86 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



drawn upon as in Dean Inge's writings on the 

 subject. 



We have already seen that a certain direction 

 obtains in organic evolution. Into the details of 

 this process I have not here the time to go ; we must 

 be content with the brief enumeration which has 

 already been given of the qualities of organisms whose 

 maximum level, and to a lesser degree whose average, 

 have increased during evolution. 



So far so good. But a process may be going in a 

 definite direction and yet not be satisfactory. 



This road leads to London ; this other to Pudd- 

 lington Parva. We all know people who are ob- 

 viously headed for success, while it is on record that 

 Mr. Mantalini's direction was towards ' the demnition 

 bow-wows.' 



But we know that we ourselves consciously find 

 value in things, in objects and aims, in directions and 

 processes. In this we are unique among organisms, 

 and as a matter of fact a large part of our life is deter- 

 mined by the relative values we set on objects. On 

 the whole, however, there is a reasonable amount of 

 agreement among different individuals, at any rate 

 in one country at one epoch, as to what they call 

 good and what they call bad. There are very few 

 western Europeans who find dirt or untruthfulness 

 good, knowledge or bravery bad. 



When we look into the trend of biological evolution, 

 we find as a matter of fact that it has operated to 



