THE EVOLUTION OF INTELLIGENCE 123 



conclude with any certainty that such further progress will not 

 occur, much more that it cannot occur, seems hardly warranted. 

 Whether this view regarding the further evolution of in- 

 trinsic human capacities is right or wrong, there would appear 

 to be no practical limit to the changes which man can hope to 

 bring about in the conditions of his life by the further appli- 

 cation of the same technique which has produced the highest 

 forms of modern civilization, has produced our fine arts, and, 

 particularly, has produced our modern science. Conceivably 

 we shall never have greater epic poetry than that of Homer, 

 greater sculpture than that of Phidias, greater architecture 

 than that of the Parthenon, greater drama than that of Shake- 

 speare, greater painting than that of Raphael and Titian, 

 greater symphonic music than that of Beethoven. There is, 

 however, nothing to prevent advance upon such achievements 

 and in the range of the natural sciences at least, thanks largely 

 to the perfection of experimental technique and the utilization 

 of mathematics, there seems to be literally no limit in sight to 

 the further mastery which man may achieve over the forces of 

 nature and consequently no limit to the alterations which he 

 may be able to introduce to the enrichment of civilization. 

 Even in the field of religion, where obvious evolution has 

 occurred since primitive times, the modern mind has intro- 

 duced modifications of the teachings of the founders of the 

 great world religions designed to adapt them more nearly to 

 the conditions of contemporary life. The doctrines of Chris- 

 tianity itself, while based as truly as ever upon the life and 

 teachings of Jesus, are undergoing constant development and 

 transformation designed to accommodate them to the needs of 

 the life and thought of our time. Strangely enough, the scien- 

 tific mastery of the facts of man's own nature and the laws 

 which control society linger far behind the corresponding in- 

 sight into the nature of the processes of the physical world. 

 But surely it is only a matter of time when these social sciences, 



