CHAPTEK XVII 



THE PURPOSE OF EVOLUTION 



I COME now to another aspect of the problem. As 

 years pass on we shall, no doubt, know the story of 

 evolution in much greater detail than we do now. 

 Mistakes wil 1 be corrected and many new facts will 

 be discovered. But nothing can alter its main out- 

 line, and a more complete knowledge will not make 

 it more impressive. How it was brought about and 

 by what means it moves are, perhaps, above our com- 

 prehension. What little we have learnt about these 

 things is chiefly the work of three men : Sir Isaac 

 Newton, Lord Kelvin, and Charles Darwin Gravi- 

 tation, Dissipation of Energy, and Selection that is 

 all we know at present. 



There still remains the question, Why was the 

 universe called into existence? What does it all 

 mean ? For, if the fundamental doctrine of Theism 

 is established, it necessarily follows that the Universe 

 exists for some purpose, towards which evolution is 

 working; and, so far as the earth is concerned, it 

 seems possible that we may arrive at some conception 

 of what that purpose is. 



We have already discovered that the physical 

 evolution of the Solar System was followed, as soon 

 as the earth was sufficiently cool, by the production 



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