Man in the Light of Evolutio7i 



experiment you will, along any line whatsoever. 

 But when you have begun, you must follow that 

 line to its end. There is to be no turning back." 

 An illiterate but wise minister once said that the 

 most important text in the whole Bible was: 

 " They got going, and they couldn't stop." 



Yet nature's severity is really kindness. She 

 is continually spurring her favorites to a higher 

 and keener enjoyment. Rest is not inactivity. 

 Idleness is unendurable to the healthy. Exercise 

 of a normal kind and degree of any organ al- 

 ways brings pleasure. The higher the power ex- 

 ercised, the higher the joy. This is one reason 

 why the motives peculiar to each higher plane of 

 life supersede and dominate those of the lower. 

 They lead to the exercise of a power giving 

 keener enjoyment. 



Our study of fitness leads us to the same con- 

 clusions as that of the logic of evolution. Life 

 is ever advancing from plane to plane. It pro- 

 gresses by the rise of higher and higher powers 

 which only slowly gain supreme control in the 

 body. The higher power is at first feeble, and 

 seems of comparatively small profit. So muscle 

 in zoophytes, brain in early vertebrates, morals 

 in earlier centuries or millennia of human history, 



no 



