EVOLUTION; THE TENDENCY TOWARD HIGHER FORMS; 

AN ASCENDING ENERGY RECOGNIZED; DRUMMOND^S 

ADVANCE ON DARWINISM ; A DIVINE PURPOSE 

SHOWN; UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE IS 

ETHICAL. 

WHILE the idea of evolution, in the 

general sense of gradual growth and 

development as a method of prog- 

ress in Nature, is very old, Evolution in its 

more modern acceptation as the mode of cre- 

ation, is comparatively recent. As now gen- 

erally understood and accepted by physical 

scientists, the term includes the two great 

functions of all plant and animal life, Nutri- 

tion and Reproduction, as basic factors in 

the problem of physical development, while 

Natural Selection and Sexual Selection are 

regarded as the great determining forces as 

to the direction which differentiation shall 

take, in producing new or improved forms. 

Science for centuries devoted itself to the catalogu- 

ing of facts and the discovery of laws. Each worker 

toiled in his own little place the geologist in his 

quarry, the botanist in his garden, the biologist in his 

laboratory, the astronomer in his observatory, the his- 

torian in his library, the archaeologist in his museum. 

41 

42 Why Are We Here? 

Suddenly these workers looked up ; they spoke to one 

another; they had each discovered a law; they whis- 

pered its name. It was Evolution. (D 8.) 

Evolution is distinctively a recital of the 

processes and stages through which, and by 

which, all physical nature as we see it today 

has developed or evolved from the primitive, 

nebulous condition of matter, or what is 

often referred to as " Primeval Chaos." It 

is a story of material progress, growth and 

development and has to do with the laws and 

forces governing material things. As man 

has grasped the meaning of those physical 

laws and forces, he has been compelled to 

recognize the Universal Mind working in, 

through, and behind them all toward some 

ultimate purpose. 

Physical Science has discovered, demon- 

strated and accepted one tremendous f act- 

that from some Unknown Cause the course 

of evolutionary development is upward; 

that there is a potent " Cosmic Urge" con- 

stantly and unceasingly pressing forward to 

the production of higher physical forms of 

life. It is true there are instances of rever- 

sion and degradation, but these are cases 

where the natural operation of the great 

Why Are We Here? 43 

laws of progress have been interfered with 

and overcome by other laws of circumstance 

and environment. 

Many do not accord to Physical Science 

this advanced position, and it is true that 

physical matter and blind force are the lim- 

itations beyond which many physical scien- 

tists will not venture. These still regard in- 

tellect as the result of chemical action and 

combustion of brain cells, and deny Univer- 

sal Intelligence in physical Nature. It is 

only fair, however, to credit Physical Sci- 

ence with the most generally accepted con- 

clusions of its latest and best thinkers, and 

these acknowledge that the physical laws 

and operations of Nature indicate an intel- 

ligence everywhere present, though they 

may choose to give it no better name than 

"The Unknowable." 

An ascending energy is in the universe and the 

whole moves on with one mighty idea and anticipation. 

The aspiration in the human mind and heart is but 

the evolutionary tendency becoming conscious. * * * 

Men begin to see an undeviating ethical purpose in 

this material world, a tide, that from eternity has 

never turned, making for perfectness. * * * The su- 

preme message of science to this age is that all Nature 

is on the side of the man who tries to rise. (D 340, 341. ) 

44 Why Are We Here? 

In his " Ascent of Man," Prof. Drum- 

mond has done well to emphasize the fact 

that Evolution is an ascending process, and 

that God in his processes of evolution has 

not been the hard, pitiless being that the 

cruel, selfish doctrine of "The Survival of 

the Fittest" would appear to indicate. 

The theory of Evolution has itself been an 

evolution and its development is still in 

progress. Darwinism, based on Nutrition, 

or the Desire for Pood, as the one funda- 

mental factor, makes of Evolution simply 

"A Struggle for Existence," "A Struggle 

for Self" and the " Survival of the Fittest" 

a hard, cold, automatic process without an 

adequate purpose, and the acme of selfish- 

ness. Drummond strikes a higher note when 

he introduces the function of Reproduction 

as a co-ordinate factor with Nutrition, and 

shows the development of Altruism increas- 

ing in degree as higher forms are reached 

and passed, attaining its culmination in 

man. 

