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Show 476 DARWINISM CHAP. These three distinct stages of progress ft:om the inorganic world of m:ttter and motion up to man, pomt clearly t~ at~ unseen universe-to a world of spirit, to. whi.c~ the wo~l o matter is altogether subordinate. To th1s sp1nt':al world we may refer the marvellously complex forces ~h10h we know as gravitation, cohesion, chemical for.ce, ra~mnt force, and electricity, without which the matenal umverse could not exist for a moment in its present form, and pcrha~s not at all, since without these forces, and perhaps others whiCh may be termed atomic, it is doubtful whether matter itself cou~d have any existence. And still more su:ely .can we refer to It those progressive manifestations of Ltfe m ~he vegetable,. the am·m a1 , an d n1an - ,v· hich we may cla.s.s lfy as unconsc10nsd, conscious and intellectual lifc,-a.nd whiCh probably depen pon different cleo-roes of spiritual inHux. I have already ~hown that this in~olves no neces. ary infraction of t~1e law of continuity in phy ical or menta~ ev?lu~iofol; ':hence 1.t follm~s that any difficulty we may find m ch crmnnatmg the morg~m c from the organic, the lower vegetable from the lower ammal organisms, or the higher animals from the _lowest tfp~s of man, has no bearing at all upon th~ qucstl~n. This IS to be decided by showing that a change m essential nature (due, probably, to C<tuses of a higher order than those of the material univer. c) took place at the several stages of progress which I have indicated; a change which may be .none the_l~s~-5 rea.l because absolutely imperceptible at 1ts pomt. of orwm, as is the change that takes place in the curve m whtch a body is moving when the application of some new force causes the curve to be slightly altered. Concluding Remarks. Those who admit my interpretation of the evidence now ~d dncecl- strictly scientific evidence in its appe~l ~o ~acts w~wh are clearly what ought not to be on the rnatenahstic them Y~ will be able to accept the spiritual nature of n:an, as not m any way inconsistent with the theory of evolutiOn,_ but as ~l cpendent on tho ·e fundamental. laws and cause.s wh10h furm?h the very materials for evolutwn to work with. Tl~ey will al. 0 oe relieved from the crushing men~al hurthen u:nposed upon those who-maintaining that we, m common With the XV DARWINISM APPLIED TO MAN 477 rest of. nature, are but products of the blind eternal forces of the nmven;c, and believino- al o that the time must come when the sun will lose his heat ~nd all life on the earth neces. arily cea e-:-hav~ to contemplate a not very eli tant futuro in which all th1s glonous earth-which for untold millions of year. has been sl?wly developing forms of life and beauty to culminate at last lll man-shall be as if it had never existed; who are compelled to suppose that all the slow o-rowths of our race struggling towards a highee life, all the a~ony of martyrs all th f . . 0 ' e groans o v1ctm1s, all the evil and misery and unde erved suffering of the ages, all the struggles for freedom, all the efforts towards justice, all the aspirations for virtue and the wellbeing of humanity, shall absolutely vanish, and, " like the baseless fabric of a vision, leave not a wrack behind." As contrasted with this hopeless and soul-deadening belief, we, who accept the existence of a spiritual world, can look ~pon the universe as a grand consistent whole adapted in all Its parts to the development of spiritual beino-s capable of indefinite life and perfectibility. To us, the whole purpose, the only mison d'et1·e of the world-with all its complexities of physical structure, with its grand geological progress, the slow evolution of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and the ultimate appearance of man-was the development of the human spirit in association with the human body. From the fact that the spirit of man-the man himself-is so developed, we may well believe that this is the only, or at least the best, way for its development; and we may even see in what is usually termed " evil " on the earth, one of the most efficient means of its growth. For we know that the noblest faculties of man are strengthened and perfected by struggle and effort ; it is by unceasing warfare against physical evils and in the midst of difficulty and danger that energy, courage, self-reliance, and industry have become the common qualities of the northern races ; it is by the battle with moral evil in all its hydra-headed forms, that the still nobler qualities of justice and mercy and humanity and selfsacrifice have been steadily increasing in the world. Beings thus trained and strengthened by their surroundings, and possessing latent faculties capable of such noble development, are surely destined for a higher and more permanent exist- |