COMPULSION OF NATURE-ACTION 313 



rights and obligations, common to all its constituents, 

 are discoveries of this character. 



If man could go further than this and discover that 

 there is one essential, underlying method common to 

 all the creative processes of nature, that discovery 

 would at once give him the creative power of a great 

 fundamental truth. It would give him a more trust- 

 worthy historic and prophetic vision than he had be- 

 fore; a more compelling reason for modifying his own 

 acts, and a more certain means of directing the crea- 

 tive acts of nature to his own profit. In all his own 

 creative acts, it would be this creative way of nature 

 that he was actually following, even though he knew 

 not what the forces and materials were with which he 

 was dealing. This truth would be to him the "law" 

 which he must obey, willingly or unwillingly, if he is 

 to succeed in his efforts further to upbuild his own life 

 individually and socially. 



Progressive creation through better mutual service, 

 is such a truth and such a law. It is a still broader 

 expression of the basic unity and similarity which 

 pervades all natural phenomena. It is the most com- 

 prehensive truth man has discovered for it is applica- 

 ble to all the serially constructive processes of physics, 

 chemistry, and astronomy, as well as to those of or- 

 ganic and social life. It is more comprehensive than 

 evolution itself, for progressive cooperation is the 

 agency that everywhere produces evolution. Or, stated 

 in another way, evolution is the architectural mani- 

 festation of the cooperative law, expressed in graded 

 products serially created. While the progress of evo- 

 lution within the various realms of nature may be 

 temporarily checked, or accelerated, or its direction 



