdash;<i>Christian
+Inquirer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The author has read widely, reflected carefully, and written
+ably.&quot;&mdash;<i>Congregationalist</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a book which we can most heartily commend to every pastor and
+to every intelligent student, of the work which the Church is called
+to do in the world.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Missionary</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An able work.&quot;&mdash;<i>Boston Transcript</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A more instructive book has not been issued for years.&quot;&mdash;<i>New York
+Observer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A noteworthy contribution to Christian polemics.&quot;&mdash;<i>Boston Beacon</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The special value of this volume is in its careful differentiation
+of the schools of religionists in the East and the distinct points
+of antagonism on the very fundamental ideas of Oriental religions
+toward the religion of Jesus.&quot;&mdash;<i>Outlook</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We wish this book might be read by all missionaries and by all
+Christians at home.&quot;&mdash;<i>Presbyterian and Reformed Review</i>.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h4>The Ely Lectures for 1890</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><big>THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE</big></p>
+<p><br /></p>
+<h4>By LEWIS FRENCH STEARNS</h4>
+
+<p class="center"><small>Professor of Christian Theology in Bangor Theological Seminary</small></p>
+
+<h5>12mo, $2.00</h5>
+
+
+<p>&quot;The tone and spirit which pervade them are worthy of the theme, and
+the style is excellent. There is nothing of either cant or pedantry
+in the treatment. There is simplicity, directness, and freshness of
+manner which strongly win and hold the reader.&quot;&mdash;<i>Chicago Advance</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We have read them with a growing admiration for the ability,
+strength, and completeness displayed in the argument. It is a book
+which should be circulated not only in theological circles, but
+among young men of reflective disposition who are beset by the
+so-called 'scientific' attacks upon the foundations of the Christian
+faith.&quot;&mdash;<i>Christian Intelligencer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The style is a model of clearness even where the reasoning is
+deep.&quot;&mdash;<i>Christian Inquirer</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His presentation of the certainty, reality, and scientific
+character of the facts in a Christian consciousness is very
+strong.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Lutheran</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An important contribution to the library of apologetics.&quot;&mdash;<i>Living
+Church</i>. (P.E.)</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A good and useful work.&quot;&mdash;<i>The Churchman</i>. (P.E.)</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The work is searching, careful, strong, and sound.&quot;&mdash;<i>Chautauquan</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As thorough and logical as it is spiritual.&quot;&mdash;<i>Congregationalist</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A timely and apropos contribution to the defenses of
+Christianity.&quot;&mdash;<i>Interior</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 14834-h.txt or 14834-h.zip *******</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Whence and the Whither of Man, by John
+Mason Tyler
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Whence and the Whither of Man
+
+Author: John Mason Tyler
+
+Release Date: January 29, 2005  [eBook #14834]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF
+MAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Janet Kegg and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 14834-h.htm or 14834-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/3/14834/14834-h/14834-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/8/3/14834/14834-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN
+
+A Brief History of His Origin and Development through Conformity
+to Environment
+
+Being the Morse Lectures of 1895
+
+by
+
+JOHN M. TYLER
+Professor of Biology, Amherst College
+
+New York
+Charles Scribner's Sons
+
+1896
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+          Morse Lectures
+
+    1893--THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN
+      MODERN THEOLOGY. By Rev. A.M.
+      Fairbairn, D.D. 8vo, $2.50
+
+    1894--THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN. By Rev.
+      William Elliot Griffis, D.D.
+      12mo, $2.00.
+
+    1895--THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF
+      MAN. By Professor John M. Tyler.
+      12mo, $1.75.
+
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE PROBLEM: THE MODE OF ITS SOLUTION
+
+The question.--The two theories of man's origin.--The argument
+purely historical.--Means of tracing man's ancestry and
+history.--Classification.--Ontogenesis and Phylogenesis.
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PROTOZOA TO WORMS: CELLS, TISSUES, AND ORGANS
+
+Amoeba: Its anatomy and physiology.--Development of the
+cell.--Hydra: The development of digestive and reproductive organs,
+and of tissues.--Forms intermediate between amoeba and hydra:
+Magosphaera, volvox.--Embryonic development.--Turbellaria: Appearance
+of a body wall, of ganglion, and nerve-cords.
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+WORMS TO VERTEBRATES: SKELETON AND HEAD
+
+Worms and the development of organs.--Mollusks: The external
+protective skeleton leads to degeneration or stagnation.--Annelids
+and arthropods: The external locomotive skeleton leads
+to temporary rapid advance, but fails of the goal.--Its
+disadvantages.--Vertebrates: The internal locomotive skeleton leads
+to backbone and brain.--Reasons for their dominance.--The primitive
+vertebrate.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+VERTEBRATES: BACKBONE AND BRAIN
+
+The advance of vertebrates from fish through amphibia and reptiles
+to mammals.--The development of skeleton, appendages, circulatory
+and respiratory systems, and brain.--Mammals: The oviparous
+monotremata.--Marsupials.--Placental mammals.--Development of the
+placenta.--Primates.--Arboreal life and the development of the
+hand.--Comparison of man with the highest apes.--Recapitulation of
+the history of man's origin and development.--The sequence of
+dominant functions.
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE HISTORY OF MENTAL DEVELOPMENT AND ITS SEQUENCE OF FUNCTIONS
+
+Mode of investigation.--Intellect.--Sense-perceptions.--Association.
+--Inference and understanding.--Rational intelligence.--Modes of mental
+or nervous action.--Reflex action, unconscious and comparatively
+mechanical.--Instinctive action: The actor is conscious, but guided
+by heredity.--Intelligent action.--The actor is conscious, guided by
+intelligence resulting from experience or observation.--The will
+stimulated by motives.--Appetites.--Fear and other prudential
+considerations.--Care for young and love of mates.--The dawn of
+unselfishness.--Motives furnished by the rational intelligence:
+Truth, right, duty.--Recapitulation: The will, stimulated by ever
+higher motives, is finally to be dominated by unselfishness and love
+of truth and righteousness.--These rouse the only inappeasable
+hunger, and are capable of indefinite development.--Strength of
+these motives.--Their complete dominance the goal of human
+development.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT
+
+The reversal of the sequence of functions leads to extermination,
+degeneration, or, rarely, to stagnation.--Natural selection becomes
+more unsparing as we go higher.--Extinction.--Severity of the
+struggle for life.--Environment one.--But lower animals come into
+vital relation with but a small part of it.--It consists of a myriad
+of forces, which, as acting on a given form, may be considered as
+one grand resultant.--Environment is thus a power making at first
+for digestion and reproduction, then for muscular strength and
+activity, then for shrewdness, finally for unselfishness and
+righteousness.--An ultimate "power, not ourselves, making for
+righteousness," a personality.--Our knowledge of this personality
+may be valid, even though very incomplete.--Religion.--Conformity to
+the spiritual in or behind environment is likeness to God.--The
+conservative tendency in evolution.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT
+
+Human environment.--The development of the family as the school of
+man's training.--The family as the school of unselfishness and
+obedience.--The family as the basis of social life.--Society as an
+aid to conformity to environment by increasing intelligence and
+training conscience.--Mental and moral heredity.--Personal
+magnetism.--Man's search for a king.--The essence of
+Christianity.--Conformity to environment gives future supremacy, but
+often at the cost of present hardship.--Conformity as obedience to
+the laws of our being.--Environment best understood through the
+study of the human mind.--Productiveness and prospectiveness of
+vital capital.--Faith.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MAN
+
+Composed of atoms and molecules, hence subject to chemical and
+physical laws.--As a living being.--As an animal.--As a
+vertebrate.--As a mammal.--As a social being.--As a personal and
+moral being.--The conflict between the higher and the lower in
+man.--As a religious being.--As hero.--He has not yet
+attained.--Future man.--He will utilize all his powers, duly
+subordinating the lower to the higher.--The triumph of the common
+people.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE
+
+Subject of the Bible.--_Man_: Body, intellect, heart.--_God_:
+Law, sin, and penalty.--God manifested in Christ.--Salvation, the divine
+life permeating man--Faith.--Prayer.--Hope.--The Church.--The
+battle.--The victory.--The crown.
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
+
+The struggle for existence.--Natural selection.--Correlation of
+organs.--Fortuitous variation.--Origin of the fittest.--Naegeli's
+theory: Initial tendency supreme.--Weismann and the Neo-Darwinians:
+Natural selection omnipotent.--The Neo-Lamarckians.--Comparison of
+the Neo-Darwinian and the Neo-Lamarckian views.--"Individuality" the
+controlling power throughout the life of the organism.--Transmission
+of special effects of use and disuse.--Summary.
+
+
+CHART SHOWING SEQUENCE OF ATTAINMENTS AND OF DOMINANT FUNCTIONS
+
+
+PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In the year 1865 Professor Samuel Finley Breese Morse, to whom the
+world is indebted for the application of the principles of
+electro-magnetism to telegraphy, gave the sum of ten thousand
+dollars to Union Theological Seminary to found a lectureship in
+memory of his father, the Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., theologian,
+geographer, and gazetteer. The subject of the lectures was to have
+to do with "The relations of the Bible to any of the sciences." The
+ten chapters of this book correspond to ten lectures, eight of which
+were delivered as Morse Lectures at Union Theological Seminary
+during the early spring of 1895. The first nine chapters appear in
+form and substance as they were given in the lectures, except that
+Chapters VI. and VII. were condensed in one lecture. Chapter X. is
+new, and I have not hesitated to add a few paragraphs wherever the
+argument seemed especially to demand further evidence or
+illustration.
+
+One of my friends, reading the title of these lectures, said: "Of
+man's origin you know nothing, of his future you know less." I fear
+that many share his opinion, although they might not express it so
+emphatically.
+
+It would seem, therefore, to be in order to show that science is now
+competent to deal with this question; not that she can give a final
+and conclusive answer, but that we can reach results which are
+probably in the main correct. We may grant very cheerfully that we
+can attain no demonstration; the most that we can claim for our
+results will be a high degree of probability. If our conclusions are
+very probably correct, we shall do well to act according to them;
+for all our actions in life are suited to meet the emergencies of a
+probable but uncertain course of events.
+
+We take for granted the probable truth of the theory of evolution as
+stated by Mr. Darwin, and that it applies to man as really as to any
+lower animal. At the same time it concerns our argument but little
+whether natural selection is "omnipotent" or of only secondary
+importance in evolution, as long as it is a real factor, or which
+theory of heredity or variation is the more probable.
+
+If man has been evolved from simple living substance protoplasm, by
+a process of evolution, it will some day be possible to write a
+history of that process. But have we yet sufficient knowledge to
+justify such an attempt?
+
+Before the history of any period can be written its events must have
+been accurately chronicled. Biological history can be written only
+when the successive stages of development and the attainments of
+each stage have been clearly perceived. In other words, the first
+prerequisite would seem to be a genealogical[A] tree of the animal
+kingdom. The means of tracing this genealogical tree are given in
+the first chapter, and the results in the second, third, and fourth
+chapters of this book.
+
+  [Footnote A: See Phylogenetic Chart, p. 310.]
+
+Now, for some of the ancestral stages of man's development a very
+high degree of probability can be claimed. One of man's earliest
+ancestors was almost certainly a unicellular animal. A little later
+he very probably passed through a gastraea stage. He traversed fish,
+amphibian, and reptilian grades. The oviparous monotreme and the
+marsupial almost certainly represent lower mammalian ancestral
+stages. But what kind of fish, what species of amphibian, what form
+of reptiles most closely resembles the old ancestor? How did each of
+these ancestors look? I do not know. It looks as if our ancestral
+tree were entirely uncertain and we were left without any foundation
+for history or argument.
+
+But the history of the development of anatomical details, however
+important and desirable, is not the only history which can be
+written, nor is it essential. It would be interesting to know the
+size of brain, girth of chest, average stature, and the features of
+the ancient Greeks and Romans. But this is not the most important
+part of their history, nor is it essential. The great question is,
+What did they contribute to human progress?
+
+Even if we cannot accurately portray the anatomical details of a
+single ancestral stage, can we perhaps discover what function
+governed its life and was the aim of its existence? Did it live to
+eat, or to move, or to think? If we cannot tell exactly how it
+looked, can we tell what it lived for and what it contributed to the
+evolution of man?
+
+Now, the sequence of dominant functions or aims in life can be
+traced with far more ease and safety, not to say certainty, than one
+of anatomical details. The latter characterize small groups, genera,
+families, or classes; while the dominant function characterizes all
+animals of a given grade, even those which through degeneration
+have reverted to this grade.
+
+Even if I cannot trace the exact path which leads to the
+mountain-top, I may almost with certainty affirm that it leads from
+meadow and pasture through forest to bare rock, and thence over snow
+and ice to the summit; for each of these forms a zone encircling the
+mountain. Very similarly I find that, whatever genealogical tree I
+adopt, one sequence in the dominance of functions characterizes them
+all; digestion is dominant before locomotion and locomotion before
+thought.
+
+And it is hardly less than a physiological necessity that it should
+be so. The plant can and does exist, living almost purely for
+digestion and reproduction, and the same is true of the lowest and
+most primitive animals. A muscular system cannot develop and do its
+work until some sort of a digestive system has arisen to furnish
+nutriment, any more than a steam-engine can run without fuel. And a
+brain is of no use until muscle and sense-organs have appeared.
+
+This sequence of dominant functions,[A] of physiological dynasties,
+would seem therefore to be a fact. And our series of forms described
+in the second, third, and fourth chapters is merely a concrete
+illustration showing how this sequence may have been evolved. The
+substitution of other terms in the anatomical series there
+described--amoeba, volvox, etc.--would not affect this result. By
+a change in the form of our history we have eliminated to a large
+extent the sources of uncertainty and error. And the dominant
+function of a group throws no little light on the details of its
+anatomy.
+
+  [Footnote A: See condensed Chart of Development, etc., p. 309.]
+
+If we can be satisfied that ever higher functions have risen to
+dominance in the successive stages of animal and human development,
+if we can further be convinced that the sequence is irreversible, we
+shall be convinced that future man will be more and more completely
+controlled by the very highest powers or aims to which this sequence
+points. Otherwise we must disbelieve the continuity of history. But
+the germs of the future are always concealed in the history of the
+present. Hence--pardon the reiteration--if we can once trace this
+sequence of dominant functions, whose evolution has filled past
+ages, we can safely foretell something at least of man's future
+development.
+
+The argument and method is therefore purely historical. Here and
+there we will try to find why and how things had to be so. But all
+such digressions are of small account compared with the fact that
+things were or are thus and so. And a mistaken explanation will not
+invalidate the facts of history.
+
+The subject of our history is the development, not of a single human
+race nor of the movements of a century, but the development of
+animal life through ages. And even if our attempts to decipher a few
+pages here and there in the volumes of this vast biological history
+are not as successful as we could hope, we must not allow ourselves
+to be discouraged from future efforts. Even if our translation is
+here and there at fault, we must never forget the existence of the
+history. Some of the worst errors of biologists are due to their
+having forgotten that in the lower stages the germs of the higher
+must be present, even though invisible to any microscope. Our study
+of the worm is inadequate and likely to mislead us, unless we
+remember that a worm was the ancestor of man. And a biologist who
+can tell us nothing about man is neglecting his fairest field.
+
+Conversely history and social science will rest on a firmer basis
+when their students recognize that many human laws and institutions
+are heirlooms, the attainments, or direct results of attainments, of
+animals far below man. We are just beginning to recognize that the
+study of zooelogy is an essential prerequisite to, and firm
+foundation for, that of history, social science, philosophy, and
+theology, just as really as for medicine. An adequate knowledge of
+any history demands more than the study of its last page. The
+zooelogist has been remiss in not claiming his birthright, and in
+this respect has sadly failed to follow the path pointed out by Mr.
+Darwin.
+
+For palaeontology, zooelogy, history, social and political science,
+and philosophy are really only parts of one great science, of
+biology in the widest sense, in distinction from the narrower sense
+in which it is now used to include zooelogy and botany. They form an
+organic unity in which no one part can be adequately understood
+without reference to the others. You know nothing of even a
+constellation, if you have studied only one of its stars. Much less
+can the study of a single organ or function give an adequate idea of
+the human body.
+
+Only when we have attained a biological history can we have any
+satisfactory conception of environment. As we look about us in the
+world, environment often seems to us to be a chaos of forces aiding
+or destroying good and bad, fit and unfit, alike.
+
+But our history of animal and human progress shows us successive
+stages, each a little higher than the preceding, and surviving, for
+a time at least, because more completely conformed to environment.
+If this be true, and it must be true unless our theory of evolution
+be false, higher forms are more completely conformed to their
+environment than lower; and man has attained the most complete
+conformity of all. Our biological history is therefore a record of
+the results of successive efforts, each attaining a little more
+complete conformity than the preceding. From such a history we ought
+to be able to draw certain valid deductions concerning the general
+character and laws of our environment, to discover the direction in
+which its forces are urging us, and how man can more completely
+conform to it.
+
+If man is a product of evolution, his mental and moral, just as
+really as his physical, development must be the result of such a
+conformity. The study of environment from this standpoint should
+throw some light on the validity of our moral and religious creeds
+and theories. It would seem, therefore, not only justifiable, but
+imperative to attempt such a study.
+
+Our argument is not directly concerned with modern theories of
+heredity, or variation, or with the "omnipotence" or secondary
+importance of natural selection. And yet Naegeli, and especially
+Weismann, have had so marked an influence on modern thought that we
+cannot afford to neglect their theories. We will briefly notice
+these in the closing chapter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE PROBLEM: THE MODE OF ITS SOLUTION
+
+
+The story of a human life can be told in very few words. A youth of
+golden dreams and visions; a few years of struggle or of neglected
+opportunities; then retrospect and the end.
+
+        "We come like water, and like wind we go."
+
+But how few of the visions are realized. Faust sums up the whole of
+life in the twice-repeated word _versagen_, renounce, and history
+tells a similar story. Terah died in Haran; Abraham obtained but a
+grave in the land promised him and his children; Jacob, cheated in
+marriage, bitterly disappointed in his children, died in exile,
+leaving his descendants to become slaves in the land of Egypt; and
+Moses, their heroic deliverer, died in the mountains of Moab in
+sight of the land which he was forbidden to enter. You may answer
+that it is no injury that the promise is too large, the vision too
+grand, to be fulfilled in the span of a single life, but must become
+the heritage of a race. But what has been the history of Abraham's
+descendants? A death-grapple for existence, captivity, and
+dispersion. Their national existence has long been lost.
+
+Was there ever a nation of grander promise than Greece or Rome? But
+Greece died of premature old age, and Rome of rottenness begotten
+of sin. But each of them, you will say, left a priceless heritage to
+the immortal race. But if Greece and Rome and a host of older
+nations, of which History has often forgotten the very name, have
+failed and died, can anything but ultimate failure await the race?
+Is human history to prove a story told by an idiot, or does it
+"signify" something? Is the great march of humanity, which Carlyle
+so vividly depicts, "from the inane to the inane, or from God to
+God?"
+
+This is the sphinx question put to every thinking man, and on his
+answer hangs his life. For according to that answer, he will either
+flinch and turn back, or expend every drop of blood and grain of
+power in urging on the march.
+
+To this question the Bible gives a clear and emphatic answer. "God
+created man in his own image," and then, as if men might refuse to
+believe so astounding a statement, it is repeated, "in the image of
+God created he him." When, and by what mode or process, man was
+created we are not told. His origin is condensed almost into a line,
+his present and future occupy all the rest of the book. Whence we
+came is important only in so far as it teaches us humility and yet
+assures us that we may be Godlike because we are His handiwork and
+children, "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ of a heavenly
+inheritance."
+
+Now has Science any answer to this vital question? Perhaps. But this
+much is certain; it can foretell the future only from the past. Its
+answer to the question _whither_ must be an inference from its
+knowledge as to _whence_ we have come. The Bible looks mainly at the
+present and future; Science must at least begin with the study of
+the past. The deciphering of man's past history is the great aim of
+Biology, and ultimately of all Science. For the question of Man's
+past is only a part of a greater question, the origin of all living
+species.
+
+We may say broadly that concerning the origin of species two
+theories, and only two, seem possible. The first theory is that
+every species is the result of an act of immediate creation. And
+every true species, however slightly it may differ from its nearest
+relative, represents such a creative act, and once created is
+practically unchangeable. This is the theory of immutability of
+species. According to the second theory all higher, probably all
+present existing, species are only mediately the result of a
+creative act. The first living germ, whenever and however created,
+was infused with power to give birth to higher species. Of these and
+their descendants some would continue to advance, others would
+degenerate. Each theory demands equally for its ultimate explanation
+a creative act; the second as much as, if not more than, the first.
+According to the first theory the creative power has been
+distributed over a series of acts, according to the second theory it
+has been concentrated in one primal creation. The second is the
+theory of the mutability of species, or, in general, of evolution,
+but not necessarily of Darwinism alone.
+
+The first theory is considered by many the more attractive and
+hopeful. Now a theory need not be attractive, nor at first sight
+appear hopeful, provided only it is true. But let me call your
+attention to certain conclusions which, as it appears to me, are
+necessarily involved in it. Its central thought is the practical
+immutability of species. Each one of these lives its little span of
+time, for species are usually comparatively short-lived, grows
+possibly a very little better or worse, and dies. Its progress has
+added nothing to the total of life; its degeneration harmed no one,
+hardly even itself; it was doomed from the start. Progress there has
+been, in a sense. The Creator has placed ever higher forms on the
+globe. But all the progress lies in the gaps and distances between
+successive forms, not in any advance made, or victory won, by the
+species or individual. The most "aspiring ape," if ever there was
+such a being, remains but an ape. He must comfort himself with the
+thought that, while he and his descendants can never gain an inch,
+the gap between himself and the next higher form shall be far
+greater than that between himself and the lowest monkey.
+
+And if this has been the history of thousands of other species, why
+should it not be true of man also? Who can wonder that many who
+accept this theory doubt whether the world is growing any better, or
+whether even man will ever be higher and better than he now is?
+Would it not be contrary to the whole course of past history, if you
+can properly call such a record a history, if he could advance at
+all? Now I have no wish to misrepresent this or any honestly
+accepted theory, but it appears to me essentially hopeless, a record
+not of the progress of life on the globe, but of a succession of
+stagnations, of deaths. I can never understand why some very good
+and intelligent people still think that the theory of the immediate
+creation of each species does more honor to the Creator and his
+creation than the theory of evolution. Evolution is a process, not
+a force. The power of the Creator is equally demanded in both cases;
+only it is differently distributed. And evolution is the very
+highest proof of the wisdom and skill of the Creator. It elevates
+our views of the living beings, must it not give a higher conception
+of Him who formed them?
+
+The plant in its first stages shows no trace of flowers, but of
+leaves only. Later a branch or twig, similar in structure to all the
+rest, shortens. The cells and tissues which in other twigs turn into
+green leaves here become the petals and other organs of the rose or
+violet. Let us suppose for a moment that every rose and violet
+required a special act of immediate creation, would the springtime
+be as wonderful as now? Would the rose or violet be any more
+beautiful, or are they any less flowers because developed out of
+that which might have remained a common branch? The plant at least
+is glorified by the power to give rise to such beauty. And is not
+the creation of the seed of a violet or rose something infinitely
+grander than the decking of a flowerless plant with newly created
+roses? The attainment of the highest and most diversified beauty and
+utility with the fewest and simplest means is always the sign of
+what we call in man "creative" genius. Is not the same true of God?
+I think you all feel the force of the argument here.
+
+There were at one time no flowering plants. The time came at last
+for their appearance. Which is the higher, grander mode of producing
+them, immediate creation of every flowering species, or development
+of the flower out of the green leaves of some old club moss or
+similar form? The latter seems to me at least by far the higher
+mode. And to have created a ground-pine which could give rise to a
+rose seems far more difficult and greater than to have created both
+separately. It requires more genius, so to speak. It gives us a far
+higher opinion of the ground-pine; does it disgrace the rose? We can
+look dispassionately at plants. The rose is still and always a rose,
+and the oak an oak, whatever its origin. And I believe that we shall
+all readily admit that evolution is here a theory which does the
+highest honor to the wisdom and power of the Creator. What if the
+animal kingdom is continually blossoming in ever higher forms? Does
+not the same reasoning hold true, only with added force? I firmly
+believe that we should all unhesitatingly answer, yes, could we but
+be assured that all men would everywhere and always believe that we,
+men, were the results of an immediate creative act.
+
+But why do we so strenuously object to the application to ourselves
+of the theory of evolution? One or two reasons are easily seen. We
+have all of us a great deal of innate snobbery, we would rather have
+been born great than to have won greatness by the most heroic
+struggle. But is man any less a man for having arisen from something
+lower, and being in a fair way to become something higher? Certainly
+not, unless I am less a man for having once been a baby. It is only
+when I am unusually cross and irritable that I object to being
+reminded of my infancy. But a young child does not like to be
+reminded of it. He is afraid that some one will take him for a baby
+still. And the snob is always desperately afraid that some one will
+fail to notice what a high-born gentleman he is.
+
+Now man can relapse into something lower than a brute; the only
+genuine brute is a degenerate man. And we all recognize the strength
+of tendencies urging us downward. Is not this the often unrecognized
+kern of our eagerness for some mark or stamp that shall prove to all
+that we are no apes, but men? It is not the pure gold that needs the
+"guinea stamp." If we are men, and as we become men, we shall cease
+to fear the theory of evolution. Now this is not the only, or
+perhaps the greatest, objection which men feel or speak against the
+theory. But I must believe that it has more weight with us than we
+are willing to admit.
+
+But some say that the theory of immediate creation and immutability
+of species is the more natural and has always been accepted, while
+the theory of evolution is new and very likely to be as short-lived
+as many another theory which has for a time fascinated men only to
+be forgotten or ridiculed.
+
+But the idea of evolution is as old as Hindu philosophy. The old
+Ionic natural philosophers were all evolutionists. So Aristophanes,
+quoting from these or Hesiod concerning the origin of things, says:
+"Chaos was and Night, and Erebus black, and wide Tartarus. No earth,
+nor air nor sky was yet; when, in the vast bosom of Erebus (or
+chaotic darkness) winged Night brought forth first of all the egg,
+from which in after revolving periods sprang Eros (Love) the much
+desired, glittering with golden wings; and Eros again, in union with
+Chaos, produced the brood of the human race." Here the formative
+process is a birth, not a creation; it is evolution pure and simple.
+"According to the ancient view," says Professor Lewis, "the present
+world was a growth; it was born, it came from something antecedent,
+not merely as a cause but as its seed, embryo or principium.
+Plato's world was a 'zoon,' a living thing, a natural production."
+
+Furthermore, to the ancient writers of the Bible the idea of origin
+by birth from some antecedent form--and this is the essential idea
+of evolution--was perfectly natural. They speak of the "generations
+of the heavens and the earth" as of the "generations" of the
+patriarchs. The first book of the Bible is still called Genesis, the
+book of births. The writer of the ninetieth Psalm says, "Before the
+mountains were born, or ever thou hadst brought to birth the earth
+and the world." And what satisfactory meaning can you give to the
+words, "Let the earth bring forth," and "the earth brought forth,"
+in immediate proximity to the words, "and God made," unless while
+the ultimate source was God's creative power, the immediate process
+of formation was one of evolution.
+
+The Bible is big and broad enough to include both ideas, the human
+mind is prone to overestimate the one or the other. Traces, at
+least, of a similar mode of thought persisted by the Greek Fathers
+of the Church, and disappeared, if ever, with the predominance of
+Latin theology. To the oriental the idea of evolution is natural.
+The earth is to him no inert, resistant clod; she brings forth of
+herself.
+
+But our ancestors lived on a barren soil beneath a forbidding sky.
+They were frozen in winter and parched in summer. Nature was to them
+no kind foster-mother, but a cruel stepmother, training them by
+stern discipline to battle with her and the world. They peopled the
+earth with gnomes and cobolds and giants, and their nymphs were the
+Valkyre. Their God was Thor, of the thunderbolt and hammer, and who
+yet lived in continual dread of the hostile powers of Nature. A
+Norse prophet or prophetess standing beside Elijah at Horeb would
+have bowed down before the earthquake or the fire; the oriental
+waited for the "still small voice." And we are heirs to a Latin
+theology grafted on to the Thor-worship of our pagan ancestors. The
+idea of a Nature producing beneficently and kindly at the word of a
+loving God is foreign to all our inherited modes of thought. And our
+views of the heart of Nature are about as correct as those of our
+ancestors were of God. A little more of oriental tendencies of
+thought would harm neither our theology nor our life.
+
+What, then, is the biblical idea of Nature? God speaks to the earth,
+in the first chapter of Genesis, and the earth responds by "giving
+birth" to mountains and living beings. It is evidently no mere
+lifeless, inert clod, but pulsating with life and responsive to the
+divine commands. While yet a chaos it had been brooded over by the
+Divine Spirit. It is like the great "wheels within wheels," with
+rings full of eyes round about, which Ezekiel saw in his vision by
+the river Chebar. "When the living creatures went, the wheels went
+by them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the
+earth, the wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever the spirit was to
+go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were
+lifted up over against them: for the spirit of the living creatures
+(or of life) was in the wheels." And above the living creatures was
+the firmament and the throne of God. So Nature may be material, but
+it is material interpenetrated by the divine; if you call it a
+fabric, the woof may be material but the warp is God. This view
+contains all the truth of materialism and pantheism, and vastly
+more than they, and it avoids their errors and omissions.
+
+To the old metaphysical hypothesis of evolution Mr. Darwin gave a
+scientific basis. It had always been admitted that species were
+capable of slight variation and that this divergence might become
+hereditary and thus perhaps give rise to a variety of the parent
+species. But it was denied that the variation could go on increasing
+indefinitely, it seemed soon to reach a limit and stop. Early in the
+present century Lamarck had attempted to prove that by the use and
+disuse of organs through a series of generations a great divergence
+might arise resulting in new species. But the theory was crude,
+capable at best of but limited application, and fell before the
+arguments and authority of Cuvier. The times were not ripe for such
+a theory. Some fifty years later, Mr. Darwin called attention to the
+struggle for existence as a means of aggregating these slight
+modifications in a divergence sufficient to produce new species,
+genera, or families. His argument may be very briefly stated as
+follows:
+
+1. There is in Nature a law of heredity; like begets like.
+
+2. The offspring is never exactly like the parent; and the members
+of the second generation differ more or less from one another. This
+is especially noticeable in domesticated plants and animals, but no
+less true of wild forms. If the parent is not exactly like the other
+members of the species, some of its descendants will inherit its
+peculiarities enhanced, others diminished.
+
+3. Every species tends to increase in geometrical progression. But
+most species actually increase in number very slowly, if at all. Now
+and then some insect or weed escapes from its enemies, comes under
+favorable food conditions, and multiplies with such rapidity that it
+threatens to ravage the country. But as it multiplies it furnishes
+an abundance of food for the enemies which devour it, or of food and
+place for the parasites in and upon it; and they increase with at
+least equal rapidity. Hence while the vanguard increases
+prodigiously in numbers, because it has outrun these enemies, the
+rear is continually slaughtered. And thus these plagues seem in
+successive generations to march across the continent.
+
+And yet even they give but a faint idea of the reproductive powers
+of plants and animals. The female fish produces often many
+thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of eggs. Insects
+generally from a hundred to a thousand. Even birds, slowly as they
+increase, produce in a lifetime probably at least from twelve to
+twenty eggs. Now let us suppose that all these eggs developed, and
+all the birds lived out their normal period of life, and reproduced
+at the same rate. After not many centuries there would not be
+standing room on the globe for the descendants of a single pair.
+
+Again, of the one hundred eggs of an insect let us suppose that only
+sixty develop into the first larval, caterpillar, stage. Of these
+sixty, the number of members of the species remaining constant, only
+two will survive. The other fifty-eight die--of starvation,
+parasites, or other enemies, or from inclement weather. Now which
+two of all shall survive? Those naturally best able to escape their
+enemies or to resist unfavorable influences; in a word, those best
+suited to their conditions, or, to use Mr. Darwin's words,
+"conformed to their environment."
+
+Now if any individual has varied so as to possess some peculiarity
+which enables it even in slight degree to better escape its enemies
+or to resist unfavorable conditions, those of its descendants who
+inherit most markedly this peculiar quality or variation will be the
+most likely to escape, those without it to perish. If a form varies
+unfavorably, becomes for instance more conspicuous to its enemies,
+it will almost certainly perish. Thus favorable variations tend to
+increase and become more marked from generation to generation.
+
+Now it has always been known that breeders could produce a race of
+markedly peculiar form or characteristics by selecting the
+individuals possessing this quality in the highest degree and
+breeding only from these. The breeder depends upon heredity,
+variation, and his selection of the individuals from which to breed.
+Similarly in nature new species have arisen through heredity,
+variation, and a selection according to the laws of nature of those
+varying in conformity with their environment. And this Mr. Darwin
+called natural, in contrast with the breeder's artificial,
+"selection," arising from the "struggle for existence," and
+resulting in what Mr. Spencer has called the "survival of the
+fittest."
+
+Let us take a single illustration. Many of the species of beetles on
+oceanic islands have very rudimentary wings, or none at all, and yet
+their nearest relatives are winged forms on some neighboring
+continent. Mr. Darwin would explain the origin of these evidently
+distinct wingless species as follows: They are descended from winged
+ancestors blown or otherwise transported thither from the
+neighboring continent. But beetles are slow and clumsy fliers, and
+on these wind-swept islands those which flew most would be blown out
+to sea and drowned. Those which flew the least, and these would
+include the individuals with more poorly developed wings, would
+survive. There would thus be a survival in every generation of a
+larger proportion of those having the poorest wings, and destruction
+of those whose wings were strong, or whose habits most active. We
+have here a natural selection which must in time produce a species
+with rudimentary or aborted wings, just as surely as a human
+breeder, by artificial selection can produce such an animal as a pug
+or a poodle. These, like sin, are a human device; nature should not
+be held responsible for them.
+
+But you may urge that the variation which would take place in a
+single generation would be, as a rule, too slight to be of any
+practical value to the animal, and could not be fostered by natural
+selection until greatly enhanced by some other means. Let us think a
+moment. If ten ordinary men run in a foot-race, the two foremost may
+lead by several feet. But if the number of runners be continually
+increased the finish will be ever closer until finally but an atom
+more wind or muscle or pluck would make all the difference between
+winning and losing the prize.
+
+Similarly the million or more young of any species of insect in a
+given area may be said to run a race of which the prize is life, and
+the losing of which means literally death. The competition is
+inconceivably severe. How indefinitely slight will be the difference
+between the poorest of the 2,000 or 20,000 survivors and the best
+of the more than 900,000 which perish. The very slightest favorable
+variation may make all the difference between life and sure death.
+And yet these indefinitely slight variations continued and
+aggregated through ages would foot up an immense total divergence.
+The chalk cliffs of England have been built up of microscopic
+shells.
+
+I have tried to give you very briefly a sketch of the essential
+points of Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution. But you should all read
+that marvel of patience, industry, clear insight, close reasoning,
+and grand honesty, the "Origin of Species." I have no time to give
+the arguments in its favor or to attempt to meet the objections
+which may arise in your minds. I ask you to believe only this much;
+that the theory is accepted with practical unanimity by scientific
+men because it, and it alone, furnishes an explanation for the facts
+which they discover in their daily work. And this is the strongest
+proof of the truth of any accepted theory.
+
+Inasmuch as it is accepted by all scientists and largely by the
+public, it is certainly worth your while to know whether it has any
+bearing on the great moral and religious questions which you are
+considering. And in these lectures I shall take for granted, what
+some scientists still doubt, that man also is a product of
+evolution. For the weight of evidence in favor of this view is
+constantly increasing, and seems already to strongly preponderate.
+Also I wish in these lectures to grant all that the most ardent
+evolutionist can possibly claim. Not that I would lower man's
+position, but I have a continually increasing respect for the
+so-called "lower animals."
+
+Now if the theory of evolution be true, and really only on this
+condition, life has had a history; and human history began ages
+before man's actual appearance on the globe, just as American
+history began to be fashioned by Anglo-Saxons, Danes, and Normans
+before they set foot even in England. We study history mainly to
+deduce its laws; and that knowing them we may from the past forecast
+the future, prepare for its emergencies, and avoid or wisely meet,
+its dangers. And we rely on these laws of history because they are
+the embodiment of ages of human experience.
+
+Whatever be our system of philosophy we all practically rely on past
+experience and observation. Fire burns and water drowns. This we
+know, and this knowledge governs our daily lives, whatever be our
+theories, or even our ignorance, of the laws of heat and
+respiration. Now human history is the embodiment of the experience
+of the race; and we study it in the full confidence that, if we can
+deduce its laws, we can rely on racial experience certainly as
+safely as on that of the individual. Furthermore, if we can discover
+certain great movements or currents of human action or progress
+moving steadily on through past centuries, we have full confidence
+that these movements will continue in the future. The study of
+history should make us seers.
+
+But the line of human progress is like a mountain road, veering and
+twisting, and often appearing to turn back upon itself, and having
+many by-roads, which lead us astray. If we know but a few miles of
+it we cannot tell whether it leads north or south or due west. But
+if from any mountain-top we can gain a clear bird's-eye view of its
+whole course, we easily distinguish the main road, its turns become
+quite insignificant, we see that it leads as directly as any
+engineering skill could locate it through the mountains to the
+fertile plains and rich harvests beyond.
+
+Now our knowledge of the history of man covers so brief a period
+that we can scarcely more than hazard a guess as to the trend of
+human progress. Many of the most promising social movements are like
+by-roads which, at first less steep and difficult, end sooner or
+later against impassable obstacles. And even if there be a main line
+of march, advance seems to alternate with retreat, progress with
+retrogression. To illustrate further, the great waves rush onward
+only to fall back again, and we can hardly tell whether the tide is
+flowing or ebbing.
+
+Yet already certain tendencies appear fairly clear. Governments tend
+to become democratic, if we define democracy as "any form of
+government in which the will of the people finds sovereign
+expression." The tendency of society seems to be toward furnishing
+all its members equality of opportunity to make the most of their
+natural endowments. But if we are convinced that these statements
+express even vaguely the tendency of human development in all its
+past history, we are confident that these tendencies will continue
+in the future for a period somewhat proportional to their time of
+growth in the past. If we are wise, we try to make our own lives and
+actions, and those of our fellows, conform to and advance them.
+Otherwise our lives will be thrown away.
+
+But if the theory of evolution be true, human history is only the
+last page of the one history of all life. If we are to gain any
+adequate, true, extensive view of human progress, we must read more
+than this. We must take into account the history of man when he was
+not yet man. And if we believe in the future continuance of
+tendencies of a few centuries' growth, we shall rest assured of the
+permanence of tendencies which have grown and strengthened through
+the ages.
+
+Our confidence in the results of historical study is therefore
+proportioned to the extent and thoroughness of the experience which
+they record, and to the time during which these laws can be proven
+to have held good. If I can make it even fairly probable that these
+laws, on obedience to which human progress and success seem to
+depend, are merely quoted from a grander code applicable to all life
+in all times, your confidence in them will be even greater. I trust
+I can prove to you that the animal kingdom has not drifted aimlessly
+at the mercy of every wind and tide and current of circumstance. I
+hope to show that along one line it has from the beginning through
+the ages held a steady course straight onward, and that deviation
+from this course has always led to failure or degeneration. From so
+vast a history we may hope to deduce some of the great laws of true
+success in life. Furthermore, if along this central line, at the
+head of which man stands, there always has been progress, we cannot
+doubt that future progress will be as certain, and perhaps far more
+rapid. In all the struggle of life we shall have the sure hope of
+success and victory; if not for ourselves still for those who shall
+come after us. "We are saved by hope." And we may be confident that
+this hope will never make us ashamed.
+
+Finally, even from our present knowledge of the past progress of
+life we shall hope to catch hints at least that man's only path to
+his destined goal is the straight and narrow road pointed out in the
+Bible. If in this we are even fairly successful we shall find a
+relation and bond between the Bible and Science worthy of all
+consideration. And this is the only agreement which can ever satisfy
+us.
+
+If I wished to bring before you a view of the development of man, I
+should best choose individuals or families from various periods of
+human history from the earliest times down to the present. I should
+try to tell you how they looked and lived. But if anyone should
+attempt to condense into three lectures such a history of even one
+line of the human race, you would probably think him insane. Even if
+he succeeded in giving a fairly clear view of the different stages,
+the successive stages would be so remote from one another, such vast
+changes would necessarily remain unnoticed or unexplained that you
+would hardly believe that they could have any genetic relation or
+belong to one developmental series.
+
+But the history which I must attempt to condense for you is measured
+by ages, and the successive terms of the series will be indefinitely
+more remote from each other than the life and thoughts of Lincoln or
+Washington from those of our most primitive Aryan ancestor or of the
+rudest savage of the Stone Age. The series must appear exceedingly
+disconnected. Systems of organs will apparently spring suddenly into
+existence, and we shall have no time to trace their origin or
+earlier development. Even if we had an abundance of time many gaps
+would still remain; for the forms, which according to our theory
+must have occupied their place, have long since disappeared and
+left no trace nor sign. We have generally no conception at all of
+the amount of extermination and degeneration which have taken place
+in past ages.
+
+I grant frankly that I do not believe that the forms which I have
+selected represent exactly the ancestors of man. They have all been
+more or less modified. I claim only that in the balance and relative
+development of their organic systems--muscular, digestive, nervous,
+etc.--they give us a very fair idea of what our ancestor at each
+stage must have been. But it is on this balance and relative
+development of the different systems, that is, whether an animal is
+more reproductive, digestive, or nervous, that my argument will in
+the main be based.
+
+But if the older ancestors have so generally disappeared, and their
+surviving relatives have been so greatly modified, how can we make
+even a shrewd guess at the ancestry of higher forms? The genealogy
+of the animal kingdom has been really the study of centuries,
+although the earlier zooelogists did not know that this was to be the
+result of their labors. The first work of the naturalist was
+necessarily to classify the plants and animals which he found, and
+catalogue and tabulate them so that they might be easily recognized,
+and that later discovered forms might readily find a place in the
+system. Hypotheses and theories were looked upon with suspicion.
+"Even Linnaeus," says Romanes, "was express in his limitations of
+true scientific work in natural history to the collecting and
+arranging of species of plants and animals." The question, "What is
+it?" came first; then, "How did it come to be what it is?" We are
+just awakening to the question, "Why this progressive system of
+forms, and what does it all mean?"
+
+Let us experiment a little in forming our own classification of a
+few vertebrates. We see a bat flying through the air. We mistake it
+for a bird. But a glance at it shows that it is a mammal. It is
+covered with hair. It has fore and hind legs. Its wings are
+membranes stretched between the fingers and along the sides of the
+body. It has teeth. It suckles its young. In all these respects it
+differs from birds. It differs from mammals only in its wings. But
+we remember that flying squirrels have a membrane stretching along
+the sides of the body and serving as a parachute, though not as
+wings. We naturally consider the wings as a sort of after-thought
+superinduced on the mammalian structure. We do not hesitate to call
+it a mammal.
+
+The whale makes us more trouble; it certainly looks remarkably like
+a fish. But the fin of its tail is horizontal, not vertical. Its
+front flippers differ altogether from the corresponding fins of
+fish; their bones are the same as those occurring in the forelegs of
+mammals, only shorter and more crowded together. Later we find that
+it has lungs, and a heart with four chambers instead of only two, as
+in fish. The vertebrae of its backbone are not biconcave, but flat in
+front and behind. And, finally, we discover that it suckles its
+young. It, too, is in all its deep-seated characteristics a mammal.
+It is fish-like only in characteristics which it might easily have
+acquired in adaptation to its aquatic life. And there are other
+aquatic mammals, like the seals, in which these characteristics are
+much less marked. Their adaptation has evidently not gone so far.
+
+Now the first attempts resulted in artificial classifications, much
+like our grouping of bats with birds and whales with fish. All
+animals, like coral animals and starfishes, whose similar parts were
+arranged in lines radiating from a centre, were united as radiates,
+however much they might differ in internal structure and grade of
+organization. But this radiate structure proved again to be largely
+a matter of adaptation.
+
+Practically all animals having a heavy calcareous shell were grouped
+with the snails and oysters as mollusks. But the barnacle did not
+fit well with other mollusks. Its shell was entirely different. It
+had several pairs of legs; and no mollusk has legs. The barnacle is
+evidently a sessile crab or better crustacean. Its molluscan
+characteristics were only skin-deep, evidently an adaptation to a
+mode of life like that of mollusks. The old artificial systems were
+based too much on merely external characteristics, the results of
+adaptation. When the internal anatomy had been thoroughly studied
+their groups had to be rearranged.
+
+Reptiles and amphibia were at first united in one class because of
+their resemblance in external form. Our common salamanders look so
+much like lizards that they generally pass by this name. But the
+young salamander, like all amphibia, breathes by gills, its skeleton
+differs greatly from, and is far weaker than, that of the lizard,
+and there are important differences in the circulatory and other
+systems. Moreover, practically all amphibia differ from all reptiles
+in these respects. Evidently the fact that the alligator and many
+snakes and turtles (of which neither the young nor the embryos ever
+breathe by gills) live almost entirely in the water, is no better
+reason for classifying these with amphibia than to call a whale a
+fish, and not a mammal, because of its form and aquatic life.
+
+When the comparative anatomy of fish, amphibia, and reptiles had
+been carefully studied it was evident that the amphibia stood far
+nearer the fish in general structure, while the higher reptiles
+closely approached birds. Then it was noticed that our common fish
+formed a fairly well-defined group, but that the ganoids, including
+the sturgeons, gar-pikes, and some others, had at least traces of
+amphibian characteristics. Such generalized forms, with the
+characteristics of the class less sharply marked, were usually by
+common consent placed at the bottom of the class. And this suited
+well their general structure, while in particular characteristics
+they were often more highly organized than higher groups of the same
+class.
+
+The palaeontologist found that the oldest fossil forms belonged to
+these generalized groups, and that more highly specialized
+forms--that is, those in which the special class distinctions were
+more sharply and universally marked--were of later geological
+origin. Thus the oldest fish were most like our present ganoids and
+sharks, though differing much from both. Our common teleost fish,
+like perch and cod, appeared much later. The oldest bird, the
+archaeopteryx, had a long tail like that of a lizard, and teeth; and
+thus stood in many respects almost midway between birds and
+reptiles. And most of the earliest forms were "comprehensive,"
+uniting the characteristics of two or more later groups. Thus as the
+classification became more natural, based on a careful comparison of
+the whole anatomy of the animals, its order was found to coincide in
+general with that of geological succession.
+
+Then the zooelogist began to ask and investigate how the animal grew
+in the egg and attained its definite form. And this study of
+embryology brought to light many new and interesting facts. Agassiz
+especially emphasized and maintained the universality of the fact
+that there was a remarkable parallelism between embryos of later
+forms and adults of old or fossil groups. The embryos of higher
+forms, he said, pass through and beyond certain stages of structure,
+which are permanent in lower and older members of the same group.
+
+You remember that the fin on the tail of a fish is as a rule
+bilobed. Now the backbone of a perch or cod ends at a point in the
+end of the tail opposite the angle between the two lobes, without
+extending out into either of them. In the shark it extends almost to
+the end of the upper lobe. Now we have seen that sharks and ganoids
+are older than cod. In the embryo of the cod or perch the backbone
+has, at an early stage, the same position as in the shark or ganoid;
+only at a later stage does it attain its definite position.
+
+So Agassiz says the young lepidosteus (a ganoid fish), long after it
+is hatched, exhibits in the form of its tail characters thus far
+known only among the fossil fishes of the Devonian period. The
+embryology of turtles throws light upon the fossil chelonians. It is
+already known that the embryonic changes of frogs and toads coincide
+with what is known of their succession in past ages. The
+characteristics of extinct genera of mammals exhibit everywhere
+indications that their living representatives in early life resemble
+them more than they do their own parents. A minute comparison of a
+young elephant with any mastodon will show this most fully, not only
+in the peculiarities of their teeth, but even in the proportion of
+their limbs, their toes, etc. It may therefore be considered as
+a general fact that the phases of development of all living
+animals correspond to the order of succession of their extinct
+representatives in past geological times. The above statements are
+quoted almost word for word from Professor Agassiz's "Essay on
+Classification." The larvae of barnacles and other more degraded
+parasitic crustacea are almost exactly like those of Crustacea in
+general. The embryos of birds have a long tail containing almost or
+quite as many vertebrae as that of archaeopteryx. But most of these
+never reach their full development but are absorbed into the pelvis,
+or into the "ploughshare" bone supporting the tail feathers. Thus
+older forms may be said to have retained throughout life a condition
+only embryonic in their higher relatives. And the natural
+classification gave the order not only of geological succession but
+also of stages of embryonic development. Thus the system of
+classification improved continually, although more and more
+intermediate forms, like archaeopteryx, were discovered, and certain
+aberrant groups could find no permanent resting-place.
+
+But why should the generalized comprehensive forms stand at the
+bottom rather than the top of the systematic arrangement of their
+classes? Why should the system of classification coincide with the
+order of geologic occurrence, and this with the series of embryonic
+stages? Above all, why should the embryos of bird and perch form
+their tails by such a roundabout method? Why should the embryo of
+the bird have the tail of a lizard? No one could give any
+satisfactory explanation, although the facts were undoubted.
+
+Mr. Darwin's theory was the one impulse needed to crystallize these
+disconnected facts into one comprehensible whole. The connecting
+link was everywhere common descent, difference was due to the
+continual variation and divergence of their ancestors. The
+classification, which all were seeking, was really the ancestral
+tree of the animal kingdom. Forms more generalized should be placed
+lower down on the ancestral tree, and must have had an earlier
+geological occurrence because they represented more nearly the
+ancestors of the higher. But this explains also the facts of
+embryonic development.
+
+According to Mr. Darwin's theory all the species of higher animals
+have developed from unicellular ancestors. It had long been known
+that all higher forms start in life as single cells, egg and
+spermatozoon. And these, fused in the process of fertilization, form
+still a single cell. And when this single cell proceeds through
+successive embryonic stages to develop into an adult individual it
+naturally, through force of hereditary habit, so to speak, treads
+the same path which its ancestors followed from the unicellular
+condition to their present point of development. Thus higher forms
+should be expected to show traces of their early ancestry in their
+embryonic life. Older and lower adult forms should represent
+persistent embryonic stages of higher. It could not well be
+otherwise.
+
+But the path which the embryo has to follow from the egg to the
+adult form is continually lengthening as life advances ever higher.
+From egg to sponge is, comparatively speaking, but a step; it is a
+long march from the egg to the earthworm; and the vertebrate embryo
+makes a vast journey. But embryonic life is and must remain short.
+Hence in higher forms the ancestral stages will often be slurred
+over and very incompletely represented. And the embryo may, and
+often does, shorten the path by "short-cuts" impossible to its
+original ancestor. Still it will in general hold true, and may be
+recognized as a law of vast importance, that any individual during
+his embryonic life repeats very briefly the different stages through
+which his ancestors have passed in their development since the
+beginning of life. Or, briefly stated, ontogenesis, or the embryonic
+development of the individual, is a brief recapitulation of
+phylogenesis, or the ancestral development of the phylum or group.
+
+The illustration and proof of this law is the work of the
+embryologist. We have time to draw only one or two illustrations
+from the embryonic development of birds. We have already seen that
+the embryonic bird has the long tail of his reptilian ancestor. In
+early embryonic life it has gill-slits leading from the pharynx to
+the outside of the neck like those through which the water passes in
+the respiration of fish. The Eustachian tube and the canal of the
+external ear of man, separated only by the "drum," are nothing but
+such an old persistent gill-slit. No gills ever develop in these,
+but the great arteries run to them, and indeed to all parts of the
+embryo, on almost precisely the same general plan as in the adult
+fish. Only later is the definite avian circulation gradually
+acquired.
+
+This law is even more strikingly illustrated in the embryonic
+development of the vertebral column and skull, if we had time to
+trace their development. And the development of the excretory system
+points to an ancestor far more primitive than even the fish. Our
+embryonic development is one of the very strongest evidences of our
+lowly origin.
+
+Thus we have three sources of information for the study of animal
+genealogy. First, the comparative anatomy of all the different
+groups of animals; second, their comparative embryology; and third,
+their palaeontological history. Each source has its difficulties or
+defects. But taken all together they give us a genealogical tree
+which is in the main points correct, though here and there very
+defective and doubtful in detail. The points in which we are left
+most in doubt in regard to each ancestor are its modes of life and
+locomotion, and body form. But these may temporarily vary
+considerably without affecting to any great extent the general plan
+of structure and the line of development of the most important
+deep-seated organs.
+
+I have chosen a line composed of forms taken from the comparative
+anatomical series. All such present existing forms have probably
+been modified during the lapse of ages. But I shall try to tell you
+when they have diverged noticeably from the structure of the
+primitive ancestor of the corresponding stage. It is much safer for
+us to study concrete, actual forms than imaginary ones, however real
+may have been the former existence of the latter. And, after all,
+their lateral divergence is of small account compared with the great
+upward and onward march of life, to the right and left of which they
+have remained stationary or retrograded somewhat, like the tribes
+which remained on the other side of Jordan and never entered the
+Promised Land.
+
+To recapitulate: Our question is the Whence and the Whither of man.
+To this question the Bible gives a clear and definite answer. Can
+Science also give an answer, and is this in the main in accord with
+the answer of Scripture? Science can answer the question only by the
+historical method of tracing the history of life in the past and
+observing the goal toward which it tends. If the evolution theory be
+true, the record of human achievement and progress forms only one
+short chapter in the history of the ages. If from the records of
+man's little span of life on the globe we can deduce laws of history
+on whose truth we can rely, with how much greater confidence and
+certainty may we rely on laws which have governed all life since its
+earliest appearance?--always provided that such can be found.
+
+Our first effort must therefore be to trace the great line of
+development through a few of its most characteristic stages from the
+simplest living beings up to man. This will be our work in the three
+succeeding lectures. And to these I must ask you to bring a large
+store of patience. Anatomical details are at best dry and
+uninteresting. But these dry facts of anatomy form the foundation on
+which all our arguments and hopes must rest.
+
+But if you will think long and carefully even of anatomical facts,
+you will see in and behind them something more and grander than
+they. You will catch glimpses of the divinity of Nature. Most of us
+travel threescore years and ten stone-blind in a world of marvellous
+beauty. Why does the artist see so much more in every fence-corner
+and on every hill-side than we, set face to face with the grandest
+landscapes? Primarily, I believe, because he is sympathetic, and
+looks on Nature as a comrade as near and dear as any human sister
+and companion. As Professor Huxley has said, "they get on rarely
+together." She speaks to the artist; to us she is dumb, and ought to
+be, for we are boorishly careless of her and her teachings.
