168 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



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 di- 

 gestion 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 mam- 

 mals. 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 ? More- 

 over, remember that a function continues to develop 

 about as long as it shows the capacity for develop- 

 ment. 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 wis- 

 dom, 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 



