156 GRAND STRATEGY OF EVOLUTION 



science, literature, and art L were not primarily the 

 products of a conscious necessity, nor primarily benevo- 

 lent in purpose, although apparently from the very out- 

 set of their evolution they have been strongly impreg- 

 nated with idealism. As idle amusements, as aimless 

 exploratory activities, they sprang spontaneous from 

 the soil of masculine and feminine leisure. But today 

 they contain within themselves the riper elements of 

 altruism and benevolence; for they are distinctly cre- 

 ative and preservative in purpose ; both the instruments 

 of conveyance, and the conscious missionaries of their 

 own products. 



Commerce, their sister system, stands on a lower 

 level, for it is rarely creative, or altruistic, in purpose, 

 and was ever lacking in idealism. Its conscious pur- 

 pose is self-profit, frankly seeking larger opportunities 

 for unequal exchange. It is, as yet, in the egoistic 

 stage of self-construction, and as yet largely unconscious 

 of its altruistic social function. But it cannot prevent, 

 even when it would, the overflow of its profits into social 

 benevolence. 



That man in his supreme moments, has attained to 

 even this degree of comprehensiveness in his altruism; 

 that he is conscious of his own creative power and is 

 moved, in spite of himself, by a deliberate will to world 

 service, is perhaps the most significant event in organic 

 evolution. 



V. Directive Discipline 



Mingled with the material endowments to the new 

 life are other assets, less tangible to be sure and not so 

 easily measured, but some of them at least of equal im- 