+
+Nature, to be known, must be loved. And though you have all the
+knowledge of a von Humboldt, and do not love her, you will never
+understand her or her teachings. You will go through life with her,
+and yet parted from her as by an adamantine wall.
+
+I do not suppose that the author of the book of Job had ever studied
+geology, or mineralogy, or biology, but read him, and see whether
+this old prince of scientific heroes had loved, and understood, and
+caught the spirit of Nature. And what a grand, free spirit it was,
+and what a giant it made of him. I do not believe that Paul ever had
+a special course of anatomy or botany. But if he had not pondered
+long and lovingly on the structure of his body, and the germination
+of the seed, he never could have written the twelfth and fifteenth
+chapters of the first letter to the Corinthians. And time fails to
+speak of David and all the writers of the Psalms, and of those
+heroic souls misnamed the "Minor" Prophets.
+
+Study the teachings of our Lord. How he must have considered the
+lilies of the field, and that such a tiny seed as that of the
+mustard could have produced so great an herb, and noticed and
+thought on the thorns and the tares and the wheat, and watched the
+sparrows, and pondered and wondered how the birds were fed. All his
+teaching was drawn from Nature. And all the study in the world could
+never have taught him what he knew, if it had not been a loving and
+appreciative study.
+
+There is one strange and interesting passage in John's Gospel, xv.
+1: "I am the true vine." My father used to tell us that the Greek
+word [Greek: alethine], rendered true, is usually employed of the
+genuine in distinction from the counterfeit, the reality in
+distinction from the shadow and image. Is not this perhaps the clew
+to our Lord's use of natural imagery? Nature was always the
+presentation to his senses of the divine thought and purpose. He
+studied the words of the ancient Scripture, he found the same words
+and teachings clearly and concretely embodied in the processes of
+Nature. The interpretation of the Parable of the Sower was no mere
+play of fancy to him; it was the genuine and fundamental truth,
+deeper and more real than the existence of the sower, the soil, and
+the seed. The spiritual truth was the substance; the tangible soil
+and seed really only the shadow. And thus all Nature was to him
+divine.
+
+We all of us need to offer the prayer of the blind man, "Lord, that
+our eyes may be opened." Let us learn, too, from the old heathen
+giant, Antaeus, who, after every defeat and fall, rose strengthened
+and vivified from contact with his mother Earth. You will experience
+in life many a desperate struggle, many a hard fall. There is at
+such times nothing in the world so strengthening, healing, and
+life-giving as the thoughts and encouragements which Nature pours
+into the hearts and minds of her loving disciples. She will set you
+on your feet again, infused with new life, filled with an
+unconquerable spirit, with unfaltering courage, and an iron will to
+fight once more and win. In every battle her inspiring words will
+ring in your ears, and she will never fail you. We may not see her
+deepest realities, her rarest treasures of thought and wisdom; but
+if we will listen lovingly for her voice, we may be assured that she
+will speak to us many a word of cheer and encouragement, of warning
+and exhortation. For, to paraphrase the language of the nineteenth
+Psalm, "She has no speech nor language, her voice is not heard. But
+her rule is gone out throughout all the earth, and her words to the
+end of the world."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+PROTOZOA TO WORMS: CELLS, TISSUES, AND ORGANS
+
+
+The first and lowest form in our ancestral series is the amoeba, a
+little fresh-water animal from 1/500 to 1/1000 of an inch in
+diameter. Under the microscope it looks like a little drop of
+mucilage. This semifluid, mucilaginous substance is the Protoplasm.
+Its outer portion is clear and transparent, its inner more granular.
+In the inner portion is a little spheroidal body, the nucleus. This
+is certainly of great importance in the life of the animal; but just
+what it does, or what is its relation to the surrounding protoplasm
+we do not yet know. There is also a little cavity around which the
+protoplasm has drawn back, and on which it will soon close in again,
+so that it pulsates like a heart. It is continually taking in water
+from the body, or the outside, and driving it out again, and thus
+aids in respiration and excretion. The animal has no organs in the
+proper sense of the word, and yet it has the rudiments of all the
+functions which we possess.
+
+A little projection of the outer, clearer layer of protoplasm, a
+pseudopodium, appears; into this the whole animal may flow and thus
+advance a step, or the projection may be withdrawn. And this power
+of change of form is a lower grade of the contractility of our
+muscular cells. Prick it with a needle and it contracts. It
+recognizes its food even at a microscopic distance; it appears
+therefore to feel and perceive. Perhaps we might say that it has a
+mind and will of its own. It is safer to say that it is irritable,
+that is, it reacts to stimuli too feeble to be regarded as the cause
+of its reaction. It engulfs microscopic plants, and digests them in
+the internal protoplasm by the aid of an acid secretion. It breathes
+oxygen, and excretes carbonic acid and urea, through its whole body
+surface. Its mode of gaining the energy which it manifests is
+therefore apparently like our own, by combustion of food material.
+
+  [Illustration: 1. AMOEBA PROTEUS. HERTWIG, FROM LEIDY.
+  _ek_, ectosarc; _en_, endosarc; _N_, food particles;
+  _n_, nucleus; _cv_, contractile vesicle.]
+
+It grows and reaches a certain size, then constricts itself in the
+middle and divides into two. The old amoeba has divided into two
+young ones, and there is no parent left to die, and death, except by
+violence, does not occur. But this absence of death in other rather
+distant relatives of the amoeba, and probably in the amoeba
+itself, holds true only provided that, after a series of
+self-divisions, reproduction takes place after another mode. Two
+rather small and weak individuals fuse together in one animal of
+renewed vigor, which soon divides into two larger and stronger
+descendants. We have here evidently a process corresponding to the
+fertilization of the egg in higher animals; yet there is no egg,
+spermatozoon, or sex.
+
+It is a little mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus, and
+corresponds, therefore, to one of the cells, most closely to the
+egg-cell or spermatozoon of higher animals. If every living being is
+descended from a single cell, the fertilized egg, it is not hard to
+believe that all higher animals are descended from an ancestor
+having the general structure or lack of structure of the amoeba.
+
+But is the amoeba really structureless? Probably it has an
+exceedingly complex structure, but our microscopes and technique are
+still too imperfect to show more than traces of it. Says Hertwig:
+"Protoplasm is not a single chemical substance, however complicated,
+but a mixture of many substances, which we must picture to ourselves
+as finest particles united in a wonderfully complicated structure."
+Truly protoplasm is, to borrow Mephistopheles' expression concerning
+blood, a "quite peculiar juice." And the complexity of the nucleus
+is far more evident than that of the protoplasm. Is protoplasm
+itself the result of a long development? If so, out of what and how
+did it develop? We cannot even guess. But the beginning of life may,
+apparently must, have been indefinitely farther back than the
+simplest now existing form. The study of the amoeba cannot fail to
+raise a host of questions in the mind of any thoughtful man.
+
+As we have here the animal reduced, so to speak, to lowest terms, it
+may be well to examine a little more closely into its physiology and
+compare it briefly with our own.
+
+The amoeba eats food as we do, but the food is digested directly
+in the internal protoplasm instead of in a stomach; and once
+digested it diffuses to all parts of the cell; here it is built up
+into compounds of a more complex structure, and forms an integral
+part of the animal body. The dead food particle has been transformed
+into living protoplasm, the continually repeated miracle of life.
+But it does not remain long in this condition. In contact with the
+oxygen from the air it is soon oxidized, burned up to furnish the
+energy necessary for the motion and irritability of the body. We are
+all of us low-temperature engines. The digestive function exists in
+all animals merely to bring the food into a soluble, diffusible
+form, so that it can pass to all parts of the body and be used for
+fuel or growth. In our body a circulatory system is necessary to
+carry food and oxygen to the cells and to remove their waste. For
+most of our cells lie at a distance from the stomach, lungs, and
+kidney. But in a small animal the circulatory system is often
+unnecessary and fails. Breathing and excretion take place through
+the whole surface of the body. The body of the frog is devoid of
+scales, so that the blood is separated from the surrounding water
+only by a thin membrane, and it breathes and excretes to a certain
+extent in the same way.
+
+But another factor has to be considered. If we double each dimension
+of our amoeba, we shall increase its surface four times, its mass
+eight-fold. Now the power of absorbing oxygen and excreting waste is
+evidently proportional to the excretory and respiratory surface, and
+much the same is true of digestion. But the amount of oxygen
+required, and of waste to be removed is proportional to the mass;
+for every particle of protoplasm requires food and oxygen, and
+produces waste. The particles of protoplasm in our new, larger
+amoeba can therefore receive only half as much oxygen as before,
+and rid themselves of their waste only half as fast. There is
+danger of what in our bodies would be called suffocation and
+blood-poisoning. The amoeba having attained a certain size meets
+this emergency by dividing into two small individuals, the division
+is a physical adaptation. But the many-celled animal cannot do this;
+it must keep its cells together. It gains the additional surface by
+folding and plaiting. And the complicated internal structure of
+higher animals is in its last analysis such a folding and plaiting
+in order to maintain the proper ratio between the exposed surface of
+the cells and their mass. And each cell in our bodies lives in one
+sense its own individual life, only bathed in the lymph and
+receiving from it its food and oxygen instead of taking it from the
+water.
+
+But in another sense the cells of our body live an entirely
+different life, for they form a community. Division of labor has
+taken place between them, they are interdependent, correlated with
+one another, subject therefore to the laws of the whole community or
+organism. There are many respects in which it is impossible to
+compare Robinson Crusoe with a workman in a huge watch factory; yet
+they are both men.
+
+Both the amoeba and we live in the closest relation to our
+environment, and conformity to it is evidently necessary: life has
+been defined as the adjustment of internal relations to external
+conditions. We continually take food, use it for energy and growth,
+and return the simpler waste compounds. We are all of us, as
+Professor Huxley has said, "whirlpools on the surface of Nature;"
+when the whirl of exchange of particles ceases we die. We have seen
+that the fusion of two amoebae results in a new rejuvenated
+individual. Why is a mixture of two protoplasms better than one? We
+can frame hypotheses; we know nothing about it. What of the mind of
+the amoeba? A host of questions throng upon us and we can answer
+no one of them. All the great questions concerning life confront us
+here in the lowest term of the animal series, and appear as
+insoluble as in the highest.
+
+Our second ancestral form is also a fresh-water animal, the hydra.
+This is a little, vase-shaped animal, which usually lives attached
+to grass-stems or sticks, but has the power to free itself and hang
+on the surface of the water or to slowly creep on the bottom. The
+mouth is at the top of the vase, and the simple, undivided cavity
+within the vase is the digestive cavity. Around the mouth is a ring
+of from four to ten hollow tentacles, whose cavities communicate
+freely underneath with the digestive cavity. Not only is food taken
+in at the mouth, but indigestible material is thrown out here. The
+animal may thus be compared to a nearly cylindrical sack with a
+circle of tubes attached to it above. The body consists of two
+layers of cells, the ectoderm on the outside and the entoderm lining
+the digestive cavity. Between these two is a structureless, elastic
+membrane, which tends to keep the body moderately expanded.
+
+The food is captured by the tentacles; but digestion takes place
+only partially in the digestive cavity, for each surrounding cell
+engulfs small particles of food and digests them within itself. The
+entodermal cells behave in this respect much like a colony of
+amoebae. The cells of both layers have at their bases long muscular
+fibrils, those of the ectodermal cells running longitudinally, those
+of the entoderm transversely. The animal can thus contract its body
+in both directions, or, if the body contain water and the transverse
+muscles are contracted, the pressure of the water lengthens the body
+and tends to extend the tentacles.
+
+On the outside of the elastic membrane, just beneath the ectoderm,
+is a plexus or cobweb of nervous cells and fibrils. As in every
+nervous system, three elements are here to be found. 1. An afferent
+or sensory nerve-fibril, which under adequate stimulus is set in
+vibration by some cell of the epidermis or ectoderm, which is
+therefore called a sensory cell. 2. A central or ganglion
+cell, which receives the sensory impulse, translates it into
+consciousness, and is the seat of whatever powers of perception,
+thought, or will the animal possesses. This also gives rise to the
+efferent or motor impulses, which are conveyed by (3) a motor fibril
+to the corresponding muscle, exciting its contraction. But there are
+also nerve-fibrils connecting the different ganglion cells, so that
+they may act in unison. In the higher animals we shall find these
+central or ganglion cells condensed in one or a few masses or
+ganglia. But here they are scattered over the whole surface of the
+elastic supporting membrane.
+
+The reproductive organs for the production of eggs and spermatozoa
+form little protuberances on the outside of the body below the
+tentacles. But hydra reproduces mostly by budding; new individuals
+growing out of the side of the old one, like branches from the trunk
+of a tree, but afterward breaking free and leading an independent
+life. There are special forms of cells besides those described;
+nettle cells for capturing food, interstitial cells, etc., but these
+do not concern us.
+
+The distance from the single-celled amoeba to hydra is vast,
+probably really greater than that between any other successive terms
+of our series. It may therefore be useful to consider one or two
+intermediate forms and the parallel embryonic stages of higher
+animals, and to see how the higher many-celled animal originates
+from the unicellular stage.
+
+The amoeba is an illustration of a great kingdom of similar,
+practically unicellular forms, which have played no unimportant part
+in the geological history of the globe. These are the protozoa. They
+include, first of all, the foraminifera, which usually have shells
+composed of carbonate of lime. These shells, settling to the bottom
+of the ocean, have accumulated in vast beds, and when compacted and
+raised above the surface, form chalk, limestone, or marble,
+according to the degree and mode of their hardening.
+
+The protozoa include also the flagellata, a great, very poorly
+defined mass of forms occupying the boundary between the plant and
+animal kingdoms. They are usually unicellular, and their protoplasm
+is surrounded by a thin, structureless membrane. This prevents their
+putting out pseudopodia as organs of motion. Instead of these they
+have at one end of the ovoid or pear-shaped body a long,
+whiplash-like process or thread, a flagellum, and by swinging this
+they propel themselves through the water. These flagellata seem to
+have a rather marked tendency to form colonies. The first individual
+gives rise to others by division. But the division is not complete;
+the new individuals remain connected by the undivided rear end of
+the body. And such a colony may come to contain a large number of
+individuals.
+
+  [Illustration: 2. MAGOSPHAERA PLANULA. LANG, FROM HAECKEL.]
+
+Such a colony is represented by magosphaera. This is a microscopic
+globular form, discovered by Professor Haeckel on the coast of
+Norway. It consists of a large number of conical or pear-shaped
+individual cells, whose apices are turned toward the centre of the
+sphere. The cells are cemented together by a mucilaginous substance.
+Around their exposed larger ends, which form the surface of the
+sphere, are rows of flagella, by whose united action the colony
+rolls through the water. After a time each individual absorbs its
+flagella, the colony is broken up, the different individuals settle
+to the bottom, and each gives rise by division to a new colony. This
+group of cells may be considered as a colony or as an individual.
+Each term is defensible.
+
+Volvox is also a spheroidal organism, composed often of a very large
+number of flagellated cells. But it differs from magosphaera in
+certain important respects. In the first place its cells have
+chlorophyl, the green coloring matter of plants. It lives therefore
+on unorganized fluid nourishment, carbon dioxide, nitrates, etc. It
+is a plant. But certain characteristics render it probable that it
+once lived on solid food and was therefore an animal. For where
+almost the sole difference between plants and animals is in the
+fluid or solid character of their food, a change from the one form
+into the other is not as difficult or improbable as one might
+naturally think. And plants and animals are here so near together,
+and travelling by roads so nearly parallel, that, even if volvox
+never was an animal, it might still serve very well to illustrate a
+stage through which animals must have passed.
+
+The cells of volvox do not form a solid mass, but have arranged
+themselves in a single layer on the outer surface of the sphere. For
+a time, under favorable circumstances, volvox reproduces very much
+like magosphaera, and each cell can give rise to a new, many-celled
+individual. But after a time, especially under unfavorable
+circumstances, a new mode of reproduction appears. Certain cells
+withdraw from the outer layer into the interior of the colony. Here
+they are nourished by the other cells and develop into true
+reproductive elements, eggs and spermatozoa. Fertilization, that is,
+the union of egg and spermatozoon, or mainly of their nuclei, takes
+place; and the fertilized egg develops into a new organism. But the
+other cells, which have been all the time nourishing these, seem now
+to lack nutriment, strength, or vitality to give rise to a new
+colony. They die.
+
+We find thus in volvox division of labor and corresponding
+difference of structure or differentiation; certain cells retain the
+power of fusing with other corresponding cells, and thus of
+rejuvenescence and of giving rise to a new organism. And these
+cells, forming a series through all generations, are evidently
+immortal like the protozoa. Natural death cannot touch them. These
+are the reproductive cells. The other cells nourish and transport
+them and carry on the work of excretion and respiration. These
+latter correspond practically to our whole body. We call them
+somatic cells. In volvox they are entirely subservient to, and exist
+for, the reproductive cells, and die when they have completed their
+service of these. The body is here only a vehicle for ova.
+Furthermore, in volvox there has arisen such an interdependence of
+cells that we can no longer speak of it as a colony. The colony has
+become an individual by division of labor and the resulting
+differentiation in structure.
+
+But hydra gives us but a poor idea of the coelenterata, to which
+kingdom it belongs. The higher coelenterata have nearly or quite
+all the tissues of higher animals--muscular, connective, glandular,
+etc. And by tissues we mean groups of cells modified in form and
+structure for the performance of a special work or function. The
+protozoa developed the cell for all time to come, the coelenterata
+developed the tissues which still compose our bodies. But they had
+them mainly in a diffuse form. A sort of digestive and reproductive
+system they did possess. But the work of arranging these tissues and
+condensing them into compact organs was to be done by the next
+higher group, the worms.
+
+Let us now take a glance at certain stages of embryonic development
+which correspond to these earliest ancestral forms. We should expect
+some such correspondence from the fact already stated that the
+embryonic development of the individual is a brief recapitulation of
+the ancestral development of the species or larger group. The egg of
+the lowest vertebrate, amphioxus, shows these changes in a simple
+and apparently primitive form.
+
+  [Illustration: 3. IMMATURE EGG-SHELL FROM OVARY OF ECHINODERM.
+  HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG.]
+
+The fertilized egg of any animal consists of a single cell, a little
+mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus and surrounded by a
+structureless membrane. The egg is globular. The nucleus undergoes
+certain very peculiar, still but little understood, changes and
+divides into two. The protoplasm also soon divides into two masses
+clustering each around its own nucleus. The plane of division will
+be marked around the outside by a circular furrow, but the cells
+will still remain united by a large part of the membrane which
+bounds their adjacent, newly formed, internal faces.
+
+Let us suppose that the egg lay so that the first plane of division
+was vertical and extending north and south. Each cell or half of the
+egg will divide into two precisely as before. The new plane of
+division will be vertical, but extending east and west. Each plane
+passes through the centre of the egg, and the four cells are of the
+same form and size, like much-rounded quarters of an orange. The
+third plane will lie horizontal or equatorial, and will divide each
+of these quarters into an upper and lower octant. The cells keep on
+dividing rapidly, the eight form sixteen, then thirty-two, etc. The
+sharp angle by which the cells met at the centre has become rounded
+off, and has left a little space, the segmentation cavity, filled
+with fluid in the middle of the embryo. The cells continue to press
+or be crowded away from the centre and form a layer one cell deep on
+the surface of the sphere.
+
+This embryo, resembling a hollow rubber ball filled with fluid, is
+called a blastosphere. It corresponds in structure with the fully
+developed volvox, except, of course, in lacking reproductive cells.
+
+  [Illustration: 4. GASTRULA. HATSCHEK, FROM HERTWIG.
+  Outer layer is the ectoderm; inner layer, the entoderm; internal
+  cavity, the archenteron; mouth of cavity, blastopore.]
+
+If the rubber ball has a hole in it so that I can squeeze out the
+water, I can thrust the one-half into the other, and change the ball
+into a double-walled cup. A similar change takes place in the
+embryo. The cells of the lower half of the blastosphere are slightly
+larger than those of the upper half. This lower hemisphere flattens
+and then thrusts itself, or is invaginated, into the upper
+hemisphere of smaller cells and forms its lining. This cup-shaped
+embryo is called the gastrula. The cup deepens somewhat and becomes
+ovoid. Take a boiled egg, make a hole in the smaller end and remove
+the yolk, and you have a passable model of a gastrula. The shell
+corresponds to the ectoderm or outer layer of smaller cells; the
+layer of "white" represents the entoderm or lining of larger cells.
+The space occupied by the yolk corresponds to the archenteron or
+primitive digestive cavity; and the opening at the end to the
+primitive mouth or blastopore. Ectoderm and entoderm unite around
+the mouth. Both the blastosphere and gastrula often swim freely by
+flagella.
+
+You can hardly have failed to notice how closely the gastrula
+corresponds to a hydra, and many facts lead us to believe that the
+still earlier ancestor of the hydra was free swimming, and that the
+tentacles are a later development correlated with its adult sessile
+life. Yet we must not forget that the hydra is even now not quite
+sessile, it moves somewhat. And our ancestor was almost certainly a
+free swimming gastraea, or hypothetical form corresponding in form
+and structure to the gastrula. The ancestor of man never settled
+down lazily into a sessile life.
+
+But how is an adult worm or vertebrate formed out of such a
+gastrula? To answer this would require a course of lectures on
+embryology. But certain changes interest us. Between the ectoderm
+and entoderm of the gastrula, in the space occupied by the
+supporting membrane of hydra, a new layer of cells, the mesoderm,
+appears. This has been produced by the rapid growth and reproduction
+of certain cells of the entoderm which have migrated, so to speak,
+into this new position. In higher forms it becomes of continually
+greater importance, until finally nearly all the organs of the body
+develop from it. In our bodies only the lining of the mid-intestine
+and of its glands has arisen from the entoderm. And only the
+epidermis, or outer layer of our skin, and the nervous system and
+parts of our sense-organs have arisen from the ectoderm. But our
+mid-intestine is still the greatly elongated archenteron of the
+gastrula.
+
+We may therefore compare the hydra or gastrula to a little portion
+of the lining of the human mid-intestine covered with a little flake
+of epidermis. This much the hydra has attained. But our bones and
+muscles and blood-vessels all come from the mesoderm by folding,
+plaiting, and channelling, and division of labor resulting in
+differentiation of structure. Of all true mesodermal structures the
+hydra has actually none, but in the ectodermal and entodermal cells
+he has the potentiality of them all. We must now try to discover how
+these potentialities became actualities in higher forms.
+
+The third stage in our ancestral series is the turbellarian. This is
+a little, flat, oval worm, varying greatly in size in different
+species, and found both in fresh and salt water. Some would deny
+that this worm belonged in our series at all. But, while doubtless
+considerably modified, it has still retained many characteristics
+almost certainly possessed by our primitive bilateral ancestor. The
+different parts of hydra were arranged like those of most flowers,
+around one main vertical axis; it was thus radiate in structure,
+having neither front nor rear, right nor left side. But our little
+turbellaria, while still without a head, has one end which goes
+first and can be called the front end. The upper or dorsal surface
+is usually more colored with pigment cells than the lower or ventral
+surface, on which is the mouth. It has also a right and left side.
+It is thus bilateral.
+
+The gastraea swam by cilia, little eyelash-like processes which urge
+the animal forward like a myriad of microscopic oars. In our bodies
+they are sometimes used to keep up a current, _e.g._, to remove
+foreign particles from the lungs. The turbellaria is still covered
+with cilia, probably an inheritance from the gastraea; for, while in
+smaller forms they may still be the principal means of locomotion,
+in larger ones the muscles are beginning to assume this function and
+the animal moves by writhing. The bilateral symmetry has arisen in
+connection with this mode of locomotion and is thus a mark of
+important progress.
+
+In the turbellaria we find for the first time a true body-wall
+distinct from underlying organs. The outer layer of this is a
+ciliated epithelium or layer of cells. Under this an elastic
+membrane may occur. Then come true body muscles, running
+transversely, longitudinally and dorso-ventrally. Between the
+external transverse and the internal longitudinal layers we often
+find two muscular layers whose fibres run diagonally. The body is
+well provided with muscles, but their arrangement is still far from
+economical or effective.
+
+Within the body-wall is the parenchym. This is a spongy mass of
+connectile tissue in which the other organs are embedded. The mouth
+lies in the middle, or near the front of the ventral surface. The
+intestine varies in form, but is provided with its own layers of
+longitudinal and transverse muscles, and usually has paired pouches
+extending out from it into the body parenchym. These seem to
+distribute the dissolved nutriment; hence the whole cavity is still
+often called a gastro-vascular cavity as serving both digestion and
+circulation. There is no anal opening, but indigestible material is
+still cast out through the mouth.
+
+The animal can gain sufficient oxygen to supply its muscles and
+nerves, which are the principal seats of combustion, through the
+external surface. It has, therefore, no special respiratory organs.
+But the waste matter of the muscles cannot escape so easily, for
+these are becoming deeper seated. Hence we find an excretory system
+consisting of two tubes with many branches in the parenchym, and
+discharging at the rear end of the body. This again is a sign that
+the muscles are becoming more important, for the excretory system is
+needed mainly to remove their waste. These tubes maybe only greatly
+enlarged glands of the skin.
+
+  [Illustration: 5. TURBELLARIAN. LANG.
+  _va_ and _ha_, front and rear branches of gastro-vascular cavity;
+  _ph_, pharynx. The dark oval with fine branches represents the
+  nervous system.]
+
+The nervous system consists of a plexus of fibres and cells, the
+cells originating impulses and the fibres conveying them. But this
+much was present in hydra also. Here the front end of the body goes
+foremost and is continually coming in contact with new conditions.
+Here the lookout for food and danger must be kept. Hence, as a
+result of constant exercise, or selection, or both, the
+nerve-plexus has thickened at this point into a little compact mass
+of cells and fibres called a ganglion. And because this ganglion
+throughout higher forms usually lies over the oesophagus, it is
+called the supra-oesophogeal ganglion. This is the first faint and
+dim prophecy of a brain, and it sends its nerves to the front end of
+the body. But there run from it to the rear end of the body four to
+eight nerve-cords, consisting of bundles of nerve-threads like our
+nerves, but overlaid with a coating of ganglion cells capable of
+originating impulses. These cords are, therefore, like the plexus
+from which they have condensed, both nerves and centres;
+differentiation has not gone so far as at the front of the body.
+Sense organs are still very rudimentary. Special cells of the skin
+have been modified into neuro-epithelial cells, having sensory hairs
+protruding from them and nerve-fibrils running from their bases.
+
+  [Illustration: 6. CROSS-SECTION OF TURBELLARIAN. HATSCHEK, FROM
+  JIJIMA.
+  _e_, external skin; _rm_, lateral muscles; _la_ and _li_,
+  longitudinal muscles; _mdv_, dorso-ventral muscles; _pa_,
+  parenchyma; _h_, testicle; _ov_, oviduct; _dt_, yolk-gland; _n_,
+  ventral nerve; _i_, gastro-vascular cavity.]
+
+In a very few turbellaria we find otolith vesicles. These are
+little sacks in the skin, lined with neuro-epithelial cells and
+having in the middle a little concretion of carbonate of lime hung
+on rather a stiffer hair, like a clapper in a bell. Such organs
+serve in higher animals as organs of hearing, for the sensory hairs
+are set in vibration by the sound-waves. It is quite as probable
+that they here serve as organs for feeling the slightest vibrations
+in the surrounding water, and thus giving warning of approaching
+food or danger. The animal has also eyes, and these may be very
+numerous. They are not able to form images of external objects, but
+only of perceiving light and the direction of its source. A little
+group of these eyes lies directly over the brain, near the front end
+of the body; the others are distributed around the front or nearly
+the whole margin of the body.
+
+The turbellaria, doubtless, have the sense of smell, although we can
+discover no special olfactory organ. This sense would seem to be as
+old as protoplasm itself.
+
+This distribution of the eyes around a large portion of the margin,
+and certain other characteristics of the adult structure and of the
+embryonic development, are very interesting, as giving hints of the
+development of the turbellaria from some radiate ancestor. The mouth
+is in a most unfavorable position, in or near the middle of the
+body, rarely at the front end, as the animal has to swim over its
+food before it can grasp it. The animal only slowly rids itself of
+old disadvantageous form and structure and adapts itself completely
+to a higher mode of life.
+
+By far the most highly developed system in the body is the
+reproductive. It is doubtful whether any animal, except, perhaps,
+the mollusk, has as complicated and highly developed reproductive
+organs. By markedly higher forms they certainly grow simpler.
+
+And here we must notice certain general considerations. We found
+that reproduction in the amoeba could be defined as growth beyond
+the limit normal to the individual. This form of growth benefits
+especially the species. The needs and expenses of the individual
+will therefore first be met and then the balance be devoted to
+reproduction. Now the income of the animal is proportional to its
+surface, its expense to its mass, and activity. And the ratio of
+surface to mass is most favorable in the smallest animals.[A] Hence,
+smaller animals, as a rule, increase faster than larger ones; and
+this is only one illustration of the fact that great size in an
+animal is anything but an unmixed advantage to its possessor. But
+muscles and nerves are the most expensive systems; here most of the
+food is burned up. Hence energetic animals have a small balance
+remaining. Now the turbellarian is small and sluggish, with a fair
+digestive system. With a great amount of nutriment at its disposal
+the reproductive system came rapidly to a high development, and
+relatively to other organs stands higher than it almost ever will
+again.
+
+  [Footnote A: Cf. p. 35.]
+
+It is only fair to state that good authorities hold that so
+primitive an animal could not originally have had so highly
+developed a system, and that this characteristic must be acquired,
+not ancestral.
+
+That certain portions of it may be later developments may be not
+only possible but probable. But anyone who has carefully studied the
+different groups of worms, will, I think, readily grant that in the
+stage of these flat worms reproduction was the dominant function,
+which had most nearly attained its possible height of development.
+From this time on the muscular and nervous systems were to claim an
+ever-increasing share of the nutriment, and the balance for
+reproduction is to grow smaller.
+
+At the close of this lecture I wish to describe very briefly a
+hypothetical form. It no longer exists; perhaps it never did. But
+many facts of embryology and comparative anatomy point to such a
+form as a very possible ancestor of all forms higher than flat
+worms, viz., mollusks, arthropods, and vertebrates.
+
+It was probably rather long and cylindrical, resembling a small
+and short earthworm in shape. The skin may have been much like
+that of turbellaria. Within this the muscles run in only
+two-directions--longitudinally and transversely. Between these and
+the intestine is a cavity--the perivisceral cavity--like that of our
+own bodies, but filled with a nutritive fluid like our lymph. This
+cavity seems to have developed by the expansion and cutting off of
+the paired lateral outgrowths of the digestive system of some old
+flat worm. But other modes of development are quite possible. The
+intestine has now an anal opening at or near the rear end of the
+body. The food moves only from front to rear, and reaches each part
+always in a certain condition. Digestion proper and absorption have
+been distributed to different cells, and the work is better done.
+Three portions can be readily distinguished: fore-intestine with the
+mouth, mid-intestine, as the seat of digestion and absorption, and
+hind-intestine, or rectum, with the anal opening. The front and
+hind-intestine are lined with infolded outer skin.
+
+The nervous system consists of a supra-oesophageal ganglion with
+four posterior nerve-cords--one dorsal, two lateral, and one (or
+perhaps two) ventral. There were probably also remains of the old
+plexus, but this is fast disappearing. The excretory system consists
+of a pair of tubes discharging through the sides of the body-wall,
+and having each a ciliated, funnel-shaped opening in the
+perivisceral cavity. These have received the name of nephridia.
+Through these also the eggs and spermatozoa are discharged. The
+reproductive organs are modified patches of the peritoneum, or
+lining of the perivisceral cavity.
+
+The number of muscles or muscular layers has been reduced in this
+animal. But such a reduction in the number of like parts in any
+animal is a sign of progress. And the longitudinal muscles have
+increased in size and strength, and the animal moves by writhing.
+Such a worm has the general plan of the body of the higher forms
+fairly well, though rudely, sketched. Many improvements will come,
+and details be added. But the rudiments of the trunk of even our own
+bodies are already visible. Head, in any proper sense of the term,
+and skeleton are still lacking; they remain to be developed.
+
+And yet, taking the most hopeful view possible concerning the animal
+kingdom, its prospects of attaining anything very lofty seem at this
+point poor. Its highest representative is a headless trunk, without
+skeleton or legs. It has no brain in any proper sense of the word,
+its sense-organs are feeble; it moves by writhing. Its life is
+devoted to digestion and reproduction. Whatever higher organs it has
+are subsidiary to these lower functions. And yet it has taken ages
+on ages to develop this much. If _this_ is the highest visible
+result of ages on ages of development, what hope is there for the
+future? Can such a thing be the ancestor of a thinking, moral,
+religious person, like man? "That is not first which is spiritual,
+but that which is natural (animal, sensuous); and afterward that
+which is spiritual." First, in order of time, must come the body,
+and then the mind and spirit shall be enthroned in it. The little
+knot of nervous material which forms the supra-oesophageal
+ganglion is so small that it might easily escape our notice; but it
+is the promise of an infinite future. The atom of nervous power
+shall increase until it subdues and dominates the whole mass.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+WORMS TO VERTEBRATES: SKELETON AND HEAD
+
+
+In tracing the genealogy of any American family it is often
+difficult or impossible to say whether a certain branch is descended
+from John Oldworthy or his cousin or second cousin. In the latter
+cases to find the common ancestor we must go back to the grandfather
+or great-grandfather. The same difficulty, but greatly enhanced,
+meets us when we try to make a genealogical tree of the animal
+kingdom. Thus it seems altogether probable that all higher forms are
+descended from an ancestor of the same general structure and grade
+of organization as the turbellaria, although probably free swimming,
+and hence with somewhat different form and development, especially
+of the muscular system. It seems to me altogether probable that all,
+except possibly Mollusca, are descended from a common ancestor
+closely resembling the schematic worm last described. Some would,
+however, maintain that they diverged rather earlier than even the
+turbellaria; others after the schematic worm, if such ever existed.
+As far as our argument is concerned it makes little difference which
+of these views we adopt.
+
+From our turbellaria, or possibly from some even more primitive
+ancestor, many lines diverged. And this was to be expected. The
+coelenterata, as we saw in hydra, had developed rude digestive and
+reproductive systems. The higher groups of this kingdom had
+developed all, or nearly all, the tissues used in building the
+bodies of higher animals--muscular, reproductive, connectile,
+glandular, nervous, etc. But these are mostly very diffuse. The
+muscular fibrils of a jelly-fish are mostly isolated or parallel in
+bands, rarely in compact well-defined bundles. The tissues have
+generally not yet been moulded into compact masses of definite form.
+There are as yet very few structures to which we can give the name
+of organs. To form organs and group them in a body of compact
+definite form was the work pre-eminently of worms. The material for
+the building was ready, but the architecture of the bilateral animal
+was not even sketched. And different worms were their own
+architects, untrammelled by convention or heredity, hence they built
+very different, sometimes almost fantastic, structures.
+
+We must remember, too, the great age of this group. They are present
+in highly modified forms in the very oldest palaeozoic strata, and
+probably therefore came into existence as the first traces of
+continental areas were beginning to rise above the primeval ocean.
+They are literally "older than the hills." They were exposed to a
+host of rapidly changing conditions, very different in different
+areas. This prepares us for the fact that the worms represent a
+stage in animal life corresponding fairly well to the Tower of Babel
+in biblical history. The animal kingdom seems almost to explode into
+a host of fragments. Our genealogical tree fairly bristles with
+branches, but the branches do not seem to form any regular whorls or
+spirals. Few of them have developed into more than feeble growths.
+They now contain generally but few species. Many of them are
+largely or entirely parasitic, and in connection with this mode of
+life have undergone modifications and degeneration which make it
+exceedingly difficult to decipher their descent or relationships.
+
+Four of these branches have reached great prominence in numbers and
+importance. One or two others were formerly equally numerous and
+have since become almost extinct; so the brachiopoda, which have
+been almost entirely replaced by mollusks. The same may very
+possibly be true of others. For of the amount of extinction of
+larger groups we have generally but an exceedingly faint conception.
+Indeed in this respect the worms have been well compared to the
+relics which fill the shelves of one of our grandmother's
+china-closets.
+
+The four great branches are the echinoderms, mollusks, articulates,
+and vertebrates. The echinoderms, including starfishes, sea-urchins,
+and others straggled early from the great army. We know as yet
+almost nothing of their history; when deciphered it will be as
+strange as any romance. The vertebrates are of course the most
+important line, as including the ancestors of man. But we must take
+a little glance at mollusks, including our clams, snails, and
+cuttle-fishes; and at the articulates, including annelids and
+culminating in insects. The molluscan and articulate lines, though
+divergent, are of great importance to us as throwing a certain
+amount of light on vertebrate development; and still more as showing
+how a certain line of development may seem, and at first really be,
+advantageous, and still lead to degeneration, or at best to but
+partial success.
+
+When we compare the forms which represent fairly well the direction
+of development of these three lines, a snail or a clam with an
+insect and a fish, we find clearly, I think, that the fundamental
+anatomical difference lies in the skeleton; and that this resulted
+from, and almost irrevocably fixed, certain habits of life.
+
+We may picture to ourselves the primitive ancestor of mollusks as a
+worm having the short and broad form of the turbellaria, but much
+thicker or deeper vertically. A fuller description can be found in
+the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," Art., Mollusca. It was hemi-ovoid in
+form. It had apparently the perivisceral cavity and nephridia of the
+schematic worm, and a circulatory system. In this latter respect it
+stood higher than any form which we have yet studied. Its nervous
+system also was rather more advanced. It had apparently already
+taken to a creeping mode of life and the muscles of its ventral
+surface were strongly developed, while its exposed and far less
+muscular dorsal surface was protected by a cap-like shell covering
+the most important internal organs. But the integument of the whole
+dorsal surface was, as is not uncommon in invertebrates, hardening
+by the deposition of carbonate of lime in the integument. And this
+in time increased to such an extent as to replace the primitive,
+probably horny, shell.
+
+Into the anatomy of this animal or of its descendants we have no
+time to enter, for here we must be very brief. We have already
+noticed that the most important viscera were lodged safely under the
+shell. And as these increased in size or were crowded upward by the
+muscles of the creeping disk, their portion of the body grew upward
+in the form of a "visceral hump." Apparently the animal could not
+increase much in length and retain the advantage of the protection
+of the shell; and the shell was the dominating structure. It had
+entered upon a defensive campaign. Motion, slow at the outset,
+became more difficult, and the protection of the shell therefore all
+the more necessary. The shell increased in size and weight and
+motion became almost impossible. The snail represents the average
+result of the experiment. It can crawl, but that is about all; it is
+neither swift nor energetic. Even the earthworm can outcrawl it. It
+has feelers and eyes, and is thus better provided with sense-organs
+than almost any worm. It has a supra-oesophageal ganglion of fair
+size.
+
+The clams and oysters show even more clearly what we might call the
+logical results of molluscan structure. They increased the shell
+until it formed two heavy "valves" hanging down on each side of the
+body and completely enclosing it. They became almost sessile, living
+generally buried in the mud and gaining their food, consisting
+mostly of minute particles of organic matter, by means of currents
+created by cilia covering the large curtain-like gills. Their
+muscular system disappeared except in the ploughshare-shaped "foot"
+used mostly for burrowing, and in the muscles for closing the shell.
+That portion of the body which corresponds to the head of the snail
+practically aborted with nearly all the sense-organs. The nervous
+system degenerated and became reduced to a rudiment. They had given
+up locomotion, had withdrawn, so to speak, from the world; all the
+sense they needed was just enough to distinguish the particles of
+food as they swept past the mouth in the current of water. They have
+an abundance of food, and "wax fat." The clam is so completely
+protected by his shell and the mud that he has little to fear from
+enemies. They have increased and multiplied and filled the mud.
+"Requiescat in pace."
+
+But zooelogy has its tragedies as well as human history. Let us turn
+to the development of a third molluscan line terminating in the
+cuttle-fishes. The ancestors of these cephalopods, although still
+possessed of a shell and a high visceral hump, regained the swimming
+life. First, apparently, by means of fins, and then by a simple but
+very effective use of a current of water, they acquired an often
+rapid locomotion. The highest forms gave up the purely defensive
+campaign, developed a powerful beak, led a life like that of the old
+Norse pirates, and were for a time the rulers and terrors of the
+sea. With their more rapid locomotion the supra-oesophageal
+ganglion reached a higher degree of development, and it was served
+by sense-organs of great efficiency. They reduced the external
+shell, and succeeded, in the highest forms, of almost ridding
+themselves of this burden and encumbrance. Traces of it remain in
+the squids, but transformed into an internal quill-like, supporting,
+not defensive, skeleton. They have retraced the downward steps of
+their ancestors as far as they could. And the high development of
+their supra-oesophageal ganglion and sense-organs, and their
+powerful jaws and arms, or tentacles, show to what good purpose they
+have struggled. But the struggle was in vain, as far as the
+supremacy of the animal kingdom was concerned. Their ancestors had
+taken a course which rendered it impossible for their descendants to
+reach the goal. Their progress became ever slower. They were
+entirely and hopelessly beaten by the vertebrates. They struggled
+hard, but too late.
+
+The history of mollusks is full of interest. They show clearly how
+intimately nervous development is connected with the use of the
+locomotive organs. The snail crept, and slightly increased its
+nervous system and sense-organs. The clam almost lost them in
+connection with its stationary life. The cephalopods were
+exceedingly active, developed, therefore, keen sense-organs and a
+very large and complicated supra-oesophagal ganglion, which we
+might almost call a brain.
+
+The articulate series consists of two groups of animals. The higher
+group includes the crabs, spiders, thousand-legs, and finally the
+insects, and forms the kingdom of arthropoda. The lower members are
+still usually reckoned as worms, and are included under the
+annelids. Of these our common earthworm is a good example, and near
+them belong the leeches. But the marine annelids, of which nereis,
+or a clam-worm, is a good example, are more typical. They are often
+quite large, a foot or even more in length. They are composed of
+many, often several hundred, rings or segments. Between these the
+body-wall is thin, so that the segments move easily upon each other,
+and thus the animal can creep or writhe.
+
+These segments are very much alike except the first two and the
+last. If we examine one from the middle of the body we shall find
+its structure very much like that of our schematic worm. Outside we
+find a very thin, horny cuticle, secreted by the layer of cells just
+beneath it, the hypodermis. Beneath the skin we find a thin layer of
+transverse muscles, and then four heavy bands of longitudinal
+muscles. These latter have been grouped in the four quadrants, a
+much more effective arrangement than the cylindrical layer of the
+schematic worm. Furthermore, the animal has on each segment a pair
+of fin-like projections, stiffened with bristles, the parapodia.
+These are moved by special muscles and form effective organs of
+creeping.
+
+  [Illustration: 7. EUNICE LIMOSA (ANNELID). LANG, FROM EHLERS.
+  Front and hind end seen from dorsal surface.
+  _fa, fp, fc_, feelers; _a_, eye; _k_, gill;
+  _p_, parapodia; _ac_, anal cirri.]
+
+Within the muscles is the perivisceral cavity, and in its central
+axis the intestine, segmented like the body-wall. The reproductive
+organs are formed from patches of the lining of the perivisceral
+cavity, and the reproductive elements, when fully developed, fall
+into the perivisceral fluid and are carried out by nephridia, just
+such as we found in the schematic worm. Beside the perivisceral
+cavity and its fluid there is a special circulatory system. This
+consists mainly of one long tube above the intestine and a second
+below, with often several smaller parallel tubes. Transverse
+vessels run from these to all parts of the body. The dorsal tube
+pulsates and thus acts as a heart. The surface of the body no longer
+suffices to gather oxygen, hence we find special feathery gills on
+the parapodia. But these gills are merely expanded portions of the
+body wall, arranged so as to offer the greatest possible amount of
+surface where the capillaries of the blood system can be almost
+immediately in contact with the surrounding water.
+
+  [Illustration: 8. CROSS-SECTION OF BODY SEGMENT OF ANNELID. LANG.
+  _dp_ and _vp_, dorsal and ventral halves of parapodia; _b_ and _ac_,
+  bristles; _k_, gill; _dc_ and _vc_, feelers; _rm_, lateral muscles;
+  _lm_, longitudinal muscles; _vd_, dorsal blood-vessel; _vo_, ventral
+  blood-vessel; _bm_, ventral ganglion; _ov_, ovary; _tr_, opening of
+  nephridium in the perivisceral cavity; _np_, tubular portion of
+  nephridium. The circles containing dots represent eggs floating in
+  the perivisceral fluid.]
+
+The nervous system consists of a large supra-oesophageal ganglion
+in the first segment; then of a chain of ganglia, one to each
+segment, on the ventral side of the body. With one ganglion in each
+segment there is far more controlling, perceptive, ganglionic
+material than in lower worms. Furthermore the supra-oesophageal
+ganglion is relieved of a large part of the direct control of the
+muscles of each segment, and is becoming more a centre of control
+and perception for the body as a whole. It is more like our brain,
+commander-in-chief, the other ganglia constituting its staff. The
+sense-organs have improved greatly. There are tentacles and otolith
+vesicles as very delicate organs of feeling, or possibly of hearing
+also.
+
+But the annelids were probably the first animals to develop an eye
+capable of forming an image of external objects. The importance of
+this organ in the pursuit of food or the escape from enemies can
+scarcely be over-estimated. The lining of the mouth and pharynx can
+be protruded as a proboscis, and drawn back by powerful muscles, and
+is armed with two or more horny claws. Eyes and claws gave them a
+great advantage over their not quite blind but really visionless and
+comparatively defenceless neighbors, and they must have wrought
+terrible extinction of lower and older forms. But while we cannot
+over-estimate the importance of these eyes, we can easily exaggerate
+their perfectness. They were of short range, fitted for seeing
+objects only a few inches distant, and the image was very imperfect
+in detail. But the plan or fundamental scheme of these eyes is
+correct and capable of indefinitely greater development than the
+organs of touch or smell, perhaps greater even than the otolith
+vesicle.
+
+And the reflex influence of the eye on the brain was the greatest
+advantage of all. Hitherto with feeble muscles and sense-organs it
+has hardly paid the animal to devote more material to building a
+larger brain. It was better to build more muscle. But now with
+stronger muscles at its command, and better sense-organs to report
+to it, every grain of added brain material is beginning to be worth
+ten devoted to muscle. The muscular system will still continue to
+develop, but the brain has begun an almost endless march of
+progress. The eye becomes of continually increasing advantage and
+importance because it has a capable brain to use it; and brain is a
+more and more profitable investment, because it is served by an
+ever-improving eye.
+
+  [Illustration: 9. MYRMELEO FORMICARIUS. ANT-LION. HERTWIG, FROM
+  SCHMARDA.
+  1, adult; 2, larva; 3, cocoon.]
+
+The annelid had hit upon a most advantageous line of development,
+which led ultimately to the insect. The study of the insect will
+show us clearly the advantages and defects of the annelid plan.
+First of all, the insect, like the mollusk, has an external
+skeleton. But the skeleton of the mollusk was purely protective, a
+hindrance to locomotion. That of the insect is still somewhat
+protective, but is mainly, almost purely, locomotive. It is never
+allowed to become so heavy as to interfere with locomotion. In the
+second place, the insect has three body regions, having each its own
+special functions or work. And one of these is a head. The annelid
+had two anterior segments differing from those of the rest of the
+body; these may, perhaps, be considered as the foreshadowings of a
+structure not yet realized; they can only by courtesy be called a
+head. Thirdly, the insect has legs. The annelid had fin-like
+parapodia, approaching the legs of insects about as closely as the
+fins of a fish approach the legs of a mammal. The reproductive and
+digestive systems, while somewhat improved, are not very markedly
+higher than those of annelids. The excretory system has more work to
+perform and reaches a rather higher development.
+
+But in these organs there is no great or striking change; the time
+for marked and rapid development of the digestive and reproductive
+systems has gone by. Material can be more profitably invested in
+brain or muscle. Air is carried to all parts of the body by a
+special system of air-sacks and tubes. This is a very advantageous
+structure for small animals with an external skeleton. In very large
+animals, or where the skeleton is internal, it would hardly be
+practicable; the risk of compression of the tubes at some point, and
+of thus cutting off the air-supply of some portion of the body,
+would be altogether too great.
+
+The circulatory system is very poor. It consists practically only of
+a heart, which drives the blood in an irregular circulation between
+the other organs of the body much as with a syringe you might keep
+up a system of currents in a bowl of water. But the rapidity of the
+flow of the blood in our bodies is mainly to furnish a supply of
+oxygen to the organs. A tea-spoonful of blood can carry a fair
+amount of dissolved solid nutriment like sugar, it can carry at each
+round but a very little gas like oxygen. Hence the blood must make
+its rounds rapidly, carrying but a little oxygen at each circuit.
+But in the insect the blood conveys only the dissolved solid
+nutriment, the food; hence a comparatively irregular circulation
+answers all purposes.
+
+The skeleton is a thickening of the horny cuticle of the annelid on
+the surface of each segment. The horny cylinder surrounding each
+segment is composed of several pieces, and on the abdomen these are
+united by flexible, infolded membranes. This allows the increase in
+the size of the segment corresponding to the varying size of the
+digestive and reproductive systems. In this part of the body the
+skeletal ring of each segment is joined to that of the segments
+before and behind it in the same manner. But in other parts of the
+body we shall find the skeletal pieces of each segment and the rings
+of successive segments fused in one plate of mail. The legs are the
+parapodia of annelids carried to a vastly higher development. They
+are slender and jointed, and yet often very powerful. A large
+portion of the muscular system of the body is attached to these
+appendages.
+
+But the insect has also jaws. The annelid had teeth or claws
+attached to the proboscis. But true jaws are something quite
+different. They always develop by modifying some other organ. In the
+insect they are modified legs. This is shown first by their
+embryonic development. But the king- or horseshoe-crab has still no
+true jaws, but uses the upper joints of its legs for chewing. There
+are primitively three pairs of jaws of various forms for the
+different kinds of food of different species or higher groups. But
+some of them may disappear and the others be greatly modified into
+awls for piercing, or a tube for sucking honey. Into the wonderful
+transformations of these modified legs we cannot enter.
+
+The muscles are no longer arranged to form a sack as in annelids.
+Transverse muscles, running parallel to the unyielding plates of
+chitin or horn could accomplish nothing. They have largely
+disappeared. The work of locomotion has been transferred from the
+trunk to the legs.
+
+The abdomen of the insect is as clearly composed of distinct
+segments as the body of the annelid. Of these there are perhaps
+typically eleven. The thorax is composed of three segments, distinct
+in the lowest forms, fused in the highest. This fusion of segments
+in the thorax of the highest forms furnishes a very firm framework
+for the attachment of wings and muscles. These wings are a new
+development, and how they arose is still a question. But they give
+the insect the capability of exceedingly rapid locomotion.
+
+The three pairs of jaws, modified legs, in the rear half of the head
+show that this portion is composed of three segments. For only one
+pair of legs is ever developed on a single segment. Embryology has
+shown that the portion of the head in front of the mouth is also
+composed of three segments. Possibly between the prae- and post-oral
+portions still another segment should be included, making a total of
+seven in the head. The head has thus been formed by drawing forward
+segments from the trunk, and fusing them successively with the first
+or primitive head segment. This is difficult to conceive of in the
+fully developed insect, where the boundary between head and thorax
+is very sharp. But the ancestors of insects looked more like
+thousand-legs or centipedes, and here head and thorax are much less
+distinct. But in the annelid the mouth is on the second segment;
+here it is on the fourth. It has evidently travelled backward. That
+the mouth of an animal can migrate seems at first impossible, but if
+we had time to examine the embryology of annelids and insects, it
+would no longer appear inconceivable or improbable. And its backward
+migration brought it among the legs which were grasping and chewing
+the food. And in vertebrates the mouth has changed its position,
+though not in exactly the same way. Our present mouth is probably
+not at all the mouth of the primitive ancestor of vertebrates. Thus
+in the insect three segments have fused around the mouth, and three,
+possibly four, in front of it. This makes a head worthy of the name.
+The ganglia of the three post-oral segments, which bear the jaws,
+have fused in one compound ganglion innervating the mouth and jaws.
+Those of the three prae-oral segments have fused to form a brain.
+Eyes are well developed, giving images sometimes accurate in detail,
+sometimes very rude. Ears are not uncommon. The sense of smell is
+often keen.
+
+Perhaps the greatest advance of the insect is its adaptation to land
+life. This gives it a larger supply of oxygen than any aquatic
+animal could ever obtain. This itself stimulates every function, and
+all the work of the body goes on more energetically. Then the heat
+produced is conducted off far less rapidly than in aquatic forms.
+Water is a good conductor of heat, and nearly all aquatic animals
+are cold-blooded. The few which are warm-blooded are protected by a
+thick layer of non-conducting fat. In all land animals, even when
+cold-blooded, the work of the different systems is aided by the
+longer retention of the heat in the body.
+
+Let us recapitulate. The schematic worm had a body composed of two
+concentric tubes. The outer was composed of the muscles of the body
+covered by the protective integument. The inner tube was the
+alimentary canal with its special muscles. Between these two was the
+perivisceral cavity, filled with nutritive fluid, lymph, and
+furnishing a safe lodging-place for the more delicate viscera. It
+represented fairly the trunk of higher animals.
+
+The annelid added segmentation, and thus greater freedom of motion
+by the parapodia. But the segments were still practically alike. In
+the insect division of labor took place, that is, each group of
+segments was allotted its own special work; and these groups of
+segments were modified in structure to best suit the performance of
+this part of the work of the body. The abdomen was least modified
+and its eleven segments were devoted to digestion, reproduction, and
+excretion--the old vegetative functions. Three segments were united
+in the thorax; all their energy was turned to locomotion, and the
+insect became thus an exceedingly active, swift animal. The third
+body-region, the head, includes six segments, of which three
+surrounded the mouth and furnished the jaws, while two more were
+crowded or drawn forward in order that their ganglia might be added
+to the old supraoesophageal ganglion and form a brain. It is
+interesting to note that a form, peripatus, still exists which
+stands almost midway between annelids and insects and has only four
+segments in the head. The formation of the head was thus a gradual
+process, one segment being added after another.
+
+In the turbellaria the dominant functions were digestion and
+reproduction, and their organs composed almost the whole body. Here
+only eleven segments at most are devoted to these functions, and
+nine in head and thorax to locomotion and brain. Head and thorax
+have increased steadily in importance, while the abdomen has
+decreased as steadily in number of segments. And the brain is
+increasing thus rapidly because there are now muscles and
+sense-organs of sufficient power to make such a brain of value. And
+this brain perceives not only objects and qualities, but invisible
+relations between these, and this is an advance amounting to a
+revolution. It remembers, and uses its recollections. It is capable
+of learning a little by experience and observation. The A, B, C of
+thinking was probably learned long before the insect's time, and the
+bee shows a fair amount of intelligence.
