522 INTRODUCTION TO EVOLUTION 



doubt that this will be the case, however. Increasingly man controls his own 

 evolution, especially his social evolution. Development of cooperative liv- 

 ing is one process in that social evolution. We may feel confident that man, 

 or at least some groups of men, will develop the qualities necessary for 

 cooperation on the scale required. If so, there now seems no ascertainable 

 limit to man's supremacy. Each of us can make his own contribution to- 

 ward creating a mental and spiritual climate in which the necessary co- 

 operation can thrive. "Cooperation begins at home" but it must not end 

 until it encompasses the earth. Each of us can contribute to this end. 



In closing this letter on an optimistic note I may be laying myself open to 

 the accusation of being a "Pollyanna." After all, none of us can really fore- 

 tell the future — most especially the distant future. But optimism seems at 

 least as warranted as pessimism, especially when we recall the brief space 

 in which our social evolution has been operative. In Chapter 7 we spoke of 

 a hypothetical time-lapse movie of earth history. You will recall that the 

 movie runs continuously for a year, but that of that year man has been in 

 existence for only about twelve hours, and civilization has occupied only 

 the last five or six minutes. Much social evolution has occurred in that 

 five or six minutes; we may feel confident that much more will occur be- 

 fore man's time on earth equals that of many of his predecessors. Our so- 

 cial evolution is near its beginning, not its ending. Knowledge of evolution, 

 then, gives us the perspective for optimism. We say that these are "dark 

 days"; thoughtful reading of history will convince us that most days have 

 been "dark" in the sense we have in mind. But out of the darkness has 

 come progress in the past. That fact gives us optimism that progress will 

 also characterize the long trends of the future. 



References and Suggested Readings 



Alice, W. C. Cooperation Among Animals, rev. ed. New York: Henry Schuman, 

 Inc., 1951. 



Fosdick, H. E. The Modern Use of the Bible. New York: The Macmillan Com- 

 pany, 1924. 



Fosdick, H. E. Adventurous Religion. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1926. 



Genesis, the first book of the Bible, Chapters 1 and 2. 



Kropotkin, P. A. Mutual Aid; A Factor of Evolution. New York: Alfred A. 

 Knopf, Inc., 1917. 



Montagu, M. F. Ashley. On Being Human. New York: Henry Schuman, Inc., 

 1950. 



Montagu, M. F. Ashley. Darwin: Competition and Cooperation. New York: 

 Abelard-Schuman, Ltd., 1952. 



