NATURAL SELECTION AND ENVIRONMENT 159 



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 con- 

 trol 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 r 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 dis- 

 covered, 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 con- 

 form and become waste. Environment is a very hard 