+
+The line of development which the insect followed was comparatively
+easy and its course probably rapid. Certain crustacea, aquatic
+arthropoda, are among the oldest fossils, and it is possible that
+insects lived on the land before the first fish swam in the sea.
+They had fine structure and powers; and yet during the later
+geologic periods they have scarcely advanced a step, and are now
+apparently at a standstill. They ran splendidly for a time, and then
+fell out of the race. What hindered and stopped them?
+
+One vital defect in their whole plan of organization is evident. The
+external skeleton is admirably suited to animals of small size, but
+only to these. In larger animals living on land it would have to be
+made so heavy as to be unwieldy and no longer economical. Their mode
+of breathing also is fitted only for animals of small size having
+an external skeleton. Whatever may be our explanation the fact
+remains that insects are always small. This is in itself a
+disadvantage. Very small animals cannot keep up a constant high
+temperature unless the surrounding air is warm, for their radiating
+surface is too large in comparison with their heat-producing mass.
+At the first approach of even cool weather they become chilled and
+sluggish, and must hibernate or die. They are conformed to but a
+limited range of environment in temperature.
+
+But small size is, as a rule, accompanied by an even greater
+disadvantage. It seems to be almost always correlated with short
+life. Why this is so, or how, we do not know. There are exceptions;
+a crow lives as long as a man; or would, if allowed to. But, as a
+rule, the length of an animal's days is roughly proportional to the
+size of its body. And the insect is, as a rule, very short-lived. It
+lives for a few days or weeks, or even months, but rarely outlasts
+the year. It has time to learn but little by experience. The same
+experience must be passed, the same emergency arise and be met, over
+and over again during the lifetime of the same individual if the
+animal is to learn thereby. And intelligence is based upon
+experience. Hence insects can and do possess but a low grade of
+intelligence. But instinct is in many cases habit fixed by heredity
+and improved by selection. The rapid recurrence of successive
+generations was exceedingly favorable to the development of
+instincts, but very unfavorable to intelligence. Insects are
+instinctive, the highest vertebrates intelligent. The future can
+never belong to a tiny animal governed by instincts. Mollusks and
+insects have both failed to reach the goal; another plan of
+structure than theirs must be sought if the animal kingdom is to
+have a future.
+
+The future belonged to the vertebrate. To begin with less
+characteristic organs the digestive system is much like that of the
+annelid or schematic worm, but with greatly increased glandular and
+absorptive surfaces. The present mouth of nearly all vertebrates is
+probably not primitive. It is almost certainly one of the gill-slits
+of some old ancestor of fish, such as now are used to discharge the
+water which is used for respiration. The jaws are modified branchial
+arches or the cartilaginous or bony rods which in our present fish
+support the fringe of gills. These have formed a pair of exceedingly
+effective and powerful jaws. The reproductive system holds still to
+the old type and shows little if any improvement. The excretory
+organs, kidneys, are composed primitively of nephridial tubes like
+those of the schematic worm or annelid, but immensely increased in
+number, modified, and improved in certain very important
+particulars. The muscles in simplest forms are composed of heavy
+longitudinal bands, especially developed toward the dorsal surface
+of the body to the right and left of the axial skeleton. Locomotion
+was produced by lashing the tail right and left, as still in fish.
+There is improvement in all these organs, except perhaps the
+reproductive, but nothing very new or striking. The great
+improvement from this time on was not to be sought in the vegetative
+organs, or even directly to any great extent in muscles.
+
+The new and characteristic organ was not the vertebral column, or
+series of vertebrae, or backbone, from which the kingdom has derived
+its name. This was a later production. The primitive skeleton was
+the notochord, still appearing in the embryos of all vertebrates and
+persisting throughout life in fish. This is an elastic rod of
+cartilage, lying just beneath the spinal marrow or nerve-cord, which
+runs backward from the brain. The nerve-centres are therefore here
+all dorsal, and the notochord or skeleton lies between these and the
+digestive or alimentary canal. The skeleton of the clam or snail is
+purely protective and a hindrance to locomotion. That of the insect
+is almost purely locomotive, but external, that of the vertebrate
+purely locomotive and internal. It does not lie outside even of the
+nervous system, although this system especially required, and was
+worthy of, protection. It does not protect even the brain; the skull
+of vertebrates is an after-thought. It is almost the deepest seated
+of all organs. But lying in the central axis of the body it
+furnishes the very best possible attachment for muscles. Around this
+primitive notochord was a layer of connectile tissue which later
+gave rise to the vertebrae forming our backbone.
+
+  [Illustration: 10. CROSS-SECTION OF AXIAL SKELETON OF PETROMYZON.
+  HERTWIG, FROM HIEDERSHEIM.
+  _SS_, skeletogenous layer; _Ob_, _Ub_, dorsal and ventral processes
+  of _SS_; _C_, notochord; _Cs_, sheath of notochord; _Ee_, elastic
+  external layer of sheath; _F_, fatty tissue; _M_, spinal marrow;
+  _P_, sheath of _M_.]
+
+The nervous system on the dorsal surface of the notochord consists
+of the brain in the head and the spinal marrow running down the
+back. The brain of all except the very lowest vertebrates consists
+of four portions: 1. The cerebrum, or cerebral lobes, or simply
+"forebrain," the seat of consciousness, thought, and will, and from
+which no nerves proceed. Whether the primitive vertebrate had any
+cerebrum is still uncertain. 2. The mid-brain, which sends nerves to
+the eyes, and in this respect reminds us of the brain of insects.
+Its anterior portion appears from embryology to be very primitive.
+3. The small brain, or cerebellum, which in all higher forms is the
+centre for co-ordination of the motions of the body. 4. The medulla,
+which controls especially the internal organs. The spinal marrow, or
+that portion of the nervous system which lies outside of the head,
+is at the same time a great nerve-trunk and a centre for reflex
+action of the muscles of the body. But the development of these
+distinct portions and the division of labor between them must have
+been a long and gradual process.
+
+We have every reason to believe that here, as in insects, the head
+has been formed by annexation of segments from the rump and the
+fusion of their nervous matter with that of the brain. But here,
+instead of only three segments, from nine to fourteen have been
+fused in the head to furnish the material for the brain. Notochord
+and backbone may be the most striking and apparent characteristic of
+vertebrates, but their predominant characteristic is brain. On this
+system they lavished material, giving it from three to four times as
+much as any lower or earlier group had done. They very early set
+apart the cerebral lobes to be the commander-in-chief and centre of
+control for all other nerve-centres. To this all report, and from it
+all directly or indirectly receive orders. It can say to every
+other organ in the body, "Starve that I may live." It is the seat of
+thought and will. The other portions of the brain report to it what
+they have gathered of vision or sound; it explains the vision or
+song or parable. It is relieved as far as possible from all lower
+and routine work that it may think and remember and govern. The
+vertebrate built for mind, not neglecting the body.
+
+Every trait of vertebrates is a promise of a great future. Its
+internal skeleton gives it the possibility of large size. This gave
+it in time the victory in the struggle with its competitors, as to
+whether it should eat or be eaten. It is vigorous and powerful, for
+all its organs are at the best. It gives the possibility of later,
+on land, becoming warm-blooded, _i.e._, of maintaining a constant
+high temperature. It is thus resistant to climate and hardship. In
+time its descendants will face the arctic winter as well as the heat
+of the tropics.
+
+But it has started on the road which leads to mind. The greater size
+is correlated with longer life. The lessons of experience come to it
+over and over again, and it can and must learn them. It is the
+intelligent, remembering, thinking type. The insect had begun to
+peer into the world of invisible and intangible relations, the
+vertebrate will some day see them. This much is prophecied in his
+very structure. He must be heir to an indefinite future.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+You have probably noticed that the vertebrate differs greatly from
+all his predecessors. The gulf between him and them is indeed wide
+and deep. His origin and ancestry are yet far from certain. But an
+attempt to decipher his past history, though it may lead to no sure
+conclusions, will yet be of use to us. Practically all aquatic
+vertebrates lead a swimming life, neither sessile nor creeping. The
+embryonic development of our appendages leads to the same
+conclusion. We must never forget that the embryonic development of
+the individual recapitulates briefly the history of the development
+of the race. Now the legs and arms, or fore- and hind-legs, of
+higher vertebrates and the corresponding paired fins of fish develop
+in the embryo as portions of a long ridge extending from front to
+rear of the side of the body.
+
+This justifies the inference that the primitive vertebrate ancestor
+had a pair of long fins running along the sides of the body, but
+bending slightly downward toward the rear so as to meet one another
+and continue as a single caudal fin behind the anal opening. Such
+fins, like the feathers of an arrow, could be useful only to keep
+the animal "on an even keel" as it was forced through the water by
+the lateral sweeps of the tail. They would have been useless for
+creeping.
+
+But there is another piece of evidence that he was a free swimming
+form. All vertebrates breathe by gills or lungs, and these are
+modified portions of the digestive system, of the walls of the
+oesophagus, from which even the lung is an embryonic outgrowth.
+Now practically all invertebrates breathe through modified portions
+of the integument or outer surface of the body, and their gills are
+merely expansions of this. In the annelid they are projections of
+the parapodia, in the mollusk expansions of the skin, where the foot
+or creeping sole joins the body. Why did the vertebrate take a new
+and strange, and, at first sight, disadvantageous mode of
+breathing? There must have been some good reason for this. The most
+natural explanation would seem to be that he had no projections on
+his outer surface which could develop into gills, and farther, that
+he could not afford to have any. Now projections on the lower
+portion of the sides of the body would be an advantage in creeping,
+but a hindrance in any such mode of swimming as we have described,
+or indeed in any mode of writhing through the water.
+
+Furthermore, if he lived, not a creeping life on the bottom, but
+swimming in the water above, he would have to live almost entirely
+on microscopic animals and embryos; and these would be most easily
+captured by a current of water brought in at the mouth. The whole
+branchial apparatus in its simplest forms would seem to be an
+apparatus for sifting out the microscopic particles of food and only
+later a purely respiratory apparatus. Moreover, we have seen that
+the parapodia of annelids naturally point to the development of an
+external skeleton, for their muscles are already a part of the
+external body-wall and attached to the already existing horny
+cuticle. The logical goal of their development was the insect.
+
+Now I do not wish to conceal from you that many good zooelogists
+believe that the vertebrate is descended from annelids; but for this
+and other reasons such a descent appears to me very improbable. It
+would seem far more natural to derive the vertebrate from some free
+swimming form like the schematic worm, whose largest nerve-cord lay
+on the dorsal surface because its branches ran to heavy muscles much
+used in swimming. Later the other nerve-cords degenerated, for such
+a degeneration of nerve-cords is not at all impossible or
+improbable. "No thoroughfare" is often written across paths
+previously followed by blood or nervous impulses, when other paths
+have been found more economical or effective.
+
+But where did the notochord come from? I do not know. It always
+forms in the embryo out of the entoderm or layer which becomes the
+lining of the intestine. Now this is a very peculiar origin for
+cartilage, and the notochord is a very strange cartilage even if we
+have not made a mistake in calling it cartilage at all. My best
+guess would be that it is simply a thickened portion of the upper
+median surface of the intestine to keep the "balls" of digesting
+nutriment or other hard particles in the intestine from "grinding"
+against the nerve-cord as they are crowded along in the process of
+digestion. Once started its elasticity would be a great aid in
+swimming.
+
+Professor Brooks has called attention to the fact that the higher a
+group stands in development, the longer its ancestors have
+maintained a swimming life. Thus we have noticed that the sponges
+were the first to settle; then a little later the mass of the
+coelenterates followed their example. But the etenophora, the
+nearest relatives of bilateral animals, have remained free swimming.
+Then the flat worms and mollusks took to a creeping mode of life,
+while the annelids and vertebrates still swam. Then the annelids
+settled to the bottom and crept, and all their descendants remained
+creeping forms. The vertebrates alone remained swimming, and
+probably neither they nor their descendants ever crept until they
+emerged on the land, or as amphibia were preparing for land
+life. If this be true, it is a fact worthy of our most careful
+consideration. The swimming life would appear to be neither as easy
+nor as economical as the creeping. It is certainly hard to believe
+that food would not have been obtained with less effort and in
+greater abundance at the bottom than in the water above. The
+swimming life gave rise to higher and stronger forms; but did its
+maintenance give immediate advantage in the struggle for existence?
+This is an exceedingly interesting and important question, and
+demands most careful consideration. But we shall be better prepared
+to answer it in a future lecture.
+
+The period of development of mollusks, articulates, and vertebrates,
+is really one. They developed to a certain extent contemporaneously.
+The development of vertebrates was slow, and they were the last to
+appear on the stage of geological history.
+
+You must all have noticed that development, during this period,
+takes on a much more hopeful form than during that described in the
+last chapter. Then digestion and reproduction were dominant. Now
+muscle is of the greatest importance. If this fails of development,
+as in mollusks, the group is doomed to degeneration or at best
+stagnation. But we have seen the dawn of a still higher function. In
+insects and vertebrates the brain is becoming of importance, and
+absorbing more and more material. This is the promise of something
+vastly higher and better. Better sense-organs are appearing, fitted
+to aid in a wider perception of more distant objects. The vertebrate
+has discovered the right path; though a long journey still lies
+before it. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+VERTEBRATES: BACKBONE AND BRAIN
+
+
+In tracing man's ancestry from fish upward we ought properly to
+describe three or four fish, an amphibian, a reptile, and then take
+up the series of mammalian ancestors. But we have not sufficient
+time for so extended a study, and a simpler method may answer our
+purpose fairly well. Let us fix our attention on the few organs
+which still show the capacity of marked development, and follow each
+one of these rapidly in its upward course.
+
+We must remember that there are changes in the vegetative organs.
+The digestive and excretory systems improve. But this improvement is
+not for the sake of these vegetative functions. Brain and muscle
+demand vastly more fuel, and produce vastly more waste which must be
+removed. At almost the close of the series the reproductive system
+undergoes a modification which is almost revolutionary in its
+results. But we shall find that this modification is necessitated by
+the smaller amount of material which can be spared for this
+function; not by its increasing importance, still less its dominance
+for its own worth. The vertebrate is like an old Roman; everything
+is subordinated to mental and physical power. He is the world
+conqueror.
+
+The important changes from fish upward affect the following organs:
+1. The skeleton. A light, solid framework must be developed for the
+body. 2. The appendages start as fins, and end as the legs and arms
+of man. 3. The circulatory and respiratory systems developed so as
+to carry with the utmost rapidity and certainty fuel and oxygen to
+the muscular and nervous high-pressure engines. Or, to change the
+figure, they are the roads along which supplies and munitions can be
+carried to the army suddenly mobilized at any point on the frontier.
+4. Above all, the brain, especially the cerebrum, the crown and goal
+of vertebrate structure. The improvement is now practically
+altogether in the animal organs of locomotion and thought. Still,
+among these animal organs, the lower systems will lead in point of
+time. The brain must to a certain extent wait for the skeleton.
+
+1. The skeleton. The axial skeleton consists, in the lowest fish, of
+the notochord, a cylindrical unsegmented rod of cartilage running
+nearly the length of the body. This is surrounded by a sheath of
+connective tissue, at first merely membranous, later becoming
+cartilaginous or gristly. Pieces of cartilage extend upward over the
+spinal marrow, and downward around the great aortic artery, forming
+the neural and haemal arches. These unite with the masses of
+cartilage surrounding the notochord to form cartilaginous vertebrae,
+which may be stiffened by an infiltration of carbonate of lime. The
+vertebral column of sharks has reached this stage. Then the
+cartilaginous vertebrae ossify and form a true backbone. I have
+described the process as if it were very simple. But only the
+student of comparative osteology can have any conception of the
+number of experiments which were tried in different groups before
+the definite mode of forming a bony vertebra was attained. At the
+same time the skull was developing in a somewhat similar manner. But
+the skull is far more complex in origin and undergoes far more
+numerous and important changes than the simpler vertebral column.
+Into its history we have no time to enter.
+
+And what shall we say of bone itself as a mere material or tissue,
+with its admirable lightness, compactness, and flawlessness. And
+every bone in our body is a triumph of engineering architecture. No
+engineer could better recognize the direction of strain and stress,
+and arrange his rods and columns, arches and buttresses, to suitably
+meet them, than these problems are solved in the long bone of our
+thigh. And they must be lengthened while the child is leaping upon
+them. An engineer is justly proud if he can rebuild or lengthen a
+bridge without delaying the passage of a single train. But what
+would he say if you asked him to rebuild a locomotive, while it was
+running even twenty miles an hour? And yet a similar problem had to
+be solved in our bodies.
+
+But the vertebral column is not perfected by fish. The vertebrae with
+few exceptions are hollow in front and behind, biconcave; and
+between each two vertebrae there is a large cavity still occupied by
+the notochord. Thus these vertebrae join one another by their edges,
+like two shallow wine-glasses placed rim to rim. Only gradually is
+the notochord crowded out so that the vertebrae join by their whole
+adjacent surfaces. Even in highest forms, for the sake of mobility,
+they are united by washer-like disks of cartilage. Biconcave
+vertebrae persisted through the oldest amphibia, reptiles, and
+birds. But finally a firm backbone and skull were attained.
+
+2. The appendages. Of these we can say but little. The fish has
+oar-like fins, attached to the body by a joint, but themselves
+unjointed. By the amphibia legs, with the same regions as our own
+and with five toes, have already appeared. The development of the
+leg out of the fin is one of the most difficult and least understood
+problems of vertebrate comparative anatomy. The legs are at first
+weak and scarcely capable of supporting the body. Only gradually do
+they strengthen into the fore- and hind-legs of mammals, or into the
+legs and wings of birds and old flying reptiles.
+
+3. Changes in the circulatory and respiratory systems. The fish
+lives altogether in the water and breathes by gills, but the dipnoi
+among fishes breathes by lungs as well as gills. As long as
+respiration takes place by gills alone, the circulation is simple;
+the blood flows from the heart to the gills, and thence directly all
+over the body; the oxygenated blood from the gills does not return
+directly to the heart. But the blood from the lungs does return to
+the heart; and there at first mixes in the ventricle with the impure
+blood which has returned from the rest of the body. Gradually a
+partition arises in the ventricle, dividing it into a right and left
+half. Thus the two circulations of the venous blood to the lungs,
+and of the oxygenated blood over the body, are more and more
+separated until, in higher reptiles, they become entirely distinct.
+
+As the animal came on land and breathed the air, more completely
+oxygenated blood was carried to the organs, and their activity was
+greatly heightened. As more and more heat was produced by the
+combustion in muscular and nervous tissues, and less was lost by
+conduction, the temperature of the body rose, and in birds and
+mammals becomes constant several degrees above the highest summer
+temperature of the surrounding air.
+
+The changes in the brain affect mainly the large and small brain.
+The cerebellum increases with the greater locomotive powers of the
+animal. But its development is evidently limited. The large brain,
+or cerebrum, is in fish hardly as heavy as the mid-brain; in
+amphibia the reverse is true. In higher recent reptiles the cerebrum
+would somewhat outweigh all the other portions of the brain put
+together. In mammals it extends upward and backward, has already in
+lower forms overspread the mid-brain, and is beginning to cover the
+small brain. But this was not so in the earliest mammals. Here the
+cerebrum was small, more like that of reptiles. But during the
+tertiary period the large brain began to increase with marvellous
+rapidity. It was very late in arriving at the period of rapid
+development, but it kept on after all the other organs of the body
+had settled down into comparative rest, perhaps retrogression.
+
+We have given thus a rapid sketch in outline of the changes in the
+most characteristic systems between fish and mammals. Some of the
+changes which took place in mammals were along the same lines, but
+one at least is so new and unexpected that this highest class
+demands more careful and detailed examination.
+
+The mammal is a vertebrate. Hence all its organs are at their best.
+But mammals stand, all things considered, at the head of
+vertebrates. The skeleton is firm and compact. The muscles are
+beautifully moulded and fitted to the skeleton so as to produce the
+greatest effect with the least mass and weight of tissue. The
+sense-organs are keen, and the eye and ear especially delicate, and
+fitted for perception at long range. Yet in all these respects they
+are surpassed by birds. As a mere anatomical machine the bird always
+seems to me superior to the mammal. It is not easy to see why it
+failed, as it has, to reach the goal of possibility of indefinite
+development and dominance in the animal world. Why he stopped short
+of the higher brain development I cannot tell. The fact remains that
+the mammal is pre-eminent in brain power, and that this gave him the
+supremacy.
+
+But mammals came very late to the throne, and the probability of
+their ever gaining it must for ages have appeared very doubtful.
+They seem to have been a fairly old group with a very slow early
+development. Reptiles especially, and even birds, were far more
+precocious than these slower and weaker forms which crept along the
+earth. But reptiles and birds, like many other precocious children,
+soon reached the limit of their development. They had muscle, the
+mammal brain and nerve; the mammal had the staying power and the
+future. Bitter and discouraging must have been the struggle of these
+feeble early mammals with their larger, swifter, and more powerful,
+reptilian relatives. And yet, perhaps, by this very struggle the
+mammal was trained to shrewdness and endurance.
+
+The primitive mammals laid eggs like reptiles or birds. Only two
+genera, echidna and platypus, survive to bear witness of these old
+oviparous groups, and these only in New Zealand. These retain
+several old reptilian characteristics. Their lower position is shown
+also by the fact that the temperature of their bodies is, at least,
+ten degrees Fahrenheit below that of higher mammals. One of these
+carries the egg in a pouch on the ventral surface; the other, living
+largely in water, deposits its eggs in a nest in a burrow in the
+side of the bank of the stream.
+
+After these came the marsupials. In these the eggs develop in a sort
+of uterus; but there is no placenta, in the sense of an organic
+connection between the embryo and the uterus of the mother. The
+young are at birth exceedingly small and feeble. The adult giant
+Kangaroo weighs over one hundred pounds; the young are at birth not
+as large as your thumb. They are placed by the mother in a marsupial
+pouch on her ventral surface, and here nourished till able to care
+for themselves.
+
+Pardon a moment's digression. The marsupials, except the opossum,
+are confined to Australia, and the oviparous mammals, or monotremes,
+to New Zealand. Formerly the marsupials, at least, ranged all over
+Europe and Asia, for we have indisputable evidence in their fossil
+remains. But they have survived only in this isolated area, and here
+apparently only because their isolation preserved them from the
+competition with higher forms. If the Australian continent had not
+been thus early cut off from all the rest of the world, the only
+trace of both these lower groups would have been the opossum in
+America and certain peculiarities in the development of the egg in
+higher mammals. This shows us how much weight should be assigned to
+the formerly popular argument of the "missing links." The wonder is
+not that so many links are missing, but that any of these primitive
+forms have come down to us. For we see here another proof of the
+fearful extermination of lower forms during the progress of life on
+the globe. It seems as if the intermediate forms were less common
+among these most recent animals than among the older types. This may
+not be true, for it is not easy to compare the gap between two
+mammals with that between two worms or insects, and mistakes are
+very easily made. But it seems as if extermination had done its work
+more ruthlessly among these highest forms than among their humbler
+and lower ancestors. I would not lay much weight on such an opinion;
+but, if true, it has a meaning and is worthy of study.
+
+In higher, true, placental mammals the period of pregnancy is much
+longer, and the young are born in a far higher stage of development,
+or rather, growth. The stage of growth at which the young are born
+differs markedly in different groups. A new-born kitten is a much
+feebler, less developed being than a new-born calf. An embryonic
+appendage, the allantois, used in reptiles and birds for
+respiration, has here been turned to another purpose. It lays itself
+against the walls of the uterus, uterine projections interlock with
+those which it puts forth, and the blood of the mother circulates
+through a host of capillaries separated from those of the blood
+system of the embryo only by the thinnest membrane. This is the
+placenta, developed, in part from the allantois of the embryo, in
+part from the uterus of the mother. It is not a new organ, but an
+old one turned to better and fuller use. In these closely
+associated systems of blood-vessels, nutriment and oxygen diffuse
+from the blood of the mother into that of the embryo, and thus rapid
+growth is assured. The importance and far-reaching effect of this
+new modification in the old reproductive system cannot be
+over-estimated. The internal intra-uterine development of the young,
+and the mammalian habit of suckling them, far more than any other
+factors, have made man what he is. Some explanation must be sought
+for such a fact.
+
+We have already seen that any animal devotes to reproduction the
+balance between income and expenditure of nutriment. Now, the
+digestive system is here well developed, and the income is large.
+But we have already noticed that, as animals grow larger, the ratio
+between the digestive surface and the mass to be supported grows
+continually smaller. On account of size alone the mammal has but a
+small balance. But the amount of expenditure is proportional to the
+mass and activity of the muscular and nervous systems. And the
+mammal is, and from the beginning had to be, an exceedingly active,
+energetic, and nervous animal. The income has increased, but the
+expenses have far outrun the increase. The mammal can devote but
+little to reproduction.
+
+Moreover, it requires a large amount of material to form a mammalian
+egg, such as that of the monotreme. It requires indefinitely more
+nutriment to build a mammal than a worm, for the former is not only
+larger and more perfect at birth; it is also vastly more
+complicated. The embryonic journey has, so to speak, lengthened out
+immensely. One monotreme egg represents more economy and saving than
+a thousand eggs of a worm. Moreover, where the individuals are
+longer lived and the generations follow one another at longer
+intervals, the number of favorable variations and the possibility of
+conformity to environment through these is greatly lessened. In such
+a group it is of the utmost importance that every egg should
+develop; the destruction of a single one is a real and important
+loss to the species. It is not enough to produce such an egg; it
+must be most scrupulously guarded. Even the egg of the platypus is
+deposited in a nest in a hole in the bank, and the female Echidna
+carries the egg in a marsupial pouch until it develops.
+
+Notice further that among certain species of fish, amphibia, and
+reptiles, the females carry the eggs in the body until the embryos
+or young are fairly developed. Viviparous forms are unknown by
+birds, probably because this mode of development is incompatible
+with flight, their dominant characteristic. Putting these facts
+together, what more probable than that certain primitive egg-laying
+mammals should have carried the eggs as long as possible in the
+uterus. The embryo under these conditions would be better nourished
+by a secretion of the uterine glands than by a very large amount of
+yolk. The yolk would diminish and the egg decrease in size, and thus
+the marsupial mode of development would have resulted. And, given
+the marsupial mode of development and an embryo possessing an
+allantois, it is almost a physiological necessity that in some forms
+at least a placenta should develop. That the placenta has resulted
+from some such process of evolution is proven by its different
+stages of development in different orders of mammals. And even the
+feeblest attachment of the allantois of the embryo to the wall of
+the uterus would be of the greatest advantage to the species.
+
+This is not the whole explanation; other factors still undiscovered
+were undoubtedly concerned. But even this shows us that the internal
+development of the young and the habit of suckling them was a
+logical result of mammalian structure and position. The grand
+results of this change we shall trace farther on.
+
+The changes from the lower true mammals to the apes are of great
+interest, but we can notice only one or two of the more important.
+The prosimii, or "half apes," including the lemurs, are nearly all
+arboreal forms. Perhaps they were driven to this life by their more
+powerful competitors. The arboreal life developed the fingers and
+toes, and most of these end, not with a claw, but with a nail. The
+little group has much diversity of structure, and at present finds
+its home mainly in Madagascar; though in earlier times apparently
+occurring all over the globe. The brain is more highly developed
+than in the average mammal, but far inferior to that of the apes.
+They have a fairly opposable thumb.
+
+The highest mammals are the primates. Their characteristics are the
+following: Fingers and toes all armed with nails, the eyes
+comparatively near together and fully enclosed in a bony case. The
+cerebrum with well-developed furrows covers the other portions of
+the brain. There is but one pair of milk-glands, and these on the
+breast. The differences between hand and foot become most strongly
+marked by the "anthropoid" apes. These have become accustomed to an
+upright gait in their climbing; hence the feet are used for
+supporting the body and the hands for grasping. Both thumb and
+great toe are opposable; but the foot is a true foot, and the hand a
+true hand, in anatomical structure. The face, hands, and feet have
+mainly lost the covering of hair. They have no tail, or rather its
+rudiments are concealed beneath the skin. These include the gibbon,
+the orang, the gorilla, and the chimpanzee.
+
+We can sum up the few attainments of mammals in a line. The lower
+forms attained the placental mode of embryonic development; the
+higher attained upright gait, hands and feet, and a great increase
+of brain. Anatomically considered these were but trifles, but the
+addition of these trifles revolutionized life on the globe. The
+principal anatomical differences between man and the anthropoid ape
+are the following: Man is a strictly erect animal. The foot of the
+ape is less fitted for walking on the ground, where he usually "goes
+on all fours." The skull is almost balanced on the condyles by which
+it articulates with the neck, and has but slight tendency to tip
+forward. The facial portion, nose and jaws, is less developed and
+retracted beneath the larger cranium or brain-case. This has greatly
+changed the appearance of the head. Protruding jaws and chin, even
+when combined with large cranium and brain, always give man the
+appearance of brutality and low intelligence.
+
+The pelvis is broad and comparatively shallow. The legs, especially
+the thighs, are long. The foot is long and strong, and rests its
+lower surface, not merely the outer margin as in apes, on the
+ground. The elastic arch of the instep must be excepted in the above
+description, and adds lightness and swiftness to his otherwise slow
+gait. The great toe is short and generally not opposable. The
+muscles of the leg are heavy and the knee-joint has a very broad
+articulating surface. But the great result of man's erect posture is
+that the hand is set free from the work of locomotion, and has
+become a delicate tactile and tool-using organ. The importance of
+this change we cannot over-estimate. The hand was the servant of the
+brain for trying all experiments. Had not our arboreal ancestors
+developed the hand for us we could never have invented tools nor
+used them if invented. And its reflex influence in developing the
+brain has been enormous. The arm is shorter and the hand smaller.
+The brain is absolutely and relatively large, and its surface
+greatly convoluted. This gives place for a large amount of "gray
+matter," whose functions are perception, thought, and will. For this
+gray matter forms a layer on the outside of the brain.
+
+Thus, even anatomically, man differs from the anthropoid apes. His
+whole structure is moulded to and by the higher mental powers, so
+that he is the "Anthropos" of the old Greek philosophers, the being
+who "turns his face upward." Yet in all these anatomical respects
+some of the apes differ less from him than from the lower apes or
+"half apes." And every one of these can easily be explained as the
+result of progressive development and modification. Whoever will
+deny the possibility or probability of man's development from some
+lower form must argue on psychological, not on anatomical, grounds;
+and it grows clearer every day that even the former but poorly
+justify such a denial.
+
+But it is interesting to note that no one ape most closely
+approaches man in all anatomical respects. Thus among the
+anthropoids the orang is perhaps most similar to man in cerebral
+structure, the chimpanzee in form of skull, the gorilla in feet and
+hands. No evolutionist would claim that any existing ape represents
+the ancestor of man. The anthropoids represent very probably the
+culmination of at least three distinct lines of development. But we
+must remember that in early tertiary times apes occurred all over
+Europe, and probably Asia, many degrees farther north than now. In
+those days, as later, the fauna and flora of northern climates were
+superior in vigor and height of development to that of Africa or
+Australia. It is thus, to say the least, not at all improbable that
+there existed in those times apes considerably, if not far, superior
+to any surviving forms. Whether the palaeontologist will find for us
+remains of such anthropoids is still to be seen.
+
+But you will naturally ask, "Is there not, after all, a vast
+difference between the brain of man and that of the ape?" Let us
+examine this question as fully as our very brief time will allow.
+Considerable emphasis used to be laid on the facial angle between a
+line drawn parallel to the base of the skull and one obliquely
+vertical touching the teeth and most prominent portion of the
+forehead. Now this angle is in man very large--from seventy-five to
+eighty-five degrees, or even more, and rarely falling below
+sixty-five degrees. But this angle depends largely on the protrusion
+of the jaws, and varies greatly in species of animals showing much
+the same grade of intelligence. In some not especially intelligent
+South American monkeys the facial angle amounts to about sixty-five
+degrees. In this respect the skull of a chimpanzee reminds us of a
+human skull of small cranial capacity and large jaws, in which the
+cranium has been pressed back and the jaws crowded forward and
+slightly upward.
+
+The weight of the brain in proportion to that of the body has been
+considered as of great importance, and within certain limits this is
+undoubtedly correct. Thus, according to Leuret, the weight of the
+brain is to that of the whole body: In fish, 1:5,668; in reptiles,
+1:1,320; in birds, 1:212; in mammals, 1:186. These figures give the
+averages of large numbers of observations and have a certain
+amount of value. But within the same class the ratio varies
+extraordinarily. Thus the weight of the brain is to that of the
+whole body: In the elephant, 1:500; in the largest dogs, 1:305; in
+the cat, 1:156; in the rat, 1:76; in the chimpanzee, 1:50; in man,
+1:36; in the field-mouse, 1:31; in the goldfinch, 1:24.
+
+From this series it is evident that the relative weight of the brain
+is no index of the intelligence of the animal. Indeed if the brain
+were purely an organ of mind, there is no reason that it should be
+any larger in an elephant than in a mouse, provided they had the
+same mental capacity. As animals grow larger the weight of the
+brain, relatively to that of the body, decreases, and considering
+the size of man it is remarkable that it should form so large a
+fraction of his weight. Still the fraction in the chimpanzee is not
+so much smaller. It is still possible that this fraction is above
+the normal for the chimpanzee, for some of the observations may have
+been taken on animals which had died of consumption or some other
+wasting disease. I have not been able to find whether this
+possibility of error has been scrupulously avoided.
+
+A fair idea of the size of the brain may be obtained by measuring
+the cranial capacity. This varies in man from almost one-hundred
+cubic inches to less than seventy. In the gorilla its average is
+perhaps thirty, in the orang and chimpanzee rather less, about
+twenty-eight. This is certainly a vast difference, especially when
+we remember that the gorilla far exceeds man in weight.
+
+Le Bon tells us that of a series of skulls forty-five per cent, of
+the Australian had a cranial capacity of 1,200 to 1,300 c.c., while
+46.7 per cent. of modern Parisian skulls showed a capacity of
+between 1,500 and 1,600 c.c. The skull of the gorilla contains about
+five hundred and seventy cubic centimetres. Broca found that the
+cranial capacity of 115 Parisian skulls, of probably the higher
+classes from the twelfth century, averaged about 1,426 cubic
+centimetres, while ninety of those of the poorer classes of the
+nineteenth century averaged about 1,484. His observations seemed to
+prove that there has been a steady increase in Parisian cranial
+capacity from the twelfth to the nineteenth century.
+
+Turning to the actual weight of the brain, that of Cuvier weighed
+64.5 ounces, and a few cases of weights exceeding 65 ounces have
+been recorded. The lowest limit of weight in a normal human brain
+has not yet been accurately determined. From 34 to 31 ounces have
+been assigned by different writers. The brain of a Bush woman was
+computed by Marshall at 31.5 ounces, and weights of even 31 ounces
+have been recorded without any note to show that the possessors were
+especially lacking in intelligence. As Professor Huxley says in his
+"Man's Place in Nature," a little book which I cannot too highly
+recommend to you all, "It may be doubted whether a healthy human
+adult brain ever weighed less than 31 or 32 ounces, or that the
+heaviest gorilla brain has ever exceeded 20 ounces. The difference
+in weight of brain between the highest and the lowest men is far
+greater, both relatively and absolutely, than that between the
+lowest man and the highest ape. The latter, as has been seen, is
+represented by 12 ounces of cerebral substance absolutely, or by
+32:20 relatively. But as the largest recorded human brain weighed
+between 65 and 66 ounces, the former difference is represented by 33
+ounces absolutely, or by 65:32 relatively."
+
+But there is another characteristic of the brain which seems to bear
+a close relation to the degree of intelligence. The surface of the
+human brain is not smooth but covered with convolutions, with
+alternating grooves or sulci, which vastly increase its surface and
+thus make room for more gray matter. Says Gratiolett: "On comparing
+a series of human and simian brains we are immediately struck with
+the analogy exhibited in the cerebral forms in all these creatures.
+There is a cerebral form peculiar to man and the apes; and so in the
+cerebral convolutions, wherever they appear, there is a general
+unity of arrangement, a plan, the type of which is common to all
+these creatures." Professor Huxley says: "It is most remarkable
+that, as soon as all the principal sulci appear, the pattern
+according to which they are arranged is identical with the
+corresponding sulci in man. The surface of the brain of the monkey
+exhibits a sort of skeleton map of man's, and in the man-like apes
+the details become more and more filled in, until it is only in
+minor characters that the chimpanzee's or orang's brain can be
+structurally distinguished from man's."
+
+The facts of anatomy, at least, are all against us. Struggle as we
+may, be as snobbish as we will, we cannot shake off these poor
+relations of ours. Our adult anatomy at once betrays our ancestry,
+if we attempt to deny it. Read the first chapter of that remarkable
+book by Professor Drummond on the "Ascent of Man," the chapter on
+the ascent of the body, and the second chapter on the scaffolding
+left in the body. The tips of our ears and our rudimentary ear
+muscles, the hair on hand and arm, and the little plica semilunaris,
+or rudimentary third eyelid in the inner angle of our eyes, the
+vermiform appendage of the intestine, the coracoid process on our
+shoulder-blades, the atlas vertebra of our necks--to say nothing of
+the coccyx at the other end of the backbone--many malformations, and
+a host of minor characteristics all refute our denial.
+
+If we appeal from adult anatomy to embryology the case becomes all
+the worse for us. Our ear is lodged in the gill-slit of a fish, our
+jaws are branchial arches, our hyoid bone the rudiment of this
+system of bones supporting the gills. Our circulation begins as a
+veritable fish circulation; our earliest skeleton is a notochord;
+Meckel's cartilage, from which our lower jaw and the bones of our
+middle ear develop, is a whole genealogical tree of disagreeable
+ancestors. Our glandula thyreoidea has, according to good
+authorities, an origin so slimy that it should never be mentioned in
+polite society. The origin of our kidneys appears decidedly vermian.
+Time fails me to read merely the name of the witnesses which could
+be summoned from our own bodies to witness against us.
+
+Even if the testimony of some of these witnesses is not as strong
+as many think, and we have misunderstood several of them, they are
+too numerous and their stories hang too well together not to impress
+an intelligent and impartial jury. But what if it is all true? What
+if, as some think, our millionth cousin, the tiger or cat, is
+anatomically a better mammal than I? His teeth and claws and
+magnificent muscles are of small value compared with man's mental
+power.
+
+What a comedy that man should work so hard to prove that his chief
+glory is his opposable thumb, or a few ounces of brain matter! Man's
+glory is his mind and will, his reason and moral powers, his vision
+of, and communion with, God. And supposing it be true, as I believe
+it is true, that the animal has the germ of these also, does that
+cloud my mind or obscure my vision or weaken my action? It bids me
+only strive the harder to be worthy of the noble ancestors who have
+raised me to my higher level and on whose buried shoulders I stand.
+Whatever may have been our origin, whoever our ancestors, we are
+men. Then let us play the man. If we will but play our part as well
+as our old ancestors played theirs, if we will but walk and act
+according to our light one-half as heroically and well as they
+groped in the darkness, we need not worry about the future. That
+will be assured.
+
+Says Professor Huxley: "Man now stands as on a mountain-top far
+above the level of his humble fellows, and transfigured from his
+grosser nature by reflecting here and there a ray from the infinite
+source of truth. And thoughtful man, once escaped from the blinding
+influences of traditional prejudice, will find in the lowly stock
+whence man has sprung the best evidence of the splendor of his
+capacities, and will discern in his long progress through the past a
+reasonable ground of faith in his attainment of a nobler future."
+
+We have sketched hastily and in rude outline the anatomical
+structure of the successive stages of man's ancestry; let us now, in
+a very brief recapitulation, condense this chronicle into a
+historical record of progress.
+
+We began with the amoeba. This could not have been the beginning.
+In all its structure it tells us of something earlier and far
+simpler, but what this earlier ancestor was we do not know. Rather
+more highly organized relatives of the amoeba, the flagellata,
+have produced a membrane, and swim by means of vibratile,
+whiplash-like flagella. We must emphasize that these little animals
+correspond in all essential respects to the cells of our bodies;
+they are unicellular animals. And the cell once developed remains
+essentially the same structure, modified only in details, throughout
+higher animals. And these unicellular animals have the rudiments of
+all our functions. Their protoplasm and functions seem to differ
+from those of higher animals only in degree, not in kind. And the
+more we consider both these facts the more remarkable and suggestive
+do they become.
+
+Cells with membranes can unite in colonies capable of division of
+labor and differentiation. And magosphaera is just such a little
+spheroidal colony. But the cells are still all alike, each one
+performs all functions equally well. But in volvox division of labor
+and differentiation of structure have taken place. Certain cells
+have become purely reproductive, while the rest gather nutriment for
+these, but are at the same time sensitive and locomotive, excretory
+and respiratory. The first function to have cells specially devoted
+to it is the reproductive; this is a function absolutely necessary
+for the maintenance of the species. For the nutritive cells die when
+they have brought the reproductive cells to their full development.
+These few nutritive cells represent the body of all higher animals
+in contrast with the reproductive elements. And with the development
+of a body, death, as a normal process, enters the world. The
+dominant function is here evidently the reproductive, and the whole
+body is subservient to this.
+
+In hydra the union and differentiation of cells is carried further.
+But the cells are still much alike and only slowly lose their own
+individuality in that of the whole animal. This is shown in the fact
+that each entodermal cell digests its own particles of food,
+although the nutriment once digested diffuses to all parts of the
+body. Also almost any part of the animal containing both ectoderm
+and entoderm can be cut off and will develop into a new animal.
+
+But beside the reproductive cells and tissues hydra has developed a
+very simple digestive system, in which the newly caught food at
+least macerates and begins to be dissolved. This is the second
+essential function. The animal can, and the plant as a rule does,
+exist with only the lowest rudiments of anything like nervous or
+muscular power; but no species can exist without good powers of
+digestion and reproduction. These essential organs must first
+develop and the higher must wait. And the inner, digestive, layer of
+cells persists in our bodies as the lining of the mid-intestine. We
+compared hydra therefore to a little patch of the lining of our
+intestine covered with a flake of epidermis; only these layers in
+hydra possess powers lost to the corresponding cells of our bodies
+in the process of differentiation. Notice, please, that when cell or
+organ has once been developed it persists, as a rule, modified, but
+not lost. Nature's experiments are not in vain; her progress is very
+slow but sure. But hydra has also the promise of better things,
+traces of muscular and nervous tissue. There are still no compact
+muscles, like our own, much less ganglion or brain or nerve-centre
+of individuality. The tissues are diffuse, but they are the
+materials out of which the organs of higher animals will
+crystallize, so to speak. Notice also that these higher muscles and
+nerves are here entirely subservient to, and exist for, digestion
+and reproduction.
+
+In the turbellaria the reproductive system has reached a very high
+grade of development. It is a complex and beautifully constructed
+organ. The digestive system has also vastly improved; it has its own
+muscular layers, and often some means of grasping food. But it is
+slower in reaching its full development than the reproductive
+system. But all the muscles are no longer attached to the stomach;
+they are beginning to assert their independence, and, in a rude way,
+to build a body-wall. But they are in many layers, and run in almost
+all directions. Some of these layers will disappear, but the most
+important ones, consisting of longitudinal and transverse fibres,
+will persist in higher forms. Locomotion by means of these muscles
+is slowly coming into prominence. They are no longer merely slaves
+of digestion.
+
+But a muscular fibril contracts only under the stimulus of a nervous
+impulse. More nerve-cells are necessary to control these more
+numerous muscular fibrils. The animal now moves with one end
+foremost, and that end first comes in contact with food, hindrances,
+or injurious surroundings. Here the sensory cells of feeling and
+their nerve fibrils multiply. Remember that these neuro-epithelial
+sensory cells are suited to respond not merely to pressure, but to a
+variety of the stimuli, chemical, molecular, and of vibration, which
+excite our organs of smell, taste, and hearing. Such organs and the
+directive eyes appear mainly at this anterior end. But a ganglion
+cell sends an impulse to a muscle because it has received one along
+a sensory nerve from one or more of these sensory cells. Hence the
+ganglion cells will increase in number. The old cobweb-like plexus
+condenses into a little knot, the supra-oesophageal ganglion. This
+ganglion cannot do much, if any, thinking; it is rather a steering
+organ to control the muscles and guide the animal. It is the servant
+of the locomotive system. Yet it is the beginning of the brain of
+higher animals, and probably still persists as an infinitesimal
+portion of our human brain. And all this is the prophecy of a head
+soon to be developed. An excretory system has appeared to carry off
+the waste of the muscles and nerves.
+
+In the schematic worm and annelid the reproductive system is
+simpler, though perhaps equally effective. It takes the excess of
+nutriment of the body. The muscular system has taken the form of a
+sack composed of longitudinal and transverse fibres. The
+perivisceral cavity, formed perhaps by cutting off and enlarging the
+lateral pouches of the turbellarian digestive system, serves as a
+very simple but serviceable circulatory system. But in the annelid
+and all higher forms a special system of tubes has developed to
+carry the nutriment, and usually oxygen also, needed to keep up the
+combustion required to furnish the energy in these active organs.
+The digestive system has attained its definite form with the
+appearance of an anal opening and the accompanying division of labor
+and differentiation into fore-, mid-, and hind-intestine.
+
+The digestive and reproductive systems have thus nearly attained
+their final form. From the higher worms upward the digestive system
+will improve greatly. Its lining will fold and flex and vastly
+increase the digestive and absorptive surfaces. The layer of cells
+which now secrete the digestive fluids will in part be replaced by
+massive glands. Far better means of grasping food than the horny
+teeth of annelids will yet appear. But all these changes are
+inconsiderable compared with the vast advance made by the muscular
+and nervous systems. Reproduction and digestion are losing their
+supremacy in the animal body. Their advance and improvement will
+require but little further attention.
+
+In the annelid especially, and to some extent in the schematic worm,
+the supra-oesophageal ganglion is relieved in part of the direct
+control of the muscular fibrils and has become an organ of
+perception and the seat of government of lower nervous centres. In
+all higher forms it innervates directly only the principal
+sense-organs of the head. And at this stage the light-perceiving
+directive eye has developed into a form-perceiving, eidoscopic
+organ. The eye was short of range and its images were perhaps rude
+and imperfect, but it was a visual eye and had vast possibilities.
+The animal is taking cognizance of ever more subtle elements in its
+environment. Perhaps it is not too much to say that the eidoscopic
+eye first awakened the slumbering animal mind, for its reflex effect
+upon the supra-oesophageal ganglion cannot be over-estimated. The
+animal will very soon begin to think.
+
+Between the turbellarian and the annelid many aberrant lines
+diverged. Some of these attained a comparatively high level and then
+seemed to meet insuperable obstacles, while others came to an end or
+turned downward very early. Three of these demanded attention, those
+leading to mollusks, insects, and vertebrates. And it is interesting
+to notice that the fundamental difference between these three lines
+was the skeleton, or perhaps we ought to say it was the habit of
+life which led to the development of such a skeleton.
+
+The mollusk took to a sluggish, creeping mode of life, under an
+external purely protective skeleton; the insect to a creeping mode
+of life, with an external but almost purely locomotive skeleton; the
+vertebrate kept on swimming and developed an internal locomotive
+skeleton. And it must already have become clear to you that the
+destiny of these different lines was fixed not so much directly by
+the skeleton itself as by its reflex effect in moulding the
+muscular, and ultimately the nervous, system.
+
+The insects formed their skeleton by thickening the horny cuticle of
+the annelid. They transformed the annelid parapodia into legs and
+developed wings. They attained life in the air. They devoted the
+muscles of the body largely to the extremities and gained swift
+locomotion. They have a fair circulatory and an excellent
+respiratory system. Best of all, they developed a head and a brain
+by fusing the three anterior ganglia of the body. The insect could
+and does think. Such a structure ought to lead to great and high
+results. But actually their possibilities were very limited. They
+have not progressed markedly during the last geological period.
+Their external skeleton was easily attained and brought speedy
+advantages, which for a time placed them far above all competitors.
+But it limited their size and length of life and opportunities, and
+finally their intelligence. They remained largely the slaves of
+instinct. They followed an attractive and exceedingly promising
+path, but it led to the bottom of a cliff, not to the summit.
+
+The mollusks, clams, and snails took an easier, down-hill road. They
+formed a shell, and it developed large enough to cover them. It
+hampered and almost destroyed locomotion and reduced nerve to a
+minimum. But nerves are nothing but a nuisance anyhow. And why
+should they move? Food was plenty down in the mud, and if danger
+threatened, they withdrew into the shell. They stayed down in the
+mud and let the world go its way. If grievously afflicted by a
+parasite they produced a pearl--to save themselves from further
+discomfort. They developed just enough muscle and nervous system to
+close the shell or drag it a little way; that was all. Digestion and
+reproduction retained the supremacy. They were fruitful and
+multiplied, and produced hosts of other clams and snails. The
+present was enough for them and they had that.
+
+For if the winner in the struggle for existence is the one who gains
+the most food, the most entire protection against discomfort, danger
+from enemies or unfavorable surroundings, and the most fruitful and
+rapid reproduction--and these are all good--then the clam is the
+highest product of evolution. It never has been surpassed--I venture
+to say it never can be--except possibly by the tape-worms. I can
+never help thinking with what contempt these primitive oysters, if
+they had had brains enough, would have looked down upon the toiling,
+struggling, discontented, fighting, aspiring primitive vertebrates.
+How they would have wondered why God allowed such disagreeable,
+disturbing, unconventional creatures to exist, and thanked him that
+he had made the world for them, and heaven too, if there be such a
+place for mollusks. Their road led to the Slough of Contentment.
+
+But even in molluscan history there was a tragic chapter. The squids
+and cuttle-fishes regained the swimming life, and in their latest
+forms gave up the protective shell. But its former presence had so
+modified their structure that any great advance was impossible. It
+was too late. The sins of the fathers were visited upon the children
+in the thousandth generation.
+
+The vertebrate developed an internal skeleton. This was necessarily
+a slow growth, and the type came late to supremacy. The longitudinal
+muscles are arranged in heavy bands on each side of the back, and
+the animal swims rapidly. The sense-organs are keen. The brain
+contains the ganglia of several or many segments and is highly
+differentiated. It has a special centre of perception, thought, and
+will; it is an organ of mind. The vertebrate has the physical and
+mental advantages of large size.
+
+First the definite form and mode of developing a vertebra is
+attained. Then the vertebral column is perfected. The fins are
+modified into legs. The lungs increase in size and the heart becomes
+double. The animal emerges on land; and, with a better supply of
+oxygen and less loss of heat, all the functions are performed with
+the highest possible efficiency. First, apparently, amphibia, then
+reptiles, and finally mammals of enormous size and strength
+appeared. It looked as if the earth were to be an arena where
+gigantic beasts fought a never-ending battle of brute force. But
+these great brutes reproduced slowly, had therefore little power of
+adaptation, were fitted to special conditions, and when the
+conditions changed they disappeared. The bird tried once more the
+experiment of developing the locomotive powers to the highest
+possible extent. It became a flying machine, and every organ was
+moulded to suit this life. Every ounce of spare weight was thrown
+aside, the muscles were wonderfully arranged and of the highest
+possible efficiency. The body temperature is higher than that of
+mammals. The whole organization is a physiological high-pressure
+engine. The sense-organs are perhaps the finest and keenest in the
+whole animal kingdom. The brain is inferior only to that of mammals.
+The experiment could not have been tried under more favorable
+conditions; it was not a failure, it certainly was not a success
+when compared with that of mammals.
+
+The possibilities of every system except one had been practically
+exhausted. Only brain development remained as the last hope of
+success. Here was an untried line, and the mammals followed it.
+During the short tertiary period the brain in many of their genera
+seems to have increased tenfold. By the arboreal life of the highest
+forms the hand is developed as the instrument of the thinking brain.
+The battle is beginning to become one of wits, and the crown will
+soon pass from the strongest to the shrewdest. Mind, not muscle,
+much less digestion or reproduction, is the goal of the animal
+kingdom. And we shall see later that the mammalian mode of
+reproduction and of care of the young led to an almost purely mental
+and moral advance. For these could have but one logical outcome,
+family life. And the family is the foundation of society. And family
+and social life have been the school in which man has been compelled
+to learn the moral lessons, the application of which has made him
+what he is.
+
+You must all, I think, have noticed that the different systems of
+organs succeed one another in a certain definite order; and that
+each stage from the lowest to the highest is characterized by the
+predominance of a certain function or group of functions. This
+sequence of functions is not a deduction but a fact. Place side by
+side all possible genealogical trees of the animal kingdom, whether
+founded on comparative anatomy, embryology, palaeontology, or all
+combined. They will all disclose this sequence of functions arranged
+in the same order. Let me call your attention to the fact that this
+order is not due to chance, but rests upon a physiological basis. We
+might almost claim that if the evolution of man from the single cell
+be granted, no other order of their occurrence is possible.
+
+The protozoa are mostly, though not purely, nutritive and
+reproductive. These functions are essential to the existence of the
+species. Naturally in the early protozoan colonies, and in forms
+like hydra, these functions predominated. But mere digestive tissue
+is not enough for digestion. Muscles are needed to draw the food to
+the mouth, to keep the digestive sack in contact with it, and for
+other purposes. A little higher they are used to enable the animal
+to go in search of its food. They are still, however, more or less
+entirely subservient to digestion. But in the highest worms we are
+beginning to see signs that muscles are predominating in the body;
+and we feel that, while mutually helpful, the digestive system
+exists for the muscles, and these latter are becoming the aim of
+development. From worms upward there is a marked advance in physical
+activity and strength. The muscles thicken and are arranged in
+heavier bands. Skeleton and locomotive appendages and jaws follow in
+insects and vertebrates. The direct battle of animal against animal,
+and of strength opposed to strength or activity, becomes ever
+sharper. The strongest and most active are selected and survive.
+
+And yet this is not the whole truth. Some power of perception is
+possessed by every animal. But until muscles had developed the
+nervous system could be of but little practical value. Knowledge of
+even a great emergency is of little use, if I can do nothing about
+it. But when the muscles appeared, nerves and ganglion cells were
+necessary to stimulate and control them. And this highest system
+holds for a long time a position subordinate to that of the lower
+muscular organ. Its development seems at first sight extraordinarily
+slow. Only in insects and vertebrates has it become a centre of
+instinct and thought. Through the sense-organs it is gaining an ever
+clearer, deeper, and wider knowledge of its environment. First it is
+affected only by the lower stimuli of touch, taste, and smell. Then
+with the development of ear and eye it takes cognizance of ever
+subtler forces and movements. Memory comes into activity very early.
+The animal begins to learn by experience. The brain is becoming not
+merely a steering but a thinking organ. More and more nervous
+material is crowded into it and detailed for its work. Wits and
+shrewdness are beginning to count for something in the battle. Not
+only the animal with the strongest muscles, but the one with the
+best brain survives. And thus at last the brain began to develop
+with a rapidity as remarkable as its long delay. Thus each higher
+function is called into activity by the next lower, serves this at
+first, and only later attains its supremacy.
