PRESIDENTEAL ADDRESS. o5 
biological evolution of living organisms. These we know 
soon divided into plant life and animal life; and, when the 
brain was sufficiently developed, animals showed the com- 
mencement of a psychological evolution of mind. At first 
this latest development of evolution was entirely intellectual, 
and was chiefly employed in the preservation of the race. 
At a later stage, a higher development took place, and a 
moral evolution commenced. Physical evolution, biological 
evolution, and psychological evolution are still going on. 
So far as the earth is concerned, physical evolution has 
reached, probably it has passed, its optimum, for the earth 
cannot in the future be better fitted for the development of 
life than it is now. Biological evolution has also reached 
its optimum in man, whose body has been practically sta- 
tionary since the middle of the Pleistocene Period, and can- 
not now be affected by natural selection. Indeed, ever since 
the beginning of the Neolithic Age, man has been engaged 
in combating natural selection by endeavouring to alter the 
surrounding conditions to suit himself. This he does by 
making artificial warmth, building houses, making clothes, 
and cultivating land. 
Psychological evolution, however, has not reached its 
optimum. The development of the human mind is but in 
its infancy. Man’s origin dates back only some tens of 
thousands of years, while he has several millions of years 
before him. During that time it is impossible to predict 
what will happen; but, so long as the external conditions 
are favourable for the working of the brain, we may feel 
sure that psychological evolution will continue. 
Any other kind of evolution besides those of matter, life, 
and mind, is unimaginable, because we know of nothing 
else on the earth to evolve. The physical evolution was 
evidently intended to prepare the way for the biological evo- 
lution which led up to man. And the brain of man was 
thus prepared for the psychological evolution which is still 
in progress, and which, as I have said, appears to be the 
last form which evolution can take. So that the develop- 
ment of man’s moral nature must be the purpose towards. 
which evolution tends on the earth. 
This idea is by no means new. In the middle of the 
eighteenth century, Immanuel Kant said that “the cosmic 
evolution of nature is continued in the historic development 
of humanity and completed in the moral perfection of the 
individual.” And, a little later, Goethe, another pioneer 
of evolution, said that the sole purpose of the world appeared 
to be to provide a physical basis for the growth of spirit. 
However, our ideas on the subject. are much clearer now 
