266 THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



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 evolution 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 to- 

 wards 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 than was possible a hundred years ago , and what 

 was then a speculation has now become a demon- 

 strated truth. 



But if w y e believe in a purpose at all, we must 

 believe that everything which has contributed to- 

 wards realizing that purpose was designed to do so. 

 If the carbon in the earth's atmosphere was intended 

 for the building up of organic beings, so also were 

 iron and gold intended for the use of man. And 

 further, there are numerous things in the world 

 which, by their beauty or variety, so excite our 