+
+And yet the advance of the different functions is not altogether
+successive. Muscle and nerve do not wait for digestion and
+reproduction to show signs of halting before they begin to advance.
+They all advance at once. But the progress of reproduction and
+digestion is most rapid at first, and it appears as if they would
+outrun the others. But in the ascending series the others follow
+after, and soon overtake and pass by them. And these lower
+functions, when out-marched, do not lag behind, but keep in touch
+with the others, forming the rear-guard and supply-train of the
+army. And notice that each organ holds the predominance about as
+long as it shows the power of rapid improvement. The length of its
+reign is pretty closely proportional to its capacity of development.
+The digestive system reaches that limit early, the muscular system
+is capable of indefinitely higher complexity, as we see in our hand.
+But the muscular system has nearly or quite reached its limit. The
+body had seen its day of dominance before man arrived on the globe.
+
+But where is the limit to man's mental or moral powers? Every
+upward step in knowledge, wisdom, and righteousness only opens our
+eyes to greater heights, before unperceived and still to be
+attained. 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
+huge reptiles, or mammals of enormous strength, and by birds of
+exceeding swiftness. This portion of our history covers the era of
+muscular activity.
+
+But these huge brutes are mostly doomed to extinction, and the bird
+fails of supremacy in the animal kingdom. "The race is not to the
+swift, nor the battle to the strong." All the time another system
+has been slowly developing. The complicated nervous system has
+required ages for its construction and arrangement. Only in the
+highest mammals does the brain assert its right to supremacy. But
+once established on its throne the brain reigns supreme; its right
+is challenged by no other organ. The possibilities of all the other
+organs, _as supreme rulers_, have been exhausted. Each one has been
+thoroughly tested, and its inadequacy proven beyond doubt by actual
+experiment. These formerly supreme lower organs must serve the
+higher. The age of man's existence on the globe is, and must remain,
+the era of mind. For the mind alone has an inexhaustible store of
+possibilities.
+
+The development of all these systems is simultaneous. From the very
+beginning all the functions have been represented, all the systems
+have been gradually advancing. Hydra has a nervous system just as
+really as man. It has no brain, but it has the potentiality and
+promise of one, and is taking the necessary steps toward its
+attainment. But while the development of all is simultaneous, their
+culmination and supremacy is successive, first stomach and muscle,
+then brain and mind. That was not first which is spiritual, but that
+which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. But now
+that the mind has once become supreme, man must live and work
+chiefly for its higher development. Thus alone is progress possible.
+
+But the word mind calls up before us a long list of powers. And the
+questions arise, Is one mode and line of mental action just as much
+the goal of man's development as another? Is man to cultivate the
+appetite for food and sense gratification just as much as the hunger
+for righteousness? Or is appetite in the mind like digestion in the
+body, a function, necessary indeed and once dominant, but no longer
+fitted for supreme control? Is there in the development of the
+mental powers or functions just as really a sequence of dominance as
+in that of the bodily functions? Are there older and lower powers
+and modes of action, which, though once supreme, must now be rigidly
+kept down in their proper lower place? Are there lower motives, for
+which the very laws of evolution forbid us to live, just as truly as
+they forbid a man's living for stomach or brute strength instead of
+brain and mind? Are these lower powers merely the foundation
+on which the higher motives and powers are to rise in their
+transcendent glory? This is the question which we now must face,
+and it is of vital importance.
+
+We have come to one of the most important and difficult subjects of
+zooelogy. Let us distinctly recognize that it is not our task to
+explain the origin of mind, or even of a single mental faculty. I
+shall take for granted what many of you will not admit, that the
+germs of all man's highest mental powers are present undeveloped in
+the mind, if you will call it so, of the amoeba. The limits of
+this course of lectures have required us to choose between
+alternatives, either to attempt to prove the truth of the theory of
+evolution, or taking this for granted, to attempt to find its
+bearings on our moral and religious beliefs. I have chosen the
+latter course, and here, as elsewhere, will abide by it. I should
+not have followed such a course if I did not thoroughly believe that
+man also, in mind as well as body, is the product of evolution. But
+this is no reason for your accepting these views. You are asked only
+to judge impartially of the tendencies of the theory. We take for
+granted, I repeat, that all man's mental faculties are germinally,
+potentially, present in protoplasm; we seek the history of their
+development.
+
+We must remember, further, that the science of animal or comparative
+psychology is yet in its infancy. Even reliable facts are only
+slowly being sifted and recorded in sufficient numbers to make
+deductions at all safe. And even of these facts different writers
+give very different explanations. As Mr. Romanes has well said, "All
+our knowledge of mental faculties, other than our own, really
+consists of an inferential interpretation of bodily activities--this
+interpretation being founded on our subjective knowledge of our own
+mental activities. By inference we project, as it were, the human
+pattern of our own mental chromograph on what is to us the otherwise
+blank screen of another mind." The value and clearness of our
+inferences will be proportional to the similarity of the animal to
+ourselves. Thus we can educate many of our higher mammals by a
+system of rewards and punishments, and we seem therefore to have
+good reason to believe that fear and joy, anger and desire, certain
+powers of perception and inference, are in their minds similar to
+our own. But fear in a fish is certainly a much dimmer apprehension
+of danger than in us, even if it deserves the name of apprehension.
+And the mental state which we call "alarm" in a fly or any lower
+animal is very difficult to clearly imagine or at all express in
+terms of our own mind.
+
+Some investigators have made the mistake of projecting into the
+animal mind all our emotions and complicated trains of thought. Thus
+Schwammerdam apparently credits the snail with remorse for the
+commission of excesses. Others go to the other extreme and make
+animals hardly more than mindless automata. We are warned,
+therefore, by our very mode of study, to be cautious, not too
+absolutely sure of our results, nor indignant at others who may take
+a very different view. And yet by moving cautiously and accepting
+only what seems fairly clear and evident we may arrive at very
+valuable and tolerably sure results.
+
+The human mind, and the animal mind apparently, manifests itself in
+three states or functions. These are intelligence, the realm of
+knowledge; susceptibility, the realm or state of feelings or
+emotions; will, the power or state of choice. Let us trace first the
+development of intelligence or the intellect in the animal. Let us
+try to discover what kinds of knowledge are successively attained
+and the mode and sequence of their attainment. Hydra appears to be
+conscious of its food. It recognizes it partially by touch, perhaps
+also by feeling the waves caused by its approach. It seems also to
+recognize food at a little distance by a power comparable to our
+sense of smell. Stronger impacts cause it to contract. It neither
+sees nor hears; it probably does little or no thinking. Its
+knowledge is therefore limited to the recognition of objects either
+in contact with, or but slightly removed from, itself. And its
+recognition of the objects is very dim and incomplete, obtained
+through the sense of touch and smell.
+
+A little higher in the animal world a rude ear has developed, first
+as a very delicate organ for feeling the waves caused by approaching
+food or enemies; only later as an organ of hearing. Meanwhile the
+eye has been developing, to perceive the subtle ether vibrations.
+The eye of the turbellaria distinguishes only light from darkness,
+that of the annelid is a true visual organ. Now the brain can begin
+to perceive the shape of objects at a little distance. Touch and
+smell, hearing, sight; such is sequence of sense perceptions. The
+sense-organs respond to continually more delicate and subtle
+impacts, and cover an ever-widening range of more and more distant
+objects. Up to this point intelligence has hardly included more than
+sense-perceptions.
+
+But these sense-perceptions have been all the time spurring the mind
+to begin a higher work. At first it is conscious merely of objects,
+and its main effort is to gain a clearer and clearer perception of
+these.
+
+Now it is led to undertake, so to speak, the work of a sense-organ
+of a higher grade. It begins to directly see invisible relations
+just as truly as through the eye it has perceived light. First
+perhaps it perceives that certain perceptions and experiences,
+agreeable or disagreeable, occur in a certain sequence. It begins to
+associate these. It learns thus to recognize the premonitory
+symptoms of nature's favor or disfavor, and thus gains food or
+avoids dangers. The bee learns to associate accessible nectar with a
+certain spot on the flower marked by bright dots or lines,
+"honey-guides," and the chimpanzee that when a hen cackles there is
+an egg in the nest. But association is only the first lesson;
+inference and understanding follow.
+
+The child at kindergarten receives a few blocks. It admires and
+plays with them. Then it is taught to notice their form. After a
+time it arranges them in groups and learns the first elements of
+number. But when it has advanced to higher mathematics, the blocks,
+or figures on the blackboard, become only symbols or means of
+illustrating the great theorems and propositions of that science.
+Thus the animal has begun in the kindergarten way to dimly perceive
+that there are real, though intangible and invisible, relations
+between objects. But what is all human science but the clearer
+vision, and farther search into, and tracing of these same
+relations? And what is all advance of knowledge but a perception of
+ever subtler relations? What is even the knowledge of right but the
+perception of the subtlest and deepest and widest relations of man
+to his environment? The animal seems to be steadily advancing along
+the path toward the perception of abstract truth, though man alone
+really attains it.
+
+And the higher power of association and inference which we call
+understanding, aided by memory, results in the power of learning by
+experience, so characteristic of higher vertebrates. The hunted bird
+or mammal very quickly becomes wary. A new trap catches more than a
+better old one until the animals have learned to understand it, and
+young animals are trapped more easily than old. Cases showing the
+limitations of mammalian intelligence are interesting in this
+connection. A cat which wished to look out and find the cause of a
+noise outside, when all the windows were closed by wooden blinds,
+jumped upon a stand and looked into a mirror. Her inference as to
+the general use of glass was correct; all its uses had not yet come
+within the range of her experience. A monkey used to stop a hole in
+the side of a cage with straw. The keeper, to tease him, used to
+pull this out. But one day the monkey tugged at a nail in the side
+of his cage until he had pulled it out, and thrust it into the hole.
+But when it was pushed back he fell into a rage. His inference that
+the nail-head could not be pulled through was entirely correct; he
+had failed to foresee that it could be pushed back. Many such
+instances have probably come within the range of your observation,
+if you have noticed them. But many of the facts which Mr. Romanes
+gives us concerning the intelligence of monkeys, apes, and baboons
+would not disgrace the intelligence of children or men.
+
+Mr. Romanes relates the following account of a little capuchin
+monkey from Brazil:
+
+   "To-day he obtained possession of a hearth-brush, one of the kind
+   which has the handle screwed into the brush. He soon found the
+   way to unscrew the handle, and having done that he immediately
+   began to try to find out the way to screw it in again. This he in
+   time accomplished. At first he put the wrong end of the handle
+   into the hole, but turned it round and round the right way for
+   screwing. Finding it did not hold he turned the other end of the
+   handle and carefully stuck it into the hole, and began again to
+   turn it the right way. It was of course a difficult feat for him
+   to perform, for he required both his hands in order to screw it
+   in, and the long bristles of the brush prevented it from
+   remaining steady or with the right side up. He held the brush
+   with his hind hand, but even so it was very difficult for him to
+   get the first turn of the screw to fit into the thread; he worked
+   at it, however, with the most unwearying perseverance until he
+   got the first turn of the screw to catch, and he then quickly
+   turned it round and round until it was screwed up to the end. The
+   most remarkable thing was, that however often he was disappointed
+   in the beginning, he never was induced to try turning the handle
+   the wrong way; he always screwed it from right to left. As soon
+   as he had accomplished his wish he unscrewed it again, and then
+   screwed it in again the second time rather more easily than the
+   first, and so on many times. When he had become by practice
+   tolerably perfect in screwing and unscrewing, he gave it up and
+   took to some other amusement. One remarkable thing is that he
+   should take so much trouble to do that which is no material
+   benefit to him. The desire to accomplish a chosen task seems a
+   sufficient inducement to lead him to take any amount of trouble.
+   This seems a very human feeling, such as is not shown, I believe,
+   by any other animal. It is not the desire of praise, as he never
+   notices people looking on; it is simply the desire to achieve an
+   object for the sake of achieving an object, and he never rests
+   nor allows his attention to be distracted until it is done....
+
+   "As my sister once observed while we were watching him conducting
+   some of his researches, in oblivion to his food and all his other
+   surroundings--'When a monkey behaves like this it is no wonder
+   that man is a scientific animal!'"[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Romanes: Animal Intelligence, pp. 490, 498.]
+
+In the highest mammals we find also different degrees of attention
+and concentration of thought and observation. This difference can
+easily be noticed in young hunting dogs. A trainer of monkeys said
+that he could easily select those which could most easily be taught,
+by noticing in the first lesson whether he could easily gain and
+hold their attention. This was easy with some, while others were
+diverted by every passing fly; and the latter, like heedless
+students, made but slow progress.
+
+It is interesting to notice that one of the perceptions which we
+class among the highest is apparently developed comparatively early.
+I refer to the aesthetic perception of the beautiful. Now, the
+perception of beauty is generally considered as not very far below
+or removed from the perception of truth and right. But some insects
+and birds apparently possess this perception and the corresponding
+emotion in no low degree. The colors of flowers seem to exist mainly
+for the attraction of insects to insure cross-fertilization, and
+certain insects seem to prefer certain colors. But you may say that
+these afford merely sense gratification like that which green
+affords to our eyes or sugar to our tastes.
+
+But does not the grouping of colors in the flower appeal to some
+aesthetic standard in the mind of the insect? What of the tail of the
+peacock? Its iridescent rings and eyes evidently appeal to something
+in the mind of the female. Do form and grouping minister to pure
+sense gratification? What of the song of the thrush? Does not the
+orderly and harmonious arrangement of notes and cadences appeal to
+some standard of order of arrangement, and hence idea of harmony, in
+the mind of the bird's mate?
+
+Now, I grant you readily that the A B C of this training is mere
+sense gratification at the sight of bright colors. Most insects and
+birds have probably not advanced much beyond this first lesson.
+Savages have generally stopped there or reverted to it. But any
+appreciation of form and harmonious arrangement of cadence and
+colors seems to me at least to demand some perception which we must
+call aesthetic, or dangerously near it. But here you must judge
+carefully for yourselves lest you be misled. For remember, please,
+that those schemes of psychology farthest removed from, and least
+readily reconcilable to, the theory of evolution maintain that
+perception of beauty is the work of the rational faculty, which also
+perceives truth and right in much the same way that it perceives
+and recognizes beauty. If the animal has the aesthetic perception, it
+has the faculty which, at the next higher stage of development, will
+perceive, and recognize as such, both truth and right. We are
+considering no unimportant question; for on our answer to this
+depends our answer to questions of far greater importance.
+
+Does it look as if the animal had begun to learn the first rudiments
+of the great science of rights, of his own rights and those of
+others? This is an exceedingly difficult question, though often
+answered unhesitatingly in the negative. But what of the division of
+territory by the dogs in oriental cities, a division evidently
+depending upon something outside of mere brute strength and power to
+maintain, and their respect of boundaries? The female is allowed, I
+am told by an eye-witness long resident in Constantinople, to
+distribute her puppies in unoccupied spots through the city without
+interference. But when she has once located them, she is not allowed
+to return and visit them, or pass that way again. So the account by
+Dr. Washburn of platoons of dogs coming in turn, and peaceably, to
+feed on a dead donkey in the streets of Constantinople, would seem
+to be most naturally explained by some dim recognition of rights.
+Rook communities have not received the attention and investigation
+which they deserve, but their actions are certainly worthy of
+attention. Concerning the sense of ownership in dogs and other
+mammals opinions differ, and yet many facts are most naturally
+explained on such a supposition.
+
+Just one more question in this connection, for we are in the
+borderland or twilightland where it is much safer to ask questions
+than to attempt to answer them. How do you explain the "instinctive"
+fear of man on the part of wild and fierce animals? They certainly
+do not quail before his brute strength, for a blow at such a time
+breaks the charm and insures an attack. They quail before his eye
+and look. Is not this the answering of a personality in the animal
+to the personality in man; a recognition of something deeper than
+bone and muscle? And may not, as Mr. Darwin has urged, this fear in
+the presence of a higher personality be the dim foreshadowing of an
+awe which promises indefinitely better things? Is, after all, the
+attachment of a dog to his master something far deeper than an
+appetite for bones or pats, or a fear of kicks?
+
+A host of other and similar questions throng upon us here, to no one
+of which we can give a definite answer. We need more investigation,
+more light. We must not rest contented with old prejudices or accept
+with too great certainty new explanations. The questions are worthy
+of careful and patient investigation. The study of comparative
+anatomy has thrown a flood of light on the structure and working of
+the human body in health and disease. We shall never fully
+understand the mind of man until we know more of the working of the
+mind of the animal.
+
+It would seem to be clear that there is a sequence of dominance in
+the faculties of the intellect. First, the only means of acquiring
+knowledge is through sense-perception. But memory dawns far down in
+the animal kingdom. And thus the animal begins to associate past
+experience with present objects. The bee remembers the gaining of
+honey in the past, associated with the color of the flower which she
+now sees, and knows that honey is to be attained again. Thus in time
+association leads to inference, and understanding has dawned. But
+the highest faculty of the intellect is the rational intelligence,
+which perceives beauty, truth, and goodness. This is the last to
+develop. Traces of its working may be perhaps discovered below man,
+but only in man does it become dominant. Through it I perceive my
+rights and duties, and come to the consciousness of my own
+personality as a moral agent. This tells me of the relation of my
+own personality to other persons and things. And these are evidently
+the most important objects of human study. The attainment of this
+knowledge and the development of this faculty are evidently the goal
+of human intellectual development. This it is which has insured
+progress and raised man ever higher above the brutes.
+
+Before we can proceed to the study of the will we must clearly
+recognize and define certain modes of mental and nervous action,
+which sooner or later manifest themselves in muscular activity. For,
+while certain of our bodily activities are clearly voluntary, others
+take place wholly, or in part independently, of the individual will.
+Between these different modes of bodily action we must distinguish
+as clearly as may be possible.
+
+1. Reflex Action. I touch something cold or hot in the dark,
+suddenly and unexpectedly. I draw back my hand involuntarily and
+before I have perceived the sensation of cold or heat. You tell me
+to keep my eyes open while you make a sudden pass at them with your
+hand. I try hard to do so, but my eyes shut for all that. I shut
+them unconsciously and against my own will. I say, "They shut of
+themselves." Now, this is not true, but the explanation is not
+difficult. These and similar actions are entirely possible, although
+the continuity between spinal marrow and brain may have been so
+interrupted by some accident that sensation in the reflexly active
+part fails altogether. A bird flaps its wings after its head is cut
+off, and yet the seat of consciousness and will is certainly in the
+brain. A patient with a "broken back," and paralyzed in his legs,
+will draw up his feet if they are tickled, although he is entirely
+unable to move them by any effort of his will and has no
+consciousness of the irritation.
+
+The physiological action is in this case clear. The vibration of the
+nerve caused by the tickling travels from the foot to the
+appropriate centre in the spinal marrow, and here gives rise to, or
+is switched off as, a motor impulse travelling back to the muscles
+of the leg, causing them to contract. In the injured patient the
+nervous impulse cannot reach the brain, the seat of consciousness,
+and hence this is not awakened. Normally consciousness does result
+in a majority of such cases, but only after the beginning or
+completion of the appropriate action. Yet the movements of our
+internal organs, intestine and heart, go on continually, and in
+health we remain entirely unconscious of their action.
+
+But reflex actions may be anything but simple. We walk and talk, and
+write or play the piano without ever thinking of a single muscle or
+organ. Yet we had once to learn with much effort to take each step
+or frame each letter. Thus actions, originally conscious and
+intended, easily become reflex; often repeated the brain leaves
+their control to the lower centres. We often say, "I did not intend
+to do that; I could not help it." We forget that this excuse is our
+worst condemnation. It is a confession that we have allowed or
+encouraged a habit to wear a groove from which the wheels of our
+life cannot escape. The essential characteristic of reflex action is
+therefore that from beginning to completion it goes on independently
+of consciousness.
+
+2. Instinct. This is a much-abused word. It is frequently applied to
+all the mental actions of animals without much thought or care as to
+its meaning. Let us gain a definition from the study of a typical
+case lest we use the word as a cloak for ignorance or negligent
+thoughtlessness. Watch a spider building its wonderful geometrical
+web. The web is a work of art, and every motion of the spider
+beautifully adapted to its purpose. But the spider is not therefore
+necessarily an artist. Let us see of how much the spider is probably
+conscious, remembering that our best judgment is but an inference.
+We have good reason to believe that she is conscious of the stimulus
+to action, hunger. She may be, probably is, conscious of the end to
+be attained--to catch a fly for her dinner. She seems conscious of
+what she is doing. In all these respects this differs from reflex
+action. But she is probably unconscious of the exact fitness of the
+means to the end. We do not believe that she has adopted the
+geometrical pattern, because she has discovered or calculated that
+this will make the closest and largest net for the smallest outlay
+of labor and material. Furthermore the young spider builds
+practically as good a web as the old one. She has inherited the
+power, not developed or gained it by experience or observation. And
+all the members of the species have inherited it in much the same
+degree of perfection.
+
+Concerning the origin of instincts there are several theories. Some
+instincts would seem to be the result of non-intelligent, perhaps
+unconscious, habits becoming fixed by heredity and improved by
+natural selection; others would appear to be modifications of
+actions originally due to intelligence. Instinct is therefore
+characterized by consciousness of the stimulus to act, of the means
+and end, without the knowledge of the exact adaptation of means to
+end. It is hereditary and characterizes species or large groups.
+
+3. Intelligent Action. You come in cold and sit down before an open
+fire. You push the brands together to make the fire burn. Applying
+once more the criterion of consciousness to this action we notice
+that you are conscious of the stimulus to act, of the steps of the
+action, and of the end to be attained, exactly as in instinctive
+action. But finally, and this is the essential characteristic of
+intelligent action, you are aware to a certain extent of the fitness
+of the means to the attainment of the end. This piece of knowledge
+you had to acquire for yourself. Erasmus Darwin defined a fool as a
+man who had never tried an experiment. Experience and observation,
+not heredity, are the sources of intelligence. Intelligence is power
+to think, and a man may be very learned--for do we not have learned
+pigs?--and yet have very little real intelligence. Hence this is
+possessed by different individuals in very varying degrees.
+
+We may now briefly compare these three kinds of nervous action.
+
+Reflex action is involuntary and unconscious. The actor may, and
+usually does, become conscious of the action after it has been
+commenced or completed, but this is not at all necessary or
+universal.
+
+Instinctive action is to a certain extent voluntary and conscious.
+The actor is conscious of the stimulus, the means and mode, and the
+end or purpose of the action. Of the exact fitness or adaptation of
+the means to the end the actor is unconscious.
+
+Intelligent action is conscious and voluntary. The actor is
+conscious of the stimulus to act, of the means and mode, and to a
+certain extent of the adaptation of the means to the end. This last
+item of knowledge, lacking in instinctive action, is acquired by
+experience or observation.
+
+Reflex action may be regarded as a comparatively mechanical, though
+often very complex, process; the reflex ganglia appear to be hardly
+more than switch-boards. There is stimulus of the sense-organs, and
+thus what Mr. Romanes has called "unfelt sensation," unfelt as far
+as the completion of the action is concerned. But in instinct the
+sensation no longer remains unfelt; perception is necessary,
+consciousness plays a part. And this consciousness is a vastly more
+subtle element, differing as much apparently from the vibration of
+brain, or nervous, molecules as the Geni from the rubbing of
+Aladdin's lamp, to borrow an illustration.
+
+But this element of consciousness is one which it is exceedingly
+difficult to detect in our analysis, and yet upon it our
+classification and the psychic position of an animal must to a
+great extent depend. The amoeba contracts when pricked,
+jelly-fishes swim toward the light, the earthworm, "alarmed" by the
+tread of your foot, withdraws into its hole. Are these and similar
+actions reflex or instinctive? A grain of consciousness preceding an
+action which before has been reflex changes it into instinct. Mr.
+Romanes, probably correctly, regards them as purely reflex. We must,
+I think, believe that these actions result in consciousness even in
+the lowest forms. The selection and attainment of food certainly
+looks like conscious action. Probably all nerve-cells or nervous
+material were originally, even in the lowest forms, dimly conscious;
+then by division of labor some became purely conductive, others more
+highly perceptive. The important thing for us to remember in our
+present ignorance is not to be dogmatic.
+
+Furthermore, the gain of a grain of consciousness of the adaptation
+of certain means to special ends changes instinctive action into
+intelligent, and its loss may reverse the process. Fortunately we
+have found that in so far as actions, even instinctive, are modified
+by experience, they are becoming to that extent intelligent. This
+criterion of intelligence seems easily applied. But this profiting
+by experience must manifest itself within the lifetime of the
+individual, or in lines outside of circumstances to which its
+ordinary instincts are adapted, or we may give to individual
+intelligence the credit due really to natural selection. We must be
+cautious in our judgments.
+
+These reflex actions are performed independently of consciousness or
+will. Consciousness may, probably does, attend the selection and
+grasping of food; but most of the actions of the body will go on
+better without its interference. It is not yet sufficiently
+developed, or, so to speak, wise enough to be intrusted with much
+control of the animal.
+
+Among higher worms cases of instinct seem proven. Traces of it will
+almost certainly be yet found much lower down. Fresh-water mussels
+migrate into deeper water at the approach of cold weather. And if
+the clam has instincts, there is no reason why the turbellaria
+should not also possess them. But all higher powers develop
+gradually, and their beginnings usually elude our search. Along the
+line leading from annelids to insects instinct is becoming dominant.
+A supraoesophageal ganglion has developed, and has been relieved
+of most of the direct control of the muscles. Very good sense-organs
+are also present. From this time on consciousness becomes clearer,
+and the brain is beginning to assert its right to at least know what
+is going on in the body, and to have something to say about it.
+Still, as long as the actions remain purely instinctive the brain,
+while conscious, is governed by heredity. The animal does as its
+ancestors always have. It does not occur to it to ask why it should
+do thus or otherwise, or whether other means would be better fitted
+to the end in view. It acts exactly like most of the members of our
+great political and theological parties. And until the animal has a
+better brain this is its best course and is favored by natural
+selection.
+
+But the hand of even the best dead ancestors cannot always be
+allowed to hold the helm. The brain is still enlarging, the
+sense-organs bring in fuller and more definite reports of a wider
+environment. Greater freedom of action by means of a stronger
+locomotive system is bringing continually new and varied
+experiences. And if, as in vertebrates, longer life be added,
+frequent repetition of the experience deepens the impression.
+Slowly, as if tentatively, the animal begins to modify some of its
+instincts, at first only in slight details, or to adopt new lines of
+action not included in its old instincts, but suited to the new
+emergencies. This is the dawn of intelligence. Its beginnings still
+remain undiscovered. Mr. Darwin believes that traces of it can be
+found in earthworms and other annelids. He also tells us that
+oysters taken from a depth never uncovered by the sea, and
+transported inland, open their shells, lose the contained water, and
+die; but that left in reservoirs, where they are occasionally left
+uncovered for a short time, they learn to keep their shells shut,
+and live for a much longer time when removed from the water. If
+oysters can learn by experience, lower worms probably can do the
+same.
+
+Certain experiments made on sea-anemones, actinae animals a little
+more highly organized than hydra, demand repetition under careful
+observation.[A] The observer placed on one of the tentacles of a
+sea-anemone a bit of paper which had been dipped in beef-juice. It
+was seized and carried to the mouth and here discarded. This
+tentacle after one or two experiments refused to have anything more
+to do with it. But other tentacles could be successively cheated.
+The nerve-cells governing each tentacle appear to have been able to
+learn by experience, but each group in the diffuse nervous system
+had to learn separately. The dawn of this much of intelligence far
+down in the animal kingdom would not be surprising, for the
+selection and grasping of food has always involved higher mental
+power than most of the actions of these lowest animals. Memory goes
+far down in the animal kingdom. Perhaps, as Professor Haeckel has
+urged, it is an ultimate mental property of protoplasm. And the
+memory of past experience would continually tend to modify habit or
+instinct.
+
+  [Footnote A: These experiments have been continued with most
+  interesting and valuable results by Dr. G.H. Parker, of Harvard
+  University.]
+
+It is unsafe, therefore, to say just where intelligence begins. At a
+certain point we find dim traces of it; below that we have failed to
+find them. But that they will not be found, we dare not affirm. In
+the highest insects instinct predominates, but marks of intelligence
+are fairly abundant. Ants and wasps modify their habits to suit
+emergencies which instinct alone could hardly cope with. Bees learn
+to use grafting wax instead of propolis to stop the chinks in their
+hives, and soon cease to store up honey in a warm climate.
+
+Our knowledge of vertebrate psychology is not yet sufficient to give
+a history of the struggle for supremacy between instinct and
+intelligence, between inherited tendency and the consciousness of
+the individual. But the outcome is evident; intelligence prevails,
+instinct wanes. The actions of the young may be purely instinctive;
+it is better that they should be. But instinct in the adult is more
+and more modified by intelligence gained by experience. There is
+perhaps no more characteristic instinct than the habit of
+nest-building in birds. And yet there are numerous instances where
+the structure and position of nests have been completely changed to
+suit new circumstances. And the view that this habit is a pure
+instinct, unmodified by intelligence, has been disproved by Mr.
+Wallace. But while size of brain, keenness of sense-organs, and
+length of life may be rightly emphasized as the most important
+elements in the development of vertebrate intelligence, the
+importance of the appendages should never be forgotten. Cats seem to
+have acquired certain accomplishments--opening doors, ringing
+door-bells, etc.--never attained by the more intelligent dog, mainly
+because of the greater mobility and better powers of grasping of the
+forepaws. The elephant has its trunk and the ape its hand. The power
+of handling and the increased size of the brain aided each other in
+a common advance.
+
+The teachableness of mammals is also a sign of high intelligence.
+The young are often taught by the parent, a dim foreshadowing of the
+human family relation. And we notice this capacity in domestic
+animals because of its practical value to man. And here, too, we
+notice the difference between individuals, which fails in instinct.
+All spiders of the same species build and hunt alike, although
+differences caused by the moulding influence of intelligence will
+probably be here discovered. But among individual dogs and horses we
+find all degrees of intelligence from absolute stupidity to high
+intelligence. And many mammals are slandered grievously by man. The
+pig is not stupid, far from it.
+
+Still only in man does intelligence reign supreme and clearly show
+its innate powers. But even in man certain realms, like those of the
+internal organs, are rarely invaded by consciousness, but are
+normally left to the control of reflex action. These actions go on
+better without the interference of consciousness.
+
+But other lines of action are relegated as rapidly as possible to
+the same control. We learn to walk by a conscious effort to take
+each step; afterward we take each step automatically, and think only
+whither we wish to go. We learn by conscious effort to talk and
+write, to sing, or play the piano. Afterward we frame each letter or
+note automatically, and think only of the idea and its expression.
+
+So also in our moral and spiritual nature.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Mr. James Freeman Clarke has stated this better than I
+  can. "We may state the law thus: 'Any habitual course of conduct
+  changes voluntary actions into automatic or involuntary (_i.e._,
+  reflex) actions.' By practice man forms habits, and habitual action
+  is automatic action, requiring no exercise of will except at the
+  beginning of the series of acts. The law of association does the
+  rest. As voluntary acts are transformed into automatic, the will is
+  set free to devote itself to higher efforts and larger attainments.
+  After telling the truth a while by an effort, we tell the truth
+  naturally, necessarily, automatically. After giving to good objects
+  for a while from principle, we give as a matter of course. Honesty
+  becomes automatic; self-control becomes automatic. We rule over our
+  spirit, repress ill-temper, keep down bad feelings, first by an
+  effort, afterwards as a matter of course.
+
+  "Possibly these virtues really become incarnate in the bodily
+  organization. Possibly goodness is made flesh and becomes
+  consolidate in the fibres of the brain. Vices, beginning in the
+  soul, seem to become at last bodily diseases; why may not virtues
+  follow the same law? If it were not for some such law of
+  accumulation as this, the work of life would have to be begun
+  forever anew. Formation of character would be impossible. We should
+  be incapable of progress, our whole strength being always employed
+  in battling with our first enemies, learning evermore anew our
+  earliest lessons. But by our present constitution he who has taken
+  one step can take another, and life may become a perpetual advance
+  from good to better. And the highest graces of all--Faith, Hope, and
+  Love--obey the same law." See James Freeman Clarke, Every-Day
+  Religion, p. 122.]
+
+There has been therefore in the successive forms and stages of
+animal life a clear sequence of dominant nervous actions. The
+actions of all animals below the annelid are mainly reflex or
+automatic, unconscious and involuntary. But in insects and lower
+vertebrates the highest actions at least are instinctive.
+Consciousness plays a continually more important part. Still the
+actions are controlled by hereditary tendency far more than by the
+will of the individual. But in man instinct has been almost entirely
+replaced by conscious, voluntary, intelligent action. And yet in
+man, as rapidly as possible, actions which at first require
+conscious effort become, through repetition and habit, reflex and
+automatic. All our conscious effort and the energy of the will,
+being no longer required for these oft-repeated actions, are set
+free for higher attainments. The territory which had to be conquered
+by hard battles has become an integral part of the realm. It now
+hardly requires even a garrison, but has become a source of supplies
+for a new advance and march of conquest.
+
+But all this time we have been talking about action and have not
+given a thought to the will. And we have spoken as if conscious
+perception and intelligence directly controlled will and action. But
+this is of course incorrect. Will is practically power of choice.
+You ask me whether I prefer this or that, and I answer perhaps that
+I do not care. Until I "care" I shall never choose. The perception
+must arouse some feeling, if it is to result in choice. I see a
+diamond in the road and think it is merely a piece of glass. I do
+not stop. But as I am passing on; I remember that there was a
+remarkable brilliancy in its flash. It must have been, after all, a
+gem. My feelings are aroused. How proud I shall feel to wear it. Or
+how much money I can get for it. Or how glad the owner will be when
+it is returned to her. I turn back and search eagerly. Perception is
+necessary, but it is only the first step. The perception must excite
+some feeling, if choice or exertion of the will is to follow. This
+is a truism.
+
+Now reflex action takes place independently of consciousness or
+will. Instinctive action may be voluntary, but it is, after all, not
+so much the result of individual purpose as of hereditary tendency.
+Is there then no will in the animal until it has become intelligent?
+I think there has been a sort of voluntary action all the time. Even
+the amoeba selects or chooses, if I may use the word, its food
+among the sand grains. And the will is stimulated to act by the
+appetite. Hunger is the first teacher. And how did appetite develop?
+Why does the animal hunger for just the food suited to its digestion
+and needs? We do not know. And the reproductive appetite soon
+follows. One of these results from the condition of the digestive,
+the other from that of the reproductive, cells or protoplasm. These
+appetites are due to some condition in a part of the organism and
+can be _felt_. They are in a sense not of the mind but of the body.
+And the response to them on the part of the mind is in some respects
+almost comparable to reflex action. But the mode of the response is,
+to a certain extent at least, within the control of consciousness.
+They train and spur the will as pure reflex action never could. But
+the will is as yet hardly more than the expression of these
+appetites. It expresses not so much its own decision as that of the
+stomach. It is the body's slave and mouthpiece. And once again it is
+best and safest for the animal that it should be so.
+
+And these appetites are at first comparatively feeble. There is but
+little muscle or nerve and but little food is required. But these
+continually strengthen and spur the will harder and more frequently.
+And the will stirs up the weary and flagging muscles. The will may
+be a poor slave and the appetites hard taskmasters. But under their
+stern discipline it is growing stronger and more completely
+subjugating the body. Better slavery to hard taskmasters than
+rottenness from inertia. The first requirement is power, activity,
+and then this power can be directed to ever higher ends. You cannot
+steer the vessel until she has sails or an engine; with no "way on"
+she will not mind the helm, she only drifts. But the condition of
+the animal at this stage certainly looks very unpromising. Can the
+will emancipate itself from appetite and control it? Or is it to
+remain the slave of the body?
+
+In time an emotion appears which marks the influence not directly of
+the body but of the individual consciousness. This is fear; it is
+for the body, but not, like hunger, directly of it. It arises in the
+mind. It results from experience and memory. The first animal which
+feared took a long step upward. But when and where was the dawn of
+fear? I touch a sea-anemone and it contracts. Has it felt fear? I
+think not. The action certainly may be purely reflex. Natural
+selection, not mind, deserves the credit of that action. But I am
+sure that the cat fears the dog, or the dog the cat, as the case may
+be. I have little or no doubt that the bird fears the cat. I am
+inclined to believe that the insect fears the bird and the spider
+the wasp. But does the highest worm fear? I do not know. I do not
+see how there can have been any fear until there was a nerve-centre
+highly enough developed to remember past experiences of danger and
+fair sense-organs to report the present risk.
+
+Other emotions soon follow. Anger appears early. The order of
+appearance of these emotions or motives I shall not attempt to give
+to you. Indeed this is to us of relatively slight importance. The
+important point to notice is that a host of these have appeared in
+mammals and birds, and that each one of these is a new spur to the
+will. And the will of a horse or dog, to say nothing of a pig, is by
+no means feeble. And these are slowly emancipating the animal from
+the tyranny of appetite. But how slow the progress is! Has the
+emancipation yet become complete in man? I need not answer.
+
+The will has in part, at least, escaped from abject slavery to
+appetite; it sometimes rises superior to fear. But it is evidently
+self-centred. The animal may have forgotten the claims of his dead
+ancestors, he is certainly fully alive to his own interests. Can he
+even partially rise superior to prudential considerations, as he has
+to some extent to the claims of appetite? Is it possible to develop
+the unselfish out of the purely selfish? And if so, how is this to
+be accomplished? It is not accomplished in the animal; it is but
+very incompletely accomplished in man. It will be accomplished one
+day.
+
+In action, at least, the animal is not purely selfish. As Mr.
+Drummond has shown, reproduction, that old function and first to
+gain an organ, is not primarily for the benefit of self, but for the
+species. And not only the storing up of material in the egg, but
+care for the young after birth, is found in some fish and insects,
+and increases from fish upward. I readily grant you that this in its
+beginnings may be purely instinctive, and that not a particle of
+genuine affection for the young may as yet be present in the mind of
+the parent. But beneficial habits may, under the fostering care of
+selection, develop into instincts. The animal may at first be
+unconscious of these, and yet they may grow continually stronger.
+But one day the animal awakens to its actions, and from that time on
+what had been done blindly and unconsciously is continued
+consciously, intelligently, and from set purpose. This story is
+repeated over and over again in the history of the animal-kingdom.
+The care for the young once started as an instinct, affection will
+follow from the very association of parent with young. Certainly in
+birds and mammals there seems to be a very genuine love of the
+parents for their young. This is at first short lived, and the young
+are and have to be driven away, often by harsh treatment, to shift
+for themselves. But while it lasts it certainly seems entirely real
+and genuine. And how strong it is. "A bear robbed of her whelps" is
+no meaningless expression. And even the weak and timid bird or
+mammal becomes strong and fierce in defence of her young. In the
+presence of this emotion appetite and fear are alike forgotten.
+
+But this affection or love once started does not remain limited to
+parent and offspring. Mammals, especially the higher forms, are
+social. They frequently go in herds and troops, and appear to have a
+genuine affection for each other. You all know how in herds of
+cattle or wild horses the males form a circle around the females and
+young at the approach of wolves. A troop of orangs were surprised by
+dogs at a little distance from their shelter. The old male orangs
+formed a ring and beat off the dogs until the females and young
+could escape, and then retreated. But as they were now in
+comparative safety a cry came from one young one, who had been
+unable to keep up in the scramble over the rocks, and was left on a
+bowlder surrounded by the dogs. Then one old orang turned back,
+fought his way through the dogs, tucked the little fellow under one
+arm, fought his way out with the other, and brought the young one to
+safety. I call that old orang a hero, but I am prejudiced and may
+easily be mistaken.
+
+In a cage in a European zooelogical garden there were kept together a
+little American monkey and a large baboon of which the former was
+greatly afraid. The keeper, to whom the little monkey was strongly
+attached, was one day attacked and thrown down by the baboon and in
+danger of being killed. Then the little monkey ran to his help, and
+bit and beat his tyrant companion until he allowed the keeper to
+escape. We are all proud that the little monkey was an American.
+
+Instances of disinterested actions are so common among dogs and
+horses that farther illustrations are entirely unnecessary. And
+disinterested action is limited to fewer cases because the
+environment is rarely suited to its development in the animal world.
+But do you answer that the affection of the dog is never really
+disinterested, but a very refined form of selfishness. Possibly. But
+it were to be greatly desired that selfishness would more frequently
+take that same refined form among men. But I cannot see how
+selfishness can ever become so refined as to lead an animal to die
+of grief over its master's grave.
+
+And if refined selfishness were all, I for one cannot help believing
+that the dog would long ago have been asleep on a full stomach
+before the kitchen fire. Has no attempt been made to prove that all
+human actions are due to selfishness more or less refined? It is
+very unwise to apply tests and use arguments concerning animals
+which, if applied with equal strictness to human conduct, would
+prove human society irrational and purely selfish.
+
+Mammals may be self-centred. But the highest forms have set their
+faces away from self and toward the non-self; some have at least
+started on the road which leads to unselfishness.
+
+And man is governed to a certain extent by prudential
+considerations. If he entirely disregarded these he would not be
+wise. But the development of the rational faculty has brought before
+his mind a series of motives higher than these, which are slowly but
+surely superseding them. Truth, right, and duty are motives of a
+different order. With regard to these there can be no question of
+profit or loss. Here the mind cannot stop to ask, Will it pay? Self
+must be left out of account.
+
+        "When duty whispers low, Thou must,
+         The soul replies, I can."
+
+And thus man rises above appetite, above prudential considerations,
+and becomes a free and moral agent. And family and social life bring
+him into new relations, press home upon him new duties and
+responsibilities, every one of which is a new motive compelling him
+to rise above self. And thus the unselfish, altruistic emotions have
+made man what he is, and are in him, ever advancing toward their
+future supremacy. But some one will say, This is a very pretty
+theory; it is not history. But the perception of truth and right is
+certainly a fact, the result of ages of development. And the very
+highest which the intellect can perceive is bound to become the
+controlling motive of the will. It always has been so. It must be
+so, if evolution is not to be purely degeneration. Thus only has man
+become what he is. And the voice of the people demanding truth and
+justice, whenever and wherever they see them, is the voice of God
+promising the future triumph of righteousness. For it is proof
+positive that man's face is resolutely set toward these, as his
+ancestors have always marched steadily toward that which was the
+highest possible attainment.
+
+We find thus that there is a sequence in the motives which control
+the will. The first and lowest motives are the appetites, and here
+the will is the mouthpiece of the bodily organs. Then fear and a
+host of other prudential considerations appear. The lowest of these
+tend purely to the gratification of the senses or to the avoidance
+of bodily discomfort. But they originate in the mind, and that is a
+great gain. But the higher prudential considerations take into
+account something higher than mere bodily comfort or discomfort.
+Approbation and disapprobation are motives which weigh heavily with
+the higher mammals. The lower prudential considerations are purely
+selfish. The higher ones, which stimulate to action for
+fellow-animals or men, show at least the dawn of unselfishness. And
+the altruistic motives, which stimulate to action for the happiness
+and welfare of others, predominate in, and are characteristic of,
+man. The human will is slowly rising above the dominance of
+selfishness. With the dawn of the rational perception of truth,
+right, and duty, the very highest motives begin to gain control.
+And the will becomes more and more powerful as the motives become
+higher. It is almost a mis-use of language to speak of the will of a
+slave of appetite. He is governed by the body, not at all by the
+mind.
+
+The man who is governed by prudential considerations, and is always
+asking, Will it pay? is the incarnation of fickleness, instability,
+and feebleness. The apparent strength of the selfish will is usually
+a hollow sham. But truth, right, and love are motives stronger than
+death. And the will, dominated by these, gives the body to be
+burned. The man of the future will have an iron will, because he
+will keep these highest motives constantly before his mind.
+
+In the preceding lectures we have traced the sequence of functions
+and have found that brain and mind, not digestion and muscle, are
+the goal of animal development. In this lecture we have attempted to
+trace a corresponding series of functions in the realm of mind. We
+have found, I think, that there has been an orderly and logical
+development of perceptions, modes of action, and finally of motives
+in the animal mind. Let us now briefly review this history and see
+whether it throws any light on the path of man's future progress.
+
+Most of the sensory cells of the animal minister at first to reflex
+action, and there is thus little true perception. The stimuli which
+have called forth the reflex action may result afterward in
+consciousness; but until brain and muscle have reached a higher
+grade, this could be of but slight benefit to the animal. Perception
+and consciousness are exercised mainly in the recognition and
+attainment of food. When the animal begins to show fear, we may
+feel tolerably certain that it has been conscious of past experience
+of danger and remembers these experiences. 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. And in this connection it is
+interesting to notice the great results of man's training and
+education in the dog. For the wolf and the jackal, the dog's
+nearest relatives, if not his actual ancestors, are not especially
+intelligent mammals. Compared with them the dog is a sage and a
+saint.
+
+The earliest form of action is the reflex. This is independent of
+both consciousness and will. The only conscious voluntary action of
+the animal is limited mainly or entirely to the recognition and
+attainment of food. The motive for the exertion of the will is the
+appetite, and the will is the slave or mouthpiece of the body. Far
+higher than this is the stage of instinct. Here the animal is
+conscious of its actions and new motives begin to appear. But the
+animal is guided by tendencies inherited from its ancestors. The
+will has, so to speak, advisory power; it is by no means supreme.
+But with a wider and deeper knowledge of its environment, with the
+memory of past experiences, carried by the higher locomotive powers
+into new surroundings, brought face to face with new emergencies
+outside of the range of its old instincts, it is compelled to try
+some experiments of its own. It begins to modify these instincts,
+and in time altogether does away with many of them. It has risen a
+little above its old abject slavery to the appetites, it is slowly
+throwing off the bondage to heredity. New emotions or motives have
+arisen appealing directly to the individual will. The heir has been
+long enough under guardians and regents, it assumes the government
+and can rightly say, "L'etat, c'est moi."
+
+But a greater problem confronts it; can it rise above self? The
+animal often seems absolutely selfish. Can the unselfish be
+developed out of the selfish? This seems at first sight impossible.
+And the first lessons are so easy, the first steps so short, that we
+do not notice them. Reproduction comes to the aid of mind. The
+young are born more and more immature. They begin to receive the
+care of the parent. The love of the parent for the young is at first
+short lived and feeble. But it is the genuine article, and, like the
+mustard-seed planted in good soil, must grow. It strengthens and
+deepens. Soon it begins to widen also. Social life, very rude and
+imperfect, appears. And the members of this social group support,
+help, and defend one another. And doing for one another and helping
+each other, however slightly and imperfectly, strengthens their
+affection for one another. The animal is still selfish, so is man
+frequently, but it is in a fair way to become unselfish, and this is
+all we can reasonably expect of it.
+
+For these are vast revolutions from reflex action to instinct, and
+from instinct to the reign of the individual will, and from appetite
+to selfishness on the ground of higher motives, and from immediate
+gratification to prudential considerations. And the crowning change
+of all is from selfishness to love. And each one of them takes time.
+Remember that the Old Testament history is the record of how God
+taught one little people that there is but one God, Jehovah. Think
+of the struggles, defeats, and captivities which the Israelites had
+to undergo before they learned this lesson, and even then only a
+fraction of the people ever learned it at all. As the prophet
+foretold, so it came to pass. Though Israel was as the sand by the
+sea-shore, but a remnant was saved.
+
+But while we seek to do full justice to the animal, let us not
+underestimate the vast differences between it and man. The true
+evolutionist takes no low view of man's present actual attainments;
+in his possibilities he has a larger faith than that of the
+disbeliever in evolution. In intelligence and thought, in will power
+and freedom of choice, in one word, in all that makes up character
+and personality, man is immeasurably superior to the animal. These
+powers raise him to a new plane of being, give him an indefinitely
+higher and broader life, and his appearance marks a new era. He
+alone is a moral, responsible being, to a certain extent the former
+of his own destiny and recorder of his doom, if he fails. This gives
+to all his actions a peculiar stamp of a dignity only his. What he
+is and is to be we must attempt to trace in another lecture. But to
+one or two characteristic results of his progress we must call
+attention here.
+
+The principal subject of man's study is not so much the things which
+surround him as his relation to them and theirs to each other. His
+environment has become really one, not so much one of tangible and
+visible objects as of invisible relations. And these will demand
+endless investigation. The more he studies them the more wonderful
+do they become. The vein broadens and grows indefinitely richer the
+deeper he searches into it. We find thus the purpose of the
+intellect; it is to study environment.
+
+And now a little about motives. The animal begins with appetite, and
+some animals and men never get any farther. And yet how easily this
+appetite for food is satiated! We all remember our experiences as
+children around the Thanksgiving or Christmas table. What a
+disappointment it was to us to find how soon our appetite had
+forsaken us, and that we had lost the power of enjoying the
+delicacies which we had most anticipated. And over-indulgence often
+brought sad results and was followed by a period of penitential
+fasting. And the appetites for sense gratification must always lead
+to this result. They not only crave things which "perish with the
+using;" temporarily at least, often permanently, the appetite itself
+perishes with the gratification.
+
+But what of the appetite, if you will pardon the expression, for
+truth and right? All attainment only strengthens it; and, instead of
+enslaving, it makes men ever more free. And yet what a power there
+is in the appetite for truth and righteousness? In obedience to it
+man gives his body to be burned, or pours out his life-blood drop by
+drop for its attainment, and rejoices in the sacrifice. There are
+victims to appetite: there are only martyrs to truth. This soul
+hunger for truth and right, growing more intense as the soul is
+filled with the object of desire, is the only one capable of
+indefinite development and dominance of the will. This must be and
+is the mental goal of animal development, if man has a future
+corresponding in length at all to his past. Otherwise the history of
+life becomes a "story told by an idiot." For its satisfaction is the
+only one which never causes satiety, and of which over-indulgence is
+impossible. All others lead only to a slough of despond, or the
+deeper and more treacherous slough of contentment, beyond which rise
+no delectable mountains or golden city.
+
+And now in closing let me call your attention to one thought of
+practical vital importance.
+
+According to the theory which we have agreed to adopt, higher
+species have arisen through a process of natural selection, those
+species surviving which are best conformed to their environment.
+And this applies to man as well as to lower animals. All knowledge
+is in man, therefore, primarily, a means by which he may conform to
+environment, survive, and progress. But conformity includes more
+than mere knowledge of environment. A man might have all knowledge,
+and yet refuse to conform; and then his knowledge could not save him
+from destruction. For conformity alone gives survival. Conformity in
+man requires an effort of the will. It is intelligent, but it is
+also voluntary action. And knowledge is a necessary means of
+conformity because through it we see how we may conform, and because
+it furnishes the motives which stimulate the will to the necessary
+effort.
+
+Now, that faculty of the intellect which is dominant in man, and
+which has raised him immeasurably above the animal, and made him
+man, is the rational intelligence. If there is any such thing as a
+law of history or as continuity in evolution, man's future progress
+must depend upon his clearer vision and recognition of the
+perceptions of this faculty. Through it man perceives beauty, truth,
+and goodness, and attains knowledge of himself as a person and moral
+agent, and recognizes his rights and duties. Of all this the animal
+is and remains unconscious; indeed he is not yet a moral being and
+person in any proper sense of the word.
+
+Inasmuch as the rational perception is the dominant faculty in man,
+it must perceive the lines along which he is to conform. Truth,
+right, and duty must be his watchwords. These are to be the rules
+and motives of all his actions. He cannot live for the body, but for
+something higher, the mind. This was proven before man appeared on
+the globe. He is to be a mental, intelligent being. But he is not to
+be governed by appetite or mere prudential considerations. These are
+animal, not human motives. These are not to be disregarded any more
+than digestion can be safely disregarded by man. But they are not to
+be his chief motives. He must subordinate these to the higher
+motives furnished by right and duty. Man is not merely a mental but
+a moral being. If he sinks below this plane of life he is not
+following the path marked out for him in all his past development.
+In order to progress, the higher vertebrate had to subordinate
+everything to mental development. In order to become man it had to
+develop the rational intelligence. In order to become higher man,
+present man must subordinate everything to moral development. This
+is the great law of animal and human development clearly revealed in
+the sequence of physical and mental functions.
+
+Must man be a religious being also? This question we must try to
+answer in a future lecture.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT
+
+
+I have attempted to show that animal development has not been an
+aimless drifting. Functions developed and organs arose and were
+perfected in a certain order. First the purely vegetative organs
+appeared, and the animal lived for digestion and reproduction; then
+came muscle and it brought with it nerve. But these were not enough;
+the brain had all the time been gradually improving, and now it
+becomes the dominant function to which all others are subordinated.
+The experiment was fairly tried. Mere digestion and reproduction are
+carried to about the highest perfection which can be expected of
+them in worms and mollusks. The bird tried what could be done with
+digestion ministering to locomotion guided by the very keenest
+sense-organs and controlled by no mean brain. Even this experiment
+was not a success. But one organ remained, the brain, and on its
+mental possibilities depend the future of the animal kingdom.
+Vegetative organs and muscle have been tried and found wanting.[1]
+
+  [Footnote 1: See chart, p. 310.]
+
+We have followed hastily the development of mind. The mind began its
+career as the servant of digestion, recognizing and aiding to attain
+food. Action is at first mainly reflex. But conscious perception
+plays an ever more important part. The animal is at first guided by
+natural selection through the survival of the most suitable reflex
+actions, then by inherited tendencies, finally by its own conscious
+intelligence and will. The first motives are the appetites, but
+these are succeeded by ever higher motives as the perceptions become
+clearer and more subtile relations in environment are taken into
+account. Governed first purely by appetites, the will is ever more
+influenced by prudential considerations, and finally shows
+well-developed "natural affections." It has set its face toward
+unselfishness.
+
+Digestion and muscle, as well as mind, have persisted in man. He is
+not, cannot be, disembodied spirit. And in his mental life reflex
+action and instinct, appetite and prudence, are still of great
+importance. But the higher and supreme development of these powers
+could never have resulted in man. They might alone have produced a
+superior animal, never man. His mammalian structure found its
+logical and natural goal in family and social life. And even the
+lowest goal of family life is incompatible with pure selfishness,
+and as family life advanced to an ever higher grade it became the
+school of unselfishness and love. And social life had a similar
+effect.
+
+Moreover, man as a social being early began to learn that he could
+claim something from his fellows, and that he owed something to
+them. If he refused to help others, they would refuse to help him.
+This was his first, very rude lesson in rights and duties. Love,
+duty, and right have ever since been the watchwords of his
+development and progress. We have not yet considered, and must for
+the present disregard, the value and efficiency of religion in
+aiding his advance. At present we emphasize only the historical
+fact that man has not become what he is by a higher development of
+the body, nor by giving free rein to appetite, nor yet by making the
+dictates of selfish prudence supreme. And if there is any such thing
+as continuity in history, such modes and aims of life, if now
+followed, would surely only brutalize him and plunge him headlong in
+degeneration. He must live for right, truth, love, and duty. In just
+so far as he makes any other aim in life supreme, or allows it to
+even rival these, he is sinking into brutality. This is the clear,
+unmistakable verdict of history, and we shall do well to heed it.
