60 The Universe and Life 



tentialities for the production of life. If man dis- 

 appears, if he turns out to be one of the numerous 

 branches that is not capable of continued existence, 

 and if none of the other existing types can seize the 

 advance, still other innumerable types may well arise 

 and start new cycles of evolution. Man is not indis- 

 pensable to the advancement of life. 



But if man succeeds in overcoming his present 

 difficulties and continues to exist, we cannot suppose 

 that he is at the end of his developmental career. As 

 the development of life has progressed from amoeba- 

 like creatures to man, so it may advance from man to 

 conditions of fulness and adequacy that are far be- 

 yond what man now represents. The idea of a super- 

 man, of many grades of superman, is not a mere 

 mythical fancy but a possibility, or, rather, a proba- 

 bihty. The time which lies before us is as great as that 

 which lies behind us. It may do as much for the ad- 

 vancement of life. Whether the further development 

 of man, if such occurs, will come chiefly in his in- 

 tellectual faculties or in both these and his physical 

 features, we cannot know. But the path of intellectual 

 improvement lies open. Even to raise the average of 

 mankind to the level of the highest that have already 

 existed — to the level of a Goethe or a Leonardo — 

 would mean a tremendous advance. How far life may 

 go in such an advance, we do not know. 



And now we come to a question that underlies many 

 religions : a question that is analogous to one we dis- 

 cussed in relation to mechanism. The question is 

 essentially this : Is life upon a new adventure, climb- 



