272 THE LESSON OF EVOLUTION 



these laws. Life and intelligence are low and high 

 forms of the same thing Mind. 



Natural selection, as originally conceived by Dar- 

 win and Wallace, had nothing to do with mind. 

 Variations were supposed to arise spontaneously and 

 were selected mechanically. It was only in the 

 higher animals that mind came into action in the 

 formation of new habits. But, if psychogenesis is a 

 true cause, we must modify this conception. We 

 must now suppose that the variations are not alto- 

 gether fortuitous, but are partly due to mental 

 operations. Selection preserves some useful varia- 

 tions only. Isolation preserves all that arise, unless 

 they are detrimental, in which case they would be 

 removed by natural selection. Selection has secured 

 progress, isolation has given rise to variety. 



But are the variations which have been preserved 

 by isolation really useless in the operations of evolu- 

 tion. Or do they also play their part? It is evident 

 that psychological evolution would not have taken 

 place without them ; they have largely assisted in 

 the education of the emotions of man, and they even 

 have helped religious evolution. For it is impossible 

 to explain psychological evolution without taking 

 into consideration the effect produced on the human 

 mind by the marvellous variety of natural pheno- 

 mena ; by the immensity of the universe ; the infini- 

 tesimal fineness of matter ; and its innumerable 

 different arrangements. Without these man would 

 never have risen above the fighting and money- 

 making stage ; and it is doubtful if we should have 

 had any natural science. This cannot be denied, 