+
+But granting all that can be claimed for this sequence, have not the
+lower forms whose anatomy we have sketched--worm, fish, and
+bird--halted at various points along this line of march? Yet they
+have evidently survived. And if they have found safe resting-places,
+cannot higher forms turn back and join them? In other words, is not
+degeneration easier than advance and just as safe? What is the
+result if an animal tries to return to a lower plane of life or
+refuses to take the next upward step? Generally extermination. The
+very classification of worms in a number of small isolated groups,
+which must once have been connected by a host of intermediate forms,
+is indisputable proof of most terrible extermination. They did not
+go forward, and the survivors are but an infinitesimal fraction of
+those which perished. Let us take an illustration where palaeontology
+can help us. The earth was at one time covered with marsupial
+mammals. Some advanced into placental forms. The great mass remained
+behind. And outside of Australia the opossums are the only survivors
+of them all. And this is only one example where a thousand could be
+given. Place is not long reserved for mere cumberers of the ground.
+There are so few exceptions to this statement that we might almost
+call it a law of biology.
+
+Let us see how it fares with an animal which retreats to a lower
+plane of life. A worm, rather than seek its own food, becomes a
+parasite. It degenerates, but still is easily recognized as a worm.
+A crustacean tries the same experiment, though living outside of its
+host instead of in it. It sinks to a place even lower, if possible,
+than that of the parasitic worm. A locomotive form becomes sessile.
+It loses most of its muscles and the larger part of its nervous
+system; and even the digestive system, which it has made the goal of
+its existence, is inferior to that of its locomotive ancestors and
+relatives. But to the vertebrate these lowest depths of stagnation
+and degeneration are, as a rule, impossible. From true fish upward
+parasitism and sessile life are practically impossible. Here
+stagnation and degeneration mean, as a rule, extinction. Of all the
+relatives of vertebrates back to worms only the very aberrant lines
+of amphioxus and of the tunicata remain. Of the rest not a single
+survivor has yet been discovered. And yet what hosts of species must
+have peopled the sea. The primitive round-mouthed fishes have
+practically disappeared. The ganoids survive in a few species out of
+thousands. The amphibia of the carboniferous and the next period and
+the reptiles of the mesozoic have disappeared; only a few feeble
+degenerate remnants persist. And this was necessarily so. Each
+advancing form crowded hardest on those which occupied the same
+place and sought the same food, that is, the members of the same
+species. And the first to suffer from its competition were its own
+brethren. Death, rarely commuted into life imprisonment, is the
+verdict pronounced on all forms which will not advance. And does not
+the same law of advance or extinction apply to man? What is the
+record of successive civilizations but its verification?
+
+Notice once more that as we ascend in the scale of development
+natural selection selects more unsparingly and the path to life
+narrows. It is a very easy matter for the lowest forms to get food.
+Indeed the plant sits still and its food comes to it. And the battle
+of brute force can be fought in a multitude of ways--by mere
+strength, by activity, by offensive or defensive armor, or even by
+running into the mud and skulking. It is harder to gain knowledge,
+and yet many roads lead to an education. Colleges are by no means
+the only seats of education. And many totally uneducated men have
+college diplomas. And life is, after all, the great university, and
+here the sluggard fails and the plucky man with the poor "fit" often
+carries off the honors.
+
+  "But where shall wisdom be found?
+   And where is the place of understanding?
+   The gold and the crystal cannot equal it:
+   And the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
+   No mention shall be made of corals or of pearls:
+   For the price of wisdom is above rubies."
+
+And when it comes to righteousness there is only one right, and
+everything else is wrong. "Wide is the gate and broad is the way
+that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat:
+Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto
+life, and few there be that find it." Therefore "strive to enter in
+at the strait gate." And remember that "strive" means wrestle like
+one of the athletes in the old Olympic games.
+
+   "I saw also that the Interpreter took Christian again by the hand
+   and led him into a pleasant place, where was built a stately
+   palace beautiful to behold; at the sight of which Christian was
+   greatly delighted. He saw also, upon the top thereof, certain
+   persons walking, who were clothed all in gold. Then said
+   Christian, May we go in thither?
+
+   "Then the Interpreter took him and led him up toward the door of
+   the palace; and, behold, at the door stood a great company of
+   men, as desirous to go in, but durst not. There also sat a man at
+   a little distance from the door at a table-side, to take the name
+   of him that should enter therein; he saw also that in the
+   door-way stood many men in armour, to keep it, being resolved to
+   do to the men that would enter what hurt and mischief they could.
+   Now was Christian somewhat in amaze. At last, when every man
+   started back for fear of the armed men, Christian saw a man of a
+   very stout countenance come up to the man that sat there to
+   write, saying, Set down my name, Sir; the which when he had done,
+   he saw the man draw his sword, and put an helmet upon his head,
+   and rush toward the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him
+   with deadly force; but the man, not at all discouraged, fell to
+   cutting and hacking most fiercely. So after he had received and
+   given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him out, he cut
+   his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace, at
+   which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that were
+   within, even of those that walked upon the top of the palace
+   saying:
+
+        "'Come in, come in;
+          Eternal glory thou shalt win.'
+
+   "So he went in, and was clothed in such garments as they.
+
+   "Then Christian smiled, and said, I think verily I know the
+   meaning of this."--Bunyan's, Pilgrim's Progress, p. 44.
+
+If you wish to climb the Matterhorn many paths lead up the lower
+slopes, and a stumble here may cost you only a sprain. And I suppose
+that several paths lead to the base of the cone. But thence to the
+summit there is but one path, and a misstep means death. Pardon
+these quotations and illustrations. They are my only means of at all
+adequately presenting to you a scientific man's conception of the
+meaning of the struggle for life. The laws of evolution are written
+in blood and bear the death penalty. For
+
+              "Life is not as idle ore,
+        But iron dug from central gloom,
+        And heated hot with burning fears,
+        And dipt in baths of hissing tears,
+        And battered with the shocks of doom
+        To shape and use."
+
+There would seem therefore to be going on a process of natural
+selection. Natural selection seems to select more unsparingly and
+the struggle for life--or even existence--to grow fiercer as we
+advance from lower forms to higher in the animal kingdom.
+
+But the theory which we have agreed to accept teaches us that these
+survivors are those which or who have conformed to their environment
+and that they have survived because of their conformity. And what do
+we mean by environment? And does not man modify his environment?
+Certainly he changes by irrigation a desert into a garden. He
+carries water against its tendency to the hill-top. But he has
+learned to do this only by studying the laws which govern the
+motions of fluids and rigorously obeying them. He must carry his
+water in strong pipes and take it from some higher point, or must
+use heat or some means to furnish the force to drive it to the
+higher point. He cannot change a single iota of the law, and gains
+control of the elements only by obedience to their laws. Electricity
+is man's best servant as long as he respects its laws, but it kills
+him who disobeys them. But does not man make his own surroundings in
+social life? He merely enters upon a new mode of life; and if this
+new mode be in conformity with the eternal forces and laws of
+environment man prospers in this new mode of life and conforms still
+more closely.
+
+There is, indeed, but one environment, but the lower animal comes in
+contact with, and is affected by, but a small portion of its
+elements. Form and color were in the world before the animal had
+developed an eye, but up to this time these could have but little
+effect on animal life. Light vibrations were present in ether long
+before the animal by responding to them made them any part of its
+own true environment. There is vastly more in environment than man
+has yet discovered, and he will discover these elements only by
+obedience to their laws.
+
+Environment includes ultimately all the forces and elements which go
+to make up our world or universe. It is an exceedingly general term.
+I might say that under the environment of certain wheels, springs,
+and spindles, which we call a Jacquard loom, silk threads become a
+ribbon worthy of a queen. Is Nature and environment only a huge
+divine loom to weave man and something higher yet? One great
+difference is evident. Under normal conditions the silk must become
+a ribbon. But protoplasm can fail to conform and become waste.
+Environment is a very hard word to define, and our views concerning
+it may differ.
+
+One thing, however, seems to me clear and evident. If each
+successive stage in the ascending series is selected or survives on
+account of its conformity to environment there must be some element
+or power, something or somewhat in environment specially
+corresponding in some way to, or suited to drawing out, the
+characteristic of this ascending stage on account of which it
+survives. The forces and elements of environment make and work
+against those at each stage who wander from the right path, and for
+those who follow it. And thus natural selection arises as the total
+result of the combined working of all these forces. They all unite
+in one resultant working along a certain line, and natural selection
+is the effect of this resultant. In the stage represented by hydra
+the forces of environment combine in a resultant which works for
+digestion and reproduction and the best development of their organs.
+But as the animal changes he comes into a new relation or occupies a
+new position in respect to these forces. New elements in the old
+environment are beginning to press upon him. And the resultant
+changes accordingly. He may be compared to a steamer at sea which
+raises a sail. The wind has been blowing for hours, but the sail
+gives it a new hold on the ship. Steam and wind now combine in a new
+resultant of forces. From worms upward environment manifests itself
+through natural selection as a power working for muscular force and
+brute strength or activity.
+
+But soon natural selection ceases to select on the ground of brute
+force. After a time environment proves to be a power making for
+shrewdness. And when the mammal has appeared the resultant of the
+forces of environment impels more and more toward unselfishness, and
+when man has appeared environment proves to be a "power, not
+ourselves, that makes for righteousness." But what shall we say of
+an environment which unmasks itself at last as a power making for
+intelligence, unselfishness, and righteousness? Someone may answer
+it is a host of chemical and physical forces bringing about very
+high ends. That is very true, but is it the whole truth? The
+thinking man must ask, How did it come about, and why is it that all
+these forces work together for such high moral and intelligent ends?
+
+We face, therefore, the question, Can an environment which proves
+finally and ultimately to be a power not ourselves making for
+righteousness and unselfishness be purely material and mechanical?
+Or must there be in or behind it something spiritual? Shall we best
+call environment, in its highest manifestation, "it" or "him?"
+
+The old argument of Socrates, as on the last day of his life he sits
+discoursing with his friends, still holds good. He is discussing the
+same old question, whether there is anything more than force,
+material, mechanism in the world. He says that one might assign as
+"the cause why I am sitting here that my body is composed of bones
+and muscles; that the bones are solid and separate, and that the
+muscles can be contracted and extended, and are all inclosed in the
+flesh and skin; and that the bones, being jointed, can be drawn by
+the muscles, and so I can move my legs as you see; and that this is
+the reason why I am sitting here. But by the dog, these bones and
+muscles would long ago have carried me to Megara or Booetia, moved
+by my opinion of what was best, if I had not thought it more right
+and honorable to submit to the sentence pronounced by the state than
+to run away from it. To call such things causes is absurd. For there
+is a great difference between the cause and that without which the
+cause would not produce its effect."
+
+If there is no intelligence or love of truth in the cause, how can
+there be anything higher in the effect? And if Socrates had been
+only bone and muscle, he ought to have run away.
+
+Our problem stands somewhat as follows: We have given protoplasm, a
+strange substance of marvellous capacities, which we call functions,
+and possessing a power of developing into beings of ever higher
+grades of organization. Environment proves to be a combination of
+forces working for the higher development of functions in a certain
+orderly sequence. And every lower function in the ascending line
+demands the development of the next higher. Digestion demands
+muscle, and muscle nerve, and nerve brain. We shall soon see that
+mammalian structure had to culminate in the family, and the family
+demands unselfishness and obedience. Environment therefore proves
+from the beginning to have been unceasingly working for the highest
+end; never, even temporarily, merely for the lower. For we have seen
+that environment works most unsparingly against those who, having
+taken certain of the steps in the ascending path, fail to continue
+therein.
+
+But in order to attain this highest end for which it has always been
+working, an immense number of subsidiary ends have had to be
+attained. These are not merely digestion and brain, but a host of
+others: _e.g._, in vertebrates, vertebrae of the right substance,
+position, form, arrangement, and union. And in the ascending line,
+for whose highest forms it has continually worked, the difficulties
+of attaining each subsidiary end have been successively solved, and
+through this host of subsidiary ends the animal kingdom has advanced
+straight to its goal of intelligence and righteousness. Now the
+whole process is a grand argument for design. But I would not
+emphasize the process so much as the end attained. This especially,
+when attained by conformity to that environment, demands more than
+mere mindless atoms in or behind that environment. Can we call the
+ultimate power which makes for righteousness "it?" Can we call it
+less than "Him, in whom we live and move and have our being?"
+
+The history of life is a grand drama. "Paradise Lost" and
+Shakespeare's plays are but fragments of it. But without
+intelligence they could never have been composed; without a choice
+of means and ends they could never have been placed upon the stage.
+Does the plot of this grander drama of evolution demand no
+intelligence in its ultimate cause and producer? Is the succession
+of steps, each succeeding the other in such order as to lead to
+truth and right and continual progress toward a spiritual goal, is
+this plot possible without a great composer who has seen the end
+from the beginning? Could it ever have been executed upon the stage
+of the world, and perhaps of the universe, without an executing
+will?
+
+Now I freely grant you that this is no mathematical demonstration.
+Natural science does not deal in demonstrations, it rests upon the
+doctrine of probabilities; just as we have to order our whole lives
+according to this doctrine. Its solution of a problem is never the
+only conceivable answer, but the one which best fits and explains
+all the facts and meets the fewest objections. The arguments for the
+existence of a personal God are far stronger than those in favor of
+any theory of evolution. But we very rightly test the former
+arguments, indefinitely more rigidly and severely, just because our
+very life hangs on them. On the other hand, we should not reject
+them as useless, because they are not of an entirely different kind
+from those on which all the actions and beliefs of our common daily
+life are based. There is a scepticism which is merely a credulity of
+negations. This also we should avoid.
+
+We have considered a few of the reasons for thinking that, with the
+material, there must be something spiritual in environment, that if
+the woof is material the warp is God. Here we need not delay long.
+Blank atheism seems to be at present unpopular and generally
+regarded as unscientific. The so-called philosophic materialism of
+the present day seems to be in general far nearer to pantheism than
+to the old form of materialism which recognized only atoms and
+mechanism. Atheism as a power to deform the lives of men has, for
+the present, lost its hold, and even agnosticism is respectful. The
+materialism against which we have to struggle is not that of the
+school, but of the shop, of society, of life. There are
+comparatively few now who avow a system of philosophy making
+mindless atoms their first cause.
+
+But there is a far grosser, more deadly materialism of the heart
+and will. It sits unrebuked in the front pews of our churches and
+controls alike church and parish, caucus and legislature. It calls
+on us all to fall down and worship, promising the world if we obey,
+the cross if we refuse. And we bow to it; and that is all it asks,
+for a nod on our part makes us its slaves. It is the idolatry of
+money, position, shrewdness, learning--in one word, of success. It
+takes all the strength out of our morality, loyalty and obedience to
+God out of our religion, and makes cowards and liars of us, who
+should be heroes. It makes our religion a byword with honest
+unbelievers. And if they are honest scientific minds, waiting for
+evidence of the practical value of our religion, why should they
+believe, when we live so successfully down to the religion which we
+would scorn to openly profess? Our fathers may have been narrow or
+straight-laced; they were not cross-eyed from trying to keep one eye
+on God and the other on the main chance. What is the use of
+whispering, "Lord, Lord," Sundays, if we shout, "Oh, Baal, hear us,"
+all the rest of the week. Let us at least be honest, and "if Baal be
+god, follow him," and avow it. And worst, and most hideous, of all,
+we are not so much hypocrites as self-deceived. Let us not forget
+the old Greek doctrine of Ate, goddess of judicial blindness, sent
+down only upon those who were living the unpardonable sin of
+indifference.
+
+But supposing that there is in environment something more and other
+than material, can we possibly know anything about it?
+
+I am in a boat near the mouth of a river. The boat is tossed by the
+waves, driven by currents of wind, and now and then temporarily
+turned by eddies. I seem to look out upon a chaos of apparently
+conflicting forces. But all the time the wind and tide are sweeping
+me homeward. Now the wind, which sometimes indeed does shift, and
+the great tidal wave are steadily bearing me in a certain direction,
+though wave and eddy and gust may often make this appear doubtful to
+me. So, underneath all waves and eddies of environment, there is a
+great tidal wave, bearing man steadily onward; and I gain a certain
+amount of valid knowledge of environment from the direction in which
+it is bearing me.
+
+Let us change the illustration. Man survives as all his ancestors
+have survived before him, through conformity to environment.
+Environment has therefore during ages past been continually making
+impressions upon him. And he can draw valid inferences concerning
+the one power, which must underlie the apparent host of forces of
+environment, from the impressions which these have left upon the
+structure of his mind and character. By studying himself he gains
+valid knowledge of what is deepest in environment. For man is the
+most completely and closely conformed thereto of all living beings.
+
+But man _is_ a religious being. This is a fact which demands
+explanation just as much as bone and muscle. Now no evolutionist
+would believe that the eye could ever have developed without the
+stimulus of light acting upon the cells of the skin. Place the
+animal in darkness and the eye becomes rudimentary and disappears.
+Could a visual organ for seeing moral and religious truth have ever
+originated in the mind of man had there been no corresponding
+pulsation and thrill of a corresponding reality in environment? Is
+not the one development just as improbable or inconceivable as the
+other?
+
+And this is the reason that, when man awakened to himself and his
+own powers, he knew that there was and must be a God. "Pass over the
+earth," says Plutarch; "you may discover cities without walls,
+without literature, without monarchs, without palaces and wealth;
+where the theatre and the school are not known; but no man ever saw
+a city without temples and gods, where prayers and oaths and oracles
+and sacrifices were not used for obtaining pardon or averting evil."
+Given man and environment as they are, and a belief in God is a
+necessary result. But you may ask, if we are to worship a personal
+God, why might not a conscious and religious hydra, with equal
+right, worship an infinite stomach, and the annelid a god of mere
+brute force?
+
+There stands in Florence a magnificent statue by Michel Angelo. A
+human figure is only partially hewn out of the stone. He never
+finished it. If you could have seen the master hewing the chips with
+hasty, impatient blows from the shapeless block, you would have been
+tempted to say that he was but a stonecutter, and but a hasty
+workman at that. Even now we do not know exactly what form and
+expression he would have given to the still unfinished head. But no
+one can examine it and hesitate to pronounce it a grand work of a
+master-mind. In any manifestly incomplete work you must judge the
+purpose and character and powers of the workman or artist by its
+highest possibilities, just so far as you have any reason to believe
+that these possibilities will be realized. You must look at the
+rudely outlined heroic human figure in the block of stone, not at
+the rough unfinished pedestal, if you would know Michel Angelo. So
+in the hydra and the annelid you must look at the possibilities of
+the nervous system before you or he think that digestion and muscle
+are all.
+
+Once more the highest powers dawn far down in the animal kingdom.
+There are traces of mind in the amoeba, and of unselfishness in
+the lower mammals. If there were a goal of human development higher
+and other than unselfishness, wisdom, and love, we should have seen
+traces of it before this. But have we found the faintest sign of any
+such? Moreover, remember that a function continues to develop about
+as long as it shows the capacity for development. And during that
+period environment is a power making for its higher development. But
+is there any limit to the possible development of the three mental
+activities mentioned above? I can see none. Then must we not expect
+that environment will always make for these? And will environment
+ever manifest itself to man as the seat or instrument of a power
+possessing higher faculties other than these? Man must worship a
+personal God of wisdom, unselfishness, and love, or cease to
+worship. The latter alternative he never yet has been able to take,
+and society survive under its domination. So I at least am compelled
+to read the finding of biological history.
+
+But let us grant for the sake of argument that man contains still
+undeveloped germs of faculties capable of perceiving and attaining
+something as much higher than wisdom and love as these are higher
+than brute force. You will answer, this is not only inconceivable,
+it is impossible. Still let us grant the possibility. We notice,
+first of all, that it is against the whole course of evolution that
+these faculties should be other than mental, and what we class under
+powers pertaining to our personality. For ages past evidently, and
+no less really from the very beginning, evolution has worked for the
+body only as a perfect vehicle of mind, and for this as leading to
+will and character. And human development has led, and ever more
+tends, as Mr. Drummond has shown, to the arrest, though not the
+degeneration, of the body. It is to remain at the highest possible
+stage of efficiency as the servant of mind. These higher powers will
+thus be mental and personal powers. And how has any and every
+advance to higher capabilities been attained in the animal kingdom?
+Merely by the most active possible exercise of the next lower power.
+This is proven by the sequence of physical and mental functions. We
+shall attain, therefore, any higher mental capacities only by the
+continual practice of wisdom and love. That is our only path to
+something higher, if higher there shall ever be. But if we find that
+the God of our environment is a God of something higher than love
+and righteousness, will these cease to be characteristics of his
+nature and essence? Not at all.
+
+I have learned, perhaps, to know my father as a plain citizen. If I
+later find that he is a king and statesman, with powers and mental
+capacities of which I have never dreamed, do I therefore from that
+time cease to think of him as wise and kind and good? Not in the
+least. I only trust his love and wisdom as guide of my little life
+all the more. And shall not the same be true of God though he be
+king of all worlds and ages? It becomes unwise and wrong to worship
+God as the God of might only when we have found that he is a God
+also of something higher and nobler, of love; and after we have
+perceived this fully and worship him as love, we rest in the arms of
+his infinite power.
+
+But now that the work has gone thus far, we can see that all
+development must take place along personal, spiritual lines; and are
+compelled to believe in a spiritual cause who knew the end from the
+beginning. And man's farther progress depends upon his conformity to
+this spiritual environment. And what is conformity to the personal
+element in our environment but likeness to him? This is my only
+possible mode of conformity to a person--to become like him in word,
+action, thought, and purpose, and finally in all my being. Very far
+from a close resemblance we still are. But we are more like him than
+primitive man was; and our descendants will resemble him far more
+closely than we. And thus man, conscious of his environment, and
+that means capable of knowing something about God, knows at least
+what God requires of him, namely, righteousness, love, and likeness
+to himself; or, as the old heathen seer expressed it, "to do justly,
+love mercy, and walk humbly before God." Man is and must be a
+religious being. And he conforms consciously. Thus to be more like
+God he must know more about him, and to know more about him he must
+become more like him. The two go hand in hand, and by mutual
+reaction strengthen each other. I will not enter into the most
+important question of all, whether we can ever really know a person
+unless we have some love for him. The facts of evolution seem to me
+to admit of but one interpretation, that of Augustine: "Thou hast
+formed me for thee, O Lord, and my restless spirit finds no rest but
+in thee." Granted, therefore, a personal God in and behind
+environment, however dimly perceived, and conformity to environment
+means god-likeness; for conformity to a person can mean nothing less
+than likeness to him.
+
+Some of you must, all of you should, have read Professor Huxley's
+"Address on Education." In it he says, "It is a very plain and
+elementary truth that the life, the fortune, and the happiness of
+every one of us, and, more or less, of those who are connected with
+us, do depend upon our knowing something of the rules of a game
+infinitely more difficult and complicated than chess. It is a game
+which has been played for unknown ages, every man and woman of us
+being one of the two players in a game of his or her own. The
+chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the
+universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature.
+The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his
+play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our
+cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest
+allowance for ignorance. To the man who plays well the highest
+stakes are paid with that sort of overflowing generosity with which
+the strong shows delight in strength. And one who plays ill is
+checkmated--without haste, but without remorse.
+
+"My metaphor," he continues, "will remind some of you of the famous
+picture in which Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with
+man for his soul. Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture
+a calm, strong angel, who is playing for love, as we say, and would
+rather lose than win--and I should accept it as an image of human
+life."[1]
+
+  [Footnote 1: Huxley: Lay Sermons and Addresses, p. 31.]
+
+This is a marvellous illustration, and in general as true as it is
+beautiful and grand. But that "calm, strong angel who is playing for
+love, as we say, and would rather lose than win," is certainly a
+very strange antagonist. Is it, after all, possible that our
+clear-eyed scientific man has altogether misunderstood the game? Is
+not the "calm, strong angel" more probably our partner? Certainly
+very many things point that way. And who are our antagonists? Look
+within yourself and you will always find at least a pair ready to
+take a hand against you, to say nothing of the possibilities of
+environment. "Rex regis rebellis." Our partner is trying by every
+method, except perhaps by "talking across the board," to teach us
+the laws and methods of this great game. And calls and signals are
+always allowable. The game is not finished in one hand; he gives us
+a second and third, and repeats the signals, and never misleads.
+Only when we carelessly or obstinately refuse to learn, and wilfully
+lose the game beyond all hope, does he leave us to meet our losses
+as best we may.
+
+Let us carry the illustration a step farther. Who knows that the
+game was, or could be, at first taught without talking across the
+board? I can find nothing in science to compel such a belief, many
+things render it improbable. Grant a personality in environment to
+which personality in man is to conform and gain likeness.
+Environment can act on the digestive and muscular systems through
+mere material. But how can personality in environment act on
+personality in man except by personal contact or by symbols easy of
+comprehension according to its own laws? Some method of attaining
+acquaintance at least we should certainly expect.
+
+But some of you may ask, How can any theory of evolution guarantee
+that anything of the present shall survive in the future? It is
+continually changing and destroying former types. The old order of
+everything changes and passes away, giving place to the new. But is
+this the whole truth? Evolution is a radical process, but we must
+never forget that it is also, and at the same time, exceedingly
+conservative. The cell was the first invention of the animal
+kingdom, and all higher animals are and must be cellular in
+structure. Our tissues were formed ages on ages ago; they have all
+persisted. Most of our organs are as old as worms. All these are
+very old, older than the mountains, and yet I cannot doubt that they
+must last as long as man exists. Indeed, while Nature is wonderfully
+inventive of new structures, her conservatism in holding on to old
+ones is still more remarkable. In the ascending line of development
+she tries an experiment once exceedingly thorough, and then the
+question is solved for all time. For she always takes time enough to
+try the experiment exhaustively. It took ages to find how to build a
+spinal column or brain, but when the experiment was finished she had
+reason to be, and was, satisfied. And if this is true of bodily
+organs we should expect that the same law would hold good when the
+animal development gradually passes over into the spiritual. And
+what is human history but the record of moral and religious
+experiments, and their success or failure according as the
+experimenters conformed to the laws of the spiritual forces with
+which they had to do?
+
+We need not fear that our old fundamental beliefs will be lost.
+Their very age shows that they have been thoroughly tested in the
+great experiment of human history and found sure. Modified they may
+be; they will be used for higher purposes and the building of better
+characters than ours. They will not be lost or discarded. We too
+often think of nature as building like man, with huge scaffoldings,
+which must later be torn down and destroyed. But in the forest the
+only scaffolding is the heart of oak.
+
+We have seen that the sequence of functions in animal development
+has culminated in man's rational, moral nature. He alone has the
+clear perception of the reality of right, truth, and duty. The
+pursuit of these has made him what he is. His advance, if there is
+any continuity in history, depends upon his making these the ruling
+motives and aims of his life. He must continually grow in
+righteousness and unselfishness, if he is not to degenerate and give
+place to some other product of evolution. Moreover, as these moral
+faculties are capable of indefinite, if not infinite, development,
+they must dominate his life through a future of indefinite duration.
+For the length of the period of dominance of a function has always
+been proportional to the capacity of that function for future
+development. These can never, so far as we can see, be superseded,
+for no rival to them can be discovered. We have found in them the
+culmination of the sequence of functions.
+
+We have attempted to show in this lecture that reversal of this
+grand sequence has always led to degeneration, or, in higher forms,
+far more frequently, to extinction. As we ascend, natural selection
+works more, rather than less, unsparingly. And as advance depends
+upon conformity to environment, and as the highest forms must be
+regarded as therefore most completely conformed, we gain our most
+adequate knowledge of environment when we study it as working
+especially for these. For these have been from the very beginning
+its far-off, chief aim and goal. Viewed from this standpoint,
+environment proves to be a host of interacting forces uniting in a
+resultant "power, not ourselves, that makes for righteousness," and
+unselfishness.
+
+Inasmuch as man's rational moral nature, his personality, is the
+result of the last and longest step toward and in conformity to
+environment, these powers correspond to that which is at the same
+time highest, and deepest, and most fundamental in that environment.
+This power which makes for righteousness is therefore to be regarded
+as personal and spiritual rather than material. It is God immanent
+in nature. And it is mainly to this personal and spiritual element
+in his environment that man is in the future to more completely
+conform. Conformity to this element in man's environment does not so
+much result in life as it _is_ life; failure to conform is death.
+And the pressure of environment upon man, compelling him to choose
+between life through conformity and non-conformity with death, can
+be most naturally and adequately explained as the expression of his
+will. We know what he requires of us.
+
+Our knowledge of him is very incomplete, but may be valid as far as
+it extends. And it would seem to be valid, for it has been tested by
+ages of experiment. The results of this grand experiment have been
+summed up in man's fundamental religious beliefs. And farther
+knowledge will be gained by more complete obedience to the
+requirements already known. The evidence, that these fundamental
+religious beliefs will persist, is of the same character as that
+upon which rests our belief in the persistence of cells and tissues.
+The one is rooted in the structure of our minds; the other, in the
+structure of our bodies. But, after all, only will can act upon
+will, and personality upon personality. It remains for us to examine
+how man was compelled by his very structure to develop a new element
+in his environment, conformed indeed to the laws of his old
+environment, but better fitted to draw out the moral and spiritual
+side of his nature. And in connection with this study we may hope to
+gain some new light on the laws of conformity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+CONFORMITY TO ENVIRONMENT
+
+
+We are too prone to think that soil and climate, hill-side or plain,
+mountain and shore, temperature and rainfall, constitute the sole or
+the most important elements in human environment. Every one of these
+elements is doubtless important. Frost, drought, or barrenness of
+soil may make a region a desert, or dwarf the development of its
+inhabitants. Mountaineer, and the dweller on the plain, and the
+fisherman on the shore of the ocean develop different traits through
+the influence of their surroundings. In too warm a climate the human
+race loses its mental and moral vigor and degenerates. This is
+undeniable.
+
+But, though one soil and climate and set of physical surroundings
+may be more conducive than another to the development of heroism,
+truthfulness, unselfishness, and righteousness, no one is essential
+to their production or sure to give rise to them. Moral and
+religious character is a feature of man's personality, and our
+personality is moulded mainly by the men and women with whom we
+associate. A man is not only "known by the company which he keeps;"
+he is usually fashioned by and conforms to it. As President Seelye
+has well said, "The only motive which can move a will is either a
+will itself, or something into which a will enters. It is not a
+thought, but only a sentiment, a deed, or a person, by which we
+become truly inspired. It is not the intellect, but the heart and
+will, through which and by which we are controlled. It is not the
+precepts of life, but life itself, by which alone we are begotten
+and born unto life.
+
+"Now, there are two ways in which living power, personal power, the
+power of a will, may enter a soul and give it life; the one is when
+God's will works upon us, and the other when our wills work upon one
+another. God's will may directly penetrate ours, enabling us to will
+and to do of his good pleasure; and our own wills, thus inspired,
+may be the torch to kindle other wills with the same inspiration. It
+is in only one of these two ways that a human soul can be truly
+inspired; and, without a true inspiration, no amount of instruction,
+whether in duty, or life, or anything else, will change a single
+moral propensity."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Seelye: Christian Missions, p. 154.]
+
+Even though a Lincoln may rise above his hereditary position or his
+surroundings, they are the school in which he is trained; the
+gymnasium in which his mental and moral fibre is strengthened.
+Family and social life form thus the element of man's environment by
+which he is mostly moulded, and to which he most naturally and
+completely conforms. Let us therefore briefly trace the origin of
+this new element of man's environment, and then notice the effect
+upon him of conformity to its laws, and see whither these would lead
+him.
+
+We have already seen that intra-uterine development of the young was
+being carried ever farther by mammals, and we found one explanation
+of this in the fact that each mammalian egg represented a large
+amount of nutriment, and that the mammal had very little material to
+spare for reproduction. Very possibly, too, the newly hatched
+mammals were exposed to even more numerous and greater dangers than
+the young of birds. Even among lower mammals the young is feeble at
+birth. But the human infant is absolutely helpless. And the centre
+of its helplessness is its brain. Its eyes and ears are
+comparatively perfect, but its perceptions are very dim. Its muscles
+are all present, but it must very slowly and gradually learn to use
+them. Its language is but a cry, its few actions reflex. The
+new-born kitten may be just as helpless, but in a few weeks it will
+run and play and hunt, and after a few months can care for itself.
+Not so the child. It must be cared for during months and years
+before it can be given independence. Its brain is so marvellously
+complex that it is finished as a thinking and willing and
+muscle-controlling mechanism only long after birth. This means a
+period of infancy during which the young clings helplessly to the
+mother, who is its natural protector. And during this period the
+mother and young have to be cared for and protected by the male. And
+the period of infancy and the protection of the female and young are
+just as truly, though in far less degree, characteristic of the
+highest apes as of man.
+
+I can give you only this very condensed and incomplete abstract of
+Mr. John Fiske's argument; you must read it for yourself in his
+"Destiny of Man." And as he has there shown, this can have but one
+result, and that is the family life of man. And we may yet very
+possibly have to acknowledge that family life of a very low grade
+is just as truly characteristic of the higher apes as of lower man.
+And thus the family life of man is the physiological result of, and
+rooted in, mammalian structure.
+
+And the benefits of family life are too great and numerous to even
+enumerate. First of all the family is the school of unselfishness.
+All the love of the parent is drawn out for the helpless and
+dependent child, and grows as the parent works and thinks for it.
+And the child returns a fraction of his parents' love. Within the
+close bond of the family the struggle for place and opportunity is
+replaced by mutual helpfulness; and this doing and burden-bearing
+with and for each other is a constant exercise in the practice of
+love. And with out this mutual love and helpfulness the family
+cannot exist.
+
+And slowly man begins to apply the lessons learned in the family to
+other relations with partners, neighbors, and friends. Slowly he
+discovers that an entirely selfish life defeats its own ends. A
+voice within him tells him continually that love is better than
+selfishness and ministering better than being ministered unto. It
+dawns upon him that it is against the nature of things that other
+people should be so selfish and grasping; a few begin to apply the
+moral to themselves, and a few of these to act accordingly.
+
+And what a change the few steps which man has taken in this
+direction have wrought in his life. Says Professor Huxley: "In place
+of ruthless self-assertion it demands self-restraint, in place of
+thrusting aside or treading down all competitors, it requires that
+the individual shall not merely respect, but shall help his fellows;
+its influence is directed not so much to the survival of the
+fittest as to the fitting of as many as possible to survive. It
+repudiates the gladiatoral theory of existence."
+
+It is a vast change from the "gladiatorial theory" to that of
+"mutual helpfulness." Call it a revolution, if you will. Revolutions
+are not unheard of in the history of the animal kingdom any more
+than in human history. We have seen, first, digestion and
+reproduction on the throne of animal organization, then muscle, and
+finally brain. Each of these changes is in one sense a revolution.
+
+A little before the summer solstice the earth is whizzing away from
+the sun; a few weeks later it is whizzing with equal rapidity in
+almost the opposite direction. In the very nature of things it could
+not be otherwise. But so silently and gradually does it come about
+that we never feel the reversal of the engine; indeed the engine has
+not been reversed at all. Very similar is the change of the struggle
+of brute against brute to that of man for man. Indeed human
+development seems now to be almost at such a solstice where the
+power that makes for love is almost exhausted in opposing the
+tendency toward selfishness. We shall not always stay at the
+solstice; soon we shall make more rapid progress. And unselfishness
+like the family relation is firmly rooted in mammalian structure.
+
+And man owes almost everything to family life. First the child gains
+the advantage of the parent's experience. He is educated by the
+parent. In a few formative and receptive years he gains from the
+parent the results of centuries of human experience. The process is
+thus cumulative, the investment bears compound interest. And yet
+this is peculiar to man only in degree. Have you never watched a
+cat train her kittens? And the education of the child in the savage
+family is very incomplete.
+
+The family is the first and fundamental of all higher social and
+political unities. And without the persistence of the family the
+larger social unit would become an inert mass. All the individual
+ambition, all desire for family advancement, must be retained as
+still a motive for energetic advance. And all the training which
+social life can give reaches the individual most effectively, or
+solely, through the family. Society without the family would be like
+an army without company or regimental organization. Thus the very
+existence, not only of training in love and mutual helpfulness, but
+even of society itself as a mere organization, depends upon the
+existence and improvement of family life. And as so much depended
+upon and resulted from it, it could not but be fostered and improved
+by natural selection. The tribe or race with the best family life
+has apparently survived. But all social animals have some means of
+communicating very simple thoughts or perceptions. The simplest
+illustrations of this are the calls and warning cries of mammals and
+birds. It is not impossible that the higher mammals have something
+worthy of the name of language. But man alone, with his better brain
+and better anatomical structure of throat and mouth, and the closer
+interdependence with his fellows, has attained to articulate speech.
+And this again has become the bond to a still closer union.
+
+Now our only question is, How does social life enable and aid man to
+conform to environment? We are interested not so much in his
+happiness as in his progress. It helps and improves the body by
+giving him a better and more constant supply of more suitable food,
+and better protection from inclemency of the weather, and in many
+other ways. Baths and gymnasia are built, and medical science
+prolongs life. Yet make the items as many as you can, and what a
+long list of disadvantages to man physically you must set over
+against these. Many of these evils will doubtless disappear as
+society becomes better organized, but some will always remain to
+plague us. We pamper or abuse our stomachs, and dyspepsia results.
+We live in hot-houses, and a host of diseases are fostered by them.
+Indeed it would be hard to count up the diseases for which social
+life is directly or indirectly responsible. Social life becomes more
+and more complicated, and our nervous systems cannot bear the
+strain. Medical science saves alive thousands who would otherwise
+die, and these grow up to bear children as weak as themselves. We
+are looking now at the physical side alone; and from this standpoint
+the survival of the invalid is a sore evil. Now society will and
+must become healthier; we shall not always abuse our bodies as
+sinfully as we now do. Still, viewed from the standpoint of the body
+alone, the best, as it seems to me, which we can claim, is that
+social life does no more harm than good.
+
+What has social life done for man intellectually? Much. It gives him
+schools and colleges. But are our systems of education an unmixed
+good? How many of our schools and colleges are places where men are
+stuffed with facts until they have no time nor inclination to think?
+They may turn out learned men; do they produce thinkers? And how
+about the spread of knowledge? Is it not a spread of information?
+And most of what goes forth from the press is not worthy of even
+that name, or is information which a man had better be without. We
+are proud of being a nation of readers. And reading is good, if a
+man thinks about what he reads; otherwise it is like undigested food
+in the stomach, an injury and a curse. A dyspeptic gourmand is
+helped by "cutting down his rations." In our mental disease we need
+the same course of treatment. Let us read fewer books and papers and
+think more about what we do read.
+
+Society may foster original thinking; it is none the less opposed to
+it.
+
+        "Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
+         He thinks too much; such men are dangerous."
+
+This is the motto of all great parties in Church and State. Still
+social life has undoubtedly fostered thought. We think vastly more
+and better than primitive man; still we have much to learn. Society
+puts the experience of centuries at the service of every individual.
+Poor and unsatisfactory as are our modes of education, they are a
+great blessing intellectually and will become more helpful.
+And, after all, the friction of mind against mind in social
+life--provided social intercourse is this, and not the commingling
+of two vacua--is a continual education of inestimable advantage. And
+all these advantages would without language have been absolutely
+impossible. Intellectually our debt to society is inestimable.
+
+And how does social life aid man morally? I cannot help believing
+that primitive society was the first school of the human conscience.
+It was a rude school, but it taught man some grand lessons.
+
+The primitive clan would seem to have existed as a rude army for
+the defence of its members and for offensive operations against
+enemies. Individual responsibility on the part of its members was
+slight for offences against individuals of other clans, or against
+the gods. For any such offence of one of its members the whole clan
+was held, or held itself, largely responsible. If one man sinned,
+the clan suffered. It could not therefore afford to pardon wilful
+disobedience to regulations made by it or its leaders. Its very
+existence depended on this strict discipline. And much the same
+stern discipline has to be maintained in our modern armies or they
+become utterly worthless.
+
+Furthermore, man, as a social being, is very ready to accept the
+estimate of his actions placed upon them by his fellows. It is not
+easy to resist public opinion now. The tie of class or professional
+feeling is a tremendous power for good and evil. It must have been
+almost irresistible in that primitive army, which summarily outlawed
+or killed the obstinately disobedient. But all obedience was lauded
+and rewarded. It had to be so. And if the tribe was worthy to
+survive, because its regulations were better than those of its
+rivals, or perhaps as nearly just and right as were well possible,
+it was altogether best and right it should be so. The voice of the
+people was, in a very rude, stammering way, the voice of God. And
+those who survived became more and more obedient, and found
+themselves, when disobedient, feeling debased, and mean, and
+unworthy, as their fellows considered them. And all this feeling
+tended to develop a conscience in the individual answering to the
+estimates and regulations of the community.
+
+And remember that the primitive religion is a tribal religion. The
+gods felt toward a man just as his neighbors did. A public opinion
+of this sort is irresistible, and a man's conscience and estimate of
+himself and his actions must conform to it. But you may say a man
+may grant that this opinion is in a sense irresistible, and find
+himself very miserable and unhappy under its condemnation. But he
+would not feel remorse; this is a very different feeling. Possibly
+it may be. I am not so sure. But what I am interested in maintaining
+is that the condemnation of one's fellow-men puts more vividly
+before one's eyes, and emphasizes, the condemnation of one's own
+self. It may often be a necessary step in self-conviction. And what
+is most important, even in our own case, the condemnation of our
+fellows often brings with it self-condemnation.
+
+Try the experiment, as you will some day, of following a course of
+action which you feel fairly confident is right, but which all your
+neighbors think is foolish and wrong. See if you do not feel twinges
+within you which you must examine very closely to distinguish from
+twinges of conscience. If you do not, I see but one explanation--you
+are conscious that God is with you, and content with this majority.
+But in the case of primitive man God was always on the side of one's
+tribe.
+
+Now this does not explain the origin of man's conception of right;
+it presupposes such a conception in some dim form. I do not now know
+why right is right or beauty beautiful. I only know they are so.
+Where or when either of these perceptions dawned I do not know. But,
+given some such dim perception, I believe that primitive human
+society gave it its iron grip on every fibre of man's nature.
+
+Before the animal could safely be allowed to govern itself
+intelligently it had to serve a long apprenticeship to reflex action
+and instinct. And man's moral nature had to undergo a similar
+apprenticeship to tribal regulation and tribal conscience. Only
+slowly was instinct modified and replaced by intelligent action. And
+how this old tribal conscience persists. Often for good, although
+there it were better replaced by an individual conscience working
+for right. But how slowly you and I learn that there is a higher
+responsibility than to party or class. How often my vote and action
+are controlled, not by my own conscience, but by the opinion of my
+fellows, or the feeling that, if my party suffers defeat, God's work
+will suffer at the hands of my opponents. And what is all this but
+the survival in a very degenerate form of the old tribal conscience
+of primitive man? And he knew, and could know, nothing better: I can
+and do.
+
+But society slowly works for unselfishness. The love learned in the
+family manifests itself in ever-widening circles; it must do so if
+it is the genuine article. It works for neighbors and friends, then
+for the poor and helpless of the community. Then it spreads to other
+communities and nations. For genuine love recognizes no bounds of
+time or place. Slowly we learn that we are our brother's keepers,
+and that the brotherhood cannot stop short of the human race.
+Goodness and kindness radiate from one, perhaps unknown, member of
+the community to his fellows, and thence all over the world. And the
+world is the better for his one action.
+
+Primitive society was thus the best possible school of conscience;
+and the family and it are the great school of unselfishness. But
+society is even more and better than this. It is the medium through
+which thought, power, and moral and religious life can spring from
+man to man. This is its last and culminating advantage: it is that
+for which society really exists.
+
+For, in the close bonds of family and social life, a new possibility
+of development has arisen based upon articulate speech. We might
+almost call it a new form of heredity, independent of all
+blood-relationship. Progress in anatomical structure in the animal
+kingdom was slow, because any improvement could be transmitted only
+to the direct descendants of its original possessor. But in all
+matters pertaining to or based upon mind, a new invention, or idea,
+or system becomes the property of him who can best appreciate it.
+The torch is always handed on to the swiftest runner. Thus Socrates
+is the true father of Plato, and Plato of Aristotle. Whoever can
+best understand and appreciate and enter into the spirit of Socrates
+and Plato becomes heir to their thoughts and interprets them to us.
+And the thought of one man enriches all races and times.
+
+But a great teacher like Socrates is not merely an intellectual
+power. "Probe a little deeper, surgeon," said the French soldier,
+"and you'll find the emperor." Napoleon may have impressed himself
+on the soldier's intellect; he had enthroned himself in his heart.
+"Slave," said the old Roman, Marius, to the barbarian who had been
+sent into the dungeon to despatch him, "slave, wouldst thou kill
+Cains Marius?" And the barbarian, though backed by all the power of
+Rome, is said to have fled in dismay. Why did he run away? I do not
+know. I only know that I should have done the same. One more
+instance. Some thirty years ago the northern army was fleeing, a
+disorganized mob, toward Winchester. Early had fallen upon them
+suddenly in the gray of the morning, and, while one corps still held
+its ground, the rest of the army was melting away in panic. Then a
+little red-faced trooper came tearing down the line shouting, "Face
+the other way boys; face the other way." And those panic-stricken
+men turned and rolled an irresistible avalanche of heroes upon the
+Confederate lines. What made them turn about? It was something which
+I can neither define nor analyze--the personal power of Sheridan. It
+is the secret of every great leader of men. Now Sheridan had
+imparted more than information to these men. Is it too much to say
+that he put himself into them? From such men power streams out like
+electricity from a huge dynamo.
+
+Now society furnishes the medium through which such a man can act.
+You have all met such men, though probably not more than one or two
+of them. But one such man is a host. They may be men of few words.
+But their very presence and look calls out all that is good in you;
+and while you are with them evil loses its power. Says the gay and
+licentious Alcibiades, in Plato's "Banquet" concerning Socrates:
+
+"When I heard Pericles or any other great orator, I was entertained
+and delighted, and I felt that he had spoken well. But no mortal
+speech has ever excited in my mind such emotions as are excited by
+this magician. Whenever I hear him, I am, as it were, charmed and
+fettered. My heart leaps like an inspired Corybant. My inmost soul
+is stung by his words as by the bite of a serpent. It is indignant
+at its own rude and ignoble character. I often weep tears of regret
+and think how vain and inglorious is the life I lead. Nor am I the
+only one that weeps like a child and despairs of himself. Many
+others are affected in the same way."
+
+These men are the real kings. Their power for good, and sometimes
+for evil, is inestimable. And the great advantage of social life, as
+a means of conforming to environment, is the medium which it
+furnishes to conduct the power of such men. Man's last effort toward
+conformity to environment, the struggle for existence in its last
+most real form, is the life and death grapple between good and evil.
+For here good and evil, righteousness and sin, come face to face in
+spiritual form; "we wrestle not with flesh and blood." Life is more
+than a game of chess or whist; it is a great battle; every man must,
+and does, take sides; he must fight or die. And the real kings of
+society are, as a rule, on the side of truth, and aid its triumph.
+For one essential condition of such leadership is the power to
+inspire confidence in the love of the king for his willing subject.
+A suspicion of selfish aims in the leader breaks this bond. The hero
+must be self-forgetful. This is one reason for man's hero-worship,
+and the magnetic, dominant power of the hero. But evil is
+essentially selfish and can gain and hold this kingship only as long
+as it can deceive. And these kings "live forever." Dynasties and
+empires disappear, but Socrates and Plato, Luther and Huss, Cromwell
+and Lincoln, rule an ever-widening kingdom of ever more loyal
+subjects.
+
+And society will have leaders; men may set up whatever form of
+government they will, they are always searching for a king. And this
+is no sign of weakness or credulity. Man's desire for leadership is
+only another proof of the vast future which he knows is before him,
+and into which he longs to be guided. The wiser a man is, the more
+he desires to be taught; the nobler he becomes, the more
+whole-souled is the homage which he pays to the noblest. Is it a
+sign of weakness or ignorance in students, of adult age and ripe
+manhood, to flock to some great university to hear the wisdom and
+catch the inspiration of some great master? When Jackson fell Lee
+exclaimed, "I have lost my right arm." Was Jackson any the less for
+being the right arm to deal, as only he could, the crushing blows
+planned by the great strategist?
+
+But is not man to be independent and free? Certainly. But he gains
+freedom from the petty tyranny of robber-baron or boss, and from the
+very pettiest tyranny of all, the service of self, only as he finds
+and enlists under the king. Serve self and it will plunge you in,
+and drag you through, the ditch, till your own clothes abhor you.
+You are free to choose your teacher and guide and example. But
+choose you will and must. I am not propounding theories; I am
+telling you facts. Whether for better or worse man always does and
+will choose because he must. Look about you, look into yourselves.
+Have you no hero whom you admire and strive to resemble? no teacher
+to whom you listen? You must and do have your example and teacher.
+Is he teaching you to conform to environment, or leading you to be
+ground in pieces by its forces all arrayed against you?
+
+The Carpenter of Nazareth stood before Pilate. "And Pilate said
+unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I
+am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into
+the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that
+is of the truth heareth my voice." And Pilate would not wait for the
+answer to his question, What is truth? and the Jews chose Barabbas.
+Would you and I have acted differently? The answer of our Lord to
+Pilate contains the essence of Christianity. "You a king," says
+Pilate in astonishment; "where is your power to enforce your
+authority?" And our Lord's answer seems to me to mean substantially
+this: Roman legions shall suffer defeat, rout, and extermination;
+and Roman power shall cease to terrify. All its might must decay.
+But "everyone that is of the truth" shall attach himself to me with
+a love which will brave rack and stake. All your power cannot give a
+grain of new life. I can and will infuse my own divine life, my own
+divine _self_, into men. And this new life is invincible, immortal,
+all-conquering. I have infused myself into a few fishermen, and they
+will infuse _me_ into a host of other men. Thus I will transfigure
+into my own character every man in the world, who is of the truth,
+and therefore will hear my voice. All the power of Rome cannot
+prevent it, and whatever opposes it must go down before it.
+
+Christianity is the contagion of a divine life. Society is the
+medium through which it could and was to work. Greece had prepared
+the language necessary for its spread. Roman power had built its
+highways and levelled all obstructions.
+
+"A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." "Not by might, nor by
+power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."
+
+But, you will object, the grandest kings have had, as a rule, the
+fewest loyal subjects. The prophets and seers are stoned. Elijah
+stands alone on Carmel and opposed to him are more than a thousand
+prophets of Baal, with court and king at their head. Heroism does
+not pay, and heroes are few. Right is always in a hopeless minority.
+Let us look into this matter carefully, for the objection, even if
+overstated, certainly contains a large amount of truth.
+
+Let us go back to two forms having much the same grade of
+organization: both worms. One of them sets out to become a
+vertebrate, building an internal skeleton. The other forms an
+external skeleton and becomes a crab. To form its skeleton the crab
+had only to thicken the cuticle already present in the annelid. It
+had to modify the already existing parapodia and their muscles,
+changing them to legs. The external skeleton gave from the start a
+double advantage--protection and better locomotion. Every grain of
+thickening aided the animal in the struggle for existence in both
+these ways. The very fact that the skeleton was external may have
+rendered it more liable to variation, because it was thus exposed to
+continual stimuli. And the best were rapidly sifted out by Natural
+Selection. The change and development went on with comparative
+rapidity. In the mollusk the change was apparently still more easy
+and the development still more rapid.
+
+But the development of an internal skeleton was more difficult and
+slower. It was of no use for the protection of the animal, and only
+gradually did it become of much service in locomotion. Being
+deep-seated it very possibly changed all the more slowly.
+Furthermore, a cartilaginous rod, like the notochord, even fully
+developed, hardly enabled the animal to fight directly with the
+mail-clad crab. The internal skeleton had to become far more highly
+developed before its great advantages, and freedom from
+disadvantages, became apparent. The mollusk and crab were working a
+mine rich in surface deposits although soon exhausted. The
+vertebrate lead was poor at the surface, and only later showed its
+inexhaustible richness. It looked as if the vertebrate were making a
+very poor speculation.
+
+Whether this explanation be true or not, a glance at a chart,
+showing the geological succession of occurrence of the different
+kingdoms, proves that in the oldest palaeozoic periods there were
+well-developed cuttlefish and crabs before there were any
+vertebrates worthy of the name. If any were present, their skeleton
+was purely cartilaginous and not preserved.
+
+I think we may go farther, although in this latter consideration we
+may very possibly be mistaken. We have already seen that the
+progress made by any animal may be measured more or less accurately
+by the length of time during which its ancestors maintained a
+swimming life. The ancestors of the coelenterates settled to the
+bottom first. Then successively those of flatworms, mollusks,
+annelids, and crabs. All this time the ancestors of vertebrates were
+swimming in the water above. Food was probably more abundant,
+certainly more easily and economically obtained by a creeping life,
+on the bottom. But thither the vertebrate could not go. There his
+mail-clad competitors were too strong for him. Those which settled
+and tried to compete in this sort of life perished. We may have to
+except the ascidia, but they paid for their success by the loss of
+nearly all their vertebrate characteristics. The future progress of
+vertebrates depended upon their continual activity in the swimming
+life. And they were forced by their environment to maintain this.
+Otherwise they might, probably would, never have attained their
+present height of organization. Certainly at this time you would
+have found it hard to believe that the victory was to fall to these
+weaker and smaller vertebrates.
+
+Let us come down to a later period. Reptiles, mammals, and birds are
+struggling for supremacy. Of the power and diversity of form of
+these old reptiles we have generally no adequate conception. The
+forms now living are but feeble remnants. There were huge
+sea-serpents, and forms like our present crocodiles, but far more
+powerful. Others apparently resembled in form and habit the
+herbivorous and carnivorous mammals of to-day. Others strode or
+leaped on two legs. And still others flew like bats or birds. They
+were terrible forms, with coats of mail and powerful jaws and teeth.
+And they were active and swift. When we look at them we see that the
+vertebrate, though slow in gaining the lead, is sure to hold it. The
+internal skeleton gave fewer advantages at the start; its greatest
+superiority had lain in future possibilities.
+
+But which vertebrate is heir to the future? It would have been a
+hard choice between reptile and bird. I feel sure that I, for one,
+should not have selected the mammal, a small, feeble being, hiding
+in holes and ledges, and continually hard put to it to escape
+becoming a mouthful for some huge reptile. And yet the persecution,
+the impossibility of contending by brute strength, may have forced
+the mammal into the line of brain-building and placental
+development. The early development of mammals appears to have been
+slow. Palaeontology proves that they were long surpassed by reptiles
+and birds. But the little mammal had the future. The battle was to
+go against the strong.
