SUMMARY OF CHAPS. VII TO IX 193 



argument has been allowed ; and why should it be 

 disallowed in the present case? If beauty and 

 variety have been a fruitful cause in the development 

 of the special human characteristics : if they have 

 been largely instrumental in making him a being 

 " of wise discourse, looking before and after," and if 

 so far as we know they have been of no other use, 

 why should we refuse to believe that that was the 

 primary object for which they were designed? The 

 only alternative is that man's higher development 

 has been due to a lucky chance , and evolution has no 

 meaning. This is a question to which I shall return 

 presently. 



15 



