THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



conclusions have been changed or ignored, he is still 

 the leader of the thought of today. He pictures two 

 evolutions; one of the universe agreeing with the neb- 

 ular hypothesis and another of the society of the 

 genus homo which is a kind of microcosm immeshed 

 in the macrocosm. Just as the corpus of man evolved 

 from material elements through the simplest forms of 

 organic matter to its present state by the actions of 

 physical laws and by adaptation to its environment, 

 so man has also evolved his instincts, his habits, his 

 self-consciousness, and his moral nature from the so- 

 called chemical irritability of the protoplasm. "Every 

 lesson learnt, every fact picked up, every observation 

 made, implies some molecular re-arrangement in cer- 

 tain nervous centres."" These forces of the mind, as 

 he erroneously uses the word force, are equivalent and 

 mutually transformable to mechanical forces, so that 

 the mind since it has been actually built up by me- 

 chanical forces can be, if not actually, yet theoret- 

 ically resolved back into matter and mechanical 

 force. ^^ As the complex animal, or plant, is an aggre- 

 gate of cells, so society is a complex aggregate of in- 

 dividual persons. ^^ According to immutable natural 

 laws society has progressed, or evolved, from a bestial 

 herd, or pack, to its present state. Because our ap- 

 parent wilfulness and waywardness can amount to 



1^ Autobiography, vol. I, p. 507. 

 1'^ Ibid., vol. I, p. 549. 

 "^^Ibid., vol. I, p. 590. 