+
+Once again. The arboreal life of higher mammals would seem to be
+most easily explained by the view that they were driven to it by
+stronger carnivorous mammals having possession of the ground. Brain
+was good, for it planned escape from enemies. But it did not give
+its possessor immediate victory over muscle, tooth, and claw in the
+tiger. That was to come far later with the invention of traps and
+guns. Brain gave its possessor a sure hold of the future, and just
+enough of the present to enable it to survive by a hard struggle.
+And the same appears to have been true of primitive man.
+
+Thus all man's ancestors have had to lead a life of continual
+struggle against overwhelming odds and of seeming defeat. It was a
+life of hardship, if not of positive suffering. The organ which was
+to give them future supremacy, whether it was backbone, placenta, or
+brain, could in its earlier stages aid them only to a hardly won
+survival. The present apparently, and really as far as freedom from
+discomfort and danger is concerned, always belongs to forms
+hopelessly doomed to degeneration or stagnation. Crabs, not
+primitive vertebrates, were masters of the good things of the sea;
+and, in later times, reptiles, not mammals, of those of the land.
+Any progressive form has to choose between the present and the
+future. It cannot grasp both. I am not propounding to you any
+metaphysical theories, but plain, dry, hard facts of palaeontology;
+explain them as you will.
+
+And here we must add our last word about conformity to environment;
+and it is a most important consideration. Conformity to environment
+is not such an adaptation as will confer upon an animal the greatest
+immunity from discomfort or danger, or will enable it to gain the
+greatest amount of food and place, and produce the largest number of
+offspring. Indeed, if you will add one element to those mentioned
+above, namely, that all these shall be attained with the least
+amount of effort, they insure degeneration beyond a doubt. This is
+the conformity of the bivalve mollusk. The clam has abundance of
+food, enormous powers of reproduction, almost perfect protection
+against enemies, and lives a life of almost absolute freedom from
+discomfort, and the clam is really lower than most worms.
+
+If an animal is to progress, it must keep such a conformity ever
+secondary to a still more important element, namely, conformity or
+obedience to the laws of its own structure and being. This second
+element the mollusk and every creeping stage neglected, and the
+result of this neglect was stagnation or degeneration. Activity was
+essential to progress from the very structure and laws of
+development of the animal, while a great abundance of food was not.
+A life of ease, for the same reason, necessarily results in
+degeneration.
+
+But you will ask, What becomes of Mr. Darwin's theory of evolution,
+if obedience to the laws of individual being is more important than
+conformity to external conditions? Both are evidently necessary, and
+they are not so different as they may seem at first sight. They are
+really one and the same. Bringing out the best and highest there is
+in us, is the only true conformity to that which is deepest and
+surest and most enduring in our environment. That in environment
+which makes for digestion is almost palpable and tangible, that
+which makes for activity less so perhaps; but that which makes for
+brain and truth and right is intangible and invisible. We easily
+fail to notice it; and, unless we take a careful view of the course
+of development in the highest forms of life, we may be inclined to
+deny its existence. But it is surely there, if man is a product of
+evolution.
+
+Each successive stage of animal life is not the preceding stage on a
+higher plane, but the preceding stage modified in conformity to the
+environment of that from which it has just arisen. Says Professor
+Hertwig[A]: "During the process of organic development the external
+is continually becoming an integral part of the individual. The germ
+is continually growing and changing at the expense of surrounding
+conditions." Every stage thus contains the result of a host of
+reactions to a ruder and older portion of environment. And the
+higher we go the more has the original protoplasm and structure been
+modified as the result of these reactions.
+
+  [Footnote A: Hertwig: Zeit- und Streitfragen, p. 82.]
+
+We have seen clearly that environment must be studied through its
+effect upon living beings. Viewed from any other standpoint it
+appears to be a myriad, almost a chaos, of interacting, apparently
+conflicting, forces. The resultant of some of these is shown by the
+animal at any stage of its development. And as the animal advances,
+the resultant determining its new line, or stage, of advance,
+includes new forces, to which it has only lately become sensitive.
+And thus the human mind, as the last and highest product of
+evolution, mirrors most adequately the resultant of all its forces.
+If we would know environment we must study ourselves, not atoms
+alone, nor rocks, nor worms.
+
+Extremely sensitive photographic plates, after long exposure, have
+proven the existence of stars so dim and far-off as to be invisible
+to the best telescopes. Man's mind is just such a sensitive plate;
+it is the only valid representation of environment.
+
+The truth would appear to be that the law is present in environment,
+but hard to read; but it is stamped upon our structure and being so
+deeply and plainly that the dullest of us cannot fail to read it. We
+learned the fact of gravitation the first time that we fell down in
+learning to walk, long afterward we learned that its law guided
+earth and moon. And it is the presence of this law within us, and
+our own knowledge that we are conscious of it, that makes man
+without excuse. But conformity to that which is deepest in
+environment often, always, demands non-conformity to some of the
+most palpable of surrounding conditions.
+
+There is no better statement of the ultimate law of conformity than
+the words of Paul: "Be not conformed to this world; but be ye
+transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is
+that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
+
+And this difference is exactly what I have been trying to put before
+you. The mollusk conformed, but the vertebrate conformed in a very
+different way, and was transformed, "metamorphosed," to translate
+the Greek word literally, into something higher. And let us not
+forget that man conforms consciously and voluntarily, if at all; he
+is able to read in himself and environment the law to which lower
+forms have been compelled unconsciously to conform.
+
+These facts merely illustrate a great law of life. No man's eye,
+much less hand, can grasp the whole of the present and at the same
+time the future. Rather what we usually call present advantage is
+not advantage at all, but the first step in degeneration. If one
+will be rich in old age he must deny himself some gratifications in
+youth; his present reward is his self-control. If a man will climb
+higher than his fellows he must expect to be sometimes solitary; his
+reward is the ever-widening view, though the path be rougher and the
+air more biting than in their lower altitude. If he point to heights
+yet to attain, the majority will disbelieve him or say, "Our present
+height was good enough for our ancestors, it is good enough for us.
+Why sacrifice a good thing and make yourself ridiculous scrambling
+after what in the end may prove unattainable?" If you discover new
+truths you will certainly be called a subverter of old ones. And
+this is entirely natural. The upward path was never intended to be
+easy.
+
+Read the "Gorgias" of Plato, and let us listen to the closing words
+of Socrates in that dialogue: "And so, bidding farewell to those
+things which most men account honors, and looking onward to the
+truth, I shall earnestly endeavor to grow, so far as may be, in
+goodness, and thus live, and thus, when the time comes, die. And, to
+the best of my power, I exhort all other men also; and you
+especially, in my turn, I exhort to this life and contest, which is,
+I protest, far above all contests here." You must remember that
+Callicles has been taunting Socrates with his lack of worldly wisdom
+and the certainty that in any court of justice he would be
+absolutely helpless because of his lack of knowledge of the
+rhetorician's art: "This way then we will follow, and we will call
+upon all other men to do the same, not that which you believe in and
+call upon me to follow; for that way, Callicles, is worth nothing."
+
+And Socrates met the end which he expected: death at the hands of
+his fellow-citizens.
+
+And here perhaps a little glimmer of light is thrown into one of the
+darkest corners of human experience. The wise old author of
+Ecclesiastes writes: "There is a just man that perisheth in his
+righteousness; and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in
+his wickedness. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that
+there be just men unto whom it happeneth according to the work of
+the wicked; again, there be wicked men to whom it happeneth
+according to the work of the righteous: I said that this also is
+vanity." "I returned and saw under the sun that the race is not to
+the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the
+wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men
+of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all" (Eccles. viii.
+14; ix. 11). It is this element of chance that threatens to make a
+mockery of effort, and sometimes seems to make life but a travesty.
+The terrible feature of Tennyson's description of Arthur's last, dim
+battle in the west is not the "crash of battle-axe on shattered
+helm," but the all-engulfing mist.
+
+Perhaps this is all intended to teach us that riches and favor, and
+even bread, are not the essentials of life, and that failure to
+attain these is not such ruin as we often think. But no man ever
+struggled for wisdom, righteousness, unselfishness, and heroism
+without attaining them; even though the more he attained the more
+dissatisfied he became with all previous attainment. And if our
+slight attainments in wisdom and knowledge always brought wealth and
+favor, we might rest satisfied with the latter, instead of clearly
+recognizing that wisdom must be its own reward. Uncertainty and
+deprivation are the best and only training for a hero, not sure
+reward paid in popular plaudits.
+
+Political economists speak of the productiveness and prospectiveness
+of capital. We may well borrow these terms, using them in a somewhat
+modified sense. In our sense capital is productive in so far as it
+gives an immediate return; it is prospective in proportion as the
+return is expected largely in the future. A "pocket" may yield an
+immediate very large return of gold nuggets at a very slight expense
+of labor and appliances, but it is soon exhausted. In a mine the ore
+may be poor near the surface, but grow richer as the shaft deepens;
+the vein is narrow above, but widens below. The returns are at first
+small, its inexhaustible richness becomes apparent only after
+considerable time and labor. The value of the "pocket" is purely
+productive, that of the mine largely or purely prospective. Indeed
+it may be opened at a loss. But even a rich mine may be worked
+purely for its productive value; it may be "skinned."
+
+Let us apply this thought to the development of a species; although
+what is true of the species will generally be true of the individual
+also, for the development of the two is, in the main, parallel. In
+the animal all functions are to a certain extent productive, and all
+directly or indirectly prospective. When we examine the sequence of
+functions we cannot but notice how largely their value is
+prospective. As long as a lower function is rising to supremacy in
+the animal, it appears to be retained purely for its productive
+value; thus digestion in hydra or gastraea. But after a time animals
+appeared which had some muscle and nerve. And, by the process of
+natural selection, those animals which used digestion as an end for
+its productive value became food for, and gave place to, those using
+it as a means of supporting muscle and nerve of greater prospective
+value. And similarly, those animals which used muscle, or even mind,
+productively gave place to others using these prospectively.
+
+In other words, the functions and capacities of any animal, the
+extent of its conformity to environment, may be regarded as its
+capital. The animal may use this capital productively or
+prospectively. It may spend its income, and more too; it may
+increase its capital. Now social capital will always fall sooner or
+later to those communities whose members use it most prospectively,
+who are willing to forego, to quite an extent, present enjoyment,
+and look for future return. The same is true of all development.
+Sessile forms and mollusks, and, in a less degree, crabs and
+reptiles, worked for immediate return. They are like extravagant
+heirs who draw on their capital and sooner or later come to poverty.
+The primitive vertebrate, the mammal, and the other ancestors of man
+used their capital prospectively, and it increased, as if at
+compound interest.
+
+The spendthrift appears at first sight to have the greatest
+enjoyment in life, the rising business man works hard and foregoes
+much. I believe that the latter is really by far the happier of the
+two. But, if you can spend only a day or two in a city, and your
+examination is superficial, you may easily make the mistake of
+considering the spendthrift as the most successful man in the
+community. So, in our brief visit to the world in times past, we
+picked out the crab, the reptile, and the carnivore as its rising
+members.
+
+Once more, capital can be spent very quickly; to use it
+prospectively requires time. This is a truism; but it does no harm
+to call attention to truisms which have been neglected. Organs and
+powers of great prospective value are slow and difficult of
+development. If their increase is to be at all rapid, they must
+start early. If their development and culture is deferred, there
+will be little or no advance, but probably degeneration.
+Extravagance grows rapidly and soon becomes irresistible; habits of
+saving must be formed early. The same is true of the development of
+all other virtues.
+
+There is in the child an orderly sequence of development of mental
+traits. While these powers are in their earlier, so to speak
+embryonic, stages of development, they can be fostered and increased
+or retarded. They are still plastic. Very early in a child's life
+acquisitiveness shows itself; he begins to say "I," and "mine," and
+desires things to be his "very own." And this can be fostered so
+that the child will grow up a "covetous machine." Or he may be
+taught to share with others.
+
+Not so much later, while the child is still in the lower grades of
+his school life, comes the period of moral development. If, during
+this period, these powers are fostered and cultivated, they may, and
+probably will, be dominant throughout his life. And herein lies the
+dignity and glory of the unappreciated, underpaid, and overworked
+teachers of our "lower" schools, that they have the opportunity to
+cultivate these moral powers of the child during these most critical
+years of his life. Repression or neglect here works life-long and
+irreparable harm. The young man goes out into the world. Here
+"practical" men continually instruct him by precept upon precept,
+line upon line, that he cannot afford to be generous until he has
+acquired wealth; that he must first win success for himself, and
+that he can then help others. And, unless his character is like
+pasture-grown oak, he follows and improves upon their teachings. _He
+reverses the sequence of functions._ He puts acquisitiveness first
+and right and sterling honesty and unselfishness second. For a score
+or more of years he labors. At first he honestly intends to build up
+a strong character and a generous nature just as soon as he can
+afford to; but for the present he cannot afford it. If he is to
+succeed, he must do as others do and walk in the beaten track. He
+wins wealth and position, or learning and fame. He now has the
+ability and means to help others, but he no longer cares to do so.
+Loyalty to truth, sterling honesty--the genuine, not the
+conventional counterfeit--unselfishness, in one word, character,
+these are plants of slow growth. They require cultivation by habit
+through long years. In his case they have become aborted and
+incapable of rejuvenescence. But his rudiment of a moral nature
+feels twinges of remorse. He ought not to have reversed the sequence
+of functions, and he knows it. But he cannot retrace his steps. He
+made the development of character impossible when he made wealth his
+first and chief aim. If he has a million dollars he tries to insure
+his soul by leaving in his will one-tenth to build a church, or,
+possibly, one-half for foreign missions. In the latter case he will
+be held up as a shining example to all the youth of the land, and
+the churches will ring with his praises. But what has been the
+effect of his life on the moral, social capital of the community? Is
+the world better or worse for his life? He has all his life been
+disseminating the germs of a soul-blight more infectious and deadly
+than any bodily disease.
+
+If he has made learning or fame his chief aim, he probably has not
+the money to buy soul-insurance. He takes refuge in agnosticism,
+like an ostrich in a bush. His agnosticism is in his will; he does
+not wish to see. Or its cause is atrophy, through disuse, of moral
+vision. He cannot see. There are agnostics of quite another stamp,
+whom we must respect and honor for their sterling honesty and
+high character, though we may have little respect for their
+philosophical tenets. But how much has our scholar advanced the
+morality of the community? He has probably done even more harm than
+the business man, who is a mere "covetous machine."
+
+The "practical" man has reversed the sequence of functions.
+Character is, and must be, first; and wealth, learning, power, and
+fame are the materials, often exceedingly refractory, which it must
+subjugate to its growth and use. And this subjugation is anything
+but easy. The reversal of the sequence results in a moral
+degradation and poverty indefinitely more dangerous to the community
+than the slums of our great cities. For these may be controlled and
+cleansed; but the moral slum floods our legislatures and positions
+of honor and trust, and invades the churches. The mental and moral
+water-supply of the community is loaded with disease-germs.
+
+The social wealth of a community is the sum total of the wealth of
+its individual members. And a community is truly wealthy only when
+this wealth is, to a certain extent, diffused. If there is any truth
+in our argument that the sequence of functions culminates in
+righteousness and unselfishness, the real social wealth of a
+community consists in its moral character, not in its money, or even
+in its intelligence. We may rest assured that character, resulting
+in industry and economy, will bring sufficient means of subsistence,
+so that all its members will be fed and housed and clothed. And art
+and culture, of the most ennobling and inspiring sort, will surely
+follow. And even if such literature failed as largely composes our
+present _fin-de-siecle_ garbage-heap, we would not regret its
+absence. That community will and must survive in which the largest
+proportion of members make the accumulation of character their chief
+and first aim. And to this community every rival must in time yield
+its place and power, and all its acquisitions. And in every
+advancing community the position of any class or profession will in
+time be determined by its moral wealth.
+
+But this moral wealth is intangible. The rewards and penalties of
+moral law easily escape notice in our hasty and superficial study of
+life. The God immanent in our environment often seems to hide
+himself. The altar of Jehovah is fallen down, and Baal's temples are
+crowded with loud-mouthed worshippers. The bribes of present
+enjoyment and of immediate success loom up before us, and we doubt
+if any other success is possible.
+
+But the law of progress, even now so dimly discernible in
+environment, is written in our minds in letters of fire. For we have
+already seen that environment can be understood only by tracing its
+effects in the development of life. What is best and highest in us
+is the record of the working of what is best and highest in
+environment. And the personal God so dimly seen in environment is
+revealed in man's soul. Man must study himself, if he is to know
+what environment requires of him. And if the knowledge of himself
+and of the laws of his being is the highest knowledge, is not the
+vision of, and struggle toward, higher attainments, not yet realized
+and hence necessarily foreseen, the only mode of farther progress?
+And what is this pursuit of, and devotion to, ideals not yet
+realized and but dimly foreseen, if it is not Faith, "the substance
+of things hoped for, and evidence of things not seen?" By it alone
+can man "obtain a good report." Man must "walk by faith, not by
+sight." "For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
+which are not seen are eternal."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MAN
+
+
+In Kingsley's fascinating historical romance, Raphael Aben-Ezra says
+to Hypatia, "Is it not possible that we have been so busy discussing
+what the philosopher should be, that we have forgotten that he must
+first of all be a man?" This truth we too often forget. No
+statesman, philosopher, least of all teacher, can be truly great who
+is not, first of all, and above all, a great man. And in our study
+of man are we not prone to forget that he stands in certain very
+definite and close relations with surrounding nature?
+
+Man has been the object of so much special study, his position,
+owing to his higher moral and mental power, is so unique that he has
+often been regarded not only as a special creation, but as created
+to occupy a position not only unique, but also exceptional, above
+many of the very laws of nature, and not bound by them. Many speak
+and write of him as if it were his chief glory and prerogative to be
+as far removed as possible, not only from the animal, but even from
+the whole realm of nature. The mistake of making him an exception
+arises, after all, not so much from too high a conception of man, at
+least of his possibilities, as from too low a view of nature.
+
+But however this view may have arisen, it is one-sided and mistaken.
+Man certainly has a place in Nature--not above it. If he is the
+goal toward which the ascending series of living forms has
+continually tended, he is a part of the series--the real goal lies
+far above him.
+
+Pascal says, "It is dangerous to show a man too clearly how closely
+he resembles the brute without showing him at the same time his
+greatness. It is equally dangerous to impress upon him his greatness
+without his lowliness. It is still more dangerous to leave him in
+ignorance of both. But it is of great advantage to point out to him
+both characteristics side by side."
+
+A great German thinker began his work on the human soul with a
+discussion of the law of gravitation.
+
+All study of man must begin with the study of the atom. Man's life
+we have seen to be the aggregate of the work of all the cells of his
+body. But the protoplasm which composes his cells is a chemical
+compound, and hence subject to all the laws of all the atoms of
+which it is composed. And its molecules, or the smallest
+mechanically separable compounds of these atoms, are arranged and
+related according to the laws of physics, so as to permit or produce
+the play of certain forces which are always the result of atomic or
+molecular combination. Every motive or thought demands the
+combustion of a certain amount of material which has been already
+assimilated in the microscopic cellular laboratories of our body.
+Every vital activity is manifested at least through chemical and
+physical forces. And the elements of the fuel for our engines we
+receive through plants from the inorganic world. For the plant, as
+we have seen, stores up as potential energy in its compounds the
+actual energy of the sun's rays. And thus man lives and thinks by
+energy, obtained originally from the sun. But man not only consumes
+food and fuel. The complicated protoplasm is continually wearing out
+and being replaced. Every cell in our bodies is a centre toward
+which particles of material stream to be assimilated and form for a
+time a part of the living substance, and then to be cast out again
+as dead matter. Our very existence depends upon this continual
+change. There is synthesis of simple substances into more complex
+compounds, and then analysis of these complex compounds into
+simpler, and from this latter process results the energy manifested
+in every vital action. We are all whirlpools on the surface of
+nature; when the whirling ceases we disappear. Man, like every other
+living being, exists in a condition of constant interchange with
+surrounding nature; he is rooted in innumerable ways in the
+inorganic world.
+
+And because of these close relations the great characteristic of
+living beings is the necessity and power of conformity to
+environment. Hence a very common definition of life is the continual
+adjustment of internal relations to external relations or
+conditions. To a very slight extent man can rise superior to certain
+of the ruder elements of his surroundings, but he gains this victory
+only by learning and following the laws of the very environment
+which he succeeds in subjecting to himself. Indeed his higher
+development and finer build bring him into touch with an
+indefinitely wider range of surroundings than even the lower animal.
+Forces, conditions, and relations which never enter the sphere of
+life of lower forms, crowd and press upon him and he cannot escape
+them. His higher position, instead of freeing him from dependence
+upon environment and subjection to law, makes him thus more
+sensitive, as well as more capable of exact conformity to an
+environment of almost infinite complexity; and more sure of absolute
+ruin, if ignorant, negligent, or disobedient. The words of the
+German poet are literally true:
+
+        "Nach ehernen, eisernen, grossen Gesetzen,
+         Muessen wir alle unseres Daseins
+         Kreise vollenden."
+
+But man is an animal. And the principal characteristic of an animal
+is that it eats a certain amount of solid food. The plant lives on
+fluid nutriment, and this comes to it by the process of diffusion in
+every drop of water and breath of air. The acquisition of food
+requires no effort, and the plant makes none. It has therefore
+always remained stationary and almost insensible. Not taking the
+first step it has never taken any of the higher ones. But solid food
+would not, as a rule, come to the animal--though stationary and
+sessile animals are not uncommon in the water--he must go in search
+of it. This called into play the powers of locomotion and
+perception. And in the sequence of function we have seen digestion
+calling for the development of muscle; and muscle, of nerve and
+brain. And the brain became the organ of mind.
+
+Man as a mere animal is necessarily active and energetic; otherwise
+he stagnates and degenerates. Labor is a curse, but work a blessing;
+and man's best work, of every kind, is done in the friction of life,
+not in ease and quiet. Man is, further, a being composed of cells,
+tissues, and organs, which were successively developed for him by
+the lower animal kingdoms. The old view, that man was the microcosm,
+had in it a certain amount of every important truth. We need to be
+continually reminded of our indebtedness in a thousand ways to the
+lowest and most insignificant forms of life.
+
+Man is a vertebrate animal. This means that he has a locomotive, not
+protective, skeleton, composed of cartilage--a tough, elastic,
+organic material, hardened, as a rule, by the deposition of mineral
+salts, mainly phosphate of lime, in exceedingly fine particles, so
+as to form a homogeneous, flawless, elastic, tough, light, and
+unyielding skeleton, held together by firm ligaments.
+
+The skeleton is internal, and this fact, as we have seen, gives the
+possibility of large size. And size is in itself no unimportant
+factor. Professor Lotze maintains that without man's size and
+strength, agriculture and the working of metals, and thus all
+civilization, would have been impossible. But we have already seen
+that there is an extreme of size, _e.g._, in the elephant, which
+makes its possessor clumsy, able to exist only where there are large
+amounts of food in limited areas, slow to reproduce, and lacking in
+adaptability. This extreme also is avoided in man; in this, as in
+many other particulars, he holds the golden mean. But we have also
+seen that large size is, as a rule, correlated with long life and
+great opportunity for experience and observation. And these are the
+foundations of intelligence. Hence the deliverance of the higher
+vertebrate, and especially of man, from any iron-bound subjection to
+instinct.
+
+And here another question of vital importance meets us. Is man's
+life at present as long as it should or can be? The question is
+exceedingly difficult, but a negative answer seems more probable. We
+cannot but hope that, with a better knowledge of our physical
+structure, a clearer vision of the dangers to which we are exposed,
+more study of the laws of physiology, heredity, and of our
+environment, and above all, less reckless disregard of these in a
+mad pursuit of pleasure, wealth, and position, man's period of
+mature, healthy, and best activity may be lengthened, perhaps, even
+a score of years. The mitigation of hurry and worry alone, the two
+great curses of our American civilization, might postpone the
+collapse of our nervous systems longer than we even dream. And if we
+could add even five years to the working life of our statesmen,
+scholars, and discoverers, the work of these last five years, with
+the advantage of all previously acquired knowledge and experience,
+might be of more value than that of their whole previous life. Human
+advance could not but be greatly, or even vastly, accelerated.
+
+Moreover, we have seen that the history of vertebrates is really the
+history of the development of the cerebrum, forebrain or large
+brain, as we call it in man. This is the seat in man of
+consciousness, thought, and will. This portion as a distinct and new
+lobe first appears in lowest vertebrates, increases steadily in size
+from class to class, reaches its most rapid development by mammals,
+and its culmination in man. During the tertiary period--the last of
+the great geological periods--the brain in many groups of mammals
+increased in size, both absolutely and relatively, eight to tenfold.
+Dr. Holmes says, that the education of a child should begin a
+century or two before its birth; man really began his mental
+education at least as early as the appearance of vertebrate life.
+
+But man is a mammal. This means that every organ is at its best. The
+digestive system, while making but a small part of the weight of the
+body, and built mainly on the old plan, is wonderfully perfect in
+its microscopic details. The muscles are heavy and powerful,
+arranged with the weight near the axis of the body, and replaced
+near the ends of the appendages by light, tough sinews. The higher
+mammal is this compact, light, and agile. The skeleton is strong,
+and the levers of the appendages are fitted to give rapidity of
+motion even at the expense of strength. And this again is possible
+only because of the high development and strength of the muscles.
+Moreover, the highest mammals are largely arboreal, and in
+connection with this habit have changed the foreleg into an arm and
+hand. The latter became the servant of the brain and gave the
+possibility of using tools.
+
+But increase in size and activity, and the expense of producing each
+new individual, led to the adoption of placental development. And
+the mammal is so complex, the road from the egg to the fully
+developed young is so long, that a long period of gestation is
+necessary. And even at birth the brain, especially of man, is
+anything but complete. Hence the necessity of the mammalian habit of
+suckling and caring for the young. And this feebleness and
+dependence of the young had begun far below man to draw out maternal
+tenderness and affection. And the mammalian mode of reproduction and
+care of young led to a more marked difference and interdependence
+between the sexes.
+
+The result of this is man's family life, as Mr. John Fiske has
+shown so beautifully in that fascinating monograph, "The Destiny of
+Man." And family life once introduced becomes the foundation and
+bulwark of all civilization, morality, and religion. Far down in the
+mammalian series, before the development of the family, maternal
+education has become prominent, and the young begins life, benefited
+by the experiences of the parent. How much more efficient is this in
+family life. But, furthermore, the family is perhaps the first,
+certainly the most important, of those higher unities in which men
+are bound together. Social life of a sort undoubtedly existed,
+before man, among birds, insects, and lower mammals. The community
+was often defective or incomplete in unity, or existed under such
+limitations that it could not show its best results, but that it was
+of vast benefit from an even higher than mere physical standpoint,
+no one will, I think, deny. But with the family a new era of
+education and social life began.
+
+First of all, the struggle for existence is thereby greatly modified
+and mitigated. This crowding out and trampling down of the weaker by
+the stronger is transferred, to a certain extent, from the
+individual to the family and, in great degree, from the family to
+larger and larger social units. For within the limits of the family
+competition tends to be replaced by mutual helpfulness, and not only
+are the loneliness and horror of the struggle between isolated
+individuals banished, but, what is vastly more, the family becomes
+the school of unselfishness and love. And what has thus become true
+of the single family, and groups of nearly related families, is
+slowly being realized in the larger units of communities and
+states. For, as families and communities are just as really
+organisms as are the individual men and women, whose soundness
+depends upon the healthy activity of every organ, so there is a
+survival, first of families, then of communities and rival
+civilizations, in proportion to their unity and soundness in every
+part. For on account of the close bonds of family and social life,
+and in connection with the development of articulate speech, a new
+kind of heredity, so to speak, arises, of vast importance for both
+good and evil. This mental and moral heredity, over-leaping all
+boundaries of blood and natural kinship, spreads light and good
+influence or an immoral contagion through the community. And thus,
+in sheer self-defence, society passes laws setting limits to the
+oppression of the poor and weak, lest, degraded and brutalized, they
+become breeding centres of physical and moral disease in the
+community. The positive lesson that the surest mode of self-defence
+is the elevation of these submerged classes, we are just beginning
+to learn and apply.
+
+By the ever-increasing acceleration of the development the gap
+between man and the lower animal widens with wonderful rapidity. Of
+course it is only in man, and higher man, that these last and
+highest results of mammalian structure appear. But that, far removed
+as they are, they are the results of mammalian and vertebrate
+characteristics cannot, I think, be well denied. And this is only
+one of innumerably possible illustrations of the fact that all our
+most highly prized institutions are rooted far back in our ancestry,
+often ineradicably in the very organs of our bodies. And thus
+evolution, which many view only from its radical side--and it has a
+radical side--is really the conservative bulwark of all that is
+essentially worth possessing in the past.
+
+But every factor in man's development tends toward intellectual and
+spiritual development. Man's vast increase of brain; his finely
+balanced body; his upright gait; setting his hands free from the
+work of locomotion that they might become the skilful servants of
+the mind; finally, articulate speech and social, and, above all,
+family, life, all tended in this same direction.
+
+And this makes the great difficulty in assigning man his
+proper place in our systems of classification. Our zooelogical
+classifications depend upon anatomical characteristics; and
+anatomically man belongs among the order primates. But mental and
+moral values cannot be expressed in terms of anatomy, any more than
+we can speak of an idea of so many horse-power, and hence worth
+three or four ancestral dollars. Hence, while from the zooelogical
+standpoint man is a primate, and while he is very probably descended
+from one of these, he has gradually risen above them mentally and
+spiritually, so that he stands as far above them as they above the
+lowest worm. And this leads us to the consideration of man, not
+merely as a mammal, but as "Anthropos," Homo sapiens, although he
+often degenerates into "Simia destructor."
+
+From what has just been said man's pre-eminence cannot consist in
+any anatomical characteristic, even of the brain--much less of
+thumb, forefinger, hand, or foot. But man's mental and moral
+characteristics (even though germs of these may be present in the
+animal), whether differing in degree or kind from theirs, raise his
+life to a totally different plane. He lives in an environment of
+which the lower animal is as unconscious and ignorant as we of a
+fourth dimension of space. He has the knowledge of abstract truth
+and goodness, of certain standards outside of mere appetite and
+desire, and feels and acknowledges, however dimly, the requirement
+and the ability to conform his life to these standards. He alone can
+say "I ought," and answer "I can and will." And hence man alone
+actually lives in an environment of the laws of reason,
+responsibility, and personality. Whatever germs of these higher
+powers the animal possesses are means to material ends, to the
+physical life of the animal. In man the long and slow evolution has
+ended in revolution, the material and physical have been dethroned,
+and truth and goodness reign supreme as ends in themselves.
+
+But, you may object, this definition of man may be true ideally,
+certainly it is not true actually. Where are the high ideals of
+truth and goodness in the savage? and are these the supreme ends of
+even the average American of to-day? But allowing all weight to this
+objection, does it not remain true that a being who never says "I
+ought," who acknowledges and manifests no responsibility, to whom
+goodness does not appeal, and in whom these feelings cannot be
+awakened, is either not yet or no longer man? But far more than
+this, if the character of the individual is to be judged by his
+tendency more than his present condition, by the way in which he is
+going more than his momentary position, is not the race to be judged
+and defined by a tendency, gradually though very slowly becoming
+realized, and a goal, toward which it looks and which it is surely
+attaining, rather than by its present realization? As we rise
+higher in the animal kingdom the characteristics of the successive
+higher groups are more and more slow of attainment and difficult of
+realization, just because of their grander possibilities. And this
+is true and important above all in the case of man. His
+possibilities are beyond our powers of conception, for, if you will,
+man is yet only larval man.
+
+We have followed the sequence of functions to its culmination in a
+mind completely dominated by righteousness and unselfishness,
+however far above our present attainments this goal may be. We have
+found that all attempts to reverse this sequence end in death or
+degeneration. Failure to advance, especially in higher forms,
+results in extinction or retrogression. We cannot stand still. Each
+higher step is longer and more important than any preceding; each
+last step is essential to life. Righteousness in the will is the
+last step essential to man's progress. And if a sound mind in a
+sound body is important or necessary, a sound will, resolutely set
+on right, is absolutely essential. Failure to attain this is ruin.
+
+And man can to a great extent place himself so that his surroundings
+shall aid him to take this last, essential, upward step. He does
+this by the choice of his associates. If he associates himself with
+men who are tending upward, he will rise ever higher. If he choose
+the opposite kind of associates he must sink into ever deeper
+degradation; he has thereby chosen death. For his associates, once
+chosen, make him like themselves. And thus natural selection makes
+for the survival of those men who resolutely choose life. And
+thoughtless or careless failure to choose is ruin. The man has
+preferred degradation; it is only right that he should have it to
+satiety.
+
+But man is not, and never can be, pure spirit. He may "let the ape
+and tiger die," but he must always retain the animal with its
+natural appetites. Moreover, his higher mental capacities increase
+their power. Memory recalls past gratifications as it never does to
+the animal; imagination paints before him vivid pictures of similar
+future enjoyments, and mental keenness and strength of will tell him
+that they can all be his. But if he yields himself a slave to these
+appetites, if he seeks to be an animal rather than a spiritual
+being, he becomes not an animal but a brute; and the only genuine
+brute is a degenerate man. And thus after conquering the world man's
+very structure compels him to join battle with himself. For here, as
+everywhere else, to attempt to go backward to a plane of life once
+passed is to surely degenerate. The time when the prize of
+pre-eminence could be won by mere physical superiority was passed
+before man had a history. Physical superiority must be maintained,
+and every advance in art and science, considered here as ministering
+to man's physical comfort, is advantageous just so far as these
+allow man freedom and aid to pursue the mental and moral line which
+is the only true path left open to him. But when even these are
+allowed to minister only to the animal, or to tempt to luxurious
+ease and indifference to any higher aims, in a word, in so far as
+they fail to minister to mental and moral advancement, they are in
+great danger of becoming, if they have not already become, a curse
+rather than a blessing. And we all know that this has been proven
+over and over again in human history. Families, cities, and nations
+rot, mainly because they cannot resist the seductions of an
+overwhelming material prosperity. A man says to his soul, "Take
+thine ease, eat, drink and be merry," and to that man scripture and
+science say, with equal emphasis, "Thou fool!"
+
+Every upward step in attainment of the comforts of life, of art and
+science, brings man into new fields not of careless enjoyment but of
+struggle. They swarm with new enemies and temptations before
+unknown. The new attainments are not unalloyed blessings, they are
+merely opportunities for victory or defeat. The uncertain battle is
+only shifted to a little higher plane. Man has increased the forces
+at his command only to meet stronger opposing hosts. And retreat is
+impossible. Man remains a spiritual being only on condition that he
+resolutely and vigilantly purposes to be so. To lag behind in this
+spiritual path is death.
+
+And the epitaph of nations and individuals is the record of their
+defeat in this struggle to be masters and not slaves of their
+material and intellectual attainments. Greece, the most intellectual
+of all nations of all times, died in mental senility of moral
+paralysis. Of Socrates's and Plato's "following after truth" nothing
+remained but the gossipy curiosity of a second childhood, living
+only to tell or to hear some new thing. And the schools of
+philosophy were closed because they had nothing to tell which was
+worth the knowing or hearing. All the wealth of the world was poured
+into Rome, the home of Stoic philosophy, and it was smothered, and
+died in rottenness under its material prosperity.
+
+A family, race, or nation starts out fresh in its youthful physical
+and mental vigor and strict obedience to moral law and in its faith
+in God. For these reasons it survives in the struggle for existence.
+It grows in extent and power, in intelligence and wealth. But with
+this increase in wealth and power comes a deadening of the mind to
+the claims of moral law, and an idolatrous worship of material
+prosperity. The new generation looks upon the stern morality and
+industry and self-control of its ancestors as straight-laced and
+narrow. Morality may not be unfashionable, but any stern rebuke of
+immorality is not conventional. Strong moral earnestness and
+whole-souled loyalty to truth are not in good form. Wealth and
+social position become the chief ends of men's efforts, and, to buy
+these, unselfishness and truth and self-respect are bartered away.
+Luxury, enervation, and effeminacy are rife, and snobbery follows
+close behind them. The ancestral vigor, the insight to recognize
+great moral principles, and the power to gladly hazard all in their
+defence have disappeared in a mist of indifference, which beclouds
+the eyes and benumbs all the powers. The race of giants is dwindling
+into dwarfs. They say, when the time comes, we will rouse ourselves
+and be like our fathers. And the crisis comes, but they are not
+equal to it. The nation has long enough cumbered the ground, it has
+already died by suicide and must now give place to a race and
+civilization which has some aim in, and hence right to, existence,
+and which is of some use to itself and others. If we would learn by
+observation, and not by sad experience, we must remember that man is
+above all, and must be a religious being conforming to the
+personality of the God manifested in his environment.
+
+Can you find anywhere a more profound or scientific philosophy of
+history than that of Paul in the first chapter of Romans? "For the
+invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly
+seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his
+everlasting power and divinity; so that they are without excuse:
+because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither
+gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings and their senseless
+heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became
+fools. And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God
+gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
+fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness."[A] And then follows
+the dark picture, from which we revolt but which the ancient
+historians themselves justify.
+
+  [Footnote A: Romans i. 20-22, 28.]
+
+On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at Rome is Michel Angelo's
+marvellous painting of the creation of Adam. A human figure of
+magnificent strength is half-rising from its recumbent posture, as
+if just awakening to consciousness, and is reaching out its hand to
+touch the outstretched finger of God. The human being became and
+becomes man when, and in proportion as, he puts himself in touch
+with God, and is inspired with the divine life. The lower animal
+conformed mainly to the material in environment, man conforms
+consciously to the spiritual and personal.
+
+Any science of human history that does not acknowledge man's
+relation to a personal God is fatally incomplete; for it has missed
+the goal of man's development and the chief means of his farther
+advance. And a religion which does not emphasize this is worse than
+a broken reed. It is a mirage of the desert, toward which thirsty
+souls run only to die unsatisfied.
+
+Man can never overcome in this battle with the allurements of
+material prosperity and with the pride and selfishness of intellect,
+except as he is interpenetrated and permeated with God, any more
+than we can move or think, unless our blood is charged with the
+oxygen of the air. It is not enough that man have God in his
+intellectual creed; he must have him in his heart and will, in every
+fibre of his personality, in every thought and action of life.
+Otherwise his defeat and ruin are sure.
+
+Three fatal heresies are abroad to-day: 1. Man's chief end is
+avoidance of pain and discomfort, in one word, happiness; and God is
+somehow bound to surfeit man with this. And this is the chief end of
+a mollusk. 2. Man's chief end is material prosperity and social
+position. 3. Man's chief end is intellect, knowledge. Each one of
+these three ends, while good in a subordinate place, will surely
+ruin man if made his chief end. For they leave out of account
+conformity to environment. "Man's chief end is to glorify God and
+enjoy him for ever." And just as the plant glorifies the sun by
+turning to, and being permeated and vivified and built up by, the
+warmth and light of its rays, similarly man must glorify God. This
+is the religion of conformity to environment: man working out his
+salvation because God works in him. Thus, and thus only, shall man
+overcome the allurements of these lower endowments and receive the
+rewards of "him that overcometh."
+
+Thus prosperity and adversity, success and failure, continually test
+a man. If he can rise superior to these, can subjugate them and make
+them subserve his moral progress, he survives; if he is mastered by
+them, he perishes. Through these does natural selection mainly work
+to find and train great souls. They are the threads of the sieve of
+destiny.
+
+In this struggle man must fight against overwhelming odds, and the
+cost of victory is dear. He must be prepared, like Socrates, to "bid
+farewell to those things which most men count honors, and look
+onward to the truth." He appears to the world at large, often to
+himself, eminently unpractical. The majority against his view and
+vote will usually be overwhelming. Truth is a stern goddess, and she
+will often bid him draw sword and stand against his nearest and
+dearest friends. The issue will often appear to him exceeding
+doubtful. The grander the truth for which he is fighting, the
+greater the need of its defence and enforcement, the greater the
+probability that he will never live to see its triumph. The hero
+must be a man of gigantic faith. But all his ancestors have had to
+make a similar choice and to fight a similar battle. The upward path
+was intended to be exceedingly hard. This is a law of biology.
+
+Why this is so I may not know. I only know that no better and surer
+way could have been discovered to train a race of heroes. For no man
+ever becomes a hero who has not learned to battle with the world and
+himself. Does it not look as if God loved a heroic soul as much as
+men worship one, and as if he intended that man should attain to
+it? Man was born and bred in hardship that he might be a hero.
+
+  "Careless seems the great avenger; history's pages but record
+  One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the word;
+  Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,
+  Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown
+  Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
+
+  "Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,
+  Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just;
+  Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,
+  Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,
+  And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied."
+
+The Crown Prince of Prussia has less spending money than many a
+young fellow in Berlin. He is trained to economy, industry,
+self-control. He is to learn something better than habits of luxury,
+to rule himself, and thus later the German Empire. The children of a
+great captain, themselves to be soldiers, must endure hardness like
+good soldiers. And man is to fight his way to a throne.
+
+But his powers are still in their infancy and the goal far above
+him. What he is to become you and I can hardly appreciate. First of
+all, the body will become finer, fitted for nobler ends. It will not
+be allowed to degenerate. It may become less fitted for the rough
+work, which can be done by machinery; it will be all the better for
+higher uses. It is to be transformed, transfigured. The eye may not
+see so far, it will be better fitted for perceiving all the beauties
+of art and nature. It will become a better means of expressing
+personality, as our personality becomes more "fit to be seen." It is
+continually gaining a speech of its own. And will not the ear become
+more delicate, a better instrument for responding to the finest
+harmonies, and better gateway to our highest feelings? We may not
+have so many molar teeth for chewing food, but may not our mouths
+become ever finer instruments for speech and song? In other words,
+the body is to be transfigured by the mind and become its worthy
+servant and representative.
+
+As we learn to live for something better than food and clothes, and
+cease to pamper the body, it will become better and healthier.
+Science will stamp out many diseases, and we shall learn to prevent
+others by right living. And what a change in our moral and religious
+life will be made by good health. What a cheerful courage and hope
+it will give.
+
+Man will become more intelligent. He will learn the laws of heredity
+and of life in general. He will see deeper into the relations of
+things. He will recognize in himself and his environment the laws of
+progress. He will clearly discern great moral truths, where we but
+dimly see lights and shadows.
+
+But while we would not underestimate the value and necessity of
+growth in knowledge, we must as clearly recognize that the intellect
+is not the centre and essence of man's being. Knowledge, while the
+surest form of wealth of which no one can rob us, and the best as
+the stepping-stone to the highest well-being, is like wealth in one
+respect: it is not character and can be used for good or evil. If my
+neighbor uses his greater knowledge as a means of overreaching us
+all, it injures us and ruins him.
+
+Our emotions, and this is but another word for our motives, stand
+far nearer to the centre of life; for they control our conduct and
+directly determine what we are. Knowledge of environment is good,
+but of what real and permanent use is such knowledge without
+conformity? Our real weakness is not our ignorance; we know the
+good, but lack the will and purpose to live it out. And this is
+because the thought of truth and goodness excites no such strength
+of feeling as that of some lower gratification. We cannot perhaps
+overrate the value of intellect; we certainly underrate the value of
+emotion and feeling. "Knowledge puffeth up, love buildeth." It does
+not require great intellect, it does require intense feeling to be a
+hero. We slander the emotions by calling people emotional because
+they are always talking about their feelings; but deep feeling is
+always silent. It is not fashionable to feel deeply, and we are
+dwarfed by this conventionality. We have almost ceased to wonder,
+and hence we have almost ceased to learn; for the wise old Greeks
+knew that wonder is the mother of wisdom.
+
+The man of the future will probably be a man of strong appetites,
+for he will be healthy; he will be prudent, because wise; but he
+will hold his appetites well in leash. He will trample upon mere
+prudential considerations at the call of truth or right. For in him
+these highest motives will be absolute monarchs, and they are the
+only motives which can enable a man to face rack and stake without
+flinching. He will be a hero because he feels intensely. In other
+words, he will be a man of gigantic will, because he has a great
+heart. And in the man of the future all these powers will be not
+only highly developed; they will be rightly proportioned and duly
+subordinated. He will be a well-balanced man. But how few complete
+men we now see.
+
+We see the strong will without the clear intellect to guide it; the
+gush of feeling either directed toward low ends or evaporating in
+sentiment; the clear head with the cold heart. The high development
+of one mental power seems to draw away all strength and vitality
+from the rest. How rarely do we find the strong will guided by the
+keen intellect toward the highest aims clearly discerned. Memory and
+imagination must always play their part in the joy set before us.
+But in addition to all these, the white heat of feeling, of which
+man alone is capable, is necessary for his grandest efforts. Such a
+being would be a man born to be a king. And there will be a race of
+such men. And we must play the man that they may be raised upon our
+buried shoulders. And they will tower above us, as the seers of old
+in Judea, Athens, India, and Rome towered above their indolent,
+luxurious, blind, and material contemporaries. And with all their
+accelerated development, infinite possibilities will still stretch
+beyond the reach of their imagination. For "men follow duty, never
+overtake."
+
+But all our analyses are unsatisfactory. In the history of any great
+people there is a period when they seem to rise above themselves.
+They have the strength of giants, and accomplish things before and
+since impossible. We sometimes ascribe these results to the
+exuberant vitality of the race at this time; and their life is large
+and grand. Such was England under Elizabeth. Think of her soldiers
+and explorers, her statesmen and poets. There were giants in those
+days. What a healthy, hearty enjoyment they showed in all their
+work, and with what ease was the impossible accomplished. The
+greater the hardships to be borne or odds to be faced, the greater
+the joy in overcoming them. They sailed out to give battle to the
+superior power of Spain, not at the command, but by the permission,
+of their queen; often without even this.
+
+And what a vigor and vitality there is in the literature of this
+period. Life is worth living, and studying, and describing. They see
+the world directly as it is; not some distorted picture of it, seen
+by an unhealthy mind and drawn by a feeble hand. The world is ever
+new and fresh to them because they see it through young, clear eyes.
+
+Were they giants or are we dwarfed? Which of the two lives is
+normal? They used all their faculties and utilized all their powers.
+Do we? The only force or product which we are willing to see wasted
+is the highest mental and moral power. Our engines and turbine
+wheels utilize the last ounce of pressure of the steam or water. The
+manufacturers pay high wages to hands who can tend machines run at
+the highest possible speed. The profits of modern business come
+largely from the utilization of force or products formerly wasted.
+But how far do we utilize the highest faculties of the mind, which
+have to do with character, the crowning glory of human development?
+Are we not eminently "penny-wise and pound-foolish?" A ship which
+uses only its donkey-engines, and does nothing but take in and get
+out cargo is a dismantled hulk. A captain who thinks only of cargo,
+and engines, and the length of the daily run, but who takes no
+observations and consults no chart, will make land only to run upon
+rocks. Are we not too much like such dismantled hulks, or ships
+sailing with priceless cargoes but with mad captains?
+
+But we have not yet seen the worst results of this waste of our
+highest powers. The sessile animal, which lives mainly for
+digestion, does not attain as good digestive organs as his more
+active neighbor, who subordinates digestion to muscle. Lower powers
+reach their highest development only in proportion as they are
+strictly subordinated to higher. This may be called a law of
+biology. And our lower mental powers fail of their highest
+development and capacity mainly because of the lack of this
+subordination.
+
+But a disused organ is very likely to become a seat of disease and
+to thus enfeeble or destroy the whole body. And this disease effects
+the most complete ruin when its seat is in the highest organs.
+Dyspepsia is bad enough, but mania or idiocy is infinitely worse.
+And our moral powers are always enfeebled, and often diseased, from
+lack of strong exercise. And some blind guides, seeing only the
+disease, cry out for the extirpation of the whole faculty, as some
+physicians are said to propose the removal of the vermiform
+appendage in children. Similarly might the drunkard argue against
+the value of brain, because it aches after a debauch. Our work is
+hard labor, and we gain no enjoyment in the use of our mental
+powers; for the enjoyment of any activity is proportional to the
+height and glory of the purpose for which it is employed. As long as
+we are content to use only our lower mental faculties and to gain
+low ends, our use of even these will be feeble and ineffectual, and
+our lives will be poor, weak, and unhappy.
+
+But future man will subordinate these lower powers to the higher. He
+will utilize all that there is in him. And his efficiency must be
+vastly greater than ours. And finally, and most important, these men
+will be all-powerful, because they have so conformed to environment
+that all its forces combine to work with them.
+
+England under Elizabeth seemed to rise above itself. Think of
+Holland, under William the Silent, defying all the power of Spain.
+Look at Bohemia, under Ziska, a handful of peasants joining battle
+with and defeating Germany and Austria combined. Think of Cromwell
+and his Ironsides, before whom Europe trembled. These men were not
+merely giants, they were heroes. And the essence of heroism is
+self-forgetfulness. The last thought of William the Silent was not
+for himself, but for his "poor people." And those rugged Ironsides,
+"fighting with their hands and praying with their hearts," smote
+with light good-will and irresistibly, because they struck for truth
+and freedom, for right and God. These are motives of incalculable
+strength, and they transfigure a man and raise him above his
+surroundings and even himself. The man becomes heroic and godlike,
+and when possessed by these motives he has clasped hands with God.
+He is inspired and infused with the divine power and life. Such a
+man has no time nor care to think of himself. To him it matters
+little whether he lives to see the triumph of his cause, provided he
+can hasten it. Though victory be in the future, it is sure; and the
+joy of battle for so sure and grand a triumph is present reward
+enough. His very faith removes mountains and turns to night armies
+of the aliens. For heroism begets faith, just as surely as faith
+begets heroism.
+
+"Where there is no vision the people perish." When the member of
+Congress can see nothing higher than spoils of office, nothing
+larger than a silver dollar, you should not criticise the poor man
+if his oratorical efforts do not move an audience like the sayings
+of Webster, Lincoln, or Phillips.
+
+Future man will be heroic and divine, because he will live in an
+atmosphere of truth and right and God, and will be consciously
+inspired by these divine, omnipotent motives.
+
+But who will compose this future race? We cannot tell. And yet the
+attempt to answer the question may open our eyes to truth of great
+practical importance.
+
+It would seem to be a fact that the offspring of a cross between
+different races of the same species is as a rule more vigorous than
+that of either pure race. Human history seems to show the same
+result. The English race is a mixture of Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Danes,
+and Normans, with a sprinkling of other races. And a new fusion of a
+great number of most diverse strains is rapidly going on in the
+newly populated portions of America and in Australia. The mixture
+contains thus far almost purely occidental races. It will in future
+almost certainly contain oriental also. For the races of India,
+Japan, and even China, are no farther from us to-day than the
+ancestors of many of our occidental fellow-citizens were a century
+ago. Racial prejudices, however strong, weaken rapidly through
+intercourse and better acquaintance. One of the grandest and least
+perceived results of missionary work is the preparation for this
+great fusion.
+
+Many races will undoubtedly go down before the advance of
+civilization and have no share in the future. Progress seems to be
+limited to the inhabitants of temperate zones; and even here the
+weaker may be crowded out before the stronger rather than absorbed
+by them. But many whom we now despise may have a larger inheritance
+in the future than we. God is clearly showing us that we should not
+count any man, much less any nation, common or unclean. And the laws
+of evolution give us a firm confidence that no good attained by any
+race or civilization will fail to be preserved in the future.
+
+The forms which seem to us at any one time the highest are as a rule
+not the ancestors of the race of the future. These highest forms are
+too much specialized, and thus fitted to a narrow range of space,
+time, and general conditions; when these change they pass away.
+Specialization is doubly dangerous when it follows a wrong line. But
+whenever it is carried far enough to lead to a one-sided
+development, it narrows the possibility of future advance; for it
+neglects or crowds out or prevents the development of other powers
+essential to life. The mollusk neglected nerve and muscle. But the
+scholar may, and often does, cultivate the brain at the expense of
+the rest of the body until he and his descendants suffer, and the
+family becomes extinct.
+
+The young men of the nobility of wealth, birth, and fashion usually
+marry heiresses, if they can. But only in families of enormous
+wealth can there be more than one or two heiresses in the same
+generation. She has very probably inherited a portion of her wealth
+from one or more extinct branches of the family. Moreover, not to
+speak of other factors, the labor and anxiety which have been
+essential to the accumulation and preservation of these great
+fortunes, or the mode of life which has accompanied their use or
+abuse, tend to diminish the number of children. Heiresses to very
+large fortunes usually therefore belong to families which are
+tending to sterility. And this has very probably been no unimportant
+factor in the extinction of "noble" families.
+
+A sound body contains many organs, all of which must be sound. And
+in a sound mind there is an even greater number of faculties, all of
+which must be kept at a high grade of efficiency. Man is a
+marvellously complex being, and more in danger of a narrow and
+one-sided development than any lower animal. And it is very easy for
+a certain grade or class of society, or for a whole race, to become
+so specialized, by the cultivation of only one set of faculties as
+to altogether prevent its giving birth to a complete humanity. Along
+certain broad lines the Greeks and Romans attained results never
+since equalled. But their neglect of other, even more important,
+powers and attainments, especially the moral and religious, doomed
+them to a speedy decay. The rude northern races were on the whole
+better and nobler, and became heirs to Greek art and letters, and
+to Roman law. And this is another illustration of the advantage or
+necessity of the fusion of races.
+
+To answer the question, "Which stratum or class in the community or
+world at large is heir to the future?" we must seek the one which is
+still to a large extent generalized. It must be maintaining, in a
+sound body, a steady, even if slow, advance of all the mental
+powers. It will not be remarkable for the high development or lack
+of any quality or power; it must have a fair amount of all of them
+well correlated. It must be well balanced, "good all around," as we
+say. And this class is evidently neither the highest nor the lowest
+in the community, but the "common people, whom God must have loved,
+because he made so many of them."
+
+They have, as a rule, fair-sized or large families. Their bodies are
+kept sound and vigorous by manual labor. They are compelled to think
+on all sorts of questions and to solve them as best they can. They
+have a healthy balance of mental faculties, even if they are not
+very learned or artistic. They are kept temperate because they
+cannot afford many luxuries. Their healthy life prevents an undue
+craving for them. They help one another and cultivate unselfishness.
+The good old word, neighbor, means something to them. They have a
+sturdy morality, and you can always rely upon them in great moral
+crises. They are patriotic and public-spirited; they have not so
+many, or so enslaving, selfish interests. They have always been
+trained to self-sacrifice and the endurance of hardship; and heroism
+is natural to them. They have a strong will, cultivated by the
+battle of daily life. And among them religion never loses its hold.