Drummond, through Reproduction, or the 

Desire to Reproduce One's Kind, makes of 

Evolution "A Struggle for Others" as well 

as "A Struggle for Self," which is a distinct 

Why Are We Here? 45 

advance on the thought of Darwin. While 

he admits the magnitude and universality of 

the " Struggle for Self" idea, he claims 

equal value and prominence for the " Strug- 

gle for Others" principle, even in the early 

stages of development, and clearly demon- 

strates that 

in the world's later progress under the name of 

Altruism it assumes a sovereignty before which the 

earlier Struggle sinks into insignificance. (D 13.) 

The first, the Struggle for Life, is throughout, the 

Self -regarding function ; the second, the Other-regard- 

ing function. The first, in lower Nature, obeying the 

law of self -preservation, devotes its energies to feed 

itself; the other, obeying the law of species-preserva- 

tion, to feed its young. While the first develops the 

active virtues of strength and courage, the other lays 

the basis for the passive virtues, sympathy and love. 

In the later world one seeks its end in personal ag- 

grandizement, the other in ministration. One begets 

competition, self-assertion, war; the other unselfish- 

ness, self-effacement, peace. One is Individualism, 

the other Altruism. (D 19.) 

Nothing is in finer evidence as we rise in the scale 

of life than the gradual tempering of the Struggle 

for Life. Its slow amelioration is the work of ages, 

may be the work of ages still, but its animal qualities 

in the social life of Man are being surely left behind ; 

and though the mark of the savage and the brute still 

mar its handiwork, these harsher qualities . must pass 

away. In that new social order which the gathering 

46 Why Are We Here? 

might of the altruistic spirit is creating now around 

us, in that reign of Love which must one day, if the 

course of Evolution holds on its way, be realized, the 

baser elements will find that solvent prepared for 

them from the beginning in anticipation of a higher 

rule on earth. (D 35.) 

Whenever the scheme was planned, it must have 

been foreseen that the time would come when the 

directing of part of the course of Evolution would 

pass into the hands of Man. A spectator of the drama 

for ages, too ignorant to see that it was a drama, and 

too impotent to do more than play his little part, the 

discovery must sooner or later break upon him that 

Nature meant him to become a partner in her task, 

and share the responsibility of the closing acts. * 

He holds the dominion of the world of lower life. 

He exterminates what he pleases; he creates and he 

destroys; he changes; he evolves; his selection re- 

places natural selection ; he replenishes the earth with 

plants and animals according to his will. * * By 

the same decree, he finds himself the guardian and 

the arbiter of his personal destiny and that of his 

fellow-men. The moulding of his life and of his chil- 

dren's children in measure lie with him. (D 38.) 

This later view of Evolution as a method 

of creation discloses a glimpse of the Divine 

Purpose of physical evolution the upbuild- 

ing of a world for Man to live in, and the de- 

velopment of a physical organism suitable 

for the use and occupancy of a human soul. 

In doing this much, Physical Science has 

Why Are We Here? 47 

earned our gratitude even though it stops at 

Nutrition and Reproduction and overlooks 

more potent forces. Had Physical Science 

undertaken to explain how or why the pri- 

mal cell happened to be endowed with the 

Desire for Food, and the Desire for Repro- 

duction, the limits of physical demonstra- 

tion must have been crossed and it would no 

longer have been Physical Science, but 

something broader and more complete 

known to modern students as Natural Sci- 

ence. 

Why is Evolution upward? What is this 

irresistible agency moving with the majestic 

power of an infinite glacier, as constantly 

and persistently as gravitation, always and 

forever forward and upward in the scale of 

life? It is the Almighty Will of God. 

There is no other adequate answer. 

Because Evolution is upward, because all 

development of physical nature has been to- 

ward higher forms, because this Infinite 

Will has evolved all forms of life for the use 

and benefit of Man, because the evolution of 

animal life has reached its highest type in 

Man and because Man alone is endowed with 

intellectual and spiritual powers, giving him 

48 Why Are We Here? 

dominion over all other animate and inani- 

mate things of Earth, this Infinite Will is 

shown to be not only conscious and intelli- 

gent but beneficent and ethical. God is 

therefore not only Infinite Intelligence, but 

Infinite Goodness Infinite Love. 

Asleep, awake, by night or day, 

The friends I seek are seeking me; 

No wind can drive my bark astray, 

Nor change the tide of destiny. 

What matter if I stand alone? 

I wait with joy the coming years; 

My heart shall reap where it has sown, 

And garner up its fruit of tears. 

The waters know their .own, and draw 

The brook that springs in yonder heights. 

So flows the good tvith equal law 

Unto the soul of pure delights. 

The stars come nightly to the sky 

The tidal wave unto the sea; 

Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high, 

Can keep my own away from me. 

JOHN BURROUGHS.