WHAT IS EVOLUTION? 733 



ciple, and thus the social organism as a whole becomes not only higher 

 and higher, but also more and more complex in the mutual relations of 

 its interacting social forces. 



Let us not be misunderstood, however. There is undoubtedly in 

 social evolution something more and higher than we have described, 

 but which does not concern us here, except to guard against miscon- 

 struction. There is in society a voluntary progress wholly different 

 from the evolution we have been describing. In true or material 

 evolution natural law works for the betterment of the whole utterly 

 regardless of the elevation of the individual, and the individual con- 

 tributes to the advance of the whole quite unconsciously while striving 

 only for his own betterment. This unconscious evolution by natural 

 law inherited from the animal kingdom is conspicuous enough in so- 

 ciety, especially in its early stages, but we would make a great mistake 

 if we imagined, as some do, that this is all. Besides the unconscious 

 evolution by natural laws, inherited from below, there is a higher evo- 

 lution, inherited from above, indissolubly connected with man's spirit- 

 ual nature a conscious, voluntary striving of the best members of the 

 social aggregate for the betterment of the whole a conscious, volun- 

 tary striving both of the individual and of society toward a recognized 

 ideal. In the one kind of evolution the fittest are those most in har- 

 mony with the environment, and which therefore always survive ; in 

 the other, the fittest, are those most in harmony with the ideal, and 

 which often do not survive. The laws of this free voluntary progress 

 are little understood. They are of supreme importance, but do not 

 specially concern us here. 



The three laws above mentioned might be illustrated equally well 

 by all other forms of evolution. We have selected only those which 

 are most familiar. They may, therefore, be truly called the laws of 

 evolution. We have shown that they are the laws of succession of 

 organic forms. 



III. Thus far in our argument I suppose that most well-informed 

 men will raise no objection. It will be admitted, I think, even by 

 those most bitterly opposed to the theory of evolution, that there has 

 been throughout the whole geological history of the earth an onward 

 movement of the organic kingdom to higher and higher levels. It will 

 be admitted, also, that there is a grand and most significant resem- 

 blance between the course of development of the organic kingdom and 

 the course of embryonic development between the laws of succession 

 of organic forms and the laws of ontogenic evolution. But there is 

 another essential element in ontogenic evolution. It is that the forces 

 or causes of evolution are natural; that they reside in the thing de- 

 veloping and in the reacting environment. This we know is true of 

 embryonic development ; is it true also of the geologic succession of 

 organic forms ? It is true of ontogeny ; is it true also of phylogeny ? 

 If not, then only by a metaphor can we call the process of change in 