+
+But what of our tendencies to specialization in education and
+business? Are these wrong and injurious? Specialization, like great
+wealth, is a great danger and a fearful test of character. It tends
+to narrowness. If you will know everything about something, you must
+make a great effort to know something about, and have some interest
+in, everything. The great scholar is often anything but the
+large-minded, whole-souled man which he might have become. He has
+allowed himself to become absorbed in, and fettered by, his
+specialty until he can see and enjoy nothing outside of it. There is
+no selfishness like that of learning.
+
+We can accomplish nothing unless we concentrate our efforts upon a
+comparatively narrow line of work. But this does not necessitate
+that our views should be narrow or our aims low. Teufelsdroeckh may
+live on a narrow lane; but his thoughts, starting along the narrow
+lane, lead him over the whole world. The narrowness of our horizon
+is due to our near-sightedness.
+
+But the only absolutely safe specialization is the highest possible
+development of our moral and religious powers. For their cultivation
+only enlarges and strengthens all the other powers of body and mind.
+"But," you will object, "does religion always broaden?" Yes. That
+which narrows is the base alloy of superstition. But a religion
+which finds its goal and end in conformity to environment,
+character, and godlikeness can only broaden.
+
+But there is the so-called "breadth" of the shallow mind which
+attempts to find room at the same time for things which are mutually
+exclusive. God and Baal, right and wrong, honesty and lying,
+selfishness and love, these are mutually exclusive. You cannot find
+room in your mind for both members of the pair at the same time. You
+must choose. And, when you have chosen, abide by your choice. A
+ladleful of thin dough fallen on the floor is very broad. But its
+breadth is due to lack of consistency. Better narrowness than such
+breadth.
+
+But while individual specialization may be safe for the individual,
+and beneficial to the race, the race which is to inherit the future
+must remain unspecialized. It must not sacrifice future
+possibilities to present rapidity of advance. And the common people
+are advancing safely, slowly, but surely. Wealth and learning become
+of permanent prospective and real value only when they are
+invested in the masses. They are the final depositaries of all
+wealth--material, intellectual, moral, and religious. Whatever, and
+only that which, becomes a part of their life becomes thereby
+endowed with immortality. Will we invest freely or will we wait to
+have that which we call our own wrested from us? If we refuse it to
+our own kin and nation, it will surely fall to foreigners. "God made
+great men to help little ones."
+
+The city of God on earth is being slowly "builded by the hands of
+selfish men." But the builders are becoming continually more
+unselfish and righteous, and as they become better and purer its
+walls rise the more rapidly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE TEACHINGS OF THE BIBLE
+
+
+We have studied the teachings of science concerning man and his
+environment, let us turn now to the teachings of the Bible. And
+though eight chapters have been devoted to the teachings of science,
+and only one to the teachings of the Bible, it is not because I
+underestimate the importance of the latter. It is more difficult to
+clearly discover just what are the teachings of Nature in science.
+The lesson is written in a language foreign to most of us, and one
+requiring careful study; and yet once deciphered it is clear.
+Science attains the laws of Nature by the study of animal and human
+history. But this record is a history of continually closer
+conformity to environment on the part of all advancing forms. The
+animal kingdom is the clay which is turned, as Job says, to the seal
+of environment, and it makes little difference whether we study the
+seal or the impression; we shall read the same sentence. Environment
+has stamped its laws on the very structure of man's body and mind.
+And the old biblical writers read these laws, guided by God's
+Spirit, in their own hearts, and in those of their neighbors, and in
+their national history, as the record of God's working, and gave us
+concrete examples of the results of obedience and disobedience.
+Hence the teaching of the Bible is always clear and unmistakable.
+
+The Bible treats of three subjects--Nature, Man, and God--and the
+relations of each of these to the others. I have tried to present to
+you in the first chapter the biblical conception of Nature and its
+relation to God. In its relation to man it is his manifestation to
+us, and, in its widest sense, the sum of the means and modes through
+which he develops, aids, and educates us. And in this conception I
+find science to be strictly in accord with scripture.
+
+Now what is the scriptural idea of man? Man interests us especially
+in three aspects. He is a corporeal being; he is an intellectual
+being; he is a moral being, with feelings, will, and personality.
+
+Man's body. Plato considered the body as a source of evil and a
+hindrance to all higher life. And Plato was by no means alone in
+this. The Bible takes a very different view. Neglect of the body is
+always rebuked. The only place, so far as I can find, where the body
+is called vile is where it is compared with the glorious body into
+which it is to be transformed. "Your bodies," writes Paul to the
+Corinthians, "are members of Christ," "temples of the Holy Ghost."
+But the Bible teaches that the body is to be the servant, not the
+ruler, of the spirit. "I keep under my body, and bring it into
+subjection," continues Paul. Here again science is strictly in
+accord with scripture.
+
+Man is an intellectual being. I need not quote the praises of
+knowledge in the Old Testament. They must be fresh in your mind. But
+the practical Peter writes, "giving all diligence add to your faith
+virtue; and to virtue knowledge." And Paul prays that the love of
+the Ephesians may "abound more and more in knowledge and in all
+judgment." But the important knowledge is the knowledge of God, and
+of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Master. And similarly science
+emphasizes that the chief end of all knowledge is that we should
+know the environment to which we are to conform. Knowledge is useful
+to strengthen and clarify the mind, that it may see and conform to
+truth and God: and if it fails to become a means to conformity, it
+has failed of the chief, and practically the only, end for which it
+was intended. We are to come "in the unity of the faith and of the
+knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of
+the stature of the fulness of Christ." But knowledge which only
+puffs up and distracts the mind from the great aims and ends which
+it should serve is rebuked with equal emphasis by the Bible and by
+science.
+
+I would not claim that we have set too high a value upon knowledge,
+perhaps we cannot; but there is something far higher on which we are
+inclined to set far too low a value. This is righteousness and love;
+and true wisdom is knowledge permeated, vivified, and transfigured
+by devotion to these higher ends. And in this highest realm of the
+mind feeling and will rule conjointly. Love is a feeling which
+always will and must find its way to activity through the will, and
+it is an activity of the will roused by the very deepest feeling,
+inspired by a worthy object. If you try to divorce them, both die.
+Hence Paul can say, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of
+angels, and though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
+mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I
+could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing." And John
+goes, if possible, even farther and says, "Every one that loveth is
+born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God;
+for God is love." And this sort of love bears and believes and hopes
+and endures, and never fails. And for this reason the Bible lays
+such tremendous emphasis on the heart, not as the centre of emotion
+alone, but as the seat of will as well. And science points to the
+same end, though she sees it afar off.
+
+And what of God? God is a Spirit, Creator, Author, and Finisher of
+all things, and filling all. But while omnipotent, omnipresent, and
+omniscient, these are not the characteristics emphasized in the
+Bible. He is righteous. "Shall not the judge of all the earth do
+right?" is the grand question of the father of the faithful. And
+when Moses prays God to show him his glory, God answers, "I will
+make all my goodness pass before thee." He is the "refuge of
+Israel," the "everlasting arms" underneath them, pitying them "as a
+father pitieth his children." And in the New Testament we are bidden
+to pray to our Father, who _is_ love, and whose temple is the heart
+of whosoever will receive him. Truly a very personal being.
+
+Now the Bible rises here indefinitely above anything that mere
+natural science can describe. But can the ultimate "Power, not
+ourselves, which makes for righteousness" and unselfishness, of
+whose presence in environment science assures us, be ever better
+described than by these words concerning the "Father of our
+spirits?"
+
+And an infinitely wise, good, and loving being will have fixed modes
+of working; for "with him is no variableness, neither shadow of
+turning." Thus only can man trust and know him. The old Stoic
+philosopher tells us "everything has two handles, and can be
+carried by one of them, but not by the other." So with God's laws.
+Many seem to look upon them as a hindrance and limitation to him in
+carrying out his righteous and loving will toward man. But they are
+really the modes or means of his working, which he uses with such
+regularity and consistency that we can always rely upon them and
+him. The pure river of the water of life proceedeth from the throne
+of God and of the Lamb.
+
+If I am lying ill waiting anxiously for the physician I can think of
+this great city as a mass of blocks of houses separating him from
+me. But the houses have been arranged in blocks so as to leave free
+streets, along which he can travel the more quickly. And God's laws
+are not blocks, but thoroughfares, planned that the angels of his
+mercy may fly swiftly to our aid. We are prone to forget that these
+laws are expressly made for your and my benefit, as well as that of
+all beings, that we may be righteous and unselfish. And this is one
+ground of the apostle's faith that "all things work together for
+good to them that love God." And in the Apocalypse the earth helps
+the woman. It must be so.
+
+But what if you or I try to block the thoroughfare? What would
+happen to us if we tried to stop bare-handed the current of a huge
+dynamo, or to hold back the torrent of Niagara? Nothing but death
+can result. And what if I stem myself against the "river of the
+water of life, proceeding from the throne of God," and try to turn
+it aside or hold it back from men perishing of thirst? And that is
+just what sin is, even if done carelessly or thoughtlessly; for men
+have no right to be careless and thoughtless about some things.
+"The wages of sin is death;" physical death for breaking physical
+law, and spiritual death for breaking spiritual law. How can it be
+otherwise? The wages are fairly earned. The hardest doctrine for a
+scientific man to believe is that there can be any forgiveness of
+such sin as the heedless, ungrateful breaking of such wise and
+beneficent laws of a loving Father. And yet my earthly father has
+had to forgive me a host of times during my boyhood. Perhaps I can
+hope the same from God; I take his word for it.
+
+But if you or I think that it is safe to trifle with God's laws, we
+are terribly mistaken. The Lord proclaimed himself to Moses as "The
+Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and
+abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
+forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
+means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
+the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and
+to the fourth generation." But someone will say, This is terrible.
+It is terrible; but the question is, Does the Bible speak the truth
+about nature? Is nature a "fairy godmother," or does she bring men
+up with sternness and inflict suffering upon the innocent children,
+if necessary, lest they copy after their sinful parents? Do the
+children of the defaulter and drunkard and debauchee suffer because
+of the sins of their father, or do they not? If the blessings won by
+parental virtue go down to the thousandth generation, must not the
+evil consequences of sin go down to the third or fourth?
+
+That we are not under the law, but under grace, does not mean, as
+some seem to think, that it is safe to sin. Otherwise the
+forgiveness of God becomes the lowest form of indulgence
+slanderously attributed to the Church of Rome. We gain freedom from
+law as well as penalty only by obedience. The artist can safely
+forget the laws and rules of his art only when by long obedience and
+practice he obeys them unconsciously. We seem to be threatened with
+a belief that God will never punish sin in one who has professed
+Christianity. This view cheapens sin and makes pardon worthless, it
+takes the iron out of the blood, and the backbone out of all our
+religion and ethics. It ruins Christians and disgraces Christianity.
+We sometimes seem to think that our nation or church or denomination
+is so important to the carrying on of God's work that he cannot
+afford to let any evil befall us, whatever we may do or be.
+
+"Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes
+of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment and pervert all equity.
+They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. The
+heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for
+hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean
+upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come
+upon us. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be ploughed as a field,
+and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as
+the high places of the forest." That was plain preaching, and the
+people did not like it. They would not like it any better to-day; it
+would come too near the truth.
+
+But others seem to think that God is too kind, not to say
+good-natured, to allow his children to suffer for their sins. This
+is part of a creed, unconsciously very widely held to-day, that
+comfort, not character, is the chief end of life. Now if God is too
+kind to allow his children to suffer some of the natural
+consequences of sin, he is not a really kind and loving father, he
+is spoiling his children. Salvation is soundness, sanity, health;
+just as holiness is wholeness, escape from the disease, and not
+merely from the consequences of sin. A physician, unless a quack,
+never promises relief from a deep-seated disease without any pain or
+discomfort. And if the disease is the result of indulgence, he warns
+us that relapse into indulgence will bring a worse recurrence of the
+pain. Perhaps, after all, Socrates was not so far from right when he
+maintained that if a man had sinned the best and only thing for him
+is to suffer for it. "God the Lord will speak peace unto his people,
+and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly." And our
+Lord says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the
+prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say
+unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in
+no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. For I say unto you,
+That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
+scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
+heaven." If we would be great in the kingdom of heaven we must do
+and teach the commandments. One of the best lessons that the clergy
+can learn from science is that law and penalty are not things of the
+past. They are eternal facts; and if so, ought sometimes to be at
+least mentioned from the pulpit as well as remembered in the pew.
+
+But if God is a person striving to communicate with man, and if man
+is a person intended to conform to environment by becoming like God,
+what is more probable from the scientific stand-point than that God
+should seek and find some means of making himself clearly known to
+man in some personal way? I do not see how any scientific man who
+believes in a personal God can avoid asking this question. And is
+there any more natural solution of the question than that given in
+the Bible? "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself."
+"God, who spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath
+in these last days spoken unto us by his son." Philip says, "Lord,
+show us the Father and it sufficeth us." Jesus saith unto him, "Have
+I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know me, Philip? he
+that hath seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou shew us the
+Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in
+me? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the
+Father abiding in me doeth his works."
+
+"And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world,
+and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
+evil."
+
+Something more is needed than light. We need more light and
+knowledge of our duty; we need vastly more the will-power to do it.
+I know how I ought to live; I do not live thus. What I need is not a
+teacher, but power to become a son of God. "I delight in the law of
+God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members,
+warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
+under the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I
+am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?"
+
+This is the terrible question. How is it to be answered? Let us
+remember our illustration of the change wrought in that
+panic-stricken army before Winchester by the appearance of Sheridan.
+What these men needed was not information. No plan of battle
+reported as sure of success by trustworthy and competent witnesses,
+and forwarded from the greatest leader could have stayed that rout.
+What they needed was Sheridan and the magnetic power of his
+personality. This is the strange power of all great leaders of men,
+whether orators, statesmen, or generals. It is intellect acting on
+and through intellect, but it is also vastly more; it is will acting
+on will. The leader does not merely instruct others, he inspires
+them, puts himself into them, and makes them heroes like himself.
+
+Now something like this, but vastly grander and deeper, seems to me
+to have been the work of our Lord. Read John's gospel and see how it
+is interpenetrated with the idea of the new life to be gained by
+contact with our Lord, and how this forms the foundation of his hope
+and claim to give men this new life by drawing them to himself. And
+Peter says that it was impossible for the Prince of Life to be
+holden of death, for he was the centre and source from which not
+only new thoughts and purposes, but new will and life was to stream
+out into the souls of men. This power of our Lord may have been
+miraculous and supernatural in degree; I feel assured that it was
+not unnatural in kind and mode of action.
+
+And here, young men, pardon a personal word about your preaching.
+You will need to preach many sermons of warning against, and
+denunciation of, sin; many of instruction in duty. The Bible is a
+store-house of instruction and men need it, and you must make it
+clear to them. All this is good and necessary, but it is not enough.
+Learn from the experience of the greatest preacher, perhaps, who
+ever lived.
+
+Paul, the greatest philosopher of ancient times, came to Athens. You
+can well imagine how he had waited and longed for the opportunity to
+speak in this home of philosophy and intellectual life. Now he was
+to speak, not to uncultured barbarians, but to men who could
+understand and appreciate his best thoughts. He preached in Athens
+the grandest sermon, as far as argument is concerned, ever uttered.
+I doubt if ever a sermon of Paul's accomplished less. He could not
+even rouse a healthy opposition. The idea of a new god, Jesus, and a
+new goddess, the Resurrection, rather tickled the Athenian fancy. He
+left them, and, in deep dejection, went down to Corinth. There he
+determined to know only "Christ and him crucified," and thus
+preaching in material, vicious Corinth he founded a church.
+
+Some of you will go through the same experience. You will preach to
+cultured and intelligent audiences, and they will listen courteously
+and eagerly as long as you tell them something new, and do not ask
+them to do anything. The only possible way of reaching Athenian
+intellect or Corinthian materialism and vice is by preaching Christ,
+"the power of God and the wisdom of God." And you will reach more
+Corinthians than Athenians.
+
+You may preach sermons full of the grandest philosophy and
+theology, and of the highest, most exact, science; you may chain men
+by your logic, thrill them by your rhetoric, and move them to tears
+by your eloquence, and they will go home as dead and cold as they
+came. What they need is power, life. But preach "Christ and him
+crucified"--not merely dead two thousand years ago--but risen and
+alive for evermore, and with us to the end of the world, the
+grandest, most heroic, divinest helper who ever stood by a man, one
+all-powerful to help and who never forsakes, and every one of your
+hearers who is not dead to truth will catch the life, and go home
+alive and not alone.
+
+So long as we preach a dead Christ we shall have a dead church, as
+hopeless as the apostles were before the resurrection. "But now is
+Christ risen from the dead," "alive for evermore." See how Paul and
+Peter and John, and doubtless all the others, talked with him and he
+with them, after he was taken from them, and you have found the
+secret of their power, and of that of all the great Christian heroes
+and martyrs who could truly say, Lord Jesus, we understand each
+other. Better yet, prove by experience that it is possible for every
+one of us.
+
+And our Lord and Master is the connecting link between God and man,
+through whom God's own Holy Spirit is poured like a mighty flood
+into the hearts and lives of men, transfiguring them and filling
+them with the divine power. This is the biblical idea of
+Christianity; man, through Christ, flooded and permeated and
+interpenetrated with the Holy Spirit of God. And thus Paul is dead
+and yet alive, but fully possessed and dominated by the spirit of
+Christ. Alive as never before, and yet his every thought, word, and
+deed is really that of his great leader. Can you talk of self-denial
+to such a Christian? He had forgotten that such a man as Saul of
+Tarsus or Paul ever existed; he lives only in his Master's work, and
+is transfigured by it. This, and nothing less, is Christianity, and
+this is the very highest and grandest heroism. Paul conquers Europe
+single-handed, alone he stands before Caesar's tribunal, and yet he
+is never alone; and from the gloom of the Mammertine dungeon he
+sends back a shout of triumph. And Peter walks steadily, cheerfully,
+and unflinchingly, in the footsteps of his Master to share his
+cross.
+
+Let us, before leaving this topic, notice carefully just what
+religion, and especially Christianity, is not.
+
+1. It is not merely opinion or intellectual belief in a creed. This
+may be good, or even necessary, but it is not religion. "Thou
+believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also
+believe and tremble." We speak with pride, sometimes, of our
+puissant Christendom, so industrious, so intelligent, so moral, with
+its ubiquitous commerce, its adorning arts, its halls of learning,
+its happy firesides, and its noble charities. And yet what is our
+vaunted Christendom but a vast assemblage of believing but
+disobedient men? Said William Law to John Wesley, "The head can as
+easily amuse itself with a living and justifying faith in the blood
+of Jesus as with any other notion." The most sacred duty may
+degenerate into a dogma, asking only to be believed. "I go, sir,"
+answered the son in the parable, "but went not."
+
+2. It is not mere feeling. It is neither hope of heaven's joy, nor
+fear of hell's misery. It may rightly include these, but it is
+vastly more and higher. It is neither ecstasy nor remorse. The most
+resolutely impenitent sinner can shout "Hallelujah," and "Woe is
+me," as loudly as any saint. Now feeling is of vast importance. It
+stands close to the will and stimulates it, but it is not
+conformity. The will must be aroused to a robust life.
+
+3. Christianity is these and a great deal more. Mere belief would
+make religion a mere theology. Mere emotion would make it mere
+excitement. The true divine idea of it is a life; doing his will,
+not indolently sighing to do it, and then lamenting that we do it
+not; but the thing itself in actual achievement, from day to day,
+from month to month, from year to year. Thus religion rises on us in
+its own imperial majesty. It is no mere delight of the understanding
+in the doctrines of our faith; no mere excitement of the
+sensibilities, now harrowed by fear, and now jubilant in hope; but a
+warfare and a work, a warfare against sin, and a work with God.
+Religion is not an entertainment, but a service. We are to set
+before us the perfect standard, and then struggle to shape our lives
+to it. Personal sanctity must be made a business of.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: This page is mainly a series of quotations from Dr.
+  R.D. Hitchcock's sermon on "Religion, the Doing of God's Will."]
+
+A little more than thirty years ago a regiment was sent home from
+the Army of the Potomac to enforce the draft after the riots in this
+city. Some of you may picture to yourselves a thousand men with silk
+banners and gold lace and bright uniforms, resplendent in the
+sunshine. You could not make a worse mistake.
+
+First in that gray early morning came two old flags, so torn by shot
+and shell that there was hardly enough left of them to tell whether
+the State flag was that of Massachusetts or Virginia. And behind
+these came scant three hundred men. All the rest were sleeping
+between Washington and Richmond, some on almost every battle-field.
+The uniforms were old and faded from sun and rain. Only gun-barrel
+and bayonet were bright. And the men were scarred and tired and
+foot-sore, haggard from hard fighting and long, swift marches. For
+these men had been trained to be hurried back and forth behind the
+long line of battle, that they might be hurled into it wherever the
+need was greatest. I do not suppose that one of them could have
+delivered a fourth-of-July oration on Patriotism. They were trained
+not to talk, but to obey orders. But they had stood in the "bloody
+angle" at Spottsylvania all day and all night; and in the gray dawn
+of the next morning, when strength and courage are always at ebb,
+faint and exhausted, their last cartridge shot away, had sprung
+forward at the command of their colonel to make a last desperate,
+forlorn defence with the bayonet against the advancing enemy.
+Numbers do not count against men like these. What made them such
+invincible heroes? It was mainly the resolute will and long training
+to obey orders. A Christian should never forget that he is a soldier
+in the army of the Lord of Hosts; that enlistment is easy and
+quickly accomplished; but that the training is long, and that he
+must learn, above all, to "endure hardness."
+
+And so, my brothers, I beg of you to preach a heroic Christianity,
+for if there ever was a heroic religion it is ours. If you offer
+merely free transportation to a future heaven of delight on "flowery
+beds of ease," you will enlist only the coward and the sluggard. But
+everyone who has a drop of strong old Norse blood in his veins will
+prefer a heathen Valhalla, though builded in hell, to such a heaven.
+And his Norse instincts will be nearer truth than your counterfeit
+of a debased Christianity. But preach the city of God's
+righteousness on earth and now among men, and call on every heroic
+soul to take sides with God against sin within himself and the evil
+and misery all around him. There is an almost infinite amount of
+strength, endurance, and heroism in this "slow-witted but
+long-winded" human race waiting to leap up at the appeal to fight
+once more and win a victory after repeated defeats before the sun
+goes down. Appeal to this and point to the great "captain of our
+salvation made perfect through sufferings," and every man that is of
+the truth will hear in your voice the call of the Master and King.
+You will not be disappointed, but among the publicans and fishermen
+of America you will find heroic souls, who will leave all to follow,
+as faithfully and unflinchingly as those from the shores of Galilee.
+
+And what of faith? Faith is the personal attachment of a soul to
+such a leader. Fortunately the Bible contains a scientific monograph
+on this subject. I refer, of course, to the eleventh chapter of the
+epistle to the Hebrews. And the whole result is summed up in a few
+words of the thirteenth verse. The great heroes, like Enoch, Noah,
+and Abraham, "saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them,
+and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
+pilgrims on the earth."
+
+They saw the promises afar off, dimly, on the horizon of their
+mental vision; as one looks into the distance and cannot tell
+whether what he sees be cloud or mountain. And until they could make
+up their minds that there was some substance in the vision, they did
+not embrace it. They were not credulous. Neither were they
+carelessly or heedlessly sure that there was and could be nothing in
+the vision but mist and fancy. They recognized that on their
+decision of the question hung the life of which they meant to make
+the very most. They looked again and again, and kept thinking about
+it. Thus they became and were "persuaded of them." And most people
+stop here with a merely intellectual faith in their heads, and very
+little in their hearts and lives. Not so these old heroes; they were
+not so purely and coldly intellectual that they could not _do_
+anything. They "embraced them." They said, that is exactly what I
+want and need, and I'll have it, if it costs me my life.
+
+Now a promise is always conditional; if you want one thing, you must
+give up something else. It involves a choice between alternatives;
+you can have either one freely, you cannot have both. It was to them
+as to Christ on the "exceeding high mountain," God or the world; God
+with the cross, or the world with Satan thrown in. And the same
+alternative confronts us.
+
+Moses could be a good Jew or a good Egyptian. Most of us, while
+resolved to be excellent Jews at heart, would have said nothing
+about it, but remained sons of Pharaoh's daughter in order to
+benefit the Jews by our influence in our lofty station. We should
+have become miserable hybrids with all the vices and weaknesses of
+both races, but with none of the virtues of either. And for all that
+we should ever have done the Jews might have rotted in Egyptian
+bondage. Enlargement and deliverance would have arisen to the Jews
+from some other place; but we and our father's house would have been
+destroyed. By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
+daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the children of
+God, etc. And certainly he did suffer for it.
+
+They embraced the promises with their whole hearts. They were stoned
+and sawn asunder rather than give them up. And what was the effect
+on their characters? Having counted the cost, and being perfectly
+willing to accept any loss or pain for the sake of these promises,
+and hence inspired by them, they became sublime heroes. Through
+faith they "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained
+promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of
+fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made
+strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the
+aliens. And others had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
+moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they wandered about in
+sheepskins and in goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
+Of whom the world was not worthy." That is a faith worth having, and
+it is as sound philosophy as it is scripture.
+
+"These all died in faith, not having received the promises." Did
+they receive nothing? Moses and Elijah, Gideon and Barak gained
+power and heroism greater than we can conceive of. Surely that was
+enough. But they did not get the whole of the promise, or even the
+best of it. And the simple reason was that God cannot make a promise
+small enough to be completely fulfilled to a man in his earthly
+life. He gets enough to make him a king, but this does not begin to
+exhaust the promise. It is inexhaustible. This is the experience of
+anyone who will faithfully try it. And this experience is the
+grandest argument for immortality.
+
+Therefore, "giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue ([Greek:
+arete], strength), and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge
+temperance ([Greek: enkrateia], self-control), and to temperance
+patience ([Greek: hypomene], endurance), and to patience godliness,
+and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness
+charity" (love).
+
+And what of prayer? How can it be answered in a universe of law? We
+certainly could have no confidence that our prayers could or would
+be answered if ours were not a universe of law. God's laws are, as
+we have seen, his modes of working out his great plan. And the last
+and highest unfolding of God's plan is the development of man. And
+man is to become conformed to his environment, and conformity of
+man's highest powers to his environment is likeness to God.
+
+The laws of nature, then, are in ultimate analysis and highest aim
+the different steps in God's plan of man's salvation from the
+disease of sin, not merely or mainly from its consequences, and his
+attainment of holiness. For this is the only true and sound manhood.
+Salvation is spiritual health, resulting also in health of body and
+of mind. If God's laws are his modes of carrying out his plan for
+godlikeness in man, then they are so thought out as to be the means
+of helping me to every real good.
+
+The Bible declares explicitly that the aim of prayer is not to
+inform God of our needs. For he knows them already. It is not to
+change God's purpose, for he is unchangeable, and we should rejoice
+in this. We are to pray for our daily bread; we are to pray for the
+sick; and, if best for them and consistent with God's plan, they
+shall recover. Elijah prayed for drought and prayed for rain, and
+was answered. And Abraham's prayer would have saved Sodom, had there
+been ten righteous men in the city. "Men ought alway to pray and not
+to faint."
+
+                     "More things are wrought by prayer
+        Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice
+        Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
+        For what are men better than sheep or goats
+        That nourish a blind life within the brain,
+        If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer
+        Both for themselves and those who call them friend?
+        For so the whole round earth is every way
+        Bound by gold chains about the feet of God."
+
+But could not all these things be brought about without a single
+prayer? Not according to the plan of man's education which God has
+adopted. Whether he could well have made a plan by which material
+blessings could have been bestowed upon men who do not ask for them,
+I do not know. The ravens and all animals are fed without a single
+prayer, for they are not fitted or intended to hold communion with
+God. But a prayerless race of men has never been fed long; it has
+soon ceased to exist. God's plan of salvation and ordering of the
+universe involves prayer as a means of blessing and good things as
+an answer to prayer. God says, I make you a co-worker with me. I
+will help you in everything; but you must call on me for help, or
+you will forget that I am the source of your help and strength, and
+thus having lost your communion with me will die. "When Jeshurun
+waxed fat he kicked." This is the oft-repeated story of the Old
+Testament and of all history. And thus, while material blessings are
+given in answer to prayer, these are not the chief end for which
+prayer is to be offered.
+
+Prayer is a means of conformity to environment, of godlikeness. How
+do you become like a friend? Of course by associating and talking
+with him. And why does it help you to associate with a hero? Simply
+because you cannot be with him without being inspired with his
+heroism. And so while I may pray for bread and clothes and
+opportunities, and God will give me these or something better; I
+will, if wise, pray for purity, courage, moral power, heroism, and
+holiness. And I know that these will stream from his soul into mine
+like a great river. And so I may pray for bread and be denied; for
+hunger, with some higher good, may be far better for me than a full
+stomach. But if I pray for any spiritual gift, which will make me
+godlike, and on which as an heir of God I have a rightful claim,
+every law and force in God's universe is a means to answer that
+prayer. And best of all, if I pray for the gift of God's Spirit,
+that is the prayer which the whole world of environment has been
+framed to answer.
+
+But this I can never have unless I hunger for it. I can never have
+it to use as a means of gaining some lower good which I worship more
+than God. God will not and cannot lend himself to any such idolatry.
+I must be willing to give up anything and everything else for its
+attainment. Otherwise the answer to the prayer would ruin me.
+
+I cannot grasp the higher while using both hands to grasp the
+lower.
+
+Thus religion is the interpenetration and permeation of my
+personality by that of God. And prayer is the communion by which
+this permeation becomes possible. And faith is the vision of these
+possibilities, the being persuaded by them, and the resolute purpose
+to attain them. And faith in Christ is confiding communion with him
+and obedience to his commands that his divine life may flow over
+into me and dominate mine. And common-sense, and the more refined
+common-sense which we call science, can show me no other means to
+the attainment of that godlikeness which is the only true conformity
+to environment.
+
+And, holding such a belief and faith, we must be hopeful. And only
+next in importance to faith and love stands hope. The hero must be
+hopeful. And when times look dark about you, and they sometimes
+will, you must still hope.
+
+        "O it is hard to work for God,
+           To rise and take his part
+         Upon the battle-field of earth,
+           And not sometimes lose heart!
+
+        "O there is less to try our faith
+           In our mysterious creed,
+         Than in the godless look of earth
+           In these our hours of need.
+
+        "Ill masters good; good seems to change
+           To ill with greatest ease;
+         And, worst of all, the good with good
+           Is at cross purposes.
+
+        "Workman of God! O lose not heart,
+           But learn what God is like;
+         And in the darkest battle-field
+           Thou shalt know where to strike.
+
+        "Muse on his justice, downcast soul!
+           Muse, and take better heart;
+         Back with thine angel to the field,
+           Good luck shall crown thy part!
+
+        "For right is right, since God is God;
+           And right the day must win;
+         To doubt would be disloyalty,
+           To falter would be sin."
+
+Hope on, be strong and of a good courage. For in the dark hours
+others will lean on you to catch your hope and courage. To many a
+poor discouraged soul you must be "a hiding-place from the wind and
+a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
+shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Every power and force in
+the universe of environment makes for the ultimate triumph of truth
+and right. Defeat is impossible. "One man with God on his side is
+the majority that carries the day. 'We are but two,' said Abu Bakr
+to Mohammed as they were flying hunted from Mecca to Medina. 'Nay;'
+answered Mohammed, 'we are three; God is with us.'"
+
+And not only the race will triumph and regain the Paradise lost. The
+city of God shall surely be with men, and God will dwell with them
+and in them. But you and I can and shall triumph too.
+
+We are prone to feel that the individual man is too insignificant a
+being to be the object of God's care and forethought. But we should
+not forget that it is the individual who conforms, and that the
+higher and nobler race is to be attained through the elevation of
+individuals, one after another. God deals with races and nations as
+such. But his laws and promises are made almost entirely for the
+individuals of which these larger units are concerned.
+
+But there is another standpoint from which we may gain a helpful
+view of the matter. I may be the meanest citizen of my native state,
+and my father may leave me heir of only a few acres of rocky land.
+But, if my title is good, every power in the state is pledged to put
+me in possession of my inheritance. They who would rob me may be
+strong; but the state will call out every able-bodied man, and pour
+out every dollar in its treasury before it will allow me to be
+defrauded of my legal rights. And it must do this for me, its
+meanest citizen, else there is no government, but anarchy, and
+oppression, and the rule of the strongest. And we all recognize that
+this is but right and necessary, and would be ashamed of our state
+and government were it not literally true.
+
+If I travel in distant lands, my passport is the sign that all the
+power of these United States is pledged to protect me from
+injustice. Think of the sensitiveness of governments to any wrong
+done to their private citizens. England went to war with Abyssinia
+to protect and deliver two Englishmen. And shall God do less? Can he
+do less? If it is only just and right and necessary for earthly
+governments to thus care for their citizens, shall not the ruler and
+"judge of all the earth do right?"
+
+Now you and I are commanded to be heirs of God, to attain to
+likeness to him. This is therefore our legal right, guaranteed by
+him, for every command of God is really a promise. And he will
+exhaust every power in the universe before he allows anything to
+prevent us from gaining our legal rights, provided only that we are
+earnest in claiming them.
+
+But if I alienate my rights to my inheritance, the commonwealth
+cannot help me. If I renounce my citizenship, the government of the
+United States can no longer protect me. And so I can alienate my
+"right to the tree of life," and to entrance into the city, and I
+can forfeit my heirship to all that God would give me. "For I am
+persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
+principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
+nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, shall be able to
+separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
+Lord." But I can alienate and make void every promise and title, if
+I will or if I do not care. This is the unique glory, and awfulness
+of the human will. And we know that to them that love God all things
+work together for good. "If God is for us who is against us?" It
+must be so if God's laws are his modes of aiding men to conform to
+environment.
+
+And what of the church? Is it anything else or other than a means of
+aiding man to conform to environment? If it fails of this, can it be
+any longer the church of God? The church is a means, not an end. And
+it is a means of godlikeness in man.
+
+Some would make it a social club. The bond of union between its
+members is their common grade of wealth, social position, or
+intellectual attainments. And this idea of the church has deeper
+root in the minds of us all than we think. I can imagine a far
+better club than one formed and framed on this principle, but it is
+difficult for me to imagine a worse counterfeit of a church. Others
+make it a source of intellectual delectation, and the means of
+hearing one or two striking sermons each week. Such a church will
+conduce to the intelligence of its members, and may be rather more,
+though probably less, useful than the old New England Lyceum lecture
+system. Such a church is of about as much practical value to the
+world at large as some consultations of physicians are to their
+patients. The doctors have a most interesting discussion, but the
+patient dies, and the nature of the disease is discovered at the
+autopsy. Others still would make of the church a great railroad
+system, over which sleeping-cars run from the City of Destruction,
+with a coupon good to admit one to the Golden City at the other end.
+The coaches are luxurious and the road-bed smooth. The Slough of
+Despond has been filled, the Valley of Humiliation bridged at its
+narrowest point, and the Delectable Mountains tunnelled. But
+scoffers say that most of the passengers make full use of the
+unlimited stop-over privileges allowed at Vanity Fair.
+
+The Bible would seem to give the impression that the church is the
+army of the Lord of Hosts, a disciplined army of hardy, heroic
+souls, each soldier aiding his fellow in working out the salvation
+which God is working in him. And it joins battle fiercely and
+fearlessly with every form of sin and misery, counting not the odds
+against it. And the Salvation Army seems to me to have conceived and
+realized to a great extent just what at least one corps in this
+grand army can and should be. And you and I can learn many a lesson
+from them.
+
+The church is the body of which Christ is the head, and you and I
+are "members in particular." Let us see to it that we are not the
+weak spot in the body, crippling and maiming the whole. The church
+is the city of God among men, and we are its citizens, bound by its
+laws, loyal servants of the Great King, sworn to obey his commands
+and enlarge his kingdom, and repel all the assaults of his
+adversaries. Thus the Bible seems to me to depict the church of God.
+But what if the army contains a multitude of men who will not obey
+orders or submit to discipline? or if the city be overwhelmed with a
+mass of aliens, who see in its laws and institutions mainly means of
+selfish individual advantage? Responsibility, not privilege, is the
+foundation of strong character in both men and institutions. There
+was a good grain of truth in the old Scotch minister's remark, that
+they had had a blessed work of grace in his church; they had not
+taken anybody in, but a lot had gone out.
+
+There are plenty of churches of Laodicea to-day. May you be
+delivered from them. But, thank God, there are also churches of
+Philadelphia and Smyrna. May you be pastors of one of the latter. It
+will not pay you a very large salary, for Demas has gone to the
+church of Laodicea, because the minister of the church of Smyrna was
+not orthodox, or not sufficiently spiritually minded--meaning
+thereby that he rebuked the sins of actual living men in general,
+and of Demas in particular--or preached politics, and did not mind
+his business. And your church may be small. For many of the
+congregation have gone to the church around the other corner, which
+is mainly a cluster of associations, having excellent names, and
+useful for almost every purpose except building up a manly, rugged,
+heroic, godlike character. The minister there, they will tell you,
+preaches delightful sermons. They make you "feel so good." He
+annihilates pantheism, and his denunciations of materialism are
+eloquent in the extreme. But his incarnations of materialism are
+Huxley and Darwin, and to the uncharitable he seems to almost
+carefully avoid any language which might seem to reflect upon the
+dollar- and place-worship of some of the occupants of his front
+pews. Now, I am not here to defend Mr. Huxley or Mr. Darwin.
+Withstand them to the face wherever they are to be blamed. And for
+some utterances they are undoubtedly to be blamed, honest souls as
+they were. But I for one cannot help feeling that there is among the
+"dwellers in Jerusalem" a materialism of the heart which is
+indefinitely worse than any intellectual heresy. When you hit at the
+one heresy strike hard at the other also.
+
+Many will have left your little church of Smyrna. It had to be so.
+For the divine sifting process, which is natural selection on its
+highest plane, has not ceased to work. It must and shall still go
+on; it cannot be otherwise. Has the great principle ceased to be
+true in modern history that "though the number of the children of
+Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved?"
+
+But do not be discouraged. Preach Christ and a heroic Christianity.
+Do not be afraid to demand great things of your people. Remember
+that Ananias was encouraged to go to Paul because the Lord would
+show Paul how great things he should suffer for the name of Jesus.
+This is what appeals to the heroic in every man, and we do not make
+nearly enough use of it. And the heroic Christ and his heroic
+Christianity will draw every heroic soul in the community to
+himself. They may not be very heroic looking. You may be in some
+hill town in old Massachusetts "Nurse of heroes." Pardon me, I do
+not intend to be invidious. Heroism is cosmopolitan. One of the
+pillars of your church may be the school-teacher of the little red
+school-house at the fork of the roads, in the yard ornamented with
+alders, mulleins, and sumachs. She boards around, and is clad in
+anything but silks and sealskins. But she trains well her band of
+hardy little fellows, who will later fear the multitude as little as
+they now mind the Berkshire winds. And from the pittance she
+receives for training these rebellious urchins into heroic men she
+is supporting an old mother somewhere, or helping a brother to an
+education. And your deacon will be some farmer, perhaps uncouth in
+appearance and rough of dress, and certainly blunt in his scanty
+speech. He'll not flatter you nor your sermons; and until you've
+lived with him for years you will not know what a great heart there
+is in that rugged frame, and what wealth of affection in that silent
+hand-shake. And there is his wife. She is round and ample, and
+certainly does not look especially solemn or pious. She is aunt and
+mother to the whole community, the joy of all the children, nurse of
+the sick, and comfort of the dying. She is doing the work of ten at
+home, and of a host in the village. And your right-hand man is
+great Onesiphorus from the mill down in the valley, fighting an
+uphill battle to keep the wolf from the door, while he and his wife
+deny themselves everything, that their flock of children may have
+better training for fighting God's battles than they ever enjoyed.
+
+I cannot describe these men and women. If you have lived with
+them, you will need no description, and would resent the
+inadequacy of mine. If you have never had the good fortune to live
+with them, it is impossible to make you see them as they are. When
+you once have thoroughly known them, language will fail you to do
+them justice, and you will prefer to be silent rather than slander
+them by inadequate portrayal. They are at first sight not
+attractive-looking. If you stand outside and look at them from a
+distance their lives will appear to you very humdrum and prosaic.
+But remember that for almost thirty years our Lord lived just such
+a life in Nazareth, making ploughs and yokes; and then, when the
+younger brothers and sisters were able to care for themselves,
+snatched three years from supporting a peasant family in Galilee
+to redeem a world. And who was Peter but a rough, hardy fisherman?
+
+Now a Paul, trained at the feet of Gamaliel, was also needed; and
+the twelve did not come from the lowest ranks of society. But they
+were honest, industrious, practical, courageous, hardy, common
+people. And single-handed they went out to conquer empires. And they
+succeeded through the power of God in them.
+
+Who knows the possibilities of your little church in the hilltown of
+Smyrna? These men and women are the pickets of God's great host.
+They are scattered up and down our land, fighting alone the great
+battle, unknown of men and sometimes thinking that they must be
+forgotten of God. And the picket's lonely post is what tries a man's
+courage and strength.
+
+Take your example from Paul's epistle. Greet Phebe, the
+schoolmistress, and Aquila and Priscilla on their rocky farm on the
+mountain-side, and greet the burden-bearing Onesiphorus. And give
+them God's greeting and encouragement, for he sends it to them
+through you. Show them the heroism which there is in their "humdrum"
+lives; and cheer them in the efforts, of whose grandeur they are all
+unconscious. Bid them "be strong and of a very good courage." For in
+the character of these people there is the granite of the eternal
+hills, and in their hearts should be the sunshine of God. Do not be
+ashamed of your congregation. Their dimes or dollars may look
+pitifully small and few on the collector's plate; only God sees the
+real immensity of the gift in the self-denial which it has cost.
+Your people will take sides with the cause of right, while it is
+still unpopular. They have furnished the moral backbone and
+unswerving integrity of many of your great business houses in this
+city to-day. From those families will go forth the men whom the good
+will trust and the evil fear. The power for good proceeding from
+your church will be like the floods which Ezekiel saw pouring out
+from beneath the threshold of the Lord's house.
+
+For these common people, whom "God must have loved because he made
+so many of them," are the true heirs to the future. And wealth and
+culture, art and learning, are to burn like torches to light their
+march. Finally, my young brothers, do not be bitterly disappointed
+if you are not "popular preachers." Do not let too many people go to
+sleep under your preaching, even if one young man did go to sleep
+under one of Paul's sermons. But if now and then someone is angry at
+what you have said, do not worry too much over it. Preach the truth
+in love. If Elijah and John the Baptist, and Peter and Paul, were to
+preach to-day I doubt greatly whether they would be popular
+preachers. I cannot find that they ever were so. They would probably
+be peripatetic candidates, until someone supported them as
+independent evangelists. After their death we would rear them great
+monuments, and then devote ourselves to railing at Timothy because
+he was not more like what we imagine Paul was.
+
+Even Socrates found that he must bid farewell to what men count
+honors, if he would follow after truth. You may have the same
+experience. You will have to champion many an unpopular cause, and
+your people will not like it. They will say you lack tact. Now Paul
+was a man of infinite tact. Witness his sermon on Mars' Hill. But if
+his letters to the church in Corinth were addressed to most modern
+churches, they would soon set out in search of a pastor of greater
+adaptability.
+
+If you play the man, and fight the good fight of faith, I do not see
+how you can always avoid hitting somebody on the other side. And he
+will pull you down if he can; and will probably succeed in sometimes
+making your life very uncomfortable. Remember the teaching of
+scripture and science, that the upward path was never intended to
+be easy. The scriptural passages to this effect you can find all
+through the gospels and epistles, and I need not quote them to you.
+I will, however, tell you honestly that many are of the opinion that
+these passages are now obsolete, being applicable only to the first
+centuries, or to especially critical times in the history of
+the church. I cannot share that view, but, lest I seem too
+old-fashioned, will merely quote the ringing words of our own Dr.
+Hitchcock, that "no man ever enters heaven save on his shield." And
+allow me to quote in the same connection the testimony of that
+prince of scientists, Professor Huxley, in his lecture on "Evolution
+and Ethics:"
+
+"If we may permit ourselves a larger hope of abatement of the
+essential evil of the world than was possible to those who, in the
+infancy of exact knowledge, faced the problem of existence more than
+a score of centuries ago, I deem it an essential condition of the
+realization of that hope that we should cast aside the notion that
+the escape from pain and sorrow is the proper object of life.
+
+"We have long since emerged from the heroic childhood of our race,
+when good and evil could be met with the same 'frolic welcome;' the
+attempts to escape from evil, whether Indian or Greek, have ended in
+flight from the battle-field; it remains to us to throw aside the
+youthful over-confidence and the no less youthful discouragement of
+nonage. We are grown men, and must play the man
+
+                          "... 'strong in will
+        To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield,'
+
+"cherishing the good that falls in our way and bearing the evil in
+and around us, with stout heart set on diminishing it. So far we all
+may strive in one faith toward one hope:
+
+        "'It may be that the gulfs will wash us down,
+          It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles.
+
+                 "... but something ere the end,
+           Some work of noble note may yet be done.'"
+
+We must be strong and of a very good courage. While the avoidance of
+pain and discomfort, or even happiness, cannot be the proper end of
+life, it is not a world of misery or an essentially and hopelessly
+evil world. There is plenty of misery in the world, and we cannot
+deny it. Neither can we deny that God has put us in the world to
+relieve misery, and that until we have made every effort and
+strained every nerve as we have never yet done, we, and not God, are
+largely responsible for it. But behind misery stand selfishness and
+sin as its cause. And here we must not parley but fight. And the
+hosts of evil are organized and mighty. "The sons of this world are
+for their own generation wiser than the sons of light." And we shall
+never overcome them by adopting their means. But we can and shall
+surely overcome. For he that is with us is more than they that be
+with them. "The skirmishes are frequently disastrous to us, but the
+great battles all go one way." And we long for the glory of "him
+that overcometh." But the victor's song can come only after the
+battle, and be sung only by those who have overcome. And we would
+not have it otherwise if we could. The closing words of Dr.
+Hitchcock's last sermon are the following:
+
+"It is one of the revelations of scripture that we are to judge the
+angels, sitting above them on the shining heights. It may well be
+so. Those angels are the imperial guard, doing easy duty at home. We
+are the tenth legion, marching in from the swamps and forests of the
+far-off frontier, scarred and battered, but victorious over death
+and sin."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PRESENT ASPECTS OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
+
+
+In all our study we have taken for granted the truth of the theory
+of evolution. If you are not already persuaded of this by the
+writings of Darwin, Wallace, and many others, no words or arguments
+of mine would convince you. We have used as the foundation of our
+argument only the fundamental propositions of Mr. Darwin's theory.
+
+But while all evolutionists accept these propositions they differ
+more or less in the weight or efficiency which they assign to each.
+In a sum in multiplication you may gain the same product by using
+different factors; but if the product is to be constant, if you
+halve one factor, you must double another. Evolution is a product of
+many factors. One evolutionist lays more, another less, emphasis on
+natural selection, according as he assigns less or more efficiency
+to other forces or processes. Furthermore, evolutionists differ
+widely in questions of detail, and some of these subsidiary
+questions are of great practical importance and interest. It may be
+useful, therefore, to review these propositions in the light of the
+facts which we have gathered, and to see how they are interpreted,
+and what emphasis is laid on each by different thinkers.
+
+The fundamental fact on which Mr. Darwin's theory rests is the
+"struggle for existence." Life is not something to be idly enjoyed,
+but a prize to be won; the world is not a play-ground, but an arena.
+And the severity of the struggle can scarcely be overrated. Only one
+or two of a host of runners reach the goal, the others die along the
+course. Concerning this there can be no doubt, and there is little
+room for difference of interpretation.
+
+The struggle may take the form of a literal battle between two
+individuals, or of the individual with inclemency of climate or
+other destructive agents. More usually it is a competition, no more
+noticeable and no less real than that between merchants or
+manufacturers in the same line of trade.
+
+The weeds in our gardens compete with the flowers for food, light,
+and place, and crowd them out unless prevented by man. And when the
+weeds alone remain, they crowd on each other until only a few of the
+hardiest and most vigorous survive. And flowers, by their nectar,
+color, and odor, compete for the visits of insects, which insure
+cross-fertilization. And fruits are frequently or usually the
+inducements by which plants compete for the aid of animals in the
+dissemination of their seeds. So there is everywhere competition and
+struggle; many fail and perish, few succeed and survive.
+
+In a foot-race it is often very difficult to name the winner. Muscle
+alone does not win, not even good heart and lungs. Good judgment,
+patience, coolness, courage, many mental and moral qualities, are
+essential to the successful athlete. So in the struggle for life.
+The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.
+
+The total of "points" which wins this "grand prize" is the
+aggregate of many items, some of which appear to us very
+insignificant. Hence, when we ask, "Who will survive?" the answer is
+necessarily vague. Mr. Darwin's answer is, Those best conformed to
+their environment; and Mr. Spencer's statement of the survival of
+the fittest means the same thing.
+
+The judges who pronounce and execute the verdict of death, or award
+the prize of life, are the forces and conditions of environment. We
+have already considered the meaning of this word. Many of its forces
+and conditions are still unknown, or but very imperfectly
+understood. But known or unknown, visible or invisible, the result
+of their united action is the extinction or degradation of these
+individuals which deviate from certain fairly well-marked lines of
+development. We must keep clearly before our minds the fact that the
+world of living beings makes up by far the most important part of
+the environment of any individual plant or animal. Two plants may be
+equally well suited to the soil and climate of any region; but if
+one have a scanty development of root or leaf, or is for any reason
+more liable to attacks from insects or germs, other things being
+equal, it will in time be crowded out by its competitor. Worms are
+eaten by lower vertebrates, and these by higher. An animal's
+environment, like that of a merchant or manufacturer, is very
+largely a matter of the ability and methods of its competitors. And
+man, compelled to live in society, makes that part of the
+environment by which he is most largely moulded.
+
+This process of extinction Mr. Darwin has called "natural
+selection." Natural selection is not a force, but a process,
+resulting from the combined action of the forces of environment. It
+is not a cause in any proper sense of the word, but a result of a
+myriad of interacting forces. The combination of these forces in a
+process of natural selection leading directly to a moral and
+spiritual goal demands an explanation in some ultimate cause. This
+explanation we have already tried to find.
+
+It is a process of extinction. It favors the fittest, but only by
+leaving them to enjoy the food and place formerly claimed, or still
+furnished, by the less fit. In any advancing group, as the less fit
+are crowded out, and the better fitted gain more place and food and
+more rapid increase, the whole species becomes on an average better
+conformed. More abundant nourishment and increased vigor seem also
+to be accompanied by increased variation. And by the extinction of
+the less fit the probability is increased that more fit individuals
+will pair with one another and give rise to even fitter offspring,
+possessing perhaps new and still more valuable variations.
+
+But if, of a group of weaker forms, those alone survive which adopt
+a parasitic life, those which in adult life move the least will
+survive and reproduce; there will result the survival of the least
+muscular and nervous. This degeneration will continue until the
+species has sunken into equilibrium, so to speak, with its
+surroundings. Here natural selection works for degeneration. Sessile
+animals have had a similar history. But these parasitic and sessile
+forms had already been hopelessly distanced in the race for life.
+Their presence cannot impede the leaders; indeed their survival is
+necessary to directly or indirectly furnish food for the better
+conformed. In the animal and plant world there is abundant room and
+advantage at the top.
+
+Once more, natural selection works as a rule for the survival of
+individuals, only indirectly for that of organs composing, or of
+species including, these individuals. It may work for the
+development of a trait or structure which, while of no immediate
+advantage to the individual, increases the probability of its
+rearing a larger number of fitter offspring. Thus defence of the
+young by birds may be a disadvantage to the parent, but this is more
+than counterbalanced in the life of the species by the number of
+young coming to maturity and inheriting the trait. Even here natural
+selection favors the survival of the trait indirectly by sparing the
+descendants of the individual possessing it. Natural selection may
+always work on and through individuals without always working for
+their sole and selfish advantage.
+
+In human society we find the selection of families, societies,
+nations, and civilizations going on, but mainly as the result of the
+survival of the fittest individuals.
+
+There may very probably be a struggle for existence between organs
+or cells in the body of each individual. The amount of nutriment in
+the body is a more or less fixed quantity; and if one organ seizes
+more than its fair share, others may or must diminish for lack. But
+the limit to this usurpation must apparently be set by the crowding
+out of those individuals in which it is carried too far. Natural
+selection, so to speak, leaves the individual responsible for the
+distribution of the nutriment among the organs, and spares or
+destroys the individual as this usurpation proves for its advantage
+or disadvantage.
+
+It makes its verdict much as the judges at a great poultry or dog
+show count the series of points, giving each one of them a certain
+value on a certain scale, and then award the prize to the individual
+having the highest aggregate on the whole series. Any such
+illustration is very liable to mislead; I wish to emphasize that
+fitness to survive is determined by the aggregate of the qualities
+of an individual.
+
+But an animal having one organ of great value or capacity may thus
+carry off the prize, even though its other organs deserve a much
+lower mark. This is the case with man. In almost every respect,
+except in brain and hand, he is surpassed by the carnivora, the cat,
+for example. But muscle may be marked, in making up the aggregate,
+on a scale of 500, and brain on a scale of 5,000, or perhaps of
+50,000. A very slight difference in brain capacity outweighs a great
+superiority in muscle in the struggle between man and the carnivora,
+or between man and man.
+
+The scale on which an organ is marked will be proportional to its
+usefulness under the conditions given at a given time. During the
+period of development of worms and lower vertebrates much muscle
+with a little brain was more useful than more brain with less
+muscle. Hence, as a rule, the more muscular survived; the brain
+increasing slowly, at first apparently largely because of its
+correlation with muscle and sense-organs. At a later date muscle,
+tooth, and claw were more useful on the ground; brain and hand in
+the trees. Hence carnivora ruled the ground, and certain arboreal
+apes became continually more anthropoid. At a later date brain
+became more useful even on the ground, and was marked on a higher
+scale, because it could invent traps and weapons against which
+muscle was of little avail. Just at present brain is of use to, and
+valued by, a large portion of society in proportion to its
+efficiency in making and selfishly spending money. But slowly and
+surely it is becoming of use as an organ of thought, for the sake of
+the truth which it can discover and incarnate.
+
+Natural selection works thus apparently for the survival of the
+individuals possessing in the aggregate the most complete conformity
+to environment. Let us now imagine that an animal is so constructed
+as to be capable of variation along several disadvantageous or
+neutral lines, and along only one which is advantageous. The
+development would of course proceed along the advantageous line. Let
+us farther imagine that to the descendants of this individual two,
+and only two, advantageous lines of variations are allowed by its
+structure. Then natural selection would probably favor the decidedly
+advantageous line, if such there were. But as long as the structure
+of the animal allows variation along only a few lines, the
+two advantageous variations would, according to the law of
+probabilities, frequently occur in the same individual. The eggs and
+spermatozoa of two such individuals might not infrequently unite,
+and thus in time the two characteristics be inherited by a large
+fraction of the species.
