410 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Of constituents into the most economic system of foreign and domestic 

 cooperation. 



Whatsoever conditions of time, space, materials and mode of action 

 tend to give greater nnity and better cooperation in nature, is world- 

 service. Service, then, constitutes the real basis of ethics and of moral- 

 ity for the attainment of service is, to that extent, the actual fulfilment 

 of the possibilities of nature ; and all service is the fruit of a measurably 

 perfected process of cooperative union. 



Science, therefore, finds no time, nor place, nor thing set apart and 

 alone sanctified by one instantaneous, all-embracing creative act. 

 Cosmic evolution and organic evolution, the growth of suns and stars, 

 of earth, and plant, and man, are continuous parts of one process. The 

 formal chemistry of earth, and sea, and air; the flowing chemistry of 

 protoplasmic cell and organ ; the moulding discipline of associated nerve 

 and muscle ; of eye and hand ; the alchemy of associated lives in nature's 

 household, are but different phases of one living, all pervading, process 

 of creation. 



Nebulas stiffen into stars, and suns give birth to drooling planets, 

 larva smeared. Throbbing tides of sea and air, the heart-beats of a 

 planet, drive the humid breath of oceans over the mountain skeleton, 

 and through the capillaries of earth, clothing her ribs in clay, and 

 spreading her first gardens of ooze. Earth labors in her kitchen, and 

 with equal skill in synthesis, brings forth atoms tied in squads, or regi- 

 ments; minerals, straight-edged and steadfast; soft proteids and albu- 

 mens, with rounded forms and yielding sides; dancing specks and 

 wriggling threads, prophets of the life to come; sprawling, self-con- 

 structing, self-consuming, protoplasm, free to rove, or wrapped in walls, 

 or bound in glowing brotherhood of cells together; naked, hand-free, 

 high-headed man, armored and armed with conscience and with vision. 

 Scrutinize as best she may, science finds no seam in this universal 

 fabric; no patchwork of dead and alive, honored or dishonored in 

 creation ; no boundaries between what was, and is, and shall be. 



Thus all nature is a moving conflict for more intimate union, better 

 cooperation, wider service. An unending strife to gain stability, or 

 peace, where peace is won only through union and cooperation that lead 

 to further conflict and wider service. All evolution is the product of 

 service, and its progress is measured in terms of service. The essential 

 character of all natural processes is a striving for perfection through 

 organized service. 



There should be no conflict between the teachings of science and the 

 dictates of an enlightened humanity as expressed in the broad term 

 religion, for science and religion are dual reflections of a universal 

 natural law; their methods and aims are the same; they differ only in 

 the manner in which they seek for, discover and express the same things. 



