Nature of Evolutionary Progress 61 



ing to heights not before reached ; or is it the stereo- 

 typed unfolding of something before in existence? 

 With relation to mechanism, we asked : Is the course 

 that life follows the mere mechanical working out of 

 a preexisting machine, something predictable from 

 knowledge of the structure of the machine? Here we 

 ask a similar question from another point of view. Is 

 life guided in its course by something that exists 

 anterior to and outside of itself? Is there a goal of 

 development that is already marked out? Is the path 

 already laid out along which life is to advance? Or is 

 life exploring a new way? Are the successive higher 

 stages that life reaches in evolution indeed higher 

 than what has before existed? Or are they mere ap- 

 proaches to an ultimate highest that already exists? 

 Is what comes forth in evolution actually new, or is 

 it the mere fulfilment of a pattern that exists before- 

 hand, the mere approach to a condition that is al- 

 ready realized? 



To these questions many reasoners have been dis- 

 posed to answer that life is not upon a new adventure ; 

 that it is under guidance ; that it tends toward a goal 

 which is already existent; that the successive higher 

 stages of life are but approaches to an ultimate con- 

 dition which now exists and has existed since before 

 evolution began. This ultimate that is held to guide 

 the course of life, this highest state that existed before 

 biological life began its progression and toward 

 which life is again climbing, is given the name God. 

 Does the study of biology, does the scientific study of 

 life, lead to such a conception? A recently published 