+
+And now let me quote from Mr. Spencer:
+
+   "But in proportion as the life grows complex--in proportion as a
+   healthy existence cannot be secured by a large endowment of some
+   one power, but demands many powers; in the same proportion do
+   there arise obstacles to the increase of any particular power, by
+   'the preservation of favored races in the struggle for life.' As
+   fast as the faculties are multiplied, so fast does it become
+   possible for the several members of a species to have various
+   kinds of superiorities over one another. While one saves its life
+   by higher speed, another does the like by clearer vision, another
+   by keener scent, another by quicker hearing, another by greater
+   strength, another by unusual power of enduring cold or hunger,
+   another by special sagacity, another by special timidity, another
+   by special courage; and others by other bodily and mental
+   attributes. Now it is unquestionably true that, other things
+   equal, each of these attributes, giving its possessor an extra
+   chance of life, is likely to be transmitted to posterity. But
+   there seems no reason to suppose that it will be increased in
+   subsequent generations by natural selection. That it may be thus
+   increased, the individuals not possessing more than average
+   endowments of it must be more frequently killed off than
+   individuals highly endowed with it; and this can happen only when
+   the attribute is one of greater importance, for the time being,
+   than most of the other attributes. If those members of the
+   species which have but ordinary shares of it, nevertheless
+   survive by virtue of other superiorities which they severally
+   possess, then it is not easy to see how this particular attribute
+   can be developed by natural selection in subsequent generations.
+   The probability seems rather to be that, by gamogenesis, this
+   extra endowment will, on the average, be diminished in
+   posterity--just serving in the long run to compensate the
+   deficient endowments of other individuals whose special powers
+   lie in other directions, and so to keep up the normal structure
+   of the species. The working out of the process is here somewhat
+   difficult to follow; but it appears to me that as fast as the
+   number of bodily and mental faculties increases, and as fast as
+   the maintenance of life comes to depend less on the amount of any
+   one, and more on the combined action of all, so fast does the
+   production of specialties of character by natural selection alone
+   become difficult. Particularly does this seem to be so with a
+   species so multitudinous in its powers as mankind, and above all
+   does it seem to be so with such of the human powers as have but
+   minor shares in aiding the struggle for life--the aesthetic
+   faculties for example."--Spencer, "Principles of Biology,"
+   sec. 166.
+
+Can thus natural selection, acting upon fortuitous variations, be
+the sole guiding process concerned in progress? Must there not be
+some combining power to produce the higher individuals which are
+prerequisites to the working of natural selection?
+
+We are considering the efficiency of natural selection in enhancing
+useful variations through a series of generations. Let us return to
+the distinction between productiveness and prospectiveness of social
+capital. Applied to variations productiveness means immediate
+advantage, prospectiveness the greater future and permanent returns.
+Now all persisting variations must, in animals below man, apparently
+be somewhat productive, else they would not continue, much less
+increase. Now the immediate return from prospective variations is
+often smaller than from productive. It looks at first as if
+productive variations would always be preserved by natural
+selection, and that prospective variations would not long advance.
+Yet in the muscular system variations valuable largely for their
+future value are neither few nor unimportant. How can the brain in
+its infancy develop until it gains supremacy over muscle, or muscle
+have done the same with digestion? Now a partial explanation of this
+is to be found in the correlation of organs. This is therefore a
+factor of vast importance in progress through evolution.
+
+Progress in any one line demands correlated changes in many organs.
+Thus in the advance of annelids to insects the muscular system
+increases in relative bulk, and absolutely in complexity. But a
+change or increase in the muscle must be accompanied by
+corresponding changes in the motor-nerve fibrils; and these again
+would be useless unless accompanied by increased complexity and more
+or less readjustment of the cells and fibrils of the nerve-centres.
+And all these additions to, and readjustments of, the nerve-centres
+must take place without any disturbance of the other necessary
+adjustments already attained. This is no simple problem.
+
+We will here neglect the fact that many other changes are going on
+simultaneously. Legs are being formed or moulded into jaws, the
+anterior segments are fusing into a head, and their ganglia into a
+brain; an external skeleton is developing. Furthermore the increase
+of the muscular and nervous systems must be accompanied by increased
+powers of digestion, respiration, and excretion. Practically the
+whole body is being recast. We insist only on the necessity of
+simultaneous and parallel changes in muscles, nerves, and
+nerve-centres; though what is true of these is true, in greater or
+less degree, of all the other organs.
+
+You may answer that this is to be explained by the law of
+correlation of organs; that when changes in one organ demand
+corresponding changes in another, these two change similarly and
+more or less at the same time and rate. But this is evidently not an
+explanation but a restatement of the fact. The question remains,
+What makes the organs vary simultaneously so as to always correspond
+to each other? The whole series of changes must to some extent be
+effected at once and in the same individual, if it is to be
+preserved by natural selection. Fortuitous variations here and there
+along the line of the series are of little or no avail. That the
+whole series of variations should happen to occur in one animal is
+altogether against the law of probabilities; if the favorable
+variation occurs in only a part of the series it remains useless
+until the corresponding variation has taken place in the other
+terms. And while the variation is thus awaiting its completion, so
+to speak, it is useless, and cannot be fostered by natural
+selection.
+
+Evolution by means of fortuitous variations, combined and controlled
+only through natural selection, seems to me at least impossible; and
+this view is, I think, steadily gaining ground.
+
+Natural selection, while a real and very important factor in
+evolution, cannot be its sole and exclusive explanation. It
+presupposes other factors, which we as yet but dimly perceive. And
+this does not impeach the validity of Mr. Darwin's theory any more
+than Newton's theory of gravitation is impeached by the fact that it
+offers no explanation as to why the apple falls or how bodies
+attract one another.
+
+For natural selection explains the survival, but not the origin, of
+the fittest. Given a species or other group composed of more and
+less fit individuals and the fittest will survive. How does it come
+about that there are any more and less fit individuals? This brings
+us to the consideration of the subject of variation.
+
+Let us begin with a simple case of change in the adult body. The
+workman grasps his tools day after day, and his hands become horny.
+The skin has evidently thickened, somewhat as on the soles of the
+feet. This is no mere mechanical result of pressure alone.
+Continuous pressure would produce the opposite result. But under the
+stimulus of intermittent pressure the capillaries, or smallest blood
+vessels, furnish more nutriment to the cells composing the lowest
+layer of the outer skin or epidermis. These cells, being better
+nourished, reproduce by division more rapidly, and the epidermis,
+becoming composed of a greater number of layers of cells, thickens.
+The outer-most layers, being farthest from the blood supply, dry up
+and are packed together into a horny mass.
+
+If I go out into the sunshine I become tanned. This again is not a
+direct and purely chemical or physical result of the sun's rays, but
+these have stimulated the cells of the skin to undergo certain
+modifications. Any change in the living body under changed
+conditions is not passive, but an active reaction to a stimulus
+furnished by the surroundings. The same stimulus may excite very
+different reactions in different individuals or species.
+
+Early in this century a farmer, Seth Wright, found among his lambs a
+young ram with short legs and long body. The farmer kept the ram,
+reasoning that his short legs would prevent him from leading the
+flock over the farm-walls and fences. From this ram was descended
+the breed of ancon, or otter, sheep. Now the stimulus which had
+excited this variation must have been applied early in embryonic
+life, or perhaps during the formation or maturing of the germ-cells
+themselves. Such a variation we call a congenital variation.
+
+These cases are merely illustrations of the general truth that in
+every variation there are two factors concerned: the living being
+with its constitution and inherent tendencies and the external
+stimulus.
+
+The courses of the different balls in a charge of grape-shot, hurled
+from a cannon, are evidently due to two sets of forces--1, their
+initial energy and the direction of their aim; 2, the deflecting
+power of resisting objects or forces--or the different balls might
+roll with great velocity down a precipitous mountain-side. In the
+first case velocity and direction of course would be determined
+largely by initial impulse; in the second, by the attraction of the
+earth and by the inequalities of its surface.
+
+In evolution, environment, roughly speaking, corresponds to these
+deflecting or attracting external objects or forces; inherent
+tendencies to initial impulse. If we lay great weight on initial
+tendencies, inherent in protoplasm from the very beginning, we shall
+probably lay less stress on natural selection as a guiding,
+directing process.
+
+The great botanist, Naegeli, has propounded a most ingenious and
+elaborate theory of evolution, as dependent mainly on inherent
+initial tendency. We can notice only one or two of its salient
+points. All development is, according to his view, due to a tendency
+in the primitive living substance toward more complete division of
+labor and greater complexity. This tendency, which he calls
+progression, or the tendency toward perfection, is the result of the
+chemical and molecular structure of the formative controlling
+protoplasm (idioplasm) of the body, and is transmitted with other
+parental traits from generation to generation. And structural
+complexity thus increases like money at compound interest.
+Development is a process of unfolding or of realization of the
+possibilities of this tendency under the stimulus of surrounding
+influences. Environment plays an essential part in his system. But
+only such changes are transmissible to future generations as have
+resulted from modifications arising in the idioplasm. Descendants of
+plants which have varied under changed conditions revert, as a rule,
+to the old type, when returned to the old surroundings. And in the
+animal world effects of use and disuse are, according to his view,
+not transmissible.
+
+Natural selection plays a very subordinate part. It is purely
+destructive. Given an infinity of place and nourishment--do away,
+that is, with all struggle and selection--and the living world would
+have advanced, purely by the force of the progressive tendency, just
+as far as it now has; only there would have survived an indefinite
+number of intermediate forms. It would have differed from our
+present living world as the milky way does from the starry
+firmament.
+
+He compares the plant kingdom to a great, luxurious tree, branching
+from its very base, whose twigs would represent the present stage of
+our different species. Left to itself it would put out a chaos of
+innumerable branches. Natural selection, like a gardener, prunes the
+tree into shape. Children might imagine that the gardener caused the
+growth; but the tree would have been broader and have branched more
+luxuriantly if left to itself.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: See Naegeli, "Theorie der Abstammungslehre," p. 18;
+  also pp. 12, 118, 285.]
+
+Every species must vary perpetually. Now this proposition is
+apparently not in accord with fact; for some have remained unchanged
+during immense periods. And natural selection, by removing the less
+fit, certainly appears to contribute to progress by raising the
+average of the species. The theory seems extreme and one-sided. And
+yet it has done great service by calling in question the
+all-sufficiency of natural selection and the modifying power of
+environment, and by emphasizing, probably overmuch, the importance
+of initial inherent tendency, whose value has been entirely
+neglected by many evolutionists.
+
+Lack of space compels us to leave unnoticed most of the exceedingly
+valuable suggestions of Naegeli's brilliant work.
+
+It is still less possible to do any justice in a few words to
+Weismann's theory. Into its various modifications, as it has grown
+from year to year, we have no time to enter. And we must confine
+ourselves to his views of variation and heredity.
+
+In studying protozoa we noticed that they reproduced by fission,
+each adult individual dividing into two young ones. There is
+therefore no old parent left to die. Natural death does not occur
+here, only death by violence or unfavorable conditions. The protozoa
+are immortal, not in the sense of the endless persistence of the
+individual, but of the absence of death. Heredity is here easily
+comprehensible, for one-half, or less frequently a smaller fraction,
+of the substance of the parent goes to form the new individual.
+There is direct continuity of substance from generation to
+generation.
+
+But in volvox a change has taken place. The fertilized egg-cell,
+formed by the union of egg and spermatozoon, is a single cell, like
+the individual resulting from the conjugation or fusion of two
+protozoa. But in the many-celled individual, which develops out of
+the fertilized egg, there are two kinds of cells. 1. There are other
+egg-cells, like the first, each one of which can, under favorable
+conditions, develop into a multicellular individual like the
+parent. And the germ-cells (eggs and spermatozoa) of volvox are
+immortal like the protozoa. But, 2, there are nutritive, somatic
+cells, which nourish and transport the germ-cells, and after their
+discharge die. These somatic cells, being mortal, differ altogether
+from the germ-cells and the protozoa. The protoplasm must differ in
+chemical, or molecular, or other structure in the two cases, and we
+distinguish the germ-plasm of the germ-cells, resembling in certain
+respects Naegeli's idioplasm, from somatoplasm, which performs most
+of the functions of the cell. The somatoplasm arises from, and hence
+must be regarded as a modification of, the germ-plasm. The
+germ-plasm can increase indefinitely in the lapse of generations,
+increase of the somatoplasm is limited.
+
+When a new individual develops, a certain portion of the germ-plasm
+of the egg is set aside and remains unchanged in structure. This,
+increasing in quantity, forms the reproductive elements for the next
+generation. The germ-plasm, which does not form the whole of each
+reproductive element, but only a part of the nucleus, is thus an
+exceedingly stable substance. And there is a just as real continuity
+of germ-plasm through successive generations of volvox, or of any
+higher plants or animals, as in successive generations of protozoa.
+
+In certain plants there is an underground stem or rootstock, which
+grows perennially, and each year produces a plant from a bud at its
+end. This underground rootstock would represent the continuous
+germ-plasm of successive generations; the plants which yearly arise
+from it would represent the successive generations of adult
+individuals, composed mainly of somatoplasm. Or we may imagine a
+long chain, with a pendant attached to each tenth or one-hundredth
+link. The links of the chain would represent the series of
+generations of germ-cells; the pendants, the adults of successive
+generations.
+
+But any leaf of begonia can be made to develop into a new plant,
+giving rise to germ-cells. Here there must be scattered through the
+leaves of the plant small portions of germ-plasm, which generally
+remain dormant, and only under special conditions increase and give
+rise to germ-cells.
+
+A large part of the germ-plasm of the fertilized egg is used to give
+rise to the somatoplasm composing the different systems of the
+embryo and adult. Weismann's explanation of this change of
+germ-plasm into somatoplasm is very ingenious, and depends upon his
+theory of the structure of the germ-plasm; and this latter theory
+forms the basis of his theory of evolution. It would take too long
+to state his theory of the structure of germ-plasm, but an
+illustration may present fairly clear all that is of special
+importance to us.
+
+The molecules of germ-plasm are grouped in units, and these in an
+ascending series of units of continually increasing complexity,
+until at last we find the highest unit represented in the nucleus of
+the germ-cell. This grouping of molecules in units of increasing
+complexity is like the grouping of the men of an army in companies,
+regiments, brigades, divisions, etc.
+
+To form the somatoplasm of the different tissues of the body, this
+complicated organization breaks up, as the egg divides, into an
+ever-increasing number of cells. First, so to speak, the corps
+separate to preside over the formation of different body regions.
+Then the different divisions, brigades, and regiments, composing
+each next higher unit, separate, being detailed to form ever
+smaller portions of the body. The process of changing germ-plasm
+into somatoplasm is one of disintegration. The germ-plasm
+contains representatives of the whole army; a somatic cell only
+representatives of one special arm of a special training. Germ-plasm
+in the egg is like Humpty-Dumpty on the wall; somatoplasm, like
+Humpty-Dumpty after his great fall.
+
+I use these rude illustrations to make clear one point: Germ-plasm
+can easily change into somatoplasm, but somatoplasm once formed can
+never be reconverted into germ-plasm, any more than the fallen hero
+of the nursery rhyme could ever be restored.
+
+The germ-plasm is, according to Weismann, a very peculiar, complex,
+stable substance, continuous from generation to generation since the
+first appearance of life on the globe. It is in the body of the
+parent, but scarcely of it. Its relation to the body is like that of
+a plant to the soil or of a parasite to its host. It receives from
+the body practically only transport and nourishment. It is like a
+self-perpetuating, close corporation; and the somatoplasm has no
+means of either controlling it or of gaining representation in it.
+
+Says Weismann[A]: "The germ-cells are contained in the organism, and
+the external influences which affect them are intimately connected
+with the state of the organism in which they lie hid. If it be well
+nourished, the germ-cells will have abundant nutriment; and,
+conversely, if it be weak and sickly, the germ-cells will be
+arrested in their growth. It is even possible that the effects of
+these influences may be more specialized; that is to say, they may
+act only upon certain parts of the germ-cells. But this is indeed
+very different from believing that the changes of the organism which
+result from external stimuli can be transmitted to the germ-cells
+and will redevelop in the next generation at the same time as that
+at which they arose in the parent, and in the same part of the
+organism."
+
+  [Footnote A: Essays upon Heredity, p. 105.]
+
+But if the germ-plasm has this constitution and relation to the rest
+of the body, how is any variation possible? Different individuals of
+any species have slightly different congenital tendencies. Hence in
+the act of fertilization two germ-plasms of slightly different
+structure and tendency are mingled. The mingling of the two produces
+a germ-plasm and individual differing from both of the parents.
+Thus, according to Weismann's earlier view, the origin of variation
+was to be sought in sexual reproduction through the mingling of
+slightly different germ-plasms.
+
+But how did these two germ-plasms come to be different? How was the
+variation started? To explain this Weismann went back to the
+unicellular protozoa. These animals are undoubtedly influenced by
+environment and vary under its stimuli. Here the variations were
+stamped upon the germ-plasm, and the commingling of these variously
+stamped germ-plasms has resulted in all the variations of higher
+animals.
+
+Of late Weismann has modified and greatly improved this portion of
+his theory. He now accepts the view that external influences may act
+upon the germ-plasm not only in protozoa but also in all higher
+animals. Variation is thus due to the action or stimulus of
+external influences, supplemented by sexual reproduction.
+
+But the very constitution of the germ-plasm and its relation to the
+body absolutely forbids the transmission of acquired somatic
+characteristics and of the special effects of use and disuse.
+Muscular activity promotes general health, and might thus conduce to
+better-nourished germ-cells and to more vigorous and therefore
+athletic descendants. The exercise of the muscles might possibly
+cause such a condition of the blood that the portion of the
+germ-plasm representing the muscular system of the next generation
+might be especially nourished or stimulated. Thus an athletic parent
+might produce more athletic children.
+
+But let us imagine twin brothers of equal muscular development. One
+from childhood on exercises the lower half of his body; the other,
+the upper. Both take the same amount of exercise, and have perhaps
+equal muscular development, but located in different halves of the
+body. Now it is hard to conceive that it can make any difference in
+the nourishing or stimulating influence of the blood, whether the
+muscular activity resides in one half of the body or the other. The
+children might be exactly alike.
+
+One man drives the pen, a second plays the piano, and a third wields
+a light hammer. All three use different muscles of the hand and arm.
+How can this use of special muscles stamp itself upon the germ-cells
+in such a way that the offspring will have these special muscles
+enlarged? Granting that external influences of environment and
+bodily condition may effect the germ-cells; granting even that some
+of the most general effects of use and disuse might be transmitted,
+what warrant have we for believing that the special acquired
+characteristic can be transmitted? Weismann answers, None at all.
+The somatoplasm can only in the most general way affect the
+self-perpetuating, close corporation of the germ-plasm.[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Weismann, Essays, p. 286.]
+
+There is thus, according to Weismann, nothing to direct variation to
+certain organs, or to guide and combine the variations of these
+organs along certain lines, except natural selection. To a certain
+extent variation may be limited by the very structure of the animal.
+But within these limits there are wide ranges where one variation is
+apparently just as likely to occur as another.
+
+Within these wide limits variation appears to be fortuitous. Natural
+selection must wait until the individuals appear in which these
+variations occur already correlated, and then seize upon these
+individuals. It is apparently the only guiding, directing force.
+Linear variation, that is, a variation advancing continuously along
+one or very few straight lines, would appear to be impossible.
+
+In Naegeli's theory initial tendency is overwhelmingly dominant; in
+Weismann's, natural selection is almighty.
+
+Weismann's followers have received the name of Neo-Darwinians. The
+so-called Neo-Lamarckian school believes in the transmissibility of
+acquired characteristics, and of at least particular effects of use
+and disuse. The one theory is neither more nor less Darwinian than
+the other. For while Darwin emphasized natural selection, he
+accepted to a certain extent the transmission of special effects of
+use and disuse.
+
+A special theory of heredity, pangenesis, has been accepted by many
+of the Neo-Lamarckian school. The theory of pangenesis, as
+propounded by Mr. Darwin, may be very briefly stated as follows: The
+cells in all parts of the body are continually throwing off germinal
+particles, or "gemmules." These become scattered through the body,
+grow, and multiply by division. On account of mutual attraction they
+unite in the reproductive glands to form eggs or spermatozoa. The
+germ-cells are thus the bearers of heredity because they contain
+samples, so to speak, of all the organs of the body.
+
+In heredity, according to Weismann's theory, the egg is the centre
+of control, the continuous germ-plasm the source of all transmitted
+changes; according to Darwin's theory, the body is the source, and
+the egg is derived in great part at least from it. If you put to the
+two the time-honored question, Which is first, the owl or the egg?
+Weismann would announce, with emphasis, The egg; Darwin would say,
+The owl. One proposition is the converse of the other, and most
+facts accord almost equally well with both theories.
+
+In any family, devoted for generations to literary or artistic
+pursuits, the children show, as a rule, an aptitude for such
+pursuits not manifested by those of other families. According to the
+Neo-Lamarckian view, this inherited aptitude is to a certain extent
+the result of the constant exercise of these faculties through a
+series of generations. The active efforts and voluntary disposition
+of the parents have given an increased predisposition to the child.
+"Quite the reverse," says Weismann, "the increase of an organ in the
+course of generations does not depend upon the summation of
+exercise taken during single lives, but upon the summation of more
+favorable predispositions in the germ." "An organism cannot acquire
+anything unless it already possesses the predisposition to acquire
+it."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Weismann, Essays, pp. 85 and 171.]
+
+We may accept or deny this last statement, but it is evident
+that facts like these, and indeed the origin of most or all
+characteristics involving use or disuse, may be explained almost
+equally well by either theory.
+
+But as far as the transmission of effects of somatic changes is
+concerned, if protozoa undergo special modifications under the
+influence of external conditions, will not the germ-cells undergo
+special modification under the influence of changes in the
+somatoplasm which forms their immediate environment? We must never
+forget the close relationship between all the cells of the body, and
+how slight a change in the body or its surroundings may conduce to
+sterility or fertility. Such isolation and independence in the body,
+on the part of the germ-cells, is opposed to all that we know of the
+organic unity of the body, whose cells have arisen by the
+differentiation of, and division of labor between, cells primitively
+alike. The facts of bud-variation, of changes in the parent stock
+due to grafting, and others, of which Mr. Darwin has given a summary
+in the eleventh chapter of the first volume of his "Plants and
+Animals under Domestication," have never been adequately explained
+by Weismann in accordance with his theory. He has perhaps succeeded
+in parrying their force by showing that some such explanation is
+conceivable; they still point strongly against him.
+
+Wilson has good reason for his "steadily growing conviction that
+the cell is not a self-regulating mechanism in itself, that no cell
+is isolated, and that Weismann's fundamental proposition is false."
+
+But, granting the force of these criticisms, the question still
+remains, Is the special effect of use or disuse transmissible? Would
+the blacksmith's son have a stronger right arm?
+
+1. The isolation and independence of the germ-cells, which Weismann
+postulates as opposing this, can hardly be as great as he thinks. 2.
+It is in his view impossible to conceive how these acquired
+characteristics can in any way reach and affect the germ-cells in
+such a manner as to reappear in the next generation. 3. All
+variations can be explained by his own theory without such
+transmission. Why then believe that acquired characteristics can in
+some inconceivable way affect the germ-cells so as to reappear in
+the next generation, as long as all the facts can be explained in a
+more simple and easily conceivable manner?
+
+As to his second argument, I would readily acknowledge that it is at
+present difficult or impossible for me to conceive how any cell can
+act upon another, except through the nutrient or other fluids which
+it can produce. But though I cannot conceive how one cell can affect
+another, I may be compelled to believe that it does so. And this
+Weismann readily acknowledges.
+
+Driesch changed by pressure the relative position of the cells of a
+very young embryo, so that those which in a normal embryo would have
+produced one organ were now compelled, if used at all, to form quite
+a different one. And yet these displaced cells formed the organ
+required of cells normally occupying this new position, not the one
+for which they were normally intended. And the organ which they
+would have builded in a normal embryo was now formed by other cells
+transferred to their rightful place.
+
+What made them thus change? Not change of substance or structure,
+for the slight pressure could hardly have modified this. Not change
+of nutriment. The only visible or easily conceivable change was in
+position relative to other cells of the embryo.
+
+Let us in imagination simplify Driesch's experiment, for the sake of
+gaining a clearer view of its meaning. In a certain embryo at an
+early stage are certain cells whose descendants should form the
+lining of the intestine and be used in the adult for digestion. A
+second set of cells should form muscle endowed mainly with
+contractility. When these two sets of cells, or some of them,
+exchange positions in the embryo, they exchange lines of
+development. The first set now form muscle, the second digestive
+tissue. The only change has been in their relative positions.
+Driesch maintains, therefore, that the goal of development in any
+embryonic cell is determined not by structure or nutriment but by
+position. And this would seem to be true of the cells of the
+earliest embryonic stages.
+
+Certain other experiments point in the same direction. Cut a hydra
+into equal halves and each half will form a complete animal. The
+lower half forms a new top, with mouth and tentacles; the upper
+half, a new base. Cut the other hydra a hair's-breadth farther up.
+The same layer of cells which in the first animal formed the lower
+exposed surface of the upper half now forms the upper exposed
+surface of the lower half. And with this change of position it has
+changed its line of development; it will now give rise to a new
+upper half, not a base as before. The same experiment can be tried
+on certain worms with similar results, only head and tail differ far
+more than top and base of hydra. Difference in the position of cells
+has made vast difference in their line of development. Now in both
+embryo and adult there must be some directing influence guiding
+these cells. What is it?
+
+An army is more than a mob of individuals; it is individuals plus
+organization, discipline, authority. A republic is not square miles
+of territory and thousands or millions of inhabitants. It is these
+plus organization, central government. Webster claimed that the
+central government was, and had to be, before the states. The
+organism cannot exist without its parts; it has a very real
+existence in and through them. It can coerce them. The state may be
+an abstraction, but it is one against which it is usually fatal to
+rebel, and which can say to a citizen, Go and be hanged, and he
+straightway mounts the scaffold. Now these are analogies and prove
+nothing. But in so far as they throw light on the essential idea of
+an organism, they may aid us in gaining a right view of our "cell
+republic."
+
+Says Whitman in a very interesting article on the "Inadequacy of the
+Cell-Theory": "That organization precedes cell-formation and
+regulates it, rather than the reverse, is a conclusion that forces
+itself upon us from many sides." "The structure which we see in a
+cell-mosaic is something superadded to organization, not itself the
+foundation of organization. Comparative embryology reminds us at
+every turn that the organism dominates cell-formation, using for
+the same purpose one, several, or many cells, massing its material
+and directing its movements, and shaping its organs as if cells did
+not exist, or as if they existed only in complete subordination to
+its will, if I may so speak. The organization of the egg is carried
+forward to the adult as an unbroken physiological unity, or
+individuality, through all modifications and transformations." And
+Wilson, Whitman, Hertwig, and others urge "that the organism as a
+whole controls the formative processes going on in each part" of the
+embryo. And many years ago Huxley wrote, "They (the cells) are no
+more the producers of the vital phenomena than the shells scattered
+along the sea-beach are the instruments by which the gravitative
+force of the moon acts upon the ocean. Like these, the cells mark
+only where the vital tides have been, and how they have acted."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: See articles by Whitman and Wilson, Journal of
+  Morphology, vol. viii., pp. 649, 607, etc.]
+
+"Interaction of cells" can help us but little. For how can
+neighboring cells direct others placed in a new position? The
+expression, if not positively misleading and untrue, is at the best
+only a restatement of fact. It certainly offers no explanation.
+Flood-tide is not due to the interaction of particles of water,
+though this may influence the form of the waves.
+
+The centre of control is therefore not to be sought in individual
+cells, whether germ-cells or somatic, but in the organism. And it is
+the whole organism, one and indivisible, which controls in germ,
+embryo, and adult, in egg and owl. This individuality, or whatever
+you will call it, impresses itself upon developing somatic cells,
+moulding them into appropriate organs, and upon germ-cells in
+process of formation, moulding them so that they may continue its
+sway. The muscle, modified by use or disuse, is a better expression
+of the individuality of its possessor, and the same individuality
+moulds similarly and simultaneously the germ-cells. Both are
+different expressions or manifestations of the same individuality.
+Only slowly does the individuality mould the muscles and nerves of
+the adult body to its use. Still more slow may be the moulding of
+the still more refractory germ-plasm, if such there be. But the
+moulding process goes on parallel in the two cases.
+
+But Weismann's argument rests not merely upon any difficulty or
+impossibility of the transmissibility of acquired characteristics.
+His argument is rather that all facts can be better explained by his
+theory without postulating or accepting such transmission, cases of
+which have never been absolutely proven. But the question is not
+whether his theory offers a possible explanation of the facts, but
+whether it is the most probable explanation of all the facts. No one
+would deny, I think, that the continuity of the germ-plasm offers
+the best and most natural explanation of heredity; and that
+variations could be produced by the influence on the germ-plasm of
+external conditions seems entirely probable.
+
+But when we consider the aggregation of these variations in a
+process of evolution, his theory seems unsatisfactory. We have
+already seen that what we commonly call a variation involves not one
+change, but a series of changes, each term of which is necessary.
+Muscle, nerve, and ganglion must all vary simultaneously and
+correspondingly. Correlation and combination are just as essential
+as variation. And evolution often demands the disappearance of less
+fit structures just as much as the advance of the fittest. Says
+Osborne, "It is misleading to base our theory of evolution and
+heredity solely upon entire organs; in the hand and foot we have
+numerous cases of muscles in close contiguity, one steadily
+developing, the other degenerating." Weismann offers the explanation
+that "if the average amount of food which an animal can assimilate
+every day remains constant for a considerable time, it follows that
+a strong influx toward one organ must be accompanied by a drain upon
+others, and this tendency will increase, from generation to
+generation, in proportion to the development of the growing organ,
+which is favored by natural selection in its increased blood-supply,
+etc.; while the operation of natural selection has also determined
+the organ which can bear a corresponding loss without detriment to
+the organism as a whole."[A]
+
+  [Footnote A: Weismann, Essays, p. 88.]
+
+Here again natural selection of individuals, not the diminished
+supply of nutriment, has to determine which of many muscles shall be
+poorly fed and which favored. But natural selection can favor
+special organs only indirectly through the individuals which possess
+such organs. Variation is fortuitous, and there is nothing, except
+natural selection, to combine or direct them. And, I think, we have
+already seen that any theory which neglects or excludes such
+directing and combining agencies must be unsatisfactory and
+inadequate. Weismann has promised us an explanation of correlation
+of variation in accordance with his theory; and if such an
+explanation can be made, it would remove one of the strongest
+objections. But for the present the objection has very great weight.
+
+Furthermore, as Osborne has insisted, linear variations, or
+variations proceeding along certain single and well-marked lines,
+would seem inexplicable by, if not fatal to, Weismann's theory. And
+yet Osborne, Cope, and others have shown that the teeth of mammals
+have developed steadily along well-marked lines. They have
+apparently not resulted at all by selection from a host of
+fortuitous variations.
+
+Says Osborne in his "Cartwright Lectures"[A]: "It is evident that
+use and disuse characterize all the centres of evolution; that
+changes of structure are slowly following on changes of function or
+habit. In eight independent regions of evolution in the human body
+there are upward of twenty developing organs, upward of thirty
+degenerating organs." Now this parallelism, through a long series of
+generations, between the evolution of organs, their advance or
+degeneration, and the use or disuse of these same organs, that is,
+of the habits of the individual, is certainly of great significance.
+It must have an explanation; and the most natural one would seem to
+be the transmission of the effects of use and disuse.
+
+  [Footnote A: American Naturalist, vols. xxv. and xxvi.]
+
+On the whole Osborne's verdict would seem just: The Neo-Lamarckian
+theory fails to explain heredity, Weismann's theory does not explain
+evolution. But, if the effects of use and disuse are transmitted,
+correlation of variation is to be expected. Muscle, nerve, and
+ganglion all vary in correlation because they are all used together
+and in like degree. Evolution and degeneration of muscles in hand
+and foot go on side by side, because some are used and some are
+disused. Centres of use and disuse must be centres of evolution. And
+there would be as many distinct centres of evolution in different
+parts of the body as there were centres of use and disuse. And
+between these centres there might be no correlation except
+that of use and disuse. Brain, muscles, and jaws would develop
+simultaneously in the ancestors of insects. And the effects of use
+and disuse, transmitted through a series of generations, would be
+cumulative. The species advances rapidly because all its members
+have in general the same habits; the same parts are advancing or
+degenerating, although at different rates, in all its individuals.
+An animal having an organ highly developed is far less likely to
+pair with one having a lower development of the same organ. The
+Neo-Lamarckian theory supplies thus what is lacking in the
+Neo-Darwinian.
+
+In lower forms, like hydra, of simple structure and comparatively
+few possibilities of variation, natural selection is dominant. In
+higher forms, like vertebrates, and especially in man, it is of
+decidedly subordinate value as a promoter of evolution. For man, as
+we have seen, is a marvellously complex being. The great difficulty
+in his case is not so much to quickly gain new and favorable
+variations as to keep all the organs and powers of the body steadily
+advancing side by side. Natural selection has in man the important
+but subordinate position of the judge in a criminal court, to
+pronounce the death verdict on the hopeless and incorrigible.
+
+Both Neo-Darwinians and Neo-Lamarckians have erred in being too
+exclusively mechanical in their theories. It is the main business of
+the scientific man to discover and study mechanisms. But he must
+remember that mechanism does not produce force, it only transmits
+it. If he maintains that he has nothing to do with anything outside
+of mechanism, that the invisible and imponderable force lies outside
+of his domain, he has handed over to metaphysics the fairest and
+richest portion of his realm. In our fear of being metaphysical we
+have swung to another extreme, and have lost sight of valuable truth
+which lay at the bottom of the old vitalistic theories. Cells,
+tissues, and organs are but channels along which the flood of
+life-force flows. Boveri has well said, "There is too much
+intelligence (Verstand) in nature for any purely mechanical theory
+to be possible."
+
+Each theory contains important truth. Naegeli's view of the
+importance of initial tendencies, inherent in the original living
+substance, is too often undervalued. My own conviction, at least, is
+steadily strengthening that, without some such original tendency or
+aim, evolution would never have reached its present culmination in
+man. His error lies in emphasizing this factor too exclusively. The
+fundamental proposition of Weismann's theory, that heredity is due
+to continuity of germ-plasm, seems to contain important truth. But
+we need not therefore accept his theory of a germ-plasm so isolated
+and independent as to be beyond control or influence by the
+habits of the body. The importance of use and disuse, and the
+transmissibility of their effects, would seem to supply a factor
+essential to evolution. Weismann has done good service in
+emphasizing the stability of the germ-plasm. Evolution is always
+slow, and, for that very reason, sure.
+
+If these conclusions are correct, they have an important practical
+bearing. Struggle and effort are essential to progress. Not inborn
+talent alone, but the use which one makes of it, counts in
+evolution. The effects of use and disuse are cumulative. The
+hard-fought battle of past generations becomes an easy victory in
+the present, just because of the strength acquired and handed down
+from the past struggle. Persistent variation toward evil is in time
+weeded out by natural selection. And, while evil remains in the
+world, we are to lay up stores of strength for ourselves and our
+descendants by sturdily fighting it. But the effects of right living
+through a hundred generations are not overcome by the criminal life
+of one or two. Evil surroundings weigh more in producing criminals
+than heredity, and their children are not irreclaimable.
+
+The struggles and victories of each one of us encourage the rest.
+There is, to borrow Mr. Huxley's language, not only a survival of
+the fittest, but a fitting of as many as possible to survive. And in
+the midst of the hardest struggle there is the peace which comes
+from the assurance of a glorious triumph.
+
+
+
+                Condensed Chart of Development of the Main Line
+                    of the Animal Kingdom leading to Man.
+
+               |                            | ORGANS        | MOST RAPIDLY
+  PHYLOGENETIC |                            | APPROACHING   | ADVANCING
+  SERIES.      | NEW ATTAINMENTS.           | CULMINATION.  | ORGANS.
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Amoeba.      | Cell.                      |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Volvox.      | Somatic and reproductive   |               | Reproductive.
+               | cells                      |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Hydra.       | Simple reproductive organs.|               | Reproductive.
+               | Gastro vascular cavity.    |               |
+               | (Tissues).                 |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Turbellaria. | D | Complex reproductive   | Reproductive. | Digestive.
+               | e | Organs. Supra-oes.     |               |
+               | v | Ganglion and cords.    |               |
+               | e | Sense organs.          |               |
+               | l | Body wall.ns.          |               |
+               | o |                        |               |
+               | p |                        |               |
+  -------------+---|------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Annelid.     | O | Perivisceral Cavity.   |               |
+               | r | Intestine. Circulatory |               |
+               | g | system. Nephridia.     |               |
+               | a | Visual eyes.           |               |
+               | n |                        |               |
+               | s |                        |               |
+  -------------+---+------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Primitive    | Notochord. Fins.           |               |
+  Vertebrate.  |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Fish.        | Backbone (incomplete).     | Digestive.    | Muscles.
+               | Paired Fins. Jaws from     |               |
+               | Branchial Arches. Simple   |               |
+               | heart. Air Bladder. Brain. |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Amphibian.   | Legs. Lungs. Cerebrum      |               | Muscles.
+               | increases from this        |               |
+               | form on.                   |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Reptile.     | Double heart.              |               | Muscles and
+               |                            |               | appendages.
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Lower        | Constant high temperature  |               | Muscles and
+  Placental    | Placenta.                  |  Muscle.      | appendages.
+  Mammals.     |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+               +--------------
+  Ape.         | Erect posture. Hand. Large |               | Brain.
+               | cerebrum.                  |               |
+               |                            |               |
+               |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+  Man.         | Very large cerebrum.       |               | BRAIN.
+               | Personality.               |               |
+               |                            |               |
+               |                            |               |
+  -------------+----------------------------+---------------+--------------
+
+                                                   [Table continued below]
+
+
+
+   |             |DOMINANT MENTAL|              |               |
+   | DOMINANT    |(OR NERVOUS)   | SEQUENCE OF  | SEQUENCE OF   | ENVIRONMENT
+   | FUNCTION.   |ACTION.        | PERCEPTIONS. | MOTIVES.      | MAKES FOR.
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+  A|             |               |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+  V|Reproduction.|               |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+
+   |             |               |              |               |
+  H|Reproduction.| Reflex.       |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   |Reproduction.| Reflex.       |Touch. Smell. | Hunger.       |
+  T|             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |Rapid
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------|reproduction
+   | Digestion   | Reflex.       | Touch.       | Hunger.       |and good
+  A| Muscular.   |               | Smell.       |               |digestion.
+  n|             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------|
+  P| Digestion   | Instinct.     |  ?           |               |
+  V| Muscular.   |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   | Digestion   | Instinct.     | Hearing.     |               |
+  F| Muscular.   |               | Sight.       |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   |             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------|Fear and       |
+  A| Digestion   | Instinct.     | Hearing.     |other          |Strength and
+  m| Muscular.   |               | Sight.       |prudential     |activity.
+   |             |               |              |considerations.|
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------|               |
+  R| Muscular.   | Instinct. ?   | Hearing.     |               |
+   |             |               | Sight.       |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------|               |
+  L| Muscular.   | Instinct ? ?  | Hearing.     |               |
+  P|             |               | Sight.       |               |
+  M|             |               |              |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   | Muscular.   | Intelligence. |Mental        |      "        |    " ?
+  A| Nervous.    |               |Perception.   |               |(Shrewdness?)
+  p|             |               |Understanding.|               |
+  e|             |               |Association.  |               |
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+   | Mind.*      | Intelligence. | Reason.*     | Love of man.  |Shrewdness.
+  M|             |               |              | Truth.        |Righteousness
+  a|             |               |              | Right.*       | and
+  n|             |               |              |               |unelfishness*
+   +-------------+---------------+--------------+---------------+-------------
+                               * Apparently capable of indefinite development.
+
+
+
+
+
+    PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF PRINCIPAL TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE.
+    _____________________________________________________
+
+                              Man.
+                              /|\
+                               |
+                               |  Apes.
+                             \ | /
+                              \|/
+                               |
+    Lower Placental Mammals.\  |
+                             \ |
+                              \|
+          Marsupial Mammals.\  |
+                             \ |
+         Oviparous Mammals.\  \|     /Birds.
+                            \  |    /
+                             \ |   /
+                              \|
+                               |  /Reptiles.
+                               | /
+                   Ampibia.\   |/
+                            \  |
+                             \ |
+                              \|
+            Insect.\           |
+                    \          |
+                     \         |
+                      \        |
+                       \       |     /Fish.
+                        \      |    /
+                         \     |   /        /Mollusca.
+                          \    |  /        /
+             Annelid.------\   | /        /
+                            \  |/        /
+                             \ |        /
+                               |       /
+                               |      /
+                               |     /
+                               |    /
+            Schematic Worm.\   |   /
+                            \  |  /
+                             \ | /      /Turbellaria.
+                              \|       /
+                               |      /
+                               |     /
+                               |    /
+                   Hydra.\     |   /
+                          \    |  /
+                           \   | /
+                            \  |/
+                             \ |
+                              \|
+                               |
+                               |    /Volvox.
+                               |   /
+                               |  /
+              Magosphaera.\    | /
+                           \   |/
+                            \  |
+                             \ |
+                              \|    /Amoeba.
+                               |   /
+                               |  /
+                               | /
+                               |/
+                               |
+                               |
+                               |
+    _____________________________________________________
+
+           PHYLOGENETIC CHART OF PRINCIPAL TYPES OF
+                         ANIMAL LIFE.
+    _____________________________________________________
+
+
+
+
+
+  INDEX
+
+
+  Amoeba, 32
+
+  Annelids, 61, 103
+
+  Apes, anthropoid, 91
+
+  Appetites, 137
+
+  Arthropoda, 61
+
+  Articulata, 61
+
+
+  Beauty, perception of, 121
+
+  Bible, 241
+
+  Blastosphere, 44
+
+  Brain, 64, 108;
+    of insects, 69;
+    vertebrates, 75, 85;
+    man, 96.
+    See also Ganglion
+
+
+  Cell, 34, 36
+
+  Child, mental development of, 204
+
+  Christianity, 192, 250, 252
+
+  Church, 265
+
+  Circulatory system,
+    worms, 62;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 84
+
+  Classification, 20
+
+  Coelenterata, 42, 55
+
+  Conformity to environment, 150, 170, 177, 197, 243, 259, 265
+
+  Conscience, 184
+
+  Correlation of organs, 284
+
+
+  Darwinism, 10
+
+  Degeneration, 155, 279
+
+  Digestion, 309;
+    amoeba, 33;
+    hydra, 37;
+    worms, 47, 52;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 73, 81
+
+
+  Ear, 50, 64
+
+  Echinoderms, 57
+
+  Ectoderm, 37, 44
+
+  Egg, 43
+
+  Embryology, 43
+
+  Emotions, 136, 230, 309
+
+  Entoderm, 37, 44
+
+  Environment, 158, 309;
+    God immanent in, 161, 175;
+    mirrored in human mind, 199
+
+  Evolution, 3;
+    conservative, 173
+
+  Excretion,
+    amoeba, 33;
+    worms, 48, 53;
+    vertebrates, 73, 81
+
+
+  Faith, 209, 256
+
+  Family, 180;
+    origin of, Cf. 88, 178, 217;
+    results of, 181
+
+  Flagellata, 39
+
+
+  Ganglion,
+    supra-oesophageal, 49, 54;
+    annelids, 64.
+    See Brain
+
+  Gastraea, 45
+
+  Gastrula, 44
+
+  God, 244;
+    knowable, 167
+
+
+  Head,
+    insect, 68;
+    vertebrate, 75
+
+  Heredity, mental and moral, 188
+
+  Heroism, 193, 200, 227
+
+  History, 15
+
+  Hope, 262
+
+  Huxley (quoted), 99, 171, 273
+
+  Hydra, 37
+
+
+  Insects, 65, 105
+
+  Instinct, 127, 131
+
+  Intellect, 117, 124
+
+  Intelligence, 117
+
+  Intelligent action, 128, 132
+
+
+  Jaws,
+    insects, 67;
+    vertebrates, 73
+
+
+  Knowledge, value of, 150, 229, 242
+
+
+  Law, Divine, 245
+
+  Locomotion and nervous development, 61.
+    See also Muscular System
+
+  Love, 139, 180, 243
+
+
+  Magosphaera, 40
+
+  Mammals, 85, 92;
+    oviparous, 86;
+    marsupial, 87;
+    placental, 88;
+    temporarily surpassed by reptiles, 195
+
+  Man, 210, 219;
+    anatomical characteristics, 92;
+    mental and moral characteristics, 99, 112, 147, 150, 219, 242;
+    relation to nature, 210;
+    animal, 213;
+    moral, 220;
+    religious, 224;
+    hero, 227;
+    future, 228, 231
+
+  Materialism, 165
+
+  Mesoderm, 45
+
+  Mind, 115, 144;
+    amoeba, 33
+
+  Mollusks, 58, 106
+
+  Motives, 136, 148;
+    sequence of, 143
+
+  Muscular system, 309;
+    hydra, 38;
+    worms, 62;
+    insects, 68;
+    vertebrates, 73, 108, 216
+
+
+  Naegeli, 288
+
+  Natural selection, 12, 152, 278
+
+  Nature, 9, 28
+
+  Neo-Darwinians and Neo-Lamarckians, 296
+
+  Nervous system, 102;
+    hydra, 38;
+    turbellaria, 48;
+    mollusks, 59;
+    annelids, 63;
+    insects, 69;
+    vertebrates, 74
+
+  Notochord, 74, 79
+
+
+  Ontogenesis, 26
+
+
+  Phylogenesis, 26, 100, 310
+
+  Placenta, 88
+
+  Prayer, 259
+
+  Primates, 91
+
+  Productiveness and prospectiveness, 193, 200, 202
+
+  Protoplasm, 32, 34
+
+  Protozoa, 39
+
+
+  Reflex action, 125, 135, 146
+
+  Religion, 166, 224, 262
+
+  Reproduction, 309;
+    amoeba, 32, 35;
+    hydra, 38;
+    magosphaera, 40;
+    volvox, 41;
+    turbellaria, 50;
+    annelids, 62;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 73.
+    See also Size and Surface and Mass
+
+  Respiration,
+    amoeba, 35;
+    worms, 48, 63;
+    insects, 66;
+    vertebrates, 77, 84
+
+
+  Sequence of functions, 80, 109, 174, 309;
+    condensed history of, 100, 152, 221;
+    reversal of, 154, 205
+
+  Sexual reproduction, 33, 37, 41
+
+  Sin, 245
+
+  Size, 35, 51, 72, 76, 89, 214
+
+  Skeleton, 58, 74;
+    mollusks, 59;
+    insects, 65, 67, 71;
+    vertebrates, 74, 82
+
+  Social life, 182, 217
+
+  Socrates, 161, 189, 200
+
+  Specialization, 236, 239
+
+  Struggle for existence, 11, 158, 277;
+    mitigation of, 217
+
+  Surface and mass, 35, 50
+
+
+  Tissues, 42
+
+  Turbellaria, 46, 102
+
+
+  Vertebrates, 73, 81, 107;
+    primitive, 77
+
+  Volvox, 40
+
+
+  Weismann, 290
+
+  Will, 136
+
+  Worms, 56;
+    schematic, 52
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+The Morse Lectures for 1895
+
+THE WHENCE AND WHITHER OF MAN
+
+A BRIEF HISTORY OF MAN'S ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT, AND OF THE
+EVOLUTION OF HIS MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CAPACITIES THROUGH CONFORMITY
+TO ENVIRONMENT
+
+By JOHN M. TYLER Professor of Biology, Amherst College
+
+12mo, $1.75
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, PUBLISHERS
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This work is a solidification of some new matter with the substance
+of the ten Morse Lectures delivered at Union Theological Seminary in
+the spring of 1895. Professor Tyler aims to trace the development of
+man from the simple living substance to his position at present,
+paying attention to incidental facts merely as incidental and
+contributory. He keeps always in view the successive accomplishments
+of life as they appear in the person of accepted general truth,
+rather than in the guise of the facts of progress.
+
+He begins by saying: "We take for granted the probable truth of the
+theory of evolution as stated by Mr. Darwin, and that it applies to
+man as really as to any lower animal." He assumes that an acceptable
+historian of biology must possess a genealogical tree of the animal
+kingdom, and adds that a knowledge of the sequence of dominant
+functions or "physiological dynasties," is quite as necessary to his
+inquiry as a history of the development of anatomical details. Since
+the germs of the future are always concealed in the history of the
+present, he claims that "if we can trace this sequence of dominant
+functions, whose evolution has filled past ages, we can safely
+foretell something, at least, of man's future development."
+
+The possibility of making false trails, at times, should not deter
+the investigator; for what he would establish is not the history of
+a single human race, nor of the movements of a century, but an
+understanding of the development of animal life through ages. "And
+only," says Professor Tyler, "when we have a biological history can
+we have any satisfactory conception of environment." The book
+concludes with a brief notice of the modern theories of heredity and
+variation advanced by Nageli and Weismann.
+
+
+
+
+The Morse Lectures for 1894
+
+
+THE RELIGIONS OF JAPAN
+
+FROM THE DAWN OF HISTORY TO THE ERA OF THE MEIJI
+
+By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D.D.
+
+Formerly of the Imperial University of Tokio; Author of "The
+Mikado's Empire" and "Corea, the Hermit Nation"
+
+12mo, $2.00
+
+"The book is excellent throughout, and indispensable to the
+religious student."--_The Atlantic Monthly_.
+
+"To any one desiring a knowledge of the development and ethical
+status of the East, this book will prove of the utmost assistance,
+and Dr. Griffis may be thanked for throwing a still greater charm
+about the Land of the Rising Sun."--_The Churchman_.
+
+"Already an acknowledged authority on Japanese questions, Dr.
+Griffis in this volume gives to an appreciative public, what we risk
+calling his most valuable contribution to the literature this
+profoundly interesting nation has evoked."--_The Evangelist_.
+
+"... The fine quality of Dr. Griffis' works. His book is fresh and
+original, and may be depended on as material for scientific use....
+It may safely be said that it is the best general account of the
+religions of Japan that has appeared in the English language, and
+for any but the special student it is the best we know of in any
+tongue."--_The Critic_.
+
+
+
+
+The Morse Lectures for 1893
+
+THE PLACE OF CHRIST IN MODERN THEOLOGY
+
+By A.M. FAIRBAIRN, M.A., D.D.
+
+Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford; Gifford Lecturer in the
+University of Aberdeen; Late Morse Lecturer in Union Seminary, New
+York, and Lyman Beecher Lecturer in Yale University
+
+8vo, $2.50
+
+"One of the most valuable and comprehensive contributions to
+theology that has been made during this generation."--_London
+Spectator_.
+
+"The knowledge, ability, and liberality of the author unite to make
+the work interesting and valuable."--_The Dial_.
+
+"It is very high, but thoroughly deserved, praise to say that it is
+worthy of its great theme."--_The Critical Review_.
+
+"The volume reveals Dr. Fairbairn as a clear and vigorous thinker,
+who knows how to be bold without being too bold."--_New York
+Tribune_.
+
+"Suggestive, stimulating, and a harbinger of the future catholic
+theology."--_Boston Literary World_.
+
+"It is a book abounding in fine and philosophical thoughts, and
+deeply sympathetic with the most earnest religious thinking of the
+time."--_The Critic_.
+
+"If the object of a book of theology is to stir up the heart and
+mind with strong, clear thinking on divine things, no book,
+certainly, of the present season surpasses Dr. Fairbairn's."--_The
+Outlook_.
+
+"An important contribution to theological literature."--_London
+Times_.
+
+"The work shows a keen insight into the relations of truth combined
+with a rare power of accurate judgment."--_New York Observer_.
+
+"Beyond question this is one of the most signally valuable books of
+the season."--_The Advance_, Chicago.
+
+
+
+
+The Ely Lectures for 1891
+
+ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY
+
+A COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF UNION
+THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK
+
+By FRANK F. ELLEWOOD, D.D.
+
+Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian
+Church, U.S.A.; Lecturer on Comparative Religion in the University
+of the City of New York
+
+12mo, $1.75
+
+"The volume is not only valuable, it is interesting; it not only
+gives information, but it stimulates thought."--_Evangelist_.
+
+"Thoroughly Christian in spirit.... There is a compactness about it
+which makes it full of information and suggestion."--_Christian
+Inquirer_.
+
+"The author has read widely, reflected carefully, and written
+ably."--_Congregationalist_.
+
+"It is a book which we can most heartily commend to every pastor and
+to every intelligent student, of the work which the Church is called
+to do in the world."--_The Missionary_.
+
+"An able work."--_Boston Transcript_.
+
+"A more instructive book has not been issued for years."--_New York
+Observer_.
+
+"A noteworthy contribution to Christian polemics."--_Boston Beacon_.
+
+"The special value of this volume is in its careful differentiation
+of the schools of religionists in the East and the distinct points
+of antagonism on the very fundamental ideas of Oriental religions
+toward the religion of Jesus."--_Outlook_.
+
+"We wish this book might be read by all missionaries and by all
+Christians at home."--_Presbyterian and Reformed Review_.
+
+
+
+
+The Ely Lectures for 1890
+
+THE EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE
+
+By LEWIS FRENCH STEARNS
+
+Professor of Christian Theology in Bangor Theological Seminary
+
+12mo, $2.00
+
+
+"The tone and spirit which pervade them are worthy of the theme, and
+the style is excellent. There is nothing of either cant or pedantry
+in the treatment. There is simplicity, directness, and freshness of
+manner which strongly win and hold the reader."--_Chicago Advance_.
+
+"We have read them with a growing admiration for the ability,
+strength, and completeness displayed in the argument. It is a book
+which should be circulated not only in theological circles, but
+among young men of reflective disposition who are beset by the
+so-called 'scientific' attacks upon the foundations of the Christian
+faith."--_Christian Intelligencer_.
+
+"The style is a model of clearness even where the reasoning is
+deep."--_Christian Inquirer_.
+
+"His presentation of the certainty, reality, and scientific
+character of the facts in a Christian consciousness is very
+strong."--_The Lutheran_.
+
+"An important contribution to the library of apologetics."--_Living
+Church_. (P.E.)
+
+"A good and useful work."--_The Churchman_. (P.E.)
+
+"The work is searching, careful, strong, and sound."--_Chautauquan_.
+
+"As thorough and logical as it is spiritual."--_Congregationalist_.
+
+"A timely and apropos contribution to the defenses of
+Christianity."--_Interior_.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN***
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